Gabriel Kleiman (Mexico City) has been involved in the Mexican electronic scene for more than 18 years.

His first approach was as a psytrance DJ experimenting later with several more genres from progressive trance to deep house, and including tech-house and techno. As a producer, he is constant in his hypnotic style that maintains a psychedelic tendency always faithful to his roots.

KLEIMAN has been playing his versatile DJ sets and live act in all the major clubs and festivals around Mexico and worldwide during his long career, releasing on labels in Australia (Electric Power Pole), UK (Furthur Progressions), Netherlands (Anarkick Records), Denmark (IbogaTech), Mexico (Undergroove Music), Canada (AlpaKa MuziK, Techgnosis), and the US (Shadow Wulf, Digital Structures) — among others. Kleiman talks to SIX AM about his artist’s journey, experience with the psytechno music scene in Mexico, and future projects he has coming up.

 

Hi Kleiman thanks for joining SIX AM, how has your 2023 gone so far?

Hi, thanks for holding the interview, I really appreciate it.
2023 has been a challenging one in terms of music productivity for me. I had a little creative crisis the last few months but it’s over now (I hope). I was also really focused on the production of Ometeotl Festival, we moved location and it represented a big challenge for all of us.

So to start off, how did you come up with your stage name “Kleiman”? Does it hold any significant meaning for you?

Kleiman is my last name. I actually released one album under my full name Gabriel Kleiman, and then realized it was simpler just to leave it as Kleiman. My career as a Dj in Mexico was about 15 years old when I released my first EP so I wanted to keep my name as a producer also.

 

So we’ve heard about the genre “psytechno” can you explain what the genre sounds like to you? Could you discuss your experiences in the psytechno scene in Mexico and how it has influenced your musical journey?

In my case, psytechno is just the music that sounds when I naturally do music. I come from the psytrance scene and I am still very influenced by it, but around 2008 I started getting a bit bored and started exploring progressive, house and techno music. Outdoor psytrance parties in Mexico were in a dark era so I was playing mostly in clubs to people outside psytrance and I cultivated a taste for all that different music I still love.

 

How have you managed to maintain your distinct hypnotic and psychedelic style while exploring different genres in your productions? How do you stay true to your musical roots?

I am very comfortable doing strange or different music, sometimes with good or bad results. I never copy any style or try to fit in a certain Label genre or trend. I think that’s a key to making music people will remember, unique music becomes timeless easier, and that’s very important for electronic music. My style now fits to psytechno but we never know what’s coming next, it just evolves naturally.

 

As the lead coordinator of Ometeotl Festival, what motivated you to help lead this festival, and how has it contributed to the electronic music scene in Mexico?

Ometeotl is produced by a huge team of amazing people, as partners we are 6, each one of us directs different areas and together we make the main decisions. For me, contributing to make Ometeotl possible is like a service. I just feel I’m doing the right thing, even if it comes with a lot of work, challenges, and time spent on the project. At the end I always feel remunerated by the amazing energy that is created there.

I integrated into the Ometeotl team a few years after my partners did the first ones when I understood what the Festival was doing for the scene. As I mentioned before, Mexican Psytrance scene was not having their best years, Ometeotl helped to transform the people that make the scene…so many people had beautiful experiences at Ometeotl and later became great contributors to Psytrance and electronic music in Mexico and over the world, and that makes me really happy.

 

What has been your experience as an artist with Shadow Wulf Records, and how have your releases with them progressed your musical career?

First time I released with Shadow Wulf Records, I was very impressed with their professionalism, all due dates were on time, professional contracts, great masters and promotion. I love how they started with some big names since the beginning, but at the same time supporting new artists. It is a great challenge to make a Label in a country where the music genre is not that big yet, I really respect that. I feel it is important to have good labels on this side of the World, labels help the scene grow with structure, and Shadow Wulf has been doing an amazing job.

 

You’re going to be playing for the Shadow Wulf (and Soulestial Carnival) crew on July 15th. What can people expect from you at this show?

It will be the first presentation for my international Summer season so I will be playing many new tracks for the first time that I can’t wait to share.

 

Anything else you’d like to share? Anything new that we can expect from you?

Some new releases are coming this summer, a couple of remixes, one for Hunicorn Hunters, one for Jossie Telch. I will do a little Europe tour, and then I’ll return back to my studio in September. I’m also very excited about next year’s challenges. We will do a Pre-Eclipse Ometeotl in 2024 and then will be part of the production of the Texas Eclipse Festival in April. This will be our 2nd collaboration for an Eclipse Festival as Ometeotl Crew and we are really excited about it.
Thanks for the interview and hope to see many friends in L.A. this July 15th!

 

Shadow Wulf + Soulestial Carnival: The Darkside III
July 15, 2023
9PM-5AM
Tickets: HERE
Facebook event: HERE

Connect with KLEIMAN: SoundCloud | Facebook | Beatport | Instagram