Frederik Neu’s (@frederikneu.music) “Wanna Feel” lands on WAVES Volume 2, the latest compilation from Glasgow label Lava Lava, released back on August 14. The project moves across deep grooves, peak-time club cuts, tripped-out house, sci-fi electronics, and dub-leaning material, placing Neu’s contribution inside a wider label snapshot rather than a standalone single cycle.
“Wanna Feel” sits in the brighter, more immediate pocket of the compilation. Built around punchy kicks, shuffling percussion, echoing vocals, warbling synth lines, and lifted pads, the track reads as an energetic house cut made for motion without abandoning Neu’s wider taste for detail. It fits an artist whose sets pull from house, acid, indie dance, disco, and techno without treating those lanes as fixed borders.
The interview below makes the release feel rooted in something more personal than style. Neu talks about the friends, mentors, local scenes, family members, and creative communities that shaped his path from Tübingen to Stuttgart and later Berlin.
For an artist now studying Tonmeister at Film University Babelsberg and continuing to establish himself in the German house scene, the theme is clear: the music may come from one name on the release page, but the path behind it is built with other people.
Interview With Frederik Neu
Looking back, which relationships have had the biggest influence on where you’ve ended up?
I did a lot of music with friends who influenced me. When I played at a local party in Tübingen in 2019, I met Jimmy Möhre, with whom I started to play b2b. I got to know Jakob Mäder when I moved to Stuttgart. There I ran the event series “Listening to Rocco,” where I invited different artists. In Berlin, I also got together with several artists, for example Matt, who produces great house music under his stage name Nonduality.
Of course, my piano teacher, my parents and my sister, who are all playing instruments, had a big influence. Right now I’m studying Tonmeister at Film University Babelsberg, where I get close to great creative people who are definitely influencing me and my music.
Have you had mentors or friends who opened doors that your music on its own couldn’t?
For sure! I started discovering electronic music through a friend, Benni, who was already producing and playing as a DJ at local parties. At some point he just put me on the lineup of his parties and I started to play my first DJ gigs. There, I got in touch with other artists of the scene. Benni is making music under his stage name Benoir 🙂
Friends are still booking me on their events where I always meet new people! Also in the studio, I learned a lot from Benni and other friends.
Do you think artists sometimes overlook how much real relationships shape their path?
Could be! I think I’m pretty well aware of that. People around me influence my music in different ways. New ideas come up while talking about music, but completely different topics can also inspire me and sometimes just the vibe of people around me as well.
I really appreciate feedback from my friends and other artists I like. It is always important for me.
What do you look for in people you choose to work or build with?
When working on music, the most important thing is that we match the vibe. If the vibe doesn’t match, I can’t be creative. It‘s always cool to meet first for a coffee and afterwards start a session.
Most of the time it works good with someone who has a similar taste in music. We have a basis on which we both agree and then we can share and combine ideas.
Making music with people who aren’t in the same niche can be great and it could open up new ideas, but there is also the risk that it doesn’t work at all.
When you work as a team, you shouldn’t put too much pressure on yourself to get results. Sometimes you are just not in the same mood and not every session has a great result and that’s okay!
How do you keep things genuine in spaces that often reward status over connection?
I try to make the music I really want to make and connect with people I like. If the music doesn‘t come from the heart or if I have to connect with people I don’t like, it doesn‘t feel good for me.
Has there ever been a relationship you had to walk away from that ended up changing your direction in an unexpected way?
Not really.
What would you tell newer artists who believe they have to do everything on their own?
For me the fun part in music besides the process is definitely the people! Talking about music, exchanging knowledge about producing and spending time together is the best way to have a good time and improve your skills. If you don’t know people already, you can join a group like the Ableton User Groups which exist in different cities.
Closing Thoughts From The Editor
Neu’s answers point to the side of house music that usually develops before anyone sees a release page.
Friends put him on early lineups. Other artists brought him into new rooms. Local events created meeting points. Family and piano study gave him an early musical base. His current Tonmeister studies at Film University Babelsberg keep him close to creative people who continue to influence how he hears and makes music.
That sits close to my interview with The Checkup on creative relationships and house music, where collaboration was treated as part of the music rather than background context. Frederik’s version is smaller in scale but similar in function. The track may be landing on Lava Lava now, but the route there runs through Tübingen parties, Stuttgart networks, Berlin friendships, and studio conversations that likely shaped his taste long before “Wanna Feel” was finished.
There is also a connection to my piece with Marc Lenz on the quieter ways DJs support each other. That conversation focused on bookings, introductions, feedback, and shared trust without turning every relationship into a transaction. Neu speaks in the same language. He is not romanticizing networking. He is describing friends who put him on, book him, teach him, and help him understand where his own ideas might go.
The studio side also links naturally to Swanya and LARSa’s “Postcards from the Club” breakdown. That piece showed how personal chemistry can shape the small decisions inside a track: the vocal tone, the synth choices, the arrangement, and the way a record carries the memory of the room it came from.
Neu’s process sounds similar in spirit. He needs the right energy around him before the ideas start moving.
“Wanna Feel” benefits from that read because it appears inside WAVES Volume 2, a compilation built around different artists, moods, and club functions. Neu’s track brings the energetic house lift: drums that move, synth lines with personality, vocals that echo around the groove, and enough brightness to sit beside the deeper and stranger cuts elsewhere on the release.
The broader point is that Neu seems to understand music as a social practice before it becomes a catalog. That does not mean chasing status, attaching himself to the right names, or treating every connection as leverage. His answers keep returning to a simpler idea: make music with people whose energy feels right, accept that not every session has to produce something, and keep learning from the people close enough to tell you the truth.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
