V.Raeter x Laser Barcelona

»The gift that keeps on giving« is a description that fits V.Raeter very well. He is a DJ, producer and artist, one half of Ecke Prenz, live partner of Fatoni and creative collaborator of Audio88 & Yassin, Morlockk Dilemma, Suff Daddy, Mine and Dexter, among others. V.Raeter has repeatedly taken on different roles: beatmaker, producer, remixer, DJ, xylophone player, animator, illustrator, record cover designer, photographer, merch-designer, just to name a few. So the name »Urberliner Multitool« fits like a glove.

After the successful Ecke Prenz album »Nachts im Thälmann Park« from 2018, V.Raeter released the LP »Alltimers« this last summer, a collection of beats and instrumentals from his archive of the past years. A journey into the past that tells us a lot about V.Raeter’s creative process and his endlessly diverse sources of inspiration that ignore genre boundaries. Creative chaos par excellence, organic and natural, flowy vibes with attitude and character, never random, always deep. If you know what we mean.

At HHV, we are in the advantageous position to have V.Raeter as a designer in our team. Our own creative powerhouse in the house so to speak. He tinkers, draws, designs and photographs visuals of all kinds and has significantly influenced the visual language of HHV in recent years. Maybe that’s why we are a little biased, but can you blame us?

Through their common love for music, photography, art and streetculture, V.Raeter became friends with Justo Heras, the founder and creative director of Laser Barcelona. Since 2010, Laser Barcelona has been designing, producing and distributing its own collections, drawing on local and international cultural influences from the fields of illustration, graphic design, photography and music. The label produces the garments as locally as possible, the screen printing is done in-house, the distribution is independent. The Instagram friendship between V.Raeter and Laser turned into real bonding and some real life meetings followed. A creative exchange was the next logical step and the result is now a joint collection consisting of t-shirts, hoodie and accessories, designed by V.Raeter and produced by Laser Barcelona.

V.Raeter himself will tell you more about all this:

HHV: Tell us a little bit about yourself!
V.Raeter: Starting out in the late 90ies, I am a beatmaker and DJ under the name V.Raeter. I also studied design and now I do graphics, illustrations and photos for different people. So a little bit of everything, but nothing exclusively and vice versa. We also had a label once, where I learned organizing and doing promotion. For the »Alltimers« record I finally did everything myself, music, cover photo and layout/design.

HHV: What came first, music or drawing?
V.Raeter: Drawing came first. From an early age – Give me a piece of paper and a pencil and you have your peace. When I found out that drawing can be made a profession, I wanted to do it. Since my family is not very musical I searched for it for a long time. It really started when I discovered Hip Hop. Before that I was a blatant Trekkie.

HHV: How did the collaboration with Laser come about? And what is it that connects you?
V.Raeter: I think I found Laser 2013/14 on Instagram and instantly liked what they did. A small label that does its thing, a DIY attitude is the motto, I dig that. Since I’m in Barcelona quite often, I stopped by their store one time. Somehow we got into conversation – Friedrichshain, Big Brobot, Van Liebling, Brammibal’s and of course HHV, they knew all of it because they also had friends here. So we met again and again and became friends. I think we are simply into the same things because of our common pop cultural socialization influenced by hip hop, graffiti etc. And I think we both love the old MF Doom stuff. After I made my record this year, they asked me if I would like to do a collab including my own red cap. Wow – I went crazy.

HHV: What’s with the red?
V.Raeter: Haha, I don’t know, it just looks good on me – matches my red face. Or maybe it’s inspired by red curry sauce? Actually I always thought blue is my favorite color. Maybe growing up in the GDR had more influence on me than I thought. Who knows? Oh yeah, the car on the album cover is red too… mhhh.

HHV: Please tell us the story about the sausage!
V.Raeter: Well, I think this is a Ecke Prenz thing. We needed a crisp image. And what does everyone love? Exactly: sausages. So we became the sausage boys, with all the good and bad sides. I hardly ever missed out on gas station sausages, that was really hard sometimes. But now I can announce that the V. in my name stands for vegetarian. I am four weeks clean today! The sausage says peace out!

HHV: What’s next for V.Raeter?
V.Raeter: Parallel to the collab with Laser two new tracks of mine have just been released. One is a summer hit and the other is a Christmas song. So there’s something for everyone. We’ll talk about next year next year.

The V.Raeter x Laser Barcelona collab is now available at HHV: V.Raeter x Laser Barcelona

Photos: Oli Kristen