21 APR 2020 Hey, I’m Simon. I’m 25 and I moved to Berlin when I was 17. I run events and DJ; I founded a radio station and co-founded an agency.

I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas for projects that I’m working on or completely different projects—I basically try to keep my eyes closed, snatch my phone and record my thoughts as a voice message. It can be good stuff, but sometimes it’s just gibberish.

At first I was quite shocked. I have a lot of projects that I work on. I don’t do them for the money; it’s more about trying to help people and it’s important to keep them going for the community. So at first I was afraid those would perish. But with the help of the government, my head is back above water and I’m trying to come up with ideas daily on how to move forward.

I think there has to be a lot of change. Especially in music with the hype around streaming, it is becoming more and more clear to me that this isn’t sustainable, and artists need to get paid for their work. This is an issue that has become very visible during COVID-19, but existed before that, as well.

I had a lot of things that I wanted to change in my apartment—not new furniture and such, but more of the groundwork. I painted all my door frames, attached skirting boards, attached my tv to the wall etc.

It was an interesting thing to decide to use my own hands and do all of this stuff by myself. I realized that I had time to do it, and it didn’t matter that my house looked horrible for a couple of days. It’s okay to take longer breaks and just work whenever you feel like it.

Friends from all over the world who I often don’t have much time to talk to.

I also see and believe in more global collaboration between artists. This is something I think is very important in the present and the future.

There are a bunch of projects coming up. Right now via the Save CCTV Radio fundraiser.

Become a member with perks at Trade Berlin—this is very new and we are building it right now.