Telefunken.

Telefunken was a mini club that I opened in A Coruña in the year 2000 together with another DJ, Grobas. It started as a small house music bar and, over the ten years it lasted, it went through different stages. Every stage had its own look and its own energy, but the idea behind it never changed: a small room where house music was the only rule.

Grobas and I built it with very little and a lot of passion. We knew exactly what we wanted. A place with a good sound, a close crowd and a booth that was always open to new ideas. We wanted people to come in, forget about the outside world and dance, and they did.

We opened four days a week. For a small club, that is a lot of nights, and it gave the place a rhythm of its own. People knew that, whichever day it was, Telefunken would be open and the music would be good. It became a meeting point for a big part of the city. Friends met there before going anywhere else, and many ended up staying until the end. Some of the people I met behind that bar are still part of my life today.

Every local DJ played at Telefunken at some point. It was a place for the scene of the city to grow, to try new things and to share the booth. But we also wanted to bring in people from outside, and many international house DJs came through our doors. Âme played here in their early days, long before they became one of the names of the global scene. We also welcomed C-Rock, Vincenzo, Faze Action, Jimpster and many, many more. Having them in such a small room was a privilege, and the people who were there will remember how close the music felt.

That mix of local and international artists is what made Telefunken special. On the same night you could hear a resident from the city, a name from abroad and a crowd that knew every record. There was no distance between the booth and the floor. In those years Telefunken became popular in the national scene, and people from other cities came to see what was happening in A Coruña.

Looking back, I think Telefunken was a school for all of us. I learned to run a venue, to listen to the crowd and to take care of the details that make a night work, from the sound to the way people are welcomed at the door. I also learned that a great place is not about size. It is about the people inside it.

It also shaped what came later. A lot of what became House Café was refined in this room, and the relationships I built here lasted for years. The ten years of Telefunken were intense, joyful and sometimes exhausting, but I would not change a single one of them.

Today, when I play in clubs around the world, I still carry a bit of Telefunken with me: the care for the music, the respect for the dance floor and the feeling that a small room can be a very big place. Thank you to Grobas, to every DJ who played here and to everyone who came through the door.