Max HeyraudCRYME is illuminating Berlin’s club scene with a colourful, inclusive world where house music knows no boundaries.
Berlin’s CRYME, real name Lucas Kreimeier, has emerged as a visceral force in the city’s rejuvenated house music scene. Despite his modest claims, citing inspirations like Layers, Mitmischen, and Big Trouble, CRYME’s work has become a key part of Berlin’s thriving house music ecosystem. Alongside his label SEVEN, which he co-runs with Glenn Elliot, and an expansive crew including Rachel Noon, he has helped shape a sound and community that resonates well beyond Berlin. Though SEVEN is still a fresh venture, just over a year and a half old, its influence on club culture across Europe has already been sizable.
CRYME’s approach to music feels both “classic” and “timeless” without falling into the trap of retro pastiche. His sound is fresh, soulful, and perfectly aligned with SEVEN’s artistic aesthetic: bright, colourful, radiant, and pumping. Drawing from both house and techno, often leaning into dub-steeped textures, CRYME frequently lands in that elusive middle ground between the two genres, a space few artists navigate with such finesse. For CRYME, these worlds complement each other naturally; it is the industry that often pressures artists to choose between them.
SEVEN has become a sanctuary for this ethos. Queer-run and free-spirited, the label prioritises expression over convention, oozing joy, charisma, and an attitude that club culture desperately needs. Through CRYME and his collaborators, SEVEN is cultivating a space where creativity, inclusivity, and vitality prosper.
How are things musically with you at the moment? You seem to be having a really fruitful time in the studio from the outset. Is that a fair reflection of where you’re at?
It’s really a fruitful time right now! I’ve just been on vacation with our friend Rachel Noon, and she was laughing at me about how many tracks I can pop out in a week, even on vacation. I just love it, producing music is my passion, my addiction and my safe space. I can make music in the studio, the back of taxis, trains, buses, planes, hotel bedrooms, anywhere. I have a lovely studio at home, but honestly, less than 20% of my work is done there.
There’s always a lot of discourse around Berlin’s club culture, whether it’s in a good or bad place, and the impact of clubs closing and gentrification on the city. As someone still very much at the heart of the scene, how do you view the city right now?
You know Berlin is really special, and a story about Berlin always gets news and clicks. Yes, places close, parties end, collectives disband. But new ones start all the time, too. It’s just a renewal, and it’s OK. There is constant renewal in our physical spaces and our labels and collectives. I think change is good and it’s a lot more OK than people think. There are stories you read online suggesting Berlin is finished, and it is so not true, it is without question the most incredible, vibrant, exciting and diverse music scene anywhere in Europe, maybe the world.
Why is club culture so important to you?
I think it’s super important for society. Club culture creates a space where people can go and be free, and for many people in minorities and marginalised groups, it’s the only place where they can truly be themselves. And in a world that is increasingly commercialised and corporatised, we have to have somewhere to escape to, even for only a few hours. A world without club culture would be unbearable.
How does DJing or clubs in general inform how you make music?
Honesty, I think it informs me less than it does other artists. I know loads of artists who love going to clubs to get inspired and pick up ideas and sounds for their own productions, and that’s not really me. I feel slightly guilty or embarrassed admitting that. To be honest, if you want the real scandal, I am not a huge clubber!
Why did you want to start SEVEN?
I love being in music, and I was looking for something else to do. Building a label meant I could give opportunities to my friends who were often overlooked but were amazing artists, and I really wanted to do that. And it just seemed like a fun idea – why not? It’s a lot more work than I expected. I never realised I would be in the office five days a week from 9 to 6. But I’m loving it.
It kind of feels like you and SEVEN are at the forefront of a new and fresh house music scene and community coming out of Berlin. Do you think that’s a fair assessment?
It’s flattering, but I don’t think it’s fair. We are one of many – there are labels and collectives who’ve been here longer than us and are doing great work. People like Layers, Mitmischen, Big Trouble, there are so many small house and house leaning labels that are just as important or more important than we are, and it’s together we are shaping and building something new,
I want to say massive congratulations on your recent release, the London Boy Remix Pack. It’s excellently curated, so hats off to you and the team. Can you talk me through why you selected these particular artists?
Sure, and thanks. Yes, that’s a special one. It was released on our first anniversary in November. London Boy was originally released before SEVEN by my friend Tom Peters on his Is Serving… label. It was a well-loved track and has always been a personal favourite of my boyfriend, manager and label cofounder Glenn. It was his idea to make the remix EP, and we just thought of the 3 artists that we knew had played it the most in their own sets: MCR-T, JakoJako and Roza Terenzi. It was amazing when they all immediately said yes, which is incredible when you think about how busy they are touring. JJ (MCR-T) finished his remix in a motel room on his USA tour. Our friend Stef de Haan joined the project quite late and was so excited that he stayed up all night and finished the remix less than 12 hours after we sent the stems. He’s amazing, they all are.
I love the way you generally blend house and techno. I know it’s nothing new in that regard, but I often feel artists think they have to choose one or the other, whereas you find a really nice middle ground. Do you think this has a positive impact on music overall?
Well, it’s definitely had a positive impact on my music, I think. I love playing House now, but I think my style benefits from and is really influenced by my roots in techno. I actually think lots of artists do love playing both; it’s not that they want to choose, it’s that they feel they have to to build a career. The world does seem to want to put us all in boxes with easy labels. Promoters want to know if they are booking a house or techno act, guests want to go to a night they think they will enjoy, and this leads most artists to feel they have to be one or the other to have a career. But often when you surprise people at night with music they might not have expected, they can really love it.
Your approach is often described as “timeless” or “classic.” Why is that important to you?
When I make music, I try to make something that can work over the hype and what’s going on right now. I want to make music that sounds great now and sounds great in ten or twenty years, so I kind of just do my own thing and don’t pay any attention really to what might be popular or trending right now
I feel like you play house with a bit of a techno approach, long, often loopy transitions, quite dynamic mixing, and an attitude or style of selecting that feels very techno. Do you think that’s a fair comment? And do you think techno or house DJs could learn from each other?
Yeah, I think it’s fair. I think techno and house are closer than people think, and some magic happens when you get influenced by both. I run the SEVEN Mix Series, and I often ask techno DJs to play house for us, and you would be amazed at how many of them want to do it. We have a queue of inbound requests with some techno DJ’s saying they really need it as an outlet for a side of their creativity that people don’t get to see.
What’s one dancefloor memory that has helped shape the artist you are today?
I remember my first time in Berghain. I was 18, and I can remember thinking “wow, this is not just a club, it’s a temple”. And that was the moment that I knew I wanted to be part of the music scene, I wanted to be part of this amazing experience that you create and share with and give to people. It was a big deal for me at that time because until that moment, football, not music, had been my passion. I had been playing football since I was 7, was doing well and was trying to make it as a professional. That was my dream. And that one trip to Berghian was the beginning of the end of that dream lol. I guess it sucked me in in a most beautiful way, and I am really happy it did. Although I do occasionally still miss football.
With the label’s first anniversary now behind you, what plans do you have for the rest of the year?
We need to get our shop open, hopefully late Spring; we are getting there. I have a release on SEVEN myself at the end of the year, plus one on our new sublabel A.2aum. And then a bunch of releases out on other labels, I think we are basically one a month for the next year, so it’s a lot lol!
