by Angelo De Guzman
The German producer has decided to retire in 2028, ending more than two decades behind the Joker mask. In a conversation with NYLON Singapore, he reflects on success, the years spent away from home and why knowing when to stop might be his most important decision yet.
Boris Brejcha has spent more than twenty years making music on his own terms. He created his own genre, built an international following and turned a Joker mask into one of electronic music’s most recognisable identities. Now, at 45, he has decided that 2028 will be his final year as an artist. For someone who has spent much of his life thinking about what comes next, the decision has brought a different perspective on what it means to succeed.
“I think the most important thing is knowing when to stop. In music there is always another gig, another release, another goal you want to reach. You can keep going for as long as people want to see you. But at some point you have to ask yourself what you really want,” Brejcha tells Angelo De Guzman for NYLON Singapore.
His retirement announcement arrived with a carefully considered timeline. His final festival appearances will take place throughout 2027, followed by Last Chapter: Becoming the Joker, a farewell headline tour scheduled for 2028. The decision had occupied his thoughts for several years. During the past two, he began considering what life might look like beyond the recording studio, festival stages and touring schedules that have defined much of his adulthood. “I want to give this final chapter the space it deserves. There is a difference between loving what you do and feeling that you have to keep doing it forever. I made this decision seriously, and I want to stand by it.”
The Career That Started With a Different Kind of Escape
Long before international festivals and sold-out headline shows, music offered Brejcha a personal outlet. Born in Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 1981, his childhood was marked by the Ramstein air disaster. At six years old, he suffered severe burns requiring months of treatment. The physical scars remained, as did the experience of being teased by classmates. He withdrew into music, eventually discovering electronic sounds through a Thunderdome compilation introduced by a schoolmate. By twelve, he had started experimenting with music production.
That early curiosity became the foundation of a career built around independence. In 2006, he released his first music and performed at Brazil’s Universo Paralello Festival. Inspired by the country’s Carnival traditions, he adopted the Joker mask that would accompany him throughout his career. His musical identity developed alongside it. Brejcha coined the term High-Tech Minimal to describe his productions, creating a recognisable sound that allowed him to establish a following while maintaining his creative instincts.
Freedom to Decide When Enough Is Enough
Success has a way of moving the finish line. There is always another festival to headline, another country to visit or another record to release. After two decades in electronic music, Boris Brejcha knows that cycle intimately. As he reflects on his career, he admits that “when you build a career over so many years, you constantly think about the next step. It’s easy to forget to look at what is already there.” For much of his journey, the pursuit of something greater became second nature, even as he was building the musical identity that would eventually define his career.
From his early performances in South America to major European festivals and international headline tours, Brejcha has built a career that few could have imagined when he first began producing music at twelve. Ten studio albums later, his High-Tech Minimal sound remains distinctly his own, supported by a following that has grown alongside his commitment to performing exclusively his own productions. Looking back, he takes particular pride in the choices that brought him here. “I developed my own sound and followed a path that was not the obvious one. Staying true to that identity is what matters most to me in the end.”
Electronic music has made longevity increasingly possible, with established DJs continuing to tour well into their fifties and sixties. Brejcha could conceivably spend another decade travelling the world, releasing music and performing to audiences who have followed him for years. Yet he has chosen to leave while the passion that started everything remains intact. As he puts it, “that’s why I want to end this chapter while I still feel connected to what I do, and while I can give it everything I have.”
Twenty Years Between Airports and Festival Stages
For two decades, Brejcha’s calendar has been shaped by departure gates, hotel check-ins and the anticipation of another crowd waiting somewhere in the world. The festival circuit has taken his music across continents, bringing him face to face with audiences from different countries and backgrounds. There is something extraordinary about watching thousands of strangers respond to music created in solitude, and Brejcha understands that “festivals bring together people who would otherwise never meet, simply because they are connected by the same music.” Although he is ready to leave the touring circuit, the emotional connection remains difficult to walk away from. “I will miss experiencing that connection on such a large scale. Those are moments you cannot replace.”
But years on the road also mean years of organising life around the next departure. The places change, the audiences change, and somewhere between the airport and the hotel, entire weeks can begin to resemble one another. The privilege of travelling the world for a living comes with a peculiar trade-off: the more places you visit, the less time you may have to experience them beyond the demands of work. For Brejcha, “what I leave behind is the constant travelling,” a routine that has shaped much of his adult life. “When you travel that much, you are always moving between places, schedules and performances. And you also become aware of everything that happens away from the stage.”
One Last Summer on the Festival Circuit
A festival appearance might represent the highlight of someone’s summer, a trip planned months in advance or a night remembered for years. For the artist, that same performance exists within a larger schedule, with another destination often waiting the following morning. As Brejcha prepares for his final festival season in 2027, those familiar experiences will take on a different meaning.
After years of building his career around what comes next, he wants to give his attention to what is happening in front of him. “That’s why I want to experience my final festival season consciously, to be fully in the moment and give it everything once more,” he explains, approaching those appearances with a greater awareness of the time he has left on the circuit.
For fans, the countdown has already begun. There will be final opportunities to hear his productions on festival sound systems, to see the Joker mask emerge behind the decks and to share a dancefloor with people brought together by the same music. Brejcha will be there for those moments too, this time knowing that he has already decided where the journey ends.
Becoming the Joker One Last Time
After twenty years, the Joker has become inseparable from Boris Brejcha’s music. Audiences have watched the character evolve from his early festival performances into the visual identity accompanying his international career. Brejcha acknowledges that “The Joker has long been more than a visual element for me. It is part of the identity people recognise when they hear my music and see me on stage. The music, the character and the live experience have grown closely together over the years.”
There is something fitting about Brejcha choosing Last Chapter: Becoming the Joker as the title of his final headline tour. The character that accompanied his first international performances will also be there for his last. In the retirement announcement video, an ornate book introduces the farewell concept, with Brejcha writing the tour’s title as though adding the final pages to a story he began two decades earlier. For him, “With ‘Becoming the Joker’, we can carry exactly that world into the final chapter of my career. The tour should show the journey behind this identity and the relationship we have built with the audience over the years. It should feel like a meaningful chapter in its own right, not just a series of farewell shows.”
Some of the people attending those final performances will have followed Brejcha since his earliest releases. Others will have discovered him through festival appearances or recordings that introduced his music to a wider audience. Each will bring a different history with his work, making the farewell tour as much about the years they have shared as the character he created.
Staying Original in an Industry That Never Stands Still
Electronic music has changed considerably since Brejcha began releasing records in 2006. Production technology has become more accessible, streaming has transformed music discovery, and social media has introduced new pressures around visibility. Through those changes, Brejcha has maintained his own approach to production. He remains optimistic about the industry’s future, observing that “Electronic music has always evolved, and that is exactly what makes it so exciting. New technology gives artists more possibilities, and each new generation approaches music differently from the one before. I think that’s perfectly fine.”
For emerging producers, the possibilities are greater than ever, although the pressure to respond to popular sounds can make developing an individual identity more complicated. Brejcha has watched electronic music evolve through several generations of artists and technology, and he believes “What matters to me is that technology and trends remain tools for creativity and do not become the reason for making music.”
His experience developing High-Tech Minimal has informed the advice he hopes younger artists will take from his career. “I have always believed in having my own recognisable signature, even if that means taking a different route from everyone else. I would advise young artists to take the time to discover what makes their own sound distinctive, rather than worrying too much about how they fit into a particular moment in the industry.”
Making Peace With the Final Chapter
For most of his career, Brejcha has lived with another milestone somewhere on the horizon. With retirement now approaching, he has given himself permission to enjoy what he has already achieved. “I don’t want to work through these last years like a checklist. I have spent a long time on my career, on my sound and on the world around my music. Now it is about making good use of the time that remains.”
There is still plenty of work ahead, from preparing his remaining performances to developing a farewell tour that reflects the world he has created around his music. Yet the prospect of retirement has changed what he wants from those commitments. He is approaching his final shows with a sense of fulfilment that once seemed reserved for the distant future. “For me, that means giving the music and the shows my full attention and making sure this final chapter reflects what this journey has meant to me. I have nothing left to prove to the industry. I see these years as an opportunity to celebrate what we have built together.”
Nothing Left to Prove
Brejcha has spent much of his career trusting his own creative instincts, even when they led him away from established musical conventions. That independence shaped the records he made, the character he developed and the relationship he built with his audience. As he considers what will remain after his final performance, he hopes people remember the decisions behind those achievements. “I hope people remember that I followed my own path and stayed true to the sound I wanted to create. Most of the time, people only see the result: the records, the performances, the character on stage. Behind that is a long process of decisions, ideas and searching for your own way.”
His relationship with music began long before there was an audience waiting to hear it. As a child recovering from the injuries he sustained in the Ramstein air disaster, he found something in electronic music that would eventually shape the rest of his life. The boy experimenting with sounds at twelve could hardly have imagined the international career ahead of him, much less the thousands of strangers who would one day recognise his music within seconds from Bangkok to Amsterdam. Yet the personal connection that drew him towards music remains central to what he hopes to leave behind. When his final performance ends in 2028, he wants the freedom to follow an individual path, and the feeling of belonging that music can create, to continue inspiring others.
“If my story shows other artists that you don’t have to take the same path as everyone else to build something meaningful, I would be happy. And above all, I hope people remember the connection they felt through the music. That connection gives everything else its meaning.”
