Michael Flume is a survivor. Imagine borrowing a friend’s brand new Mazda, being held up by three youths, kidnapped, thrown into the trunk and narrowly escaping with a move straight out of Mission Impossible. As a club DJ, they call him “The Doctor” because he practices the art of mixing with the technical precision of a surgeon. Put Michael Flume behind a set of turntables and he draws crowds who just like to watch his antics turning an ordinary job into performance art. Born in Switzerland, educated through experience and a set of harrowing adventures, Flume has worked in most of New York’s best known nightclubs including Studio 54, the Palladium, the Limelight, the Tunnel, 4D, the Roxy, the World and Danceteria.

His initial introduction to the nightclub scene came at the age of 17 at Switzerland's largest nightclub, Fairytale. When boredom ensued, he took to the road living in the Sinai desert with a Beodouin tribe, shipping out on a British oil rig in the Mediterranean, running against the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, surviving penniless in Morocco, and scoring his first acting role in the American production of “Masada,” filmed in Israel, starring Peter O’Toole.

Flume’s next move was to the Big Apple, where he pursued his acting career intensively, studying at the Herbert Berghof Studio and the Lee Strasberg Institute. Simultaneously, he acted as New York correspondent for several European music magazines and DRS-3, the top-rated Swiss radio station.This led to a stint working with Arif Mardin as a production assistant on such productions as Chaka Khan’s Destiny” LP and David Bowie’s “Labyrinth” soundtrack. In 1987, he earned his first remixing credit on Warner Bros. for Hugh Masakela’s “Bring Mandela Back Home.”

In addition to practicing his studio skills, Flume made a name for himself in the Big Apple club scene. One particularly hot night at the Limelight, a group of Japanese radio producers wandered in looking for a story. They were so impressed by Flume they asked him to create a 20 minute New York update for their show, Nissan “Beat Factory” which aired every Sunday on Tokyo FM.With the addition of Flume, the program became wildly popular and was syndicated to 23 affiliated FM stations over a three year period.

Flume’s international projects have included the creation and production of several TV specials based on the New York scene. He has also written, composed and produced music for prime-time TV shows in the USA, Australia, Spain, Canada, South Africa and Switzerland.

—Stephanie Shepherd, writer

Dance Music Report and DJ Times (1997)