Someone From Berlin: Building Dreamscapes, One Dancefloor at a Time
Someone From Berlin
By Sainte Francis
I’ve been a fan of Someone From Berlin’s DJ sets for years, but it wasn’t until prepping this interview that I fully grasped the breadth of what he does—not just behind the decks, but behind the scenes. Someone From Berlin has built a name for himself by blending musicality, theatricality, and intention, both in his sound and in the spaces he helps create. A longtime contributor to Pines Party, mainly focusing on the daytime events, he’s been intimately involved helping to make Pines Party into something more meaningful than a weekend escape: it’s a dreamscape of queer joy, community ritual, and top-tier programming. We spoke ahead of his debut at the Beach Party for Pines Party 2025.
“I’m not trying to be famous,” Someone From Berlin tells me early in our chat. “I just want to create spaces that impact people.”
That motivation—part artist, part architect, part community steward—runs through everything he does. As a DJ and event producer, his portfolio is rooted in creating transformative, theatrical, and deeply musical experiences. He’s a co-chair of the Pines Party committee, co-founder of the beloved queer party UltraMaroon, and a longtime fixture on Fire Island’s event landscape. This year, for the first time, he’ll take the beach stage at Pines Party himself.
It’s a full-circle moment for someone who’s spent the past decade involved in producing events in the Pines.
“I never thought I’d have the opportunity to play the beach, honestly,” he says. “When I stepped onto the committee, I figured I was foregoing that option. But I have a really clear picture of what I want to do. I love an opening set—it’s empty dancefloor to full tilt. You get to create the arc.”
For Someone From Berlin, DJing is inseparable from his broader commitment to space-making. And that commitment is personal. “This is my community,” he says of The Pines. “I’ve been coming here since 2010. I got my house in 2021. This is where I want to be.”
He didn’t set out to become a DJ. In fact, music was his foundation long before nightlife entered the picture. He grew up in a musical household—his parents hosted chamber music salons in their apartment across from Lincoln Center. There was a concert grand piano in the living room. “It was a very being Jewish in Vienna vibes,” he laughs. “I played cello and piano. Went to music school, studied theory.”
Later, while studying theater in college, he realized he wanted a life that offered stability—and impact. “I wanted health insurance and to be taken seriously,” he says. “So, I went into a day job. But I knew I’d come back to something that created space and affected people. DJing and party production has become that outlet.”
He first got into DJing while running ShareGurl, a Fire Island business that began as an app for connecting people coming to the island and evolved into a hospitality and event brand focused on streamlining the process of visiting and enjoying the pines. “We started throwing house parties as marketing because the house party is the heartbeat of Fire Island,” he says. “At some point, I realized: if I own the equipment, I should know how to use it. I taught myself how to mix on a USB stick. That was it.”
Eventually, ShareGurl became involved with Pines Party, and his role organically expanded: from taking on the pool party, to having his production team manage both the pool and closing parties. As of 2025, he’s become a co-chair of the event committee and is very excited to help take the event forward on behalf the community.
Their focus since becoming more involved has been on programing and working with the creative team to make sure the events throughout the weekend have a throughline: “We try to create a whole story,” he says. “It’s not just name-brand headliners. It’s about cohesion, intention, and trust. People don’t always come for a specific DJ—they come because they trust the experience.”
This year’s lineup, he says, might be the most balanced yet. “It’s wildly diverse—musically and demographically—but incredibly cohesive. There are international headliners, Detroit house, Black and queer legends, classic house DJs, lesbians, white gays—it’s all there. But it makes sense together.”
The 2025 theme, Dreamscape, brings it all together—musically, visually, emotionally. The concept is rooted in surrealism, but more importantly, in experience. “The parties follow a sleep cycle,” Raf explains. “You start in Hypnotic, then into Vivid, the Dreamscape, then Lucid, and then you wake up at Breakfast. It’s a full arc. We want people to be able to escape, to dream. To feel like they’re in another world.”
This theatricality isn’t just for show, it’s part of Someone From Berlin’s vision of what queer spaces can and should be. “Very rarely do DJs show up in a look,” he says. “But I want to. I’m talking with my dancers about a little stage gag for the main event. I want it to feel immersive. I want people to feel like they’ve entered a story.”
For Raf, creating space is more than aesthetics—it’s about protection, joy, and purpose. “House music, at its core, is inclusive,” he says. “Nothing matters. Everyone can be together. Your problems go away.”
That energy of inclusion is felt across the Pines Party ecosystem, even as it grows in scope. “Yes, some circuit queens come—and we’ll take their money,” he quips. “But they’ll be reminded at the door that this is a community event. That 80-year-old in a full outfit and giant hat? That’s a longtime resident who’s here every year. These parties are about everyone.”
Beyond music and looks, Raf emphasizes Pines Party’s nonprofit backbone. Last year’s event generated hundreds of thousands in revenue for the community and a donations to the Stonewall Foundation and the Seashore Defense Fund. “Pines Party funds the Pines,” he says. “Everything our community does is a function of this event. It matters.”
So, what can attendees expect from Someone From Berlin’s set this year? He offers a small peek: “The first two tracks are going to be ripped right out of Janet Jackson’s Velvet Rope.” More broadly, he’s interested in music that feels intentional and alive. “There’s so much production now that feels like ‘beep-bop-boop, I made a track,’” he says. “I’m craving warmth, vocal presence, organic synths. Stuff with depth.”
His trajectory as a DJ has mirrored that evolution. “I started with tech house—Toolroom, Defected. Then got bored. Then pandemic hit and I shifted into more progressive stuff. Then Afro house. Then Afro house got gentrified and I was like… okay, not this.”
Now, he’s leaning into a hybrid of screaming divas, weird synths, and melodic grooves that build from open to full steam. “You have to trick people into moving,” he says. “But once they’re moving, you can take them anywhere.”
Recent favorites in his rotation include a Eelke Kelijn rework of Laura Branigan’s “Self Control,” a rare live recording of Mariah Carey covering “Just Be Good to Me,” and a melodic Llewellyn track he uses to bridge into deeper territory. “I always say—if you want the gays to dance, just play ‘If You Could Read My Mind’ by Viola Wills. Never fails.”
Looking ahead, they see Pines Party as both a flagship and a testing ground. His other Fire Island event, IndepenDANCE, is co-produced with Guy Smith and has quickly become another essential date on the calendar. “IndepenDANCE lets us stretch our creativity in different ways,” he says. “It’s full production. It’s meaningful to me. But Pines Party—that’s home base.”
As for UltraMaroon? “It’s where try new things and stay connected to the scene in New York,” he says. “But Fire Island is where it all comes together.”
Before we wrap, I ask what advice he has for first-timers, especially those struggling with a theme like Dreamscape. He smiles.
“Don’t overthink it. Surrealism just means using something the wrong way. Turn your bathing suit into a hat, or your hat into a Speedo. Be silly. Be theatrical. Be you. The best looks aren’t the fanciest—they’re the ones that tell a story.”
And in a way, that’s Raf’s ethos in a nutshell: build the story, set the scene, open the dancefloor, and let the people dream.
Catch Someone From Berlin at the DREAMSCAPE: The Beach Party on Saturday, August 2nd, 10pm-6am with Eli & Fur and Chris Cruse.
