New York City-based Austrian DJ/producer Peter Rauhofer died on Tuesday, only a few weeks after he was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with a brain tumor. The news was announced by Rauhofer’s manager, Angelo Russo, via the artist’s Facebook page. His passing at only 48 is tragic.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Rauhofer early on in his career, just as Club 69’s “Let Me Be Your Underwear” was morphing from underground European sensation into international club hit. Rauhofer was still living in Vienna, and I remember during our phone conversation him enthusiastically laying out his plans to take his music global by moving to New York.
Later on when I was editing Mixmag USA (later Mixer), Rauhofer would occasionally stop by the DMC office on Broadway to pick up DMC remixes before their release. Usually in the midst of various remix projects, he always took a few moments to partake in industry gossip — who is playing this record, who is putting out that record, what’s the record that goes….. His appetite for music seemed insatiable.
When I interviewed Rauhofer after he won his Grammy in 2000 for remixing Cher’s “Believe,” he seemed much like the same guy I had talked to over almost a decade earlier. This time he had even bigger dreams tied into events he was producing. He counterbalanced his good fortune with a glint of self-deprecating humor, a very American thing to do.
During his 48 years Peter Rauhofer created a musical legacy and lived the American Dream. He moved across the Atlantic in search of a better life, worked hard and attained everything he dreamed about when he was a young man living in Vienna.
Peter Rauhofer’s personal story is as inspiring as his many musical accomplishments.