Julian’s Coachella Diary Covers Bieber, Brands, and EDM Culture

Bieberchella. Barefoot EDM bros. Drinks getting spilled on you. Every year, thousands of music lovers from all across the globe flock to the Empire Polo Club in Indio, CA to watch some of the world’s biggest artists perform in the desert. For those at home, the destination to watch all the madness unfold is on YouTube, which hosts Coachella’s official livestream through both weekends and invites artists and creators into the YouTube Studio backstage to chill, create, and watch the entire weekend live from the comfort of a stream. This year, I broke my #chella virginity and headed out to Indio to get an IRL look at what really goes down at the country’s most famous music festival.

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FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2026

1:17 PM

GOOD AFTERNOON COACHELLA!!! It is a beautiful sunny day in Indio, California, and I’m headed to my first ever ‘chella. After stopping by the La Quinta Resort for brunch with my friends at Aperol, I catch a ride my friend Matthew and make it to the festival grounds at 1. After a long and grueling walk from the preferred parking lot into the fest, I’m officially #vibing.

3:02 PM

Ok, the peak desert sun is starting to fry me, but I can’t let that stop me. I spend a cool $13 dollars on an iced yerba matte and join every other gay guy in Indio to watch rising star Slayyyter’s 3PM set. I slink in through the side and pick a spot that seems safe and bear trade-adjacent. The energy is off the wall, and everyone agrees that this was the best way to kick the festival off (and that Coachella should have slotted her later in the day.)

Coachella

5:37 PM

After a quick siesta to watch Joe Jonas serve Aperol Spritz to fans, I run into a V Magazine’s Kev Ponce and we hit the Heineken House to drink a few non-alcoholic beers and catch a DJ set. We take refuge in the shade and a kind friend I met last summer in Ibiza offers us drink tickets, a wifi password, and a ‘Clinker’ that attaches to our beers and syncs our music preferences to help make more friends at the festival. Small acts of kindness go a long way when you’re getting ready to bake in the sun for three days!

7:21 PM

I make a sharp beeline from the press and media tent to the Sonora stage to catch Ninajirachi, my most anticipated set of the day. My coworker Ary and I speed through the line until we hit the door, at which point the security immediately slams it shut, and declares capacity has been reached. Just my luck! After fifteen minutes of patient waiting, they determine it’s cleared out enough for more people to go in, and I catch her just in time to hear her drop the Frost Children remix of “Love My Computer.” This was PEAK!

Coachella
8:11 PM

The day is starting to hit me: No food, feet in ruins, and the chemical compositions of 5 different sunscreens starting to congeal into one plastic layer on my skin. I run to the artist area and visit YouTube’s on-site HQ. We take some polaroid pictures, snack on Magnum bars (first meal of the day!) and admire KATSEYE’s performance on YouTube’s multiviewlivestream lounge. After getting our bearings, we run to catch Friday’s headliner…

10:20 PM

SABRINA CARPENTER! Somehow, my colleague and I snag barricade at the VIP area and have a front-row seat to Sabrina’s first headline Coachella show. From a pure entertainment-value perspective, this show is one of the most grandiose concerts I’ve ever seen in my life. This is a career highlight for Sabrina. She pushes everything she’s learned from years of extensive touring to the absolute max. A Susan Sarandon cameo! Will Farrell as the grumpy technician fixing her stage! Even more innuendos! This is a decade-defining artist at her most powerful, and we were just glad to get a front row seat.

11:30 PM

This is when the drama starts. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Hey, I wish I knew what it was like to flee the Titanic in a flower crown,” Coachella is your closest modern equivalent. After fighting our way to rideshare pickup, my friends begin to text me in a panic. Our names are NOT being found on the list for the KATSEYE x REVOLVE party. We make a few quick calls for PR while waiting 27(!) minutes for an Uber down the street.

12:27 AM

We make it to the party, and I nearly fall over in tears when I see pizza being passed to attendees. My friends and I park in a corner to refuel and then head to the dance floor. After a few drinks and a few wins from the claw-machines, we call it a night. My feet are on fire, my throat is full of dust, and I haven’t eaten a meal that wasn’t sponsored by an app or a clothing brand in 24 hours. COACHELLAAAAAAAAAAAAAa.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 11TH, 2026

Coachella

4:47 PM

GOOD AFTERNOON DAY TWO! It’s a hot Saturday in Coachella valley and one name is on everyone’s mind: BIEBER! I start my day off by heading to YouTube’s outpost on the festival grounds for a quick ki with Slayyyter (and her beat up Chanel, naturally.) I was about to head back to the stages when Wheel of Fortune host Vanna White appeared. I tried to play it cool when I asked her for a photo, and she kindly obliged. Real recognize real!

5:57 PM

I hustle to the Coachella Main Stage to catch Addison Rae’s set. Addison is styled by Interview fashion director Dara, so it’s a personal point of pride for us to see them kill it as a duo on a stage as massive as this. I run into my friend Dorian Eletctra in VIP and we split a diet soda while Addison commands the crowd. I snag a quick video for the gram of Addison delivering a few choice words for the haters, and then depart. Dara, if you’re reading this, you guys KILLED IT!

6:43 PM

As soon as I enter the Gobi tent to catch hometown heroes Geese, a man in a neon green Justin Bieber shirt spills a beer down my back. I’m embarrassed to admit it was a little refreshing in the desert heat, but I quickly reposition myself and get ready. Once Cameron Winter and co. begin a cover of “Baby,” I realize just how deep Bieber fever is running today. After their set, I rush to a cart to order the worst pretzel I’ve ever had in my life, and scarf it down greedily before embarking to the press tent for some ice water and sunscreen time.

7:39 PM

I link with my colleague Ary and we mutually agree we should climb the rainbow staircase that everyone’s using for their photo opps. It’s a dizzying ascent and we can’t help but feel like it smells like the inside of a pool locker room. Afterwards, it’s time to hit the Mojave tent and catch PinkPantheress. The crowd is huge and spilling out way past the confines of the tent, so we park it near a fence in VIP and watch from the sidelines as The Dare and horsegiirL hop on stage to support PinkPantheress. I find a lost iPhone, return it to some disinterested festival police, and make my way to the main stage for the biggest event of the fest.
11:35 PM

I don’t think I’ve ever been in a crowd this big or fanatical. It’s Justin Bieber’s first ever headline Coachella set, and people have been camping for hours to get the best possible spot. Due to my lack of dedication, I get stuck near the back of VIP, which quickly closes due to capacity before a gnarly fight breaks out between some intoxicated frat types. I reposition and the lights go on, and everyone starts losing it. Justin does a medley of contemporary tracks before opening a laptop and doing karaoke-style renditions of his most famous hits via YouTube. It was almost performance art, and although I heard some grumbles, I thought it was actually an incredible concept. I break away just before the end to beat the hordes of fans and fight my way to the shuttle buses on the other side of the festival. BIEBERCHELLA!

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SUNDAY, APRIL 12TH, 2026

3:49 PM

My body is in ruins, yet I persist. Day 3 baby. I stroll into the Sonora tent at 3PM to catch Jane Remover’s set, and quickly make friends with a barefoot EDM bro while we wait for the show to start. The lights go down and the bass starts shaking my fillings out. I push to the front to get a good photo, then sneak off right before the last song.

Polaroid by Hunter Ellenbarger @ YouTube x Coachella Studio

5:15 PM

Before heading to my next set, I stop by the YouTube studio to steal some free popsicles and say hi to Taemin and Major Lazer. After cooling off, I run to the Gobi tent to catch the last half of Oklou’s set. The vibe is ethereal and chill and I get misty-eyed when I see an elderly couple swaying to her song blade bird. I resolved myself not to cry this weekend, so I pack up to meet my coworker at the Coachella Stage for Major Lazer.

6:42 PM

Ary and I have a little time to kill before Young Thug, so we take #vibey #coachella #vibes photos at the carousel and get lemonades. Afterwards, we get caught up in the stampede to the Coachella stage for Thug’s performance and get a spot near the back to hear “Digits.” High school me would be literally shaking. Ary shows me her sweet new Justin Bieber merch and we bolt to my final show of the festival.

9:05 PM

All the Bushwick-coded gay guys and girls with cool hair™ of the fest are front and center for FKA Twigs. I sneak away briefly to grab $13 french fries and return to see Honey Balenciaga bringing the house down during the show’s ballroom segment. Tonight is my last day in town, and I feel a strange wave of melancholy hit me when I realize I have to leave the snowglobe of the Empire Polo Club and return to the real world. But I have influencers, 30 dollar mixed drinks, and DJ sets back home, so I take off a few minutes before the set ends to catch a shuttle back to my AirBNB. Coachella, you were #goals.

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(P.S. Make sure to catch Weekend Two live on YouTube! XOXO)

Is there a concept behind Chip Meditation 2025? Is it a comment on AI in some form?

A few of the titles are terms from chaos theory, just as on Chip Meditation Part I. For me it was obvious to also name the tracks on Chip Meditation 2025 using concepts from that field.

When it comes to AI, it’s astonishing to me to see what human beings will invent and develop, only to eventually make themselves redundant. For me, music is a purely human affair. Human beings should make music for other human beings. The fact that artificial intelligence can do this as well is interesting, and it will certainly continue to grow in importance in the future. Things always continue moving forward.

But whether everything new is automatically a good thing remains to be seen. It will definitely change the world of music.

How would you describe the points of departure and processes for Chip Meditation 2025?

With Chip Meditation 2025, I basically just wanted to commemorate the 40th anniversary, and I tried to put myself back into that period of time. Of course I also wanted to use similar sounds and sequences that would remind listeners of those first productions. Back then, it was the beginning of a long musical journey.

None of the new tracks were re-recordings of older material. They are all completely new compositions and productions that I created in 2025 in honour of the 40th anniversary. Considering that some of the older tracks were still recorded partly with cassette recorders, they still sound very good today. Of course the 2025 music sounds more refined and fuller because of the newer equipment.

I approached the production process in the same way I usually do: starting with a four-bar sequence. Then the rest of the piece develops quite naturally through experimentation, transposition, and so on. Often it almost feels as if things are happening on their own accord.

I think Chip Meditation 2025 is very sequence-focused. I don’t plan things too rigidly beforehand, however. I just let it flow and am often surprised by what emerges.

Your new album is already the third entry in the Chip Meditation series. Tell me a bit about this sound world that currently inspires you so much and the history of Parts I and II.

After the first part, things kept evolving continuously. We gradually bought more and more new equipment. For example, Michael Weisser, my former partner in Software, ordered the then extremely expensive Emulator II+, which allowed us to take another step forward sonically with a huge range of drum and percussion sounds, choirs, and strings — a massive palette of professional sounds.

Michael handled the organization and selection. I left it up to him when, how, and where things would be used. He did an excellent job, and when a new LP was finished, it was often a premiere for me as well — I was hearing it for the first time, at least with the early albums.

Chip Meditation Part II simply ended up getting released in 1989 for no other reason that the process was finished at that point.

With Electronic Universe II, you can clearly hear the sonic difference compared to the first album.

Yes, but Part II wasn’t really intended as a sequel.

Michael acquired original NASA voices and radio signals, which were incorporated into the music. It’s a pity that he wasn’t a musician and didn’t really compose, but he still had very good ideas. His cover designs and so-called “hi-tech lyrics” were something new and gave our productions a distinctive identity.

People often asked how we managed to work together when one person lived in Bremen and the other 500 kilometers away in the Southern Eifel. We communicated only by telephone, fax, and music cassettes that Michael commented on.

I’d like to briefly go back to the time before the first Chip Meditation, when you started working on the demos that later became the first album. What exactly fascinated you about the music of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream at the time?

It was this sense of something completely new — these electronic sounds, and of course this music that invited you to dream. At that time, there was nothing like it. It was often referred to as “cosmic music,” and the musicians as “cosmic couriers.”

And then there were the live concerts, young Klaus Schulze, dressed in white, sitting on a flokati rug in front of a huge synthesizer setup, conjuring these crazy sounds and sequences from it. Tangerine Dream had a similar effect.

It really grabbed you, and naturally I wanted to do something like that too.

1984–1986 were incredibly productive years: two Software albums and three Mergener/Weisser albums. How did you experience that period, and how did you divide the material between the two projects?

Beam Scape was the first Mergener/Weisser album, although the music itself had already been produced earlier. It was only released after Mark Sakautzky took over Klaus Schulze’s label. It then became the first official release on the IC label under the new management.

I actually travelled to Braunschweig to rent a Tascam 8-track tape machine from the studio “Die Werkstatt,” run by Lutz Meyer, where I recorded the music. A week later I mixed it down there on a Tascam 32. At the time I wasn’t nearly as well equipped as I am today — all of this was before 1984.

The very first production was called DEA ALBA, a cassette book with a science-fiction story by H.W. Franke and Michael Weisser, though it wasn’t released until years later.

What were those first sessions like?

The first working session in my studio in the Southern Eifel consisted of Weisser visiting me and recording a few spoken lines over music I had produced. Everything else developed later.

Michael and I agreed that we didn’t want to split hairs over who had done what, exactly. It was meant to be our shared product. He handled the artwork, cover design, and everything else, such as obtaining the fractals. I was responsible for developing the music, and this is where my demo cassettes came into play — Michael found them extraordinary and wonderful.

I constantly created new sounds and sequences, sent them to Michael, and he commented on them via cassette tape. In that sense he did have an influence on the tracks, but he never really composed or played music in the compositional sense — that was my role. Nevertheless, we registered all tracks with GEMA under both our names as authors.

Michael used these many tracks according to his own taste and gave them their titles. Ultimately, for us, the important thing was the final product: the LP or CD.

You also mentioned an IC meeting with many artists from the label. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

The IC label became successful very quickly and, together with distributor DA-Music, wanted to thank its artists. So they invited everyone to Worpswede, an artists’ village, to spend a nice day together at the “creative house,” with food, a program, walks through the moor, and so on.

Among those present were Mind Over Matter (Klaus Hoffmann-Hook), Peter Seiler, Stephan Töteberg (Quiet Force), Burkhard Schmiedel, and others. It was a wonderful day with many good conversations and a chance to get to know fellow musicians and the people from the distribution company.

After checking and listening through the CDs, the following tracks turned out to be those demo tracks of mine from the early 1980s: on Chip Meditation Part I and II (CD), all except the track “Voice Bit,” which consists only of spoken text that Michael had Horst Breiter record in Bremen.

Also from Phancyful Fire: the tracks “Phancyful Fire” and “Sunny Rom Rise,” and from Beam Scape (LP): “Rainbow,” “Sunbeam,” “Shooting Star,” and “Small Spark.”

In our last interview you mentioned that a vocoder was also part of the studio, though I’m not exactly sure when it was added. How and in which productions did you use it with Software?

I bought the Korg Vocoder as early as 1979. I used it to create those alien voices on DEA ALBA by feeding a sample-and-hold sound from the Moog into the vocoder.

The whispering at the beginning of “Flowers of Boundary” was done that way too.

You also worked a lot with the Korg MS-20. Interestingly, even back then it was no longer brand-new. What does this synth still mean to you today?

I still think it’s wonderful. It decorates my studio and is practically my original source.

It was my very first instrument, so it’s sacred to me — although at the beginning it also cost me many hours of experimentation and learning.

How would you reflect on the development of your studio and the way it fed back into your music?

At the beginning of our collaboration, the studio consisted entirely of my own equipment. Once the first productions started bringing in money, Michael contributed a Tascam 34, a Craaft mixing console, and a Roland SRV-2000 reverb unit. Later he added a Tascam 8-track machine and an Allen & Heath console.

Michael made this equipment available to me, although it remained his property, and after our separation he took it back and lent it to Stephan Töteberg, who then took over my role.

Over the course of our collaboration, a large amount of music was created in advance — pieces I composed simply out of enthusiasm and which only later found use. Michael always told me never to delete or throw anything away, but to let him hear it first. That’s how tracks like “Present Voice” ended up being used — he thought it was fantastic and placed it on a sampler.

I had actually improvised that track one afternoon with Wolly Snyder, just on a whim. It’s basically live, still controlled by the Commodore C-64 — this was right at the beginning of MIDI. The Synthesizerstudio Bonn built me an interface for the C-64 with a sequencer program. Many tracks were controlled with it, and all the sequencers ran in sync with it, including my TR-808.

Later Michael ordered a sequencer program for the C-64 from Jellinghaus in Dortmund, and after that Atari gave us a computer with the C-Lab Notator software. Things just kept progressing from there. The highlight was the Notator, which I still enjoy using today.

Can you imagine returning once again to the world of Chip Meditation?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve already thought about creating more music in this style, and I already have plenty of graphics prepared for new covers. We’ll see.

Peter Mergener Chip Meditation 2025 (c) the artist

"I don’t plan things too rigidly. I just let it flow and am often surprised by what emerges.”

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Julian’s Coachella Diary Covers Bieber, Brands, and EDM Culture

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2026

SATURDAY, APRIL 11TH, 2026

SUNDAY, APRIL 12TH, 2026

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