When I think of Kerstin Egert, the Berlin DJ better known as Tama Sumo, my mind jumps to one particular set at Panorama Bar a few years ago. It was one of those days when the sun burst through the room's industrial blinds in bright needles of light, creating an incongruously angelic atmosphere on the dance floor. Egert sometimes looks a bit shy behind the decks, but this morning she was beaming, dancing with her eyes closed, rocking her shoulders to her own explosive house selections. I remember MK's "Given," but most of the records were a mystery: some insane bit of hip-house, something else with an outrageous saxophone, and a neon, stripped back thing with African vocals that I had to ask about (it turned out to be Egert's remix of Mary Boyoi's "Zooz," a political track written to encourage voting in Sudan's 2010 election). Panorama Bar has a fantastic cast of resident DJs, but none of them nails the spirit of the place quite the way Tama Sumo does.Egert was born in a small Bavarian village called Mühlhausen and moved to Berlin in 1990. In the 25 years since then, she's held residencies at Tresor (the original location), Ostgut (Berghain's predecessor) and Panorama Bar, as well as Freerotation festival in Wales. She's amassed a collection of some 15,000 records, which now handsomely engulfs one wall of her flat. Though she can definitely do techno—she plays downstairs at Berghain from time to time—her strong suit is bright, raw, slamming house, with an emphasis on track selection. There is no filler; nearly every record she plays could be someone's all-time favourite.It's worth noting that, though she's turned out a handful of fine productions (not least the aforementioned remix of "Zooz"), Egert is a DJ through and through —the playing of records is her preferred mode of self-expression. This made her a natural choice for the first edition of our new feature series, which shines a light on that oh-so essential part of electronic music: the art of DJing.I didn't have the plan to become a DJ. I always loved music and spent all my money on buying records. I loved dancing and making tapes for friends. But DJing, for a long time, was not something that I took into account. It was my friend Holger, who, in 1993, managed to convince me to share music with others on that level. At that time we always went out together and went record shopping together. House and techno were still quite new for us in Berlin, and we were excited about the nightlife here.Holger started DJing at a bar in Kreuzberg called Drama—a very lovely queer hub, where a lot of people went before they were heading to the clubs. At one point he convinced me that I should practice mixing and play with him at this bar.My first setup was: two Numark turntables that I bought secondhand from Holger and—hmmm—I have no idea any more what mixer I had. No nerd setup definitely, just the cheapest solutions as I had no money at that time. As for records, I was crazy for Inner City, Joe Smooth, DJ Pierre, Murk, Frankie Knuckles, Liz Torres, Nu Groove, Kym Mazelle, Adeva, Masters At Work, Lil Louis and early Strictly Rhythm records to name just a few.My first gig was at Drama thanks to Holger, and I was super nervous. I didn't even know how to put the needle on the record because I was shaking so much. But all went well, thanks to the wonderful crowd who forgave the train-wrecks (and I bet there were a lot). And thanks to Holger and the Drama owners, Matthias and Jens, they managed to take the nervousness away quickly. In the end we all had a lot of fun.Since a lot of people who worked in clubs went to Drama for a "warm-up," I soon got booked together with Holger to play at a gay party at Cafe Moskau, and we also got our first gigs at Globus / Tresor. This all was very surprising for me as I never had a plan to become a club DJ. I was happy about all of these opportunities but I didn't have a "big break" feeling.The times also were different to nowadays. The whole DJ concept as we know it today did not really exist back then. There were hardly any travelling DJs, at least not so much in Berlin, and I did not have any DJ career master plan. Even in my bravest dreams I would never have thought that much later in my life I would have the opportunity to play abroad, have a lot of new experiences and make a living out of it.In my first one or two years DJing I got more and more offers to play in Berlin, but I also had quite a while where I hardly played anywhere. A lot changed for me when the old Ostgut asked me to play and when I became a resident at Panorama Bar. With the increase of bookings abroad I decided to give up my daytime job and give it a go and dedicate my time to DJing full-time .Well, my mixing style is pretty basic. I love to let the music speak and like to give the records time to tell their story. I am not the effect or gimmick kind of DJ and except for playing around a bit with the isolator or equalizer I don't interfere much with the music when the record is playing. I learned mixing by doing it, and there was not any particular advice that I got that was an eyeopener.I check the new records at different stores weekly, not only in Berlin also from abroad. During the week I do a lot of research on the internet, which offers so much possibility to explore music. And thanks to dear friends I discover a lot of musical beauties.