grinding it right (mdslktr for the french challenged)

Voilà. Interviewed by Pharrell, translated by Hianta, edited by Casper, Fluokids on marche en famille.

-Hello Modeselektor.

Gernot: Hallo, I am Gernot, the first half of Modeselektor, and the other half is…
Szary: Szary.
G: Like Charivari?
S: No, Szary!

How could we best describe Modeselektor’s music? The joke being, last year in France, that it was ‘Eurocrunk’. What do you think about that?

G: I don’t think the Eurocrunk genre exists anyway. The funny thing with this story is that we wanted something for the PR thing for Hello Mom, and with our friends, like Tekilatex and Feadz, we gave each other ideas to describe our music… in the end we got “Ambient Country”, “Continental Grime” and “Eurocrunk” but Trax (French electronic magazine) titled in big letters “Modeselektor – Eurocrunk” even though I don’t even know what it is myself! I think it’s more like what Cuizinier does, you know, it’s just something a little bit stupid, a party thing.

-Talking of TTC, what’s going on with the “Moi Je Baise” track which we have heard in your live shows recently?

G: Is that the title of the track? Haha! Actually the track doesn’t have a title yet. Actually, we play it in France right now because it makes sense with the French public, even though you can’t really understand the voice. The verses are way more worked up than in “Dancing Box” (NB: we do understand the chorus: “Modeselektor TTC une bande de mec sympas/ Modeselektor TTC a bunch of nice guys).

-How do you prepare a Modeselektor set for a festival where you will only play for a mere 40 minutes?

(laughs)
G: I have no idea!
S: You’ll see! I think we might begin slowly… maybe… we don’t know!
G: We really decide in the first 10 minutes of the set, it’s not always the same, we don’t have a concept.


-You are the real aliens of Bpitch Control. What are the influences that help you to produce something different to German motorway techno.

G: All our problems come from the fact that we listen to everything. My heart is full of dancehall, but at the same time, we are Techno kids, we grew up with it. Szary is 31, I am 28. I grew up with all the stuff from Detroit, in fact I worked in a Techno music shop, I knew everything about 4/4. Actually I love everything that will give me pleasure on the dancefloor, I am a mix of all that, I don’t care if the sound is at 90bmp, 240 or 128! (laughs) Modeselektor is a big mix of all kinds of things that come from nowhere, claps, vocals, and, you see, we get away thanks to that when one of our laptop crashes, which happens regularly.

-How do you produce the music? Who comes up with ideas, and how do you work in the studio?

S: It’s 50/50. For example, I will have an idea at home in my kitchen, I will turn it into a tiny loop and tell myself “wow how cool!” and then I’ll give it to Gernot. Well, actually he’ll be more like “give it to me!”, and since I’m a nice guy, I give it to him and then he might finish it into a complete track.
G: and it’s the same thing the other way. But to tell you where the idea comes from, I don’t know, sometimes it might be old Motown discs ahah.

-I heard you wanted to release a follow-up to Labland. Is a second DVD with Pfadfinderei on its way?

G: Ahah, we don’t know yet, because we’re all so busy right now. But we have other projects, we want to put out a disc with Sirius Mo, a friend from Berlin who has already done a remix on the last 12”, and Sasha Pereira, Sahcoozi’s singer with whom we have already recorded a track. Actually, we’re already thinking about the new album, because we want it out for Winter 2007, and it’s not as far away as it seems to be.
G: Concerning our visual identity, I’ve know a guy from Pfadfinderei for 15 years, he’s one of my oldest friends. He was one of the biggest graffiti artist in Berlin, and now he’s the head of Pfadfinderei. He’s the one who created the monkey, so he’s here from the beginning and he has always followed, be it on the website or with the visuals. He’s kind of the third member of the group, even though he sings in a rock band! (laughs)

-So the DVD is just a rumour? I have another one. Szary, do you wear the same UR tees everyday?

S: Yes, I actually only have this one, and I wear it everyday, it’s really dirty! (laughs)
G: It smells like wooooooooooooooooh

-To conclude, what are you listening these days?

S: Ok, let’s do it one after the other!
G: I listen Nathan Fake’s remix of Apparat, which is truly amazing
S: I’m onto AFX’s Analord 3, I think it might be boring, but it’s really a crazy tune.
G: I listen to Prince – Black Sweat approximately 10 times a day, it makes my girlfriend crazy, especially when I wait for the guitar part, ahah.
S: Busta Rhymes – Touch It.
G: Yeah but not Diplo’s version!
S: Not Diplo’s version, no.
G: Diplo’s version is accelerated, the track loses all its identity.