TAPEd Conversation: Modeselektor (Bpitch Control)

As promised from last week, here's our full Q&A with the Modeselektor boys. Expect a full article in next month's issue of iDJ.

It's TAPE's round - what are you drinking?

Coffee and heavy water.

‘Happy Birthday' seems like a big jump from 'Hello Mom', both in terms of ideas, and also your production finesse. Was the album written and recorded over a long period of time (as with the last record), or did it all come together fairly quickly?

Actually, 'Happy Birthday!' was done in a pretty short period of time. The oldest track is 'Let Your Love Grow' that was supposed to be released on 'Hello Mom!' but didn't get done in time. All the other songs are at most one year old and we finished final production between March and June. We wanted to release it in February, but it wasn't ready yet. So we did the mix CD 'Boogy Bytes Vol.3' instead. By that, we got a lot of new energy and inspiration and finished the tracks we were working on.

How would you describe the forthcoming LP in just three words?

A lot of. Unbelievable. Tracks.

I must say that the Moderat track with Paul St. Hilaire ('Let Your Love Grow') is a booming dancefloor hymn to die for. Not dubstep, not techno, but a perfect broken hybrid of the two. Also, TTC's rapping is absolutely off the hook on '2000007'. There are a lot of collaborations on this record - who was your favourite to work with?

We don't really have a favourite - we love them all! Working with TTC is always fun - they are very professional and inspired rappers, we still think it's unbelieveable that we've worked with Thom Yorke! But really, we like all of these songs and each of them is really special.

Do you think the electronic artist ‘émigré’ thing is reaching saturation point in Berlin? Is it still an exciting place to work/live/party?

For some people, or it seems a lot of people nowadays, Berlin seems to be the centre of the world. But this is not all that counts. Berlin is like an old lady who smokes and gets drunk all the time. This can be negative too. But we love Berlin, it's our home base! We grew up here. A lot of people move here due to the low living costs. But this is changing right now. BECAUSE there are so many people moving here, everything gets more expensive - rents, living expenses....

You've done a lot of touring since the last LP. Do you think that performing your live set so regularly has had much of an influence on the tracks for 'Happy Birthday'?

Yes, we do think that touring that much influenced the music we do in the studio. Like "The Darkside Of The Sun" - this track is based on an inspiration we had when we played in San Francisco last year. In general though all of our music just comes from inside of us and is honest and emotional. "Happy Birthday" is definitely very much inspired by the fact that both of us become fathers!

It sounds to my ears that dubstep has informed the sound on some of the new LP, and I'm sure that tracks like 'Edgar and 'Let Your Love Grow' (especially the latter) getting heavy rotation from dubstep DJs. Are there any dubstep producers that you can't get enough of at the moment?

Shackleton is great! But also tracks by Skream or Benga are awesome. We actually listen to all kinds of stuff though, not just dubstep.


You guys obviously have a deep rooted love of all things bass, which is more apparent than ever on the new LP. Are there any particular artists that first turned you on to the power of dancefloor bassweight?

We were definitely impressed by Scorn in the late 90s. And Speedy J with his "Shocking Hobby" album was a mile stone as well. Bass is the motor of the dance floor, and dubstep became more important and bigger because of the bass. This is a good thing, although it kicks the more sensible girls off the dancefloor!

Apart from the new record, do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

Yeah, we want to do a Moderat (Modeselektor + Apparat) album! And do more stuff with TTC.

You effortlessly showed off your no nonsense eclecticism in your fantastic mix for the Boogy Bytes series. What are your favourite records of the moment?

The Simpsons - The Movie (not a record, but fair enough!)
Dr. Alimantado - Best Dressed Chicken In Town // Greensleeves
Smith N Hack - Space Warrior // Smith N Hack
Timbaland - Shock Value // Blackground
Neil Landstrumm - Restaurant Of Assassins // Planet Mu
Blonde Redhead - 23 // 4AD
Max Romeo - The Birth Of Reggae Music // Wackie's
Peverelist - Erstwhile Rhythm // Punch Drunk
Surgeon - Screw The Roses // Counterbalance
Mr. Oizo - Transsexual EP // Ed Banger

Before you go, is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Keep it real and happy metal!


'Happy Birthday!' is out on September 10th on Bpitch Control.

www.modeselektor.com
www.bpitchcontrol.de