Moderat - Pump up the melancholy

Modeselektor + Apparat = Moderat. Electronic Beats recently met the illustrious power trio – Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary of Modeselektor and Sascha Ring of Apparat –for a chat about past, present and future, the relevance of professional studios, life as a musician and the expected “intensity” of their upcoming tour. The detailed coffee conversation was enriched with a lot of laugher…as well as quite a few exclusives.

Your last release was called “Auf Kosten der Gesundheit” (which translates to "At The Cost Of Health"). Was it really this terrible?
Bronsert: It was exhausting to produce the record...
Ring (interrupting): We were still young and didn’t know how to capture this Moderat thing, which existed by then as an improvisation show only. It took ages till we had a plan; that’s why we miss every given deadline. For the last deadline we had to work through the whole night and the morning after Gernot and I felt sick. Szary had to bring the records to the mastering...
Szary: …by bike…
Ring: ...on wet rubble pavement! Everything was black and white...
Bronsert: That’s why we spontaneously renamed the record “Auf Kosten der Gesundheit”.
Szary: It was interesting that the artwork was as chaotic as the circumstances and the music itself: we printed the covers, which were limited to 900 or 1000 pieces only, by hand on our own. Unfortunately we chose the wrong colour, so that the covers didn’t dry fast enough, stuck together and finally started to moulder.

In the press text it’s mentioned that you re-met under suspicious circumstances: The two Modeselektors were on the way to their kid’s swimming lessons at Stadtbad Mitte when they ran into Apparat, who was accompanied by numerous girls. What exactly happened?
Bronsert: Originally we asked a writer to pen a press text. In the last minute he was not reachable anymore, so that we had no text one day before the deadline; we were totally pissed off of course. So we met spontaneously at my place and wrote this absurd press text after drinking a couple of beers.
Ring: We wanted to write neither a funny nor a serious press text. So we wrote this ‘serious’ text containing just bullshit, which is supposed to be funny. But of course there is a grain of truth in every gag.
Bronsert: Back to your question: We’ve known each other for ages and are close friends in private life. We’ve planned for quite a while to do another project together; but we were all too busy with our own affairs. Finally we found the time and hence the possibility for a major collaboration. The mentioned situation in the press text reflects the changed personal circumstances. We are both fathers by now and are not able to party as hard as Sascha for example – although we are doing the same job. Needless to say, we are still partying in the clubs and at festivals when we work. And we love to do that of course. However, the story with the Stadtbad was another one: Monday morning I went with my kid to the swimming lessons at Stadtbad Mitte, where I ran into Ritchie Hawtin, who had already done his exercising. Respect!
Szary: Even without kids.
(everybody laughs)

Where else did you lie in the press text?
Bronsert: We have never been to Hansa Studios, for example. (Editor’s note: The trio stated, that they recorded the album at Hansa Studios in Berlin, where David Bowie recorded “Heroes” back in the day.)
(everybody laughs) Ring: It’s completely nuts to record an album in a studio like this, because a) you could record the same album with your laptop at home – of course it would be more grinding but in general it is possible – and b) the restoration of all these machines would be far too expensive. Therefore there is no arms race in the studio world anymore. However, now everybody is interested in the Hansa Studio. Of course I asked them whether it was OK to mention them in the text and said that we were sorry to have not asked before. But those dipshits didn’t answer.
Bronsert: Sascha develops a certain frustration when talking about professional studios.
Ring: This always reminds me of this story, but I don’t have to tell it to you... it just bubbled up right now. (After hesitating he continues) So what! When I was young I wanted to intern in a big studio. I had the impression that I wasn’t treated well because of elitist behaviour. For example this studio guys didn’t like my e-mail address with Shitkatapult. If they had researched a little bit, they would’ve realised that I actually had experience with production. The Shitkatapult background would’ve been an advantage.
Bronsert: These studio guys are so-called 19-inch-assholes.
Ring: (slightly excited) They should take a dump! Nowadays nobody needs them anymore. But I am not resentful. They are welcome to intern for me.
(everybody laughs)

Did you also fib regarding the collaborations?
All together: No!
Szary: All the collaborations occurred by change – but each in its own way. Sascha for example: we literally had to force him to contribute the vocals for “Rusty Nails” and “Out Of Sight”.
Bronsert: (singing) Ruuuuusty Naails...
Szary: Eased from Seeed has his studio in the building where we produced our album. He often came up and chatted with us; that’s how he became a friend of ours. When we got stuck with the track “Sick With It”, Sascha asked Eased to contribute the lyrics for the song. Busdriver originally he asked us for a remix.
Ring: (shakes his head, smirking) The guys exchange remixes for vocals and other services all the time. Next year we have to remix like 45 tracks.
Szary: Paul St. Hilaire’s vocals were left from the “Happy Birthday” production (Ed. note: Modeselektor’s 2007 album).

The combination of dark, melancholic electronica and high energy, grimy rave is not obvious. How did you get this idea?
Ring: It wasn’t our intention to combine these two different sounds. We are just friends who wanted to produce a record together. “Moderat” is the result.

Were there Apparat or Modeselektor sessions in the studio though?
Ring: Most of the time we spent together in the studio. Naturally we worked on ideas on our own before coming together. Additionally there were some so-called song skeletons: tracks which we just couldn’t reanimate on our own. In those cases we had hopes that the others could revive the songs.
Szary: Although there were some double or even single sessions, we were mainly together in the studio.
Ring: There were even periods when we couldn’t allow someone to be in the studio alone because we were afraid that he would change the song secretly. That was a highly explosive interpersonal situation.
(everybody laughs)

Let’s talk about the album...
Szary: The album is exactly as we are. Everyone played his own role, which was in the end a very interesting approach to produce the album.
Ring: Although we tried to keep the record dark it became more spacey and echoing than an Apparat record...
Bronsert: C’mon, the record is pretty dark! But that’s how it is meant to be. In the end it was our purpose to create a ‘cool darkness’. Originally it was funny music to cry to. The record reflects the current zeitgeist and is kind of a time zone reminiscence... (Ring looks confused) It is the soundtrack to the crises we are in but simultaneously describes the current atmosphere of departure. For example the song “A New Error” originally stood for “A New Era”. Maybe everything crashes down again, who knows.
Ring: (laughs) I haven’t seen this link before...
Bronsert: (continues without paying attention to Ring’s comment) All this is visualised in a complex light and video show, as well as on the album’s DVD. Extensively filmed picture compositions of slow motion bursting concrete blocks, wood trusses and other materials are shown.

There is potential for a conflict on the forthcoming tour: two dads and a bachelor on the road together. How do you see that?
Bronsert: We are all adults. If Sascha blows something because he is hammered, he gets a bonk on his nose.
Ring: An ‘adult’ bonk.
(Ring and Bronsert wildly gesticulate and start roaring with laughter)
Bronsert: The tour itself will be very exhausting: within four months we’ll play 50 or even 60 gigs in the USA, Mexico, Canada and Europe. Because we all will be knackered due to the travelling we might have to think twice about after parties. In the beginning at least...
Ring: You recently said that you fancy DJing at aftershow parties!
Bronsert: I still fancy that. We just should think about how intense we’ll get there...
Ring: How intense?? I can’t go somewhere and not be intense...
Bronsert: (serious again) This tour will be more civilised than the last one. Due to the complexity of the show we can’t allow ourselves to blow it. The live realisation of “Moderat” is kind of a play, which is linked to dramaturgy and expressed by video.
Szary: In fact it is a Moderat staging.
Ring: This time we are better prepared. Because we are practising the show everybody knows what to do. There shouldn’t be any nasty surprises like the last time during our improvisational shows. There we had the problem that everyone wanted to be the loudest. This time I see a different conflict: on one hand we want to have the opportunity to interact and improvise, on the other hand everything should be synchronised with the pictures.

What happens after the tour?
Bronsert: After the summer we’ll make a mix CD for Get Physical’s “Body Language” series. They asked Modeselektor and Apparat independently. Although we both turned them down, we decided to offer them a Moderat mix CD. This might also have a positive effect on the sales figures of our album...
Ring: No idea what we’ll do after that. Sometime, we will realise our own projects again. We created this Moderat thing to go back to our own productions with a new verve. Collaborations like these also help a lot with your own stuff. Maybe we’ll stop making music... Maybe we’ll earn enough money so that we don’t have to work anymore. You know we just do it for the money... (blinks innocently)
Szary: (surprised) Do we make money with our music?
(everybody laughs)

“Moderat” appears April 20 on BPitch Control. It will be available in CD, CD & DVD, LP and digital formats.