In our new regular feature, we ask artists to delve deep into their memory banks to surface with some of the tracks that have defined their lives. For this edition, we speak with Brooklyn art-poppers MS MR.

In 2012, only a few people really knew who MS MR were. Fostering an air of mystique, their press shots were faceless, their names withheld, they left it up to the music to win over people’s overtaxed attention. And it did: tracks like “Hurricane” quickly garnered numerous blog plaudits and the ear of Pitchfork with the help of the ace Tumblr-referencing video. Now, with a successful debut under their belts, MS MR have thoroughly outgrown the internet sounding—and looking—every inch the arty popstars they always aspired to be. The time seemed apt to ask the band, who rocked Zagreb instalment of Electronic Beats Festival last month, to give us the soundtrack to their lives. These are the results. Warning: contains Eiffel 65.

1) What song makes the dancefloor go crazy?

2) What was the last song you bought?

3) Which song do you never want to play again?

4) What was the first song you ever danced to?

5) Which song would make you leave the dancefloor?

6) What song is your guilty pleasure?

7) Which song do you play to impress someone you like?

8) What’s your favorite song to play when you’re getting intimate with someone you like?

9) Which song do you know all the lyrics to?

10) What song do you want played at your funeral?

Random Access Memories was inspired by Mit Vergnügen’s Musik Mittwoch feature. Read more Random Access Memories here.

In our new regular feature, we ask artists to delve deep into their memory banks to surface with some of the tracks that have defined their lives. In this edition, we speak to Danish electro-pop four-piece When Saints Go Machine. The band will be performing at Electronic Beats Festival Vienna next Saturday, November 23rd—for full details, head here.  Photo by Thomas Skou.

When Copenhagen’s When Saints Go Machine heralded their 2013 return with “Love and Respect”, a collaboration with Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, it made explicit the adventurousness that has always been at the core of their music. With their credible references (think: Sugarcubes, Broadcast, and The Smiths) and engagement with the now (hi, Tumblr art cover), the band keep the sometimes predictable landscape of indie-friendly electro-pop interesting. Infinity Pool, their third album, certainly seems to fret and chafe against modern living; the open, breathing spaces of Konkylie contracted even as the spongy, mutable tonalities remain. We caught up with the band to thrash out a kind of psychological roadmap with the aid of some YouTube clips.

1) What song makes the dancefloor go crazy?

2) What was the last song you bought?

3) Which song do you never want to play again?

4) What was the first song you ever danced to?

5) Which song would make you leave the dancefloor?

6) What song is your guilty pleasure?

7) Which song do you play to impress someone you like?

8) What’s your favorite song to play when you’re getting intimate with someone you like?

9) Which song do you know all the lyrics to?

10) What song do you want played at your funeral?

When Saints Go Machine perform at Electronic Beats Festival Vienna on Saturday, November 23rd. Random Access Memories was inspired by Mit Vergnügen’s Musik Mittwoch feature.

In our new regular feature, we ask artists to delve deep into their memory banks to surface with some of the tracks that have defined their lives. For this edition, we speak with the Berlin-based, modern pop up-and-comer DENA. DENA performs at Electronic Beats Festival Zagreb this Friday, November 8th—for full details, head here. Photo: Emma Svensson

Based in Berlin since 2005, the Bulgarian-born DENA (née Denitza Todorova) has created a stir since her appearance on albums by The Whitest Boy Alive. 2013 was the year that the beatmaker and vocalist stepped out of the shadows to quite a bit of acclaim, presenting her own fresh take on R&B and electronic-influenced pop music. Her contemporary productions and wry lyrics observing rituals of modern life have been some of the funnest tracks filling our office recently, and her set at the EB Festival Zagreb is sure to be one of the highlights of the season.

1) What song makes the dancefloor go crazy?
Most difficult question ever. You never know! But for example:

2) What was the last song you bought?

3) What was the first song you ever danced to?

4) Which song would make you leave the dancefloor?

5) What song is your guilty pleasure?
I just discovered this song with a five year delay and love everything about it.

6) Which song do you play to impress someone you like?

7) Which song do you know all the lyrics to?

8) What song do you want played at your funeral?
Definitely Outkast’s “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” ~

DENA performs at Electronic Beats Festival Zagreb on Friday, November 8th. Random Access Memories was inspired by Mit Vergnügen’s Musik Mittwoch feature.

In our new regular feature, we ask artists to delve deep into their memory banks to surface with some of the tracks that have defined their lives. For the inaugural edition, we speak with the French electro-swing duo Nôze. Nôze perform at Electronic Beats Festival Budapest this Friday, October 25th—for full details, head here. Above, from left to right: Ezechiel Pailhes and Nicolas Sfintescu.

Somewhere between the Parisian party scene and the Marseilles Conservatory, Nicolas Sfintescu and Ezechiel Pailhès, aka Nôze, delight in a hybrid of electronic music and song forms. The pair have spent the last ten years perfecting this sound, retaining a sense of classicism with their modern twist, and releasing on labels like the German powerhouse Get Physical. For our Electronic Beats festival in Budapest, they perform live, to bring you their sound in its full potential. To get an idea of some of the embers that fuel their collective fires, we asked them about some of the songs that have provided the soundtrack of their lives.

1) What song sets the dancefloor off?

2) What was the last song you bought?

3) Which song do you never want to play again?

4) What was the first song you ever danced to?

5) Which song would make you leave the dancefloor ?
We don’t need to hear bad music to leave the dancefloor.

6) What song is your guilty pleasure?
See number 3

7) Which song do you play to impress someone you like?

8) What’s your favorite song to play when you’re getting intimate with someone you like?

9) Which song do you know all the lyrics to?

10) What song do you want played at your funeral?

Nôze perform at Electronic Beats Festival Budapest on Friday, October 25th. Random Access Memories was inspired by Mit Vergnügen’s Musik Mittwoch feature.