Modeselektor

Torsten Schmidt

Good evening, my name is Torsten Schmidt. I was one of the figures sitting only a few hundred yards away from Friedrichshain 20 years ago when the very first of these ominous Red Bull Music Academies took place. I’m still sitting here 20 years later. In some cases, and during nights such as this one, it’s one of the better things you can imagine if you are a little bit interested in music, because every year many young people from all over the world come together to learn from those that have done something memorable. And in all these years we have been terribly disinterested and have always invited only those whom we believed to have done really good things. So then you sit together with Doctor Susan Rogers for example. She has recorded some relevant Prince albums, except For You. You sit and just listen for eight hours. What is it like to work day and night with the most output-happy, best-quality-ratio genius of this musical world and make sure that everyone in the world gets to hear it afterwards? What can you learn from it? How does it help other people? Above all, how does it help people who want to make their own music in the medium term?

And there’s an insanely wild online archive too. The internet helps sometimes. There is now an online radio station as well. There you can also hear great things. And to celebrate the 20th anniversary, this year everything will return to Berlin. There will be a five-weeks long festival. There won’t be just people that sit on couches and share their knowledge with young people, but said young people as well. And they come from almost 40 countries this year. They really have a wide variety of backgrounds and they face terrible, brutal selection criteria. They have to answer 60 questions and send in a work sample. When I walked in [here today], I saw two or three people who have made it through this process and who now have actual careers in the music business. The people you would like to quote on the spot would be Fly Lo, Hudson Mohawke, Nina Kraviz... One member of the Beathoavenz, to stay very Berlin-specific, he participated during the first year. And so on and so on. All this is available on the internet. We’d like to suggest you and the people out there looking at it to maybe take an even closer look. But above all the people out there on the internet, as well as here, we are thankful and humbled to be with you tonight, even though you could instead marvel at the likes of Mats Hummels and Cristiano Ronaldo. Instead you’re stuck with two other insanely good-looking young men who have similar athletic abilities.

That would be the place to welcome Sebastian Szary and Gernot Bronsert with a particularly warm applause. You might know them as Modeselektor. [applause]

Sebastian Szary

Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Man, I hit the bass.

Gernot Bronsert

Hello.

Torsten Schmidt

Good evening.

Sebastian Szary

My mic is louder today, could that be?

Torsten Schmidt

Huh?

Gernot Bronsert

You are sitting in a higher spot and your microphone is louder.

Sebastian Szary

You are sitting in a higher spot.

Torsten Schmidt

This is the old rock star trick. Now the main act is here and it’s usually louder than before.

Sebastian Szary

By the way, I think we have never had such a meeting, such a panel in German. It may be that we have always done it in English so far.

Torsten Schmidt

Something that our teachers hoped could be English, yes.

Sebastian Szary

Yes. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

Yes, but that’s a very unfamiliar feeling. Especially with regards to these greetings. Suddenly mothers, aunts and cousins can understand that too.

Sebastian Szary

Above all, we are actually talking normally as always.

Torsten Schmidt

I do not know if that’s something I wished for the audience at this point but yes, that’s actually the most pleasant thing about this situation, that ideally people feel so good about it that it’s just like being at home on the sofa and then they say, “Oh, look here, I found a picture there.”

Gernot Bronsert

[To Sebastian] Tell me, are you actually wearing Birkenstocks with socks on? [laughs] Hey, that’s worth some applause. [applause]

Torsten Schmidt

I can already see the comment section exploding.

Sebastian Szary

These are Birkis lined with fur.

Torsten Schmidt

That’s kind of the Thundercat style, right?

Gernot Bronsert

The Winter Edition, so to speak.

Sebastian Szary

A little bit worn out.

Gernot Bronsert

Well, they smell really good. You can pass them around if you want?

Torsten Schmidt

One thing you can really see is that there is a certain familiarity within your project.

Gernot Bronsert

Among each other? This is kind of a love-hate relationship. Earlier, for example, it was about copying a folder to a USB stick. That took an hour.

Sebastian Szary

Sometimes it takes an hour.

Gernot Bronsert

Now, do not be offended.

Sebastian Szary

Sometimes you are in traffic for an hour.

Torsten Schmidt

Some things just need time.

Gernot Bronsert

The sound is a bit irritating, but we’ll get it right?

Torsten Schmidt

Yeah, that’s kind of like Rush and Geddy Lee just went to the bathroom.

Gernot Bronsert

[tastes the cake on stage] It’s real!

Torsten Schmidt

Yes, you know, 20 years and so.

Gernot Bronsert

Oops, [points at stage design] that’s the motif of the poster right?

Torsten Schmidt

That’s smart, huh?

Gernot Bronsert

No expense and effort was spared, and it’s a Space Echo, I’m thrilled.

Sebastian Szary

With barcode.

Gernot Bronsert

But I do not understand, what’s with the stones?

Sebastian Szary

You rented that space, I can see now.

Gernot Bronsert

What is in here? [grabs a bottle] Powder? Baby powder?

Torsten Schmidt

You have to ask Yannick.

Gernot Bronsert

Nice, pineapple, great.

Torsten Schmidt

Why did all these things, of all these things, end up on the flyer?

Gernot Bronsert

Maybe they are connected to us somehow, maybe that’s it?

Torsten Schmidt

You should know that better than almost everyone else in here.

Gernot Bronsert

OK, so I do not understand why the stones are there. The cake is obvious, Space Echo... Modeselektor, many years ago Szary went to the same school as me. I have to tell that story.

Torsten Schmidt

Same year?

Gernot Bronsert

No.

Sebastian Szary

You were younger.

Gernot Bronsert

Szary was the cool one and I was the younger one. But Szary had a 909, an 808.

Sebastian Szary

And a Space Echo.

Gernot Bronsert

And a Space Echo, and he made music in his father’s garage. Rather that was a meeting place for the youth. There was a lot of smoke. Somehow we were the last people working on the machines every time. When everyone else was gone we were still working on the machines and then there was this Space Echo. The Space Echo was what gave it the name. Did you rent that, the Space Echo?

Torsten Schmidt

Well, I did not bring mine, no.

Sebastian Szary

We also have one, still. We just said that.

Torsten Schmidt

Before that you had another name. It was almost as lyrical.

Gernot Bronsert

That was Szary solo.

Sebastian Szary

Now listen, the name was: Fundamental Knowledge. [laughs] Who’s laughing? That’s a really serious name. Fundamental Knowledge. Yes, that was the project before Modeselektor. The tracks I recorded in my garage, where I lost track of space and time, 15 minutes of tracks, at some point a break and then it went on and on the next day you did not even listen to it anymore.

Torsten Schmidt

That’s the awesome moment in this opus magnum of your cooperation with Mr. OSchi [Otto von Schirach], where one of your old buddies says, “Yes and Szary at that time, he already had these good tracks. Sometimes the strings were on their own.”

Sebastian Szary

Yes, something like that existed.

Torsten Schmidt

The arrangement genius of Clare Fischer and the greatness of Beethoven.

Gernot Bronsert

Absolutely.

Sebastian Szary

That’s exactly what I wanted at the time. Exactly this attribute.

Torsten Schmidt

That’s what it looked like. That was not yet in Berlin itself. I mean, today you come on stage and say, “Yes, hey, we’re Modeselektor, we’re from Berlin,” and so on, but back then you were still in the idyll.

Sebastian Szary

I think we have to clarify this geographically. [looks at audience] Hi, Olaf, by the way.

Gernot Bronsert

Olaf!

Sebastian Szary

You know Berlin, this island surrounded by Brandenburg. As I always say, everything around Berlin is always east. [laughter]

Torsten Schmidt

Correct. At a certain point in time it was not so wrong either.

Sebastian Szary

But really, we come from east of Brandenburg, so if you imagine Berlin as a cake, as a clock, we come from about three o’clock, so really east, bacon belt, the TV tower always in sight, but Brandenburg is cool of course. Lots of lakes, waters, one place is called Rüdersdorf, that’s where I come from, and Gernot comes from Woltersdorf. Rüdersdorf would be Manchester [laughs] while Woltersdorf would be the Lucerne on the Vierwaldstätter lake.

Gernot Bronsert

But everywhere the same idiots.

Sebastian Szary

Yes. So starting in 19… Well, let us say that’s when all this techno became popular.

Gernot Bronsert

’92.

Sebastian Szary

’92 is also when even the Nazis were starting to take ecstasy and got all peaceful and jumped in their [Golf] GTIs and [Opel] Kadetts.

Gernot Bronsert

Do you know that? Do you know the phenomenon of transformation from back then?

Torsten Schmidt

You mean when we suddenly didn’t beat each other up on the terrace anymore, but instead hugged it out? Everyone chews, nobody eats.

Gernot Bronsert

Exactly, everybody chews, nobody eats, that’s how it was. The baldies were nice all of a sudden. Thanks to the techno, especially in Brandenburg. We have always insisted on it, we are Modeselektor from Berlin, but now we are in such an age, where we are proud to come from Brandenburg actually.

Torsten Schmidt

In the end you are village boys.

Sebastian Szary

We are village boys, yes.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, but within sight of the television tower, which is not called Alex, but TV tower [Alex Tower is the colloquial name, while the real name is Fernsehturm, or television]. That’s why you always had to drive a relatively long way by car and pay for it. For example, if you wanted to go to Tresor it cost five marks at the door. New Faces, you could afford it. You were driving on the B1 with a Golf 1 for 40 minutes, then you were on time when the door opened. Of course we were always the first in the club. Of course we also had to leave earlier, because we had to drive back another hour. But during this time we developed a social language among each other while listening to music. Because when you sit in the car for an hour, you naturally hear music. We still do that. Somehow we never gave up. I was always the eternal passenger for a very long time, because I did not want to get a driving license and then I got one anyway, I’m driving now. Sometimes.

Sebastian Szary

Sometimes I drive too. For example, tomorrow.

Gernot Bronsert

Well, and we always heard music, sometimes we filmed stuff.

Torsten Schmidt

Isn’t the internet full of videos showing how you’re…

Gernot Bronsert

Sitting in the car? Yes, maybe right now. Because we were just curating a compilation and we were supposed to do PR and did not have time, but we drive a lot in the car and then we reviewed the record in the car, but it was so loud in the car that we had to do subtitles [laughter].

Torsten Schmidt

Another lovely touch was changing it from the local idiom into an international language.

Gernot Bronsert

I agree. You can just watch it via our profiles, actually the moment is pretty funny, because Szary has such an old Jeep. Do you know Robben & Wientjes, the car rental service? It’s always the same. Who drives the Robben & Wientjes car? No one raises their arm. That’s Szary’s Jeep, so you need concentration, your body is involved, it’s sport, you have to make an effort, the paths from the gear lever are very far. There is a loudspeaker, it is loud, but we listen to music there. Music that you listen to there is usually mixed very well. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

Then you certainly need a lot. But before you even had a car to drive to the Tresor, how did you feel about all this?

Gernot Bronsert

Szary has always had a car. [laughs] Tell me the story of the first car, tell me about Pea, who was always in jail.

Sebastian Szary

No, there is one more story before that. So how did we get into the old Tresor at that time? First of all, on Wednesdays, the world’s most famous doorman, the Rock, stood in front of it. Who is the Rock? He was there at the weekend and if he said no, it was really hard. A one hour drive just for the Rock to say no is pretty shit. In any case you do not really have an alternative, “Where are we going now? Well, let’s have a kebab.” And we have to get the last suburban train home. Then you take the last suburban train. We had to drive to Erkner. Has anyone heard of Erkner before? At the end of S3. I think it does not even go through it and then there is such a very long stretch between Rahnsdorf and [Berlin’s] Wilhelmshagen [station]. That’s really long. That train took forever to get there. When bald heads entered in Wilhelmshagen, then it was bad. It was really a dark time.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, that was a problem. It was a ten-minute ride and you only had the emergency brake.

Sebastian Szary

In the past you could also open the doors.

Gernot Bronsert

It was also the glorious time of suburban train surfing.

Sebastian Szary

You don’t know that anymore?

Gernot Bronsert

But, do you know the term? Yes, no. At the time, there was a notice in the school, where people warned against suburban train surfing. By the way, the bass has been pulled just a bit [from the microphone]. Maybe a little bit back. A little bit back.

Sebastian Szary

Yes, what was the question? How are we with… We’ve talked to public… [laughs]

Gernot Bronsert

So if it gets interesting, you can easily throw a book or something.

Torsten Schmidt

We clarified the logistics. But the idea was more like, how did you even think about driving to something like the Tresor?

Gernot Bronsert

The fascination came through the radio, through Monika Dietl’s programs on DT64.

Sebastian Szary

No, on SFB [Sender Freies Berlin or Radio Free Berlin].

Gernot Bronsert

SFB. Yes, sorry. You all know that better than me anyway. I cannot remember anything. It’s over. My brain is totally f---ed up.

Torsten Schmidt

That’s also techno.

Gernot Bronsert

I already had that problem as a child. I always forget everything right away. Actually, that’s kind of practical.

Sebastian Szary

Then there was DT64.

Gernot Bronsert

Right. Did I mention that?

Sebastian Szary

Which was over at the end of ’91? A former colleague of the station sits here in the front row. Hello again Olaf. You were at DT? You had a nice show there. Now you have…

Gernot Bronsert

Another nice broadcast. You’ve already done it almost a 1,000 times.

Sebastian Szary

DT became Rockradio B and then it became Radio One, is that right? Yes, that’s how it is.

Gernot Bronsert

In any case, we always created tapes and also recorded the English ones. And then we started buying records. First Pinky Records, then Hard Wax shortly afterwards.

Torsten Schmidt

Hard Wax is a 50-minute drive from where you come from.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, we went there already, that’s when we had no car. We got there with the suburban train and the subway did not even go over to Görlitzer via the Warschauer road. So you had to run because it was built later. So it was a real act there, then you only had 25 marks and a LP… You spent the whole day and then bought a maxi [single] and two not so cool ones, only to have three records.

Sebastian Szary

So I always drove over Thursdays. I left on Thursday after work.

Gernot Bronsert

Because Wednesday was when the fax arrived. I agree. Wednesday was always when the fax from Hard Wax arrived, showing the latest records. And if you wanted to know how good a record was you called and if you were lucky, Pete or James played it to you on the phone. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

Wasn’t there a Charles or something?

Gernot Bronsert

You’re talking about James.

Torsten Schmidt

The Englishman who did not speak so fast.

Sebastian Szary

Yes, that one.

Torsten Schmidt

In West Germany. It was also a time when a phone call really did cost a lot of money and that was a call abroad, so to speak.

Sebastian Szary

Pretty much a phone call to England.

Gernot Bronsert

Is the new Basic Channel already out? [makes noise] That’s what it was like? Yes, I think that was part of the Hard Wax underground prevention strategy. You really have to want it and above all you have to have the balls to talk to your mother afterwards to discuss the 100 mark phone bill to order these five records.

Sebastian Szary

Then you went to the store and then you saw the records up there. They are up on the wall in such a beautiful manner. I would like that one. No. I’m not telling you which one, but.

Gernot Bronsert

Who do you mean? Who has the feedback? I? Who do you mean?

Sebastian Szary

Me.

Torsten Schmidt

The sporty one? But that was exactly the moment where you thought, “I want to work here someday, right?”

Gernot Bronsert

I wanted that anyway, but I never expected it.

Torsten Schmidt

Because you were not athletic enough?

Gernot Bronsert

No, I was there so often. At some point they said, “Just stay here.” Then I just stayed there and got poorer and poorer.

Torsten Schmidt

You would probably be the first record shop clerk to really take money home.

Gernot Bronsert

Correct. During that time we lived together. In Berlin, on Veteranenstraße in a palace, a huge apartment for almost no rent and I came home every day with a box of 20 [records]under my arm and then I already had a lot of debt. Worked for days and it got worse and worse. But in the meantime I learned a lot about music. There was DJ Pete, an important mentor for my musical education. “Today it’s DJ Funk. Now I’ll tell you who DJ Funk is,” and then it started and then there was the whole DJ Funk theme and then it went on and on, it went through all the labels and then someday you arrived. All the labels. I still sort my records by label, in alphabetical order, not by artist.

Torsten Schmidt

Do you visit once a month and check if it’s okay?

Gernot Bronsert

The verification visit does not happen. But during that time I really learned much about music. To me it was important how people listened to music in the record shop and to recognize what is good in the club. It’s always a double-edged sword, because sometimes you hear a track in the record shop and you think, “Yeah, I’ll beat you all,” and then you play it and you make a long face, because everybody’s leaving [the dancefloor] somehow.

Torsten Schmidt

What are the things that you learned there, the three golden rules so to speak?

Gernot Bronsert

I think I learned a lot for life. I learned that you should not have too big a mouth, that you should not throw around half-baked knowledge, because a customer in the store usually has more of an idea about the subject than you do. You recognize the nerds. At some point you have a look for it, then you know exactly, “Ah, he’s gonna ask for the 10".” Most of the time I know it. I learned to have respect for people who live for and are important to this scene, and without wanting anything in return they have left behind a lot for the community. I’ve learned that the electronic music world is a world to be taken seriously and that Berlin has really produced a lot and has done a lot for it, without wanting much in return. That somehow impressed me and also encouraged me in my decision making. When I was working for Hard Wax I’d just finished my training. I was training to be a child care worker at a school.

Torsten Schmidt

You did not have to do any alternative civilian service?

Gernot Bronsert

No, I did alternative civilian service and through that I received a great job offer. I did the civilian service with another musician, he now has a band, Beatsteaks, he was my CV partner. They offered me a job and then I had this Hard Wax thing going on. That was such a decision, either you really do this thing now or you get a “proper job,” but then going into exile. I chose Hard Wax and the hard way. But it was worth it. It was fun, I learned a lot and the main thing was just to make the decision. To dedicate myself to a cause with all the consequences, for better or worse.

Torsten Schmidt

How nervous were you when you made the decision?

Sebastian Szary

Very nervous. That just comes from me. I remember shortly before the first day I was like, “Oh god, they speak English and then the customers call and they speak English.” The way we learned English at school was like this. Then you go to a store like that, then an American calls you. The nice colleagues at Hard Wax took the fear away. That was over. You came home totally satisfied. There was no problem.

Gernot Bronsert

I had the bad job in the beginning. To be in the front of the shop and watch out that no one steals. You need to sort the records. Always say to people, “Hello, could you please hand over your bag? Please do not sort the records by yourself. Please do not take the record off the wall. I’ll take them out for you.” Do the job and cash in and also check orders via email or over the phone.

There were some hardcore customers who always bought everything. At the end of each month they had the box sent to them and they always called and always told us a lot. Then you had to make a call and make sure that there was no mischief being conducted. But it was a lot of fun. It was cool. That’s how I became a man. Now it is a real job. But, of course, I was as proud as a peacock.

Torsten Schmidt

Did your parents see this as a real job?

Gernot Bronsert

I think my parents were cool with it because I finished school and my education and they just trusted me. One must also say that I am a classic Wendekinder [child of the German reunification]. When the Wall fell down, the karma also fell, peers. Attention, it’s coming... It was also an achievement of the parents, to just accept what their boy was doing, to accept a kid who believes in something. Before that we both already made music. I had no money. Szary was older, he had a job, he earned his money and had all the equipment. And somehow I was one of his buddies, who then wanted to know why something isn’t working the way it should. It’s still like that. I still want to know why something is not possible and he then solves the problem technically in the studio. It takes a bit longer sometimes. But on the whole, he taught me a lot too.

Torsten Schmidt

How the hell did you know what to buy? In these old videos there is a red [Roland SH] 101 and stuff like that.

Sebastian Szary

It was gray.

Gernot Bronsert

We did not have the red one.

Sebastian Szary

That one was from Thomas as well. Thomas Richter, who is sitting here somewhere in the audience. Thomas, was that one gray or red tell me. It was red. Can you see?

Gernot Bronsert

You had a red one. 202 or 101?

Sebastian Szary

The 101. 101. How did we figure it out? We were born at a time of change, this whole craze started alongside reunification, without internet. Without internet. Can you imagine that? To find out which device makes which sound, I don’t really recall. There were books, for example, there was a book series, which called itself Synthesizer of Yesterday by Synthesizer Studio Cologne… [someone in audience shouts Bonn] Bonn! Man, Olaf, you really know everything. All the classics were in it. And at some point in the regular music press, these journals like “Keyboards,” “Keys,” etc... started to get infiltrated by techno music. Before that, everything was Jean-Michel Jarre, new age.

Torsten Schmidt

Vangelis.

Gernot Bronsert

Vangelis, that kind of stuff. Suddenly all these machines were introduced. At some point, thanks to the press, for example, you have to say, Frontpage was a great help back then. That was the thin edition, the black-and-white edition, where they differentiated between techno and techno-house. Techno was EBM, a bit like industrial, and techno-house was ultimately the music we all still care about today. Fade the bass in, fade the bass out.

Torsten Schmidt

I always liked the difference with club house.

Sebastian Szary

That was there too, yes. It got out of it, 808 sounds like that, 909 sounds like that, a bassline is made with a TB-303 or 202. You need an Atari or a sampler and a really gnarly mixing board. Ready.

Torsten Schmidt

Where did you get the money for it?

Sebastian Szary

I was working. Unlike Gernot, I had an industrial job. Rüdersdorf, as already mentioned, was like Manchester and I think the stones here are not just a symbol of the city’s sidewalk stones. In Rüdersdorf limestone was mined and virtually all of Berlin was built with it, including the Berlin Wall. It was poured from the concrete. I learned a lot in the mountains, where parts of it were cast in the ’60s. It was crazy. I had learned a profession [laughs]. Gernot also learned a profession, I learned another profession, Betonfertigteilbauer [loosely translates as prefabricated concrete parts farmer]. That is to say the lowest part of society. If one applies this to India’s caste system, it is the lowest one, right before what’s known as the untouchables [laughs].

Torsten Schmidt

But you really made some money, you have to say.

Sebastian Szary

Yes, interestingly enough, we really earned some money. So much money.

Gernot Bronsert

This wall was pretty big.

Torsten Schmidt

That was a dangerous job, you could die too.

Sebastian Szary

Yes, for example I used this rebar, a reinforcing steel, that is a steel bar, which is inserted into this reinforced concrete, interwoven. I stuck it in my nose.

Torsten Schmidt

All the way into the brain.

Sebastian Szary

Yes, this deep. And my teacher was sitting on the crane, I had to hang something up there and he looks like that [makes face and noise] and then he’s like, “Can you hang this up?” [laughter] On the way home. I have such an elephant memory, that’s cool. Now I laugh too, and then it happens, ’93... What do you have there, a rock?

Gernot Bronsert

There is a rock in the cake.

Sebastian Szary

I ate this piece. To order these devices, one would find a number from a store in Nuremberg in Fürth, in Fürth, for example, because of the magazine Touch by Sound, it was called, we rang the number, no one advised us but at least they took our call, “Do you have that?” “Yes, we have it.” “What’s the price?”

Gernot Bronsert

“9,000.” [laughs] OK, I’ll take it.

Sebastian Szary

And at the time, for example, a 909 already cost 3,000 marks. Shortly before it cost 500 marks. That was very inflationary as the price increase had developed over time. Then this package arrived at home. I mean, if you watched the movie, the Modeselektor movie, it’s exactly the same story we’ve been telling.

Torsten Schmidt

Actually, your mother has a very good guest appearance in the story.

Sebastian Szary

Because she usually accepted the package. At that time you had to pay at the post office. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

There was trouble, right?

Sebastian Szary

There was trouble.

Torsten Schmidt

So it caused more trouble than the phone bill?

Sebastian Szary

My mother really just let me do what I wanted to do. It started with the records, every Thursday I returned with a bag worth 150 marks or 100 marks of maxi [singles] and she said, “Ah, what do you want with it? That’s going to be over soon.”

Torsten Schmidt

You still have the records?

Sebastian Szary

I still have the records.

Torsten Schmidt

You still play them?

Sebastian Szary

We play those records all the time.

Torsten Schmidt

All the time.

Sebastian Szary

That’s the way it was. A life without the internet.

Torsten Schmidt

And it started in this shed, where all these devices were set up. It has to be said that around the time there were the first organized techno parties by Charlie and the same people in this... There is also one of the old members of the Raw group sitting over here, he is quite old. How the hell did you get people to go to these parties without Facebook and Instagram?

Sebastian Szary

Coffee shop, we gave out flyers which we cut out by hand.

Gernot Bronsert

And so these news spread? A week before or two weeks before we knew about it and then it started.

Sebastian Szary

Of course, you had no response. There are more people coming nowadays. “I may come,” [laughter] is something we heard often, but that was usually a surprise.

Torsten Schmidt

How much of it was a replay of what happened in Berlin? Which in a way was as far away as Wetzlar or Regensburg.

Sebastian Szary

It was definitely a replayed thing. We were there in Rüdersdorf at the parties, for example, they called themselves Seilscheibenpfeiler parties. Awesome word, right? We did that in a basement, because we wanted to do it in a basement, because Tresor sounds awesome, simple right? It has to smell wet somehow. We need a cellar. Open air doesn’t work.

Gernot Bronsert

Too much nature.

Sebastian Szary

What kind of light is that?

Gernot Bronsert

It must be dark and musty. Then fluorescent paint was sprayed on the walls and there was black light. That was an adventure, because in the end there was no electricity, it was a closed mine, there was nobody there. That was not without danger, because in the dark, there was an open pit, you could fall down into a ravine somewhere. The name Seilscheibenpfeiler comes from the building where the trolleys, the mine carts, were pulled out of the tunnels. That was such a building, it looks like a gate. The first record that Szary published was one he created together with Dr. Rhythm, he’s sitting over there, Mr. Richter, Dr. Rhythm… Fundamental Knowledge. Crazy artist names. They released a record on the label Seilscheibenpfeiler. That was the 0000. That was ’94 and — that’s another link, a bit of marketing — we came across this record again last winter because it did not sell at that time of course.

Sebastian Szary

50 copies or so I brought into Hard Wax.

Gernot Bronsert

The other 450 were given away over the years, in the end there were still 150 left. Then I thought about it with Szary and we relaunched the label. Now we have reopened it and it’s called Seilscheibenpfeiler Records Since 1994. Since nobody can pronounce it, it’s called SSPB, Seilscheibenpfeiler Records Schaltplatten Berlin, something like that, SSPB since 1994. Now we release the first record from Fundamental Knowledge and Dr. Rhythm, house again.

Torsten Schmidt

Why the hell do you close a label that works [50Weapons] and then open another one that’s been gone for 24 years?

Gernot Bronsert

So we had 50Weapons. That worked well. Today, a former artist of the label was in the office with us, Benjamin Damage, and we were sitting there in the studio and we thought about the old times and then he told me how nice it was and we thought, “Why is it over now?” But the reasons were simple. We have had a label and eventually you get to a point, especially if you are a record man and looking for records, there are very few labels that innovate beyond a certain catalog number. At some point you can’t hear it anymore and what was the idea for such a record label? I think a record label such as this must always be exciting. You have to give new people a platform. For ten years we ran 50 Weapons, five of them active, the other five rather inactive, but there were ten years. We put out 50 releases with catalog numbers one to 50, but then we had so many extra catalog numbers and LPs and CDs and remixes. The concept of the label was to make only 50 records and then close it or at least end this label. As we got closer and closer to catalog number 50 everybody said, “No, why? What are you doing? Don’t do it. Keep it.” Of course we did not want to close it, but then we said, “Somehow it’s important to end.”

Torsten Schmidt

And you told Ben.

Gernot Bronsert

Everyone knew that from the beginning, but nobody believed that we would really do it. It hurt a bit, but of course we got that point, if you have a label like this, then you have a whole tribe of artists and we had so many releases all the time and then we still had the Monkeytown label as well and that was just a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. Then an artist comes along and says he really wants to make a record, he needs gigs and then the demo is not what you want it to be and then you get into such a strange situation and that put a lot of strain on us.

Sebastian Szary

It was a bad time. From catalog number 35, 50Weapons was so… I think from 30. That was how it worked and somehow we didn’t know what to do then. Then at some point the question arose, “What do we do after this? How far will we go with the label?”

Gernot Bronsert

It grew and grew and grew. At some point we wondered if we wanted to keep doing this. Because eventually it turned into work. If anything turns into work then the fun stops and then it gets professional and it’s like, “Yes, one moment, and deadline here and there and let’s do a showcase like this.” That was all so much.

Sebastian Szary

So we put a stop to it.

Torsten Schmidt

I mean it sounds like friendly, sympathetic, mischievous and local, but you do not work just a little bit in the end.

Gernot Bronsert

We also have other things. 50Weapons was more like a young thing. Cool, let’s roll it out. The label was also good. We never put any money into it. We had only a few fails there. It was a healthy thing. Somehow you have to do something in life, just say, “Let’s do this.”

Sebastian Szary

R.I.P. 50 Weapons.

Gernot Bronsert

I mean Benjamin is now on R&S Records. We can then always put the people who came through the Academy in to showcase and say, “Hey.” We also had many Academy alumni on the label: Cosmin TRG, Benjamin was there too and… Benjamin Damage, for example. After we played at fabric many years ago in London, we came out of the club and were walking through the commotion and it was all pretty rowdy in that typically English way. Then there was this guy who partied like crazy. He was so sweaty and gave us a CD from Benjamin Damage. That was a great demo and after that Benjamin actually stayed with us. He’d never had such releases before. Because it’s really classic, when you look at it from the outside. But it never stopped him. It was somehow a kind of a techno friendship. We helped him, Szary always supported him while he was making his album, giving him tips. “Listen Benjamin, if you cannot read music or you do not want to do that… this is an arpeggiator.” [laughs]

Sebastian Szary

He never used it, the arpeggiator.

Gernot Bronsert

He is a real nerd. It has always been a give and take. It was the same with Cosmin [TRG] and Addison Groove. Actually with Marcel as well. Marcel did not dare to release his records under the name Marcel Dettmann, because they were too cool. I don’t know. [laughs] By the way, he also comes from the same region where we come from, just like Shed.

Sebastian Szary

Marcel Dettmann is originally from Fürstenwalde an der Spree, I do not know who knows that. Fürstenwalde was known for producing tires. The company was called Pneumant. In Schwedt oil arrives from Russia. There is a big refinery.

Gernot Bronsert

That’s where Shed’s from.

Sebastian Szary

PCK is the name of a large complex at that time, a corporation, as it is called today, a petrochemical complex in Schwedt. Actually all the people, let’s say 70%, who lived there worked for PCK. PCK sounds like a spray cure.

Gernot Bronsert

That was your thing then. Mine? I won’t say.

Sebastian Szary

Oh, I used to work as a DJ in Schwedt too. 1993 together with Fiedel and Shed. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

Was his name back then Fiedel as well?

Sebastian Szary

Yes, he was called Fiedel. And as for Shed I don’t know. He was just Rene.

Torsten Schmidt

DJ Rene. [laughter]

Sebastian Szary

DJ Rene.

Torsten Schmidt

How much of an exchange was there between all these villages before you went to Berlin? Did you drive to Görlitz or to Frankfurt an der Oder?

Sebastian Szary

Yes, Frankfurt Oder. For example, in Frankfurt Oder there were often events of a collective called Abmischen. Those were in Berlin, a club in Berlin called Turbine [the Playground] on Glogauer Street I believe. Then they often had outside events with Paul van Dyk, Cosmic Baby, Mijk van Dijk… Kid Paul, definitely. Well, and then we drove there in our Trabant with Mr. Richter, again [points to audience].

Torsten Schmidt

In principle, Berlin techno would be nothing without this person there in the background.

Speake: Gernot Bronsert

One must also say that Thomas was the real guy with the money. [laughs] He really had an awesome studio at home. He also had an analog synthesizer from what I can remember. He had a lot of stuff. But it was a bit like the modular system, you know, people spend a lot of money on modular systems, they have such a huge wall unit and they do not do anything with it.

Sebastian Szary

Actually he recently told me he made a lot of new recordings for the first record, we should all listen to them.

Gernot Bronsert

But he sold it right back.

Sebastian Szary

What did you buy with it, Thomas?

Thomas

Motorcycle. Moped. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

A Harley.

Sebastian Szary

With the moped we went to the Baltic Sea after work. Just a spontaneous trip.

Gernot Bronsert

Without a helmet.

Torsten Schmidt

But that was also the time when your track naming conventions were even more innovative compared to Fundamental Knowledge, like “1994-18,” “1994-7” and so on.

Sebastian Szary

Correct. Did my mic turn off now? No. These were the working titles.

Gernot Bronsert

I mean, when I first met Szary, techno was great, of course, but it was also at a crossroad, because the first cool people turned away from techno in search of something new. This new name was jungle. I did not know what it was. I wanted it too, then I went to Hard Wax all by myself and said, “I want jungle.” And Pete might remember this. He said, “I have jungle for you,” and he gave me an [Aphex Twin] record. I listened to it, thought it was cool, took it home and thought for a long time that it was jungle too. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

In all fairness, there was a time in England where you called that stuff jungle techno, before drum & bass.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, though these techno parties had DJs, you knew the local heroes. We played hits, which were too big back then. Szary always had this one song for example. I remember, that I came in and he played a song by Mu-Ziq. It was on the first Mu-Ziq album from Mike Paradinas, nowadays that’s what the label Planet Mu does. He had his first album on Rephlex, Tango N’Vectif. There was a song on it, called “Mu-Ziq Theme.” That was such a key experience for me, when I came into this room and then there was this music. I did not know how to do that, I’d never heard anything like it. For me that was the absolute ultimate in everything there was. I thought it was incredibly cool. That was the first piece. That’s what he played, it was not some blunt Dave Clarke, it was just different. That somehow fascinated me, as did the “Sueño Latino” remix by Derrick May, which also had these weird sounds generated with this ring modulator. I’ve always been interested in these sounds, which you can do that way. Such a drum machine has only a certain appeal, up to a certain point. Techno is not really music in the sense that you write music. Marcel explained that rather well. We share the studio with Marcel, so you always hang around a bit. He said, “It’s beautiful noise, where you take out the best things. If you can hear it long enough then it’s awesome.”

Sebastian Szary

That’s how the music is made, by the way.

Gernot Bronsert

From garbage.

Torsten Schmidt

It’s a great spot to pull a coin out of your pocket, because what we cleverly would have to do is play it with a stick.

Sebastian Szary

At least I brought some kind of artwork.

Gernot Bronsert

A cheap option back then.

Sebastian Szary

And that’s a good transition. In fact…

Gernot Bronsert

One moment. On this record there was a piece by Aphex.

Sebastian Szary

[pulls out a record from his bag] That’s called “Metapharstic.” That’s how I always read it. It is sometimes a bit hard to pronounce. Torsten, how would you say it? You can speak English, we can’t.

Torsten Schmidt

The problem is, the gentleman is from Cornwall so he has a kind of idiosyncratic way to deal with things.

Gernot Bronsert

No, he’s not from Cornwall. He is from Ireland.

Sebastian Szary

He is a born Irishman.

Gernot Bronsert

He is a hobbit.

Torsten Schmidt

Hold on, that was the other island. [laughs]

Sebastian Szary

Mayday. This compilation has a crazy line up. WestBam, Beltram, Aphex Twin, Night Phantom, Marusha, “TZ 6,” Futurerhythm, Mate, Hypnotist and so on. Sven Väth is on it too. Anyway, there was an Aphex Twin piece.

Torsten Schmidt

Was this your first Aphex Twin contact?

Sebastian Szary

No. It was before that, and there was a record called “Didgeridoo,” which was released on R&S at that time. I just loved it so much that on such a compilation of such a… I was in fact already an Aphex Twin fan. And then suddenly this record comes out and then there is still a track on it that was nowhere else to be found.

(music: Aphex Twin – “Metapharstic”)

Torsten Schmidt

That rewind definitely sounds like a live performance at the very event in the now demolished Cologne ice rink.

Sebastian Szary

It probably was like that. “Hey, it’s live. Count me in.”

Torsten Schmidt

Were you true ravers at the time, besides going to Tresor? Did you go to such big things?

Gernot Bronsert

I have a story. As a quick-witted kid, I always searched through the coats of my parents to collect small change. My parents know the story so it’s okay. Once I hit the jackpot. [laughs] There were 100 marks in it. Now I had the money. Then I asked myself, “What am I doing now?” Then I took these 100 marks and put the money away and waited, to see if someone missed it. It was not missed. That was good for me, because the Prodigy was playing in Berlin in the Halle Weissensee. That was a Mayday event.

Sebastian Szary

No, I think that was… No, not Max-Schmeling. What was the name at the fair. Deutschlandhalle.

Gernot Bronsert

No, I think that was back there when you get into the Landsberger…

Sebastian Szary

I’m looking at Olaf.

Gernot Bronsert

Olaf does not know everything, now stop it. I really wanted to go there. When was it? Which year was it?

Audience Member

’92.

Gernot Bronsert

Born in 1978, ’88 I was 10, ’92 I was 13… So I was still a minor, but I had to go there. How do I get there? I wrote myself a card saying I had won a competition. I bought the Mayday card at the Alex Tower and then sent it to myself through mail. It said, “Hey you won. You are the lucky winner. You are allowed to visit Mayday.”

Torsten Schmidt

Exactly the right sort of criminal energy.

Gernot Bronsert

I’m actually still cheating myself through life. My mother drove me because I was still a minor.

Torsten Schmidt

But you won the competition.

Gernot Bronsert

I won the competition. I told my parents that later. Of course, my mother noticed it. Since I have a cool mother, she just said, well, I’m driving him there, then I know where he is. She said, “I’ll pick you up at five in the morning.” Then I was there, I saw the Prodigy, Miss Djax… I was really in love. Dr. Motte had a room where you could put on glasses with diodes. I was alone as a 9th grader or 8th grader. It was indescribable to me and then I was really out at five and my mother overslept [laughter] and came at eight or nine. But I did not dare to go in again, because I did not want to miss her and there were no cellphones. So I stood and you know what happens at that time of the day in front of a club. I stood in the eye of the hurricane. Naturally, my mother did not want that at all. But then I experienced it fully, everything that happens in such a parking lot.

Torsten Schmidt

And now you are immortalized in five of Wolfgang Tillmans pictures.

Gernot Bronsert

I do not know, but I was happy that I was picked up at some point and that’s my greatest experience. Since then, I’ve never been at a major rave again. Only for work.

Torsten Schmidt

But that’s still happening two to three times.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, per week.

Torsten Schmidt

For less than 20K Katrin will not let you out of the house, right?

Gernot Bronsert

Naturally. The standard of living has of course increased enormously. All those boats, planes. It was my rave experience. Oh god, I have a son who is already watching the internet now. If he sees it now. Ari? It’s already late.

Torsten Schmidt

I would say his mother can explain that to him. And you as a raver?

Sebastian Szary

I never went to big raves back in the days. Maybe to Frankfurt (Oder), to Margin club or Stadthalle, where Dubmission… There were at least 3,000 people wearing pointed caps. But it was cool and then we made our own raves. There were 1,000 people according to my memory but there were probably only 250 or so. For example, in Rüdersdorf we had a cultural center, as was the case for every medium-sized town in the GDR. So a culture house was built. Mostly in the ’50s. We were allowed to have parties there. And that’s where the people came. That was also the time when people were getting high in parking lots. “Geballert”, you know?

Gernot Bronsert

The famous rave car park. We had a friend who had a minibus. It was equipped with couches and indoor plants.

Sebastian Szary

[looks at computer] Is it easy to switch over here?

Gernot Bronsert

No, to the right. [_Modeselektor begin a slideshow of images _]

Torsten Schmidt

This [photo] also looks quite authentic and ready for the parking lot.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, it was a bit later.

Sebastian Szary

OK, that was later. That was in 2004. We played three gigs in one night and from Muna, Muna is in Thuringia, we went up to the city hall Friedland and then to Altentreptow, all places in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Torsten Schmidt

Everything in one night?

Sebastian Szary

Everything in one night. Without drugs. At least the both of us. [laughs]

Gernot Bronsert

We somehow did not dare to take drugs.

Sebastian Szary

But that’s how it looked like back then. I even drove the car. That was our equipment back then.

Torsten Schmidt

How did you come up with the Mackie mixer?

Gernot Bronsert

It had 10 channels.

Sebastian Szary

No, that one was a 16 channel [mixer].

Gernot Bronsert

Oh, the Mackie, I thought you mean the mini controller. Mackie was standard.

Sebastian Szary

Easy to get, always went down, always scratched. The computer came with special software which was written in [Max MSP], that was the hot shit. That was before [Ableton Live] really got started. Ableton already existed, but somehow that was not really usable for us. We also played it very differently. In any case, there was this controller, this blue one. Next to the mixer you can see a device for distortion.

Torsten Schmidt

Interesting combination.

Gernot Bronsert

There’s Sascha Ring [Apparat], look. There he is, Sasha. Back then we did not know anything about our luck. That we’d create a band together.

Sebastian Szary

He knew. [laughs] Greetings to Sascha, if you see this now.

Gernot Bronsert

Sascha was always the nerd. He always solved things in a technical manner.

Sebastian Szary

We owe it to Sascha. He managed to acquire the software through a lot of effort.

Gernot Bronsert

Directly from Kip Clayton or not? He had this original MSP patch. We had the idea, let’s do it that way and then he did it.

Torsten Schmidt

But what did you need that for?

Gernot Bronsert

To play live. We had almost eight slots, where you could put in loops. The blue controller was the mixer for this software and so you could just get started. Channel one was always best. Height, scale, bass.

Sebastian Szary

Everything that can be seen there is on my computer. I had put in a random patch. A small feature that slowly changed this green color.

Gernot Bronsert

I’ll continue. So I do not know now what kind of pictures will be shown here. This is when we were part of the Boy Scouts at a young age. There is something else. An injury. Everyone was injured. I repaired my Kaoss pad. Szary reacts.

Sebastian Szary

I light the cigarette on the soldering iron. Wait a moment.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes. Power Rangers on tour.

Sebastian Szary

Yes, we wanted to make a cool Moderat picture. [laughs]

Gernot Bronsert

You can see it is the first Moderat press photo. Sascha has a machete in his hand. It’s hard to see, but it’s a machete.

Torsten Schmidt

A precursor of the band dynamics.

Gernot Bronsert

I agree. [laughs]

Sebastian Szary

Nice. [laughs]

Gernot Bronsert

So, here’s a picture with a table.

Sebastian Szary

Exactly.

Gernot Bronsert

This is Szary with Grisel, Grisel of the Boy Scouts.

Torsten Schmidt

Who are these Boy Scout dudes and what do they have to do with you?

Gernot Bronsert

The Boy Scouts are an artist collective that make visuals and graphics and motion design. We grew up with them. They made our record covers and the visuals for our show from the start. We have organized parties together for many years, weekly, everyone knows what it means to organize parties, a weekly… Every Thursday we organized parties.

Torsten Schmidt

What time are we talking about?

Gernot Bronsert

2000, 2001, 2002.

Sebastian Szary

I think we already have… Now my memory is getting fuzzy, shit. That was the end of the ’90s until 2003, 2004. Then we had no more space in our schedules, then we were sent into the wide world and could not do this Thursday rave anymore.

Gernot Bronsert

Exactly, we initially did that in Kuhfuß and later in the WMF. Let’s classify the musical concept IDM, intelligent dance music. We had guests like Monolake, Jamie Lidell, quite a few, I do not know. There really were a lot.

Sebastian Szary

Ellen Allien.

Gernot Bronsert

Ellen Allien as well, Apparat. Exactly.

Sebastian Szary

A lot.

Torsten Schmidt

Was that before she took you under her wings?

Gernot Bronsert

Yes. These parties and playing records and live games, all of that was already established in some way before we ever had a release. We did not even come up with the idea of making such a record. At some point we started to play live, because buying records at some point was so expensive. You could open your own business rather than constantly buy new records. The country kitchen. That’s at mastering, Beta Records Mastering with Lupo.

Sebastian Szary

I think I know which record was mastered there, the “Tekknoprostitutionsmaschine.” [laughs] That was on the third EP of ours.

Torsten Schmidt

I think that’s a pity, should rather be consistent, that’s the feeling I have… impatient.

Sebastian Szary

Here, private jet.

Gernot Bronsert

Our first private jet.

Sebastian Szary

Flight to Turin.

Gernot Bronsert

Was just a propeller machine. Our pilot.

Sebastian Szary

With a nice hat. Drive from the airport to Vienna. No, nonsense.

Torsten Schmidt

I want to ask something for a moment. Very quickly. These pictures, did you sort them or do you just have them?

Sebastian Szary

There is already a certain chronology. [laughs]

Torsten Schmidt

He did not sort them. How many pictures are there?

Sebastian Szary

I don’t know.

Torsten Schmidt

There are a lot of pictures and they are not sorted.

Sebastian Szary

No, that’s not many. Look.

Torsten Schmidt

But that’s basically a key question for anyone who does not just make music on their own, who has the mouse or the TrackPad today?

Gernot Bronsert

Today it’s Szary of course. Now.

Sebastian Szary

The gentleman with the white umbrella is Kodik, also from the Boy Scouts, next to Gernod is Flori. At that time we flew to Milan to go to a foreign country to perform at the Castello Sforzesco together with Klaus Kotai. Then you played a record.

Gernot Bronsert

That was funny, that was our first DJ set, it was actually booked, no connection. “We want you to play some records.” During the first track, lightning struck the castle where we were playing and it shut down the power and it did not come back. People really went home because it was over. The festival was really over with the first record.

Sebastian Szary

Awesome.

Torsten Schmidt

Where did you get the strength from to see that as a sign? Maybe not to be upset anymore.

Sebastian Szary

Well, we are from the east.

Gernot Bronsert

I honestly thought it was totally cool somehow.

Sebastian Szary

A short time later we went to England. Our first time in England. That was taken in Manchester. We thought it was funny to have one pair of pants down and one up. You can only read Underground on this tattered shirt. By the way, that’s the shirt, which was printed on the inside. There was an edition that was printed upside down. Unfortunately it has been lost in Italy.

Gernot Bronsert

My first organ. Where is that anyway?

Sebastian Szary

In a studio.

Gernot Bronsert

I did not drink the beer.

Sebastian Szary

DJ Pete was performing right there.

Gernot Bronsert

Oh, that was in Potsdam with Panasonic and DJ Pete. Cafe Minsk. That was a club that existed in Potsdam. This was a building identical to Cafe Moscow in Berlin. So it’s almost identical. Cafe Minsk is what it was called. Berlin Cafe Moscow.

Sebastian Szary

One should also take a picture of a driver. You are always driven around the whole time and you say goodbye… Or before when you are at the hotel. Then we took a selfie with the driver. That’s in San Sebastian. By the way, this is Gernot’s suitcase. You know it from the hardware store, a tool box that has this leather insert. We took it out and put his controller where the screwdrivers used to be. Awesome, huh? That kind of suitcase and then this shame. I don’t know.

Gernot Bronsert

Photo book, something.

Torsten Schmidt

What about the large themed stage costumes that Mr. Szary brings?

Gernot Bronsert

By the way, Szary wears only overalls. Is this punishable now?

Sebastian Szary

That’s uniform abuse I think. Who is familiar with that? Anyone with legal knowledge here? Very good.

Torsten Schmidt

Pretense.

Sebastian Szary

Pretense, awesome word. The next one is called unlawful impersonation.

Gernot Bronsert

Unlawful impersonation of Köpenick.

Sebastian Szary

I think that has become a cover.

Gernot Bronsert

This became a cover for the “Tekknoprostitutionsmaschine.”

Sebastian Szary

This is our first studio.

Gernot Bronsert

You can see the speakers are set up in a professional way. Right on the wall.

Sebastian Szary

Awesome.

Gernot Bronsert

The boxes we found in the hallway during a move.

Sebastian Szary

Note that there’s a red suitcase under the table. [laughs] Hilti on it. Hilti is a drill specialist. We found that somehow and thought we could maybe rebuild it and turn it into a cool case. Never happened.

Gernot Bronsert

Arriving with a Hilti case is actually great. Szary with an overall and a Hilti case? He manages to get in everywhere. Security does not ask where he wants to go. They just let him in.

Torsten Schmidt

I mean, Szary has a certain amount of honor regarding his work. He’s believable. I do not know if it’s the same with you.

Gernot Bronsert

No, I often do not get in, then it stops. “No, not you,” “But I’m performing here,” “I do not care.” That happened in San Francisco. Since we did not have our IDs and so we were not allowed in to our gig. That’s not me.

Sebastian Szary

This is “Hausmeister,” we would like to mention him now. We went to a live show, Hausi played in Cologne at the first c/o pop Festival.

Gernot Bronsert

We also played, but the strange thing was what happened to said suitcase that evening. I left it at home in Frankfurter Allee right on the street outside the door. My girlfriend came home wondering, “Why is Gernot’s suitcase here? I’ll bring it up.” It was standing there all the time and then we arrived in Cologne, then I realized I did not even have my suitcase with me and then we had to improvise.

Sebastian Szary

How far to Cologne is it from here?

Torsten Schmidt

Six hours. Flight time.

Gernot Bronsert

The controller was missing. Yes, let’s get rid of it quickly. Oops, that’s in Switzerland at a table tennis game. On Lake Geneva.

Torsten Schmidt

The question is obvious of course, what’s the point of such a band meeting? When you really have serious issues to discuss? And how are the decisions made?

Gernot Bronsert

That’s exactly what it looks like. I’ve already lowered the gun a bit because I aim for the soft tissues. These are air pressure guns so they are bound to hurt. You’re serious now, that’s how the decisions are made.

Sebastian Szary

The decisions are mostly made in the car. Gernot drives, I sit next to him, then we talk about it, then we hear a bit of radio again or today we listened to the Omar Souleyman tape, for example. We once released a tape of Omar Souleyman and that’s when this white label tape was a thing, so to speak, even though it was black and I brought that with me today and then we listened to Omar Souleyman. Very authentic.

Gernot Bronsert

In the picture you can see, we introduced a tradition back then, when we started going on tour, always having a postcard on the rider. It had the theme of the place where we played, which we then always sent home. We have done that for many years. We still get these postcards and we still send them. There have been a couple of them already now. But that’s the third postcard from Gdansk.

Sebastian Szary

25 Postcards from London.

Gernot Bronsert

70 from Paris. This is our old studio.

Sebastian Szary

I think that’s our second studio, but in the same building, just one floor up. You have to say, the room was triangular, had a triangular floor plan.

Gernot Bronsert

And it was right at the Hakeschen Market. If you look out of the window, you can almost spit onto Wolfgang Joop’s terrace. Earlier, when you had a date there at 10 and you saw someone running around in the dark, that was usually your date. So that was a dead end at the time. This is where we’re doing sound check somewhere, mixer, Szary, me. That’s where I feed Szary.

Sebastian Szary

With sausage, French sausage.

Gernot Bronsert

DJ Feadz from Paris. I think your selection is really good. Really nice pictures.

Sebastian Szary

First the background. That’s what our eyes looked like most of the time. These bums back there went completely ecstatic and crazy.

Gernot Bronsert

May I continue?

Sebastian Szary

Nah, I want to say something about the junction box. At some point I started photographing a collection of junction boxes. For every gig. I’ll create a book again someday. I’ve created a book before, a small, unsuccessful book called Backstage Tristesse. I saw all these junction boxes today. There are these crazy junction boxes.

Gernot Bronsert

Our first hotel.

Sebastian Szary

Do you know where that was? [laughs] That was on MS Stubnitz. We played with Moderat on the MS Stubnitz and that was the setup. That’s in Helsinki. That’s also in Helsinki. Smoking was still allowed there.

Gernot Bronsert

Szary look. Epe Tuke.

Sebastian Szary

Do you know Epe Tuke? Our first gig in Glasgow, then we’re done.

Gernot Bronsert

There we were in Iceland, winter. Gernot, Szary, 303, Kaoss pad, Muff. So the distortion Big Muff. These were our channels that we always had.

Sebastian Szary

Awesome.

Gernot Bronsert

Laptop, laptop, 303, Kaoss pad, Big Muff. Enough.

Sebastian Szary

We can still take a picture. Yeah, that’s where we stop. There you stopped the gig, then there was one there.

Gernot Bronsert

Here we glued everything with Gaffa backstage. [laughs]

Sebastian Szary

I think that was Eindhoven. Really nice hotel with a structure ceiling, one you should not touch. It has also been a studio by the way.

Gernot Bronsert

The one above the Sparkasse, yes? They went upstairs constantly.

Sebastian Szary

Because it was on the third floor, but the second floor was the financial advice division of the bank, where loans were discussed.

Gernot Bronsert

It was a vacant apartment, which we were allowed to use, because the homeowner was nice. Those were the days. Guys, oh, come on, do it. It was right on the corner of Eberswalder Street and Schönhauser Ave above the Sparkasse and we always had a look at Konnopke’s snack bar and of course we visited that place constantly. We started to get fat.

Sebastian Szary

Seriously, every day curry sausage, that was a menu, curry sausage with fries.

Gernot Bronsert

No, wait, menu red, white.

Sebastian Szary

Menu red, white and broth. [laughs]

Gernot Bronsert

One has to mention, back then Konnopke’s opened at six o’clock in the morning. Not at 11 o’clock with an English menu but at six o’clock in the morning and sometimes we got out at six o’clock in the morning and then we had breakfast. That was tough, Curry with fries for breakfast, but if you’re a little drunk, it works. [laughter] That’s what it looked like, look, there’s a bottle of beer on the wall.

Sebastian Szary

I think that was a poster of one.

Gernot Bronsert

On this photo you can see CGB 1. He mastered some of our records and cut them [laughing] Who is this?

Sebastian Szary

I do not know. It was in Glasgow with Monolake.

Gernot Bronsert

And dear Achim, there he is, sleeppy beloved Achim. Those were the times.

Sebastian Szary

There we played at the Art School and in the anteroom was this nice gentleman.

Gernot Bronsert

That was good. Mixing up bass.

Sebastian Szary

Then we played in London.

Gernot Bronsert

That’s…

Sebastian Szary

Exactly, but the lists are nice. And people in front. [laughs] That was in Helsinki, there we were in a record shop and then I thought, what is that?

Gernot Bronsert

There was a lawsuit, we won, DKNU.

Torsten Schmidt

This is some band that called itself that, right?

Sebastian Szary

Exactly.

Gernot Bronsert

They no longer exist. They have disappeared. Nobody knows where they are. [laughs]

Sebastian Szary

We rarely slept in hotels back then.

Gernot Bronsert

That was it? This is your selection?

Sebastian Szary

We can still watch a little movie afterwards.

Torsten Schmidt

But before we watch the movie, there may be a question or two from the audience, but the movie definitely pays off.

Gernot Bronsert

Could we still hear that one track? So people can listen and gather their thoughts to make sure whether or not this question is exactly what should be asked.

Sebastian Szary

The next track is from a DJ called Surgeon with a track called “Atol.” I thought that was great.

(music: Surgeon – “Atol”)

Gernot Bronsert

That’s wonderful.

Torsten Schmidt

It’s almost like your first band, Illuminati, right?

Gernot Bronsert

How exactly? [laughs] I joined an industrial band called Illuminati.

Torsten Schmidt

At the time, you definitely had the right idea for names.

Gernot Bronsert

I was not a band name giver. We had great success. Because we were called that.

Sebastian Szary

You also had some logos.

Gernot Bronsert

Like everyone, it’s the most important thing. When we start making music, we first make a logo.

Sebastian Szary

Spray template sticker.

Gernot Bronsert

T-shirts were very important. It was the first attempt to make music. I was the first DJ that used scratching. But there really isn’t much to tell.

Torsten Schmidt

These few snippets that you can see of it are actually pretty funny because it looks like they’d, no offense, but as if they were…

Gernot Bronsert

One moment. What are you about to say now? Do you want to tell me before?

Torsten Schmidt

As if some kind of friendly alternative people in a youth center would make a [Krautrock] band.

Gernot Bronsert

It’s been like that.

Sebastian Szary

It was a bit like Krautrock.

Torsten Schmidt

Yes, definitely Krautrock.

Sebastian Szary

Is that true Olaf?

Olaf

Yes, sure.

Gernot Bronsert

Olaf? Ask Olaf, do you know what I mean. Olaf, what time is it?

Olaf

There’s still time.

Gernot Bronsert

There is still time. All good.

Torsten Schmidt

If Olaf, who knows almost everything, says there’s still time, then there’s still time. Are there any questions in this room?

Sebastian Szary

By the way, it’s funny to be on tour during a football championship. This summer we have one again and this is always going to be a situation where you simply can’t move people. There was a game in Italy between two northern teams, between Inter and Turin. It was about to start and no one came. Because they just all sat in front of the TV. That was really crazy. Sky, football.

Gernot Bronsert

Yes, there are so many. We played in [Ciudad] Juarez a couple of years ago, that was at the time when there were so many shootings and we sold 8,000 tickets, but no one came. We got our money, but there were maybe a hundred people. They did not dare to come out because it was in the evening and it was dangerous.

Sebastian Szary

This is the city on the other side of El Paso. Sadly, it has the highest murder rate.

Gernot Bronsert

That was interesting.

Torsten Schmidt

I think that’s a really nice story to stop with.

Sebastian Szary

We were the only ones who went out. And now we are sitting here with you. Do you want to ask us another question? Do you want to hear another track? Great.

Torsten Schmidt

Do we want to say goodbye to the gentlemen before the track or perhaps during… [applause]