Good evening, my name is Thorsten 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 Rodgers for example
She has recorded 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 also 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 something like 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 Christiano 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. 
 
Many Thanks.
Mister Hummels.
Good evening. Good evening. 
Good evening. 
Man, I hit the bass.
Hello.
Good evening.
My mic is louder today, could that be?
Huh? You are sitting in a higher spot
and your microphone is louder.
You are sitting in a higher spot.
This is the old rock star trick.
Now the main act is here and it's 
usually louder than before.
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.
Something that our teachers probably 
hoped could be English, yes.
Yes.
Yes, but that's a very unfamiliar feeling. 
Especially with regards to these greetings. 
Suddenly mothers, aunts, and 
cousins can understand that too.
Above all, we are actually talking normally as always.
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".
Tell me, are you actually wearing 
Birkenstocks with socks on?
Hey, that's worth some applause.
I can already see the comment section exploding.
These are Birkis lined with fur.
That's kind of the Thundercat style, right?
The Winter Edition so to speak.
A little bit worn out.
Well, they smell really good. 
You can pass them around if you want? 
One thing you can really see is that there is
a certain familiarity within your project.
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.
Sometimes it takes an hour.
Now do not be offended.
Sometimes you are in traffic for an hour.
Some things just need time.
The sound is a bit irritating, 
but we'll get it right?
Yeah, that's kind of like Rush and 
Geddy Lee just went 
to the bathroom.
It's real!
Yes, you know, 20 years and so.
Oops, that's the motif of the poster right?
That's smart, huh?
No expense and effort was spared 
and it's a Space Echo, I'm thrilled.
With barcode.
But I do not understand what's with the stones?
You rented that space, I can see now.
What is in here? Powder? Baby powder?
You have to ask Yannick.
Nice, pineapple, great.
Why did all these things, 
of all these things, 
end up on the flyer?
Maybe they are connected to us somehow, 
maybe that's it?
You should know that better than
almost everyone else in here.
Okay, 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.
Same year?
No.
You were younger.
Szary was the cool one and I was the younger one. 
But Szary had a 909, an 808.
And a Space Echo.
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?
Well, I did not bring mine, no.
We also have one, still. 
We just said that.
Before that you had another name. 
It was almost as lyrical.
That was Szary Solo.
Now listen, the name was:
Fundamental Knowledge. 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. 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."
Yes, something like that existed.
The arrangement genius of Claire Fisher 
and the greatness of Beethoven.
Absolutely.
That's exactly what I wanted at the time. 
Exactly this attribute.
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.
I think we have to clarify this geographically. 
Hi, Olaf, by the way.
Olaf!
You know Berlin, this island 
surrounded by Brandenburg.
As I always say, everything around 
Berlin is always East. 
Correct.
At a certain point in time 
it was not so wrong either.
But really, we come from the 
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 while Woltersdorf
would be the Lucerne on the Vierwaldstätter lake.
But everywhere the same idiots.
Yes.
 
So starting in 19... well, let us say 
that's when all this techno became popular.
'92.
'92 is also when the last Nazis 
were starting to take ecstasy and got all 
peaceful and jumped in their [Golf] GTIs 
and [Opel] Kadetts.
Do you know that?
Do you know the phenomenon of 
transformation from back then?
You mean when we suddenly didn't beat each 
other up on the terrace anymore
but instead hugged it out? 
Everyone chews, nobody eats.
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.
In the end you are village boys.
We are village boys, yes.
Yes, but within sight of the television tower, 
which is not called Alex, but TV tower.
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 5 Mark at the door, New Faces,
you could afford it. You were 
driving on the 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.
Sometimes I drive too. For example, tomorrow.
Well, and we always heard music, 
sometimes we filmed stuff.
Isn't the Internet full of videos showing how you're...
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.
Another lovely touch was changing it from 
the local idiom into an international language.
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. 
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?
Szary has always had a car.
Tell me the story of the first car,
tell me about Pea, who was always in jail.
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.
Yes, that was a problem.
It was a ten minute ride and you 
only had the emergency brake.
In the past you could also open the doors.
It was also the glorious time 
of suburban train surfing.
You do not you know that anymore?
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.
Yes, what was the question?
How are we with... We've talked 
to public...
So if it gets interesting, you 
can easily throw a book or something.
We clarified the logistics. 
But the idea was more like,
how did you even think about driving 
to something like the Tresor?
The fascination came through the radio, 
through Monika Dietel's programs on DT64.
No, on SFB. [Sender Freies Berlin or Radio Free Berlin].
SFB. Yes sorry.
You all know that better than me anyway. 
I can not remember anything.
It's over. My brain is totally f---ed up.
That's also techno.
I already had that problem as a child. 
I always forget everything right away.
Actually, that's kind of practical.
Then there was DT64.
Right. Did I mention that?
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...
Another nice broadcast.
You've already done it almost a 1,000 times.
DT became Rockradio B
and then it became Radio One, 
is that right? 
Yes, that's how it is.
In any case, we have always created tapes
and also recorded the English ones.
And then we started buying records.
First Pinky Records, 
then Hard Wax shortly afterwards.
Hard Wax is a 50 minute drive 
from where you come from.
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.
So I always drove over Thursdays. 
I left on Thursday after work.
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.
Wasn't there a Charles or something?
You're talking about James.
The Englishman who did not speak so fast.
 
Yes, that one.
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.
Pretty much a phone call to England.
Is the new Basic Channel already out? 
 
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.
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.
Who do you mean? 
Who has the feedback?
I? Who do you mean?
Me.
The sporty one?
But that was exactly the moment 
where you thought,
"I want to work here someday, right?"
I wanted that anyway, but I never expected it.
Because you were not athletic enough?
No, I was there so often. 
At some point they said, "Just stay here." 
Then I just stayed there and 
got poorer and poorer.
You would probably be the first record 
shop clerk to really take money home.
Correct.
During that time we lived together.
In Berlin, on the Veterans Street 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," an then 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.
Do you visit once a month and check if it's okay?
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.
What are the things that you learned there,
the three golden rules so to speak?
I think I learned a lot for life. 
I've 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 a 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.
You did not have to do any alternative civilian
service? 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.
How nervous were you when you made the decision?
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 of Hard Wax 
took the fear away.
That was over. You came home totally satisfied. 
There was no problem.
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 e-mail 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.
Did your parents see this as a real job?
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.
How the hell did you know what to buy? 
On these old videos there is a red [Roland SH] 101
and stuff like that.
It was gray.
We did not have the red one.
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?
You had a red one. 202 or 101?
101. 101.
How did you figure that 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... 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.
Vangelis.
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.
I always liked the difference with club-house.
That was there too, yes. 
That’s how we figured it out,
808 sounds like that, 909 sounds like that,
a bass line is made with a TB-303 or 202.
You need an Atari or a sampler 
and a really gnarly mixing board.
Ready.
Where did you get the money for it?
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.
Gernot has also learned a profession, 
I have learned another profession, Betonfertigteilbauer
[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.
But you really made some money, you have to say.
Yes, interestingly enough, we really 
earned some money. 
So much money.
This wall was pretty big.
That was a dangerous job, you could die too.
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 into my nose.
All the way into the brain.
Yes, this deep. 
And my teacher was sitting on the crane,
I had to hang something up there and
and he looks like that and then he's like, 
"Can you hang this up?"
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?
There is a rock in the cake.
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?"
"9,000." "Okay, I'll take it.
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.
Actually, your mother has a very good 
guest appearance in the story.
Because she usually accepted the package.
At that time you had to pay at the post office.
There was trouble, right?
There was trouble
So it caused more trouble than the phone bill?
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."
You still have the records?
I still have the records.
You still play them?
We play those records all the time.
All the time.
That's the way it was. A life without the Internet.
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 here
he is quite old. How the hell did you get people
to go to their parties without Facebook and Instagram?
Coffee Shop,
we gave out flyers which we cut out by hand.
And so these news spread?
A week before or two weeks before we 
knew about it and then it started.
Of course you had no response. 
There are more people coming nowadays.
"I may come," is something we heard often,
but that was usually a surprise.
How much of it was a replay of 
what happened in Berlin? Which in a 
way was as far away as Wetzlar
or Regensburg.
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 the Tresor sounds awesome, 
simple right?
It has to smell wet somehow. 
We need a cellar. 
Open air doesn't work.
Too much nature.
What kind of light is that?
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.
50 copies or so I brought into Hard Wax.
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.
Why the hell do you close a label that
works [50Weapons] and then
open another one that's been gone for 24 years.
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 50Weapons, 
5 of them active
the other 5 rather inactive, 
but there were 10 years.
We put out 50 releases with 
the catalog number 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.
And you told Ben.
Everyone knew that from the beginning, 
but nobody believed that we would really do it. 
It hurt a bit, but of course we got to
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.
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?"
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.
So we put a stop to it.
I mean it sounds like friendly, sympathetic 
mischievous and local but
you do not work just a little bit in the end.
We also have other things.
50Weapons was more like a boy 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."
RIP 50Weapons.
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 
and 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 can not read music or you 
do not want to do that...
this is an arpeggiator."
He never used it, the arpeggiator.
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.
By the way, he also comes from the same 
region where we come from, just like Shed.
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.
That's where Shed's from.
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 the PCK. 
PCK sounds like a spray cure.
That was your thing then. 
Mine? I won't say.
Oh I used to work as a DJ in Schwedt too. 
1993 together with Fiedel and Shed. 
Was his name back then Fiedel as well?
Yes, he was called Fiedel.
And as for Shed I don't know. 
He was just Rene.
DJ Rene.
DJ Rene.
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?
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, Mike van Dijk,
Kid Paul, definitely. Well, and then
we drove there in our Trabant with Mr. Richter, again.
In principle, Berlin techno would be nothing 
without this person there in the background. 
One must also say that 
Thomas was the real guy with the money.
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.
Actually he recently told me he made 
a lot of new recordings for the first record, 
we should all listen to them.
But he sold it right back.
What did you buy with it, Thomas?
Motorcycle. Moped. [laugh]
A Harley.
With the moped we went to the Baltic 
Sea after work. 
Just a spontaneous trip.
Without a helmet.
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.
Correct. Did my mic turn off now? No. 
These were the working titles.
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 
the 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.
In all fairness, there was a time in England 
where you called that stuff 
jungle techno, before drum & bass.
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 Clark, 
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."
That's how the music is made, by the way.
From garbage.
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. 
At least I brought 
some kind of artwork.
A cheap option back then.
And that's a good transition. In fact...
One moment. 
On this record there was a piece by Aphex.
That’s called “Metapharstic.” 
That's how I always read it. 
It is sometimes a bit hard to pronounce. 
Thorsten, how would you say it? 
You can speak English, we can't.
The problem is, the gentleman is 
from Cornwall so he has a
kind of idiosyncratic way to deal with things.
No, he's not from Cornwall. 
He is from Ireland.
He is a born Irishman.
He is a hobbit. 
Hold on, that was the other island.
_Mayday_.
This compilation has a crazy Line Up. 
WestBam, Beltram, Aphex Twin, Night Phantom,
Marusha, “TZ 6,” Futurerhythm, Matte, Hypnotist
and so on. Sven Väth is on it too.
Anyway, there was an Aphex Twin piece.
Was this your first Aphex Twin contact?
No.
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 Aphex Twin fan. 
And then suddenly this record comes out 
and then there is still a track on it, 
which was nowhere else to be found.
[_music: Aphex Twin – “Metapharstic”_]
That rewind definitely sounds like a live
performance at the very event 
in the now demolished Cologne ice rink.
It probably was like that. 
"Hey, it's live. Count me in."
Were you true ravers at the time 
besides going to Tresor? 
Did you go to such big things?
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. 
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.
No, I think that was... 
No, not Max-Schmeling. 
What was the name at the fair? 
Deutschlandhalle.
No, I think that was back there 
when you get into the Landsberger...
I'm looking at Olaf.
Olaf does not know everything, 
now stop it. 
I really wanted to go there. 
When was it? 
Which year was it?
'92.
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 the Mayday."
Exactly the right sort of criminal energy.
I'm actually still cheating myself through life. 
My mother drove me because I was still a minor.
But you won the competition.
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 5 in the morning."
Then I was there, I saw The Prodigy, I saw Miss Djax, 
I was 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 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 cell phones. 
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.
And now you are immortalized on five 
of Wolfgang Tillmans pictures.
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.
But that's still happening two to three times.
Yes, per week.
For less than 20K Katrin will not 
let you out of the house, right?
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.
I would say his mother can 
explain that to him. 
And you as a raver?
I never went to big raves back in the days. 
At most in 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?
The famous rave car park. 
We had a friend who had a minibus. 
It was equipped with couches and indoor plants.
Is it easy to switch over here?
No, to the right.
This [photo] also looks quite authentic 
and ready for the parking lot.
Yes, it was a bit later.
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.
Everything in one night?
Everything in one night. Without drugs. 
At least the both of us.
We somehow did not dare to take drugs.
But that's how it looked like back then. 
I even drove the car. 
That was our equipment back then.
How did you come up with the Mackie mixer?
It had 10 channels.
No, that one was a 16 channel [mixer].
Oh, the Mackie, I thought you mean the mini controller. 
Mackie was standard.
Easy to get, always went down, always scratched. 
The computer came with a 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.
Interesting combination.
There's Sascha Ring [Apparat], look. 
There he is, Sascha. 
Back then we did not know anything about our luck. 
That we'd create a band together.
He knew.
Greetings to Sascha, if you see this now.
Sascha was always the nerd. 
He always solved things in a technical manner.
We owe it to Sascha. He managed to 
acquire the software 
through a lot of effort.
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.
But what did you need that for?
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.
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.
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.
I light the cigarette on the soldering iron. 
Wait a moment.
Yes.
Power Rangers on tour.
Yes, we wanted to make a cool
Moderat picture.
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.
A precursor of the band dynamics.
I agree.
Nice.
So, here's a picture with a table.
Exactly.
This is Szary with Grisel, 
Grisel of the Boy Scouts.
Who are these Boy Scout dudes 
and what do they have to do with you?
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 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.
What time are we talking about?
2000, 2001, 2002.
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.
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.
Ellen Allien.
Ellen Allien as well, Apparat. Exactly.
A lot.
Was that before she took you under her wings?
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 sooner 
rather than constantly 
buy new records. The country kitchen.
That’s at mastering, Beta Records Mastering with Lupo.
I think I know which record was mastered there, 
the “Tekknoprostitutionsmaschine.” 
That was the third EP of ours.
I think that's a pity, should rather be consistent, 
that's the feeling I have... Impatient.
Here, private jet.
Our first private jet.
Flight to Turin.
Was just a propeller machine. 
Our pilot.
With a nice hat. 
Drive from the airport to Vienna. 
No, nonsense.
I want to ask something for a moment. 
Very quickly. 
These pictures, did you sort them 
or do you just have them?
There is a certain chronology.
He did not sort them. 
How many pictures are there?
I don't know.
There are a lot of pictures 
and they are not sorted.
No, that's not many.
Look.
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.
Today it's Szary of course. Now.
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 di Sforzesco 
together with Klaus Kotai. 
Then you played a record. 
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, a 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.
Awesome.
Where did you get the strength from 
to see that as a sign? 
Maybe not to be upset anymore.
Well, we are from the east.
I honestly thought it was totally cool somehow.
A short time later we went to England. 
Our first time in England. 
That was taken in Manchester. We thought it was 
funny to take a 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.
My first organ. Where is that anyway?
In a studio.
I did not drink the beer.
DJ Pete was performing right there.
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.
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. 
Photo book, something.
What about the large themed 
stage costumes that Mr. Szary brings?
By the way, Szary wears only overalls.
Is this punishable now?
That's uniform abuse I think. 
Who is familiar with that? 
Anyone with legal knowledge here? 
Very good. Pretense.
Pretense, awesome word. The next 
one is called unlawful impersonation.
Unlawful impersonation of Köpenick.
I think that has become a cover.
This became a cover for the 
“Tekknoprostitutionsmaschine.”
This is our first studio.
You can see the speakers are 
set up in a professional way. Right on the wall.
Awesome.
The boxes we found in the hallway during a move.
Note that there's a red 
suitcase under the table. 
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. 
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.
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.
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 to our gig. 
That's not me.
This is “Hausmeister,” we would like to mention him now. 
We went to a live show, Hausi played in Cologne 
for the first c/o pop Festival.
We also played, but the strange 
thing was what happened 
to said suitcase that evening. I left it at 
home in the 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.
How far to Cologne is it from here?
Six hours. Flight time.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
25 Postcards from London.
70 from Paris.
This is our old studio.
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.
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 soundcheck 
somewhere, mixer, Szary, me. 
That's where I feed Szary.
With sausage, French sausage.
DJ Feadz from Paris. 
I think your selection is really good.
Really nice pictures.
First the background. 
That's what our eyes looked like most of the time. 
These bums back there went 
completely ecstatic and crazy. 
May I continue?
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. 
Our first hotel.
Do you know where that was? 
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.
Szary look. Epe Tuke.
Do you know Epe Tuke? 
Our first gig in Glasgow, then we're done.
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.
Awesome.
Laptop, Laptop, 303, 
Kaoss pad, Big Muff. Enough.
We can still take a picture. 
Yeah, that's where we stop. 
There you stopped the gig, 
then there was one there.
Here we glued everything with Gaffa backstage. 
 
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.
The one above the Sparkasse, yes? 
They went upstairs constantly.
Because it was on the third floor, 
but the second floor was the 
financial advice division of the bank, 
where loans were discussed.
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.
Seriously, every day curry sausage, 
that was a menu, curry sausage with fries.
No, wait, menu red, white.
Menu red, white and broth.
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 
6 o'clock in the morning and sometimes we got out 
at 6 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.
That's what it looked like, look, 
there's a bottle of beer on the wall.
I think that was a poster of one.
On this photo you can see CGB 1. 
He mastered some of our records and cut 
them [laughing] Who is this?
I do not know.
It was in Glasgow with Monolake.
And dear Achim, there he is, sleeppy beloved Achim. 
Those were the times.
There we played at the Art School and 
in the anteroom was this nice gentleman.
That was good. Mixing up bass.
Then we played in London.
That's...
Exactly, but the lists are nice. 
And people in front. 
That was in Helsinki, 
there we were in a record shop and 
then I thought, what is that?
There was a lawsuit, we won, DKNU.
This is some band that called 
itself that, right?
Exactly.
They no longer exist. 
They have disappeared. 
Nobody knows where they are.
We rarely slept in hotels back then.
That was it? This is your selection?
We can still watch a little movie afterwards.
But before we watch the movie, 
there may be a question or two  
from the audience, but the movie 
definitely pays off.
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.
The next track is from a DJ called Surgeon 
who did a track called “Atol.” I thought that was great. 
[_music: Surgeon – “Atol”_] 
That's wonderful.
It's almost like your first band, 
Illuminati, right?
How exactly?
I joined an Industrial Band called Illuminati.
At the time, you definitely 
had the right idea for names.
I was not a band name giver. 
We had great success. 
Because we were called that.
You also had some logos.
Like everyone, it's the most important thing. 
When we start making music, we first make a logo.
Spray template sticker.
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.
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...
One moment. 
What are you about to say now? 
Do you want to tell me before?
As if some kind of friendly alternative people 
in a youth center 
would make a [Krautrock] band.
It's been like that.
It was a bit like Krautrock.
Yes, definitely Krautrock.
Is that true Olaf?
Yes, sure.
Olaf? Ask Olaf, do you know what I mean.
Olaf, what time is it?
There's still time.
There is still time. All good.
If Olaf, who knows almost everything, 
says there's still time, then there's still time. 
Are there any questions in this room?
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.
Yes, there are so many. 
We played in [Ciudad] Juárez 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.
This is the city on the other side of El Paso. 
Sadly, it has the highest murder rate.
That was interesting.
I think that's a really nice story to stop with.
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.
 
Do we want to say goodbye to the gentlemen
before the track or perhaps during... 
Let's give them a friendly applause 
and thank them.
