Digitalism interview

Digitalism are two German record store employees who decided to hunker down in a WWII bunker in Hamburg and make a giant indie electronic crossover album instead of just running the till. I missed Jence a few times but got his bangin' techno voicemail where I left messages like a jilted love. I decided that wasn't enough to write about so I tried again and actually conducted a proper interview. Trapped like a small animal over his morning coffee we got to chat about Love Parade, the sexiest country according to Digitalism crowds, and even some of the more serious aspects of their music.

Patrick Collins: How are you, you're having coffee?
Jence: Yeah, I'm really good. It's a bit grey outside and wintertime is starting over here but I get to skip a bit of it because we are coming over to Australia, so that will be good!

PC: You guys seem to be doing a lot of DJ sets right now versus live sets. What's different about them for you and your crowd?
J: Because we kind of wanted to end the Idealism tour there are a just a couple of shows left... one last one in Hamburg and then a couple dates in Australia in January. We've come back home and just doing some DJ gigs in between it all. It's much easier to do those of course, because you don't have to plan for 6 to 8 people who would be on the road with you, and it's much easier to realize a DJ set. And for us it's good because we come up with new ideas. That's how we started as Digitalism. All the tracks were somewhat created by stuff that we were able to play. It was big for the creative process.

PC: Which do you prefer?
J: Of course, there's nothing better than a proper live PA, where you can perform on stage and sing and play those instruments and bring the whole Digitalism music forth. That's really one of the best things in the world. But DJ sets are really cool, we haven't done many in the past month, so it's something new again, like new to us, and you can always have a drink in between, while you're DJing and stuff... it's a bit easier. Plus you can play other songs. Because at the concerts, of course, it's always about our songs. It's nice to hear other stuff as well.

PC: Do you guys ever do covers when you play live to bring that playing of other people's songs into your show?
J: Ah, we used to, but other people have now. Since the latest biggest production show that we started while we were doing Parklife last year, we just play our old stuff.

PC: Well you guys have a remix competition going on right now. How do those usually pan out? Do you get a lot of tracks you can just kick back and laugh at?
J: Ah (laughs), well I've checked a couple, just randomly, because it's still running and we have to gather all the submissions. It must be like 1800 already. But I just listened to a couple, and they weren't too bad. I'm quite curious to see how the rest will be. But of course there will always be some really bad ones from people who, well I don't know, have gotten into remixing us, and come from being an accountant or something. (laughs)

PC: When I was in high school, my sister and I were going to do a big trip to Berlin to do Love Parade. I was just curious, on a personal level, if it is still running, or if it is totally lame, or if it's still a relevant electronic festival?
J: It's still running, but it's not in Berlin anymore which is...well...it's...it's a bit shit. Love Parade MUST be in Berlin, otherwise it's something else, I think. It's still big, they had 2 million people again this year. We played it for the first time, and just had a 20 min DJ set because they have so many DJs for it. It's massive, but of course it's for a different scene...that techno and commercial trance. We hardly meet those type of people when we play our shows. Those people don't come see us.

PC: So you guys are booked for quite a few festivals down in Australia. I was curious, how do the Australian festivals stack up against other international festivals in the UK, across Europe, or even in the States?
J: Well last year when we played that Parklife tour, it was one of the best tours we've done. Everyone's completely out of their head. The crowds are simply amazing. Since we first came over and played the tour with the Presets, we've fallen in love with the Australians. It's very full on, always, really really good. And most of the time the weather is much nicer than in the UK and such.

PC: Do you guys have a favourite festival? Like a favourite place or a favourite vibe?
J: South by South West is a really really good one. We are about to play in I Love Techno in Belgium, which is probably the biggest indoor rave you'll ever see. We love going there, but there are so many places, Parklife was good, Coachella is really cool, there were quite a few good ones in Spain. I think it also depends on the company as well, whether or not it goes off real easy.

PC: In a lot of your interviews people seem to talk about the sadness or the seriousness in your music. What was that inspiration that caused you to get serious on people even though the music is fun, upbeat, dance music?
J: Oh no no no. I think it's a bit melancholic, but in a quite romantic way. It's about something that is somewhere else...kind of the opposite of being homesick. It's about a journey I guess.

PC: So the last mix you guys did was the Kitsune Tabloid mix right?
J: Yes
PC: And then the last record you put out, is this Idealism remixes record, right?
J: Yeah, there's this album on iTunes right now that is called Hands on Idealism which is the album plus a few remixes that people have done. So in a couple of countries you can buy that extended album. I think it will be the last thing because you know, we want to move on to some new stuff.

PC: So you guys are finishing up the Idealism tour down here, and then are you going back into the studio or what are your plans?
J: We are going to stay down under for a couple of weeks, take some days off, and then we still have to plan everything. I mean, well, um, I don't really know anything. (laughs)

PC: Have you guys ever sung in German or was it always English?
J: Oh we've always sung in English, which is quite common if you're from Germany. The music here is just international, so almost all of it is in English already. But in the past couple of years though, in hip hop and indie, started doing lots of things in German again.
PC: Ah I see, I was hoping you'd say yes, and there would be an alternate Pogo in all German or something.
J: (laughs) no no, although that would be a good project

PC: When you guys play, do you ever check out the dancers in the crowd? I mean, really, what countries throw down the hardest?
J: Oooooh, It's kind of a global thing, well, yeah, hmmm, yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. (laughs)

PC: Well how about this one, if you had to rate a country's sexiness based on the people who show up at your shows, what country is the sexiest?
J: Well Australia is pretty high in the rankings (laughs). Yeah, because everyone's so...well there's loads of sexy people. And everyone is kind of in a good mood and you're near the water and it's all about sun and beach. I mean, I read somewhere I think that the average Australian doesn't live further than three miles away from the beach...yeah, so that's pretty sexy I think.

By Patrick Collins

Release: Tour

To Cure: An empty dancefloor

Keywords: Interview, Indie, Electronic