By the end of 2011, we had pretty much stopped hearing from Bodi Bill, the synthy electro trio that emerged four years earlier with their debut album No More Wars. Earlier this year, however, two of Bodi Bill's members made the wise decision to join us over over on the dark side in technoland (because obviously we're more fun). Thus, The/Das was born, a dark tech-pop duo that stretches poetic verses over ice cold, robotic rhythms and elegant instrumentation.On August 5, The/Das' Speak Your Mind (Remixes) EP comes out with remixes from producers Ben Damage, Uffe, and Vaal. The EP drags The/Das even deeper into house and techno stylings; Damage's fierce rework of "Have No Fear" contorts the original's bouncing momentum into snarling, rigid Berghain techno, and Uffe outfits "Colin" with a punchy house beat and smoldering low end. We asked The/Das' Fabien Fenk to explain the Berlin-based pair's evolving interest in dance music and, frankly, we were a bit shocked by his response, because he blamed the Nazis.THUMP: Where are you from?
Fabien Fenk: Berlin.How old are both of you?
34 and 35.One line about your hometown?
Will they let me into Berghain like this?What did the first ever track you made sound like and what was it inspired by?
I guess it was 1996. I was still a teenager and I hated techno, probably because all I knew was this Love Parade mainstream stuff, so we decided to make a techno-persiflage with distorted bass drums and hard "krzztsch-tschack"-like German vocals. We knew somebody with a Trabbi (an East German car), so our plan was to cruise through Marzahn, a borough in the outskirts of Berlin which was quite Nazi-infested back then. We cranked up the volume and played the track on repeat, trying to piss off people. Well, back then we thought we were pissing off Nazis, because we thought techno was Nazi music. Whatever, I guess it took me a bit longer to realize what I was missing out on by ignoring techno.How did you get your name?
We found it on the cover of a book we were laying out, about a year before we started the band. The book was a collection of photographs centered around our old band Bodi Bill. We liked the idea of starting a new band with a name that means exactly not-so-much-actually or, to put it in more artsy fartsy language: the name is almost like a blank canvas that's bilingual.What labels do you record for?
Life And Death, Sinnbus, KrakatauWho is your best friend that also does music and what are they like?
I guess that's Thomalla. He's an incredible talent and though his tracks already sound so mature, to me it often feels like he's just preparing his big breakthrough move. Maybe we share this bad habit of over-thinking and taking things a bit too serious sometimes. For instance, right now he could be described as a James Holden trying to produce a killer record for Running Back. Weird combination, right? But I'm sure at some point everything will make perfect sense.Other than a club or a house, what's the best environment to hear your music?
I think our stuff is perfect headphone music, while riding a racing bike or swimming in a lake or climbing a tree. (Yeah, I'm a fucking treehugger!)What is your favorite sound right now?
The imperfect stillness when sitting on a mountain, like in a deserted area of the Andes for instance, where all liveliness is reduced to just a fraction, a distant glitch, a fragile sigh, just a notion of something already hardly audible. Okay, and Marcel Dettmann at Berghain of course.Name three non-musical inspirations.
The rainforest, girls, Siberian tigers.Who is one up-and-coming artist you think we should look out for and why?
Just one? Jesus! That's hard! I think Mind Against will release some great stuff pretty soon!What's next for you?
Besides playing live as a trio together with Thomalla, we just started working on three new EPs. One's gotta be dark pop music, maybe even gospel, because we both feel like we need to produce something very intense and strangely emotional. Another one will be for Life And Death and then we hopefully get our in-between tracks done. We'll see.
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Fabien Fenk: Berlin.How old are both of you?
34 and 35.One line about your hometown?
Will they let me into Berghain like this?What did the first ever track you made sound like and what was it inspired by?
I guess it was 1996. I was still a teenager and I hated techno, probably because all I knew was this Love Parade mainstream stuff, so we decided to make a techno-persiflage with distorted bass drums and hard "krzztsch-tschack"-like German vocals. We knew somebody with a Trabbi (an East German car), so our plan was to cruise through Marzahn, a borough in the outskirts of Berlin which was quite Nazi-infested back then. We cranked up the volume and played the track on repeat, trying to piss off people. Well, back then we thought we were pissing off Nazis, because we thought techno was Nazi music. Whatever, I guess it took me a bit longer to realize what I was missing out on by ignoring techno.
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We found it on the cover of a book we were laying out, about a year before we started the band. The book was a collection of photographs centered around our old band Bodi Bill. We liked the idea of starting a new band with a name that means exactly not-so-much-actually or, to put it in more artsy fartsy language: the name is almost like a blank canvas that's bilingual.What labels do you record for?
Life And Death, Sinnbus, KrakatauWho is your best friend that also does music and what are they like?
I guess that's Thomalla. He's an incredible talent and though his tracks already sound so mature, to me it often feels like he's just preparing his big breakthrough move. Maybe we share this bad habit of over-thinking and taking things a bit too serious sometimes. For instance, right now he could be described as a James Holden trying to produce a killer record for Running Back. Weird combination, right? But I'm sure at some point everything will make perfect sense.Other than a club or a house, what's the best environment to hear your music?
I think our stuff is perfect headphone music, while riding a racing bike or swimming in a lake or climbing a tree. (Yeah, I'm a fucking treehugger!)What is your favorite sound right now?
The imperfect stillness when sitting on a mountain, like in a deserted area of the Andes for instance, where all liveliness is reduced to just a fraction, a distant glitch, a fragile sigh, just a notion of something already hardly audible. Okay, and Marcel Dettmann at Berghain of course.Name three non-musical inspirations.
The rainforest, girls, Siberian tigers.Who is one up-and-coming artist you think we should look out for and why?
Just one? Jesus! That's hard! I think Mind Against will release some great stuff pretty soon!What's next for you?
Besides playing live as a trio together with Thomalla, we just started working on three new EPs. One's gotta be dark pop music, maybe even gospel, because we both feel like we need to produce something very intense and strangely emotional. Another one will be for Life And Death and then we hopefully get our in-between tracks done. We'll see.