Modeselektor go back to the underground

Modeselektor haven’t dropped a record since 2021, but they haven’t exactly been idle. The Berlin-based production duo – Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary – have been channeling their energy into Moderat, their acclaimed electronic-live project with Sascha Ring. Before the pandemic, their fingerprints were all over the city’s nightlife: Modeselektion parties blurred the lines between hip-hop and techno, while their labels Monkeytown Records and 50 Weapons became launchpads for Berlin’s freshest talent. Without them, we might never have heard acts like FJAAK or Siriusmo.

This September, Modeselektor return with the latest installment in the DJ-Kicks mix series for !K7 Records – their first new recordings since the pandemic, alongside fresh collaborations and upcoming Monkeytown releases.

Speaking to The Berliner from their new Reinickendorf studio, Bronsert reflects on the duo’s comeback and what it means to be Modeselektor almost twenty years after their debut album shook Berlin’s underground.

It’s been a while since your last release. What’s been keeping you busy in the meantime?

We want to make the coolest parties, release the coolest music and support the younger talent.

The last Modeselektor record was actually released during Covid. It’s a really good record, but it didn’t work out how we expected it to. We wanted to go on tour, but we couldn’t – it was kind of depressing. After that, we started working on Moderat again, finishing the More Data record, and the touring took up all of our time.

Then when we came back, we decided to redesign our company structure and move the studio and office. This required a lot of our attention … Now we’re in our new studio, and the DJ-Kicks record was the first record we’ve made here.

How did you approach the process of creating your DJ-Kicks mix?

I was afraid that we’d overthink it; we just wanted to show where we’re from. There’s a new track from Siriusmo which samples the last words of Koko, the talking gorilla. There’s a great track from Beirut using the organ, which I’m really into, and our collaboration with KitschKrieg, which we really like.

You recently moved your studio to Reinickendorf. How has the new neighbourhood influenced your work and creative process?

Here, we have a nice space, which you wouldn’t be able to find in the city centre. Our studio before was right above KitKat; we were there for 10 years, but then the landlord decided to double our rent overnight. We had to move somewhere, and then we found this space in an industrial estate. They still build train wagons here. We’re sharing our terrace with the guys from SchneidersLaden, so there are a lot of artists here along with all the workers.

What’s great is that there’s no tourism here, which makes it better to work and hang out. The basement here still has a lot of facilities that date back to the 30s. They have a huge space which was formerly the manufacturing hall, used to make heavy machinery in the past, and it looks like Printworks in London. I begged them [to let us] make a rave there, but it just proved to be too expensive in the end. It would make such a good club.

Are you planning to bring back regular Modeselektor parties in Berlin?

We have an event at Dark Matter on September 26, with some of the old Monkeytown artists, like Cosmin TRG, Benjamin Damage, and some new faces too, which is important. You know, there are so many DJs nowadays, I look at the fliers for parties and barely recognise any names. Everyone’s a DJ now. I appreciate the feeling when you know what you [are going to] get. We need to keep safe spaces for good music.

We were crazy enough to do weekly parties every Thursday at this hip-hop club called Kurvenstar in Hackescher Markt, back around ‘99. This became too popular, so we had to move it to WMF-Club, and from that point on we played everywhere.

But with the success of Moderat – and all the touring it involved – we didn’t find time to do that so much anymore. We wanted to keep the idea alive, though, by doing regular parties at Ohm which had no line-up announcements – which we had to stop because of Covid. Now, we’re going to start doing things again, but we’re looking for a cool concept, because we’re kind of tired of the typical club thing now.

After all these years, how does it feel to step fully back into being Modeselektor?

We’ve always been Modeselektor, but the people we play music for now weren’t even born when we started. To find our identity involved researching and recovering ideas. At the moment, we’re about to re-record the first two Modeselektor records, which is a very emotional process. We were very chaotic back then. We’re trying to remember what Modeselektor was about. We learned it was about being fun, giving a hit, the hype and being self-confident and positive. It’s about being Berlin.

When you tour a lot like we do, you see the changes in your city. It’s like someone who only sees their child every three months; every time you see them, they’re a bit older. But the city isn’t as important as the people who are part of the culture. We’re realising more and more that we’re a part of this, and because of this, we want to find a different direction. We want to make the coolest parties, release the coolest music and support the younger talent.

How do you see Berlin’s music scene evolving, and what role do you want to play in shaping it?

Berlin is now more international than it used to be; it has become safer and more expensive at the same time. Covid for me was the final bullet in the head for the old Berlin. You have some institutions that survived, but a lot no longer exist. Everything is changing, and we appreciate it. At the moment, it’s more interesting to see how the mindset of the young generation is different. The music styles are so different, but the music sometimes is so shit. There’s some really good stuff coming out, like Arca and Onehotrix Point Never, but then you have a mega-ton of really bad music. I don’t want to be like this old guy always complaining about stuff, but…

What led you to scale back Monkeytown, and how has that changed the label’s identity?

We used to have this huge office and studio. We had so many people working for us, and I would go out on tour, come back and see people there I’d never met before and they wouldn’t even say hello. It just got out of control. Around two years ago we knew that needed to change. We wanted to go back to our roots. I want to know the music we release and still be able to talk to the artist. If it’s smaller, fuck it. If it doesn’t make any money, who cares? That’s not what makes us happy.

Seeing artists like FJAAK – whom you helped launch – succeed: what does that mean for you personally?

It was around 2009, and I got a tip from someone who told me to check their music out. They were making this true Berlin-sounding, cool, E-Werk techno. So, we found out that all three of them were living in this one-room apartment in Spandau. They’d already pressed one record. I listened to it and realised we had to sign [them].

We think they followed in our mind and spirit, building community with the label SPANDAU20 and putting on raves with friends. It really makes us want to go back to this and do the same thing, but at the same time, we’re no longer 25-year-olds.

What’s on the horizon for you?

So, we’re reopening our new office in Kreuzberg, and the first record after this will be by Siriusmo again. This was the first record we released, and the reason we founded Monkeytown in the first place. We’re also re-recording the first two Modeselektor albums, because we think the originals sound really bad. It’s a long process of going through the old files and re-recording certain parts, but it will be worth it.