Photo by Noel Richter
These days probably feeling anything but isolated, Berlin’s best indie nihilists play a homecoming gig at Astra Kulturhaus in support of new album Vergifte Dich.
“In Berlin, not everyone you meet engages you in conversation or is overly friendly. I’ve never been a very communicative person, but here it often used to feel like I was invisible. It was a very anonymous experience amongst this mass of people.
I went to the clubs, I really gave it a shot. But I just didn’t feel comfortable in the party scene. Not being a fan of electronic music didn’t help either. When you’re surrounded by party people and you feel uncomfortable, you become this sad foreign body that everyone finds almost revolting because you’re such a buzzkill. I had friends who thrived exclusively within the party scene. I became estranged from them because I didn’t fit in. All that can make you feel very lost and isolated.
But how do you escape the city if you only have the money to buy pasta and tomato sauce? If you can barely make it out of bed, how are you supposed to find the energy to hitchhike to Italy? Sitting at home, however, is the worst thing you can do. It’s better to just start walking somewhere, aimlessly. To take the S-Bahn, get off and just walk. It calms you down. I do it constantly. I have my regular routes, but I also try to discover new places. I walk until I don’t feel like it anymore, then I take a train home.
Of course, with our success, I’m recognised more often in the streets these days, and that makes me almost laugh out loud. Isolation Berlin, my ass.”
Isolation Berlin May 12, 20:00, Astra Kulturhaus, Friedrichshain
