The/Das Interview

Fabian Fenk talks about The/Das and his solo Pantasz project as we look forward to Berlin Berlin on April 2nd

Berlin-based act The/Das' line-up might have shifted over the years, but at the centre of the group's techno tenderness, from the beginning until now, has been Fabian Fenk.

Performing at Berlin Berlin on Saturday April 2nd for Chalet Club alongside Aquarius Heaven, we spoke to Fabian about the origins of The/Das, working with Tale of Us, the resurrection of his original Pantasz moniker and Krakatau label (home to Apparat, Siriusmo, Robag Wruhme, Christian Löffler, Uffe, Benjamin Damage and Lake People), and what you should listen to before hearing him play at Egg London.

Full info and tickets for Berlin Berlin here.

Your RA biography calls your sound ''techno tenderness". How would you explain this? And who influenced this direction, either recently or in terms of who you grew up listening to?

We grew up listening to all kinds of stuff: Laurie Anderson, Nirvana, The Doors, David Bowie, The Knife, Sun Ra, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Mouse On Mars to name a few… Our first encounter with techno was not before the end of the '90s and happened more as a side effect. Back then we were looking for the whole package, the intensity of the sound, pretty girls, the smell of fog machines and blinding lights, rather then the acidy vision of a future in 138bpm. In this regards our love for techno and later housier sounds is the result of a steady Berlin diet of straight bass drums and an ever growing admiration for sound and social experiments between Thursday evening and Tuesday morning, with tenderness being the attribute to describe our organic approach towards writing songs and producing tracks.

It's been a couple of years now since your last release. When come we expect some music? Is there a new album on the way?

Yeah, we are working on finishing our second album right now that we're planning to release before the end of this year. Besides that, we've been asked to write the theme or title song for the Manifesta 1, a biennale art fair that will take place in Zurich this summer.

Apparently there are three of you in The/Das now. Can you tell us about the line-up change? Has this altered the creative process?

The/Das started out as a duo, Anton Feist and Fabian Fenk, two of the three members of Bodi Bill. We produced our EPs with Life and Death and most parts of the album as a team of two, but realised that we needed help from Apparat drummer Jörg Wähner and studio colleague Thomalla for our live shows. In January last year Feist decided to take a break from The/Das, hence the number three.

Who came up with your name? Did you know that there was an English band called The The in the '80s?

The/Das came to us standing in the backyard of Prince Charles considering weird band names like L'ark, Don Camisi, Neutra, Mehls, Major Leisure, Curtains, Limbo and Adopted-A-Giant-Lama, when we realized that all we want is a name that works like a blank page, a vessel with no preconception… I guess using only an English slash German article gave us the good feeling of not saying too much. I mean, at this point all we knew was that we were about to release one EP on Life and Death and one on Sinnbus and that we were still, and always will be, looking for the right sound. But yeah, I have to admit that Manfredi (DJ Tennis) 'warned' us about The The right after… I have to say, it's more of a nice coincidence that already in the '80s somebody has been artsy enough to choose this kind of a master plan name.

Fabian, you have material from Pantasz, your first musical project, on The/Das page. Can you tell us what is happening with this? Are you setting out solo?

Pantasz is my solo and also oldest alter ego. I had a few warpy electronica releases in 2002 and 2003, but P went into hibernation when Bodi Bill started to take over all my time. After playing all these shows with The/Das as a band with live drums and turning our backs on playing in techno clubs, I started to really miss playing live in clubs… So when friends from Mexico invited me to play their festival in January 2016 I decided that it's time to work out some of my solo material, def more clubby, less vocals; I guess it's also more housey and less techno, but of course still tender as the night. Already, after playing only four gigs, I know that Pantasz is something I wanna explore more this year. I'm working on two EPs. I don't feel any pressure, but it's very inspiring to have a new playground for ideas and sounds, and it's a great reason to also revamp our label Krakatau for that.

What should we listen to that will get us in the mood for your set at Egg?

I think Dorisburg's last releases, but also DMX Crew's last album could be a good starting point. Depending on the colour of the strobes (or no strobes) my set should be more or less trippy, but def it'll be somewhat of a trip. I love to travel back and fourth between techno and house, so you can also expect some Anno Stamm or Konstantin Tschechow somewhere in there. If you feel like it, check out my last two mixes on SoundCloud…