I spent a lot of 2007 watching youtube videos of my favorite electronic artists performing live sets. Sadly, I was in love with a genre of music that could only be successfully performed within a few American cites, of which I didn’t live anywhere near. So the best I could do was live vicariously through screaming crowds and flashing lights caught on camera phones from fans lucky enough to be living in Europe, LA or NY at the time.

Digitalism are one of the supergroups to emerge from that year with a brilliant album and a slew of excellent remixes to follow. Their music, a mixture of analog and digital dance elements, was on heavy rotation in my car, and If i was riding in someone else’s car, I’d make sure it was playing on their speakers too.

Around the time their Blitz/Stratosphere EP was released, I was able to have a few words with Jens “Jence” Moelle (pictured on the right), which I planned on publishing closer to the release of their second album, due a week from today.

Here we go!

First off, congrats on the success of “Blitz.”  A lot of djs are saying it does really well with the crowds. Where was the first place you played it out?

Thank you. Weird, I guess the first place was last year at a one-off event we did with the record store we used to work at back then. It was all about 1990s and early 2000s records, but we also dropped “Blitz”. Didn’t fit in there but we wanted to listen to it and still it did its job.

Would you rather hear “Stratosphere” at the beginning or ending credits of a movie?

You know most of our music would be ending titles music. We like the aesthetics behind something that is actually very long and could play on forever, like when you take a 12” and it’s broke, so the needle will skip back to the same groove again and again.
“Stratosphere” would be ending credits, too.

I remember reading somewhere that Idealism is a themed album centered around a continuous story. Is this true and if so, can you give us some insight on that story?

There is certainly a loose story behind “Idealism,” but we don’t have a clue about it. That’s up to the listener. It’s like we have this movie ready but we don’t know much about the script in detail. But that’s better – like reading a book. It leaves room for imagination.

There’s a heavy sci-fi and space age influence on Idealism. What books/music/movies influenced this project?

Usually we absorb a lot of things but none of them is of particular direct influence. When we grew up we got in touch with the first home computers like Atari or C64, first PCs and all that. People programming on them were pretty creative due to the limits of the gear. They came up with amazing games and graphics, and soundtracks especially. There was a very famous sound chip on the C64 called SID which is like “the typical 8-bit sound”.
Technology and adventure always inspired us more or less. The thing about space is that nothing human or day-to-day really matters, it’s about the bigger picture.

There’s been a lot of nostalgic talk recently about how great 2007 was. Can you think of any particular reasons why that year was such an important one for dance music?

There are people including us who grew up during the 1980s and 1990, listening to the first electronic music and techno, trance and following the rise of dance music. We guess 2007 just happened to be the year when these people were ready to contribute to the scene. It’s what many called the “New Generation of Producers”.

When you were growing up, who were your musical heroes?

We didn’t really have any heroes, like a favourite band or something. We used to tape hours and hours of radio stuff and kept the genre spectrum very wide. This also got us into dance music in the early 1990s when we discovered the weekly dance charts (classic old school house back then) on a local radio station in Hamburg. The presenter, Gerd Bischoff, is a genius music journalist and knows everything about everyone in music. Later he got his own show at German MTV presenting new music. He’s kind of our musical hero.

One of my favorite tracks on Idealism is “Homezone” and “Space Cowboy” was my favorite off of the Kitsune Tabloid Mix. Both draw from early electro break-beat sounds. Were you ever part of a dance crew back in the day?

Haa, no, never. But we love the late 1980’s/early 1990s dance culture!

How do your German roots affect the sound of your music?

Someone said it’s got a pretty serious touch to it.

Writing song lyrics is intimidating, especially in a second language. How did you go about the song writing process for tracks with vocals on them?

The music always comes first and then we see what we can write on top. This never really works, so in the third step we dissect everything again and put it back together in a fourth step. It’s hardcore! The language is no problem for us because we are surrounded by English everyday. Our team consists of people from all over the world. Also, it’s probably easier to say something personal in another language.

How did you and İsmail meet and what roles do each of you play in making up the sound of Digitalism?

We met in a record store I was working in in 2000. Isi used to buy records there and also help out from time to time. Hanging out at the store led to DJing and later on making music together.
We work like Yin and Yang, Isi is more playful in the music whereas I am more serious, and I like to go harder; Isi is more into mellow stuff. That’s the power balance.

What is the significance behind choosing the Cure’s “Fire in Cairo” as a sample in “Digitalism in Cairo”?

There was no particular reason for it. We were listening to the “Boys Don’t Cry” album (which is brilliant!!) and stumbled across this song spelling its name in the chorus. We wanted to hear that part more often so we sampled it and made an edit so we could play it in DJ sets. For the “Digitalism In Cairo” song we re-played and re-recorded the sample. It was just so good.

What commissioned remix were you most excited to be working on?

Don’t know, each one has been a real pleasure.

Would you consider melody to be a crucial part in making a good electronic song?

No, electronic music can be very stripped down. It doesn’t necessarily need melody. But if you want to make a good song, regardless of the genre, then it’s all and only about the melodies.

What 2010 trends would you like to see left behind in 2011?

Movie sequels and autotune pop. But I just read that 2011 is the year with the most movie sequels ever. Hm..

What sounds can we expect from your upcoming album?

Like the last time we are gonna bring sounds to Planet Earth that have not been around.

Bonus Round:

In your video for Pogo you were sporting some pretty fly golden sneakers. What’s your favorite pair of shoes?

At the moment I have a pair of Margiela sneakers that I’m wearing to death. That’s probably bad for my feet. You should change your shoes as much as you can.

Who was your least favorite teacher growing up?

Probably the biology lady. She was a small old frustrated woman.

Favorite hotel you’ve stayed at?

We had a really cool golf resort high society hotel when we once played in Italy. The thing was, we didn’t even have time to enjoy it, we arrived late and had to leave early in the morning. So, you know, I don’t even know if it was that good or not!

Celebrity crush?

We have an anti-crush for Ke$ha. Does that count? [yes.]

Many thanks from a huge fan!
-Joseph

Digitalism – I Love You Dude out June 20/21 via V2/Cooperative Music/Downtown

Check thedigitalism.com for tour dates & follow them on Soundcloud for downloadble freebies.