Music preview: Modeselektor at Canal Mills, Leeds

Modeselektor have recently being touring as a threesome under their Moderat moniker on a sold out world tour.
ModeselektorModeselektor
Modeselektor

Back in their homeland now of Berlin they are now ready to perform back under their Monkey Town persona and hit Leeds for the first time in years this New Year’s Day. 2017 will also mark new music as well as an inkling into another Moderat full length. Rob Chadwick sits down with the duo of Sebastian Szary and Gernot Bronsert about the amazing headline show at Canal Mills.

How was the tour as Moderat, any highlights? How is it it different from touring with Modeselektor?

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The whole tour with Moderat was pure madness. To be on tour in a big tourbus with a trailer full of equipment is very impressive. Most of the time we’ve been on tour in blocks of two or three weeks. The total was around 70-75 show. We always played a lot, but this time we’ve played 18 gigs in a row, which was for us an all new experience. We were on tour with crew of 17 people, so it was definitely a bit like a class trip. With Modeselektor everything is always easier like for other DJs. Always a nice hotel, only five people in the crew, no big luggage. That is the main difference.

You’ve done the live album also that has been released, was it a long precess to map out the live recording and how did you know which city to record it in? Was there always a city you had in mind?

We recorded quite a lot on this tour, but the recordings were not often very satisfying. Most of the time we listened to it straight after the gig on the bus, but we always found something, that didn’t fit. The recording in Berlin just suited our expectations... That was just a coincidence. We never planned it to be the place to record it, but that made it even better that everything went well in Berlin.

Were there any cities that surprised you in particular? Cities where you expected to be less good than they turned out to be?

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To be honest, we’ve been surprised everywhere. All of the gigs were bigger than what we used to do when we played headline shows before. To sell out the Brixton Academy in London is definitely a mile stone in our career. But also Moscow, Helsinki, Mexico City and Berlin were major shows on this tour... The whole thing was just very impressive.

You’re playing Leeds for the first time in a while, you must be excited about the gig and the people you play with?

Once we played in Leeds, it was at a rave under a bridge, many years ago. It was raining cats and dogs, but the crowd didn’t care. The gig was amazing. When the wind started to get stronger and the rain began to soak all of our equipment, we asked the stage manager for a plastic cover to protect our set up. He went but came back with two beers. He didn’t have any covers any more but we should just have a beer for now. The rain stopped and the rave went on...

Do we have new Modeselektor music next year?

We hope so! We’re back in studio from the beginning of next year on to produce new stuff. If everything goes well. Who knows, maybe by the end of 2017 there will be something.

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What releases do you have in 2017 that we can expect on Monkeytown?

Oh yeah, we have some nice stuff coming up on Monkeytown! There will be albums by FJAAK, Shed and Dark Sky. And you never know, maybe something new by Siriusmo...

Modeselektor play Canal Mills on New Year’s Day alongside The Black Madonna and Floating Points. Details: https://www.facebook.com/CanalMills/?fref=ts

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