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Moderatto  

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Moderatto (formed in 1999) is a Mexican glam and hard rock parody cover band that rose to prominence in the early 2000s with high-flown covers of Poison, Mötley Crüe, and Alice Cooper – hailing from Mexico City, Mexico.

Initially formed as a cathartic side-project away from the members’ original bands, Moderatto’s popularity soon grew to outweigh that of their other, more ‘serious’ groups. Originally comprised of lead singer and guitarist Jay De La Cueva, bassist Javier “Cha!” Ramírez, lead guitarist Marcelo Lara, guitarist and synth player Iñaki Vazquez, and drummer Randy Ebright, Ebright departed in 2003 and was replaced by the more than capable Elohim Corona. Adorned in Alice Cooper and Kiss inspired make-up combined with the elaborate glamour of Mötley Crüe, Moderatto found themselves with a growing tongue-in-cheek fan base prior to the release of any music.

In 2001 the band released their debut, full-length album “Resurrexión”, which propelled the group to a national level thanks to the singles “Márchate Ya” and “Isabel”. Looking to break out of the club scene, Moderatto’s significant radio play brought the band to new audiences. On top of the band’s own material, their theatrical and elaborately designed live shows featured classic ’80's covers including Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” and The Knack’s “My Sharona”. With the release of Moderatto’s sophomore album, “El Detector de Metal” in 2004, the group made their mainstream breakthrough. Aided by a cover of Timbiriche’s “Muriendo Lento” with the assistance of vocalist Belinda, the record led to high profile shows at the Auditorio Nacional and the Teatro Metropolitan.

Led by the single “Sentimettal”, which rose to No. 3 on the Mexican Pop Charts, Moderatto’s third album “¡Grrrr!” appeared at the end of 2006. Criticised by many metal and hard rock fans for their commercial style, the band has been able to bridge the gap between pop and metal sectors. The full-length “Moderatto Army” arrived in 2007, followed by the studio albums “Queremos Rock” in 2008, “Carisma” in 2012, and “Malditos Pecadores” in 2014.

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De los mejores concierto a los que he ido en mi vida, super recomendado. Lleno de energía, euforia, y mucha buena vibra, Moderado se convirtió en una de mis bandas favoritas a partir de esa noche.

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Best show I've seen in a while ! So entertaining. ! Will see them again next time they're in town Everyone in the audience engaged with the artist ! Loved the no hassle to get in to the venue !

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Moderat: “We surf through Bandcamp and take inspiration but don’t translate it like-for-like”

Sebastian Szary reveals the production secrets of Moderat’s fourth album, MORE D4TA and tells us how the group stays inspired.

Moderat. Image: Birgit Kaulfuss

“I think it’s still the cinematic sound”, says Sebastian Szary, musing over the thread that connects Moderat’s work. “You know, after four albums, it’s still the soundtrack for a movie that hasn’t been written yet.”

It’s something that can be heard across the band’s music, in the way the energy ebbs and flows, the way emotional synths combine with grand, percussive gestures. It’s hard to pinpoint the sound exactly but it involves electronic soundscapes, haunting vocals and textured beats.

• READ MORE: Show Off Your Studio: Gundelach’s Shapeshifter came to life in his Oslo studio

Szary is one-third of German electronic music supergroup Moderat, alongside Gernot Bronsert, who he works with as Modeselektor, and Sascha Ring, otherwise known as Apparat.

He sits in a studio used by renowned techno producer Marcel Dettmann in Berlin, which is next to the office for Modeselektor’s own label, Monkeytown Records. It’s a quiet space away from the mass of kit in their own studio next door, which is currently being setup ready for rehearsals. “Over in our main studio, the stage setup for Moderat is set up with all the tables, a mixer, samplers, synthesizers, and modular. It’s kind of complicated.”

Complicated but unsurprising, given that all three members are electronic music veterans known for their production prowess and experimental use of electronics. With new album MORE D4TA out May 13, they are about to embark on an epic global tour for the remainder of the year. MORE D4TA  comes off the back of a prolific year of heavyweight Modeselektor releases, including their 2021 albums Extended and EXTLP , plus a string of EPs. And prior to that, Apparat released four Soundtrack  albums in 2020 that weaves atmospheric moods with intricate percussion.

The trio first started working together back in 2003 with the release of the Auf Kosten der Gesundheit  EP. This was followed by three successful albums in 2009, 2013 and 2016, and extensive touring that saw the trio performing at some of the world’s biggest festivals. However, after performing their final hometown concert in Berlin in 2017, the group announced a hiatus that many thought signalled the end of Moderat. Two years later, though, the seed was being sown for creating more music.

“We met in summer 2019,” says Szary, “Sasha and Gernot and me, and we started talking about should we go back in the studio with Moderat. At this time, each of us had been on tour with our own projects, with Modeselektor and with Apparat.”

At that point, they had no idea that the pandemic would bring an end to their upcoming shows and disrupt the entire industry. They could, however, get back in the studio. In March 2020, Moderat finished the first draft of Fast Land , the track that would become the opener of MORE D4TA .

“Then after this, it was a little bit of silence,” says Szary. We finished our [Modeselektor] album Extended  and Sasha became a daddy. Then in the summer, we started to come back to the Moderat table.”

Despite all three members being involved with the composition and production of the tracks, Sascha Ring takes the lead when it comes to vocals and lyrics. His delicate voice can be heard on most tracks on the new album, sometimes with clear messages, other times intricately processed, pitched and manipulated to become part of the music itself.

A lot of Ring’s inspiration came from frequent trips to Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie museum, often with his infant daughter. It’s here that he sought solace from the outside world and spent time with the great paintings of the past – the track More Love  was partly inspired by Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus .

Szary was also looking to art for inspiration and, like the rest of the world, doing some soul-searching during lockdown. “Sometimes you discover new things and you see them from another angle. I got into the Romantic period with German Romantic painting. In 2020 when you hang around and nothing’s happened, it’s only you and you find yourself. It was like a trip, and then I found the layer I can work on and bring to Moderat.”

All these elements come together on the new album, which seamlessly blends experimental modular work, field recordings and intricate processing and signal degradation with emotive pop melodies and compelling chord progressions.

Szary lists the band Low as another influence, particularly the albums Double Negative and Hey What . “They are located more in the indie/guitar-cosm. The composition and also the engineering is grandiose, it’s fantastic. That was really inspiring”.

Monkeytown Records is known for championing acts that value experimental music and production, so it’s no surprise that the band spent time hunting down unique music from all corners of the internet for MORE D4TA . “We also took influences from contemporary music from all the platforms. Especially when you’re surfing through Bandcamp and you find a lot of talented musicians. You take inspiration but you don’t translate them one to one.”

The trio use Bandcamp to brilliant effect. Last year, they released unreleased Modeselektor material from the Extended  project exclusively on the platform.

With all these ideas and inspiration from different sources spread across three members, the band had to find a way to bring it all together. Luckily, after three albums of material, they have developed a distinct workflow that allows them to refine their ideas.

“The process was to put ideas and sketches from the past in a folder and then to ask, ‘Is it relevant for the new album or not?’” says Szary. “That was point zero, and then we came into creating something new from scratch.”

The new tracks and ideas were then created on different platforms at different times and all added into the shared folder. When the band listened back, if they felt inspired and that a song fit with the vision for the album, they’d develop it into a full piece.

From the beginning of 2021, Moderat held weekly sessions to work on the material, with splinter sessions for developing specific elements.

There are examples of experimental sound design and modular sound on the album, plus detailed, subtle glitch effects. “My part was to concentrate on the things in between. That space you have when you listen to sound where you can experiment. Like when a file is interrupting and you’re looking for some errors or some bad bounces. I tried to convert sample rate and bit rates so you have artefacts.”

At its core, MORE D4TA  is an album that wrestles with feelings of isolation and the idea of information overload. “The title came quite late. And we thought, ‘Okay, we are really stressed out by too much input, too much data input’. So you can have input when you go out on the streets but when you switch on all your platforms or your messaging, it’s sometimes too much data. Then we translate the name, Moderat 4 into More Data. It’s an anagram.”

Given the success of the previous tour for the album III , it was inevitable that MORE D4TA  would make the transition from studio to stage. It’s mostly Gernot’s role to work out how best to make this happen but Szary points out that you have to have different points of view at the composing stage.

“We have to think about how it sounds as a solo track and how to make the album playlist run like a soundtrack,” he says. “And then at the same time, how can we make it work on stage and how can we connect it with other tracks we already have from three previous albums?”

A lot of the tracks on the album are dynamic, with constant movement and modulation in the synthlines and textures. Szary says that Moderat use the album tracks as fingerprints to translate a perfect copy to the stage, before working out if there’s space to take it in different directions. Macros allow control of multiple parameters at once.

“I work on the MPC live. So I have the possibility to have macros on these little dials. Sasha also has macros on his digital setup, but we keep it as simple as possible. So when we add new equipment, we have to remember that every human being only has two hands.”

To keep the performances interesting, the band leaves space for improvisation. Some sections can be held for longer on stage, for example, but the structure and key musical moments remain essential. “I think the secret of the show is that you have fixed moments you can trust.”

With more than 50 shows lined up for 2022, Moderat has a busy year ahead. After a break from touring during the pandemic, the opportunity to play a few Modeselektor shows last year helped with preparations.

“It was nice to see the LED wall from the backside on some stages and to smell parts of a concert – and to be backstage and to have your damaged ears the next day. It was like being on stage for the first time. So I think we are prepared. And we have a really good team.”

This involves PFA Studio, formerly Pfadfinderei, developing some visual delights that will help to elevate the music and make the shows more of a spectacle.

It seems the hiatus has been beneficial to Moderat, as their fourth album is perhaps their most creative, intricate and hopeful-sounding release to date.

MORE D4TA is out now . Catch Moderat on tour from May to December.

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Moderat in Their Own Words: On Anti-Inspiration & the ‘Disease’ of Perfectionism

Nestled in a corner of New York's elegant NoMad Hotel, German electronic trio Moderat pick at appetizers with the weary contentment of artists who have seen a long project to fruition. That or jetlag.

By Matt Medved

Matt Medved

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Nestled in a corner of New York’s elegant NoMad Hotel, German electronic trio Moderat  pick at appetizers with the weary contentment of artists who have seen a long project to fruition. That or jetlag.

Bassnectar in His Own Words: On Waking Dreams and Wild Moments

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Features framed by perpetually tangled brown hair, singer/multi-instrumentalist Sascha Ring — known to fans as Apparat  — jokes about having narcolepsy before turning serious:  “It feels like we finished something.”

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Considering the timeline, that’s an understatement. It’s been fourteen years since Ring first met Modeselektor’s Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary while coming up as the self-described “outlaws” of Berlin’s fertile electronic music scene.

Moderat Releases First Single ‘Reminder’ From Forthcoming Album ‘III’

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Prior to joining forces for their eponymous debut LP in April 2009, Moderat’s members  focused on their own projects while keeping similar company. In 2005,  Modeselektor  dropped debut  album Hello Mom! on Ellen Allien’s BPitch Control imprint  and became a favorite of Radiohead ‘s Thom Yorke , who featured on their 2007 follow-up Happy Birthday!  and two songs since. Meanwhile, Apparat  released two critically acclaimed albums — 2006’s Orchestra of Bubbles with Allien and 2007’s Walls — and toured with, you guessed it, Radiohead.

In 2013, t he trio reunited for sophomore effort  II , which included their near-ubiquitous European hit “ Bad Kingdom .” Ring’s subsequent motorcycle accident derailed their world tour and tested their resilience, but the outfit bounced back six months later to realize their onstage visions across North America, Europe, Russia and Georgia.

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Consumed by the drive to complete their envisioned album trilogy,  Moderat  built a new studio in Berlin’s bohemian  Kreuzberg  neighborhood and set about painstakingly producing what would become  III , their song-oriented third album released last month. As for the project’s future following their  ongoing tour ,  Bronsert  readily admits, “I don’t know. We all don’t know.”

Without further ado, Moderat in their own words.

You’ve described making III as ‘satisfying but not enjoyable.’ Why?

Sascha Ring:  The challenge is always that we have to find common ground again. There’s always a little time in between and people change as well. People are turned onto other kinds of music or whatever and then we meet again in the studio and suddenly it’s shifted. We wouldn’t really like the stuff we did last time and then we have to readjust. So it takes quite a few months to go through this period and then at some point we are synchronized and then it’s just… really easy suddenly.

Have the songs changed a lot from their original versions?

Gernot Bronsert:  All of them. I think only “The Fool” just popped up like this (snaps) for me. I lost a little bit of hope during the production that songs like “Reminder” wouldn’t make it on the record. It was close, we finished it at the very end. The same with the second single, “Running.” This was also a b***h. Especially because Sascha hated it in the end.

Ring:  It’s always the problem if you’re the musician, the producer, the singer, everything in one person. You listen to it so f***king often and you get tired.

Your ears burn out.

Ring:  Also your brain. So at some point you have no choice… you just start hating the songs and then you need the others to cheer you up and to be like ‘No it’s great, the song is a keeper.’ Otherwise, there’s always a moment when each of us would throw a song away because they hate it. And then the others come in and it’s really important that they’re there to save the songs.

Sounds like perfectionism.

Bronsert:  It’s a disease. It’s not just the music. It continues with the artwork. With everything. The tour.

Ring: If you make anything, who wouldn’t be a perfectionist? You always want it to be the best possible, that’s why I never really understood that term. Maybe some people get more obsessed with it than others, maybe some people can say ‘Easy it’s done’ and some can’t. And since digital music production, it has become much harder to say that something is finished.

What does the future hold for Moderat now that the album trilogy is complete?

Ring: Right now it’s a big mystery. But it feels like we finished something. The main reason to do this record was to have more material to play live because that’s what we actually enjoy most in the end. At some point if you don’t have enough material to choose from, it’s not so easy to play. Our shows shouldn’t be like song after song after song. It should be some kind of dynamic curve and they need to have transitions from time to time, so it’s better to have more material.

What do you envision for the tour?

Ring: The first two shows had some kind of more or less iconic shape which you could already recognize even when the show hadn’t started. And now it’s just got to be stage with three tables and a different shape, but there’s nothing you wouldn’t see. It just all comes together during the show. What we always wanted was more of…. just like the right order of things and the dynamics. So we’re trying to work on this a lot, I think that’s really important. I learned this while making theater music.

Bronsert:   The composition through the whole show, you know. Telling the story.

Ring:  I worked with a director who always makes very long plays and one was 5 1/2 hours and it was very impressive how the few things he had kept it interesting during the five hours. Just because he took a lot of time to introduce new elements and I think that was quite inspiring.   For a live show generally, it’s always very important to remember if you want to hear something very big, you need to go small before that and it’s all about the contrast.

What’s special or different about performing together compared with your individual projects? 

Ring: It takes a little bit of the pressure away onstage if you share responsibilities, you know if one person fucks, up the whole thing still works somehow. And you also don’t have the feeling that everybody is watching, especially you at one time.

Bronsert:  It’s a band now, basically. When we play as Modeselektor, it’s a couple. Longtime couple on stage… but with Moderat, it’s very powerful. We have more to say. It’s not just simply  dance music. You know when I was little, I was sitting in my room and I had these two turntables. I worked my ass off to buy them. I was DJing in my room and always imagined DJing in front of thousands of people. This happened, you know. But I always had this second dream in my mind that I always wanted to be a band, part of a band, but not the typical band with guitars, it was never a guitar.

And now you’re the DJ in the band.

Bronsert:  Now I’m the DJ in the band. You know, guitar music never really touched my soul. So I was not a rock guy. We met the Radiohead guys later and it was different, but this is not really guitar music for me but… now we are all starting to bring the childhood dream into reality a little bit. Like leaving the clubs and playing the big stages.

  off to Chicago now… Montreal was so good… (pic by @charlineprovost) #montreal #moderat #pfadfinderei #apparat #modeselektor #berlin A photo posted by “III” OUT NOW! (@moderat_band) on May 21, 2016 at 6:58am PDT

Where else do you draw your inspiration from?

Bronsert: I get inspired when I see other bands playing in festivals, but never because I want to make something they do. I always don’t want to do what they do. Most of them show me things I never want to do, which is also an inspiration. And I think this is basically the sense of Moderat. We don’t know which direction this goes, but we all know which directions it never should go. This is basically our aim. The problem with this way of creation is that you are never satisfied. You know ‘Ok this is what I want to do but only because I really know what I don’t want to do.’ It’s like too philosophical or not?

Ring:  I mean it’s the same with inspiration — that’s called inspiration onstage… the same as when listening to other music to get inspiration, which is important.

Bronsert: It’s crazy for me, I never get inspired musically when I see someone.

Ring:  That’s anti-inspiration.

Bronsert: It’s anti-inspiration. It’s minus negative inspiration 

Ring : (gestures to Szary) How about Einstein? 

Sebastian Szary : I always get inspired by sound. When I see a band or concert, I’m impressed by the sound. That’s why I start thinking to regroup and produce records and I discover bands like Iron Maiden through regrouping. Not because I’m a metal guy. But I just want to discover how, because I’m into sounds and recording.

Are there specific sounds or techniques that have inspired you that way?

Bronsert: I think if I know too much about techniques, it destroys magic. I’m not a technique guy. I need someone like Szary or Sascha who can control the machines and tell me what to do. So I’m always like ‘I want this sound,’ but I don’t know how to create it. Help, help me now. And then they show me and they make it even better.

Szary: For me it’s like a feeling of cinema. If I’m listening to a really good movie or a really good soundtrack… it’s the moment the soundtrack fits perfectly to the picture. So it depends on sound and depends on harmony and the mood. I think it’s great. But also you have movies without soundtracks.

How do you feel the democratization of digital technology has changed electronic music?

Ring : Now there’s much more of it. Which is a little difficult because to find good music as a DJ, you have to listen to like mountains of shit. But I think that’s a good thing, because back in the day it was an elite thing. You needed money to produce electronic music, it’s expensive equipment. When I started I had to sell my turntables in order to be able to afford a synthesizer. Now that’s unnecessary, you just get a desktop, steal all the software and then you become Avicii and make millions.

  Thank you New York! #moderat2016 #apparat #modeselektor #newyork A photo posted by “III” OUT NOW! (@moderat_band) on May 19, 2016 at 9:34pm PDT

What is your perspective on electronic music’s current presence in America?

Bronsert:  It became a business everywhere in the world, but America is the place where everything becomes the biggest business because the whole culture is really about that. So obviously here it was done in a much more aggressive manner than anywhere else. I mean even Berlin used to be such a underground town and it’s still somehow the same clubs, but everything is run much more professionally and also the clubs don’t take so many risks anymore.

I think it’s good on the other hand. I mean we are all pretty well-educated in terms of electronic music and subculture and stuff like this, so I can see very quickly if something is fake. And I think you asked how technology changed the electronic music scene… I think of course there’s much more music and much more bad music. Just have to go through it. But I think the interesting part of living in this electronic bubble is to find the right stuff, to search for it and see what’s fake and what’s not, and to discover things. And we all do this but in three totally different ways, so we like different music, we have different approaches to look for music. We have different tastes and this makes it very interesting. 

Ring: Going back to the question of the current American world of electronic music, I think there’s always a chance in the huge, mass phenomenon because it’s mostly kids. And it’s like a gateway and even if just one of those EDM kids decides to dig deeper and they want to find the real shit and find out where everything comes from, it’s still a huge amount of people for a more healthier club scene. So for me, it’s a parallel universe. We never get in touch with it. There are EDM festivals in Europe, but it’s never mixed. They try like an underground stage at Tomorrowland but we never…

Bronsert: We don’t see it.

Ring: So it’s a parallel universe and I think at some point if some of those kids just take the starship and come over to our universe at some point, that’s great. 

Moderat Tour Dates

Thu. May 19 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall

Fri. May 20 – Montreal, QC @ Metropolis

Sat. May 21 – Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall

Mon. May 23 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre

Tue. May 24 – Seattle, WA @ The Showbox

Thu. May 26 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre

Fri. May 27 – San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park

Sat. May 28 – Bradley, CA @ Lightning in a Bottle Festival

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Sometimes music is about numbers sequences. When Modeselektor [ Gernot Bronsert + Sebastian Szary ] and Apparat [ Sascha Ring ] decide to become one, it is a trio band called Moderat who is brought into their tuneful world. Good things always come in threes and the result of this brilliant addition is unambiguous: hardly anybody has brought electronic music from Berlin to the farthest flung corners of the world with more passion and enthusiasm than these two heavyweights.

In 2002, Sascha, Gernot and Sebastian met for the first time. At that point in time, Apparat and Modeselektor were well established in the Berlin music scene. Sascha had already released his debut album and Gernot and Sebastian, a series of 12’’s. Collaborating together wasn’t even debatable, the question was: When will they join forces? Walls of Berlin music studios have ears that know how privileged they were: they have witnessed during nearly 15 years the birth of several timeless gems. Moderat laid the foundation stone in 2003 with their very first release “Auf Kosten der Gesundheit” EP. The three friends saw at this exact period their careers in pairs and solo soar, and the release of their eponymous debut album in April 2009, did not bring them down. Perhaps the secret of Modeselektor’s and Apparat’s collaboration lies in the fact that they never even tried to get close to one another.  Modeselektor’s thundering bass rumbles in the cellar, Apparat’s sensitive and subtle melodies float high in the eaves. The fact that what one assumes to be incompatible actually communicates, is what makes Moderat so unique.

Thus, when a band is successful, usually after a first album you would expect a second. Mathematics is all based on logic and it was not the time for surprises for Moderat. This one came out in August 2013 with Monkeytown Records and is soberly called II. Time passes and the group remains on the same path, counting the kilometers traveled from one side of the world to another to perform on stage. Concerts follow album releases, new singles precede new albums and the fans have become accustomed to this frenetic pace of events which allow them to enjoy the most authentic group in Berlin but also to closely follow what Sascha, Szary and Gernot offer from their subdivided work. Moderat are three family members that managed to create together what they don’t do individually. Modeselektor is holding the frame and brought the colors,  Apparat is painting the story that the group wants to tell us.

This is no surprise to anyone, the band members are also known for their witty humor. But do not get them wrong, they don’t mess with music, and certainly not on April Fool’s Day. They moderate. That day in 2016, they decided to release their third and thus far last album, III.  A  9-track album completed with bonus tracks and an instrumental version marking the end of the trilogy.

And then? A 4 years old promise. “ It’ll take us a while but we’ll be back! Stay tuned! ” 

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Moderat: "After 20 years of electronic music, the clean synth sound isn’t the most euphoric or rewarding sound to us"

Six years on from Moderat III, Berlin’s finest elektronische supergruppe emerge with sublime new album, MORE D4TA

It’s a busy press day in Modeselektor’s new studio in Berlin, which doubles as the nerve-centre and rehearsal space for Moderat, the hugely successful and equally influential band that exists when Modeselektor’s Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary join forces, musical ideas and hard-drives with Apparat aka Sascha Ring. 

MORE D4TA, is a tour de force of everything we’ve come to love from Moderat. Gritty synths, fractious beats and Ring’s haunting vocals bring the dancefloor into the song and the song out onto the dancefloor on what’s possibly their best musical offering to date. 

We caught up with Sascha in between rehearsals for the forthcoming Moderat tour to find out how sometimes, stripping back software and equipment can make a world of difference to the finished sound. As the adage goes, less is sometimes MORE D4TA. 

Was the decision for the three of you to reconvene as Moderat an organic thing? 

“Yeah, it was obvious from the beginning that there would be another Moderat album… it was never a goodbye. We just didn’t know when it would be happening. Basically, because we have to plan our lives a bit in advance, we knew it would be happening and we’d started talking about making a new album in, maybe, 2018. It’s always like that, when we take a break, we barely see each other… [laughs] so we really take the term ‘break’ seriously. 

“Also, we were touring with our separate projects, both doing different festivals, so we didn’t really bump into each other backstage for a while. Then we slowly started talking again, met for a coffee here at Modeselektor’s studio just to listen to some music before deciding to start work on a new album in August 2019. Then the pandemic threw us all out of our routine and flow, but it did give us a lot of time to concentrate on what we were doing.” 

So, you were all individually making lots of musical ideas during the lockdowns?

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“Luckily it was the early stages of the record anyway, so, whenever we start there’s always a lot of work going on in separate studios. Especially at my end as when I’m writing songs, I have to be alone. It’s like that part of making a record is nothing you can really share. In the past we had a studio with two rooms, so I’d just be in the other room and maybe occasionally show up with a song idea. So, we work like that anyway. 

“I was in my studio producing ideas, Gernot was out of town most of the time, so he was working in his little holiday home and Szary was here in Modeselektor’s studio. So, even though it sounds a bit cynical, the pandemic fitted our schedule very well! By the time the crazy lockdown was over and we were allowed to be in a room together again we all had a lot of song ideas on our hard drives and then the real production period started.” 

Were the lockdowns a somewhat mixed blessing for electronic musicians?

“Honestly, a lot of people in my ‘scene’ surprised me with how much they enjoyed the break… at least in the beginning. Because everyone had been in that hamster-wheel; being afraid of missing a show here or a release there or whatever. Always that fear of being forgotten by the people if you don’t play all the time. So, suddenly all that wasn’t important anymore. It’s a bit like, I love video games but I can’t really play them as I have a bad feeling about wasting time… except when I’m sick. 

“I guess the pandemic maybe gave people the idea that they could finally stay home without that bad feeling that they’re wasting their time. Obviously, that was just phase one of the pandemic because then, at some point, everyone thought ‘okay, I’ve been at home enough now!’. Our production period was over within a year but the pandemic wasn’t, so then you couldn’t really look forward as nobody knew when we’d get out to play live again.”

Has clubland returned to normal in Germany now? 

“It’s been a little back and forth. At the moment most things are open and back to pretty much normal… [laughs] though what do I know as I have a little kid now!” 

MORE D4TA feels like it has a slightly grittier edge than the previous album, would that be fair to say? 

“Maybe not so much with the first album as that was really just a case of searching for what Moderat could be but then we discovered that we did like resampling sounds to make them sound a little more used so MORE D4TA is probably the logical consequence of that path we started taking with the second record. We do it all the time. 

After 20 years of electronic music, the clean synth sound isn’t the most euphoric or rewarding sound to us

“Sometimes there would be a song idea that’s arranged and sounds quite good the way it is but then we’ll think that somehow it lacks feeling or grit, which is usually a moment where we’d give those files to Szary and he’ll disappear into another room or Marcel Dettman’s studio, which is in this building too. So, Szary will take them away and just fuck them up a bit and make them sound ‘older’ as, after 20 years of electronic music, the clean synth sound isn’t the most euphoric or rewarding sound to us.” 

What kind of hardware and software do you use for that part of the process?

“I have two of these T-Rex Replicator Modules (Tape Echo replicators). As a tape-delay I’m not quite sure if they’re super good as I’ve never been able to get them close to a clean sound. You don’t need to touch the tape or anything as they’re already super-wobbly and broken by nature.  

“Since I have two, as I want to use them for stereo signals, unfortunately or maybe fortunately, they all sound broken in a different way so there’s no way of getting a clean stereo signal… it’s always going to be crazy left/right but, I guess that’s what makes them interesting. Szary likes to use plugins for most of it but I still like to use the Replicators or maybe through external saturation stuff like the Elektron Analog Heat.” 

Do you each have a set role within Moderat or is it freer than that? 

“More and more we kind of find our roles. It’s still three people that can more or less do the same things but, of course, it doesn’t help if everybody wants to do the same thing in the studio. So, more and more we’ve found our niche in the production process. Right now, I do start a lot of songs but very quickly, even before they have a real ‘sound’ I give them to Gernot and he starts arranging them, which I would never do as I would always work with a loop till the loop sounds awesome. 

“So, Gernot is often the arranger and he’s always taking care of the drums, which means most of the time he’s the operator in the studio also because we’ve now switched to Ableton Live and I don’t really know how to use it that well. Szary tends to come into the game when we need some weird sounds and we don’t really bother syncing up the computers or anything, sometimes we just give him a stereo signal bounce and he just fucks with the whole master buss then we use pieces of it. Often the editing is very brutal and that’s usually what Szary does… he does a lot of sound-design and sound mangling.” 

Does your modular rig get a run-out on the new album?  

“Yeah, although it’s actually getting smaller and smaller. I had this rule where I only allowed myself three cases, which I then realized was still too much. You know, there’s this picture of Martin Gore’s Eurorack room, which is crazy! [laughs] I’d go into that room and be intimidated until the end of my life. I mean, how do you start making a sound in there? I only have one of the Make Noise cases now and I really like the CV Bus distribution system in them. It’s not so much sound generation with the modular now, although I do use a bit of the Mutable Instruments stuff for that. It’s more packed with effects and the Cwejman filters are just awesome! 

“I can’t live without the Cwejman MMF-6 because it has this strange Symmetry feature that I don’t fully know what it does other than mangles the sound and breaks it apart in strange ways. I really need a second one for doing stereo signals but they’re hard to get. Sometimes I’ll run arpeggios from the computer and tweak them in the modular or maybe send some MIDI, but I would never sequence in the modular setup as it’s a bit too complicated.”

You must be a rarity in the modular world that you’re actually paring down your rig?

“Yeah, but it’s the same with other gear too, really. I’ve had bigger studios in my life, but I always found that they didn’t make me more creative. They confused me a lot of the time as there were too many options. My current studio just now is just a workstation with some really good preamps because stuff needs to get in and out of the computer with good conversion. Then there’s a small table where I’ll put a synth or an effects unit that I’m planning to use. 

In lots of departments, I’m sticking to the old gear…[laughs] maybe I’m not so flexible now I’m 44!

“I make the decision before I start jamming… I have an Erica Synths Syntrx, which sometimes I’ll make a decision that it will be all I use for that day then I put it away and try something different the next day. Back in the day I used to have to buy a new bit of gear to get inspired – this is the cheaper version of that where I don’t have to buy it, I just have to find it in my studio and put it on the table. I get a little anxious when I have too much gear around me.”

Any nice new bits and pieces in Modeselektor’s studio that you had a chance to mess around with? 

“They have a lot of good gear around the place and it’s all connected and ready to use but by the time we were working here together everything was very digital because it needed to be easy to exchange files. I would be more likely to start the main computer, start Ableton and try to find my way through the software that I’m not so comfortable with.” 

The last time we spoke, you were all on Logic, when did the switch to Ableton take place? 

“You know what, when I first met Modeselektor, a long time ago, I was running Steinberg Nuendo! Then, when we made the first Moderat album, I switched to Logic to be compatible with them. [laughs] Now, can you believe it, they wanted me to switch a second time… but I refused. I’m stuck with Logic now although I do know how to handle Ableton now too. So, I was making my ideas in Logic and sometimes I’d just bounce it into Ableton. 

“When it’s audio it’s a little bit more destructive editing, which can be quite healthy because then you’re not so tied to the idea.  Back in the day I would make a much more ‘open’ version on Logic then everybody could open all the synths and plugins but they would maybe be a bit more reluctant to change anything on it as you could see the arrangement and maybe that some thought had been put into it, whereas if you just give somebody audio then you don’t see all that information and they can just go for it.” 

Does being in Berlin mean that the three of you are spoiled for choice for getting access to software and hardware companies? 

“Yeah, but honestly, I must admit that I’ve been using an old computer and this computer in the studio is still the one we bought for Moderat II. So, it’s a ten-year-old iMac with a lot of old software on it too and we didn’t feel the urge to use too many new things. Occasionally we tried new things that were supposed to be really good. These days there are so many specialised plugins doing a specific thing but, in the end, if you use an equaliser and a compressor you reach the same goal. Also, you maybe have more control, and you understand better what’s going on. 

“In lots of departments, I’m sticking to the old gear… [laughs] maybe I’m not so flexible now I’m 44! For effects it’s sometimes nice if there’s someone building multi-effects in a weird way.  Two newer things I do like are Output’s Portal and Thermal. They’ve got familiar delays and distortions but there are a lot of interesting combinations all with a user interface that’s really simple with the X/Y idea that invites you to move around and experiment. These days I think it’s getting harder to make things that sounds revolutionary, so I think it’s a better idea for software developers to look into new user-interface ideas that inspire you in new ways. 

I mean, you don’t need a Moog One to get a fat-sounding synth. Maybe if you like the feel of playing instruments but is it worth six or seven thousand Euros?

“Another plugin I like is Oeksound’s Soothe2, which is a sort of dynamic EQ that allows you to tighten resonances in voices, for example. It’s another bit of software that’s meant to make your life much easier although, if I’m honest, if you have a good sounding room, record something well and know how to handle an EQ then you can do the same thing, which will probably be better in the end because you’re not messing with the signal so much. If you’re working factory-style and you have to work quickly then these sorts of plugins are very handy but, if you have time on your hands and you have a good monitoring situation, I much prefer using hardware and spending some time doing it.” 

So, you don’t subscribe to the school of thought that newer gear leads to more ideas? 

“Maybe by saying that this record was made with nothing particularly new or special then the message might be that these days good software and good tools for making music are so widely available it should never keep someone away from making music because they think they don’t have the right tools. In German there’s a saying ‘Alle kochen mit dem gleichen Wasser’, which means ‘everybody cooks with the same water.‘ I mean, you don’t need a Moog One to get a fat-sounding synth. Maybe if you like the feel of playing instruments or you like the look and touch of it but is it worth six or seven thousand Euros?” 

FM often likes to guess what instruments or effects we’re hearing on tracks but Moderat songs are often too mangled to really guess their original source!

“Sometimes things have originated from a very simple synth but then there’s often a lot of layering, stretching and pitching within Ableton, which makes it sound gritty as well… and that’s all just from the DAW. Software nowadays offer so many opportunities that it can be a bit confusing if you expand your plugin pallette too much!” 

When FM visited the old studio in Berlin, all three of you were using your Teenage Engineering OP-1s, are they still in the Moderat armoury? 

“Funnily enough, I just got an ad from a music store and I was shocked that the OP-1 is 1200 Euros now… when I bought mine it was 700! Of course, they’re inspiring little machines. I haven’t used mine for a little while but it’s definitely something I’d put in my suitcase when I go on a long vacation again… just to play around with it and take the ideas back to the studio then. That’s been sitting in my ‘gear to be used’ cupboard for a while… [laughs] so there will be a day when I put it on the table again.” 

Are we all sound curators now as much as musicians? 

“Yeah but isn’t that the same for every producer? Maybe a little bit less so for a very traditional producer but it is so much about finding the right sound for the right spot. I try to divide these things into a writing process, which isn’t quite so important anymore. I try not to focus on the sound so much as it really slows me down but that’s difficult as it’s been such a crucial part of my songwriting process… the sound often is the song idea. 

I’m not such a fan of Ableton for workflow reasons, but live is where it definitely shines

“This time I tried to take that apart a bit and write with quite a neutral sound, concentrate a little more on the melody, the vocals on top and then the next stage is the sound design. It’s difficult to do and I’m not even sure if it gets me better results it’s just that I’ve been using the other way of doing it for so many years and I’m always wanting to challenge myself with a little bit different workflow. So, for now, the writing is quite traditional and then my role as, how you call it, a sound curator comes a little later when there’s not so much writing to do anymore.” 

Are the three of you all flexible when you have sounds chosen for a song idea and the other two maybe want to change it? 

“That’s really difficult sometimes and that’s why it doesn’t really work if you do it in a half-assed way! If you’ve spent a bit of time on a sound idea and maybe it‘s not the most original sound but it does become very hard to change it. Even if you find a more interesting sound it might not fit the song any more in your mind. That’s why it’s often better to use a very neutral sound that’s obviously a placeholder.  Sometimes I’ll deliver almost final sounding song ideas but then we try and force ourselves to throw it all away, keep the melody and use a different synth for it. It can be very refreshing but for the one who wrote the original idea it’s usually very painful.” 

Are you looking forward to taking MORE D4TA out on the road? 

[laughs] “As you can see there’s no space in the studio at the moment as the live workspaces are all setup. We’re rehearsing at the moment and stuff slowly comes together. The beginning of preparing for the live shows is usually a pain because we’re trying to find out ways to play each song. With a band, you know that the guitar is going to be played onstage by a guitar-player but in our case, every song is different so there’s this period of figuring out how to play each song. Once that’s done and dusted we have a plan and then usually the fun starts.” 

In the space of a tour tracks evolve and change? 

“Yes, that’s also happening now as we know what we’ll play and how we’ll play it so whenever we play a song as a band, we notice if it needs another part or if bits need to be longer or shorter so the songs are already changing. In the first month of a tour they’ll evolve more as we’re always making adjustments or if something needs to be more extreme . It’s not an arrangement we play live, everything is scene-based so sometimes we’ll look at each other and decide it’s time for the next part. That comes when you’re more comfortable with the material, first you need to figure out the best possible way of playing something… and then you can go on and stray from the path a bit. ”

Is Ableton underpinning the live show?

“Yeah. Gernot finally feels comfortable to play without a screen so he does play Ableton but he’s just using a Push and he’s mastered the colour-concept to do things without looking at a screen, which is a huge accomplishment because every screen onstage is a distraction. Szary has no computer at all, he gets signals fed to him from us, which he mangles. He gets the MIDI-clocks so he has a few synthesisers and drum-machines. I do have a computer but it’s not onstage with me. 

“I’m using Mainstage patches that effect everything I’m doing… sometimes it’s the synth I’m playing or the voice or the modular going through it. So, Ableton is the backbone but it really is just running in the background. We’re trying not to look at it and using a lot for things that are in sync with it to play our parts live on top of it. In the studio I’m not such a fan of Ableton because of workflow reasons but live is where it definitely shines.” 

MORE D4TA is out now on Monkeytown Records.

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Moderat on december 1, 2023.

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Note: Last Moderat show before Hiatus, again.

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• UPCOMING TOURS

Australian Tour March 2023

Legendary supergroup Moderat are set to bring their new live show to Australian shores this March. The combination of superproducers Apparat and Modeselektor is more than just a portmanteau, but a sum greater than its parts. Good things come in three; and Moderat makes no exception. Their singular and forward thinking approach to electronic pop fuses synthetic soundscapes with rich melodies and pop vocals, creating a deep and twisting sonic experience.

At a hometown Berlin performance in 2017, Moderat announced that they would be going on hiatus. “Hiatus” being such a charged phrase in music, no one knew when – or if – they would return. Then, six years after their last album, Moderat released MORE D4TA, their fourth record, a reflection of a tumultuous few years through the lens of emotive pop and atmospheric electronics. Created through hours of testing and experimenting on a modular rig, the record teeters across electronic genres while maintaining the electro pop sound the trio have become synonymous with.

MORE D4TA is a thrilling combination of modular composition, field recordings and other sonic oddities, mirrored in their new live performance. With two decades of collaboration under their belt, Moderat’s creative process and live experience runs like clockwork, having hopped on stages across the globe together, including at Coachella, Glastonbury and Primavera. MORE D4TA wrestles with feelings of isolation and confusion, its title reflecting the information overload and disillusionment that came with many parts of the world being stuck in the digital sphere.

Their performances provide opportunities to leave these moments behind, an ethereal escape into their rich melodies, dense soundscapes and elated electro pop. Each and every moment is both danceable and cathartic: do not miss the opportunity to look to a brighter future with Moderat this March.

Filed under: Moderat

„During their extended six-year hiatus between „Moderat III“ and „MORE D4TA“, Berlin’s most iconic trio also momentarily suspended their nightly activities at venues and festivals. The Moderat machine was fully revived in 2022 with the release of their latest album, and the flurry of shows that followed proved that the band was indeed back. In streams and in flesh. So after filling up Berlin’s Parkbühne Wuhlheide last September for the first part of the MORE D4TA Tour, Moderat got used to the crowds again and no longer want a quiet return home – once more opting for good company. This time the band will perform in one of Berlin’s most spectacular buildings, the Velodrom on December 1, 2023. From the summer open airs to the indoor venues, two live iterations in Berlin of MORE D4TA, a project that recently underwent a complete reinterpretation with the release of „EVEN MORE D4TA“ on March 17. This remix album of Moderat’s latest LP is a bold expansion of their universe, featuring 11 remixers across the spectrum of electronic music. Limited early bird tickets on sale now.“

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