And we made it. I didn’t know that we would – so this is a great relief. Here we find ourselves meeting with our 6th of 6 bands who are headed to Torstraßen Festival – The/ Das. Not to play favourites, because I love all these bands equally, of course – but I think maybe I have the biggest soft spot for The/Das. I don’t know whether it has something to do with their almost matching but different chinos, or their softly disco vibe – but I’m getting around them, in a rather big way.
Let’s get onto old mates‘ dot points, God only knows you are gagging for them.
– The group is made up of 2 of the 3 members of Bodi Bill
– Seems there was no bad blood among the group – The/Das is just two mates who had a simple dream – to make disco music together (I say disco pretty lightly – it’s more an electronic vibe)
– They have pretty solid Deutsch sounding names (in my mind): Fabian and Anton. Possibly they aren’t Deutschers at all – but don’t you hope they are? And that they say things like „ze Band likes Schocolade!“
– The/Das have released 2 EP’s to date… The first being their Fresh Water EP – and the second? Speak Your Mind Speak.
When The/Das aren’t bro’ing out with each other about life and/ or music they are probably looking for really ideal fitting chinos in a variety of colours, trying to make a secret handshake that is easy for them to remember, yet hard enough for others not to replicate and casually discussing the wide variety of choice and their specific preference of bottled water at the supermarket – because that’s a thing Germans really care about.
This year The/ Das are playing Torstraßen Festival – so I threw a handful of questions at them. For those that don’t know me, let’s be perfectly clear – I don’t ask hard hitting questions about music.. This is mainly because (technically) I don’t know the first thing about it. I like what I like – and then wonder…. “Do you reckon these guys have an opinion on Karl Lagerfeld or Harald Glööckler – I hope so, as I’d love to know more about this Glööckler character.”
So without any further carry on – let’s meet The/Das, the sixth of 6 in what we lovingly call “Lucy vs. Torstraße”.
Hit it.
If you could meet any Berliner ever to have graced this fair city, who would you meet/ why?
The/Das: Alexander von Humboldt could be a great uncle… Telling stories about the Amazon and trying to explain everything in lengthy monologues…
If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?… reason?
The/Das: I’d go for marble: Why not? Could be cool!
You are an area of Berlin, what are you – why? – I’m everywhere outside the ring-bahn – mostly because I’m trashy, and people secretly like it.
The/Das: I think I’d want to be the area around Teufelssee near Müggelheim in south east Berlin. Lots of rocks, funny insects (those who walk on water for instance) and lots of different trees.
You are stuck on a deserted island, you have all that boring stuff that unimaginative people think of (water, food, shelter etc.) – what are you bringing to isolation?
The/Das: My laptop so I can check Facebook and organize stuff
Would you prefer to battle 100 duck sized horses, or 1 horse sized duck? – Discuss.
The/Das: The longer I discuss this with myself, the more I realize, that I wouldn’t want to battle animal, especially not a species this special.
You are from Berlin, where do I meet dudes?
The/Das: I think people like to meet in cafés and bars.
Karl Lagerfeld or Harald Glööckler – discuss, because I honestly know nothing about this Harald character.
The/Das: Honestly I don’t give a damn about this stuff. Feels like mind pollution to even start thinking about it. Don’t think about it, please. (But I can’t help ittt! – Lucy)
If you were a movie from the 90’s what are you?
The/Das: If I can’t be E.T. or Yojimbo than I might as well be Forrest Gump.
Tell us something you deem relevant.
The/Das: Time is valuable, but way to often kind of irrelevant… also, I watched this FEIST concert on ARTE last night… It was a show they did together with LA BLOGOTHÉQUE, so it covered a big range from acoustic to amplified band setup, and walking from one floor to another while performing the song asf. Sure they have lovely singing voices and know how to play their instruments in style, but what’s really great about this recording, is the big contrast between very quite, intimate and very loud and eruptive moments…
So much fun to listen to such an exquisite recording of joy and musicality, while most of the time music is being performed under such mediocre circumstances, that one can hardly hear more than the machines the music is amplified with… I think, this FEIST show really represents a modern way of showing what sound can be like… It’s lively and soulful and not too cheesy but still very ear-soothing… and what is best you can hear people breathing and shuffling their feet and it’s totally part of the music itself, because like this noise is soo fucking awesome…
«Lucy vs. Torstraße» is blogger Lucy Jasper a.k.a. «Lucy vs. the Globe» talking to artists performing at #TSF13. All interviews are co-published on her blog: www.lucyvstheglobe.com
