"My Love For a Bit of Funk Has Stuck With Me" In Depth With Marcel Fengler & his fabric Promo Mix

Marcel Fengler's sets are often referenced as some of the most varied, genre-spanning mixes out there, his contribution to Berghain's mix series garnering significant acclaim. Given his talents as a DJ it's little surprise that the Fengler has been a resident of the legendary Berlin nightclub since its opening - the fact that he can think further than the dark minimal techno that is often (unaccurately) referenced as the club's 'sound' perhaps contributing to his long standing career. As a close friend of both Norman Nodge and Marcel Dettmann, it was only a matter of time before Fengler's endeavours broached the world of production, and after a string of EPs and singles, July of this year Ostgut Ton release his debut album, entitled Fokus. With the album tour in full swing and a performance at fabric scheduled for the 14th, we caught up with Mr. Fengler to discuss the influences behind the album, his 'Masse' collaboration with Efdemin, and the future plans for his own label, 'Index Marcel Fengler'. Download: Marcel Fengler Fokus Album Tour x fabric Promo Mix So first off, how have things been going with the album tour? The feedback the album has been getting has been unbelievable. I'm especially surprised at the number of different musical genres it has been getting good feedback from. After the first few gigs over the summer (which consequently were mostly at festivals) the tour is only really getting started now; we were able to arrange parties with some of the most important clubs in all of Europe, Asia, the US, Canada and - for the first time - in South America. I'm incredibly excited about this. I believe I am right in saying when you first got into DJing you were mostly playing hip-hop records, do you think these early influences have stayed with you? For example to what extent do you think sampling culture influences your own productions? Well, in the early nineties, everything kind of developed at the same time and in parallel - I did buy lots of hip-hop records and played those at my friends' parties. Nothing spectacular or professional. Toward the end of the nineties I started feeling like a certain spark, a certain magic went missing in hip hop productions, as a result of which I slowly stopped buying it. That being said, my love for a bit of funk has stuck with me since, and it definitely makes its way into my own productions. Apart from that I find music exciting if genres become blurred and you cannot clearly put them into a certain box. Especially, when analogue and digital worlds become mixed up. As long as it doesn't sound tacky, I'm quite open-minded. Can you tell us about some of your other key musical influences with reference to the Fokus album? The album doesn't seem especially concerned with being dancefloor functional which is perhaps uncharacteristic of your previous releases. Honestly, I don't think there's a singular artist or genre which influenced my making of Fokus specifically. It definitely took me a long time to figure out what I want to express with an Album in the first place, and what it should feel like. That being said, I don't see it as a problem to spend more time on that part of the creative process. In addition I generally prefer when an album crosses genres and manages to showcase different sides of the artist, so that ended up being a big influence in the creative process around Fokus. When I started out drafting first ideas for the album, I found myself torn between starting with a blank canvas and developing a completely new and different sound for it, or incorporating preexisting ideas and projects of mine and translating them into material for 2013. In the end I opted mainly for the latter path, but did bring some brand new elements in also - this ended up being the most exciting option for me, really. I think the dynamic created by that translates pretty well to the listener in the end and makes the album relatable. During an interview with Soundwall you mention that you worked on some of the album whilst on holiday in Thailand which went towards influencing some of the sounds you used. How important do you think setting is in general in terms of influencing your sound? Yeah, that's right. Parts of the work I was doing for the Ballet 'Masse' overlapped with the production time for 'Fokus' more than originally anticipated. As a result, I picked up some portable gear specifically for the Album and ended up working throughout my holidays in Thailand in February which ended up being quite inspiring and probably left its mark on the overall mood of the album. Previously, I hadn't really been a fan of producing on the road, most of the time I end up having trouble recapturing the vibe of what I came up with on the road when I'm back in the studio. Somehow I guess this was the right setting though - it didn't end up posing a problem at all, and I think I might do this again in the future. Hopefully that time without the looming deadline of an Album release. Aside from your 'Masse' project with Efdemin, I believe all your other releases have been solo productions. Is collaboration something you find especially challenging? Is it something you'd like to do more of in the future? Collaborating with Phillip (Efdemin) has been excellent, I felt like we complemented each other very well throughout - and we became good friends in the process! We're definitely going to keep working together as DIN, and actually already did for an upcoming Ostgut Ton compilation for which we produced a more clubby track which still retains some of the vibe of our work for 'Masse'. There are some other projects both for theatre/performing arts and Ostgut Ton, but we'll have to see where exactly that leads us. I've also been wanting to start working more with Peter van Hoesen (with whom I share a studio) - we have similar ideas in terms of live performances, so I could see us working on something more concrete in that regard in the future. Having been a DJ first, at what point did you decide to try your hand at production? Hard to say, really. I guess getting to the point of producing was a pretty fluid process - at a certain point I just wanted to know more about music than just spinning records. I wanted to create and shape something of my own. It started out discussing tracks with friends - some kick drum was particularly great, in some other track a certain sound just didn't work at all and so on - eventually I became more and more curious to try to release some of my own ideas. I've read that you are longstanding friends with Marcel Dettmann and Norman Nodge spanning back to the start of your production career - how important do you think it is to have other creative people around you, both as a DJ and a producer? I think a creative exchange between friends and colleagues is very important. Doubly so when you're first delving into a discipline and are still looking for your own unique sound. Six or seven years ago, when I started becoming more serious about producing, Marcel and I worked on tracks a couple of times a week - and no track left the studio without the other listening to it first. This has since changed, of course - mainly because we've all become more aware of what we want from our music, and how to get there. For example, I didn't show anybody previews of 'Fokus' until I'd finished all the tracks and had them mastered. That being said, inspiring one another is definitely one of the most important driving factors in electronic music. 2011 saw the first release on your 'IMF' imprint, can you tell us a little bit about your future plans for the label? I'm planning on getting back to work on my label later this year; since I started out only releasing my own material on it I didn't really have much time to do anything of value for IMF recently with all the other projects going on. At the same time, the beauty of it is that I don't need to stress about it - I can just work at my own pace. I do however have a few ideas for what would be the next IMF release, though. In addition there will be quite a few new faces on the label - but I can't really say more about that just yet. Do you think 'IMF' will provide an outlet for you to continue to release more music (as with Fokus) that is not necessarily aimed at the dancefloor? To tell you the truth, I intended for IMF to be a label where I can show off my more raw side. IMF releases will probably be a bit tougher and harder, and are definitely meant to be played on the dance floor. Conversely, Ostgut Ton has since developed into the platform I'd rather showcase more groovy and left-field productions on. Finally what do you have in store for the rest of the year? First and foremost, I just want to enjoy the album tour, I'm very excited about it and I'm sure it'll be full of great new impressions and experiences. Aside from that, musically speaking, I've recently finished a remix for Terrence Dixon and there will be some remixes by Efdemin and myself (as DIN) for the Masse Compilation coming out soon too. Last but not least, there will be a remix release to go along with 'Fokus' as well for which I got to work with some great artists - the result is killer! Personally, I recently got married and am enjoying the life, and who knows - there might soon be kids on the way, too! In any case, it's been a very important and eventful year for me already - for now I'm just super excited about the Fokus show at Fabric, which I'm sure will be an absolute blast. Let's do it! Tracklist: 1. Madwoman – River Mumma – Downwards 2. Tobias – Dark & Troubling – OstgutTon 3. Marcel Dettmann – Lightworks – OstgutTon 4. G-Man – Columbia – GMR 5. Aubrey – 6 AM Decay – Komplex De Deep 6. Lewis Fautzi – Turn – Soma 7. Jonas Kopp – X – Tresor 8. Tim Wolff – Angular – Balans 9. Kobosil – Aggregate – UnterTon 10. Tobi Dreher – Chordhose (Mark Broom Remix) – Rotary Cocktail 11. Planetary Assault Systems – No EXIT – Mote Evolver 12. Alex Cortex – Hyperfocus – Killekill 13. Cleric – Morose (Dario Zenker Remix) – Coincidence 14. Peter van Hoesen – Inspection in Solitude (Marcel Fengler Remix) –Time2Express 15. Terrence Fixmer – Rage (Alexey Volkov Remix) – Planet Roughe 16. Christian Wünsch – Black Lab – Semantica 17. Function feat. Stephanie Parnow – Golden Dawn – OstgutTon