Premiere & interview: Moderna shares title track from futuristic debut album
Berlin producer draws on techno, electro, dark disco and queer culture
Written across sessions in Berlin and Mexico City and constructed over seven years, Moderna’s debut album The Future Is Among Us is an arresting listen, an exploration of Berlin’s influence on techno, dark disco and queer culture.
Incorporating a diverse array of influences and inspirations – the album opens with a tribute to Prince but also takes in a collaboration with post-punk artist Skelesys – our review reports its contents are all “raw, dancefloor-focussed cuts with rugged basslines”.
Just how we like it, in other words. So when we got the chance to share its anthemic title track, and have a natter with Moderna, we jumped at it…
Hear the track on YouTube:
or Soundcloud:
Preview the whole album here:
HI – THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS. WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW AND HAVE YOU HAD A GOOD DAY SO FAR?
Thanks for having me. Right now I am in Berlin the sun is finally out so yes it’s been a pretty good day so far.
BEEN UP TO ANYTHING NICE OR GOT ANYTHING INTERESTING PLANNED FOR LATER?
Yes, in Berlin there’s always something going on. It’s the start of gallery weekend so I will be working. Tonight I am Djing for the 45th anniversary party of Vogue and then later I will play a party at La Flor for the Weberei vernissage. And I’m sure I’ll be visiting some galleries to see some art as well.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR EARLIEST MUSICAL MEMORIES – MUSIC YOU HEARD GROWING UP, FIRST RECORDS ETC, AND YOUR FIRST EXPERIMENTS IN MUSIC MAKING TOO…
I was inundated with music early on. My parents were always playing music on the stereo and I was lucky enough that they had pretty good taste too. My mom took me to my first concerts which were Def Leppard and LA Guns, Corey Hart and later Rage Against the Machine, so a very eclectic mix. My father had an extensive record collection, mostly classic rock and 80s. I was always drawn to the darker new wave electronic sound in the 80s which led me to experiment with different electronic instruments. My first synth I bought was a Korg Poly 800 and soon after I bought a space echo – I was in a short lived noise band called The Static Cult by the age of 17.
GIVE US A BRIEF RUNDOWN OF WHAT YOU’VE RELEASED TO DATE…
Besides my early works as The Static Cult and another band I was in ‘The Deep’, my Moderna discography includes 4 collaboration Ep’s with Theus Mago, a few singles out on Brave New Rave along with some compilations like Next Wave Acid Punx and Robert Johnson. And some of my most recent remixes have been for The Matrix 4 soundtrack, Kimshies on Roam Recordings and You Man on Eskimo.
YOU’VE VERY KINDLY LET US PREMIERE THE TITLE TRACK OF YOUR NEW ALBUM – TELL US ABOUT THE TRACK….
Yes ‘The Future Is Among Us’ I actually had the title long before the track. It was something I often said, something I lived by and still do. It can be conceived as a mantra to live in the moment with a conciousness that we create everything around us, everything that is happening now good or bad. And so with that I took the lyrics and created a sound that depicted my emotion regarding that sentiment.
AND TELL US ABOUT THE ALBUM IN GENERAL -WHAT THE OVERALL VIBE IS IN GENERAL, HOW YOU CONCEIVED IT, HOW LONG IT TOOK AND WHERE IT WAS RECORDED…
It wasn’t a straightforward path, but rather a process that unfolded organically over time. About 7 years to be exact. I recorded most of it in Berlin with a few exceptions where I produced and mixed some of the tracks in Mexico City. I’m not the kind of producer who sits down and creates an entire album in one go. I prefer to have multiple tracks in progress at once. I need to come back to them periodically to understand what they need and how I want them to develop. It’s more of an emotional process for me and once I felt I had a good amount of tracks that complement each other I ultimately decided to release a full-length album myself on my own label, Brave New Rave.
THERE’S A TRIBUTE TO PRINCE ON THERE (‘DIE4U’)…
Yes , Prince has always been an inspiration. He was not only extremely talented but always pushing unconventional boundaries before anyone at that time. With DIE4U I wanted to create a song that captured the raw emotion of Prince’s original while capturing the “Moderna sound” in the music. For me the track is a celebration of an artistic legacy and the power of music that can accentuate our sensuality.
WHAT MUSIC – OLD, NEW, DANCEFLOOR OR OTHERWISE – IS FLOATING YOUR BOAT AT THE MOMENT?
There’s so much new music I have been flirting with lately it’s hard to compile it into one paragraph but to name a few artists that have been gracing my sets as of late.. Dina Summer, New Hook, Mufti, Nuclear Digital Transistor, Shall Ocin, Damon Jee, Colossio, Curses, Did Virgo, Marching Machines, Rigopolar, and of course many more x
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU IN THE SHORT/MEDIUM/LONG TERM?
Well for starters there will be a massive remix album to follow upcoming later this year, featuring some of my all-time favorite artists like Peaches, Joyce Muniz, Jennifer Touch, Kimshies, Cabizbajo, Neu-Romancer, and Warehouse Preservation Society. It’s such an honor to have all of these impressive artists involved. And to celebrate we’re of course throwing a huge release party here in Berlin on May 9th at La Flor and in Paris on May 25th at Le Carmen So along with some upcoming tour dates this summer and fall there are many things to look forward to and I hope to see you all on the dancefloor somewhere soon x
Pre-order The Future Is Among Us, set for release on May 10, by clicking here