Having released the single Trans / Monika in Scherben late last year, the German band Gewalt has now put out their second full-length album, Doppeldenk. Drawing from industrial, post-punk, new wave, and German Wut Wave, Gewalt maintains their unique style while constantly pushing their sound in creative directions. It’s a flawless combination of raw intensity (particularly in the vocals) and expertly crafted electronic parts. We interviewed member Patrick Wagner last year about Trans / Monika in Scherben, and he mentioned that the band was in the process of making Doppeldenk. Now that it’s out, we followed up with an email interview with Wagner and bandmate Helen Henfling.
When we last spoke, you were in the process of making Doppeldenk. How did the recording process go? Did you have a clear sense of what you wanted to achieve going into it, and if not, how did it evolve?
Helen: The process of producing Doppeldenk was, to put it mildly, a nightmare. Our budget was too low to cover even the rehearsal times and travel costs between Vienna and Berlin. We played over 120 shows worldwide for our previous album “Paradies” while simultaneously working our day jobs. We were incredibly tired and burned out. We hadn’t rehearsed or written new songs for two years, and we had to relearn how to accept the imperfections and anarchic nature inherent in such a phase.
Patrick: I, who handles beats and lyrics, had the idea to keep the song structures open this time and let them evolve organically during rehearsals. However, this did not work as Helen and Jasmin were on different planets, preoccupied with job searches, existential fears, and personal problems. We were completely out of sync. Yet, through incredibly intense rehearsal sessions, everything eventually came together. Helen stopped playing guitar on five songs and used keys and the Roland 303 sequencer instead, while Patrick finished writing the songs alone, based on the lyrics and beats.
Everything suddenly happened very quickly, like in a trance.
Were there any particular ways your approach or process differed this time around?
Patrick: We had only one clear concept under which we subsumed each song: it had to be danceable. This idea originated from our tours in Europe and the USA, where people reacted more to the groove and physicality of “Gewalt” rather than the lyrics, unlike in Germany. Whether it’s an industrial track like “Egal, wohin der Wind dich weht,” a post-punk song like “Felicita,” or a rave dance piece like “Schwarz Schwarz” – if it doesn’t make your limbs twitch, it’s rubbish. Furthermore, we didn’t want to create an album but rather 10 singles, each fully realized and played to completion. Our producer, Dennis Jüngel, played a significant role by deeply engaging with the groove resolutions in the studio. We leave it to others to decide if we succeeded, but we love the album and can hardly believe it turned out this way given its tumultuous creation.
It’s quite a varied album, with some very electronic tracks and others that sound more raw and guitar-driven. Is it usually obvious what kind of instrumentation and production a musical idea needs? Or to what degree might the sounds drive the songwriting?
Patrick: Our songs always emerge from a mix of ideas – what kind of beat concept there is, how the flow of words goes, and which sounds, instruments, and styles we use. In the last piece, “Ne, Ne, Alles gut,” we aimed to create a Kraftwerk-like movement and followed this with an industrial sequencer sound. Yet, Jasmin played a very Krautrock-style bass, and I sang in a very staccato manner. Although the song maintains a certain underlying aggressiveness, a notorious Kraftwerk shimmer always comes through.
Helen: We let ourselves be driven by everything in songwriting and have no fears of touching other worlds.
Patrick: Be it Prince or Kanye West, Falco, The Prodigy, or Gang of Four – all serve the same divinity. One should never shy away from the question: What would Prince do now?
Could you comment on the recent departure of bassist Jasmin Rilke?
Patrick: It is hard to say why Jasmin left Gewalt. Fears for the future, lack of perspective, personal issues, perhaps she didn’t like the music. We don’t know. She simply sent an email saying, “I can’t do this anymore.” Jasmin was great on bass, on stage, she shone, she was special. Now she’s gone. Don’t look back in anger.
Has the need to quickly bring in another musician impacted your song choices or other aspects of your live shows?
Helen: Currently, we’ve played a few shows with Sally Brown from the fantastic band “Plattenbau” – it worked extremely well. We’ve rediscovered and learned to love the old material again. On the next tour, Sol Astolfi will join us on bass. Like Sally, she is hyperactive, works as a director, and plays in BED, a shoegaze post-punk band, as well as Fatigue, a wild punk project. Perhaps this is the only way for musicians to survive these days.
The work in the rehearsal room is definitely a lot of fun, and who knows where it will lead.
I see that you have tour dates planned in and around Germany through the end of the year. Do you have any sense of when you’ll tour further? (Europe and America?)
Helen: We are currently planning a US East Coast tour in March and will play at the New Colossus Festival in NYC. In April, we will tour Europe for three weeks and play in England for the first time with 4-5 shows. Everything sounds as if we have enough to do next year to continue ruining our lives.
Thank you for the conversation.
Doppeldenk and other releases from Gewalt can be purchased at www.gewalt.berlin/shop.
For tour dates and other info, visit gewalt.berlin.
