Welcome to a world where crispy baked bass drums give the keynote, where Momratzn twitch to tweaking hi-hats and speech bubbles wave-engaging basses to you!? Do you falter on making a tough decision? Super Flu recommends you garlic bread rolls and 6-minute-boiled eggs!? Is your equipment rubbish? Trust your intuition, tickle the max out of the old stuff and squeeze inspiration out of everything you can lay your hands on!? Are you lacking ideas? Take your cockatoo’s advice! Go on vacation and have some beer. Try, (you know, doing something you’d never do otherwise). Listen to Jazz. Tinker whatever comes to your mind using funny snack bar names, exotic instruments and kid’s toys.? Now with your best mate and at least one mutual favorite bakery, lots of Herzblut and a great Traum behind, nothing can harm you anymore…!
Electronic Groove: What has been your standout moment of 2017 so far?
Super Flu: The birth of our children!
EG: Your latest album ‘Musik 3’ was released earlier this year to a wave of acclaim. How did you find the process of making the new album? Was there anything markedly different you did with ‘Musik 3’ compared with previous releases?
Super Flu: Each year we begin with a little techno timeout and fly to countries far, far away where (at least we believe) techno doesn’t exist. Like we did in January 2016, where the winds brought us to the distant lands of Nepal. It was there, in the high mountains of the Himalayas that the idea of ‘Musik 3’ was born. When we returned to Germany we immediately went to the studio. We knew exactly what soundscape we wanted for our third album. We wanted to move beyond everything we have made so far. We wanted it deeper, more intense, less poppy and just timeless. To accomplish this, we drew inspiration from old dub techno and psychedelic rock from the 70’s.
EG: You played a whopping 120 gigs in 2016 and have been keeping yourselves very busy this year too. How did you manage to make the time for ‘Musik 3’?
Super Flu: That’s an advantage when you travel as a duo. You can divide the time better between you. And we try to have a free weekend every six weeks as well. In addition we swear to firm studio hours, otherwise, it would not be possible.
EG: The album offers a huge range of sounds and styles. What other genres or artists influenced you?
Super Flu: Oh, there are plenty! King Krule, James Blake, Jenna Haze just to mention a few. There are also many artists from our scene that we value a lot, Robag Wruhme for instance.
EG: You’ve garnered a reputation for creating electronic music that sounds human and as far removed from ‘computer music’ as you can possibly get. Can you tell us about your creative process and what gear you use in the studio?
Super Flu: We take that as a huge compliment considering our music is produced with computers! Music production always includes different processes. To start you need an idea, which can come from anything. Sometimes it is a recorded rubber band, sometimes a synth riff from YouTube, or sometimes an old field recording from a junkyard. The track kind of builds itself automatically if you have a good idea to start with, and then we just have to complete it. We use a lot of hardware, not only classic synths, drum machines or effects, but rather also old tape recorders, children’s toy keyboards and our piano which has its place in the middle of our studio. At the moment we are completely in love with an old modified Omnichord and a Yamaha VSS-30.
EG: Can you both tell us your favourite track from the album? (It’s OK if you don’t agree!)
Super Flu: It actually depends a bit on the mood we are in. When showering we love ‘2daBeat’, in the club it’s definitely ‘V13A’, and while cuddling ‘mygut‘!
EG: Can you talk about the artists you chose to collaborate with? Close friends Andhim being one of them.
Super Flu: Ole Biege is simply the best singer in our hometown Halle (Saale). We already had a few old studio recordings from him in our library that we really wanted to use. For years now we have been making music every now and then with our sisters from Andhim, and we are very happy that we did a new cooperation for the album. Volker Bertelmann is a German composer and piano player who is famous for his releases under the name “Hauschka”. We are big fans and very proud to have worked together with him on one of the interludes.
EG: How has your hometown Halle impacted you both as artists?
Super Flu: Considering that the electronic music scene in Halle is rather small, one could say that we don’t get that much influence from the outside. In that way we managed to develop our own unique signature over the years and that was probably the best thing that could ever have happened!
EG: You’ve worked with the likes of the Dortmunder Philharmoniker for some pretty unique live shows. Any future plans for the live show?
Super Flu: We played 2 live shows with orchestras. We don’t know exactly when and how we will play live in a similar setting, but we know for sure that we will do it again!
EG: Which city this year are you most looking forward to playing in and why?
Super Flu: São Paulo next month. Because we like mamacitas!
01. Super Flu – Skorr (Cioz Remix)
02. Henrik Schwarz – Take Words In Return (Jimi Jules Remix)
03. Ninetoes – Defne
04. Pongo – Lose My Mind (Stereo Mc’s Mix)
05. Andhim – Amene
06. Armonica – [A] 012
07. Kalyma – Again
08. Braunbeck – Ullalet
09. Oliver Koletzki – A Star Called Akasha (Super Flu´s fragrance of moon mix)
