Bodi Bill are pioneers of a modern musical eclecticism of Techno, Folk and Indie. Out of nowhere and without much screaming they grow up and into the hearts of the listeners, making themselves indispensable there and overflowing them with beautiful regularity in sweaty live shows. At the temporary climax of the band, other experiments become more interesting and important. Since 2012 Fabian Fenk and Anton Feist have been carrying tenderness into techno with The/Das, while Alex Stolze is working with UNMAP as well as under his own name on linking urban pop music with the intimate sound cosmos of traditional instruments. Above all, however, they leave an empty space that has not yet been filled.
As nodes in an irregularly knotted net, Bodi Bill bring the energies together again. With newly found calmness they throw old working methods and internal structures out of the pile, challenge themselves and ask counter questions rather than give answers. Bodi Bill, then as now, is all about the exchange of ideas and creative processes, which do not take place in seclusion, but in attentive interaction. The band reflects a large circle of creative friends, who sometimes work together loosely, sometimes more closely, and whose motivation is always based first on content. Bodi Bill was and always is: the joy of experimenting, the mutual creative motivation, the unconditional curiosity.
BODI BILL’s new album “I Love U I Do” will be released on March 25th, 2022 on the Berlin-based label Sinnbus.
If you can fit Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the self-optimisation madness of the present and the nightly confrontation of new parents with the never-ending energy of the newborn in the very same album, but at the same time leave enough room for your own interpretations, it can only be Bodi Bill’s doing. Ten years after the last record “What”, the Berlin collective around singer and producer Fabian Fenk finally points “back to the future”, with eclectic sounds between indie folk and electronica and the futuristic themes on “I Love U I Do”.
FACTS
1. Those who can say ›Ganbare‹ to oneself are strong. Those who can fist pump to oneself can overcome any situations. I will say… Ganbare«
2. If you consider that the last major (magnetic) pole swap took place 780,000 years ago, the next swap is actually due again.
3. “Every dream made true, echoes”
QUESTIONS
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Usually a new songs starts with a random idea that pops into my head, often days after we/they had our/theirs conversation (about something interesting I hope, interesting enough for a new song, at least!)
2. How and when did you get into making music?
We all started playing in bands when we were in school, had a rehearsing room in the school’s basement (perfect place to spend a lot of time during puberty). Music took place in our own semi-private gathering place, so plans were discussed, how to get as good, important or influential as our hero bands and musiscians, it was definitely the love of music that inspired us to get involved – and the chance to play at those glorious school band festivals, where our then favorite Berlin school-band “Evelyns Pørk” ruled.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Tortoise – TNT
Aphex Twin – Come To Daddy
Sonic Youth – Washing Maschine
Jeff Buckley – Grace
The/Das – Exit Strategies
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
To live and let die. In Berlin there is an exuberant zest for life and a morbid feeling of self-destruction at the same time. This always makes it exciting to see what’s next. Because it goes on and on anyway.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
It’s all the forests and lakes around the city. The broken light in the branches, the fresh air, the texture of wet moss, the clear view makes me ready for the city again.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Very difficult to answer because in every possible instance of this world there is going to be some kind of organised sound. Imagining a world without music also just makes me feel sad, thank you. What a sad world this would be! I guess in that world you’d need (to be) either a therapist or a clown.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
Frog of Earth – Frog of Earth. It’s all about that life in the pond: conceptually sound but also kind of wholesome.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
A group of lithopone masters from prehistoric times playing their sonorous rocks – the album would be called »rock ’n’ ring«.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a performer with Bodi Bill I think the most intense was one of our FUSION Festival gigs, in a heavy downpour, in front of thousands… as a fan it depends on the year, Marcel Dettman at Berghain, Foxygen (still young and fresh) at Franz Club, Tool (in the nineties) at Metropol
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Very! No synthesizers, no drum machines, no sound engineering, no synchronizing of several “workstations” … no microphones, no amazing PA systems, no lights, no pain pills, no brain-extensions – how would that sound? Probably like me playing the acoustic guitar in the bathroom.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I have a sister. We have always encouraged each other to try new things. That is a big inspiration.
Here are the tour dates 2022:
02.05.2022 – DE – Heidelberg, Karlstorbahnhof
03.05.2022 – DE – München, Ampere
04.05.2022 – DE – Mainz, Schon Schön
05.05.2022 – DE – Köln, Bumann & Sohn
06.05.2022 – DE – Dresden, Beatpol
08.05.2022 – DE – Berlin, Hole44
09.05.2022 – DE – Hamburg, Kent Club
10.05.2022 – DE – Hannover, Faust
11.05.2022 – DE – Bremen, Lagerhaus
13.05.2022 – DE – Erfurt, Franz Mehlhose
14.05.2022 – DE – Münster, Gleis 22
16.05.2022 – DE – Nürnberg, Club Stereo
17.05.2022 – DE – Leipzig, Täubchenthal Club
19.05.2022 – CH – Zürich, Exil
20.05.2022 – DE – Stuttgart, Club Cann
28.06.2022 – DE – Berlin, Lido
