Pan Pot @ Pygmalion - 17 March 2010

Preview 10 March 2010

Pan Pot

Pan Pot, Tassilo Ipenberger and Thomas Benedix, are a German techno duo who have been riding the crest of minimal techno throughout their relatively short, but successful career. Their paths crossed when both were studying Sound Engineering, and they began to throw parties in their home city of Berlin. After a chance meeting with Mobilee label boss Anja Schneider, Tassilo and Thomas released a string of EPs on the imprint, before laying down their debut album Pan O Rama. They have developed a sparse, brooding sound that has become their signature, and their intentions are undoubtedly big room in nature. Despite only playing in the venue last year, the people over at Pygmalion have recalled Pan Pot to ring in their first birthday on St Patrick's Day. In anticipation of the birthday bash, we rang up Tassilo and peppered him with a few questions. Despite their Myspace's claim that they are the ‘bad boys of impassioned, pitch black techno," Tassilo is a straight up gent.

For those who don't know, could you tell me who Pan-Pot is, and how you came to be?

Well, it was about 5 years ago, Thomas and I met at sound engineering school. We were actually the only people listening to electronic music so it was kind of destiny that we came together you know? Then we passed our exams and started producing our own records and DJing.

Before you met were you making music individually or was that something that came about in college?

We had been making music, but as far as releasing music goes it was something we first did together.

OK, What do you see as the positives and negatives of working as a pair? Obviously there must be good and bad.

Definitely! I think it's more difficult producing with two but you have 2 sets of ears and 2 opinions about what is happening, so I think the final product is safer. Because when you're producing on your own, you sometimes have doubts about certain parts of a track. I think the decisions are harder to make with two people, but in the end it's the better one.

Would you say that yourself and Thomas are coming from different musical backgrounds and bringing different styles to the production?

I think we are generally on the same wavelength, but of course we have different ideas. Thomas is from a different music background than me, but for me that is the most interesting thing, combining different influences and ideas. I think that works pretty well for us, you know?

You guys have done remixes for a lot of different artists Sebo K, Anja Schneider, Damian Schwartz. I was just wondering how you approach doing a remix? A lot of electronic artists just change the drums and call it a remix without really reinterpreting the original.

That's a good question. I don't think the term 'remix' is right for electronic music, I think reinterpretation is much better for this business. I'm not a fan of remixes in this business, it doesn't make sense. Sometimes we do remixes for friends and people we know, and then sometimes people who ask for one and will pay money for it, but in general its more of a reinterpretation thing. Every Artist has their signature sound, and you have to try and get that into the reinterpretation of the original.

You're playing here on St Patrick's Day, is that going to be a back to back DJ set?

Yes, we've actually played in this place Pygmalion before. It's great, a little small room with a massive sound system, a really cool club. We played back to back and that's what we're going to do again.

Cool, have you guys experimented with a live show?

Ya, we did it once in 2007 for the Album Pan O Rama, it was a combination of Ableton Live and Traktor Scratch but we had a lot of problems. It wasn't really a grown up set up lets say...so we tried it but found out we didn't want to do it that way. We're working on a new setup with 8 decks, 2 Traktor scratch systems and four x1 controllers from native instruments and connecting both laptops via midi, but that's something we still need to try out and work on. But yeah, we're always trying out new things and looking for something we can add to our sets.

Do you find it boring or monotonous to just be mixing two records?

No it's not boring, it's just looking to expand your set. Just seeing if there is something else we can do. Playing back to back is really fun because we know each other so well. We know how to act with each other and its always fun because its always different each time. If we're playing a small party it makes more sense to go back to back but if we're playing at a festival to a few thousand people we'll be playing harder so it makes sense to be able to use loops and stuff. You want to be able to react to certain situations.

Would you say that the size of a room or crowd is a big influence on your song selection?

Ya absolutely, last time we played in Dublin it was really housey. It has to be different and you have to react to the situation in front of you.

When you're not playing house and techno, what kind of music do listen to?

Both of us are open-minded. During the week, outside of the studio we listen to completely different stuff, whether its Johnny cash or whatever. You need some other kinds of music in your life, its really important so you can properly appreciate house, or techno or whatever you make. I know some people who just listen to house and techno but that sounds pretty boring to me.

What do you guys have planned for the near future?

We're starting our next album, and we're doing a lot of remixes right now we did two remixes for slam, a remix on cocoon and that's all coming out now in the next few months.

Pan Pot play the delightfully named 'Happy Birthday You Fucking Pyg!' bash at Pygmalion this Patrick's Day.

Words: Paddy O' Mahoney

Show Time: 8pm
Price: €10
Website : www.myspace.com/panpot