INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK BODMER

Music

R$N catches up with Patrick ahead of his weekend hosting A Night With…M.A.N.D.Y.

Hi Patrick, when Body Language blew up, you couldn't move for M.A.N.D.Y. and Get Physical. It must have been a very exciting time. Everything you and the label touched seemed to turn to gold. You've recently produced another epic piece with your friends Booka Shade. Tell us about your relationship with them. Would it be fair to say they are essentially yours and Philip's brothers?

We´ve got twenty years of friendship now alltogether. First time we were doin music together was more than fifteen years ago, under different project names. At the moment we are going a bit into different directions, music wise and business wise. Arno & Walter left the label – but we are still all brothers and sisters, I would say!

You're almost veterans on the scene having released your first record as M.A.N.D.Y. in 2002 – it's funny to write that having grown up with you and Get Physical. Can you pick us some highlights of the last 10 years?

Oh, there's so many highlights! Music, friends, dj moments and private life, ..I would not know where to start. Could we make an extra interview out of this next time, please?!

It's fair to say that fabric played a big part in the UK's love affair with yourselves and Get Physical. To what do you attribute it's success to?

Friends & music! Judy, Craig and everyone at Fabric and the Phonica crew. First time we played in UK was at The Key in London for Mark. We bought records at Phonica, where we met Heidi and Simon and the whole crew for the very first time. I remember Heidi gave me that brand new DJ Rush record which we played at the night and then Judy from Fabric came up to me and gave me props for that record and so on and on and then she invited us to play at fabric and we became all friends and we turned into residents at fabric and we just all loved each other day and night:)!! It´s a true music driven romance!

We've not seen you on these shores much recently. As DJs hit the big league they tend to disappear off the London club scene radar into far flung corners of the world – we've missed you. It'll be quite a treat to get our hands on you for 8 hours next weekend. What's your thoughts on the current UK scene. There's a great deal of cross polination going on with the dubbier sounds into house and tech which is something both you and Booka Shade have always indulged in?

Thanx for the flowers buddy! I always loved the "everything is possible attitude" in London! Very excited to have some time to spend with the crew again!

Where did you get the idea to turn the beatless Laurie Anderson single into a dancefloor destroyer? It was a stroke of genius in my eyes.
That was the idea of Patrick Dechent aka "The Sunsetpeople". A very longterm friend. We met, when he founded the Monza Club. He came to the studio with the accapella.

We tried to get a licence then but without success. So we did the bootleg, sold so many vinyl that we got afraid and stopped it. Then some years later the management of Laurie was calling us again: "you know, Laurie and Lou Reed they were in a bar in NYC yesterday and the DJ played that remix you guys did – they love it and you could release it know if you still like the idea".

Where do you live these days and why?

After years of travelling and hotel living and searching for the most amazing place to live, I realised: my favourite place is Berlin. For social reasons. And just because I met the girl of my life here. We married and we just made a child and we just feel right here with most of our friends living around the hood. But I still miss some palm trees here in Berlin ;)!

We've already had some of the greats grace our dancefloor over the past 2 years. Is this 8 hour A Night With… concept something you've attempted before?

I love it! I was always running around and asking the promoters why they don´t want to save the money for the DJs before and after us.

What's it going to be like without Philip next weekend? I know he's done quite a bit of moonlighting with Matthew Dear in New York over the past few years! 🙂

Of course I`ll miss him. We will send some SMS forth and back, via the ocean, we will cry a bit and then it is ok 😉

Can you pick us a track to reflect each of your 8 hours of your A Night With…

Sent you some already. I didn´t mention some tough techno shit, I will play at one point.

1. Warm up: Disco, E Funk: Peter O – Normalize (Tronic Sole)