Despite being born in Switzerland and raised in the United States, musician Paul Wallfisch maintains a strong connection to Germany. The pianist and composer, who is the son of classical musicians, was introduced to the country through his German record label, and it is here that he has ventured into theater. Wallfisch stopped by our studio to talk about his family’s immersion in music and his current project at the Volksbühne, “Das 1. Evangelium,” or “The First Gospel,” for which he composed an...
Oct 20, 2018•5 min•Ep. 39
Munich-born rapper Ebow has been performing for over a decade , having broken into the male-dominated world of hip-hop as a teenager. We caught up with Ebow about her musical influences, sharing a stage with other women, and her latest album, “Komplexität” (in English, that’s “Complexity”). To Ebow, this release symbolized a major step in breaking away from the influence of older male figures in the industry. “At a certain point I stopped believing in my own aesthetics, my own style, because peo...
Oct 06, 2018•4 min•Ep. 38
Chelsea Nikkel, alias Princess Chelsea, brought her charming, onerous, twee-indie Pop back to Berlin last week for a show at the Funkhaus, her fourth time performing at the venue. While she wishes she had more time to explore Berlin on her tours, the city never fails to impress the New Zealand musician, or to draw a crowd: “a lot of people choose to travel here to Berlin from other countries where I haven’t played to come and see me, so maybe they think ‘Berlin , that’s gonna be the big show!’ A...
Sep 29, 2018•4 min•Ep. 37
Berlin-based duo RÁN play psych-infused indie rock. The band, comprising Laura Landergott from Austria and Yair Karelic from Israel, found themselves gig-ready within eight weeks of playing together, produced their debut EP, “Hunt Like Lions,” in 2017, and are working on a full-length album to be released at the start of 2019. We caught up with them to talk about their first chance encounter, their writing process, feminism, and their penchant for the unpredictable. Produced by Sylvia Cunningham...
Sep 22, 2018•4 min•Ep. 36
The folk-rock band Mighty Oaks has rooted itself firmly in Berlin soil , but in order to do so, its three members each had to journey far from their respective homes. It’s an origin story that feels so familiar in Berlin, it might be the set-up of a joke: An American, an Italian and an Englishman walk into a bar… Produced by Caitlin Hardee
Sep 08, 2018•4 min•Ep. 35
Born in a small Bosnian town, L.A.-based Valida has experienced life all around the world. Now a KCRW DJ for The Lab , Valida says that despite all of her travels, the music coming out of Berlin, and other parts of Germany, has stuck with her through it all. From stints in Moscow, Baghdad, and London, her globetrotting ways have undoubtedly influenced her musical style: “[There’s] no escaping the fact that…I really do feel like a citizen of the world.” Produced by Monika Müller-Kroll...
Sep 01, 2018•4 min•Ep. 34
Next weekend sees PEOPLE festival at Berlin’s Funkhaus. The festival is unique for bringing artists from all over the world together for a week of experimentation and collaboration before performing new works for a live audience. 160 artists will take part, including Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Bryce and Aaron Dessner, as well as Feist and Jenny Lewis. We spoke to festival organizers Tom and Nadine Michelberger, who devised the festival inspired by the spirit of the city. We also...
Aug 18, 2018•4 min•Ep. 32
For three days, Berlin’s Pop-Kultur festival showcased local and international musicians at the Kulturbrauerei. Headline acts included The Last Poets, and Neneh Cherry returning for her second year. But there were also many artists at Pop-Kultur for the first time. We met up with some up-and-coming musicians, including Parisian chromatic harpist Laura Perrudin , Italian singer Munsha , and German-Bulgarian singer, pianist and composer, Lisa Morgenstern . Produced by Sylvia Cunningham and Monika ...
Aug 18, 2018•4 min•Ep. 33
Barry Burns of the post-rock band Mogwai, and his wife, Rachel, came upon the space that would eventually become their pub, Das Gift, completely by chance. Now, seven years later, Das Gift is a Glasgow-meets-Berlin mainstay in the neighborhood of Neukölln. We spoke to Barry about the bar’s beginnings and Berlin’s influence on it and the band. For Barry and Rachel, who moved to Berlin in 2011, Das Gift became central to putting down roots: “It was a good place to meet people…because we didn’t kno...
Aug 04, 2018•4 min•Ep. 31
Noah Slee is a Tongan New Zealander whose music spans genres from traditional soul to mixed electronica and R&B . He moved to Berlin about three years ago and has seen his career flourish, especially on Spotify, where he boasts an audience of 400,000 monthly listeners. We caught up with him to talk about his unexpected love for Berlin’s techno scene, finding success in his adopted home and becoming a role model. Produced by Marlene Melchior...
Jul 28, 2018•4 min•Ep. 30
We caught up with musician Candice Gordon to talk about supporting likes of Nena, her 2017 album “ Garden of Beasts ,” and what else to expect from her this year. Gordon, who originally hails from Ireland, has been in Berlin for seven years, lured by history and literature. “I just loved it,” she says. “I just felt I belonged.” She hasn’t shied away from incorporating her Irish roots into her music, bringing in The Pogues’ frontman Shane MacGowan to produce her “ Before the Sunset Ends ” EP, rec...
Jul 21, 2018•4 min•Ep. 29
The Pop-Kultur festival is returning to Berlin next month, presenting over 100 events from Aug. 15 – 17 at the Kulturbrauerei . The festival gives musicians space to expand on the artistic currents underpinning much of pop culture and pop music today with a program of performances, new commissions, exhibitions, talks, and workshops. The festival’s organizers have assembled a line-up of both international and Berlin-based artists. Finding balance was a major factor when choosing musicians accordi...
Jul 07, 2018•4 min•Ep. 28
We caught up with Berghain-resident DJ Martyn shortly after the launch of his latest album, “ Voids .” He tells us about his musical process and the lengthy commute between Berlin and his home in Washington, D.C. Martyn says he took a “back-to-basics approach” with his latest album, reconnecting with earlier work. “For me, it was a moment to sort of look back at the records that really inspired me and that I was really happy with.” Produced by Marlene Melchior...
Jun 23, 2018•4 min•Ep. 27
June 21 sees Fête de la Musique coming to the streets of Berlin. The imported French festival has been a staple of the city’s event calendar since 1995 and brings music from over 800 musicians, bands, and choirs, performed in Spätis, Kitas, garden colonies and other unusual locations across the city. We caught up with Björn Döring, the Curator and Director of the festival. One highlight of Fête de la Musique promises to be a Europe-wide sing-along at 7pm featuring the “Ode to Joy,” John Lennon’s...
Jun 16, 2018•4 min•Ep. 26
This week, we caught up with musician David J, who was both the bassist in the goth rock sensation Bauhaus as well as bassist and vocalist of the ’80s band, Love and Rockets . A Los Angeles resident, he admits that he feels uncomfortable with the current political situation in the United States, confessing, “it’s in a sorry state, and I’m rather repulsed by it.” David J talks about his new solo album and how he aims to pursue more collaborative work in the future: “I’m always full of ideas, and ...
Jun 09, 2018•4 min•Ep. 25
Victor Van Vugt is a producer, mixer, and engineer who has worked with acts including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds , Einstürzende Neubauten , and P.J. Harvey . We speak with Van Vugt about his return to Berlin and his plans for the future. Van Vugt made Berlin his home in the 1980s before moving away to live in London and New York. He returned to Berlin four years ago and has since been working with a host of artists, including on a bi-monthly night called “The Fan Club” to reinvigorate Berlin’s ...
Jun 02, 2018•4 min•Ep. 24
Berlin’s public transport is both loved and hated by residents of the city, and the U8 line pretty much embodies this public sentiment. The line connects the north to the south, running through the heart of Berlin, and it connected an American from San Francisco with a Berliner for a musical homage of sorts. Journalist Sally McGrane and musician Axel Scheele both live on the U8. “The whole song just came to me between Schönleinstraße and Weinmeisterstraße,” says McGrane. Their band “ Lou Electri...
May 26, 2018•4 min•Ep. 23
This year’s Berlin Music Video Awards will take place from May 23 and 26. Since 2013, the awards have highlighted the art behind music videos while acting as a networking platform for musicians and filmmakers. Aviel Silook, founder of the event, has always been a huge fan of music videos. In fact, at the age of 14, Silook would wake up in the middle of the night, just to watch all the censored videos he loved. It resulted in him missing 100 days of school. Now Silook says the biggest reward of h...
May 19, 2018•4 min•Ep. 22
We spoke to Dutch singer-songwriter O-SHiN about her creative and recording processes. She talks about recording her last songs while immersing herself in the Swedish countryside because “I really love lots of Swedish artists…and I wanted to learn from them.” The album was mixed in Berlin, O-SHiN explains: “I think my music is a little bit …organic and electronic at the same time…The electronic part of it happened in Berlin and the organic part of it happened in Sweden.” Produced by Marlene Melc...
May 12, 2018•4 min•Ep. 21
Pop-Kultur Festival will be back in Berlin for it’s fourth year between August 15 and 17. We caught up with curator Christian Morin to talk about how the goals of the festival have evolved and what to expect from this year’s lineup, which features Neneh Cherry amidst a “very strong female presence.” Morin says that he wants the festival “to bring back meaning and content…to music, and the other goal is the transfer of knowledge.” One of the festival’s strong features is Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs , th...
May 05, 2018•4 min•Ep. 20
Synth-pop artist Anneli Bentler , aka Queen Alaska began her musical career by studying film music in London, but now she’s a fully-fledged solo artist. In advance of her upcoming Berlin show at Berghain Kantine, we caught up with her to talk about inspiration, her creative process and her thoughts on the different audiences of Europe. Produced by Marlene Melchior...
Apr 28, 2018•4 min•Ep. 19
What is your favorite record of all time? In honor of Record Store Day, we asked the proprietors of Berlin record stores Riseikel , HHV , Musik Department , Oldschool , Soul Trade and Dodo Beach . Discover their favorite tracks and listen to our record store day playlist. We also threw in some favorites from KCRW Berlin’s staff and volunteers! We’ll be celebrating Record Store Day, all day. Come out and support your local record stores. Check out our Facebook , Twitter and Instagram feeds for up...
Apr 21, 2018•2 min•Ep. 18
Craig Walker, frontman of indie/electronica band Archive, and former Nouvelle Vague singer Phoebe Killdeer have been living in Berlin for a decade, and say the city has been great to them musically – which seems almost an understatement given the past few years they’ve had. The two co-wrote the 2016 hit “Fade Out Lines,” which was remixed by French DJ The Avener and became a massive hit that lingered at number one on the German charts for 52 weeks, with 100 million listens on Spotify and 42 mill...
Apr 07, 2018•4 min•Ep. 17
Composer and visual artist Brian Eno returned to Berlin this week for the opening of his audio-visual installation, “Empty Formalism,” at the Martin Gropius Bau . The work is the first in a series of performances and installations created by artists for the newly created ISM Hexadome , a hexagonal structure featuring six large screens and over 50 speakers in a 3D sound stage, creating a spatial sensation coupling music with shifting visuals. “One of the reasons for using music in a place like th...
Mar 31, 2018•4 min•Ep. 16
For 10 days, MaerzMusik will present its program of unusual musical experiences at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and other locations around the city. This year’s edition is titled “Time Wars,” and explores our relationships with time through various artistic media and a conference, “Thinking Together. ” The festival’s program is a reflection of current pressing issues – climate change, digitalization, migration – and opened on Friday with a German premiere of selected works by the African-Ame...
Mar 17, 2018•4 min•Ep. 15
Culture historian and 2016 MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient Josh Kun says although there’s no “magic science” to figuring out a city, there are at least three types of places he visits from the outset: bookstores, record stores, and stationery stores. Plus, he eats out – preferably street food. Originally from Los Angeles, Kun is in Berlin as a Bosch Fellow in Public Policy at the American Academy and is researching the relationship between music and global migration, specifically forced migra...
Mar 10, 2018•4 min•Ep. 14
At 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night, 200 students from all over the world will be taking the stage at the RBB Große Sendesaal in Berlin for the annual High School Honor Choirs Festival. The festival was established by the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) and has taken place annually since 1976. The event gives participating students the opportunity to work with renowned conductors and to travel to international schools for an intensive three day program. Joseph Curtis is the chai...
Mar 03, 2018•4 min•Ep. 13
Walking through the Funkhaus Berlin with its grand concert halls, sweeping hallways, and state-of-the-art equipment, one can’t help being reminded of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The former GDR broadcasting studios are an enormous complex, housing cutting-edge sound technology within carefully preserved historical interiors and cavernous industrial halls. The Funkhaus was designed in the 1950s by Bauhaus engineer Franz Ehrlich, who during World War II had been interned at Buchenwald and ...
Feb 10, 2018•4 min•Ep. 12
Note: This recording contains strong language that may not be suitable for young listeners. A few years ago, Stephen Paul Taylor became an internet sensation when a tourist filmed him busking on the street with his ironic pop song “Sh*t’s F***ed.” The video went viral, and Taylor became a celebrity in his own right, with an album, memes, and regular appearances on German TV. Marlene Melchior caught up with Taylor to discuss his soon to be released album, “Synthpop is Dead,” his recent tour throu...
Feb 03, 2018•4 min•Ep. 11
Andres Barlesi first picked up a guitar when he was just five years old, was in his first band by the age of 12, and went on to play and tour internationally with the Argentinian indie band Los Alamos. Today the 36-year-old musician from Buenos Aires lives in Berlin and is working on his solo project, “Atalaya.” Barlesi’s music for Atalaya isn’t confined to particular song structures. When developing a piece of music, Barlesi often starts with an image in his head: “I close my eyes… I just let m...
Jan 27, 2018•4 min•Ep. 10
