We talked to PTTRNS from Cologne about their love for cooking, chinese peasants, past careers and future plans.
CE: To start off, please tell us your names and your functions within the band PTTRNS?
Patrick: Although we go by many names, our parents call us 'Daniel', 'Benjamin' and 'Patrick'. There's also this guy 'Hienrich' somewhere in the mix. Our functions are multiform. Just last night, when making dinner, Benjamin took care of the pasta and a tofu/mushroom sauce, Patrick made a cauliflower/carrot/leek concoction and Daniel got something to drink. Things do get wild though and we mix it all up sometimes.
We are pretty well versed in many trades, say Daniel will make pasta or rice, Benjamin will throw together a salad, Hendrik will skin some grapefruits or oranges and Patrick will annoy everyone with a dancehall compilation he just downloaded. This is any given night basically. Like it says on our record: "Everyone plays everything".
CE: What do you do besides PTTRNS?
Daniel: Uh, a bunch of things I guess. Let's say we are all occupied with being lovers and friends, top-notch sportsmen, slackers, thinkers, workers and many things more. Patrick also had a career as a Malaysian cricket player once, but then this horrible accident happened....However, please note that this is a somewhat incomplete answer, since we often sleep in different rooms at night and I can only guess about the magic that's going on then.
CE: How did you guys meet?
Benjamin: You could say we kind of helped each others former bands out to to play some tunes, get some food and eben to find sleeping places. Then everything happened really quick and the three of us share the same four walls by now. It actually feels good, too!
CE: Was the direction of PTTRNS' music clear from the start?
Patrick: We've obviously undergone a great deal of development since we started to play music together. We feel that this is due to the fact that the way we play music together has become more spontaneous and 'organic', without intending to mean anything more than what is possible between a couple of guys living in 2010's capitalism.
CE: What do you do besides PTTRNS?
Daniel: Uh, a bunch of things I guess. Let's say we are all occupied with being lovers and friends, top-notch sportsmen, slackers, thinkers, workers and many things more. Patrick also had a career as a Malaysian cricket player once, but then this horrible accident happened....However, please note that this is a somewhat incomplete answer, since we often sleep in different rooms at night and I can only guess about the magic that's going on then.
CE: How did you guys meet?
Benjamin: You could say we kind of helped each others former bands out to to play some tunes, get some food and eben to find sleeping places. Then everything happened really quick and the three of us share the same four walls by now. It actually feels good, too!
CE: Was the direction of PTTRNS' music clear from the start?
Patrick: We've obviously undergone a great deal of development since we started to play music together. We feel that this is due to the fact that the way we play music together has become more spontaneous and 'organic', without intending to mean anything more than what is possible between a couple of guys living in 2010's capitalism.
We formed Shellac in 1992 and at some point just felt that we needed a change. When we changed the name to 'PTTRNS' last year, it was the result of becoming more interested in different forms of sonic exploration and of course the desire to have a clean break, start things over with the music industry.
CE: Where do you draw your inspiration from, and what are your greatest musical influences?
Daniel: Could any band ever answer that truthfully without building a myth around their music? I personally do not reflect on where some random bass line I just contributed to a jam comes from, although it has a lot to do with 'intermusicality'. You can surely find some references in what we are doing, but basically you won't find us rehearsing and celebrating a beat that is resembling Pink Floyd's first demo.
CE: You guys love rattles, don't you?
Benjamin: Well, the reason for our passion concerning rattles is based on the simple fact that Patrick, Daniel and I started a Samba-Dance-Studio back in 1999. While already giving lessons there for some years, Daniel got in touch with serious down-to-the-street hip-hop music and immediately fell in love with the way these guys did dance.
CE: Where do you draw your inspiration from, and what are your greatest musical influences?
Daniel: Could any band ever answer that truthfully without building a myth around their music? I personally do not reflect on where some random bass line I just contributed to a jam comes from, although it has a lot to do with 'intermusicality'. You can surely find some references in what we are doing, but basically you won't find us rehearsing and celebrating a beat that is resembling Pink Floyd's first demo.
CE: You guys love rattles, don't you?
Benjamin: Well, the reason for our passion concerning rattles is based on the simple fact that Patrick, Daniel and I started a Samba-Dance-Studio back in 1999. While already giving lessons there for some years, Daniel got in touch with serious down-to-the-street hip-hop music and immediately fell in love with the way these guys did dance.
He left the Studio, learned some serious hip-hop moves and started to teach some kids on the street how to assemble special moves. Oh shit, dog! Rattles were an integral part of our work and since Daniel also felt like bringing rattles into hip-hop music (which didn't work) and Patrick and I had a hard time finding students, we decided to quit our work and went on to form PTTRNS. Basically, we want people to participate in our music.
CE: About 3/4 through your live act an exchange in instruments takes place. Are you all multi-instrumentalists?
Patrick: Few people know that we are actually all classically trained trumpet players. After a really crazy night on tour in the south of Bulgaria ten years ago, involving several hundred liters of Coca Cola, a Mazda convertible and a live jaguar, things changed. These days we keep it pretty civilized. We switch it up to keep it fresh; the way it feels right to us. If you watch really closely (don't), you'll see that we are not all equally virtuous on whatever we play - but that's not really something that matters to us.
CE: Why the name PTTRNS, and why without vowels?
Daniel: PTTRNS was a revolutionary group of peasants in China during the late 1930s who, through various nonviolent means, espoused increased power for peasants and independence from the wealthy landowning class. No, wait. It's nothing like that. We just found it aesthetically appealing.
CE: So what does the future hold for PTTRNS?
Benjamin: We will try to play Rock am Ring in 2011 since they didn't want us this year...as well as the last three years. So, we're on it. Furthermore, we're planning a project concerning future releases. Sorry but we can't go into details here.
MP3: PTTRNS - Principle of Touch
myspace.com/pttrns
ursaminormusik.de/pttrns
Thanks to Denise for the great live pictures!
CE: About 3/4 through your live act an exchange in instruments takes place. Are you all multi-instrumentalists?
Patrick: Few people know that we are actually all classically trained trumpet players. After a really crazy night on tour in the south of Bulgaria ten years ago, involving several hundred liters of Coca Cola, a Mazda convertible and a live jaguar, things changed. These days we keep it pretty civilized. We switch it up to keep it fresh; the way it feels right to us. If you watch really closely (don't), you'll see that we are not all equally virtuous on whatever we play - but that's not really something that matters to us.
CE: Why the name PTTRNS, and why without vowels?
Daniel: PTTRNS was a revolutionary group of peasants in China during the late 1930s who, through various nonviolent means, espoused increased power for peasants and independence from the wealthy landowning class. No, wait. It's nothing like that. We just found it aesthetically appealing.
CE: So what does the future hold for PTTRNS?
Benjamin: We will try to play Rock am Ring in 2011 since they didn't want us this year...as well as the last three years. So, we're on it. Furthermore, we're planning a project concerning future releases. Sorry but we can't go into details here.
MP3: PTTRNS - Principle of Touch
myspace.com/pttrns
ursaminormusik.de/pttrns
Thanks to Denise for the great live pictures!
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