The long-overdue Australian tour from electronic prodigy Apparat is almost upon us – despite the best efforts of a pesky volcano. Having wowed Europe throughout 2009 with his Moderat live show alongside Modeselektor, the man is treating us to his solo ‘rave’ set. In the hands of Apparat, though, it’s far from rave as we know it. The enigmatic Berliner granted some time with inthemix to talk about his techno-for-indie-kids and why a hypnotised dancefloor is the ultimate compliment.

Your Moderat live show was a real success story of 2009. Were you happy with how it was received?
It has been amazing. I mean, this is our baby. It’s not only Modeselektor and Apparat. Almost all of my friends are involved and it took us eight years to do something like this together. Whenever people ask me, “Who would you like to collaborate with most?” I just answer, “I’m glad to have so many good people around me who actually are great artists as well – there’s no need to collaborate with anyone else.”

Last year, we said we gonna do an intense but short Moderat tour during the summer. 60 gigs in three months, or something like that. It was over very quick and we expected a very few shitty shows, but it has always been great. When we played our last show in Berlin (on a Thursday, it was a sold-out 2000-people venue) we were really sentimental. It was just sad to stop. So we decided to do one more year! And it’s gonna start in three weeks!

How different is the experience of collaborating with Modeselektor from your work alongside Ellen Allien?
Ellen has tons of ideas but she isn’t a really good computer-operator. Gernot has quite a few ideas as well but he also can’t let anyone else move the mouse.

When I did Orchestra Of Bubbles [with Allien], I was mostly listening and engineering (and fighting of course). During the Moderat album, I was just talking the whole time. All three of us in a room and endless discussions about hi-hats and snares. Of course, we also worked on our own but at some point it was forbidden to touch a song if the others were not there. Each of us was afraid someone would change something he really liked.

Are you currently at work on a new album of your own?
I just came back from a two-month Mexican Pacific Ocean hangout where I lived with Josh from Telefon Tel Aviv, a great guitar player Fredo and Jörg, my drummer. We spend a lot of time on music and I was actually surprised and happy at how productive we can be outside of a traditional studio situation. I came back with a lot of material but I still have to work a lot. It might take a year until it’s done. I want to make a classic and I’ll take all the time I need for it!

Given Berlin is still a very techno-oriented city, do you feel somewhat removed from the ‘scene’ there?
I actually don’t even really feel part of the scene. I mean, I play not even ten-percent of my gigs in Germany. Sometimes I think there might be even more indie rock kids who listen to my music than ‘techno’ people. The Moderat concert for example – it didn’t look like a techno crowd at all. I found this to be a really good experience.

Can you tell us a bit about how your studio works? Do you use a lot of organic equipment?
I’m a bit tired of synthesisers and computers with millions of possibilities. I’m really trying to make a very human sounding record. It’s weird but it’s the hardest thing to make very easy-sounding music. You can’t force it – you have to wait for the moment when a simple but great song comes to you. I tend to overwork songs and destroy them in the end. This time I really tried to change. I hope the result won’t be too scary for the audience!

I wanted to ask you about how you incorporate vocals in your music, as it’s done very delicately and affectingly. Are vocals something you work very hard to get right?
It’s a pain in the arse. Singing is really hard for me, as I really have to be in a special mood for it. Most of the time, the first take is the best – the one you record when you just had a song idea and you’re totally stoked about it. Unfortunately most of the time the lyrics aren’t done at this point. It sucks. but I started collecting a catalogue of lyrics and whenever I’m in a magic moment like this I just go trough them and miraculously find the perfect match. that happens around five-percent of the time. the rest is depression.

You’re doing a live Apparat set in Australia, which is a rare experience for us. Is your live set constantly changing and incorporating new productions?
I barely make any new ‘dancefloor’ tunes. My only chance is to concentrate on band shows as the music I make is really band music these days. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy clubs from time to time. Especially if they are in Australia where I haven’t been so far. But in general I wanna try to get a little bit away from the rave thing.

Is it strange to be playing amongst line-ups of DJs playing very differently to you, or is it something you’ve adapted to now?
It’s quite normal now. I’ve been dealing with this for a long time now. Sometimes the DJ before asks what he should play as his last record and I say, ‘Whatever you want’. It doesn’t matter anymore. My set is still a little weird but it becomes rave and energetic enough to work on a dancefloor. Even though a lot of people just stare at me. But if I talk to them afterwards they said they couldn’t move, and I take that as a compliment!

Apparat tour dates:

Sat Apr 24 – Sydney, Musica
Sun Apr 25 – Melbourne, New Guernica
Mon Apr 26 – Melbourne, New Guernica [2nd show]