2. Malaria!
This is one of those that a lot of post-punk fans find at some point; it’s like a hidden secret in a way. I think I heard it when I was first in Berlin or maybe after releasing the first record in 2010. A lot of journalists were referencing post-punk and actually, I had no idea about post-punk. Obviously, [occasional collaborators] Geoff [Barrow] and Beak did, but I didn’t, so I started collecting it on seven inch and 12 inch. Malaria! was one of the bands I found. I think this is one of their catchiest songs. It’s just got this good beat to it. They didn’t really record a lot of their stuff. There’s a lot of live sessions and I have a really cool tape from those, but I think it’s one of the only ones that was properly released.
There was this really weird occasion where, around my first album I was DJing in Berlin because that was my only way to make my money at the time, but I wasn’t told what it was for. I turned up with my post punk vinyl and it was Bryan Ferry’s album launch or something. It was like, the shittest party. I was there with my post-punk vinyl being like ‘someone please just get me out of here,’ and then Gudrun Gut from Malaria! Comes in, but I didn’t know who it was. She’s like, ‘I came here just because I wanted to meet you. Here’s some vinyl I really wanted to give them to you’. She gave me a Malaria! tape and then this vinyl that she’d produced. Even though it was the worst party ever, now I’ve met my heroes. From that point, she’s sort of been one of my mentors, which is really positive in this industry. I think she was also one of the first females to really offer support instead of competition.
