“We Should Be Able To Speak Out Against Injustices!” False Witness Interviewed
Berlin based producer on using club culture as an agent of societal change…False Witness is a Berlin-based DJ and producer and a founding member of the KUNQ collective, a crew of musicians assembled in New York holding the torch for an adventurous and accessible queer club scene.
Lockdown for them has been spent mostly been spent making and music reflecting on their creative process and artistic direction. Their anti-escapist and conceptual approach to composition make for a dark and manic sound, which you can hear channelled in their debut Lobster Theremin release, which is out shortly.
The appropriately titled ‘Life Can Be Cruel’ is a six-track foray of hypnotic high tempo techno. They’ve also got a release in the pipeline for the Lobster Theremin sublabel, Techno Is The Devil’s Music, and another EP for the Parisian label, Possession.
Clash speaks to False Witness about life in Berlin, their upcoming releases, the album that they are working on and their creative approach to making music, as well as their views on the vinyl industry, some of their hopes for the future of the club scene, and their ventures into other artistic disciplines.
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I understand that you’re currently based in Berlin but that your home is NYC, how are things in Berlin? Do you miss New York?
Berlin is just getting out of the lockdown that went into effect last November. My time there has been quiet and reflective. I’ve been spending most of my energy into writing new music, working in new mediums like painting and sculpture, and learning German. As an artist, I’ve taken a lot of steps back to reevaluate what my creative vision looks like and what kind of space I want to take up.
Examining other people’s work and really looking at things from a curatorial perspective has helped. I admire artists who can do both: showcase their own work and provide a platform for which to share work by others as well. I don’t miss New York though, I’m here right now for a few months. I’m very fortunate to be back for a short time. New York City and Berlin are both places I can call home now.
Your next release is out on Lobster Theremin soon, what’s the concept behind ‘Life Can Be Cruel’?
‘Cruelty’ is a motif I use a lot as an artist. I worked with NYC visual artist and animator Jessica Wilson to create a video for ‘Life Can Be Cruel’ that captures the sort of metaphorical energy I associate with the word: that sense of timeliness, that lack of control around one’s surroundings, the frustrations of human consciousness experiencing capitalism. I’m trying to move past Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism and into imagining and working towards a world without capitalism, but like how Mark Fisher postulates in his book Capitalist Realism, that’s incredibly difficult.
The EP is a series of abstractions of that kind of ‘trapped in capitalism’ sensation while the video for the title track is less about being trapped – humans are just gone, period. Whatever takes our place, a silicon based alien species perhaps, restarts the clock and life begins yet again.
I understand that you’re working on your first album at the moment, has working to a longer format than usual presented you with any new challenges?
I’m working on a concept album and yes, the format is a long process. I often write things days, months apart, and only see connections when I can hear them side by side. Building relationships between songs is critical for me to tell a unique story. I’m also working with vocalists for the first time. Using vocals and lyrics is a challenge for me. The voice is such a dynamic and complicated instrument that needs a lot of attention and technique compared to manipulating synths or samples. I don’t strive for perfection, but I do care about impact.
I read somewhere that you are a “strong advocate for sampling and sample culture”, is there a specific genre or era of music that you think is particularly rich with sample-able material?
No, it’s entirely dependent on the artist and their points of reference.
My sample bank comes from the styles of techno that I appreciate along with other genres that I enjoy or have meaning to my lived experience. Using samples effectively is a process similar to an archivist. You’re reaching into the archive, pulling out something that’s meaningful to you, and pairing it with something else to create an entirely new perspective.
I think sampling is a Black radical innovation of dance music that is unfortunately abused by an industry that doesn’t support or care about Black artists or their contributions. Loleatta Holloway and Gregorary C. Coleman of The Winstons are two major artists whom all dance music enthusiasts should know and pay tribute to, but oftentimes do not.
In your piece for Electronic Beats from last year in which you explain how the vinyl medium presents more problems than solutions for struggling artists and fans, and I agreed with a lot of the points you raised, but as someone who passionately collects old and new records, I would find it difficult to let go of vinyl completely. Do you think there’s a way to keep vinyl culture alive while at the same time dispelling its negative aspects?
The vinyl record is enduring because it’s a collectible, an art object. And there is so much art out there that’s not sustainable, vinyl records included. I don’t play vinyl and I only collect some records because I genuinely value the music that’s on it. I would never campaign to cancel vinyl nor would I rally to support it. The medium that music exists in aka the physical, tangible object, is less important to me than the actual sonic content, the intangible art form. That expression, the sound, is what I care to preserve.
Clubs in the UK and hopefully the rest of the world as well will be opening up again soon, as we all get back to partying what would you like to see more of in the dance music scene? And what would you like to see left behind?
There’s so much to leave behind but I’m doubtful it will. The thinly veiled racism, the misogyny, transphobia, the tokenism. We’re entering a position where marginalized artists are being added to rosters for inclusivity points but not marginalized people as a whole. However, the general mechanisms of who gets to attend these events and what gets promoted is still dependent on class structure and internalized prejudices centered in white supremacy.
I can’t expect all of these things to change, even as we leave this global period of pause. I’m hopeful that artists will be aware of it and be uninhibitedly vocal about it when they see something fucked up, without fear of retaliation by white promoters, club owners, and institutions. We should be able to speak out against injustices without being afraid of losing opportunities because someone wielding financial power got their fragile feelings hurt.
Apart from more new music, what else are you planning to get into for the rest of the year?
During the pandemic I joked that I wouldn’t DJ again until 2026. I’ll be playing shows again in Berlin, London and the rest of the EU this summer and fall as things start to open up. My album is still a work in progress but I have a new record coming out with Lobster Theremin sub-label Techno Is The Devil’s Music and an upcoming EP for Possession, Paris.
I’m also looking forward to working in contemporary art spaces and curating my own exhibitions with video artists, painters, and sculptors. I’m writing, although I wouldn’t ever call myself a journalist or a professional writer. I have a written piece in the next edition of Editorial Magazine focusing on recent paintings by LA-based artist Alfonso Gonzalez Jr, whose work is really fantastic. Just keeping busy and spending time with the people and things that bring me the most joy.
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‘Life Can Be Cruel’ is out on May 28th.
Words: Gabriel Hynes
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