Format: B Interview

German duo, Franziskus Sell and Jakob Hildenbrand, started Format: B together after studying to be sound engineers and discovering they shared a love of all things Techno. Together, they have toured Asia, Australia, USA, South America and Europe, released several hit singles and formed their own label, Formatik Records. With a studio in Berlin, they recorded their second album, ‘Restless’, in 2011 and hold label nights in the local Watergate Club. Bouncing off of each other on stage and an enigmatic sight to watch, they are not to be missed when they hit up Earthcore this week, so we thought we’d have a little Q+A with the duo to get ready for the epic weekend again.

Having met while studying sound engineering, how did the two of you decide to form Format: B?
After some “successful” nights in the studio we finished two tracks. I was sending them to Tom Clark who was up to release them. It was our ‘Slaps EP’ on Highgrade Records. There was no other chance than forming Format: B.

Did you have to take time to get to know each other and see if you could work together?
Luckily we had much fun doing music together from the beginning on. Now we are partners in crime and good friends.

Did Berlin play a part in influencing your interests in music? How so?
Berlin as city has influenced us a lot. I guess it’s the restless soul of our beloved city that gives us the inspiration for our style.

What is a Format: B set production like and why should ticket-holders for Earthcore check you out?
That’s hard to answer. We play with traktor in combination with native instruments machine, the remix decks and f1 and x1 controllers on four channels. Most of the time our workflow is more live remixing than normal DJing… We combine our own sounds with new stuff from other artists – hope they like it.

If you hadn’t have met, would you have gone into music on your own or would you have done something altogether different?
Music is our life. Jakob was playing guitar in bands before and I was playing piano professionally for over eight years before I started to become a DJ in 1997. The audio engineering school was necessary to go further with our music thang.

What’s the best club you’ve played at and why?
It does not depend only on the club. The techno world is too different to reduce it on one best club because of the crowd, the vibe, the sound system, the drinks… There are so many different important things that make a party good that I’m not able to say this is the best club… But of course playing at Berghain was a wicked experience for us.