Techno Tuesday is a feature on Dancing Astronaut documenting the culture of underground dance music. We’ll bring you exclusive interviews, tracks, and narratives from artists within the techno, tech house, and deep house world in an effort to shed light on some of the best talent outside the world of mainstream dance music.

While the meaning behind M.A.N.D.Y.‘s moniker is constantly up for debate — does it mean “me and you,” or is it a nod to Barry Manilow’s 70s hit “Mandy?” What is known for sure is the duo’s undisputed reputation as house Renaissance men. Before they became one of the era’s most prolific tech house outfits, Philipp Jung and Patrick Bodmer humbly met as young lads in Saarbrücken, Germany, but were separated by the realities of studying and record-label jobs.

Bound together by the unifying threads of dance music, Jung and Bodmer reunited to build their illustrious catalogue of remixes and numerous original productions. After becoming resident DJs in the booming Frankfurter scene of the early 2000s, M.A.N.D.Y. formed their Get Physical label in 2002 together with German duo Booka Shade. In 2005, Get Physical saw the release of M.A.N.D.Y.’s biggest hit “Body Language” and took home the coveted title of DJ Mag’s Label of the Year.

Flash forward to 2016, and M.A.N.D.Y. performs across Peru, South East Asia, Australia and Argentina before releasing their hotly anticipated debut full length, Double Fantasy. This November brought sad news for many M.A.N.D.Y. fans, however, as Jung announced his sabbatical until further notice. Those disheartened to learn about Jung’s sabbatical must understand the history of the duo; luckily, we sat down with Bodmer to get the full scoop.

Philipp just announced his sabbatical. What are your plans, Patrick? Do you think M.A.N.D.Y. might take a different direction with the absence of a member?
First of all, Philipp and I are still in a very strong friendship and we are still running our Get Physical label together. We are constantly exchanging musical ideas for the label and also some parts and ideas for our M.A.N.D.Y. project.

For the musical side and production of M.A.N.D.Y., it is only me involved, and has been for around a year now following the album. I will definitely miss my best friend on tour as we always enjoyed quality time in between all of the shows. But I am also happy to lead the musical direction in just one direction, which makes it easy for me to work as I don’t have to compromise in some parts. For example, when comes to club sets I like stronger pushing darker sounds and dirty or rougher aspects more than Philipp.

Just like Philipp’s sabbatical, I also had my own break from touring a few years ago when I decided to get married and to start a family. I took a lot of touring time off to spend more time with my family, so I actually didn’t tour overseas for around three years when my baby was born. I am really happy about this decision, and now I am really happy to be on the road again!

 

Have you prepared for this upcoming tour differently since it’s Philipp’s last one for a while?
We are playing a lot of our favourite records from the last few years, just as we would be if we were in a living room together and playing records as good, old memories to each other. But most of the tracks are fresh releases from recent weeks or the are unreleased as we always prefer to play mostly actual ‘new’ music.

 

What about playing in the underground dance scene in America is different than playing elsewhere?
I hadn’t been on tour in the US for nearly five years, and it’s only been since March earlier this year that I have been coming back again. Yesterday we played at Audio in San Francisco, it was already completely packed at midnight and WE could play whatever we liked, from Disco to experimental Electro, people were really open minded. The sale of alcohol stops too early — that potentially be something to disturb or interrupt the flow for the people I think, as it is not an unlimited as in my hometown Berlin for example. I loved that we could hang out with the club owners and DJs until the afternoon to talk about music cultures and sound systems. So that was completely like Berlin, haha!

 

What is appealing about a globally influenced house sound from a label head perspective? 
We love the fact that we can expand our A&R network around the world, so we can find new music and create a musical exchange with producers, songwriters and singers. For example, we are constantly working with teams in Brazil and have been for many years, and also in South Africa ever since we took part in the “Bridges For Music Project.” There have been a number of great tracks and singles released on Get Physical through to today, including a single from Black Coffee, as well as through our Compilation series including “Brazil Gets Physical“ and “South Africa Gets Physical.” We’re also working on more projects like this in other countries at the moment.

 

What does 2018 have in store for Get Physical?
For M.A.N.D.Y., I have reworked club versions of tracks that come out on our last album. The next one of these will be released just before Christmas, including Blondi:sh and Re:you remixes. There will also be two compilations including exclusive reworks and remixes by Gerd Janson, Prins Thomas and more. Together with Audiofly we just finished the first single for our M.A.N.F.L.Y. project, which will be released early next year. And for M.A.N.D.Y. there will be new single releases over the next year, not only on Get Physical!

 
Read More:

DA Exclusive: M.A.N.D.Y. – Obsessed (Guti Remix)

M.A.N.D.Y. vs. Lopazz feat. Nick Maurer – Feel It In Your Brain (Adriatique Remix)

Techno Tuesday: Josh Butler talks ORIGINS RCRDS, 90s influences and A&R

Tags: feature, Get Physical, house, M.A.N.D.Y., techno, techno tuesday, underground house, underground techno

Categories: Features