Being friends for over 20 years, and working together musically for 10 years, it’s quite special, no? We’re talking about TINA TOKIO, a bass music duo from Germany.
Working together on FUNKANOMICS, their previous project, they now thought it was time to dig a little deeper. With Patric (aka Muadeep) on the production side and Daniel on the DJ side, they found the perfect formula.
Nowadays, they are crafting their musical story, combining it with visuals to give people the complete experience. They want to convey their love for the underground and all types of bass music to the people, showing us how there’s more to it than just dancing.
The first part of this story is their Genetics LP, which just got released.
Congratulations on your LP! How did the process go?
Patric: We live in the South of Germany, where there is a really big techno scene. So for us, it’s really hard to see where we can play our songs. The goal with this album was to find the middle way between four-to-the-floor dancefloor music and the other sounds and genres we like. When you listen to the LP you will recognize a lot of sounds derived from drum & bass: the basslines, the drums… That was the goal, to mix these two genres together.
Daniel: And we both like percussive music, intelligent dance music, and all kinds of world music. I think that was also a big influence for the LP.
How did you come up with the name TINA TOKIO?
(both laugh) Daniel: We wanted a name that no one would easily forget. It’s funny because when someone is booking us, and they see the name TINA TOKIO, they don’t expect two huge German guys probably, with all-black tattoos. We also went for ‘TOKIO’ because it’s a perfect city, and we also wanted to create something that special.
Can you walk me through the creative process behind the LP?
Patric: The whole idea behind the LP is to bring more poppy songs with vocals, a little bit deeper, that also have a place on the dancefloor and in clubs. That’s where we want to go. We want to go and destroy clubs worldwide. Both of us like that deep vibe more, because you can put in more emotions there. We are funny people by nature, but in our music we like to dig deeper. It’s a nice contrast.
How was TINA TOKIO born?
Daniel: We worked together on another project, FUNKANOMICS, which we did for 10 years and achieved some success with. We made another style of music for that project, more funky breaks, a little bit more hip-hop and mash-ups. The ghetto funk scene was huge in the UK then, and we had the chance to play worldwide with FUNKANOMICS, for example, in Canada, Australia, and the whole of Europe. What the project basically was, was three guys with four turntables and an Ableton Live set. That’s where me and Patrick got to know each other musically.
After about 10 years we quit the project and Patric started to do more for his other ego Muadeep with releases on VISION, Saturate Records, and more. I got more into doing video blogs with unique DJs at special locations, and I started to organize visual parties. I still played out a lot, but not so much internationally anymore because that’s when Covid hit. Instead, I started to do live streams and those video blogs I mentioned.
On a personal level, Patric and I have been friends for more than 20 years now. We always worked well together. So a while after the FUNKANOMICS project ended, we wanted to do something similar again, but we were both into different music now, more breaks, deep, intelligent, bass… So we decided to drop the name Funkanomics and start something new from zero. That’s how TINA TOKIO was born.
With FUNKANOMICS you did more hip-hop, with TINA TOKIO it’s more deep bass. Why is that?
Daniel: I think it’s because of our new interests. We both are totally in love with music since forever. We like digging deep, digging up music from the underground, and we are really into abstract, weird bass music. That’s why we decided to go that way. Funk is interesting still, and we are still open to that kind of music, but we want to dig deeper and show people that there’s more to bass music.
Patric: The production is more interesting as well. Most of the funk songs have the same arrangements and sounds, but now I’ve got the chance to change it up a bit more and be more experimental. It’s a totally different experience, and it’s more fun.
What do you love so much about the underground?
Patric: It’s a scene where everyone is more open-minded. In the part of Germany we live in, not so many people like new music, so when we play at a party it’s really difficult to create the right vibe sometimes. That’s why I like the underground so much, the people in that scene understand what’s happening right away, and they’re more open to new stuff. That’s why we live in subgenres, and not on the main stage.
Where do you see the project going?
Patric: The plan is to play more live shows. The next step is to work more on our visual concept show that we played in October. Now that we finished our LP, we can’t wait to see what’s next.
You played an audiovisual show in Ravensburg this Summer. Is that something we can expect you to do more?
Daniel: The special thing about that show was, that you couldn’t see us, we stood behind the visuals. It was a total concept. We worked together with a multimedia artist, and we had the idea to make the show a bit more dark and deep. We want the audiovisual shows to be more about intelligent dance music and less about ‘club vibe’. When we do a club show, it’s more four-to-the-floor, so we separate them from each other. Our Genetics LP for example is meant more for the dancefloor because we want to play more clubs at the moment.
Patric: We’re totally open to working with VJs or people who do visuals at parties, but when we do a special audiovisual show it’s more for the eyes and the feeling, not so for the dance.
Daniel: A lot of the tracks we play at those audiovisual shows are more atmospheric and avant-garde, that’s why.
Patric: We are totally open to doing it again. The idea behind it would be to do it in museums, at places where there’s a special art show or light show. We basically would want to play at unique locations, we’re open to anything. It’s so much fun to travel around with the gang, have a good time, build the whole show up together… People are totally focused on the music and the visuals, and that’s what we want to achieve.
How do you think audio and visual reinforce each other?
Daniel: I think it’s like in a movie. You can use other pictures with a different sound, so you create a new understanding of the situation. I think adding pictures to the sound can push up the whole experience. We love to play with both of these energies, giving people this complete experience.
When creating an audiovisual show, we like to cover several themes. It’s about the situation of the world, how people are connecting with each other, communication… I think the combination of audio and visuals is the new way of communicating with people and telling them how we see the world. We also want to show people that there’s not just one genre of club music, that it can go way broader. There’s more than just hip-hop and techno.
Thank you so much for this conversation. Do you have any final thoughts?
Daniel: We hope we can play in Paris soon and meet all of you in France. We are also very excited to start touring with our new music, so maybe we can start in Paris?
Patric: We are super stoked to be part of the STUDIO family! With Funkanomics we already did some releases, with Muadeep as well, but this project feels more special in a way. It feels nice to have STUDIO’s interest in our music, and it feels nice to be part of such a creative family.
Interview conducted in October 2023 by Annelies Rom.
Thanks to Daniel & Patric for this great talk. You can download & stream their Genetics LP here.
TINA TOKIO
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