Everybody’s becoming a party animal for Pop-Kultur and prepares itself for the conquest of Neukölln’s nightlife. Author Mirna Funk is not exception to the rule. The East German-born lady is the latest participant in our “How to Pop-Kultur”-series and took care of Thursday, September the 1st. These are her recommendations.

I used to be a wild party girl, but nowadays no one gets me out of my apartment after 19:00 h. You’d have to shackle and kidnap me. But I’ll make an exception for Pop-Kultur. Well, I’ll begin early and quiet and end early and half-way loud. I’ll watch Mark Farrow and Scott King talking about graphics design at 17:40 h. I guess I’ll take my husband and our daughter. Thereafter, I’ll take in another talk on my own, cause talking is good for the brain. Fatima Al Qadiri shall tell me something about Kuwait. I’d like that. Or about art. Or about how you make art in Kuwait. That kinda stuff.

Because I usually go to bed at 21:00 h, my strength leaves me, but I’m going to watch A-WA. That’s simply a must. If I’m lucky, these Yemeni super girls from Israel play first. If not, I’ll stay until they come up, get a cab after the last chord is played and close my eyes on the way home.

Mirna Funk worked as a freelance journalist for »Neon«, »L’Officiel Germany« and »Süddeutsche Magazin«, as she writes about culture and life between Berlin and Tel Avid. Her debut novel “Winternähe” was released back in 2015 and awarded with the acclaimed Uwe-Johnson Prize for the best German debut. A film version is currently in the making. More information on her homepage. If you want to compile the plan of Mirna Funk or your own schedule for Pop-Kultur you can get 10 % off with the »Wahl-Abo« for Thursday.

Patrick Siegfried Zimmer likes to describe himself as an interdisciplinary designer; a term that makes quite some sense when you talk about the filmmaker, director and songwriter from Hamburg. His latest film »ANHEDONIA: Narzissmus als Narkose« with Robert Stadlober and Dirk von Lotzow got that much attention that Mr. Zimmer is already working on a sequel. And he’s also planning a first full-length album under his real name for 2017, after already releasing a couple of records under his moniker “finn.”

Pop-Kultur can be indeed very happy to have Patrick Siegfried Zimmer on board for a new edition of “How to Pop-Kultur”. These are his recommendations for Wednesday, August 31.

»On Wednesday, I teleport at exactly 17.40 h, out of my private lodgings in Hamburg into the Prachtwerk, to attend the reading by Jon Savage, moderated by the equally interesting artist Phil Collins (when I was a child, I have to admit, I did like his singing namesake). Then I’ll take a quick breather and afterwards let My bubba stomp my feet. Thereafter, tipsy as I’ll probably be, I shall jump into the Heimathafen and listen expectantly to the compositions of Girls Names and Cat’s Eyes. Due to this intoxicating experience, I’ll float to the SchwuZ like a „Dandy im Nebel“, to steal the last backstage beers from my euphoric friends of Trümmer. Cin Cin.«

Everybody can write? Not really. At leastnot in the intensity  that really touches the reader. Hendrik Otremba is frontman and lyricist of the German post punk heroes MESSER but also a painter and cultural journalist. At Pop-Kultur 2016 he’ll not just present his debut novel “Über uns der Schaum”, but also host a course about writing lyrics in the course of our Nachwuchs program. Exclusively via Pop-Kultur Otremba has compiled his ideas about that subject.

A text can suddenly be there. A text can take years of waiting. A text can develop in fragments or just appear completely. A text can serve a purpose or shut itself off to the world. A text can have a message or kill the author. A text can be waiting forever for you to write it. Or it’s you who’s waiting for something to turn into words. Apparently, the text doesn’t really exist. Anything can be text. Well, everything that can be read can thus be text – or: everything that creates significance. But what does that tell us about writing?

Nothing specific to begin with, apart from a myriad of possibilities to write – and I’m not even talking about the subjects. But this article is about a very particular form of writing, about poetry, about the writing of lyrics for pieces of music. Not in terms of a service, but as something that has to get out, that has to be written, that you have to write. How exactly does this find a form that is artful, one that gives back to you and others? To give something. For that, and here’s a huge disappointment, there is now recipe. Everybody writes differently and so this text can only be about my way of writing. But there are deliberations to be had, decisions to make, an awareness to be sharpened. Writing is most effective when you have understood which situations are best for you to write in. At the same time, you can’t know too much about your writing. That is a contradiction that cannot be narrated.

“It should hurt, otherwise, it doesn’t make sense”

Let’s play out one possibility: I wrote lyrics because there was a concrete occasion. That is possible and probably the case for many musicians. For such occasion-driven lyrics – I’m talking about social events, dying, systems, political assassinations etc. – you need a shock, at least I need it. I have to be so shocked, that I give up my security – the other (insecure) writing, that I’ll get to in a bit – and force myself to use the ink.

One should only sit down to write, when one feels indispensably prompted by circumstances that are not bearable or that carry you away.

That’s hard, as you would actually want to constantly write on against the whole world, against all the suffering, all the injustice, the pain, against the things that, in total, are so abstract, that the only thing making sense would be putting a scream on paper. But the more often you urge to do that, the more seldom should you do it. I plead for a household, that turns and flips, only allows sitting down when there is no other way when one feels – Caution! – forced to write by a higher power (???). The scream is supposed to be heard, that’s why its cacophonic sounds must be emitted clearly – and one should therefore really only decide to write decisively when there is no other way. I am convinced, that writing in this way only makes sense if one is concerned with the death of one’s own writing and when writing is something that is related to life and death. To put it another way (pardon my French): Do not just bust one out, do not write about a topic that has occupied you for some time, do not finally make a mark. It cannot feel like fulfillment, not like engagement, not like an attractive slogan. More like an unsolvable task. Then one will find words, but should, in turn, criticize these, should rethink them, grind them, beat them up, pep them up, sharpen them, turn them on time and again. Such texts actually have to be, really have to be, but they must not arise too often. Otherwise, they lose their power. If the ability for such writing lies within you, you should tame it and only let it out scarcely. It should hurt, otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. That’s why there are only a very few good protest songs. So, that’s the one thing.

Diffuse Feeling vs. Concrete Plan

But there is another form of writing, as worthy of protection as the one previously put into the light – that’s the other one. There surely are many more forms, but I want to talk about this one here. When you, as the writer, manage to outsmart yourself. When you manage to surrender yourself to the words. There’s no recipe for this one either. But it works a lot different than writing sitting down. Often fragmentary, at night, shortly after waking up, shortly after going to sleep, while being relaxed, while in ecstasy, in the meantime, with endless pauses in-between, on a train ride, with rediscovered notes, with sudden sentences in heads, in a pillow wet with tears. In short: a writing that you do not sit down for. It’s more of a form of writing that you kneel before. This kind of writing only calls for a whiff of an idea. A diffuse feeling. If you have a plan, you shouldn’t do it. You have to slowly figure out this way of writing, you have to learn to give in to it, learn to trust. Then, it will come to you. It’s the kind of writing you use a knife for, or scissors, slice things, so that they drift around somewhere, on their own. They begin to like themselves in their isolation. Numerous little particles that one forgets doesn’t take them seriously. If they’re worth it, they will come back, they’ll find each other, will crawl towards one another as if they’re pushed by a ghost, insects, fleeing from a giant’s warm breath, finally finding a breadcrumb.
You can observe, are barely part of the process, more of a marionette, performer.

The meanings that are created, don’t really need you anymore, even if they all but let you go. They are tied to you, become accessible to you later, make more sense than you ever thought they would.

When a text is done, you know it. It’s simply there. It has decided for itself to have taken form.

If it finished itself: that’s when it belongs to you, in the same moment, it only belongs to you and only to everybody else. This text obeys everyone in a different manner, evades everyone differently, everyone obeys its orders differently. A few verses enable worlds to coexist, that exclude each other.

If you have allowed yourself to create a text like this, if you had the patience, let go and tied it to you at the same time, you feel invigorated. You are allowed to be happy about that. And you are allowed to argue.

Those are two ways of writing, maybe it’s all of them. How should I know? I know nothing, apart from it being right. And that you’re probably dead when it’ drying up.

Hendrik Otremba

You want to participate in a workshop with Hendrik Otremba and other well-known characters, like Algiers, SassyBlack, Colin Newman of Wire and many more? Please click on the banner below before the deadline ends on June 20.

The start of Pop-Kultur gets Atomic! As you should know by now Scottish post-rock heavyweights MOGWAI are opening Pop-Kultur with a unique film concert experience as they bring their soundtrack for the BBC documentary ‘Storyville – Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise’ to live. Find more information right here and just in case you aren’t convinced yet, here are a few special greeting words by guiatrist Barry Burns:

Dear visitors to Pop-Kultur-Berlin 2016 and Admiralspalast.

Mogwai are honoured to be invited to play our live soundtrack along to a cinematic screening of Mark Cousins’ BBC commissioned film “Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise”.
The film recounts the experiences of the nuclear dawn, the A-Bomb, the following Cold War, nuclear power disasters, the moments of hope, the good we could use (and have done) with the technology, and also the mass protests against nuclear energy and weapons which are still highly relevant today. We feel this is a film not to be missed and – within a live setting – feels more powerful than even we had hoped.

We look forward to being a part of the festival and we hope that you, like us, learn something more about a subject that continues to loom over us.

Barry

Young people,

this one’s for you!

The Pop-Kultur program is finalized, pre-sale is running, it’s time for our favorite part: the Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs program 2016. No, that’s not our very own festival kindergarten, nor our ball pit (even though we’d really love that) and most definitely not our band contest. Instead, Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs is our two-day workshop program, created to benefit talents from all fields of music and the music industry. Maybe you are one of them?

Are you a young musician or are you preparing your next steps as a producer, DJ or composer? You want to work professionally in music management, a booking agency or your own label or want to exploit your music more target-oriented? You’re making your first steps as a director, music PR or as a journalist? If you have made first experiences in your field already, Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs will help you reach the next level. Hence, we are glad, that we can offer no less than 250 spots in this year’s two-day coaching program.

It’s going down on August 31st and September 1st in a couple of locations around the Alfred-Scholz-Platz in Neukölln. International professionals give personal insights into their work and share their expert knowledge through workshops, case studies and talks with you – lively and practical instead of dry and read off. Among them are Pop-Kultur acts such as SassyBlack (Ex-THEESatisfaction), Wire-head Colin Newman, the band Algiers or the musician, painter and author Hendrik Otremba from the group Messer. They are joined by cultural journalist Nadine Lange, musician Lucrecia Dalt, director Stephanie von Beauvais as well as creative director Morris Perry among others. With more mentors to be announced soon.

Overall, there will be more than 40 different courses in German and English during the two days of Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs. And as the program once more offers spots to talents from all over the world, you’ll be able to network across borders.

The application phase starts on Monday, May 23rd, on www.pop-kultur.berlin/nachwuchs and ends on June 20th. An expert jury will pick 250 talents for the sought-after spots in the program. The participation fee is 40 Euro, including lunch and access to the Vollgutlager –Pop-Kultur’s meeting place for professionals .

And if you, dear reader, do not consider yourself such a young talent, we’d be very thankful if you could spread the word to interested parties around you.

In any case: Stay curious!

Best Regards

Pop-Kultur

You’ll probably have noticed it already. Maybe because you are allergic to grass pollen (Drinking helps!) or maybe because your calendar is bursting. It’s May. Holidays. Memorial Days. Release Days… It’s getting hard to stay in the loop. And now we are popping up and claim:

Forget May! The change of August into September is the true summer!

Ye-hes, we’re completely serious. 100%. Then again, we already know the full program of our festival’s second edition, running from August 30th to September 2nd in Berlin-Neukölln – Pre-Sale is starting at this moment!

What shall we say? Where shall we begin? We booked more than 70 artists. Old heroes, the local scene and the German debuts of some of the most promising newcomers of the year. Once more, we are not “just” showing live music, but concerts, DJ-Sets, readings, film premieres, talks. And again, the special charm of Pop-Kultur is that almost everything you’re going to see is something new – from the premieres of new albums to a lot of newcomer’s first ever shows in Germany. If you do not show up, you’ll be missing out. Sometimes, it’s that simple.

Two weeks ago, we were able to present you with some extracts of our 2016 program. Today, we want to introduce another 50 (fif-ty) names. But that would flood your inbox – and this newsletter. That’s why we allow ourselves to most politely throw all the confirmed acts at you, in alphabetical order, while sweetening the deal with a nice GIF. Moreover, we kindly refer you to our website, where all the acts and their specific endeavors at our festival are presented extensively. The headliner is whoever you think is your personal highlight.

Pop-Kultur 2016
Abra, Al English, Alex.do, Alex Murray-Leslie, Alice Cohen, Algiers, Ana Ana, A-Wa, Best Friends, Brandt Brauer Frick, Cat’s Eyes, Colin Newman, Deadbear, Diät, Eska, Exploded View, Ezra Furman, Fai Baba, Fatima Al Qadiri, Fishbach, Frankie Cosmos, Girls Names, Heimer, Hendrik Otremba, Imarhan, Immersion, Jens Balzer, John Roberts, Jon Savage, Karies, Keøma, Levin Goes Lightly, Liars, LUH, Malcom Middleton, Mark Farrow, Matthew Herbert, Miko, Missincat, Mogwai, Mule & Man, My Bubba, Naked, Nancy Pants, No Joy, Pins, Phil Collins, Phoebe Killdeer, Richard Hell, Roosevelt, Royal Comfort, rRoxymore, Ryan Vail, SassyBlack, Schwund, Scott King, Selda Bağcan & Boom Pam, Show Me the Body, Skinny Girl Diet, Sarah Miles, Stara Rzeka, Tellavision, The Hidden Cameras (solo), The KVB, The Numero Group, The Weather Station, Thurston Moore Band, Trümmer, Tygapaw, U.S. Girls, Valerie Trebeljahr, Your Friend, Zebra Katz, Zola Jesus

Just as we did in 2015, we divided the festival into different modules. Thusly, each guest only has to pay for the parts of the program he or she really wants to see. The tickets cost between 5 € – e.g. for a talk-module in the Prachtwerk or the Passage-Kino – and 25 € for one of the three large concerts at Huxleys (e.g. Brandt Bauer Frick with Roosevelt or Selda Bağcan & Boom Pam plus Keøma); plus pre-sales fee. But the best part is that you can put together your individualized festival ticket, including the 10% Pop-Kultur Discount if you buy more than two tickets.

Furthermore, there are still tickets available for Mogwai and their live performance of the soundtrack for the film »Atomic« on the eve of the festival. More information on Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs, our workshop program for talents from all areas of the music business will soon be released.

And for all allergy sufferers: Stay strong, in the end of August, you’ll be fine.

Yours truly

Dr. Pop-Kultur