It’s time for another obsession session as we explore the anorak within. Techno dancehall gurus Zsary and Gernot have a new weapon in their already legendary arsenal. Watch out Jean Paul Gaultier.
Origin of the hat
This summer we did a pretty intense tour, from May until last weekend. We did fifty-five shows, which is pretty intense when you’re travelling with eight people and a lot of gear. We started the tour in the United States and we flew from gig to gig and that was the first big part of the tour. We made the mistake of flying from town to town by plane, and that was so stupid, because covering those long distances with all the gear after two weeks it felt like we had been touring for a year. During this period, we cancelled only one flight. It was a connection flight between our show in San Francisco and LA. So we rented a van and just drove down the coast to LA from San Francisco. We had one stop over and we stopped in a store, a very special store. A Californian store. And we found this hat, and we bought the hat with a moustache and some other accessories. And since then, the hat was the new member of the band. Then we started taking pictures with all the DJs we know and met on tour and told them to wear the hat, with the idea of making an exhibition afterwards. I don’t know how many pictures we have now, a lot of them are pretty crappy quality but I think we might have around sixty or seventy pictures already with artists from all over the world and we will continue the tradition. The hat now even has its own little bag.
Hatmaster
The hat doesn’t have a name, it’s referred to as ‘the hat’. It’s often the first question. Zsary, he’s the head of hat, he’s the hatmaster. He needs to take care of the hat and when we meet each other before shows, at the airport or on the bus or wherever, the first thing we ask him is, ‘Zsary did you bring the hat?’ Because he forgot it twice this tour and we all got pissed off.
Aphex Twin
We couldn’t force Aphex to wear the hat because Zsary forgot it. It’s a shame because he has no bouncers. It would be so nice to see him with the hat. I think he’s a funny guy and he would do it. We played one show in Poland at a festival and we asked Richie Hawtin to wear the hat during his DJ set and he did, and he laughed about it.
Grooming with the hat
It takes time to set things like that up. You need to start with a little chat beforehand, then walk around… then show the hat. It’s a step by step process. And then you find people that just want to wear the hat. And they look really nice!
Hat hits and misses
On this tour we couldn’t do it with Skream and Benga – they were before us and after our set they had already left, so we didn’t get a chance to see them. Benga’s got big hair you know, but even Mala wore the hat, only he didn’t remove his Rastafari hat so we needed to put it on top. And, the whole of Radiohead wore the hat but they kept hiding their faces.
The ultimate hat-wearer
Have you ever heard of the band The Whitest Boy Alive? Well, not Erland Oye but the other one, Marcin Öz. He used to be a very famous house DJ in Berlin. He plays the guitar and has curly hair. We met him two or three times and the first thing he wanted was to wear the hat. He used to do this gigolo pose with the hat on. The pictures with him are incredible. They’re kind of the highlights.
