Fenster is Berlin-by-way-of-NYC’s JJ Weihl and Berlin-native Jonathan Jarzyna. Fenster is also the biggest and best indie (if that’s a term that even means anything anymore) band you haven’t yet heard of. We’re all for supporting new music, but our motives here are also a bit selfish: we wanna call first on this one. Their single “Oh Canyon” has all the perfect elements of a neo-conservative hodgepodge mainstream independent pop song, but no trace of anything contrived or obnoxious feeling. The rest of their debut album, Bones (out now on Morr Music), is an ideal harmony of experimental elements and techniques used to make highly melodic, deconstructed pop. And they just fucking nail the whole boy-girl-singers thing. So we present to you this gift of music. God, we can’t wait to link back to this article in a we-told-you-so type of way—like, say, next fashion week when they break big stateside. We’re selfish in that regard, but not in that we won’t share it with you here: e.g. this exclusive download of the stripped down ballad “Fantasy II.” Also check out the aforementioned “Oh Canyon” on their site here: http://fenster.bandcamp.com/. And after the jump, get to know the brilliant, Barthelme-loving bandmates in an exclusive interview. Our work here is done.

Fenster: Fantasy II by morrmusic

VMAN How did you meet/get together? Tell us a bit about how this started.
JONATHAN JJ had just moved back to Berlin from New York and I hadn’t seen her for 9 months. We had played a bit of music together back when we first met in 2009, but it was mostly the 5 a.m. kitchen table kind of music. Anyway, one night in the summer of 2010 we were just hanging out with some friends on my balcony and we decided to take off and ride bikes to my old studio. We started playing some song ideas of hers and mine, just working out simple arrangements with guitar and bass and vocals. That feeling of innocent discovery from when we first met was still there—no egos, no expectations, similar taste and the enjoyment of playing music together and it felt pretty natural.
JJ After that it was Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly covers for a while, busking in bars all over town to make some cash and drink for free. We saved up some money and found a studio and started gathering all our instruments and gear together. We started playing more, writing and arranging more songs together. Then in January we decided to record an album.

VMAN What is the name in reference to? Really just popped in your head when a window fell on you?
JONATHAN To me, Fenster is neutral and empty. You can fill it with something, or not, but you never think about the window itself, just what’s behind it. That’s why I liked it as a band name. It doesn’t immediately burden you with some specific image, it’s just a framed view.

VMAN Tell me a bit about your New York experience and Berlin. If there was a regionalism to the band, with what country/city/state/continent would you affiliate yourselves?
JJ I grew up in Manhattan but my family is sort of German. So after spending a half a year in Prague and Berlin studying film, I decided to move to Berlin a week after I graduated. It was just an impulsive leap. I was doing a lot of video art stuff, curating, partying. Then I moved back to Brooklyn for a while…for love. Ha. But I really missed Berlin, irrationally and completely. I moved back in the summer of 2010, and when Jonathan and I started hanging out again and playing music something clicked.
JONATHAN In terms of that whole regionalism thing, we’re definitely a Berlin band. But that in itself is complicated. For me Berlin, although it’s my hometown, is more of a platform that allows us to realize our vision without existential financial pressure. It’s just a moment in time when lots of people from all over move here in search of something. I’m not really sure what that is, or if it exists but the three of us wouldn’t have met if Berlin didn’t represent some kind of promised land or escape for artists.

VMAN What are some inspirations for lyrics? Song structures?
JJ Most of the songs are sort of abstract character studies. A gravedigger, a robot, a killer mermaid, a hustler, a hunter and a ghost. The rest are about journeys of some kind—imaginary ones, somnambulatory ones and trashy metaphorical ones. It’s kind of like a play with changing backgrounds.

VMAN What are some of the central messages of the record?
JJ I guess Bones deals a lot of with excavation—finding the buriedness of things. But also, musically, it’s about minimalism—leaving a lot of empty spaces and placing things carefully in the void. But everyone projects personal meaning onto music—at least I do. On a more personal level, the record is also about growing up, and finding ourselves in a time of decay and the sad beauty of that.

VMAN How does narrative play a role? Does the record play start to finish like a novel? How do you capture the essence of dreamworld into the inherently linear structure of a song?
JJ I would say the record is more like a collection of short stories. I was really influenced by Barthelme and this idea of sudden fiction, focusing on microcosms rather than traditional narratives. The spaces the songs inhabit are like those places between sleep and waking where everything makes perfect sense in a nonsensical abstract way.

VMAN Where does this record fall in the lineage of guy/girl vocals history?
JONATHAN We are fond of playing with gender. I usually sing in a higher register than JJ, and when we do harmonies, JJ tends to take the lower parts. We try to steer clear of too much direct boy girl crooning – it creeps us out. But I guess there are inevitable comparisons. In terms of classics, some favorites are Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, White Noise, and Nico and Lou.

fenster.bandcamp.com

KEYWORDS: Fenster, MP3, new music