Image: Astrid Grosser
Interview: Philipp Blanke
University unrest meets university nerds: Inga Humpe and her partner Tommi Eckart are Germany's most successful electro-pop duo and also legendary as a DJ team. While she started several courses of study and eventually dropped them out, he completed his studies. You can immediately hear their hit “36 Grad” – now they are back with a new concept album.
Inga, you studied comparative literature in Aachen. How did that happen?
I was already very interested in books back then and am more so now than ever. Reading is actually my only leisure activity. I literally read every day.
However, you didn't stay in this field for long. Why?
I think that I simply didn't have the maturity necessary to study at that time. I never learned how to learn from my environment. I couldnt do that. I fluttered around at university like a bird in a cage and didn't know where my path was, where my places were, where my feeding station was. I then started philosophy and then art history and then went to drama school. That worked to some extent.
Would you approach studying differently today or is it really just not your world?
But. The fact that I didn't experience the joy, satisfaction and fulfillment of studying is one of the few things that I don't regret, but do regret. As a replacement, I'm now learning Spanish.
Tommi, but you completed your studies...
Yes, law, until the end. Studying, working in bars and making music – that was a real triple full-time job back then. After that, I also worked as a music lawyer for a short time. Studying and working helped us to better understand the entire music business, to assess contracts and to be independent with our own and record labels.
Was law your dream subject?
No, that was my parents' house. A purely rational decision. There was also a certain pressure because my parents supported me and you don't want to waste it or break it off. There's really only one deal: go through with the whole thing. To this day, it's still a mystery to me how I managed to do that - even through both state exams. Maybe it’s a natural talent after all (laughs).
Do you think you would have gotten along back then? Tommi, the aspiring lawyer, and Inga, who would have liked to join the RAF and start and drop out various courses of study?
I: Absolutely not. We wouldn't have met at all, I wouldn't have found the lawyers at all. Although Tommi always says that he knew music very well and was very interested in it at the end of the 70s. More so than me, who at that time was still wandering between books and acting and many other areas.
Your eighth album “Nacht Tag” was released in June. what is so special about that?
I: Yes, Tommi had a brilliant idea...
T: We were making a film score and there was a part where the protagonists go out of the night into the day. Our piece: First night club beats, then completely turn the song around in the studio and transform it into a hippie-esque daytime mood. We liked it so much that our new album is a double album - half the day version, the other half the night version.
I: We were particularly interested in contrasting these fundamentally different moods. Even if it means a lot of work, because there are ten songs, but 20 versions and an incredible number of different mixes.
Are you more of a day or night person?
I: I'm an early bird. I like to get up at six or seven and then I have a lot of energy. Tommy is exactly the opposite.
T: I would like to be both. I'm not a morning person. An afternoon and evening person. It's me.
How do you create a song?
I: In every possible way you can imagine. Sometimes there is a text first, sometimes a beat, sometimes a harmony sequence. Then we put it together. Sometimes we hear something we like and change it up. Sometimes I read a book that describes a very special mood and think: Wow, you should make a song out of that! All you can think of is inspiration.
And how do you know when a song is finished?
T: You keep doing it until you really like it. The idea was actually to make a concept album, but for some people the idea is softened again. We worked on everything until it suited us perfectly. We always call this “waterproof”. A song has to be “watertight”. There should be no doubt afterwards as to whether the transition is correct or the line fits. And that softens the concept.
You have lived and worked together for a very long time. How does something like that work?
I: Of course we get on each other's nerves sometimes, but we take it with humor. It's just great to gain so many experiences together. I would never have been able to do what we achieved with 2raumwohnung without Tommi. And I would argue that the reverse is perhaps also the case. (both laugh)
T: Yes, unfortunately I don't sing quite as well as Inga. But we've actually been doing this together for 17 years - actually unimaginable. Our music is also the life we live.
University unrest meets university nerds: Inga Humpe and Tommi Eckart are Germany's most successful electro-pop duo.
