Following her recent release 'Dark Carousel' and ahead of her debut at the White Hotel, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Femanyst to chat music and roots.

So let’s start at the beginning if we may, you began your career back in the 90s, when the media, music and political landscape was a lot different to today. How we distribute and consume music has been undeniably transformed but has the ambition, or purpose behind your music changed as time has moved on?

No I wouldn’t say that it has. I still have as much ambition and passion for it as I did back then, if not more.

At the start of the decade you made the ‘rite of passage’ to Berlin – and have remained ever since. Does it now feel like home? What did Berlin give you that LA, and the US as a whole couldn’t?

Affordable housing as well as sexual and gender freedom.

Both of your monikers (Lady Blacktronika and Femanyst) feel like statements of intent, rather than arbitrary ‘brands’ – why was that important? 

I mean I guess I would have to say identity politics have always been important to me. Though I do hope for a day when they don’t have to be.

You released Post-Traumatic Rave Syndrome on Paula Temple’s Noise Manifesto – what other labels are you digging most right now? Is there one that you would particularly love to see a Femanyst imprint on one day?

Not so much labels as artists mostly no one has heard of out of underground scenes in France and the Netherlands.

I read that you said, a house set feels like it could be, “completely inconsequential” – what do you think separates the house and techno audiences so much, what is it about techno that builds a deeper connection? Is it all about what’s happening in the wider scene in terms of progression and acceptance, or is it something more magical hidden in those higher BPMs?

I just feel like the aggression and energy just get people whipped up into a frenzy and it’s palpable.

Your music is so wonderfully frenetic and all encompassing, is your writing process the same? Or are you locked away, solitary and methodical?

Oh my gosh I get so focused and I do lock myself in my room like a mad person working to get the right sound.

Who is inspiring you today on the techno scene? Do you have any ‘ones to watch’ you can share with us?

Everyone on my Into Darkness series, especially part 2. Keep an eye out it’s going to be amazing.

When you play for us, it’s the 31st Jan and sadly the day that the UK leaves the European Union – rather than digging up the sadness we’re all feeling about Brexit, do you think there’s anything positive that we might see from it in the music scene? It’s times like these that historically have spawned new movements after all.

I mean I can’t speak to the future. I think the whole thing is fucked up. I hope that something good can come out of it. Rave came out of Thatcherism and Reaganism.

Lastly, we ask everyone. What can Manchester expect from you on 31st January?

Pumpin, pumpin, pumpin music! HAHAHAHA

Meat Free with Thomas P Heckmann and Femanyst

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