Päfgens is Jana Kočišová and Filip Drábek. Formed 2013 in Warsaw, based in Berlin since 2016. Being a couple long before they started to play and moved to Berlin, Jana and Filip formed Päfgens in Warsaw. Coming from Slovakia originally, they create fragile, yet sonically intense music, inspired by lo-fi approach, nomadic lifestyle and field recordings. Dreamy shoegaze meets subtile, almost whisperish vocals, reverbed guitar walls and post-rock bass lines, relics from Filip’s previous music project The Ills. Quite productive in their folkish simplicity, since 2013 they self-produced and self-released album What Happened to Erich Zederkoff?, two EPs Golo and Der verpasste Zug nach Berlin and played dozens of shows. In December 2016 they released a new record called Tinyold Hand s via Too Many Fireworks records, first one recorded in a studio during one hour long session in Warsaw.
Facts
1: Our song Solanales is named after latin name of the potato.
2: Paris-Roubaix is best bike race in the world. That’s why we named our song PavÈ.
3: Hot beverage take away cups make us irritated. Just sit down for few minutes and enjoy your beverage.
Questions
1.What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Nature and sound of instruments.
2.How and when did you get into making music?
J: I used to play for myself on a tiny acoustic guitar, but our separate paths joined when we moved from Slovakia to Warsaw and realised we have too much time and instruments at home.
F: Before Päfgens I played in a post-rock band The Ills. It started bit as a joke, I barely could play the bass, but those 5 years thought me a lot about sound, being loud and playing concerts.
3.What are your 5 favorite albums of all time?
J:
Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow
Grouper – Ruins
Branka Parlić – Satie and Beyond
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Jennylee – Right On
F:
The Cure – Disintegration
The Cure – Faith
Dinosaur Jr. – Bug
Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Airplane over the Sea
The Good, The Bad and The Queen – The Good, The Bad and The Queen
4.What do you associate with Berlin?
Wall, dirt, graffiti, bikes, flea markets, lakes, parks, ugliness and beauty. We love the dissonance of the city, this is why we moved in.
5.What’s your favorite place in your town?
We consider few cities ours. In Berlin it is Neukölln, in Poprad it’s Kvetnica, in Warsaw it’s MokotÛw and in Bratislava it’s Draûdiak lake.
6.If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Listen to the sounds which are all around us.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
The Whitest Boy Alive – Rules
8.Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Branka Parlić.
9.What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a performer probably concert at XB Liebig in Berlin this autumn and at Eufemia in Warsaw this spring. As a spectator there were just too many powerful concerts to mention just few.
10.How important is technology to your creative process?
We need electricity most of the time, if this can be considered technology in any sense. But we would like to get to know more technology soon.
11.Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career?
J: We both have siblings and they both feel differently about our arts. My brother makes fun of everything I do. Filip’s sister even went to our concert in Prague.
Link: Website | Soundcloud | Band camp
