Swallowed by Cold Winters and Long Berlin Nights

photoMichael Mayer / CC

Du bist verrückt mein Kind, du musst nach Berlin …

At the time, we’d never even heard of Franz von Suppé. Still, we went. From our protected northern hometown to a coal-heated loft a few blocks north of Landwehrkanal. We arrived just in time for Berlin’s darkest winter on record. As the ice came biting at our feet and the carbon monoxide took to our lungs, we turned to speakers as big as houses and dance floors where three nights became one. Our hearts exploded, only to close again like fists every time we returned to collect our winter coats.

In the vacuum that followed every weekend, to cope with the whispering ghosts and the buzzing ears, we found comfort in other sounds. Our own sounds. As sparkling as our make-up, as forgiving as our gin; only asking for more of both.

photo: Alper Çuğun / CC

photoMartin Schmidt / CC

photomarfis75 on flickr / CC

photopetzoj / CC

By then, blood was already pouring off the shelves. Words weren’t spoken, they were scribbled. We’d never really been alone before. At least not together. But somewhere deep in the demoralizing darkness, those songs gave us solace. So we held on to them, as they elevated us from the frozen sidewalks in search for a moon, for a light.

Ascending we could see our newfound freedom shrink below us, until the ground was so far down that there was no way we could survive the fall. Until we no longer had a choice but to never let go.

Because someone said: find what you love, and let it kill you.

Text: Niklas Malmborg & Daniel DePierre

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Niklas Malmborg and Daniel DePierre founded their band Dog Orchestra on the first day of February in 2012 when they first packed their bags and moved to Berlin. That first winter was as wonderful as it was awful. They could just as well have broken up, but for some reason – maybe because they had no one else to turn to – they stuck together and created what would later become their first record. Check out their acclaimed debut EP Meow here. See them live in Berlin on February 2nd 2017 at Gretchen.

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