March 29, 2024

MOOP MAMA a Brass band from München Interview with the rapper Keno Langbein

FM4 FREQUENCY FESTIVAL 2019 – 15 August (Thursday)

Moop Mama is a 10-headed hip hop brass band from Munich, Germany founded in 2009 by saxophone player Marcus Kesselbauer. They call their music-urban brass-.
We can say that the bronze instruments make a dynamic comeback in the musical scene, they find their listeners again – not only the nostalgists of the past, but also an enthusiastic dynamic audience that seeks new musical stimuli – and they are beginning to invade even theater scenes.

In this global phenomenon, the “present” is given by the Germans Moop Mama who in recent years has rocked their country with explosive rock and hip-hop songs, which they interpret with bronze wind instruments.

In September 2012, at the invitation of the Goethe -Institute, the brass band gave two performances in Thessaloniki and Athens. These were the first great concerts outside the German-speaking!
Summer 2019 and this great brass band they will play at the FM4 FREQUENCY FEST on 15 August (Thursday)!
AthensCalling GR journalistic team, loves the MOOP MAMA and the brass music, so had a chat with Keno Langbein (rapper and writes all the lyrics.) of the band!

ATHENS CALLING: Hello MOOP MAMA … Hello Keno nice to meet you! I mean it is an especially time chatting you again … after your band show in Greece, in 2012 of September (Athens and Thessaloniki -Goethe Institute)…So Let’s welcome Keno to AthensCalling GR.
KENO – MOOP MAMA: Good memories come up when you mention Greece and Athens… We would like to come back!
ATHENS CALLING: I hope that you come again in Greece! At first I want ask you about your god father band name… So why MOOP MAMA, who gives this name to the band!
KENO -MOOP MAMA: God Mother would be the better fit, ha?… MOOP is a word referring to the sound of a Brass instrument. For the MAMA part there are a few explanations… The Band is something like our mother, also we like to say that were ten men in the group, but together were one big, powerful female body of music. A little respect to the fact that god as well as the future are most certainly female!
ATHENS CALLING: Really how can we characterize your music?
KENO -MOOP MAMA: We call it “Urban Brass”. Brass music, at least in Germany, is often considered to be traditional folk music, you know, Bavarian guys in lederhosen drinking more beer than playing;) so by the term “urban” we try to make clear that the music we play comes from an urban tradition as well. Jazz, Hipp Hop, the Brass culture of New Orleans. It is modern Pop music played with a very special set of Instruments. For us the cast makes the genre.
ATHENS CALLING: … And about your lyrics… I mean in what occasion created the lyrics of your songs?
KENO -MOOP MAMA: Actually there’s no special occasion. I keep track of my ideas and thoughts by writing down pieces and sketches all the time that I can come back to when trying to make songs. The inspiration often comes from observation of my social as well as personal environment.
ATHENS CALLING:… ‘’ ICH ’’ (Release Date – 07.09.2018) is your new album, tell us about this new album, about the music and the lyrics of it.
KENO -MOOP MAMA: Well… you should probably just listen to it if you want to know. There’s no point in describing it you have to experience it for yourself and then hopefully see a concert, because this is where our music really comes to life!
ATHENS CALLING: And your favorite song of this album?
KENO -MOOP MAMA: My personal favourite is the Song “Geister” which has a big emotional meaning to me. But it is more on the melancholic side, so many of the other band members would not agree. Again, listen to it, find your own favorite…
ATHENS CALLING: Now let’s go to your memories and if you want tell us something about… What’s The Craziest Thing that’s happened on your Tour?
KENO -MOOP MAMA:We have been touring for about ten years now. Actually the biggest part of touring is not as crazy as one might imagine. Maybe the craziest thing is that a big group like us is still together, doing what we’re doing. It takes a huge amount of committement, even more planning and also luck. So were very happy and thankful to be able to do this crazy stuff!
ATHENS CALLING: And about your tour in the year 2019 tells us about it?

KENO -MOOP MAMA: Through the summer we will be playing a lot of festivals. One of these will be a special concert where we celebrate “10 years MOOP MAMA” with a lot of guests in Munich. It will be our biggest solo show yet so we are very excited to do this! Then end of the year we will do the second part of the “ICH” Tour playing a show centered around our latest Album.

ATHENS CALLING: Who are your favorite musicians- Groups or CD’s?

KENO -MOOP MAMA: Well, as we are ten very different musicians in the Band I cannot answer this question for all of us. Our taste is very diverse. Two artists I was really excited about recently were Rosalía from Spain, you should totally check out her videos for “pienso en tu mira” and “malamente” and go on from there… incredible … what else? If you are open to being surprised and maybe a little shocked check out “JPGMAFIA”. To me that is post Rap, even post Trap genre busting sound. Some tracks, if you really open up to it, sound like a very intense jazz band. you don’t understand it but it moves you. Then some all time favorites of mine are: Kendrick Lamar, Thom Yorke…
ATHENS CALLING: Let’s go now to the amazing FREQUENCY FESTIVAL 2019, tell us about for there …I mean about your festival show
KENO -MOOP MAMA: Frequency Festival is a big one, there will be a lot of interesting groups coming and naturally we will do our best to tear it apart…
ATHENS CALLING: Send your message please to the FREQUENCY FESTIVAL fans
KENO -MOOP MAMA: Come see our Show! You won’t regret it, well make you dance!
ATHENS CALLING: … And another message please… for your Greek fans?
KENO -MOOP MAMA: We are amazed by the thought of even having fans in Greece! I really hope that we get a chance to come to Greece once more, it was a fantastic experience and we learned that even though our music contains so many German words, the sound itself is a universal language that everybody understands !
ATHENS CALLING: Thank you for your interview, see you soon in August … in Austria festival … FREQUENCY FESTIVAL 2019 … 15/08!
KENO -MOOP MAMA: Thanks a lot for asking… See you soon.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back