Castro and Nemo from Sound Metaphors take our questions as they celebrate 10 years at Jaeger this week
In Berlin, a town dominated by the sound and culture of Techno, there’s a place that has carved out its own musical universe. For the last 10 years, this little enclave of sound has cultivated a unique sonic identity that stands out amongst the backdrop of the city and has become a haven for dedicated vinyl enthusiasts and DJs. It’s called Sound Metaphors and it’s a record store, label, club night and DJ duo.
With neighbours like Hardwax and Oye, it distinguishes itself from the Techno-centric milieu with its focus on “organic and unorthodox” sounds. Often rare and always esoteric the records that make it into Sound Metaphors offer a glimpse into the eccentric musical personalities behind the store, and it feeds into everything they do from the club nights to the record label.
DJs and music enthusiasts, Nemo and Castro are at the heart of Sound Metaphors, representing the marque wherever they go as a DJ duo and event series. They instil something of their own sonic identity in the store and label, while also spreading it out into the world from various DJ booths.
Their sets permeate with the kind of records you’ll find in the store, with Nemo and Castro’s indicative feel for the dance floor underpinning the varied programming of the night. Their sets often stretch into 5 hour territory, and can move from the obscure rarities to the unconventional repurposed as a DJ tool.
This year they celebrate 10 years of Sound Metaphors and with a globe-trotting tour to mark the occasion including a stop at Jaeger. We caught up with Nemo and Castro ahead of the event while they were in south-east Asia to find out more about the Sound Metaphors and how they got to ten years.
Hello Nemo and Castro. Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. What are you listening to right at this moment?
An edit of Nightfever by the Fatback band, complete madness…if you listen carefully, wow
I believe you’re on tour in South East Asia. There are some great record stores on that side of the world. Are you able to do any digging while you’re on tour, and what exciting pieces have you found so far?
Sadly we spent most of that time in Shanghai, bridging two weekends, didn’t find too much interesting stuff in terms of records, but it was all made up for with the insane food! China has some of the heaviest food culture ever…it’s the music of the mouth, beautiful!
Congratulations on 10 years of Sound Metaphors! What does that milestone mean for you personally?
No idea…it’s just a number at first thought, but I guess if we’re still here after all that time it means we must be doing something right! So I guess it’s reassuring :)
What are the origins of the Sound Metaphors record store and how do you both fit into the picture?
Just love for honest music, we’re just catalysts, enzymes, some kind of horse shit ground fertilizer, setting the pH levels right for good things to grow and be celebrated.
It’s one of those stores that is a must-visit for any music- and record obsessive when in Berlin. It’s quite set apart from any of the other stores in the city, in terms of the kind of music you stock. What were your thoughts initially when establishing the store in terms of sound?
Definitely fending away from the classic “berlin techno” approach to selection, being neighbours to places like Hardware and Oye, we didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, at the same time the more organic and unorthodox kinds of music have special places in our hearts, so we tried to focus a bit more on that with the selection. Now we also have a big 2nd hand selection from buying collections so there’s a bit of everything…
Today it’s a label, event series and of course a DJ duo. Do you feel there’s a sonic aesthetic to the store and is it something that you actively try to present through DJing and the events?
We hope there is an identifiable signature to the DJ side of things, not sure if there’s always an overlap with the labels though, a lot of times we’ll ask ourselves if we would play out a track that we’re releasing on some of the sub labels, and the answer isn’t always a yeah.
Some stuff we just release because we feel it’s good and will sell well, even if we won’t play it out on dancefloors, someone else will. There’s also a business aspect to the labels — we’re trying to sell records at the end of the day — DJing was never a business for us, more of a religious effort to proselytise our vision of relevant music.
How has your own musical tastes been shaped by what you do in the store and the label since you’ve started?
I think they haven’t changed much really, we’ve just gone deeper into what we were already interested in. We can shamelessly say that most records we would play 10 years ago would still proudly present them today, with a few exceptions of course…
Listening to your mixes, there’s always the oddity or rarity – records that often fetch a lot on discogs. It’s great to hear these records being played and not just gathering dust in a collection. How do you avoid getting too precious about these records and do you still find these rare things today?
We re-issue them on our labels.
What have you noticed in terms of trends in people’s buying habits of late and do you try to adapt to that in what you do both in the store and as DJs?
Yeah, we have an electroclash bin in the shop now!
There’s that balance between old and new, familiar and oddity in your sets. It’s a fragile balance to get right usually, but you seem to do it effortlessly even across 6 hours. What is key for you as DJs in maintaining that balance?
We’re not really thinking about that too much, ultimately, too much of anything will always be too much, since there’s two of us, there’s always a 50/50 chance that the next track will either compliment the last one or juxtapose it, so sooner or later things end up getting a bit unexpected in some way or another.
You obviously have the store at your disposal and I imagine it’s hard not just picking every new thing coming through the doors. Where do you have to draw the line when thinking about your own record bags?
Sadly we don’t have so much time to go through the collections we get. The shop isn’t really a major source of music for us contrary to what people might think.
Similarly, when the store gets some new used pieces, do you have to control yourself in not snatching everything up, and what is usually the major factor in letting it go into the shelves?
We have no time. The people grading the records usually get first dibs…