Ensslin

Upon his return to the stage, Patrick Wagner of noise rock band Gewalt talks about the cruelty of hipster coffee and the solidarity that helped overcome his fears. In the 1990s Patrick Wagner had hit the jackpot. His indie label Kitty-Yo, home to Peaches and Chilly Gonzales, was a worldwide success, and his noise rock band Surrogat was on course to stardom as well. But it wasn’t meant to last. In 2003 he split with Surrogat and Kitty-Yo folded three years later. When his attempt at running another label, Louisville Records, failed in 2010, Wagner disappeared from the music scene entirely. He started managing a youth football team and brought the FuckUp Nights to Berlin, encouraging people to talk about their fears and business failures. Luckily for us, Wagner finally returned to the stage together with Helen Henfling and Yelka Wehmeier in the guise of Gewalt. We talked to Wagner before the “violent” noise rock trio’s not-so-regular gig at Kunstverein Neukölln on June 17.