Name: Denis Wanic aka KEINE ANGST IM DUNKELN
Nationality: German
Occupation: Guitarist, producer, songwriter
Recent release: KEINE ANGST IM DUNKELN's self-titled debut album is out in May 2025 via This Charming Man.

If you enjoyed this KEINE ANGST IM DUNKELN interview and would like to stay up to date with Denis and his music, visit the Instagram account of his band SUIR. KEINE ANGST IM DUNKELN is also on bandcamp.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I do both, but most of the time my eyes are open when I listen to music. But only because I listen to music mainly when I am moving. Not dancing, but walking around outside or walking around in the room I am in. It's quite hard for me not to move when I'm listening to music, so I need my eyes to make sure I don't bump into things.

When I work on my own music I try to close my eyes as much as possible, it helps me focus on details. I think most people who work with music and sound get distracted by what they see, be it a mixing console, a plug-in or whatever they have in front of them.

I am no different, so closing my eyes is a good way of making sure I can concentrate on what I am actually hearing.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

It changes a lot for me. I have ADHD, so in the context of making and listening to music, headphones are a life saver for me, a tool that helps me to be less distracted by other stimuli.

When I am out and about, good noise cancelling headphones are the key to not freaking out, and as this stuff has become really good and usable, it has really changed my life. For example, when I go shopping, being able to control what sounds are coming into my brain is very helpful. I also listen to music very intensely and actively, I pay a lot of attention to detail and I get sucked into another world. Any other sound would ruin that experience.

But even when working on music I prefer headphones, I love the in-your-face sound that good headphones give me. It gives me the feeling of being inside the music as the audio source moves with me because it is attached to my head.

I feel like I can hear a lot more detail in the music when listening with headphones, like a magnifying glass but for sound. On the other hand, listening and concentrating too much with the 'magnifying glass' can be a bad thing. I tend to spend too much time focusing on small details that don't matter as much on a speaker system. It is a kind of big picture versus small picture.

Jumping from system to system on a regular basis would be a wise move, I suppose, but in recent years I seem to have developed a strong preference for headphones.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

One of the best sounding records I have ever heard is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's first album B.R.M.C..

Apart from the amazing songwriting, this has always been the gold standard for me. Everything sounds perfect, but not in an overproduced shiny way, it is still dirty enough.



Another example of great sound would be the Icelandic band Singapore Sling. They have released a lot of music but always stayed within their own sound. I especially love the album Perversity, Desperation and Death. It is the ideal rock 'n' roll sound - at least to my ears.



In general, I tend to like music where the guitars are not embedded in the sound, but come a bit more to the fore. Guitar walls of sound from artists like My Bloody Valentine, or noise and fuzz guitars overlaying all the other instruments, like The Jesus and Mary Chain, are very pleasing to my ears.

Especially those two bands have created new sounds that you haven't heard before. I really like that.

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I have a very strong positive reaction to guitar feedback and sounds that are created by an electric guitar but sound more like noise or a synth pad. I love it when the guitar sounds extremely aggressive and the signal is drowned in reverb. This is not just a sonic preference for a particular instrument, this is a formula that makes me smile.

It is easy to exaggerate, but there is this little space in those sounds that just sounds like heaven. I call it high frequency fetishism, although it is a bit more than just too much information in the high frequency range. You should listen to "in a pit". This is a song I wrote where you can hear a lot of guitars that actually have a synth characteristic.

I know most people can't listen to stuff like that for too long, but I can and do play stuff like that for hours on a regular basis. It is my safe space where I can get lost.

It was really hard to show people this kind of stuff but also try not to do it for too long. Like I said, I can do this for hours, but I think the actual song ended up being about 6 minutes long. It is a good representation of what I do when no one else is listening.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

I am a cat person and we had this wonderful cat that lived with us. Her name was Bert, she died but one thing I will never forget is the sound of her voice. She had this super soothing voice that you really enjoyed listening to.

We have adopted another cat called Fritz. Both cats are girls but have boy names, it is a gender fluid thing I guess. So Fritz is also a beautiful creature with a wonderful character but her voice is really different. She has this voice that is really irritating sometimes.

Both cats are very talkative but it is this contrast in their voices that is really interesting to experience.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

Does a skateboard count? I love the sound of a skateboard rolling on the pavement. You know that loud noise when someone is skating through the city.

I live in Cologne in a very urban area where you can experience that a lot and I always run to the window trying to see the skater, most of the time they are already gone by the time I reach the window but I really love that sound.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

I have actually been in an anechoic chamber. I study sound and music production at a university that had one that - rumour has it - was built in a way that they are no longer allowed to build. That is, it had a really extreme effect of not reflecting sound.

The other rumour was that some students had some sort of party in the chamber and ended up in hospital because they spent hours in it (you're not supposed to be in it for too long). I forget the exact explanation, but those people were unable to walk when they came out because your sense of balance is in your ears and it messes with that.

I only spent 15 minutes in the chamber, but it was really interesting. You lose your sense of distance, which means that you rely so much on sound and reflections to tell you how far away an object is. In theory this makes perfect sense, but it was amazing to actually experience what it sounds like when someone is talking to you and you literally only hear the direct sound, no reflections of the sound.

What you see and what you hear don't fit together anymore.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

When it comes to recording, my own studio is my favourite place to record. I am lucky enough to have a room to myself where I can work as loud as I want, 24/7, all year round. It is a small room with some acoustic problems, but here it comes ... it is my room. I love this space and sometimes that is more important than having the perfect space.

My other band SUIR started as a bedroom project. We didn't really record in our bedroom, we recorded in our living room and made two records that way.



Basically I am used to working in less than ideal spaces. The only limitation I always felt was that I couldn't work as loud as I wanted to (think of playing a real drum kit in a flat in Cologne - impossible). That changed when I got my own studio, which is now called the pink room.

The point is: For me personally it is super important to work in a space that suits my own workflow - which is often weird. I don't really care about acoustic perfection. I just want to make things work in my own way. So I feel like my studio is the perfect place to make my art. I should also mention that I always record my own music. I don't always mix it myself, but all the recordings have been done by me or my wife.

I'm well aware that my work could sound different, perhaps more professional, if I (or we, if we're talking about SUIR) used a good sound engineer or an established studio, but I don't want to. It doesn't really fit in with my workflow and my interest in strange and bizarre ways of recording sounds.

I also don't really care if my work sounds professional or not, I just want to make records for myself. In the end it is like a documented struggle. I don't really think I'm a good sound person and I often struggle with the material because I tend to record and mix in unusual ways, but I learn so much from it.
 
When it comes to playing live, I prefer smaller venues with lower stages and less distance between the audience and the band. I don't really interact with the audience, but it somehow feels better when the audience is close to me. It is a different kind of connection. I also think that in a smaller venue what I hear on stage is a more realistic representation of what the audience is hearing.

Most people are not aware of the fact that what a band hears on stage can sound drastically different from what the audience hears through the PA.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

This is exactly how I feel when I work on music, thanks for the nice description.

What really helped me when I was working on music was a change of perspective: I started to think of myself more like a painter. Someone who makes art, someone who creates something that did not exist before. It helped me with some of the struggles and doubts I had in the past. Questions like: Am I doing it right (compared to how the pros do it)? Is this song good enough?

Such questions lost any right to exist when I started to think of myself as a painter, a sound painter. I just paint sound, I create something that didn't exist before and that's a cool thing. It is like a picture that I have painted. There are no rules except that: If I like it, it is good enough.

But I also literally feel like a sculptor when I work on music. The instruments are layers and the first layers take up space and leave less space for the following layers. A positive creative limitation that often leads to unexpected results because it is hard to predict what will or can come next. I love that.

This may be getting a bit technical, but I also like to work with specific equipment as I like the way it can give a haptic to the sound. For vocals I prefer a specific tube preamp that saturates the sound. In my mind it feels like I am giving a sound a certain materiality, shaping the source. It would feel different if you could touch it.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

I am always moved when I hear a flock of birds moving to another place. I am talking about those birds that fly to other parts of the world when it gets too cold and come back when the temperature changes again.

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?

I am convinced that interspecies communication is not only possible, but happens all the time. My cat talks to me a lot, I am not always sure what she is saying, but it is communication.

I also think about watchdogs who bark when someone enters the area they are protecting. Isn't the aggressive barking a clear sign to the intruder to back off, and at the same time a warning to the owner that someone is coming?

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

I have a pair of professional earplugs. You know, the ones that are custom made for your own ears. I used to work in the live sector and I always carried these earplugs with me to avoid getting my ears blown off at moments when I was not in control of the sound in the room.

I no longer work regularly in the live sector, so I feel that my ears are no longer exposed to such dangerous levels.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Silence is as important to me as sound. I feel that most things in life work better if you don't overdo it and actively take a break. It is a kind of yin and yang thing: sometimes you need the exact opposite of what you want to achieve your goal.

When it comes to writing music, I often need a break, a moment where I step away from my work. After that break everything is easier, you have a different and fresh perspective, you are not too close to it anymore.

Silence is a key element for me in finishing loud things.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

I cannot really answer this question.

I am thinking of people with bad eyesight or some other limited sense. I have heard that such people tend to train their other functioning senses so that they can use them much more efficiently than other people. Something similar must happen to people who work with music and sound, as they pay more attention to what they hear.

Personally, I have to say that I really love music and sound, but I also believe that you can live an amazing life by being a deaf painter or photographer - that is, by focusing more on your vision.