From the minds of DJ Tjizza and Shaque comes a brand new website that is geared towards a more responsible, 360 degree approach towards music, fashion, and community inclusivity. With the aim of Tanzform being to present a vision that is built on the fundamentals of the dancefloor, we caught up with the crew to learn the full story behind Tanzform.
Hi guys, a big welcome to Trommel today, and congratulations on the birth of your Tanzform project. Can you describe what it is exactly, and the concepts behind it?
Thanks for having us! We are excited to launch our latest project, Tanzform. Tanzform is a ‘music lifestyle brand’ offering dance wear and vinyl records with a message. The idea has been on our minds for many years, but really kicked off when we found the name and concept that connected with our values. At the moment, we mainly offer fashion and records because those are the two worlds we are most closely related to. The idea for a clothing brand was always in the back of our minds because of the relationship Shaque has with Bangladesh and its garment industry, and the fact we both love and live dance music (we also run a record label together called Mood Waves), so we are happy that with Tanzform all our interests are merged together.
The concept is built on a message that clubbing is good for society because it brings people from different bubbles and sub-cultures together. That’s why our platform is also built on collaborations, because together you can build something more beautiful than alone. As a platform, we want to be a driving force to help creatives realise their dreams/projects and at the same time offer people who love music a place where they can find sustainable clothing and records.
We love the Tanzform name, where does this originate from? Is there a deeper meaning to it?
Our name comes from the German word for dancing (Tanzen) and the transformation you undergo while clubbing. It reflects the values we learned by clubbing and living in Berlin.
This city holds a special vibe. People come to Berlin to be their real selves, free of judgement, and free to express themselves. All these people from different bubbles–and all walks of life–meet in the clubs with good spirit and energy. They may look or express themselves differently, but you can feel that they all want to have a good time. At the party, outside the party, anywhere.
What you experience in a club is about the here and now, a concept that is increasingly lost in today’s digital world. So letting yourself go and sharing an experience with other people (fellow ravers) helps you understand yourself and society more. It changes our perspectives on each other, making us more empathic, open-minded and connected. It teaches people why dancing can be essential for social development, and that it’s not ónly meant for entertainment.
This is why we believe that clubbing is beneficial to our lives, it transforms you! That is what our slogan “Dance more, Judge Less: Tanzform yourself”, is all about. We hope that artists that want to collaborate with us, or people wearing Tanzform clothes, share the message that they are open to connect with anyone without judgement. We aim for a world in which people judge each other less and appreciate that difference actually brings beauty.
You were originally just working on your Mood Waves label together, a favourite of ours in recent years. When was it you realised you wanted to take on this new project? We are sure it’s been a journey to get to this point..
Well, Mood Waves started out by releasing music from our talented circle of friends. Establishing something with close mates was a great experience and the fact that people worldwide supported it was an important driver to do more. But, as Mood Waves already has a clear identity and sense of direction, we thought we’d need a new project that enables us to go into multiple directions, giving us more creative freedom–and most importantly–allowing us to collaborate with a broader network of friends and other talented artists.
So yes, launching and maintaining the Mood Waves label definitely taught us many things. The main thing being the trust we have in each other and in the project. The partnership is naturally balanced without the need to micromanage each other.
The Tanzform journey has been a very interesting journey so far, we had trips to Bangladesh, photoshoots, pressing plant tours and more. All beautiful experiences that gave us extra energy to roll on! At the same time, it also has been very hard having to endure some major setbacks. But we keep the positive flag up.
Shaque: “Yes I believe this project is not just a creative output for us, but also a way to promote upcoming artists and of course the Bangladeshi garments industry in a positive way.”
TJ: “Tanzform is fresh and exciting, but don’t worry, Mood Waves will always rock on! We have a lot of cool releases planned.”
It is clear from the start that collaborations will play a key part in the Tanzform journey. How important is it for you to have this at the heartbeat of the brand? What do you have lined up already?
Collaborations are a significant cornerstone for Tanzform moving forward. We believe in clubbing because it brings people from different backgrounds together, the collective energy is why a club or festival can have a special vibe. A collaboration creates something unique, which you couldn’t make alone. We can’t build a brand alone, we work together with friends like Zac Bidwell, Elliot Sindall, Julia Linz, Rocio that help on topics they have experience with. Also, we work with other friends who are involved on the projects like Velasco, Anthea, Giammarco Orsini or Locky Mazzucchelli. With Tanzform we just want to unite different creatives, support them with our experiences and networks in the fashion and music industry in order to embody cool projects.
We believe this is the most fun thing about the Tanzform project: meeting others and discussing ideas. It enables us to work with a vast variety of creatives; music producers, film producers, graphic designers, fashion designers, photographers, tattoo artists, DJs, labels, vinyl shops and more. So you can expect a lot of clothing, like our corduroy jacket, or trippy tote bags made of left-over fabric.
We, for example, have a collab with Pablo Permanent coming up, he is a tattoo artist who was always interested in making clothes. We knew each other from the dance floor and we loved his energy, so we proposed a collab to make dancewear and a tote bag. He blew us away with cool designs! As far as our vinyl projects go, we like to give a little creative edge to some releases, for example Cutting Shapes–which is a label that releases music on uniquely shaped vinyls. Or we make a lot of 10 inches, because we can ship them world-wide for very low shipping costs due to small shape and weight.
TJ: “I love the fact that we get pulled out of our comfort zone and are trying new things. It was for example so cool to run around the whole day on a photo or video shoot.”
Shaque: “Out of my comfort zone pff, it was TJ who pushed me to model. The start of the shoot was nerve wracking, but wearing some shades took the edge off. Eventually it was a very nice and satisfying experience. It was great to see the synergy at a photoshoot between the different professions.”
How do you go about sourcing the music and finding new artists? Are you defined by any particular genres, or will it be an open book musically?
Next to friends, we meet a lot of people here in Berlin, or when we travel for gigs. We are blessed that people approach us because they know our Mood Waves project. So we are receiving a lot of exciting music. With this project we can now allocate the music better, we can be open to more genres within the electronic music spectrum. For example, Cutting Shapes is our new Techno project and with Miami Beats we also release hip-hop instrumentals. The most important thing is that the producer/music has its own identity.
We are aiming to collaborate with people from all corners of the globe. So if you are a talented young producer looking to release, or an established artist/label that wants to make a clothing or vinyl project, hit us up.
We also recently moved into a cosy office space near Ostkreuz that is slowly turning into a creative meeting hub. We love to invite creatives to this place and brainstorm about potential new projects.
Shaque, your heritage roots within Bangladesh, and this is where you will be creating the fashion items available. Tell us a bit about the processes, and the sustainability actions you are taking.
“I’ve been traveling to Bangladesh to visit family and friends since I was born. Throughout the years my family got more and more into the fashion industry, but I never really took too much interest in it. However, now I start to see where my world of music can beautifully blend in with my connection to Bangladesh.“
There are many ways to promote social responsibility and environmental sustainability in your production process. Firstly, we closely monitor that our products are manufactured in a factory that complies with all the social, environmental and safety standards. We have a third party that helps us monitor and secure this. Another essential process we have put in place is digging for left-over fabrics. The majority of our products are made from 100% left-over fabrics which we have sourced ourselves. This way we reduce the textile waste, and no valuable resources are wasted.
We would like to spread awareness of the fashion industry in Bangladesh through our Tanzform platform. There is still a clear stigma surrounding the fashion industry in Bangladesh because of factory accidents like the Rana Plaza in 2013. That was basically a major turning point in the development of the fashion industry. Numerous social international institutions were established in Bangladesh from then on, and together with many local initiatives, the Bangladeshi garment industry turned into one of the most developed industries in the world. Walking around a factory today you’ll be amazed by their state-of-the-art machines and technology.
We are well aware of the fact that there are still rotten apples around. But that should not be the image people should have of the country, as the vast majority is maintaining social and environmental compliance, along with breaking new ground in the sustainability space.
I also think it’s important not to turn a blind eye to a country that is in development, like Bangladesh is, but rather be part of furthering the development.
We really wish you all the best with this project guys. Let’s look a bit to the future, how do you see Tanzform evolving and looking in the future? And what is the impact you hope it has on the club scene?
As a platform we like to grow to a point where we not only offer clothing and records, but also other items connected to our clubbing/music lifestyle. We hope to become a place of collaboration and support many creatives with realising projects. Only together we can build a beautiful world.
We’d like to become known as a brand synonymous with the positive impact of clubbing on our society. We hope that this project will promote curiosity, empathy and openness amongst one another, and for people to experience nightlife in a more transforming way. It is our dream that people will support our project because they get behind our message. They like clubbing and are open to connect with anyone without judgement.
More info on Tanzform
Website | Instagram | Soundcloud
