Enfnts Terribles

Introduce us to TENH. What’s your story?

Hi, and thank you for having us. We’re two friends from Berlin: both music lovers, producers, and musicians. The pandemic brought us even closer than before, and we started making music together and our project TENH.

What’s the story behind your moniker? What does it stand for?

Well, as we keep our real names out of the game for now, it’s a little hard to explain. TENH is a combination of single letters out of our first names, but we also love the name/word/brand “TENH” as it looks and sounds.

Before starting TENH, you both were already active in the scene. What are the similarities between your individual projects? What makes it different?

We both are highly into electronic music in various ways and genres. TENH is a full-time side project, which is growing nicely, and we love to be able to “escape” from the other genres we usually work with. This escape offers us to play around with so many different elements and styles without limits and borders … it’s refreshing and mind-clearing for us.

With over two decades of experience, you could see the scene change. What’s the most significant change you’ve witnessed throughout all these years in the music industry?

The pandemic was the key change in the last 15 to 20 years. A lot of new and especially young artists came up and showed up with a radical change in music. Hard Techno, Melodic Techno but also UK House and UKG came back on the scene with an impact.

Your sound can be located somewhere between commercial and underground. Is it a conscious decision to find this balance?

It pretty much fits the way we would describe it. Commercial isn’t a bad thing if it means that it approaches a mass of people who feel something through it and understand the impact it has on them. UKG is probably the best-fitting genre for the song “SKINH”. And if you listen to the song, you clearly will realize you can dance to it, you can listen to it at home, in the car, on the plane, when you feel good, but also when you’re sad or even when you’re angry. It’s meant to be an all-around weapon of musical choice.

Electronic music is often less focused on storytelling but centers more on translating emotions. How do you usually start constructing a new song? What kind of emotions are often the starting point?

We almost always start with a vibe—either a melody sample, a vocal, or a vibe drone tonal element. Then we start building drums, baselines, or hookline ideas around. And quite often we end up with something totally different than the key start element. We really make sure not to work with a plan. And as you said, it’s about the emotions. We both need to feel and love the idea we’re working on. And also, something we learned from our other projects: respect our partner in every possible way …

The new single “SKINH” is a collaboration with Delhia de France. What’s the main idea behind the song?

“SKINH” is a track made of tension between a driving baseline under syncopated drums and floaty pads carrying the angelic voice of inimitable Delhia de France in the same way the lyrics oscillate between emotion and desire in an inner dialogue. I got you under my skin versus making you lie to feel it.