In conversation with Alexander Cheves
RAKANS is a Palestinian-German artist living in Berlin. He’s played sets for Boiler Room and HÖR and performed at clubs across Europe, including KitKat and Renate in Berlin.
Last weekend, RAKANS delivered a beautiful sunrise set at WHOLE Festival for Pornceptual’s Arena stage takeover. (RAKANS uses he/they pronouns, but chose he/him for this article.)
RAKANS is the founder and creative force behind Rawmantique, a queer party series and label he founded in Dresden in 2019. In the years since, Rawmantique has led to a newer project, RAWM e.V., a non-profit focused on “overcoming discrimination and trauma due to origin, sexual orientation, gender, and social status through art, cultural events, and education.” They did a workshop and radio show last weekend at WHOLE with Berlin’s beloved gay writer and historian Ben Miller, with RAKANS hosting.
This Friday, 24 July, Rawmantique will hold a collab Pride event with KING KONG, an independent art and fashion magazine known for its megacool covers and collectible print issues. KING KONG PRIDE happens at Studio1111 on Potsdamer Straße, with a lineup of artists representing six queer collectives RAKANS hand-picked and wants to shine a light on.
Ahead of the event, RAKANS chats about his life and art with Hinterhaus editor Alexander Cheves.
This is Stall Talk with RAKANS.
Alexander Cheves. You’re super busy! I just saw a post on Instagram of you playing at WHOLE Festival last weekend. When you take a day off, what does that day look like?
RAKANS.
“I honestly don’t know if I know how to switch off anymore!”
A day off is just a day where I finally answer messages, work on music I’ve been postponing, go to the gym, cook something, or walk around without headphones. The closest thing I get to rest is disappearing into nature for a few hours.
AC. Where do you like to disappear in nature?
RAKANS. I love nature that’s uninhabited, places that people rarely visit. The area around Dresden had a lot of that. Now I’m looking for the same in Berlin.
AC. What gym do you go to?
RAKANS. At the moment, John Reed.
AC. John Reed is great. I used to be a member, but now I’m at Bunker. What’s an early experience that pointed you to a career in music? Was there a foundational experience, a turning point?
RAKANS. Before I ever thought about DJing, I was really into theater, dance, and singing. I always wanted to make people feel something. Discovering electronic music showed me that a dancefloor could do that. I realized a DJ doesn’t just play tracks. They tell a story. That totally changed the direction for me.
AC. Your RA bio says you started in pop, and I found an album, LÜJAH. Tell me about that?
RAKANS. LÜJAH was another chapter of my life. I was writing and singing alt-pop because I thought that’s where I belonged, creatively.
“Eventually, I realized I had been separating these parts of myself, the singer and the club kid. Techno allowed me to be both and express emotions without explaining them in lyrics.”
Lately, it feels like those worlds are slowly coming back together. I’m working on some music that combines both.
AC. When might we get tracks that combine techno and your voice?
RAKANS. I’m working on releasing my first Arabic album, on which I’ll be singing. I also found a way to incorporate my Middle Eastern vocals into another techno-inspired album that’s in the works, which might be dropped in early 2027.
AC. What was the journey like from pop to techno?
RAKANS. Honestly, I didn’t switch from pop to techno. I just stopped making music that I thought people expected of me. Both kinds of music taught me things about myself. Pop taught me emotional vulnerability. Techno taught me that silence, repetition, and tension can say more than lyrics. The older I get, the less interested I am in genres and the more interested I am in playing with emotions. Not just staying in one genre but working across genre and impulse.
AC. Is there a genre you’ve never done but would like to try?
RAKANS. Well, I’m bringing Arabic vocals back into my work, blending them with really hypnotic techno and some cinematic sounds.
“I don’t want people to ask, ‘What genre is this?’ I just want them to feel it.”
AC. Let’s talk about Rawmantique. From my research, I see it started in Dresden, not Berlin. Tell me about its origins.
RAKANS. Dresden wasn’t the obvious place to start a queer collective. We weren’t trying to compete with Berlin. We were really just responding to a need. There were amazing people in Dresden who deserved spaces where they could express themselves. Rawmantique grew because it came from necessity. It started with parties in my own flat.
AC. I actually did know that. You’ve described it in Groove Magazine as a playground for experimenting freely without judgment. What were those first parties in your flat like?
RAKANS. [laughs] Beautifully chaotic.
“We’d push the furniture aside, invite friends and friends-of-friends, decorate the apartment, and suddenly people were dancing until sunrise.”
Nobody cared what you wore, who you were, or how you danced. Looking back, that intimacy became the DNA of Rawmantique. The events have grown bigger, but we’ve fought to keep that feeling.
AC. How would you describe a Rawmantique party to someone who’s never been?
RAKANS. Well, they’re not just entertainment. There are already enough parties trying to impress you. Rawmantique exists to disarm guests. We don’t care how cool you are. Once inside, everyone is just another body sharing the room.
AC. Let’s go personal, if that’s okay. What is your biggest day-to-day struggle? And what’s your biggest day-to-day joy right now?
RAKANS. The biggest struggle is that everyone romanticizes creative work until they have to live it. You’re expected to be an artist, marketer, therapist, accountant, event producer, and a social media expert, all at once.
“The biggest joy is still the same joy I felt when we started, seeing people dance and connect in a space. That’s the magic. Everything else is just admin.”
AC. Does anyone in your life help you stay grounded?
RAKANS. My mom and the memory of my dad. All the things they’ve given me. Even when it was not perfect, it was unconditional love and support. They were the ones who introduced me to entertainment and enrolled me in theater from a young age.
AC. That’s beautiful, thank you for sharing. Who is someone who inspires you now?
RAKANS.
“Björk always inspired me. She creates entire ecosystems with her albums. Arca does the same in a different language, constantly mutating. I admire artists who’d rather confuse their audience than just repeat themselves.”
AC. How do you feel about Berlin now?
RAKANS. Berlin loves telling the world it’s different while desperately trying to be normal. The city is full of brilliant artists, but it’s become increasingly performative.
“Everyone wants to be alternative as long as it’s marketable.”
Despite that, I still think Berlin has things most cities don’t. People in Berlin keep creating culture, even when it’s financially irrational. I love that.
AC. What’s dating like in this city for you?
RAKANS. Humbling. I am learning to accept both the heartbreak and the joy.
AC. What’s a passion you have that has nothing to do with music or nightlife?
RAKANS. Psychology! I’m fascinated by power, identity, shame, and belonging.
“Once you start understanding how people work, nightlife suddenly makes a lot more sense. Clubs aren’t just places to dance. They’re social experiments.”
AC. Let’s talk music. What’s the last music that made you cry?
RAKANS. Actually, JakoJako’s track Evaneszenz. I played it at WHOLE. It’s euphoric and connects me to a period in my teenage years where I was a big fan of Evanescence. I nearly cried out of happiness.
AC. If you could go back to any club, with any artist playing, at any point in history, where and who is it?
RAKANS. Probably early Berghain, not because I believe everything was better then, but because scenes are most exciting before they realize they are legendary. Once a place becomes iconic, people start performing its myth instead of actively creating it. I’d love to experience Berghain when it was still getting started.
AC. What is something about your work that your followers don’t know?
RAKANS.
“People think I’m just a DJ. They don’t realize I obsess over everything. Branding, typography, storytelling, social psychology, everything. I can spend six hours choosing a font and thirty minutes choosing a kick drum.”
And I sing! Most people have no idea, because I’ve kept that part of myself separate for years.
AC. Many artists have multiple talents. It’s a shame the industry forces us to choose one lane. In an alternate timeline, what would you be doing instead?
RAKANS. I would’ve done adult movies, just for the kick of it. But I’m too shy!
★
Catch RAKANS at KING KONG PRIDE, Friday, 24 July at Studio1111, alongside the collectives Rawmantique has invited for the night: Fogo No Cu (caipora), MissDreamz (Aunty Nora), Zangana (Holy Mami), La Casita (Thirteen Doze), and Rummachen (DJ Killing), plus Rawmantique’s own Nycky Estrella and a performance by Kønsta, with KING KONG’s Bobby Beethoven and Gabrielle Levie.
Alexander Cheves is the editor of Hinterhaus. He is an author and essayist exploring sex, culture, art, and music. Winner of the Geoff Mains Prize and an NLGJA journalism award, he can usually be found dancing in Berlin or working on his next book.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
