The story of M.A.N.D.Y. begins on a tennis court in Saarbrücken, near the German-French border. That’s where Patrick Bodmer met Philipp Jung on a summer’s day over twenty years ago. They grew to become great friends, and together dreamt of a way to make a living out of their shared loves: collecting records, throwing parties, meeting girls, making friends and laughing. Alas, these idle plans soon had to make way for sensible adult concerns and they parted ways.

At 25 Patrick and Philipp were reunited in Frankfurt, then the hub of Germany’s flourishing house and techno scene. Philipp worked for Snap’s record company; Patrick studied and lived as a painter. They began their first forays into music with releases on local independent imprints and devised their unofficial Lust (eng: joy, zest, delight) parties as an excuse to play records. Later Patrick acquired an old brewery as an atelier – this space served as a cauldron bubbling with their ideas, art and wanton personal experimentation. This period came to a close in 1997 and the final twang of traditional career values saw Philipp move firstly to Cologne as A&R for Jive, and later to Berlin to do the same job for V2. Patrick finished studying before taking a sensible day job he quickly came to detest.