You’re very often labelled
as the German Autechre. Does it annoy you?
Yes, of course... hmmm, not really to be honest. Journalists
always have to put musicians into a certain genre. As
Autechre are the dominating innovators in this music,
our style is labelled as Autechre-like-music as well...
Who cares!? Anyway, the new songs of Ae and our new
songs are not comparable at all. As we are going pop,
Ae are going mad ;-)
Do you feel that it prevents your music from being
appreciated for its own quality?
A bit yes. Especially in Germany and England (of course).
We think the media only cares about British music, which
really annoys us. As a German musician you always have
that problem... It's different if you play techno though...
You label, Music Aus Strom, and Autechre’s Skam,
have collaborated with each other on the MASK series,
which is now very much sought after. What brought you
to work with them?
We got in contact one day (just shortly after we started
MAS). Andy (the boss of Skam) told us that he loved
our stuff... We liked each other and so we thought we
could do some records together... That’s it.
You say on your site that, in the early days, no-one
was very much interested to put out your music, and
although Warp would have been the perfect label, you
didn’t think there was much chance them releasing your
music. Why is that?
It’s maybe that the music scene for this kind of IDM/electronica
is super small if you compare it to the techno scene.
I think we are one of the only 20 musicians worldwide
who can live from only doing this weird music, which
is really sad.
Rephlex seemed quite interested though, why didn’t
it happen in the end?
Don’t ask us, ask Rephlex ;-) I think they wanted more
of that dirty acid stuff we did on Bunker Records, but
we wanted to do something different.
You’ve remixed Björk, and said in previous
interviews that it was a sort of dream come true. How
would you react if she was asking you to work with her
on her next album?
I’d totally freak out! Chris would be less enthusiastic,
I suppose (especially after hearing her new album, which
is in his eyes not really good). I still do love her
music, although I have to agree that her new album could
have been better!
How do you think you would approach the project?
As everything we do... We just do it! We never think
about concepts that much.
Is there any other singer or musician you would
love to collaborate with, either on one of your projects,
or on one of theirs?
We love Louise Rhodes from Lamb and Anti-PopConsortium.
Depeche Mode are great, too. Who else? Radiohead are
great and Prince would just be the bomb to work with.
The remixes on Vice-Versa are generally
a lot funkier than your previous work. Was it a conscient
effort?
We like people to listen to our music, but we also love
people to dance to our music... In short: we just want
people to enjoy our music (but actually first of all
we have to love it ourselves; that’s a definite main
goal!)
Is it an indication of a direction for future Funkstörung
releases?
We learned a lot from past interviews: don’t say too
much about your new stuff, as then people aren’t surprised
anymore when it comes out...so we say nothing ;-)
Do you use remixes as a kind of laboratory for your
own music, that is do you test ideas on remixes before
developing them further on your own records?
Absolutely. Doing remixes taught us a lot! We still
learn by doing remixes, especially if we have the chance
to work with good vocals.
What makes a good remix?
The same what makes a good song...we don’t see a difference
between one of our own song and a remix. If it sounds
good, it’s good, if it sounds bad, it’s bad.
You always said that you only accept to do a remix
if you have complete creative control. Is there someone
for who you would be ready to make concessions if it
guaranteed working with them?
If we do a remix, we definitely can’t accept any creative
limitation. Only if we would work together (e.g. as
producers) we could accept compromises.
What about others remixing your music? Who would
you like to remix your music, and would you give them
the same creative control on your work that you like
when working on other people’s?
Of course we would give remixers 100% creative freedom...
that’s just fair! But who should remix us? I am sure
Scott Herren (Prefuse 73) would do a fantastic job.
Or our friends André Estermann and Dj Peabird.
Plaid and Anti-Pop would do a great job, too and I would
be curious what very successful American producers like
Rodney Jerkins or Timberland would do with our stuff.
How did you come to remix Jean-Michel Jarre? What
do you think of his music?
His manager asked us... easy as that. I respect a lot
what he did in the past, but maybe his new stuff is
not so interesting as he is definitely not as innovative
as 25 years ago.
Your music is extremely abstract, although you regularly
include vocals on your own tracks. Do you have a different
approach for these vocal tracks?
No, to say it easy: we just put vocals on our instrumental
tracks ;-)
What are you listening to at the moment?
The voice of my three-month-old son. I don’t listen
to any music in my free time as I am surrounded by music
all the time when we are in the studio or on tour.
What do you think of the music business in general
and of the electronic scene in particular at the moment?
The music business is like a pool full of sharks...
I am not a big fan of the music industry. I absolutely
love the people we work with, but I think they are one
amongst the only normal persons in this business. As
we live outside Munich we are not that much part of
the electronic scene here... but most people we meet
on tour are really, really nice.
Is Funkstörung live a totally different experience
than Funkstörung on album?
No, just more danceable.
Vice Versa also include a couple of collaborations,
with Jay-Jay Johanson and Beans from Anti-pop Consortium.
How did you come to work with them?
JJ is big fan of us and asked us to work with him...
we like him (especially as a person), and so it was
a very good thing to work with him. We are big fans
of Beans and so we asked him if he wanted to work together
with us... he liked our stuff a lot and so it happened.
Beans is just super cool!
When is the next Funkstörung album due, and
is it going to be very different from Appetite For
Disctruction?
The new album will be different. It’s now finally scheduled
for early 2003, but before that we gonna do two side
projects. I’m going to do a DVD-album with André
Estermann and Chris is going to do a instrumental hip
hop album with Dj Peabird.
INTERVIEW EXPRESS
Five best albums ever?
(actually this really changes all the time...)
1. Björk Homogenic
2. Public Enemy It Takes A Nation Of Millions To
Hold Us
3. Autechre Tri Repetae
4. Plaid Not For Threes
5. Anti Pop Consortium Tragic Epilogue
Best Funkstörung track?
can’t answer that...
Track you wish you had recorded?
Björk Joga...ohh, no: Los Del Rio Macarena
$$$$$$$
;-)
Autechre or Plaid?
Autechre, although we don’t like their new stuff.
How do you spend your last day alive?
Having fun with my kid and my girlfriend, like every
other day in my life.
Email interview February 2002
Thank you to Michael. |
