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 Bjork, and said that 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.
 

For more information on Funkstörung, visit the Funkstörung, Studio K7 and Musik Aus Straum web sites.
Thank you to Michael.

© themilkfactory.co.uk 2002