|
n |
|
Let’s not waste time. Apparently you and Jan met at
popkomm |
| Andi |
|
Yeah, that’s right, how did you know? |
| n |
|
Well I heard you met at a Sepultura gig, is that true? |
| Andi |
|
Yeah, it was like a….. at the jungemusicsiert |
| n |
|
Like… young music something |
| Andi |
|
Like popkomm, ja |
| :: |
|
(the rustling sound derived from the interviewer’s torn notes, which
intregues andi, he registers his interest ) |
| k |
|
(Laughs) |
| n |
|
I like to really get into my work |
| Andi |
|
Ja, ja, I see that |
| n |
|
Ok, I’ll start at the beginning.
Is there any media, other than music, that you draw most
of your inspiration from? |
| Andi |
|
Ja, media is a part of the community, people how they
communicate, media is like, I dunno, it’s a part of the
communication. What kind of media…it’s not like art
(Jan joins the group) |
| Andi |
|
For sure, it is something interesting but I think the
influence for us is not like art.. |
| n |
|
It’s not art? |
| Andi |
|
It’s not art, maybe even not music, it’s maybe more like
‘emphezime’ aus der kunst |
| n |
|
Perhaps what I’m driving at here, is I want to know how
much you take from visual media, like film or cinema |
| Andi |
|
Nothing |
| Jan |
|
Is it something that helps you get a connection to
something for your article, or do you think our music is
very visual |
| n |
|
no, I just feel that there is a very strong relationship
between sound and image, and I was wondering how you
two felt about that |
| k |
|
Particularly art, Do you look at art a lot, even if you don’t
think it is an influence. Do you view art, take it as part of
your life, go to galleries, take an interest in art? |
| Jan |
|
We know people make art and so we go to galleries
sometimes, and we see art, it’s part of your life |
| Andi |
|
It’s part of communication in life, and think it’s not very
important in life. Even music is not very important in life,
it’s all part of communication. |
| n |
|
So you don’t necessarly take influence from different
media, you take it from everything? |
| Andi |
|
I think for me personally, it’s the same, it doesn’t make a
difference if someone is preparing food or drawing a
picture. I would say that food has the same influence on
our music as art, or traffic. |
| n |
|
Is music the most appropriate medium for your ideas, for
your expression. Is it strong enough to carry what you
feel, or do you want a better medium? |
| Jan |
|
Ja, I would like a better medium, or not a better, but
another. one that would include all the possibilities to
express (for expression). Sometimes I think there must
be something else, other than these fucking CD products
in the end, or the live concert, there must be something
else.
(he gestures towards the recording devices on the table) |
| Jan |
|
but I think it’s very two sided, this thing. On one side
you think it is not enough or it’s very clicheed, sometimes
very defined…. It’s quite clear what is happening and you
can’t really break the boundaries, because what you
really do stays music in the end, and for some people
what you do is always art and will stay art, and will be
percieved in that way. It can never be more than art and
you’d like to break this, or to make it explode and
become more than this. But on the other side, I think,
even with the smallest thing, it’s up to you to make
something with it, and even if you think there’s nothing for
you to do because everything is based on precepts,
totally ridged and defined. There’s still something, it’s still
a big challenge to get involved, to find possibilities in
there, to re-read things. And I think there’s two aspects:
one is to express yourself and the other is to express
things. |
| Andi |
|
And you express yourself, often, through a media, a
medium? |
| Jan |
|
I’m not interested in expressing myself |
| Andi |
|
No….but…. but (to Jan) |
| Jan |
|
No…. (to Andi) |
| Andi |
|
No..(laughs) but the expression itself, is always made
through the medium, it’s like art or CD or
………whatever. The important thing, what happens, if
someone is watching or listening, how he takes
the……’fergusten’. |
| n |
|
Say it in German. |
| Andi |
|
Nay
(Everyone laughs) |
| Jan |
|
Your conscious? |
| Andi |
|
What happens in your brain. What happens in your
‘bewusstsein’, your conscious. I think this is the
interesting aspect, and that is what is interesting, the
reactions to the work, but the work itself is not that
important. The media. |
| Jan |
|
Nothing is happening with the work itself. It’s just being
the work, it’s happening when there is a dialogue. If
people make something with it, then it can be so much,
and if nothing happens with it, it just stays the same, like
boring thing and then if it’s called art, or it’s called music,
or if it’s called politics, or if it’s a consumer product. I
think we have problems to see things being only one
thing, and then when you say you make art then it is one
thing, then you can put it in a cupboard, or put it with
other pieces that don’t mean anything to you. so we’d
rather stay away from everything that limits what we can
do, that limits the possibilities fo what it can be. One the
other hand we can say that what we do is art, and what
influences us is art, or what we percieve as art and what
art means to us. And the definition of art is so
incredible… is it current art? Is it visual art? What art is
it? is it sculptural art? It’s incredible. When you work on
things, maybe you call it creatively, if you work with
things, there’s so many aspects with what you work, so
making music contains a technological aspect, it contains
a creative attitude towards tools, and maybe towards
translation, how can I get across something that I have
percieved that caused a certain reaction in my brain, a
certain idea, or just a link. Sometimes it’s not the big
idea, but if you see this and you connect it to this and
your brain computer makes the logical connection
between things that haven’t been linked before, and then
you do this, and then you express this, and then through
music, again it’s translated. But how can you make
music, you have to create a sound, how do you do this :
it’s going through this cable, it’s going into this computer.
So it’s so many links, with so many filters in between, so
many translation that how can you talk about a pure idea
and there’s no stage where you can do that, maybe one
point in the change where you can say ‘I’ve found some
pureness’, but it wouldn’t make sense to us, because the
pureness wouldn’t exist, if it hadn’t been translated
already into something, into what it is, and then further
translated into ..blah… and then … We can say we
make CDs, we are CD producers or are vinyl producers,
you can we are musicians, you can say we are artists,
you can say we are buisness people, we create our own
approach to this capitalist social challenge. There are so
many aspects and art has become very…. it’s quite
obolete, it’s become quite bad. I mean just looking at this
piece of Sony product it contains so much art and so
much thought, so many ideas and on the other hand it’s
so evil |
| n |
|
Personally I find walkmans terrifying, because of the slow
moving parts. I sometimes get the feeling that things are
slowing down tremendously and this brings me to next
point.
You mention dialogues. A dialogue between two things,
and often in your music I find it occilates between two
massive extremes. One moment it’s in a state of
perpetual collapse and then at the same time it’s
reassuring and intimate. It’s like huge vast void without
any points of perspective, for you to understand it from,
but then at the same time, it's so close and tiny, so
intimate and reassuring. |
| Jan |
|
that's the communication, that's what you have to put
together in your brain, that's what you realise, |
| n |
|
Do you deliberately do that, or does it happen in the
process? |
| Jan |
|
It is included |
| Andi |
|
It's already included |
| n |
|
So it's deliberate |
| Jan |
|
What is deliberate |
| n |
|
Deliberate means that you do it on purpose. |
| Jan |
|
It is included, but if it's conciously the intention then at a
certain point, of course it is when you kind of agree on it,
then of course you do it delibereratly, cause you realise
and you didn't change it, but we don't purposely start with
that. We don't say, this passage should have all those
opposed elements, should these dimensions now, and
when we start doing it, it's not starting from this point and
then having this aim of achieving this, and then bringing
this across and… So how can we make sure that
everyone percieves this as you did. I think that it's a very
interesting perception and I can say that I experienced
something similar listening to our music, it can happen,
and maybe other people have something they could
express or explain similar to you but then again there are
other who would say 'Hey, I think you are, like, stupid art
boffins and you just go mad about something that is
totally obsolete and isn't worth anything' or 'the cool thing
about Mouse on Mars is that it just sounds great on my
Hi-Fi' or theres someone else who says it put them in a
bad mood cause it totally messes up with what they
would call music and I wouldn't call that an effort, I would
just call that ideosyncratic.. 'boffin-ness' I dunno this
work. And all those things they are included, it is totally
fine, cause we can't control it, this is the point, and we
don't want to suffer from not being in control. |
| n |
|
Do you know the word 'Serendipity', it's an English word
that means ... taking the best from mistakes, happy
accidents. As I was saying earlier about you not going
out there to make accidents. Do you make nistakes and
then realise afterwards that there was 'something'. |
| Andi |
|
That's included |
| Jan |
|
That means, you start, you create your set up, you create
a situation in which you produce sound |
| Andi |
|
If you're not afraid to do mistakes, if you say mistakes,
then they just exist when you try to control something,
push something in a certain direction which is predefined,
but if you don't do that then there are no mistakes. It's
like if you play live and the people can't tell if you did
good or bad, or did a mistake, even we can't tell cause
we can't do a mistake.. |
| Jan |
|
the set-up we've all agreed on, the people who came and
us, we agreeed to playing on the stage with this kind of
equipment. |
| Andi |
|
The only possibility is that the equipment breaks down,
even then you can do something, maybe. |
| k |
|
There's parts of music that’s gets made from
interference, making a recording, taking a sample, but
they don't use the sample, they use the intererence.
There's a lot of bands who use that like autechre,
Scanner, people like that, and they use that, and that's
kind of like they're using a mistake to make something
out of it. |
| Jan |
|
It's a very conservative point of view that you call that a
mistake, we can't really agree on that being a mistake,
but we wouldn't say that we have a post modern attitiude
where everything is possible and everything is just fine.
You have to decide if you agree on certain predefinitions,
that first very often are based on a conservative…….Oh
|
| Tour |
|
time's up |
| n |
|
Just one more brief question |
| Andi |
|
Oh bitter |
| Tour |
|
Grumble, mutter (exits loudly) |
| Jan |
|
Five minutes, just to say this. It's based on an idea of
oppression and control, and being in control often reflect
the control that is put upon you, if you try to be against
this, if you try to in a way rebel against that, then we have
to rebel against attitudes that we ourselves as well have..
towards and we sometimes have to accept things that
maybe other people would say 'this is a mistake', we
wouldn't even accept that this is called a mistake. It's
very ideosyncratic again maybe, but what we try to
expose is that this is not an exclusive approach that we
have here, knowing what is right and what is wrong, what
is innovative, what is avant-guard and what is old
fashioned. We don't like to think in those terms. |
| Andi |
|
I think what is interesting also is the idea of crisis, like
crisis in music…….. I have a picture….it's already grown,
then you have the chance, in music it's very easy or art,
you just destroy everything, you let everything explode,
let everything break, together, and a crisis is coming out
of that. And this makes you more concentrated, |
| Jan |
|
Makes you more aware |
| Andi |
|
You don't even have to put everything together, its in the
nature of the elements, if you work with sound, if you
destroy it you see another aspect, and it's destruction, no
construction is growing out of itself again, you are
realising another system, which is just existing in your
brain, in your own little perception. |
| Jan |
|
I think you can get it across again, I think it jumps onto
another level of perception, and maybe on this level it's
all torn apart, it's all broken, or it's all just mistakes, but
then having a different angle again, it is all something. |
| n |
|
It's all relative
(banging, laughter)
|
| Andi |
|
Ok. We can stop |
| Jan |
|
No, no, it's all relative is very good, because if you
believe in dynamics then you can cross relativeness |
| Andi |
|
It's all relative as soon as you decide to destroy the
system, and then you can say for yourself, it's relative. It's
just a moment, I think relativeness does not really
existing, it's just a decision you make in a moment. |
| n |
|
It's a dylectic, a dialogue |
| Jan |
|
it's just a decision, you do in one millisecond |
| Andi |
|
It's a trick |
| Jan |
|
It's just a trick, there is no relativeness, where is the point
of relativeness? |
| n |
|
Do you guys dance? |
| Jan |
|
Yep |
| Andi |
|
It's relative |
| n |
|
What kind of music do you dance to? |
| Jan |
|
It depends |
| n |
|
What makes you dance |
| Jan |
|
A good situation |
| n |
|
Is there any old music you keep revisiting? That is always
contempory, that's always new? …. Any music? From like
thirty years ago? ….. anything?
(They nod) |
| k |
|
Go on then. |
| Jan |
|
You want names, you wanna have… |
| Andi |
|
It's always music you don't understand the first time,
which is not obvious. Maybe for us it is something like
classical music, because you don't have the background,
you don't know how to refuse classical music and that's
why this music is interesting. You understand it different
to the people who did this music fifty years ago, this is
interesting music…….. Backstreet Boys, can be very
interesting, and very heartening |
| Jan |
|
And I think music also changes through technological
innovation. Innovations that make you see thinks
differently, judge things differently. It's very interesting
that something that is maybe totally worn-out, doesn't
mean anything to you suddenly becomes fresh again,
cause you gain new knowledge, not about this specific
thing, but for yourself, about how to re-read something
and suddenly it becomes relevant again, and contributes
to a discussion that hadn't been there when you've been
involved with this thing, it can be a record, can be a book,
can be a piece of art, can be a statement by someone,
can be a person, how do you say.. |
| n |
|
Say it in german, just for the tape. |
| Jan |
|
What is it in German, a known personality, that maybe
wasn't interesting for a long time and suddenly it's kind of
reoccurring. There are answers to questions that hadn't
been there for quite a long time, that even this person
didn't know. And maybe you were pre-thinking certain
things, your philosphy of this person, or in the system of
this idea, there was something already involved that
wasn't clearly mentioned at this time
|
| Andi |
|
It's always if you move, move, move stuff along from one
period to another period. |
| Jan |
|
Sometimes I think about innovative music and you say
'OK, it's going in this direction, this software'……it
displays things, certain new things, not really defined
things. It's like fresh ground and you don't know how to
behave towards it, and then you listen to some really
really mainstream, really badly calculated, manipulatory
stuff. You see, It's all in there, already. They all have the
same software, they all use this kind of stuff, they all
have so much knowledge already. They are so much
ahead already, and you just realised that and it doesn't
make that much difference to be avant-guard, to be
special, in a certain niche, but there are always people
who have the same stuff, and they do different things
with that. They are as innovative as you are. But, very
often when I listen to this music it's all there, all this stuff,
all these sounds you think of, they are already used. |
| Lady |
|
(Another request to stop) |
| n |
|
Just one little question. Do you think electronic music can
harness the energy of Rock, or the intimacy |
| Jan |
|
It's fused anyway, it's fused already. |
| n |
|
But can it carry emotion, the kind you get with a
microphone. Is there an interface with computers, hard
drives that can carry the intensity of feeling. |
| Andi |
|
Sure
|
| Jan |
|
No problem, you can go even further, theres so many
people you work with… |
| Andi |
|
It's not bound to the technology, it's just the idea, and
again it's like the translator, the converter, the converting
process of the media, what you put together, what you
feel, it's chemical process. An electro chemical musical
process. |
| n |
|
Do you ever use the internet? |
| Andi |
|
Ja |
| Jan |
|
Sometimes |
| n |
|
Check this out. |
| :: |
|
Click……………………………………………. |