Is this your first trip to this part of the world?
Andreas: Yes, but Thomas and I have been to Japan on another project
and
Detlef has been to Korea because he studied art. He was an exchange
student. We've been to Seoul and Tokyo but never before to South-East
Asia. We played together with Klaus Dinger. You may know him. He plays
with Neu! and La Düsseldorf and also with Kraftwerk. We collaborated on a
few records and live shows.
You're speaking at a seminar in Singapore: 'Trends in Electronic
Music'. What will you talk about?
Andreas: It's a very broad subject. I think we will be telling more about
the attitude of certain people and not so much about musical styles. I
think I will focus on a few things, for example Mouse on Mars, Thomas
Brinkmann and Chicks on Speed, what they do. Telling about the attitude
they have towards music and their style, not so much about say. Psychedelic drum n bass! Or. [laughs]
What do you think of mainstream electronic music, for instance,
trance, and DJs or producers like Paul van Dyk?
Andreas: [laughs] Oh, I don't know much about him! Of course I've seen
WestBam, Sven Väth and even Marusha DJing and I've been to plenty of
raves. Trance is a bit boring for me but I have no moral opinion of it.
I don't like it so much but I like certain elements. For example if
'Modernists' use trance elements and when I do some techno stuff on my own as
'April' (Andreas' solo production moniker), I like it if it goes
'doof-doof-doof' at 135 bpm and sometimes it is maybe close to trance but
not mainstream trance. Just using the energy or maybe a flanger sound or
something. I have no bad feelings for them, it doesn't destroy a scene,
it's a completely different scene.
What sort of music do you think has the strongest influence on
the music you create?
Andreas: Bach! Johann Sebastian Bach! [laughs] I don't know, I can't
say. It's difficult. Years ago when I played keyboards in another group,
I was always asked 'Who is your favourite keyboard player?' and they
expected something like Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer (prog
rock supergroup) or Alan Parsons (Alan Parsons Project) [laughs]. And I
always said, it's Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys who influenced my
keyboard melodies! [laughs]. You could say it's literature, birds
singing, trees, nature, friends or a city like Kuala Lumpur. I don't know
how I create melodies, I can't tell you. It's in me. I love a lot of
different things and in a way they influence me. I can't say. Kraftwerk
or something!
People lump you into the krautrock or post-rock brigade and you
consider comparisons to either less than appropriate. How do you
distinguish yourselves from these styles?
Andreas: It's really difficult. For example I also spin records and it's
really rare that I play with Kreidler. Sometimes I take an old record of
ours and I spin it and it's always difficult to find the next record
because there's not much which fits with our record. It's really
difficult to find a record which fits after Kreidler. So in a way we are
very focused on ourselves.
As a group, do you put a lot of thought into making your music?
Andreas: Not at the beginning. It's afterwards, like (considering)
variations or remixing ourselves. We're not like jazz musicians,
improvising. It's more like, we know our limitations and we move inside
these limitations. We always have a three or four minute idea in our
heads and we try and to fill it somehow. Afterwards when we have
something finished it's always a hard struggle because we have different
opinions. Afterwards, we always have the concept for the record but not
at the beginning. We have an idea and we say the next album is going to
be more minimal or dancefloor but in the end we surprise ourselves.
What do you try to achieve when you create your music?
Andreas: To make people move, to make them happy. Once a guy in Vienna, Austria
came to me and said that the song 'Reflections' (early Kriedler track) saved his
life. He was at a dead-end and thought about suicide. He heard this song and it
completely changed his life. He quit his job. He (broke up with) his girlfriend,
left his family and moved to another
city. Wow! It was the first time I heard this.
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