Since their beginnings in Hamburg, Germany, KMFDM have proven to be a driving force in underground electronic music. Now permanently based in America, KMFDM have a new album, "Angst" (Wax Trax/TVT), and are preparing to once again hit the road.
Speaking from a cordless phone in Seattle (that would prove to accidentally disconnect several times during the interview), co-founder Sascha Konietzko talked about KMFDM, his own side project and the current state of the music industry in general.
The core of KMFDM is Sascha and En Esch, with guitarists Mark Durante and Svet Am rounding out the line-up. They started out releasing material through such European labels as Play It Again Sam and Rough Trade. At the time, they were also licensing their music to Wax Trax in America, a label to which they later signed to.
"In '89, I called them up and said we're like really bored here in Germany, so just get us out," says Sascha, who also has a side project called Excessive Force. "So they put us on this tour with Ministry, and late in 89, we came to the US for the first time and quickly developed a good relationship with the Wax Trax guys and early in 1990 we decided to signdirect onto Wax Trax."
In the late 80s, Wax Trax boasted a roster that also included such electronic heavy-weights as Front 242, Meat Beat Manifesto and Front Line Assembly. Now, most of these bands have moved to other labels, leaving KMFDM as one of the few original "Wax Trax bands" to remain. Sascha says that despite being slowed down by Wax Trax's bankruptcy (the label was later picked up by TVT), the group has never had the desire to leave.
"We have been offered substantial amounts of money to switch, but it is really my belief that no one could do a better job for us anyway," he says. "The more really corporate stuff that's going on, the more it sucks. I'd rather be self-conducted and independent and do my stuff directing my self, following my own guidelines and just cooperate with the label, rather then told 'you have to go on tour,' 'you have to do a video,' 'that's shit really."
On the surface, "Angst" sounds more guitar heavy than some of KMFDM's previous work, though Sascha points out that "it's just that you can hear them better." About a year ago, the group began working with engineer Chris Shephard, who has made the guitar parts sound more crisp and stand out more.
In creating "Angst," KMFDM spent about a month just sampling guitar parts directly to the hard disk of a Macintosh. Sascha explains that while everything the band does technically involves sampling, they use the technology to manipulate their own music rather than steal from others.
Sascha's own set-up is pretty low-key, consisting of the Mac (capable of 8 hours of digital recording), an Emax II, Roland JD 800 and Emu drum module. The group still works with tape loops, which Sascha calls "the greatest thing in the world."
"You always have to duck in the studio," he says. "There's gigantically huge tape loops all around."
While KMFDM chooses to use a fairly modest set-up of equipment, the group has always had access to the latest electronic gear.
"We actually were probably one of the first bands to use MIDI instruments and samplers, that, at the time, did not even have any storage, it was more like a delay with a freeze action," explains Sascha. "Pitch changes were done by control voltage keyboards, such as the SH101. We had things like the MIDI Bass Master or little wierd devices that had the strangest sounds. First-generation drum machines, things like beat boxes with pre-programmed rhythms where you could only change the speed. We started working with 707, 808, 909s."
KMFDM have always been known for intense live shows, where the music is often presented in a very different from than on their albums.
"Live mixers tend to turn the guitar way up, as guitar is like the big masturbation instrument," says Sascha. "People don't seem to have a problem recognizing the tune. It's like the first four bars and they know 'oh, this is 'Sex On The Flag,' or this is 'Naive'" Of course, for recorded stuff, you can sometimes just create a little air with a nice sound or effect, but live, you're pretty much depending on constant action, so the concept of KMFDM live is just condensed, very right-at-your-face. Hence the white lights and everything."
On the last tour, KMFDM added a live drummer and created a sound that would impress even the most technophobic guitar rock fan. Live drummers are sometimes used and sometimes not, depending on who is available at the time. For the upcoming tour, Sascha says that he will probably handle the drum parts himself.
The group never wants to go back and tour Europe again, due to an ill-fated venture with My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult in the fall of 1990.
"They were under the impression that they should be headlining, and they got booed off the stage all the time," explains Sascha. "Then we started headlining, and then they left the tour and then we stopped the tour because it made no sense. The promoters were really disappointed in just seeing good old KMFDM from Germany again but without the famous most enjoyable TKK, but boy, what did they know. It was just a disaster so we decided not to tour Europe anymore."
"Angst," like all of KMFDM's recordings, features cover art by Brute. Sascha says that the artist is considered a member of the band, since he is shaping the appearance of the their presentation and is part of the ideological backbone of the group. His work has become something of a trademark for the band.
Brute's work has been collected and brought to life in the video of "A Drug Against War," which has received MTV airplay despite KMFDM's past problems with censorship.
"All the covers that he's ever done for us, there are like 18 of them now, they're all sort of woven into a little story, everything comes to life. There's basically a lot of explosions, guns, big chicks, strong female aspects, like the dominant woman. People still have a problem and think that KMFDM's some sort of sexist bullshit. Just open the eyes."
In addition to their own releases, KMFDM have appeared on a great deal of compilations. Sascha says that while the record company may get a bit concerned about this, the group enjoys gaining more exposure and helping out the often small labels that put out the compilations. KMFDM can currently be heard on Re-Constriction's "Shut Up Kitty" CD doing a cover of U2's "Mysterious Ways."
"It was about spring '92 that all these articles were in the papers where U2 said that KMFDM was a great band and an influence in the making of 'Actung Baby'," says Sascha on the decision to cover that track. "And we were just like 'yeah, right' so we just said, ok, let's play a U2 song, a tribute to U2. And we did the one that was everywhere, like they would use the intro to that song on MTV every five minutes or so. So we took that and sort of took the piss out of it, played it live and En Esch would say things like Bono could suck him or whatever, and this guy Chase from Cargo/Re-Constriction in San Diego saw us and he had in mind to do this compilation and he probably needed a band that would make the compilation kind of worthwhile. So he called us up and said he liked the way we did 'Mysterious Ways' and his compilation was just consisting of cover versions, so we did it for no money at all."
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