Date: Fri, 2 Aug 91 12:02:44 -0400 From: searles%emily.UVM.EDU@griffin.UVM.EDU (BraD SearleS)
The following is an interview with Sasha of KMFDM. It was done last Spring in Montreal, Quebec, Canada while they were on tour with Brain Dead Soun d Machine in support. The interview was done by Heather Wyman and Brad Searles (that's me)...he has some interesting things to say...
Here goes:
A: I'm Sasha Konietzko from KMFDM and I'm eating right now....Hi There...
Q: Could you tell us a little about how KMFDM formed,...where you guys met?
A: I was doing some music for art exhibitions in 1984, sort of industrial music...well, not really music but action performance. Like four guys banging on metal things that hold up buildings and we started banging in the same rhythm so all the windows started falling out. That was in Paris. By that time I met En Esch (of the band), who was a passionate drummer, and we started doing stuff together... pretty unusual stuff for that time. Everybody hated it because it was noisy, crackling loud, and horrible.
Q: How about your influences? What did you listen to then and what do you listen to now?
A: I always listened to classical music most. I love a variety of music, and it is reflected best in classical music.
Q: Who writes your stuff?
A: Well, I write all the lyrics, mostly, except for the German stuff, and I do most of the music, too. If you want to know how the balance is, KMFDM is a band who lives through conflict in the band, and through discussion and compromises. It's not like we hold up one little flag and the band marches behind. It's a process, and therefore the band develops in strange ways, and very fast.
Q:How do you think the band has progressed since your first album came out?
A: Well, progress is measurable in at least two ways. One is moneywise, and it definitely has progressed. The other is progress for yourself, and I see that kind of progress as much more important than the money progress. As a matter of fact, we can live off KMFDM nowadays, which most musicians cannot.
Q: How do you feel about being on the Wax Trax label? Do you feel that gives you an identity, or do you feel that KMFDM as a band gives you an identity?
A: Well, that is the total wrong way of seeing the fact that we are on Wax Trax. We are on Wax Trax because we chose to be on Wax Trax. We are on Wax Trax because we chose not to be on a major label. Wax Trax was a licensee of our product since 1987, and we were in touch anyway because of that. One day the situation was a little strange, and we just started talking as a friendship sort of thing and I said "Well, I don't really know what to do.", and they (The Wax Trax guys) said "Well, since we are licensing your product anyway, why don't you just sign directly on Wax Trax.", I said, "Well, I don't think that you guys have the money to buy me.", and they said they would see what they can do. They came up with the amount of money...I don't know, I see myself as more an organization person than a musician.
Q: Could you tell us a little about Brute, the person that designs your album covers?
A: I met this guy in London in 1985 and we got introduced to each other...he was an artist. Normally, I don't like if someone says "I'm an artist", I really dislike it actually. But he had a portfolio, and he opened it up, and I was really amazed what he was doing. It looked like woodcuts, but actually it wasn't. So, I said "Why don`t you do an album cover for us?", and then he did one, and he called and asked if we wanted to see his new stuff, and it was about the time that we had a new album ready. So, we just had a second cover, and it became sort of a trademark for KMFDM...
Q: Could you describe your fans? Do you have a typical fan?
A: Well, there is no such thing. A lot of people in our audiences are the American sort of Wax Trax client: Young, underage, black leather jacket, on his back you find KMFDM, Revolting Cocks, Thrill Kill Kult, Ministry, all that stuff written, with a strange haircut...That's one kind. In Europe, the people that go to visit one of the few KMFDM shows that we do there are like, mostly between 25 and 35, mostly male for some reason, and sort of from the intellectual corner, like thinking people that go "What do you mean with this? What do you mean with that?". I like the American audience much better because they take KMFDM as what it is. We don't need to explain what it is.
Q: Do you have a bigger following in America than in Europe?
A: I would say 25 times bigger.
Q: What do you think accounts for that difference?
A: I don't know. People hate us in Europe. They always did, and they always will...especially in Germany. They just hate us. The German lyrics we do are probably more explicit than the American ones. Explicit in a political way, like showing where the mistakes are, where the systems mistakes are and how the people are influenced.
Q: Have you had any videos?
A: We had six videos, but five of them got censored. One was on MTV, the song "More and Faster", and it was beeped out on some parts. They didn't the "Goddamn" pieces. They left the "Fuckers" in, but they had to beep out the "Goddamn". The only thing I can say to that is, in this country you can buy a gun anywhere, you can buy crack on every corner, and if you kill a black man in the South or something, you don't even go to prison. But, you can't even buy a total "Naive" record (KMFDM's latest album) because someone has it in mind that the cover depicts a rape scene. That is so fucking sick.
Q: At WRUV when we got the album poster in and I put it up on the wall, someone ripped it down and wrote "offensive" on it. Could you explain to everyone out there what it is?
A: The man in the picture does not see what is going on and the woman does see it, as the title "Naive" means. It might imply a rape scene to someone, but it supposed to imply the female ability of foresight. It could be interpreted in any way.
Q: Could you tell us about the atmosphere at your concerts?
A: Well, basically there is a pit right in front of the stage. There are mostly very young girls in the very front that have to be carried out after like 20 minutes because they get totally smashed. Unfortunatly, there is always a violent moment in the beginning of the concert that comes from security people that takes themselves too seriously. The kids just freak out a little, and the guards overreact totally. Mostly we have to make announcements, and interupt the program.
Q: Has anyone ever been seriously hurt at your shows that you've noticed?
A: Yeah, sometimes people hurt themselves when they jump from the stage. It is a problem. I don't have anything against that fun stage diving, but sometimes it gets really nasty when a really big guy with really heavy boots jumps into the crowd feet first into somebodys face. That sickens, totally.
Q: What do you see for the future of KMFDM? Where would you like to go? What kind of music would you like to do after this album?
A: Well, actually, we have a new single out, "Split". We have another single finished, a new album is finished that just has to go through the "administration". "Naive" was finished Spring last year, and we have one album every year. I don't really know. It is pretty much a matter of how the people will react to the new material. I can say KMFDM will exist in the future with no compromises like before. There will be no KMFDM seen on any major label. Al Jourgenson (of Ministry, Lard, Revco, the list goes on) will not remix any KMFDM songs. KMFDM might remix some of the new Al Jourgenson stuff, but that's it.
Q: What was it like working with Adrian Sherwood?
A: It was good, it was like working with a friend in the studio.
Q: How about future videos? Will you keep the censorship in mind or will you just do what you want?
A: Well, we have a new video coming out in late summer. I mentioned before that they were censored, but not necessarily for obscenity. It's for everything. People are not comfortable with it. It's from a totally different side than say, a Skinny Puppy show, with snuff films. It is not violent, it is not obscene. It is just uncomfortable in a way. Censorship in this country is very scary, and we will just continuously stand against it. We will do our stuff and people are going to see it. We just had a video for "Naive" and it was censored by Wax Trax itself. That was totally unbelievable. We sent them a copy and they said "We can't", and I said, "You can, because we are your band and we want you to multiply it and sell it.", and they said, "We can't". It was just like material from the last tour with Ministry. Not like live footage, but footage from on the road. There was also some stuff that we filmed off the TV in Nevada, just basically a woman with very big tits kissing herself. It was very funny, actually. It was a wierd perspective, it was a wierd angle, it was wierd colors, but you could see what it was. It was actually something totally not obscene. It was something very, I don't know, beautiful in a way, totally harmless and innocent. But they said "No, we can't do it!". So, we just found someone who will do it, and it will be coming out.
Q: Are you going to put together a collection of the six videos that have been censored?
A: I'm pretty sure we will do something. Working with Wax Trax will effect Wax Trax, because we are not the guys that you can tell what to do. If they want to stick with us, they have to make up their minds, and at least follow our few desires.
Q: What was it like touring with Ministry?
A: It was very exhausting. Actually, it was not as exhausting as this tour is, because we have much more responsibility, much more shows...we have almost no days off. We do 42 shows in 45 days. That's really hard.
Q: Have you liked one concert or one area more than the other?
A: No, there's places that are better and some that are not so good, but you can't really say where. We played Desmoines, Iowa last week. The people there apologise for being from Iowa. They say "I'm sorry but I'm from Iowa." I had a really strange feeling there, but the concert was totally perfect. They said that we were the greatest Wax Trax artists to ever play there, and I said, "What about Thrill Kill Kult? I know they played here, and they sell much more records." They said, "No, we don't like Thrill Kill Kult anymore, they are just a start and stop band." They just push start and stop on their sequencers and that's it. I think people are just fed up with all this hype and fake stuff. We are using some playback stuff, but the most important thing is that we have human re-enforcement of what's going on. You can see people falling, sweating, sometimes bleeding. You see human action, you don't see a fake satanist saying stupid stuff...
Q: Speaking of Thrill Kill Kult, how did it get arranged that you would remix each other's songs on that one 12''?
A: I'm good friends with Buzz McCoy (of TKK), and we started my solo project, he was involved with that. That will be out in one or two months...it's called "Excessive Force". We just hung out last summer and just did it. Then we started off on a European tour together with TKK, and I totally lost my respect for that band. They stopped the tour after 3 1/2 weeks and went back to America because they felt that thier asses weren't kissed enough. They are used to having a party for them every night, but in Europe they are totally unknown, and KMFDM is a little more known, so we headlined. Since KMFDM is not very much appreciated over there and people did not accept the fact that they were doing a total playback show, they just gave up. That just pushed my respect for them down to zero.
Q: Where are you headed now? What do you look forward to this tour?
A: We are going to Rochester, NY, then NYC, then Boston, and work down the east coast. We have a bunch of gigs in Texas, and some redneck states, which is fun...they like us a lot down there. The more bottles that fly on stage, the more we know they like us. The show we are doing with Pigface in Trenton, NJ should be good, I'm sure.
Q: You don't seem, like many of the other Wax Trax people, to be involved in any of the collaborations on that label. Do you plan to get involved in any of those projects?
A: No, I don't believe in inbreeding in music scenes. Some crosswork is very good and very fertile. But, I mean, I see in Chicago there are so many different projects that are run basically by two or three people that are always the same. What is the big difference between Pailhead, PTP, and 1000 Homo Djs? Except Jello Biafra and Lard. More or less everything is the same, and sounds the same. There is good material and there is bad material. It would be worth it to just compile the good material and make one killer record. I mean, you find something nice in everything, but it's not really convincing me. I want to do what I want to do. KMFDM is a unique thing, and it will stay a unique thing.
Q: Do you think your upcoming solo project is similar or different from your work with KMFDM?
A: It has, definitely, my handwriting, so you will see parallels to KMFDM. It's a little wilder, and a little less serious, maybe. I think what Buzz McCoy did was to loosen the whole thing up a little. He made it tacky in a good way. Like campy. Everything is too much. It's a record full of cliches, which is fun.
Q: If you had to describe your music to someone who doesn't have a clue, how would you do it?
A: We started calling it "Ultra-Heavy-Beat-Music" in 1984, and it's still the same. It's "Ultra-Heavy-Beat". There's just a bassline, a rhythm, and that makes a KMFDM song. Everything else is just stuff.
Q: Do you think people try to pigeon-hole you as an "industrial" band?
A: No, and I don't care. They would buy it anyway if it was industrial or "pre-jazz". The words don't change, or the meaning for the people. I see a lot of people in the audience that sing every single line from every song. Americans...they sing the German lyrics. (Laughs) That amazes me. At least they know it, and I appreciate that,...a lot.
Q: Are you sick of people asking you what your name stands for? We know it stands for "No Pity For the Majority" in German...
A: It's stands for "Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode" (More laughs), or whatever you want it to. It does not stand more or less for that than anything else. It's KMFDM, and it creates this feeling that people are uncomfortable with a certain void. Every void has to be filled, that's a human need, a basic need I guess. So, they come up with the funniest stuff, in every language.
Q: The latest I've heard is "Kylie Minogue Fans Don't Masterbate"... (laughs)
A: Yeah, I know that one, too. I don't know why it has to go in that direction. It always goes in the obscene way. In Germany they always do a lot of wierd things with my name, because it starts with a "K". So, I'm used to it...I'm used to the wierdest extremes.
Q: Do you plan on taking some kind of break after this tour considering it's so exhausting?
A: No, no vacation. Back in Chicago, we will start on the new video immediately for "Vogue", the next single, and some of the guys go back to Europe soon after we get back. Then I will do some Crunch-O-Matic production, and then I will do some Excessive Force recording. Probably, by the end of June, I'll be able to go to the Grand Canyon. I love New Mexico, Arizona, I love hot desert. I just want to rent a car and go down there.
Q: Do you plan on touring overseas soon?
A: Well, not really. Australia, New Zealand, Japan will be on the schedule maybe in 1992, probably in 1993....
Q: Well, thanks a lot for your time...we really appreciate your taking the time to sit down with us....
A: You're welcome..
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Glenn K! ( c 5 1 0 2 9 2 @ c c l a b s . m i s s o u r i . e d u )