home > music >

INTERVIEW WITH BLIXA BARGELD OF EINSTURZENDE NEUBAUTEN

7 September 1997

This interview was conducted by Gary Parsons of Sleeping Pictures for his now defunct Quiette magazine, and is reproduced here with his kind permission.

Einsturzende Neubauten were formed in Berlin in 1980. They soon started making a name for themselves at concerts full of flying metal and fire that burnt the audience. These three manned concerts of metal machines and mayhem were bought together on the release of "Kollaps"in 1981 (although some singles and tracks on samplers pre date this album). After this period they became a five piece and slowly began changing their sound though always keeping the use of metal. In 1985 their superb album "Halber Mensch" also had a 50 minute film made around it. Also by this time Blixa had become a full time member of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds. After 1993's album "Tabula Rasa" and the tour that followed Bassist Marc Chung decided to quit the band. During the making of their latest album F M Einheit also quit the band and live keyboard player (and former Bad Seed) Rowland Wolf dies in a car accident. Now reduced to a three-piece again Neubauten have undertaken a massive tour of Europe, their first in four years, there has also been a remix of their latest album Ende Neu. The date is the 7th of September and Neubauten are going to play their first gig in London for four years. As I push my way through streets packed with people still mourning Diana from the day before I feel excited. It's not just being able to see the band perform live again after all this time. It's not even because the sun is shinning in miserable London. It's because I'm about to meet Blixa Bargeld singer/ guitarist/ actor in a cafe in Soho. Blixa is wearing his usual broad brimmed hat and dressed in black as we sit drinking white wine and discussing a career of seventeen years.

Is "Ende Neu" a new beginning for Neubauten?

Well, quite obviously some of the members that I've played with left after a period of about fourteen years playing together. So once we started again it's an again start.

When you originally started, it was just the two of you?

Yeah originally I started with four, then it was two, then it was three, then it was two again, then it was five. It was allot of changes in the first couple of years, but then it was quite constant for along time. Just the roles within the band changed, like our engineer became our guitar player and traalala. But basically the group of people that I've been on tour with or worked in the studio with were constantly the same for along time. So it was a drastic change suddenly having people leave and to over think the whole idea and find a new way to continue. But I think that was very necessary for us, it was very necessary to actually do something. I would not call that a new beginning, a new beginning is an automatic term. But it is going back to fundamentals really.

Since "Richterscala" your sound has changed quite a lot. Was this a conscious decision or did it evolve naturally?

It just happened naturally. I don't think we ever made any decisions about what we would like to sound like. That would have been contradictory to the idea of the band in general. I think so far I have to except to say that it happened naturally but of cause there is a whole process of making music is a constant row of making decisions. But I don't think these decisions were sound decisions, these decisions were...I always wanted to find myself in a situation where I can make an experience for myself that is of any value to me. And that becomes an artistic decision, so I don't necessarily want to repeat myself with something that I've done already. Because it does not hold much experience for me any more. Of cause it would have been fine after "Kollaps" to do another record like that and another record like that and another record like that, and you end up to be Ministry. But it does not hold any personal experience for you, if nothing is happening, with you there's nothing new, there's not even a challenge in it. It's all done and your just thrown back to yourself and you end up in a constant and very fast process of stagnation. Your just gonna go faster and faster but you have basically stagnated, and I guess that's how allot of the artistical decisions were made. We'd say "oh wow lets do something with a string quartet, we haven't done that yet". But this is a simple example of just wanting to do something that holds any kind of an experience for you. I think that's more reliable to make an artistic decision like that than to actually sit and create something or to continue what you've done already and repeat it again.

Last year you were going to do a performance for the I. C. A. 's Artaud week…

I didn't because I was sick. I would have liked to do that but I was getting very sick and then I could not come.

Has Artuad influenced any of Neubauten's performances in any way?

I think it would be in general wrong to draw a direct line from what somebody has written to a performance of a band working in popular music. I would meet a band and they'd tell me that their performance has allot to do with Fleuabaers writing's I would say arseholes. Full stop. What somebody has written, that does not necessarily need to be somebody who has written anything, but whatever was there existing before, probably has an influence on your life and probably has an influence much more in your head. And even in that indirectly it has that influence in your head, and due to that probably has an influence in making decisions. And as art is about making decisions it has an indirect influence on what you probably do. But it would be absolutely impossible for me to find out how much a sentence that Antonin Artaud has written in 1946 had an influence on how I play a particular song on stage. I think everything else would be a lie, it would certainly be a lie. If I want to write any music for Antonin Artaud it would have allot to do with Antonin Artaud. But I have not done that.

You have written a book called "Stimme Frisst Feuer". Are there any plans to have this translated into any other languages?

I have done another book which is bilingual all the way through. Which is English and German all the way through. This new one is ninety percent of all things I've written for Einsturzende Neubauten being bilingual, being translated having comments having footnotes it's a very nice book. It's only sold on the stall. (The book called "Headcleaner" is only available at the concerts or via mail order at ~ Style Order Service Gmbh, Ausschlager weg 88, 20537 Hamburg, Germany. Priced DM 29. 90 it has 172 pages. )

On "Tabula Rasa" you wrote lyrics in different languages. Why did you decide to do this?

Well that came out of when we started working, not particularly on this record, but in this period of time we had a commission working for a Canadian dance theatre and they were from Montreal so their speaking was already English and French . And we wrote music and songs for them which were not meant to be in German or were meant to be in either French or in English. So I wrote them in these languages and because they did not specify what language they wanted I threw in a bit of Latin just for the sake of it.

Do you find it difficult to write a lyric in either French or English?

No because I don't speak French. All it takes is getting somebody who you can trust to write in a language that you don't know. So you say "how do you do..." and you can work it out. But you just need somebody who you can trust. But I wrote it in French yes. With the help of somebody who can speak French. I wrote the Japanese thing myself. And I wrote the Latin things myself too. But then I had to ring up a professor of an old phrenology to ask if I could actually say that in Latin or not. And the Latin I used is what we would refer to as being Macaronic. You know Macaronies that is what they called in Medieval times cheap Latin. people who tried to look like they are very well educated would talk in Latin, but the Latin is Macaronie. So the Latin I write is Macaronie.

How did you get on with writing Japanese?

I learnt Japanese for a while.

It seems like a difficult language?

No the language is not difficult, the writing is difficult. The language is not difficult it has only three tenses, past, present and future. Only a normal active and a normal passive. Only two genders male and female, it's not difficult at all. And there is nothing in the tongue that twists your tongue which is difficult to pronounce. So I would not consider Japanese to be a difficult language at all. Because it's not in the Germanian it hasn't got anything to do with what you remember. I can make up English quite well even if I don't know particulars I can make it up of several other languages or Italian or something, because it's just one mash basically. Where as Japanese has not got anything to do with it.

English is a bastardised language anyway.

Every language alive is a bastardised language. Every language alive is a bastardise. That is the nature of language. Language means you are bastardised (laughs).

You have worked with film maker Peter Semple on a couple of films. Are there any plans to work with him again?

I would not consider him a film maker. He is a good photographer. Not as a photographer in film, but that he makes very good photo's. And he makes very strange films.

I've seen "Dandy" and I thought it was really good.

Did you really like it?

No. I've hardly ever met anyone who liked it. He has a real talent in actually showing this film. Because he travels with his films in a car and shows them everywhere. And I just get postcards from all around the world saying, "I showed Dandy, there were fifty people there, all the audience really loved it. " It will become a worthwhile document in a couple of years I guess, it's worth seeing it. The other film has Nick Cave doing the bungee jump. I've been in all his films since "Dandy", and I think it's Jonnas Maeckus in the dessert, the old Flukus artist and film maker. And he use's this film of Makeus in the dessert but one of the highlights of this film is Nick Cave doing that bungee jump. It's good. He's only done one bungee jump in his life.

Did he like it?

Yeah he liked it. He thought it was an enormous rush.

Will the soundtrack to the stage play "Anddi" ever be released?

There is not much more to it than the ones that we have released. It was not a musical it was a theatre play. We played I think five songs in the theatre play. And all these songs are released now.

Also "Thirsty Animal" has never been re-released at all?

No. But I have re-released two very, very old recordings for this tour, and they are very limited edition of 500 copies to be sold with the merchandise. they are 1981 and 1982 recordings. (These are called "Stahldubversions 81~82" and are released on two separate CD's and last about 35 min each. One live one studio and were only available at the concerts.)

From the picture of the band at the foot of a telescope to the lyrics in seems astronomy is a big influence in some way. Is this true?

I was the youngest member of the astronomical society in west Berlin, when I was about ten. From age ten to age fourteen I was a member of the observatory in Berlin, who specialise in watching the sun. And I always had an interest in that and allot of my metaphorical or use of metaphors comes from that. From basically a background in natural sciences I would say. That was my interest. It's like every boy of my age by the time they landed on the moon...I did not want to be an astronaut but I had a huge interest in it. It goes on, it forms a whole field of my metaphors comes from that. Because I always thought that natural sciences is trying to explain everything. And every time you explain something it always opens up fifty other doors of unexplained things. And my interest kind of shifted in to what the language of natural sciences is, because that has more to do with philosophy. that is what I like about this kind of language, it's a language that seems to explain everything but ends up forming exquisite poetical riddles.

Some people have written that Neubauten are musical alchemists and there are allot of references to Prometeus and fire?

That's another field yeah. It's another field of metaphors I like to use. But fire and Alchemy? that's not so far away from what I said before. But I did not want to over do that. I noticed that once we had finished "Drawings of Patient O. T" that I had done the whole record using that imagery and I was very careful after that not to repeat and repeat that over again. So the field of images changed. Because it was for some time very difficult.

Because you used to use fire alot on stage.

Yeah I know...I read a review for "Tabula Rasa" in an English music magazine that talked about the dentist drills and the pain etc. And I sincerely thought it is impossible that that person has actually heard the record. It must have just been somebody who thought "Ah well another Neubauten record it must be like this". It could not have been somebody who had actually heard the record.

Do you still not rehearse before concerts?

No we rehearse alot. We have two new members so we can't rely on the chemistry that was built up over a very long period. Well over a period of one and a half decades playing with the same people. So we had to rehearse to find a new sembiotic basis of how to play together.

Your current tour lasts another month or so. What plans are there for Neubauten after this?

I don't know. Just gonna make another record like bands do.

Have you considered doing another solo album?

I've never done a solo album. . . oh I've released soundtracks that I did yeah I would not consider that a solo album. I've done about three more soundtracks. When I've got enough I'm going to release commissioned music two with more soundtracks on it . There is a track on the album called "Was Ist Ist" is this a form of dada political song? You speak German?

Not very well...

I can tell you've learnt it for a while . Originally I wanted to write a whole album that is uplifting and positive in the best sense I can think of it. Like a record that you want to hear if you need to. And I guess "Was Ist Ist" was getting as close to it as I could get. Some other things might get close to that to on that record, but that was my first attempt at it. The problem is that you can't find any language that would do that and stand the course of time. So I had to find a language that is perforated and leaves a space at the places that would be eaten up by time. That's why it maybe comes across DaDaesque but it is actually perforated.

Why did you re record "Sehnsucht" for "Halber Mensch"?

Well we recorded it for the first album, then we played it live a very, very long time and due to the fact that we played it live for along time it changed very drastically. So we decided to release it again in the way that it is done now.

It was just you at a piano at one time.

The original was me on the piano. Which is actually in another Peter Semple movie too. Then it had changed so much by playing it so often that we decided to do that again. Do you know what the word means?

Not at all?

It means addicted to desire. It's one of these words that...I mean Kindergarten is common to everyone but...It's one of these words like heimart or there's this strange German word orgermudlichkide do you know this?

No, what's that?

It's very hard to translate. You would translate it into English something like being comfortable, or cosy. But the root of the word is germude which is sense. Sense in the meaning of senses or sensuality, so really it is a state of being where you are in balance with your senses. Which is absolutely untranslatable. So Sehnsuct is Sehn and that's longing and sucht is addiction. So it's a bizarre word.

You now seem to be writing more love songs.

On the last record "Tabula Rasa" was for me about love. It was not just about love, it was about the greatness of women as an idea in the world. As simple, stupid an overgrown as that. I thought it was meant to be my downfall and prayer for woman.

After seventeen years, does it feel like the whole idea of album/tour is a bit tiring?

It's four years since I done a last tour, it does not feel like I'm repeating myself very much because it's four years ago since I played the last tour. In this business that comes close to just starting again because your already forgotten. The strange thing is we've just become more and more legendary. We could tour as the Legendary Einsturzende Neubauten if we want to. It would be wow the real thing, see the original, you've seen Nine Inch Nails you've seen Ministry, and you've seen Marilyn Manson and now you can see the original or whatever. I'm just joking I don't think this.

Well all these bands quote you as being an influence.

Of course. You scratch a bit on the surface and you think you can call yourself an influence. I don't know.

HOME | ART | BOOKS | FILMS | MUSIC | MUSIC 2 | PERSONAE | LOCALITY | MISCELLANY | LINKS
editorial | about | contact

© FluxEuropa.com