| Folha
de São Paulo
- The Kraftwerk consider themselves more than a pop group? |
|
Ralf Hutter - Yes. We are musical workers.
We invent the week of 168 hours, there's not separation between work and
free time. There's so much things to do: music, program computers, images,
films, lyrics, words, speeches, interviews, travels, sports... |
|
Folha
- What more
interest you? |
|
Ralf Hutter - The quotidian life. |
|
Folha
- At Germany?
|
| Ralf
Hutter - Yes, we can only talk about our routine, prevailing
the german industrial context in Dusseldorf, Koln. But we are near by the
frontier too, pan-european area. |
|
Folha
- At this moment German are under political changes |
|
Ralf Hutter - Yes, but it is only administration.
I think it don't concerns to art, music or thought. Who cares about government?
I don't think politicians can influence culture. |
| Folha
- And who can? |
| Ralf
Hutter
- Well, the people who makes culture, the motion-picture directors,
the writers, the mathematicians, the scientists, the artists. These are
the interesting people, not the politicians. |
| Folha
- And what about quotidian? |
|
Ralf
Hutter - The inventions influences the quotidian life, like the
tape recorder, the digital camera, the synthesizer. About 100 years ago,
to create a great sound, you needed a hundred of people, so was necessary
a king or a rich industrial sponsor. Today, with a computer and sound speakers,
there is a new principle of independent creation, transforming the governments
and the bureaucracy in redundancy. And with Internet and others communication
channels, there is differents autonomies of thought. |
| Folha
- What do you think about the "do-it-yoursef" with computers
in music? And what about the result? |
| Ralf
Hutter - Is like we foresaw at 70's. We were the first generation
post-war in Germany, when not so the houses were bombed, but there was a
disorientation in german culture. But it was a great opportunity, because
we start from zero, there wasn't a constant tradition. We had this idea
to create the "Elektronikevolksmusik", like Volkswagen, something popular.
Now it is in everywhere. It happens. |
| Folha
- In 1977, you said "everybody look for the trance in your
life, and the machines create an absolutely perfect trance". Do you still
think like that? |
| Ralf
Hutter - Yes. We play the machines and sometimes they play us,
it's a dialogue. Kraftwerk is the man-machine. Sometimes people reach the
trance with physical exhaustion, consuming drugs or 20 cups of coffee. We
can do it through the music. |
| Folha
- Is there a hierarchy in electronic music? |
| Ralf
Hutter - No. Sometimes, in music, the human factor is superestimated.
And with Kraftwerk we take the mechanical factor to the same level, to equality.
If you treat your musical machines likewise your friends or yourself, you
will find a positive feedback. |
| Folha
- First it was the mechanical, the car, the train, after this,
the computer, now there is the Internet. Does the music foresees these stages
or reflects it? |
| Ralf
Hutter - Sometimes it is simultaneous, but music can be very
visionary. |
| Folha
- What is visionary today? |
| Ralf
Hutter - Our next record. |
|
|
|
Translation
to english by Marcelo Duarte - Brasil
|
|
