| WSKU
- When you're performing, does the synthesizer become a natural extension
of yourself or do you react simultaneously with the instrument? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Well, the idea is really to be on the same level.
That's why we call ourselves "the man machine", which means the machines
are not subservient to us and we are not the sounds of the machine, but
it's some kind of equal relationship, or you might even say friendship between
man and machine, and not opposed. So really, we get some really sensitive
exchange with our musical machines. |
| WSKU
- That's a very interesting concept. Most performers like to say that they
have control over their instrument. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, we control the machines, and the machines
control us. It's really some exchange, like equal partners. And that's what
the word "man machine" stands for. |
| WSKU
- During the release of "Autobahn" you toured the States. And since then
you've had two very well received records in the States. And "The Man Machine"
is showing a lot of promise as well. Is another US tour in the works? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, we are, in fact. At the moment we are working
back here in Düsseldorf on our studio, and recording and working, and
it's very possible that we do another European tour in late summer or autumn.
And at that time we are hoping that we can come over back to the United
States and play more concerts there, because now we have, since 1975, it's
three years, but we have, I think, made some very important developments
for us, where we have created some new kind of performance style. Where
in the past, new ballet companies in Germany, they have been doing something
with our music and this inspired us not to just dance or move your body
to existing music, but we have now composed some kind of electronic body
music, because electronic music, basically like Tangerine Dream, has been
mainly connected with brain music, where you sit back in your armchair and
put on headphones, and fly off into space, some kind of cosmical consciousness
type of music. Where we were always interested with Kraftwerk in including
society and really environmental music, earth music, city music, and now
we have done something which we call electronic body music, where we can,
we have invented some influence, where you can stimulate electronic sounds
with the movements of your body, by moving up your arms and legs, and your
whole body. We stimulate some electronic sounds, and when we will do performance
we have some special kind of electronic ballet, which we are doing ourselves,
where we create music through dancing. |
| WSKU
- Yeah, I read something about that, a long time ago. It's like a costume,
right? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yeah. |
| WSKU
- It's wired up and as your body moves, it produces different sounds. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yeah. |
| WSKU
- Did you design that device yourself? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yeah, we have been doing something with light
beams, it operates with light beams, and by moving, we used this for the
first time when we made a European concert tour three years ago, but it
was only the first model we designed, so now we have something more developed
and we will be doing this in our concerts. And we can also play, because
we're using some of our music, we have invented some automatic music machines,
and they can play the organized part of the music, so we don't have to concentrate
on hitting the same notes in every town we play. Like most of the groups
when they play, they have to concentrate if they get the songs right, etc...
We have some machines that can do that type of work, and we can fully concentrate
on spontaneous things, and we do a lot of improvising. Like when we play,
and also the time factor, the concerts sometimes, they are very much longer
or shorter, depending on really the vibration where we actually perform. |
| WSKU
- Along those lines, do your records reflect Kraftwerk accurately, or is
there more to your sound that's reserved for just concerts? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, I think the records are, to us, like film.
We call our music acoustical films, and actually when we perform in concert
there's the volume factor and also the reverb and the echo of the hall where
we play, because the volume of the music really is only to be there when
we perform live, and the presence of people in the room changes the music. |
| WSKU
- How much artistic control do you have over your recorded material? |
| Ralf
Hütter - We have always been producing our own records,
writing our own compositions, and also the words. We have established since
1970 our studio. First we started out with some old cassette recorders and
some old speaker cabinets and from there over the years, we have been building
from there. We call our studio also some kind of electronic garden, where
we have some kind of biological biofeedback with the machines. And through
the time they have been growing and getting more and more complex and been
growing different stages, and we have since we started out, have complete
control over all our material. In Germany we have our own record label,
Kling Klang Records, and this is very important politically, we are completely
anarchic and have total control over what we do. But we started out very
basic. And I think it's just, if you don't let yourself be confused over
the mechanisms of today's society, then you can have some really very creative
aspects to your life, and this was really what we set out to do, to live
out our fantasies, at least try, and get those things communicated with
other people. |
| WSKU
- So you definitely approach your music with an artistic, rather than a
commercial standpoint. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, it's really more the communicated aspect
that we are interested in and the realization of ideas, and I think when
you try and work with those things, then you really get response from other
people. |
| WSKU
- What kind of exposure are you getting in Europe through broadcasts or
concerts? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Well, Europe is a different media system than
in America. We don't have commercial radio in Germany. It is state radio
in Germany, and the programs here, they cover all aspects. It's not like
in America where one station might play a special type of music. But here,
they have children's hour in the early afternoon, sports in the late afternoon,
news programs, regional programs, information spoken programs, drama, and
music mainly comes later in the evening and also electronic music. When
we were very young here in Cologne, near Düsseldorf, was the first
electronic music studio in the world, at the West German radio, Westdeutsche
Rundfunk, and they were always doing midnight shows. So really in Europe,
or especially Germany, music comes mainly late at night. Maybe this factor
has made Kraftwerk music also some kind of late night music, night music.
|
| WSKU
- That's very similar to what we're doing here, because this is a public
radio station, very similar to yours, I guess, or to Germany's radio, and
we have a varied format, and late at night, that's where we get into the
electronic music as well. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Very good. |
| WSKU
- There's a very strong audience out here for it. Well, Ralf, that's about
all the questions I really have. If there's anything you'd like to add,
boy, just go right ahead. You're a very interesting person to talk to. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Well I think for me, it's very hard to think of
something because when you live with all those things on a daily basis,
it kind of gets very normal and you forget to keep any kind of distance. |
| WSKU
- Well all this experimentation you've been doing with biofeedback and all
that, and light beams, I guess all kinds of experimentation going on where
you are. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yeah, we always try out, in fact, new things and
sometimes, really, the machines, they surprise us with really the sounds.
We expect the sounds to be a certain way, and then when we make those experiments
or something, then they turn out different, and it's always the question
for us to open up our own ears and be open to those new sounds and really
listen to the machines sometimes and get inspired from inside. |
| WSKU
- Okay Ralf, well thank you so much for calling us all the way from Germany.
What city are you in? |
| Ralf
Hütter - I'm in Dusseldorf, in Germany, on the Rhine. |
| WSKU
- Okay, well, that's really great. This has got to be the longest interview
we've ever done here, and long distance as well. Thank you so much for calling
us this morning. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, thank you for talking to you and say hello
and "auf wieder sehen" to all your people in Ohio. |
| WSKU
- Auf wieder sehen Ralf. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Auf wieder sehen. |
 |
| Transcription
by MJ Klein - Chicago - USA - www.metrofiction.com
/ blog.metrolingua.com |
|
