| Rock&Folk
- Why was the release of “Computer World”
delayed for so long ? |
| Ralf
Hütter - It took a lot of work to make the
Kling Klang Studio transportable, to really stage it, to put it into situation.
All the parts are connected, it’s a new conception of Kraftwerk: before
it was studio plus live, now it’s live studio, we play the studio
on stage. We thought it could be done rather fast, but it became more and
more radical, we had to change everything, it took three years non-stop
to fine tune everything. We worked on musical compositions simultaneously,
because we do everything by ourselves. We are not musicians, we are rather
scientists. Kraftwerk is not chords and numbers, but rather a realistic
concept to transpose ideas to their maximum. Ideas came to us as we were
working. The identity of “Computer World”, the mechanic of instruments
and the psychological side of sound and music, are the two concepts that
lead to the fact that we don’t have Kraftwerk anymore, but Kraftwerk
and Kling Klang together. |
| Rock&Folk
- Apart from the four of you, what does Kling
Klang represents? |
| Ralf
Hütter - It represents also two engineers
who are always with us, a sound engineer and a video engineer, since we
also produce videos, plus the computer programs and the computer graphics.
So we are six, plus the crew for the sound system. In July/August we’ll
be touring in the States, and in September in Japan, Budapest, Warsaw, Prague
and in DDR in august too. A few years ago, we played in an italian TV program
which was broadcasted in intervision for the first time behind the Iron
Curtain. As a band from capitalist Germany, it was impossible to make contacts
in the East, that’s why this contact was established through Italy.
And since, we’ve got informations about our records being available
on the black market in Eastern Europe. Then we are quite more interested
to play over there than to play for the third time in Chicago. We are not
concerned with America. |
| Rock&Folk
- With this new album, you don’t really
bring any new esthetical concept like in the previous ones. The image of
showroom dummies is the same as on “The Man Machine”. |
| Ralf
Hütter - The computers are new, the computerized
side. |
| Rock&Folk
- What do you think of the english and french
bands who clearly got inspired by you? |
| Ralf
Hütter - In 1975, we were very lonely. Everyone
was in a californian trip: hippies, Eagles, etc... Kraftwerk has been attacked
many times, especially in England. They were against us because we represented
the end of this guitar music, we were a threat for their californian dream.
The new pretenders of industrial music cheered us up, for we were questioning
our own work sometimes. But the music is different, because we have a teutonic
rythmic, really germanic. |
| Rock&Folk
- Let’s talk about your interest for miniature
instruments and gadget music. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Our studio is very compact: it
fits into 10 cases only. We use only one truck, which is very little compared
to standard rock. We are attracted by small devices, small calculators.
It’s certainly the way to go. |
| Rock&Folk
- Do you feel that you belong to the world of
rock n’ roll? |
| Ralf
Hütter - No. Psychologically, we are outside
that trip. We’re more interested by the work side of it: change the
music, looking for the sound every day, and open the doors of the studio
to the people. It’s only a coincidence if we’re touring like
a rock band. As for the music, it’s rather electronic funk than rock’n’roll. |
| Rock&Folk
- Is there any communication problem between
what you are and the environment in which you’re evolving? Your
roadies, for instance, feature all the signs of their ethnic group: long
hair, Ted Nugent T-shirts, stomachs full of beer... |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, we are in the desert. Concrete,
metal, lights, it’s an exile, an exile-tour. But we’re used
to that as we live in Düsseldorf, on the Rhine river, a totally industrial
and bureaucratic place, administrations, glass, offices. We are used to
live in exile, with only a few friends around us. Friends and technicians. |
| Rock&Folk
- The fact that you go on a world tour, and therefore
to be in contact with people who think in a different way that yours, is
it a way to make Kraftwerk music less picky? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Actually we find some energy in
the environment of people who come to see us and who make us play in another
dimension and at a higher psychological level, because of a certain tension,
different from the studio, and in which we are interested. At the studio
there is no phone, we are locked. Here, it’s the travel side, the
open side, a rather anarchic situation. We are also going to play in South
of Asia to see what it brings to our music: we are open to any vibrations
that could change our music. |
| Rock&Folk
- Are you still adepts of the “cold aesthetics”
? The look you brought with “The Man Machine” has been adopted
by every modern young men: sharp look, interest in a scientific future,
etc... |
| Ralf
Hütter - We went very far in the cold metal,
it’s a reflex from our industrial life. The dummies are better than
us in making photo sessions without sweating under the spotlights, without
blinking, they are more patient. We went even further in the computer thing.
After the physical attitudes of The Man Machine, we are interested in the
psychological side. At a time we were very static, and for us it’s
important to go beyond that. But it’s not over yet, I couldn’t
tell where it’s going. The fact of playing in front of an audience
implies that our music is not a magnetic product anymore, it’s a situation
open to improvisation. And the sensibility of the devices we created leads
us to a new sensibility. |
| Rock&Folk
- You mentioned your interest for ethnic musics.
Are you playing the ethnic music of the Rühr? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Absolutely, that’s what we
are saying. It’s a reflex from our german life in the Rühr. And
I don’t think our music could be born elsewhere. It can’t be
done in München. We are genetically programmed for that social behaviour.
We work in a factory. What Kraftwerk represents is a sound factory that
manufactures sounds, and the way we define our existence is the life of
sound workers. We don’t need any training in another factory or another
production unit to assimilate all the essence of the Rühr. |
| Rock&Folk
- Do you work freely? |
| Ralf
Hütter - No. We have very strict daily schedules.
As soon as several people are involved, we need to be organized. It’s
also the follow-up of “robot” which means “worker”
in russian. Kraftwerk is not only the vision of an artist, an industrial
fantasy. For us, it’s a daily reality, a work for several years with
reproductive machines. |
| Rock&Folk
- Don’t you think you have lost the germanic
romantic side of pieces like “Autobahn” or “TEE”,
this huge breath from the nineteen century, which could be heard under the
synthetic rigour? |
| Ralf
Hütter - This album represents a very special
period of time for us, a programed era on which we keep working. We have
other parallel musical creations which are still in progress and will come
out of us later. But now we are in a “media” trip and we have
to do what is the most actual for us. What did interest us mostly was the
energic, rhythmic side. “The Man Machine” was very physical.
Now we’re trying to be more strict in the concept of programming.
It’s difficult for me to explain the differences between our albums.
When “The Man Machine” was released, I even didn’t know
what it was. We only had to do it. While working on this idea of a studio
to be more productive, in the same research of computerization, this new
album became obvious for us: that’s what we had to do. Perhaps can
we go even further with the next album. We were talking about the Talking
Heads who adapt a part of blackmusic because they certainly had the feeling
that the rock music that they represent is not enough for their dynamic.
As for Kraftwerk, the dynamic comes from the machines, we don’t have
any other source. If you live in America, there’s a melting pot of
cultures. In Paris too. In Düsseldorf, there’s nothing. No source
for us. Only concrete. |
| Rock&Folk
- But do you have a classical european culture
anyway? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, certainly, but for us the
“fathers” don’t exist. The revival culture has no interest
for us. We’ve been shaped by a certain germanism, specially musical,
but it represents a specific control to erase in order to escape. The only
source of exchanges we have is between the four of us, and with the engineers,
as we work with the machines. There’s no living german music. Even
classical music is a mechanic, a mechanical organism. For us, the essence
of this music is a magnetic tape played by people. In America however, there’s
a culture of living music. |
| Rock&Folk
- Muzak in western soundscape is also a form
of ethnic music. Would you like to compose music for lifts, restaurants
and supermarkets? |
| Ralf
Hütter - No. We rather listen to the lifts
themselves, and not to a philistine product which acts as valium, a drug
for the control of the system. What we are interested in, is the own sound
of a supermarket or a lift, sounds with their own nature. We are not concerned
with “music for airports”: people must open their ears and they
will find out. That’s what we did with “Autobahn”. It’s
more important to open up than to dominate. Music by itself is not interesting. |
| Rock&Folk
- But you hope, at least, that people listen
closely to your music? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, but we don’t have to
decide how to listen to our music. Not being dominated by music is also
one of our problems, because if we work in that field, music in the morning,
music in the afternoon, music in the evening... all the context gets lost.
After 10 hours in the studio, sensations become dull. That’s why being
all the time in the studio, or touring all the time don’t lead anywhere.
The session musicians are so pale! We do everything by ourselves, videos,
sleeves & graphics, it’s like a mosaic which leads to the productivity
of Kraftwerk, but it doesn’t represent one field only. In Germany,
it is called “Gesankt Kunstwerk”. That’s what Wagner was
doing in his time with theater and music, but that was a bit too much. |
| Rock&Folk
- In the logic of Computer World, don’t
you think you should “clone” the production: lots of records
quickly delivered? |
| Ralf
Hütter - It’s true that computer means
speed. And this album took three years to be completed. It’s because
it’s quite new for us. We had to learn the language of the computers.
The album, in fact, has been made very fast. We had to forget everything:
our way of playing, of thinking musically, and to learn new data. That’s
why it took so long. But once it works, everything goes very fast. |
| Rock&Folk
- This new way of working could allow the release
of several singles a year, for instance? |
| Ralf
Hütter - And even several singles a day!
But it’s been quite hard for us to reach that point. We had to adapt
our previous music to be able to play it live. We play all the songs since
“Autobahn”, it’s a kind of trip backwards in time. |
| Rock&Folk
- Are you planing to keep working alone, or do
you intend to share your work with other artists? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Maybe. Until now, we were busy
with the development of our instrument, and therefore it wasn’t possible.
The other factor is that everything we have is customized. We cannot bring
an english person into our system. It’s impossible. Some people asked
to be produced by us, but the Kling Klang Studio is really customized for
us, even on a physical level: we all have the same size of clothes, except
for Karl whose shoe size is 44! The whole system is really dedicated to
Kraftwerk: custom computer and the like. After the tour, we’ll see.
Until then, we were always in the same direction. This time, we tour around
the world, we’ll come back to Düsseldorf from the other side,
and we’ll see what kind of experiences we’ll bring back. |
| Rock&Folk
- But could you, in Japan for instance, accept
a musical collaboration with musicians from another universe ? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, we can do an album every afternoon:
the only thing to do is press a red button and it is recording! Technically,
everything is set up for productivity. That’s what we’re interested
in, to go further in productivity.That’s why we are interested in
automatisms: they make some automatic music, while we rather make a music
with a psychological sensibility. That’s what Kraftwerk is about,
I think. Otherwise, we could make shows with the four dummies and a tape
machine. We had been thinking of that kind of concept, some time ago: to
make concerts simultaneously in Paris, New York, Tokyo... But now, we are
interested in exchange. We’re taking an audio-visual postcard of Düsseldorf
throughout the world. We first have to use that postcard in order to go
further. I think that regular rock music is very pretentious: people say
“it’s a personnal vision of Bruce Springsteen” or anybody
else, when in fact they are only puppets, postcards. I think Kraftwerk represents
the realistic side of this postcard. |
| Rock&Folk
- During this tour, will you be on your own,
or are you going to open up to the people you’ll visit? |
| Ralf
Hütter - We always go out, we always go
to night clubs anywhere. We spend a lot of time on the streets. Kraftwerk
is concrete, and concrete is on the streets. We are not concerned with the
american dream: villas, swimming pools, drivers... We drive our car by ourselves.
We don’t need a picky crew around us. It is very childish to prove
than one can afford some materialistc things. It’s too American. |
 |
| Interview
to Jean-Eric Perrin - 1981 |
| Translation to english by JBV - France |
|
