| Ralf
Hütter - My name is Ralf Hütter. I play instruments
and compose for an electronic band from Düsseldorf in Germany called Kraftwerk. |
| SCR
- I think we have to talk in English today because I don’t speak any German
at all I’m afraid. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes… |
| SCR
- I saw your concert the other day and I am very impressed I must say. Especially
how you have the stage laid out with the computers all around the back.
Is all that equipment essential for the show or is some of it there just
to make the stage look pretty? |
| Ralf
Hütter - No, we use everything. We have no
time for decorations. And it is our Kling klang studio. So we bring (…)
For the last three years we have worked and made our Kling Klang studio
into modules and these modules they (…) we can transport them in cases (…)
in flight cases (...) and set them up on stage and so we actually play studio,
because we always say we don’t play music we play studio and in order to
do that we had to work on this end and so now when we travel we bring our
studio around with us. |
| SCR
- And that is why you get such a good sound on stage? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes it’s our living room. We call
it living room… (laughs) |
| SCR
- Right... well the atmosfere seemed very much like that with the curtain
and… |
| Ralf
Hütter - a technical living room… |
| SCR
- Yes, a high tech living room… By the way did you have speakers? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes! |
| SCR
- Behind the curtains? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, on the sides. We play PA. We
only play one system and we mix it ourself. We mix direct to the PA and
part of the PA is turned to us so we hear the same sound as the audience.
We don’t like to be manipulated by an engineer sitting fifty or hundred
meters away from us. We are very paranoid. |
| SCR
- I was reading an article some time ago in New Musical Express where you
were talking about manipulation. In Germany they have these computer sensors… |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes… |
| SCR
- ...what was it… |
| Ralf
Hütter - Bundes Kriminalamt in Viesbaden.
When ever you go in or out of Germany you present your passport and its
directly connected to Viesbaden, this establisher system of… 1984… Big Brother
is watching you… if you go in or out of Germany… and they can immediately
spot where ever (…) if something (…) |
| SCR
- If you have a record or (…) |
| Ralf
Hütter - Whatever it might be. And so in
Germany we are three years or four years ahead of 1984. |
| SCR
- So you’re in 1987… (laugh) |
| Ralf
Hütter - And this is I think one way of using
computers in a paranoid context. We try to work with computers in another
direction, an artistic creation or fantasy type of context. |
| SCR
- Is there a lot of cynicism in the words in the records… especially on
the latest? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Well… it is more realism I think.
Because that is actually what it is like in Germany now. It's a very strictly
organized society, and for us it's a realistic living situation which we
have to adjust to. Lots of people say its not like that – lets relax and
this and that. But we say it is like that. Lets not make it a taboo, let’s
bring it out and confront these people and army. We try to go beyond, and
work with computers in a social and comunicative or creative context. Rather
than using the computer as a universal machine it brings out when your program
onto the screen or onto the program what’s in your mind. And those people
who are using the computers in Germany in the state to control other people
or in banks it brings out what’s in their mind and that is about money and
control. And I think we have some other ideas in our minds. |
| SCR
- On stage you play a keyboard and Karl next to you is playing mainly base… |
| Ralf
Hütter - Keyboards... all kinds of… |
| SCR
- Is the instrument he plays a synthesizer? Quite a small one. Is it homemade? |
| Ralf
Hütter - The keyboard is homemade but it’s
attached to a standard synthesiser module. And he plays a lot of rhythmic
base type of things but also other octaves but mainly base type of… ehh…
things but also percussion. |
| SCR
- I just noticed it's a small keyboard and I thought it maybe was a monophonic. |
| Ralf
Hütter - No, its polyphonic. |
| SCR
- And then it’s Wolfgang next to him who plays mainly the percussion. And
then what does Florian do? Most of the time he doesn’t move. |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes he is programming lots of things
and also does play all the electronic sources and he is playing the singing
computer and he is doing what you call most of the sound effects .
We always record first in German like in films we make the original versions
and then we synchronize english vocals, french, some italian... |
| SCR
- Do you always do that? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes, some in french and then some
italian. And for the first time now we done Dentaku in japanese. |
| SCR
- Do you always release the albums in different languages in different countries? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Yes. |
| SCR
- So Dentaku isn’t the first you done? |
| Ralf
Hütter - No, we always translate from German. |
| SCR
- When you record how do you come up with the songs? |
| Ralf
Hütter - Oh they happened, they happened.
I always tend to think the best music we play – plays itself. We will do
very little (…) we just (…) it's more like automatic. And sometimes we do
things in another way because we have no strict principal or fixed five-year
plan of what we work. Sometimes we come to the studio, we don’t know what
we are doing. Somebody turning some knobs – oh that is interesting, and
then we follow that direction. On another day we might be working on something
very limited. We might be spending three days on just special drum sound
or percussion sound. On another day we might be doing video film or computer
graphics. On another day we walk in the streets and we go in to department
stores and we find store instruments and pocket calculators and we hear
them and don’t think of anything and we take them to the studio and we plug
in and the song happened very quickly. So it’s really (…) I think you have
to stay opened… I tend to think you should staying connected. |
| SCR
- And finally, is there anything you like to say to your fans in Japan? |
| Ralf
Hütter - This is our first trip to Japan,
everything is new and we will be back for certain! |
 |
| Transcribed
by Andreas Hagstrom - Sweden |
|
