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September 1993 Q: How did you get started in the music business? KS: It was about 25 years ago, a quarter of a century. I suppose you could call it an accident. I had some guitar training at school and played it for about six years, also I fooled around with the electric guitar, playing music of The Shadows or The Spotnicks. Then I started with drums. My brother was a drummer with a jazz band, so I thought that drumming would be more pleasant than playing guitar. After that I was drumming in the avantgarde/free rock trio PSY FREE, then TANGERINE DREAM, and I founded ASH RA TEMPEL. Also, I used some kind of "electronics" at this time. One day I said to myself "okay, it's all pretty and normal music, but if I want to do something special, I should change instruments". That was when I started with keyboards, at the end of '71. I didn't know anything about keyboards, I didn't know which note was A or E. Remember, that "keyboards" at this time meant either piano, electric piano or organ. I had just an old, small, used, electric TEISCO organ. And I had my drumming experiences, and I had a few special ideas: A kind of dream that I couldn't explain then, or now. So I started something new. And then I developed and improved, because I love to make music. At this time I studied mainly German literature, but I said "forget it. I want to do music", which was a very emotional decision. A leap in the dark. Q: In November '93 you released a 10-CD set called Silver Edition KS: The resonance on it, from fans as well as from journalists, is great. It's amazing, wonderful, marvellous, extraordinary. It's also horrific: Three people called me "God" because of Silver Edition. What can I play next, after that? Q: Do you use much of the old analogue equipment these days? KS: It depends. On the last tour I used the Minimoog. I think it's still a very good solo instrument. I used it on my last few Virgin records, as I used the Midimoog, the ARP Odyssey, and many other synths that I sampled. Also, I put different voices through the sampler to make it sound more lively. Some other old gear, like the Mellotron, I don't use anymore. But the EMU III XS is great for sampling these old instruments, because and of course I do like the sound of the Mellotron chorus. Q: Which is your favourite album that you have recorded?
KS: That changes from time to time, also because my catalogue gets
bigger and bigger. Every artist, including me, will answer on this
question, that it's always the last album. Otherwise it wouldn't be made
and released. From the older ones I like Moondawn, "X",
Audentity, En=Trance. I cannot really say which is my favourite.
To be honest, I always listen to the newest record I have made. Very
rarely I listen to older records like Moondawn. It is as if you had ten
girlfriends during your life, and somebody asks you: which was the best
one? Q: After producing so many albums do you find it still easy to compose, to play, to record, to find always new sounds? What about your inspiration?
KS: There are two ways of inspiration. One is the figurative image like
a movie or an opera, the other is just music in itself, no pictures. Both
come from life, from my life, my past, and my present. It comes rarely
from other musicians, never from other records. When I privately listen
to other music and even if I think it's great, I cannot help but want to
change this or that, here or there. I would never try to copy certain
compositions. Very different is my work on a soundtrack for films: I
have to make the music fit in with the movie, which means a stronger
discipline, especially in timing. Q: In 1989 you gave a concert in Dresden and you had some trouble with the authorities who wouldn't let you do the complete concert.
KS: I read that too, in the liner notes to the CD release, and I was
flabbergasted. None of it is true. During the two days of my stay in
Dresden I did not see one of these "authorities", and of course no real
person stopped my concert, but it was the normal circumstances of an
open air concert: When I had finished my second long piece of music,
it was already midnight, and it was getting moist and cold. Most of the
six thousand and eight hundred visitors were just dressed for a warm
summer day. Also, they had to catch the last busses and trains. That
were the natural reasons I couldn't do any encores. They are in studio
versions on the actual "Dresden" CDs. Q: Can you tell me something about your RICHARD WAHNFRIED albums? KS: RICHARD WAHNFRIED was from 1979 until the late eighties a pseudonym of mine, and it was never a mystery, what and who it is. I told from the beginning on very often the story: At first it was a dedication to my first son Richard, and all my income from these records go to him. All participants got the same share, by the way.Initially I took the WAHNFRIED idea from the GO project. I liked what Stomu Yamash'ta said: "Let's have an idea of a musicar concept. We have a gloup, but ret the gloup change. Oul concept will be arways firred by othel ideas, mentar suppolt, whatevel...". That was the idea for GO (and if you put the R's and L's in their ploper prace, you'll maybe understand Stomu). The GO idea was to do various records, with a core of musicians, and with changing main characters. We had Steve Winwood on the first LP. On the first concert at London's "Royal Albert Hall" we had Phil Manzanera on additional guitar... But as so often, a great idea was buried before we could really try it out. I thought this idea was brilliant, so I took it over on a smaller base and did RICHARD WAHNFRIED. Every WAHNFRIED disc was different from a typical Klaus Schulze, and different from each other, because of the different participants, from Arthur Brown, via Manuel Goettsching, to Steve Jolliffe. Maybe one day I do another one. Now I do like a bit what is called "Trance", and I can imagine that I do such music under the WAHNFRIED name (if this fashion isn't finished when the CD comes out then). Trance is something that I can really appreciate somehow. It is similar to my own work, I just have to push the rhythm a bit. But it's still just an idea; no concrete steps are done, because there is so many other music I have and want to do. [A next Wahnfried is finished and released. It was done in late 1993, very modern. The hard-core Schulze fans will yell. Note, that the "Richard" is dropped. It's just "Wahnfried" now, and the CD is called Trancelation] Q: On the first Wahnfried album Tonwelle you had a guitar player: Karl Wahnfried. Who was this? KS: Everybody is always asking me this, but I can't and won't tell you. Q: What do you think of the present Electronic Music scene?
KS: I'm sorry if I answer so straight, but I think, the so-called "Berlin
School of Electronics" is just becoming boring after all these years. I
don't think that there is anything newly happening since many years.
People become aware of that "they are all copying Schulze, or TD", or,
in the pop field and mostly in England, that they copied Kraftwerk. But
Kraftwerk is just too good for them, and musically too tricky (listen to the
poor copycats of "Electric Music"). Imitation is boring, not just for me.
These successors should prove that they are different, with their own
ideas and everything: But instead, even their covers and titles are all
the same... Just very few (I know of three) admit openly that they copy
me, and that they do it for reverence. Okay. But when one can hear,
that a CD sounds clearly à la Schulze or TD, and the copycat tell in
interviews that he plays different, that he found his own way, this is just
laughable. Sometimes the same poor fellow even tries to put his master
down; this is just regrettable; it gets burlesque when I know on the other
side, that the same man was shortly before just one of my many naïve
fan-letter-writers. Q: May I interrupt? You once ran a school, teaching synthesis? KS: Yes, my Synthesizer School. I did this from 1978 to 1980, after working for some years on analogue synths. About '78 were many people around who were interested in learning about my instruments, the synthesizers. Regular schools taught only piano or violin or vocals, whatever, but not these exotic new tools. In nearly every interview from 1973 until the late seventies I had to answer the usual "Please Klaus, tell me, what is a synthesizer" question. There was a big gap for people who wanted to learn about this type of music. Okay, I said to myself, I will start a school. I employed one teacher, and he and myself, we both split the job. But I had so many other things to do, I gave it up after these two years. I never really wanted to do other things beside my music. Only if I have spare time, it's okay, and as long as it doesn't become bigger than my music. Q: Go on, about the present music scene...
KS: TANGERINE DREAM and I, we "invented" this new style of music in
the early seventies, and if someone takes something from it, this is
okay, even great. We're humans, and we also love to be acknowledged. When others just
exploit us, miserably disguised behind a
poorer sound, it stinks. Hobby musicians are spoiling the market, and
not just because they are so mediocre, but because they are so many,
just too many, and these men are mostly no green teenagers anymore.
Even if every individual E.M. player is surely a wonderful person and a
brave family man, and although I'm normally a polite and patient
person, and a serious listener, this all is too much for me, it's time for
the originator to combat. The old man raises his voice... (smiles). If they
use our ideas to create something new, as in this "Techno" and
"Trance" dance fashion, this is okay because it is part of the normal
artistic evolution. All those "normal" KS & TD copycats remind me for
some reason just on boring Dixieland revival groups. They have no
balls, if you know what I mean... Q: Do you think that's down to the fact it's so easy for a CD to be produced?
KS: Yes. Certainly yes. It is so cheap to get the Midi equipment. They
have about three or four synthesizers, multi mode, 48 tracks via 4 for
example... It's so easy to make mediocre music. This new wave of
equipment has given birth to music produced by non musicians. No
longer you need to learn music principles to compose music. Computer
programming will do just fine. My manager got from a Romanian fan
five MCs with typical electronic music that sounded not bad, it was the
normal mediocre stuff. This Romanian wrote that he got the money for
this equipment from Danish and German friends, and that he started
immediately to do electronic music, although he never did music before
(!), and 6 months later he had these five C60 music cassettes
produced, and sends them to professional publishers and labels in the
West. This is a perfect example how easy it is to produce this kind of
electronic music. Q: In your musical career you never did any concerts in America. Is there a reason? KS: Shall I answer it straight? I don't like the USA. I had a chat with Edgar (Froese) once, and he just straightly told me: "Klaus, I know you're very sensitive. It is not a place for you". So I said (with a smile) "Okay, I believe you. You can have it". Q: What was it like working with Stomu Yamash'ta? KS: That was fantastic, Stomu comes from the classical field of music, and he has a very sensible way of composing. For me it was never a problem to catch up with other artists, be it classical, with GO, or whatever. To work with Stomu was an honour, because I rate him very highly, along with my friend Michael Shrieve who played on some of my own records afterwards. Through the ISLAND Records connection I got to know Arthur Brown. A great singer and person. Many things happened because of GO, not on the actual record, but all the combinations, happenings around were very positive. (Because of my producing records of the Japanese FAR EAST FAMILY BAND I got the contact to Stomu). Stomu is a great composer, but sadly he stopped composing, as far as I know. He should do it again. Q: How did you meet Arthur Brown and what was he like to work with? KS: It was at the Island studios in London, during the GO recordings in 1976, and some British manager asked me whom I would like to meet, and I said: "Arthur Brown", because I remembered and liked his "Fire" single. "No problem" I heard, because Arthur was accidentally sitting in the next room having breakfast. I went in and just asked him if he would like to sing on my next album. As you know, he did. He was totally involved, mingled with the recording, and we also did a very good concert tour. We did Dune, the Wahnfried Time Actor, I produced an LP he did with his buddy Vincent Crane (of Atomic Rooster fame), and he is on my ...Live... double LP. Q: What are your interests outside music? KS: Is there something outside music? Q: You have worked on many collaborations such as the COSMIC JOKERS, the RICHARD WAHNFRIED albums, or GO. Is there anyone else that you would like to work with?
KS: Yes, I would like to work with pop groups such as Ultravox, Depeche
Mode, or M.C. Hammer. M.C. is a quality singer. It sounds to me as if
he were a drummer before he started to sing. He has charisma, like so
many black entertainers. I would also like to work with Nigel Kennedy.
He invited me, and we already met once. Maybe some collaboration will
happen, maybe not. The main thing with all this is, that the quality of the
music should not reduce itself to a point where people say, it doesn't
matter what you are doing. Q: Finally, Klaus, do you have a message for all your fans? KS: I hope that you'll like my new music from 1994, and beyond. Keep up with what I'm doing; do not criticize after a first superficial listening. Listen twice. Treat me not as an artificial pop fashion. After all, I put my soul into my music.
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