- Berlin... the city with great history and special energy... What is the athmosphere of this city? Does it have an influence on your creativity? If it does, how? I live in berlin now for nearly 17 years . When i arrived it was a town of changes with lots of free spaces... It was possible to live of nothing.
I lived and worked on music without any finacial pressure, so of course it was a good place to try out things and to devellop them. Also the melting point of artists and alternative forms of living were impotant.
They still are, but now i´m more focused on my work and then Berlin stays a good place as a base, the rents are still quite low and you can find a calm second.
- Swod and Dictaphone... Hmm.. They have similar atmosphere... What differences can you name yourself?
The two bands have a different structure. Dictaphone is based on my recordings and roger döring joins in later and then we develop the tracks. Dictaphone develops its strength in communication while playing live.
Swod is mostly based on stephan wöhrmann piano and i react more on his work. With swod there is a lot of communication while producing the tracks.
- What forms the music of your projects? What is the soil on which the trees "Swod" and "Dictophone" grow?
I grew up in brussels which was a very interesting place to be in the 80ties.
there was a melting point of international artists and bands like tuxedomoon and minimal compact had and still have a big influence on my work .
- Does your music bring you the income or you have another job? Does it influence your creativity?
I ´m in the happy position that i can live of my work as a composer and musician. In the last 7 years i lived of a mixture of concerts, sales of the albums and theatre/film works. Finacial pressure has no influence on my creativity right now,but i´m quite aware that this situation can also change in the next years, so sleep is not always calm...
- Is there any musical instrument which you would like to play very much but which you have never played before?
I would like to play the trumpet... It´s rich and small, so easy to travel with... It would also train my lungs ,which are a weak point of my body. You see, i´m a very practically thinking man. :)
- Do you want to play a role in the theatre or movie?
We are just having a plan to cooperate with a movie, where we werethinking to have an acting role inside of it, let´s see...
- What can you say about the coming release of Sekunden? Many people are looking forward this event after Gehen release... What can your fans expect from your new work?
I think there will be no big surprise. Sekunden is the second album of Swod. That is quite obvious and we wanted it to be close to Gehen. The components stayed the same. I like to devellop floating, not abrubt. I think Sekunden is a bit more precise.
You will have to tell me...
- What do you think the future of music holders will be? CD and vinyl will go to the past and will exist only for music fans, or don't you think so? Now it is not a secret that WEB is full of mp3 files, including pirate files. What is your attitude to this situation?
The pirate files have advantages and disadvantages... Through the internet our music is known in parts of the world, where most of the people can´t afford the high prices of the cds... This leads often to concerts all over the world . On the other hand it´s quite obvious that an artist can´t live anymore of record sales, which forces him to have another income... For example music for tv advertissements... This is something i never wanted to do. So it´s a complicated situation with an open end.
- Do you often visit web-sites on music, specially on experimental music? What is your favorite one?
No, i have to admit, that i don´t visit a lot of websites... I don´t even listen very much to music, exept my own while producing it. Too much music confuses me, silence is that what i need...
- What is music for you?
Music helped me to find a place in this world.
- If you are given only a music book, a pen and a musical instrument it will be still interesting for you to create music? Or contemporary devices for musicians have become an inseparable part of your work?
Yes, definately it´s always interesting to create, even if the equipment would be limitated. The possibility to record on a computer is just a big help and gives you the possibility to be more independent. But i would work in the same direction with analogue devices, in fact i made studies as a sound engeneer in the end of 80’ties and at that time we still did analogue cut of tapes. So i know the world before it became digital.
- Do you feel like giving a perfomance in Russia? What should be done for it?
So far we haven’t played in russia. In the beginnings of the 90’ties i stayed one week in St.Petersburg to do the music for a installation.
At the moment we are in contact with a festival in moscow, who wants us to come in december. Let´s see...
Of course we would like to play in russia , we need a good piano... So if you have ideas, tell me.
- Do you often have interviews? Do you like answering the questions?
I don’t give masses of interviews, thank to the gods. I do it for new releases and sometimes i enjoy it and sometimes i don’t... It depends a bit on the situation and the person to talk to. But i also understand it as a part of my profession...
- Thank you for your answers. It was a great pleasure to cooperate with you.
Thank you... I enjoyed it, too now i will fly to a greec island.
- Swod
- Dictaphone
october '07