Two weeks ago, I would have thought that the idea of me interviewing Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM would be a funny funny joke. Two weeks later, I have conducted the interview and here are the results.
KMFDM was the first non-mainstream band I ever heard, and as a result from the impression left on me from that first track (“Ultra” off of Nihil), I delved deeper into industrial music and assorted other avant-garde art forms, and it ultimately changed the course of my life (I know that sounds more profound than it is, but “I became a rivethead keyboard player” doesn’t sound cool). The latest album by the underground sensation has proven to be one of the best albums they have ever recorded. I was given the opportunity to interview Sascha K. a couple of weeks ago and finally did it on October 3, 2003. This is the first serious interview I have ever done, and since it was my luck for the first interview I have ever done to be with one of the figureheads of industrial culture, I was nervous as shit. Here is the interview. Some editing from the original interview has been made.
1) What would you say some of the best pieces of gear you have gotten since Attak would be?
I haven’t really gotten anything since attak other than a couple of plugins like compressor plugins and stuff like that. Both Attak and WWIII were recorded and mixed on Pro-Tools systems and I haven’t really bought anything, and if anything I used less gear in the making of WWIII than I did on Attak.
Attak had a lot of MIDI programming and all kinds of gear involved because it was an album that happened over the course of a year and a half or two years or so. It was something that was slowly coming together whereas this album was one mold like a hot piece of iron. We just recorded drums, bass, guitar and then cleaned, chopped, corrected, over-dubbed, edited, and brought the machiney bits in more and more. There was no MIDI programming on this record, I mean hardly at all. There was a little here and there. Most of the stuff was kind of played in and scooted into the right place.
2) The FutureRetro-777 seems to be pretty heavy on both Attak and WWIII, what attracted you to this synthesizer?
There’s no 777 on WWIII. The synth I most used on WWIII was the Nord Lead II because it was very intuitive and you just twiddle as you go. I’m not a big fan of MIDI programming and program changes and patches and stuff like that. It hinders the spontenaity and flow of the recording session.
3) This question has been on my mind since I heard the very drum n’ bassy “Superhero” off of Attak. Are you a fan of Squarepusher?
No. He’s sorta on my radar but I can ever recall ever deliberately listening to Squarepusher. I mean it is a sort of drum n’ bass influenced kinda track, but Squarepusher is more jazzy stuff isn’t it? Superhero was a little tune that we initally made for the Lucia album and when the Lucia album shaped up in a different way it fit better into Attak than Lucia’s album. The biggest diffence between Attak, which was KMFDM’s return to being KMFDM album, and WWIII, which was recorded right at the end of the Sturm und Drang tour, the main difference was that WWIII was one hot piece of iron that was forged one track after another, while Attak was recruited out of work that was done in the meantime. That’s the inherent difference.
4) What are you listening currently?
I’m listening to the Cramps, the Gum Club, Sisters of Mercy; I’m momentarily into a bit of a retro phase. What I listen to and what I do have never had any connection in any way.
5) In an interview you did about a year ago, you said that there wasn’t really much changing at all in pop music. Do you think that has changed any?
I haven’t heard anything innovate in a long time. I mean the pop world by definition is music that has already broken into the mainstream, it means it has been around forever and is worn out and rehashed.
WWIII was one hot piece of iron that was forged one track after another, while Attak was recruited out of work that was done in the meantime.
6) In another interview as MDFMK, you stated that you were against file-sharing. Do you still hold that opinion?
I’m not against file sharing. I am against the reckless pirating of copyrighted materials. That’s an area that affects me directly. The act of file sharing in and by itself is perfectly fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with people testing out music before they buy it and all that kind of stuff. However, if it entails reckless piracy I am against it.
7) On the tour for this album, will there be any surprises like the “additional member” on the MDFMK tour?
There will be a lot of surprises but no additional or mechanical members. I think who is going to be most surprised is us, probably, you know it’s always like unleashing this animal and you don’t really know how it’s going to react or what it’s gonna do.
8 ) What prompted you towards having fewer guests on the album? Before you had several guests per album, while on Attak and WWIII there are maybe a couple of guests and the Pig lineup?
Well, basically Jules and Andy turned into sort of fixed components of KMFDM, so the number of guests that may have been included in the beginning has whittled itself down to a mere few guests. There wasn’t really any need for outside input because we had it going pretty damn intensely and there was enough inspiration in the camp as it stood.
9) Would you say that all the prophetic stuff that has been occuring recently with your album titles is just luck or would you say you have some sort of insight into the ways of the world?
Well, the title for WWIII was coined and decided on in the last days of the last summers tour. so we had WWIII as a title as sort of the looming concept of this album well before anything Bush-wise happened. WWIII, from our point of view, not so much to do with Bush’s invasion of Iraq. WWIII is a thing that has been going on for a long time. In fact, I think it was ex-Tennent (not 100% sure) who referred to the Cold War as WWIII. Though that is not something I would necessarily underwrite, it even makes sense still if you label that as WWIII because we are children of the Cold War. Germany as a divided country. My youth was heavily marked by the Iron Curtain. Trips from my hometown, Hamburg, to Berlin would involve going through a Soviet sector and I could see mine fields, watch towers, barbed wire kind of stuff. WWIII in the terms of how we coined it is more like “There’s been a war going on for a long time that has gone un-noticed, especially by the American general public, a war that manifests itself in economic abuse, world globalization, and exploitation of masses worldwide for the benefit of the few very rich and wealthy powerful people.” WWIII isn’t necessarily a war that is only fought with grenades and guns and bombs and smart weaponry, but it’s also a war that’s fought on the back of the majority of people on this planet. Nobody ever addresses the war in Sudan, which has been going on for 30 years and has cost millions of lives. Nobody was really interested in the war in Yugoslavia, basically our good neighbors. Genocide was basically right in front of your doorstep and people wouldn’t say anything or do anything. That’s WWIII. It’s the war that’s been going on and hasn’t been named yet.
There’s been a war going on for a long time that has gone un-noticed, especially by the American general public, a war that manifests itself in economic abuse, world globalization, and exploitation of masses worldwide for the benefit of the few very rich and wealthy powerful people.
10) The WWIII artwork was possibly one of the most unsettling covers I have seen on an album. Were you aiming for something like that or was that Brute’s idea.
Brute has always been the one that visualizes the sort of inspiration and keywords we feed him. We didn’t say “Paint us a woman that holds a dead baby and some burning oil rigs in the background”. We just told him that the theme of the record was World War III, and to give us two works based on that theme, and that’s what he came up with. And of course when he delivered it, it was probably November or early December, the whole thing had sort of begun to focus on Iraq and an invasion was imminent, so the minute we got that and saw it for the first time we were like “Right on”. This is definately going to be harsh and this picture is harsh already. Fortunately (or unfortunately), it takes time to make a record. It takes awhile to finish up and takes awhile to get into production and turn it around. We delivered the album in early July and it’s coming out 3 months later. You never know what’s going to happen in that time. Things can totally change and any political concept can outdate and possibly moot itself and in this case, it didn’t.
Questions from other people.
11) Are you planning on touring Europe?
Yes, we will definitely to to Europe. The reason we signed with Sanctuary records was that we were looking for a label that has strong representation in both the U.S. and Europe because it’s very important for us to get our leg firmly back on the ground over there.
12) From all the candidates for the next president, who would you go for?
I don’t know. Nobody has really struck me as a real candidate so far. They are all mouthing off and blowing off a lot of money and steam and shit but we’ll see after the primaries who stays. The general (Wesley Clark) is a little suspect though he’s the most simpatico of all of them I think.
13) Anything else you would like to say before we wrap this up, politics or otherwise?
No, I think all our commentary is well expressed in WWIII. There’s not much to add, otherwise we would have added it on the record.
Well, there you have it. WWIII is on sale now.
Visit KMFDM’s website at www.kmfdm.net. Everything you could want to know about the new album and the upcoming tour is available there, with lots of other goodies.
Interview by;
Mister Bill
