Notes from a Padded Cell 9.17.07: Interview with KMFDM's Sascha
Posted by Jesse Coy on 09.17.2007
Our music junkie has time out from the padded cell to get his weekly telephone call, which is from Sascha, of the seminal industrial rock band, KMFDM.
In this week's edition of the Padded Cell, I interview vocalist, bassist, and programmer Sasha, from the pioneering industrial rock band, KMFDM. Their newest release, Tohuvabohu, answers the age-old question… "what does KMFDM do for you?"
INTERVIEW- Sascha of KMFDM
Jesse- So I got a few questions I wanted to run by you, the first being, how do you pronounce the title of the new album, and what does it mean?
Sascha- It's Tohuvabohu. It's an Old Testament word that means wild and without form, and it's used to describe the state of the universe before God meddled with creation.
Jesse- What's the process for putting together a KMFDM album, and with this new album in particular, has it morphed in any way compared to how it's been done in the past?
Sascha- Yeah… it's different from album to album. It has to do with who's in the lineup, and what sort of timeframe we're looking at. This time it was particularly different in so far as there was never a full band in one room at any time. It was basically a collection of one-on-one kind of team efforts. In other words, each song was written by a team of two, or maximum of three people involved. It's a new approach. I wanted to get as much input from my band mates as possible, and I wanted to break up the old routine of being the song starter, and having everyone just plaster the tracks up with whatever their contributions are. I wanted it to come totally out of the woodwork this time around… to sort of build a surprise factor by doing it that way. So I encouraged everyone, including my drummer, who is very good at drumming and sleeping… to pick up some programming skills and to come up with some stuff.
Jesse- Is everyone in the band in close proximity? Are you all in the Seattle area?
Sascha- This is actually the first time in KMFDM when all the members of the band live within ten minutes of each other, so yes. And we have three studios, so like I said, we teamed up in small batches and started stuff. Everyone worked around their own schedule, and then dropped off their material to me, and everything kind of got put together in my room.
Jesse- What is the lineup on this release compared to some of the past few releases before this?
Sascha- We have a pretty stable lineup. No changes have occurred since 2003.
Jesse- And how many people are in the lineup, by the way?
Sascha- We're five. We have two guitarists, drums, a female and male vocalist, and keyboards as well.
Jesse- Is KMFDM planning any tour in support of the release?
Sascha- Good question. Basically, for the last five years, we have switched between being on the road and being in the studio, and this time it was kind of like, what are we doing when this album is done? Everybody assumed that we would go on the road, but once the question was posed, a lot of discussions were had, and arguments pro and con were exchanged, and it was decided that it really makes sense for us to take a break at this point with the routine. First of all, there's been a bit of over-saturation of KMFDM, especially in the North American market, because pretty much every year we've cranked out a tour and an album. And I don't want to dilute the brand of KMFDM, so that it's taken for granted that we'll be around again. It should be more of an event and well-deserved, rather than… "oh, here they come again."
Jesse- Then I guess I'm glad I did catch you guys once back in '95.
Sascha- Well, there's a couple of things that led to this decision to not tour this time. One of the most important, at least in my world, is that I've decided to permanently move from the United States and settle back in Europe. As you can imagine, that will take a bit of time, packing up all my belongings, putting them in a container and shipping them… well, through the Panama Canal, and across the Atlantic Ocean. So I figured it's now or never. If I don't do it now, I'll probably never do it. So that was a major point for me, and a second good point is that once I'm back in Europe, I can tie up things back there, and help KMFDM to expand and build its foothold in Europe. We toured there in '04 and ‘05, but it's definitely time to follow up there.
Jesse- How do you see this affecting future material by the band?
Sascha- Even though we live so close, there's a lot of uploading and downloading going on. We've got our little server for that purpose, so I don't have to leave the studio to get something to my guitarist, Jules, for example. I can say, "upload it and check it out," and a couple hours later, I get the guitar tracks back. It won't really change much in the way of our model of working. The only thing that will really change is that we won't be able to have a weekly night where we sit together and have a couple drinks and shoot the shit.
Jesse- I was just recently watching Beat By Beat, the DVD of a lot of the older KMFDM videos. Is that something you guys still do, as far as making videos goes?
Sascha- Not too long ago, we put out several DVD's with lots of live footage. There was one for the twentieth anniversary, the Sturm and Drang Tour one, and the WWIII Tour. So instead of producing individual music promos, which is a sort of costly and long-winded process, we make live footage of the band performing available to the people. There's not really a need to spend money and time on coming up with pretty inane stuff, because obviously KMFDM is not really an MTV type of band. YouTube will do for us.
Jesse- Now, have you guys been on the same label since reforming?
Sascha- Yeah. We were on Metropolis since '01, with one exception, which was a brief stint on Sanctuary, which I regret that we did. Sanctuary was probably the worst label I ever dealt with. It's pretty hard to top TVT, actually.
Jesse- That was the mother of Wax Trax, right, or…
Sascha- TVT actually took over Wax Trax. It was like a hostile takeover in 1993, I believe.
Jesse- So as far as relations with your current label, it's pretty good?
Sascha- Yeah, as good as can be. Metropolis is pretty much the last bastion of fairness and correctness and punctuality in this business as far as labels go.
Jesse- This has been a pretty big year for industrial releases, with you guys, Skinny Puppy, and Ministry all issuing new releases. What are your thoughts on the genre, and are you comfortable with the term "industrial"?
Sascha- Well, strictly and scientifically speaking, industrial is not the term that should be used for Skinny Puppy or Ministry or KMFDM. Industrial was a movement in the late 70's that was spawned by Throbbing Gristle, whose motto was "industrial music for industrial people." It was a very short-lived genre, and didn't spawn many more bands. There was SPK, and a few other lesser known projects. I'm comfortable with the term, though, because it's just sort of gotten that way. When we first came to the United States in 1989, and our style was called industrial, we thought, what a misconception this is. But it's become a common term in the language, so I wouldn't split hairs about it.
Jesse- Between Ministry and Skinny Puppy and you guys, there's definitely a world of difference. It just seems the easy handle…
Sascha- Sure. I mean, if it's called industrial rock, I'm a little more comfortable with that. But I won't split hairs.
Jesse- Is there anything else you want to get into regarding the new release?
Sascha- It's very kaleidoscopic. Each track is sort of a spotlight, a constellation of us, of members of the band working together. I think it's very informative in that way. To me, an album is sort of a snapshot of any band at any given time that the album is put together. And I see KMFDM as changing from year to year and from release to release.
Jesse- Do you have anything specific on the songs?
Sahsa- I can give you a little rundown on the tracks, sort of from my perspective.
Jesse- Sounds good.
Sascha- "Super Power" is the introduction track, and it's a nod to the past, in so far as self-glorification and name-checking, and as an added bonus this time, we installed a 1-800, Call-KMFDM type of line, and hundreds and hundreds of people called, leaving messages on the answering machine. The instruction on the answering machine was "please tell us what KMFDM does for you," that being a nod toward the older KMFDM song "Light," where the chorus goes, "what we do for you, so good for you." Anyhow, that was the sort of tongue-in-cheek, funky slap-bass opener with horn section. The second track, "Looking For Strange," is more like a classic KMFDM track, like a cold, techno, dance oriented track. The third one is the title track, "Tohuvabohu," which is… people call it a crossover of techno and dark wave. "I Am What I Am," people might say is the most radio friendly track, which was really not intended to be. Number five, "Saft Und Kraft," is sort of a German speed metal track. "Headcase" is female fronted, and basically the tracks alternate between being male and female fronted. Number seven is a cover version of "Los Ninos del Parque," which was quoted by many techno artists from Detroit as being a seminal track for them. "Not In My Name" is another classic sort of KMFDM track, as well as "Spit or Swallow." The tenth track, "Fait Accompli," kind of sticks out for me, because it sounds more like something from a film soundtrack rather than a KMFDM album. And "Bumaye" is the closing track, which I'd probably describe as very epic… rich and lush, taking you from the beginning to an unexpected end.
Jesse- Well, thank you very much for talking with me, and good luck with the move.
