10/20/2008
Exclusive Interview With The Notwist
Last Tuesday, one of my favorite bands, Germany's The Notwist (officially pronounced "know-twist") performed an awesome set in support of their new album The Devil, You and Me at The First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia. For those of you who are not familiar with their music, it's a mix of glitchy electronics, looped melodies, guitar riffs and gentile vocals that come together to form a powerful and honest brand of post-everything pop.
After their set I had a chance to sit down and speak with lead singer and main songwriter Markus Acher and programmer Martin Gretschmann aka Console (who notably uses Wii sticks to control some of his electronics during live sets) about their music and other things...
Thanks for taking the time to talk to me guys! I'm curious, what are your thoughts on the city of Philadelphia?
Martin Gretschmann: (jokingly) Umm... we love cheesteaks?! No, I have been here twice and I really like the vibe. Overall, it has been a really positive experience coming here. When I looked at our tour dates for this tour, the first thing I did was search for Philadelphia because I wanted to meet the people from Monome. They are a two-person Philly company that make open-source controllers and interfaces by hand. There is a very big community that helps to write software for their devices. They do really great things and they are very nice people!
Markus Acher: When I come here I always go to Philadelphia Record Exchange and Repo Records and look for used records. I was a little disappointing this time...
Oh, sorry to hear that! I recommend that you check out AKA Music...the best record shop in town in my opinion...
Markus: Ah, you know there is always a limited amount time to explore, usually only an hour or so. Those were the two places I knew from our previous visit, but I will definitely head over there next time.
Yes, you definitely should. Onto the subject of the band the name has always struck me as strange and unique. Where did it come from?
Markus: Actually it came from nowhere! It's nonsense. When we first started, We we were messing around making German punk songs that were really stupid and there was a contest on a radio station where "underground" bands could submit demos. Listeners would then vote and a winner would be determined. All the stuff that was submitted was bad so we figured we would send in our bad songs too and give it a “hip” name. We agreed it had to have the word “the” in it in order to make it seem “underground." Then, we added the word “no,” to make it sound very post-punk and anti. We won the contest and the name stuck.
Haha, how scientific! In terms of your sound, you guys have created something rather distinct, yet very simple. Talk about how the band's recording process has changed over time.
Martin: Well, when I first joined the band around 1996, we recorded Shrink and it was a challenge to figure out how to integrate all of the electronics I was doing. We were recording on tape so it made the process technically difficult, but that also really helped us figure out the sound we wanted. With Neon Golden we went digital and it gave us more flexibility in terms of overall sound.
Did the creative process differ between Neon Golden and The Devil, You and Me?
Markus: Well, with Neon Golden we would pile on tracks in the studio and then erase some and fine-tune others. It was also very "cut-up" in terms of arrangements. For the new record, I was listening to a lot of old blues music, which effected my songwriting and composition. Things ended up becoming more riff-based with a lot of simple loops. It was less about individual sections and more about layers of sound continually being pulled off and put back on again.
Yea, I can definitely hear that. Speaking of the new record, were there any reoccurring lyrical themes that you tried to weave into the music?
Markus: One theme that always occurs is death. I mean its the same for everyone, the older we get, the more difficult and heavier the issue becomes. It’s hard to face it and it has been surrounding us as a band a lot lately. A few of our friends have gotten ill and have been in accidents. It's very strange. In general, I have found that death comes into your life like a ghost and everything can change from one moment to the next. Neon Golden was more about individual stories, whereas this record was about looking at life's problems from all different directions and discovering that sometimes the solutions are obvious, yet at other times they can only be realized after (potentially) endless decisions have been made.
Wow. Ok, I need to listen to the record again! On a lighter note, which artists are you guys into at the moment, music or otherwise and how does it effect what your work?
Markus: At the moment, I am into a lot of American bands like Vivian Girls and Grizzly Bear, who actually just made a remix for us that we are really happy with! I also really like Anticon and Mt. Eerie stuff. Like I mentioned before, I am really into The Blues. Mississippi Fred McDowell is a beautiful, gospel-esque singer who plays a great slide guitar and Blind Willie Johnson is another one of my favorite old Blues singers. Oh, I always go back to early Neil Young too. Have you ever heard Gillian Welch's “Orphan Girl”? That is one of the most beautiful songs that I know...
Martin: I really hate this question, because whenever I am asked it my brain instantly becomes empty. I guess I’d have to say Nico and her album Chelsea Girls, which I think is a really good. I wasn’t too familiar with her work before, aside from the Velvet Underground stuff, but I really like it. In regards to other artists, there is one filmmaker who still astonishes me, Hayao Miyazaki.
Markus: I like artists like Henry Darger and other “outsider artists.” Ones that have mental illnesses or some sort of psychosis, because their work is often very beautiful and can sometimes be very scary. I find that interesting. When it comes to writing though, I think its odd that I am German...
(jokingly) Wait! You guys are German?
Markus: Haha, yes! I just found this out today actually! Seriously though, I think it's strange that I write songs in English event though I am German. I do it because it’s the language of pop music, but its still abstract to me. So I sometimes like to play with words the way that the beatniks artists did. I sometimes try to express common feelings with atypical words.
Interesting. Since we are on the subject of art, do you guys think that the album as an art form is dead or dying? Could you see yourselves moving away from that format?
Martin: As a whole, I think we are really old-fashioned and that we still think in terms of the album as format, maybe Markus does more so than I do. Actually, it's funny that you asked this, because I was thinking about something the other day in relation to this idea. In this “iTunes age”, it would be funny to make one track that's 50 or so minutes long, so people would be forced to buy the whole album, yet still only be downloading one track.
Haha, that would have to be a 10 dollar track and I am sure people would just cut it up anyway! Speaking of new tracks, Markus, you have worked extensively with the like-minded and equally amazing band Lali Puna. We haven't heard from them in a bit. Anything happening?
Markus: Yea, we just started working again and we are doing a song for the new Morr Music compilation. Thomas (Thomas Morr is the owner of the Morr Music record label that has put out incredible tribute compilations in the past) is having bands cover old pop music from New Zealand, like The Bats and stuff on Flying Nun Records. So that should be good, Beyond that, we haven’t had much time to record yet because of all of the Notwist touring. Fortunately, Valerie, the lead singer of Lali Puna, has been composing new stuff and we should have something out by next year.
That sounds awesome! I will definitely keep an eye out. Ok, my final question is a bit silly, but I am curious...If the story of The Notwist was adapted into a feature film, who would you want to direct it and who would you want to star as your respective selves?
Martin: I would probably want the Coen Brothers to direct it...
Well...they do have experience creating characters that are German musicians...I mean have you seen The Big Lebowski? (both laugh)
Markus: Do you know this guy Svankmajer from Czechoslovakia?
Sure, Jan Svankmajer? He did all the weird stop-motion animation films that inspired Tool's videos. Love that stuff!
Markus: Yes! I think I’d like to have him direct it because it would be very weird. Maybe I could be played by a cucumber or something animated. It's funny, one time a guy in Italy said to me (in a deep, stern voice) "MARKUS. You know, you look like a thinner Michael Moore." Haha! So I guess if a really BAD director made a film about us he would cast Michael Moore as me.
Too funny! Well thanks for the interview guys and thanks for putting on such a great show! Much luck to you on the rest of the tour.
Markus: Thanks, this was fun.
Martin: Thanks again, nice meeting you.
The Notwist's excellent new album, The Devil, You and Me and their classic 2002 album Neon Golden album are both available now from Domino. Do yourself a favor and check them out live!
MP3
Download 'The Notwist - Good Lies (From The Devil, You and Me)'5:23 | 8.53MB
Posted by Michael on 10/20/2008 12:45 PM in Indie-Pop, Electronic, Post-Punk, Interview
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