Apoptygma Berzerk - Oz meets Mastermind Stephan Groth
t was loud, very loud, the beer was warm, fortunately the air was not so stuffy. I think the great “Gods of Blitz” just wanted to show on the main stage near the audimax their potential. The sound inside the audimax was probably better then outside in front of the stage where it was a real Klangmatsche. But that was definitely not the case during the wonderfulnice Apoptygma Berzerk concert.The responsible sound chiefs took a very long time on stange, soundcheck, screwing a bit here, turning another thing there. So after two hours delay the show started. It’s hell from the first tact. Very difficult to take some good pictures standing in the screaming crowd. The mindblowing climax, when really everybody was singing along, was “Shiii Shiihii Shine on”. That was realy cool.
A few hours ago, just during the loud show of “Gods of Blitz”, I met
Stephan Groth, the mastermind of the Apops, inside the
audimax, and I had the chance to suffer him a
little bit with my m-audio and
a few boring questions.
So read and
listen:
hich mistake would you not like to do a second time?hich one should I pick? You live and you learn all the time. When you learn from doing mistakes then you are smart. Maybe it’s good that I have done mistakes because I’ve learned from them and I have become the person that I am. That’s what mistakes are there for. But, I actually don’t think I regret anything.
ou reinvent yourself nearly with each record. What’s your secret?think you have two kinds of bands. You have bands who are doing one thing - like ACDC, Rolling Stones, Ramones - and if there is a new album I want it to sound like that. I don’t want it to be different. I don’t want an electronic album from ACDC. So that’s one kind of bands who should just do what they are doing and continue that.Then you have the other kind of bands which are always progressing. That’s what the Beatles told us, always a new style, a new haircut. Today you have bands like Metallica who sound like a new band on every album and Depeche Mode, of course, who is always coming out with new stuff. We belong to that category.
It’s my job to do new things and it’s my job to be exciting. Even though a lot of people don’t like that. They want me to be an ACDC. That is not my job. There are many band in the electronic genre who are just doing the same all the time. That’s cool, but not for me. I think we need both kinds of bands. You see my picture there? It’s my job to do new things even when it’s political incorrect to do it and when it’s very dary. It costs a lot to do it. Just do something totally different. Producing the last album I wondered what am I going to do am I gonna make it a Welcome to earth part three or am I gonna do something that is exciting. And that was a very hard decision to make. I was thinking about loosing all my fans and everything is going down the drain. But look what happened. We are now three times as big as we used to be. That’s great.
o you have aimes for the next years?e are already working on a new album. I’m writing the songs, stylewise I’m not sure yet what it’s going to be. It’s going to be more dirty and less polished. I think the last album “You and me against the world” is going to go into the Apop history as the most polished and nice one. I think we want to go one step back, rougher, a little bit more primitve, dirtier and straight into your face. “You and me against the world” is nice and sweet and we have to remove some of that. I’m very happy with the album but the next step will be to go one step back.
Next Album: rougher, dirtier more primitive
k, it’s Footbal WM, so are you a soccer fan?
y granddad was in the danish national-team. My uncle was also in the national-team in Denmark and he also played as a professional for Aberdeen in Scottland. So I grew up with football around me all the time. And I played football myself also. I used to love it very much, but the more I got into music the less time I had for sports. So now I play FIFA on the Video-Console. And that is the closest to soccer I get. But it’s a great sport.
o you have time to read books?es, I’m reading as much as possible. It’s again about time.
hat was the last book you read?t was C.S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters”. Old book from around the second world war. I’m also very interested in the jewish and arabian conflict in Israel. I’m reading a lot of books regarding that …
hat do you think about the radical moslems?ou should always - no matter what - respect other people’s belief. I’m from Norway and so many friends of mine are from the black metal scene ??? and I respect them and they have always respected me. We have exactly the opposite way of thinking but we can still be friends. And that’s what we also have to do with the moslems. We have to respect their religion. Respect is the key. I’m very sure that the next world war is coming soon and it’s going to be a religion war. It’s going to be the western world against the islam. I’m very sure, I can’t see why that should not happen. I’m not a pessimist. But unfortunately it’s in their religion that they are supposed to conquer the world. Of course, you have good kinds of moslems and bad kinds. Like many humans, too. A hugh difference though is that - if you compare it to christianity: it’s not said in the bible that you should go out and conquer the world, it’s said that you should got out and win souls - and it’s not said, if they don’t believe go and kill them. I think that’s what the coran says, even if a lot of people say that it does not.
athy’s song is very different from the other songs. It’s like a Spiritual-Dance-Track. What did you inspire to write this one? was very much involved into the dance-music for many years. On the last album (Yamatw) I decided that I did not want to make a dancefloor album. On B-sides and all the singles we have dance remixes. But I wanted the album (YAMATW) to be more like a traditional pop album. On Kathy’s song there are so many remixes.
his Track have some Biblesque SynthVoice-Samples like “God create Man, Man create Machine, Machine create Music” … Are you religious?eah, I’m a very strong believer that there is a god who created us and who is in charge of this planet. There are also some books I have read lately, about evolution and darwinism and how ridiculous all these theories are. I’m a very strong believer in that is more here then we can see.
s there any church involved in your belief?‘m very involved but I don’t go to church.
our actual Track “Love to blame” is a song about couples who have problems with each other …t’s a love song. Definetly. It’s a very personal song. You know when your are in love you do crazy stuff and I think everybody can relate to having realtionship problems. That’s everywhere. But the lyrics are also quite abstract in a way. You have to figure out for yourself: what does it mean for me? What do I want it to mean?
o you have a personal experience that inspired you to write this song? How did you get the idea for it?ost of the lyrics that I make are usually based on something personal. Something that has happened, something that I have been a part of something that I just want to say. When you are being creative and when you are writing music it’s often a good therapy. Music is therapy for me in a way. There are many lyrics that I wrote - sometimes I don’t even understand it myself. It just sounds right and there is something about it. Then maybe two or three years later then I discover ‘Ok , this is why I did this, because I was going through this and this’. And therefore I wanted to say those words. And then I understand it’s a piece of me being put in the music. And that is what art is about. It’s like Picasso in front of his paintings, it won’t be fun if he going to explain everything - I like it when the stuff is a bit abstract. It makes the people think a little bit and it makes them feel. And even if people feel and translate it wrong - that is cool. Because then it means something for them. Then it serves the purpose. That’s what very important to me. I want my music to be important for other persons. I want people to have a connection to it. Even if I’m not included.
hat’s more exciting: studio or tour?
eing on tour is not really being creative. It’s more like a regular job. So what I’m trying to do is whenever we are touring I’m trying to think of it like being on holiday. You are seeing new cities, new countries, you are speaking to new people every day, the weather is nice, good beer, everything is great. I look at it as a kind of vacation. Even though touring is a lot of work, it’s very stressful with all the travelling. But what I love the most is to be in my studio and to be creative. Sit in my underwear and fool around. I have fallen asleep in my studio so many times. Being creative is what I like the most.
o you have a favourite music gadget?‘m trying not to. When you have done something and it’s working it is very important to not keep repeating it. So usually when I have a sound for a song and it works and I’m starting a new song the first thing I do is to erase the preset.I’m collecting old analogue Synths and old guitars from the 60ies and stuff like that just because it sounds so different. And what is cool about it is in the old things from the late seventies and early eighties there are no presets. You can’t store the sound. You can only make that sound once. Back in the days they used to have polaroid photos you can go back and take a picture but it won’t be the same. That is the very nice thing about old equipment.
ow do you get the remixes. Do you know the people and call them up?t’s a very common thing that bands trade remixes. You do one for me, I do one for you. So often there is not even money involved. But, of course, you have hugh remixers like Ferry Corsten for example, and that costs a lot of money. But sometimes it’s important to get that club song. Sometimes the record company says we need this kind of remix and we know who can do it. But the remixes I like the most are actually the ones where I know the people. When I can interact with them during the process.
hat do you think about the public remix projects?hat’s it’s really cool. It’s so much fun. I have even downloaded some of them myself, just playing around with it. I love to work with other people’s music. We are going to do something similar in the near future.
o you have experriences in online cyber-gigs?here is a programm called Rocket-Network from Cubase. I like the concept but I never tried it myself.
grew up in Düsseldorf …h, holy city. I’m a hugh Kraftwerk fan. One of the most important band in the world ever. I have heard about ‘Der Plan’ and worked together with Jürgen Engler “Die Krupps”.
s there an artist you would like to work with?any. Tons of them. I would like to work with everybody. It’s so important to be creative with other persons because you always have a lot to learn. And you also have a lot to teach. Of course, Martin Gore from Depeche Mode, it would be a dream come true to write a song with him. But also Kraftwerk, of course. I met them once actually on the remix tour in 91. They played in Oslo and Norway. I went there at eight o’ clock in the morning outside the club sitting there waiting and I think I sat there until three o’ clock just to have my transeurope express and my autobahn signed. That was cool. They were really nice.
Be creative with other persons
ave got you in my myspace friendship list…here are so many people, the world is becoming very small. I started myspace 1 1/2 year ago. And now there are so many that I don’t have the time to deal it. It’s very important to be polite. There are so many people who want to make friends. And they are friends and it’s important to treat people right, to be nice. And that takes a lot of time. So I do it now and once in a while.
ou have three alter egos in myspace? UK, USA and Germany.here are even more. There is the german one, the UK one, the official one, the american one and two german fans. So there are five at least. It’s just fun.
Thank you very much for the most important thing you can spend, thank you for your time.
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Tolles Interview!
Aber es heißt “she shine on” und nicht schi, schi! :-)
LG
Comment by Jenny — 5. July 2006 @ 07:24
Apoptygma sind einfach nur geil!
Und das mit dem neuen Album freut mich =) “a little bit more dirtier” hehe
AAAAAAPOPTYYYGMA!!!!
Comment by Angel's Angel — 5. July 2006 @ 13:19
@ Jenny:
Es heißt wohl Shi-shi-…, denn “she shine on” würde grammatisch völlig falsch sein :)!
Außerdem: Shine On ist die schwächere Coverversion auf dem Album, viel besser ist “Cambodia”, finde ich… ;)!
Comment by APBL2000 — 5. July 2006 @ 16:46
Great Interview,right words..
fantastic
Apop is the greatest
Comment by Eve29 — 6. July 2006 @ 01:55
Uh, ich lübe sie einfach!
War neulich bei der Campusparty. Hab sie da mal wieder (Wenn auch nur kurz) live gesehen. Scheiße war bloß, dass ich’s auf Grund meiner Körpergröße nicht geschafft habe bis ganz vor zu kommen… :`-(
Na jut, Stp. is nu auch nicht der größte Mensch auf Erden…^^ Na ja aber einer der greatest … nicht der biggest aber einer der greatest…^^ :D
APB 4 evaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Comment by L.ü. — 6. July 2006 @ 20:53
svenja
http://www.apoptygmaberzerk.de
warum ist eure dritte single so spät rausgekommen?
Hallo Svenja,
ich glaube Du wolltest Deine Frage hier posten? Ich hab’ Sie mal von Waterlily her verschoben.
LG
Oz
Comment by oz — 17. July 2006 @ 15:18
DAS WAR EIN GEILES INTERWIEV!!!!!
WOLLTE MAL FRAGN, OB IHR APB MAL SAGEN KÖNNTET, DASS ICH IHNEN 2 E-MAILS GESCHICKT HABE!
WÄRE VOLL NETT VON EUCH!!!!!
I LOVE STEPHAN!!!
MACHT WEITER SO!!!
IHR SEID DIE BESTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EURE NINA
Comment by Cheerleader25 — 27. August 2006 @ 14:36
http://www.lyricsdownload.com/ house-of-love-shine-on-lyrics.html
es heisst SHE shine on. künstlerische freiheit. das wort “shi” gibt’s im Englischen nicht.
Comment by Gott — 25. October 2006 @ 11:43