Interview with Blixa Bargeld (Zillo, 1996)

Einstürzende Neubauten “Interview with Blixa Bargeld”
Zillo Magazine, September 1996
Photos: Katja Ruge, Fritz Brinkman
Translation: by Anna.

All dressed in black up to his straw hat, he is sitting in front of a impressive, yet not exaggerated collection of wine and grappa-glasses. Its not the first interview Blixa has to finish on this stunningly sunny Summer day. With a cigarette in his left hand, he is stretching out his right hand to me, muttering „Bargeld“ in a nearly shy way from underneath his flap.

I thought the frontman of Einstürzende Neubauten was more aloof, somebody who could tend to play the intellectual culture-bod and glamorous rockstar. This was a case of misjudgement: Blixa Bargeld is totally up for chattering and a really nice interview partner.

On Ende Neu, their just released 7th studio album (after Kollaps, Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T., Halber Mensch, 5 auf der nach oben offenen Richterskala, Haus der Lüge and Tabula Rasa), Neubauten present the whole register of their skills without compromise. Reaching from the romantic ‘Stella Maris’ duet together with Meret Becker over to ‘NNNAAAMMM’ which is fundamented around the strange rhythm of collateral motors, to the point of „Was ist ist“ presented by the band in the well-known brute style. Last year another record preceded „Ende Neu“: The 40-minute „Faustmusik“ with a subtitle „Musik für Faust:: Mein Brustkorb: Mein Helm” by Werner Schwab. This theater soundtrack ( for the „Hans Otto Theater“ in Potsdam, where the play had its premiere in October 1994) with Blixa, Mark Chung, Mufti (=FM Einheit), Alex Hacke and N.U. „Endruh“ Unruh still counts on the cover those 5 musicians, who spent most of their band history since the 1980s together, and it did not present any update referring to the band. Also the press photo by the record company for the pre-tape of „Ende Neu“ was not bringing journalists up to speed, so the interview started with a little sensation. 

Zillo: In the information was written that „Ende Neu“ should be following „Tabula Rasa“ quickly?

Blixa: Well!

Zillo: Why did it take 3.5 years in the end?

Blixa: On the one hand there was acute writer’s block and on the other hand there were personal changes which went on steadily: first Mark left the band, then Roland Wolf joined the band, then he died, then Mufti left the band and then…no, stop…inbetween the band also broke up for a short time.

Zillo: When was that?

Blixa: Last year when I was saying „Sorry, I can`t do this anymore, I have no ideas anymore“. I wanted to publish the material just in the state like it was back then. I did not care if that would have ruined our reputation, in the end we moved on, but then Mufti left the band and then…filibusters, running the gauntlet. Adverse conditions.

Zillo: Who is still in the band now?

Blixa: Endruh, Hacke and I.

Zillo: When did your writer’s block stop?

Blixa: Not before this year. Alex and Endruh managed that we could stay at a studio in a village in Belgium from February until May and Meret killed my writer’s block there. I said „Maybe we can write a song together“ and then the others kept bothering me „Come on, now you do that and that, now you go upstairs and write a song“. That took 48 hours, but then it was pouring out of me, suddenly everything came back. All of that had something to do with the communication breakdown within the band which lingered for years. We worked together, but nothing was questioned nor was there any argument about what we did or what we wanted to do. That was why I was running out of inspiration. In the moment we wrote „Stella Maris“ I realized „Okay, now something completely different happened, this is a transformation, maybe not finished yet, but everything that happened in the past is over now, becoming something completely new“. The name of the record could have been „Transformer“, but „Ende Neu“ demonstrates it even better, because its within the concept of „EinstürzENDE NEUbauten“ already.

Zillo: Will the band consist of three persons from now on or was that just a compromise to finish the record?

Blixa: As a 3-person band, we are not going to play live. We are nearly the band from our very beginnings now. The very first band was Endruh, me, Gudrun Gut and Beate Bartel. Then the girls quit and there were Endruh and me, then Endruh, me and Alex. That’s where we are now.

Zillo: Is it out of question that Mark and Mufti come back to play gigs with you?

Blixa: It’s not a discord or anything like that. Mark informed us that he is leaving from very early on because he couldn’t go on tour for 6 months, having a family and his publishing business. So it’s better to rule it off than to be available only half of the time. Mufti just said „So it is”, without giving any reasons.

Zillo: Are there any ideas about what will happen live now?

Blixa: As I said we won’t play as a 3-member band, but I have not thought about who, what or when yet. I am just happy that we’re over with the recording sickness.

Zillo: Something different now: „Explosion im Festspielhaus“, how did you get the idea for that song? Is that a reaction to your work at the theatre?

Blixa: No, not at all. „Die Explosion im Festspielhaus“…I thought that’s a beautiful lyric, although “Explosion” does not mean a real explosion and „Festspielhaus“ (festival hall) does not mean „Festspielhaus“ as well. Nobody knows the truth about what I wanted to say with that, except of my girlfriend maybe. Everyone else was speculating about it, but I didn’t reveal anything.

Zillo: So you are still saying that interpretation is not good for the songs?

Blixa: Oh, only for this song. I can tell you what „Stella Maris“ is about, but „Explosion im Festspielhaus“ is one of the songs where the meaning has to stay a secret.

Zillo: What’s „Stella Maris“ about?

Blixa: Two lovers trying to meet each other in a dream, but they are always missing each other.

Zillo: That’s all?

Blixa: (grinning) One moment ago it was still a great text, wasn’t it? Now it’s a bit shitty.

Zillo: No, but I expected 37 other points of view as well.

Blixa: No, they are in the text itself, but because I usually don’t interpret lyrics, now I can show what happens when I explain a text and what’s left of it afterwards.

Zillo: There were some songs on „Tabula Rasa“ which came out of your work for theatre performances. Did „Faustmusik“ affect „Ende Neu“ as well?

Blixa: The instruments of „Faustmusik“ are used on the „Stella Maris“ single, there is one song which is called „Bili Rubin“. I kind of thought that’s our contribution to the Easy-Listening-Wave. There are kalimba-tables on it, tables which have switches carved out in relations of tone pitches so that you can play them like a kalimba.

Zillo: Do we have to imagine the performance of „Faust:: Mein Brustkorb: Mein Helm“ 1994 in Potsdam like that: You were on stage as a band while the actors played? Since you have played in it as well…

Blixa: Yes, as Mephisto.

Zillo: And the rest of the band?

Blixa: The others were staggering through the scenes as musicians, but in contrast to Peter Zadek’s „Andi“ (1987 at Schauspielhaus Hamburg), the music was relatively quiet. In Hamburg we had our own corner and we were very loud, so an interaction with the actors was not possible because they were speaking without any amplification. When we started to play in „Andi“ nobody was able to say anything. In Potsdam we created music which was more of electroacoustic kind. There was just a normal house installation of the theatre and the music was turned down to a level where everybody could still speak. This was meant to be like that, because it would have been boring to create music for the theatre in the same way again a second time. That’s why we created a special instrumentation we used on stage in the same manner for that performance, so you could play and speak at the same time.

Zillo: And what did you do as an actor recently, apart from playing Mephisto?

Blixa: No, I am not an actor and I am not going to be one. Sometimes I receive interesting offers and when I am really interested in them I do it…but I wouldn`t call myself an actor. I am not very talented when it comes to acting. Hacke is a better actor than I am.

Zillo: What is he doing?

Blixa: Oh, there was this play I wrote for “Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf” and he was playing in that.

Zillo: What’s its name?

Blixa: Actually its called „Heine rückwärts“ (Heine in reverse), but they called it „Heine von Tod an rückwärts liebeskrank“ (Heine lovesick from death in reverse).

Zillo: You said THEY called it…does that mean you did not like the title?

Blixa: I let them do what they wanted and told them „Call it what you like“. It was good, but it had not much to do with what I had written, that is why I am now waiting for it to be staged again.

Zillo: Did you wrote other plays?

Blixa: No, that was my first one.

Zillo: Back to the record: I think „Ende Neu“ is more brute again in comparison to „Tabula Rasa“, the songs sound direct.

Blixa: Hm. „Tabula Rasa“ for me gives a very complete impression, although I wanted it to show a moment after, let’s say, a bullet exploded and its different parts are scattering in different directions. That’s why the strategy of publishing was so strange (first the „Interim“-maxi, then the album and after that the „Malediction“-maxi) and why there were always different parts of the same picture shown on the covers. They should be fragments, showing different directions. I wanted the complete opposite when it came to „Ende Neu“. I wanted something that orientated itself at the, lets say, common standard. There is no freedom of decision, that means there is no paper-digibox or something like that, because most recordstores in the world do not want it, there is just the so called jewel-box, this plasticshit, which is awful, but that’s all. The booklet has only as many pages as is usual, there is no formal artistic decision which goes beyond that thing. When I was deciding about the songs I asked myself: “What would be chosen as the first song, as the second song etc. etc”. I wanted it to be all normal. The strange thing about that is that the record became more irregular than anything we did before. The songs are so variable that you sometimes get the feeling it consists of 4 different singles with A- and B-sites out of 4 different years. Thereabout. Yeah, and that’s it.

Zillo: Did you really sing all songs with a smile in your face as stated in the press info?

Blixa: Well, sometimes it was unavoidable and for some songs it simply was a better idea to sing them with a smile on. If I sang „Was ist ist“ while being angry, it would have become bullshit.

Zillo: But the title track „Ende Neu“…the „Neu“… that’s not a word you can sing with a smile on your face, can’t you?

Blixa: I can, the „Neu“ is the most smiling word of all. „Wir kennen uns schon lange/Der Phoenix und ich/Ich lehrte ihn zwei Worte/Damit er mit mir spricht:/ Ende Neu“ (We have known each other for a long time/The phoenix and I/ I taught him two words/So that he is speaking with me:/”end new”) – that’s very smile-able.

Zillo: I meant: How can you smile while you are shouting?

Blixa: I am not shouting. There is little shouting, less shouts on this record than on all the records I’ve ever made.

Zillo: Okay, you`re right. How did this change happen, how did it happen that you are singing softer, was that a backlash to all the argy-bargy within the band?

Blixa: It’s just the style in which I like to sing at the moment. There are shouts, but they are more punctated, no emotional releases but tonal colours. At the time I was creating „Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T“ I was starting to shout without thinking about it before. At „Ende Neu“ I knew what I did very well. I recorded one shout because there was no better end for „The Garden“. This strings went on endlessly until they put down their bows and it rippled off slowly. So there had to be an end, which could put the whole thing together first and then melt it. Then I managed to pour out a shout that was exactly in the right tone to overlay the strings and with the dying of this shout it was over.

Zillo: So why more control and less uncontrolled emotionality these days?

Blixa: Well, I am 37 years old.

Zillo: And now the wild days are gone?

Blixa: (while grinning at the wine and grappa-glasses ): Umm well, it doesn`t seem so, but the experience I gathered regarding my work is something I cannot deny. While doing „Kollaps“ it was easier for me to just stand there, start singing and 20 minutes later the text was there. By simply singing I had a text without writing anything, without thinking about what I am going to sing,  just because I lost control I was pulling the words out of my subconscious. But your brain is learning and it learns to stop that. That’s as difficult as trying to remember dreams. The more you are trying to remember them the more they get lost. So I had to find other ways to do that what meant I had to write something when I had an idea and I had to create something out of that. On „Halber Mensch“ I started to write the first texts. Of course you learn other things as well, for example the erupting of my voice, but head and body learn new things all the time and they avoid losing control. So you are learning to control while you are losing control all the time. The more you try to lose control, the more your body will learn to keep control. Thats just a fact. I can still scream, but I can do it deliberately only, that works like this: „4-3-2-1 and at the next beat I start to screeam“. And when I now learn to strike the right note while screaming…fine.

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