| Stern:
You recently had an appearance with your robots in the show "Top of the
Pops". Do you think that 16 years old spectators understand your music?
|
| Hütter:
Our message is not limited to one specific age group. |
| Stern:
In the 70's Kraftwerk was reproached as being the "death of music"... |
| Hütter:
That sorted itself out. We gave life to a new kind of music. |
| Stern:
But when this new music called Techno arose you withdrew yourselves. |
| Hütter:
That isn't true, we reprogrammed our music. |
| Stern:
In 1991 your remix-record was released, and the last regular record is even
14 years old. What are you actually doing the whole time? |
| Hütter:
We are in the studio every day. There's a lot to do for us: we are "music
workers". |
| Stern:
People say you are
more busy with bikes than with music... |
| Hütter:
Once a year I ride the mountain stage of Tour de France. Therefore I have
to stay in training. |
| Stern:
And what are you doing additionally in the studio? |
| Hütter:
We completely digitalized our old songs, they are all saved on our hard
drive. That's our sound-archive. It will outlive us. |
| Stern:
Are you worried that your hard drive could be deleted and that nothing would
remain of your music? |
| Hütter:
What an interesting vision: data disappears like ink on paper in the flow
of time. But that doesn't worry us. Others would then have to recreate our
music. |
| Stern:
In former times you went to the studio with suits and briefcases. And today? |
| Hütter:
Exactly the same. Instead of briefcases we have laptops, so we don't have
to carry so much paper. |
|
Stern:
Your songs were named "Radioactivity" and "The Man Machine".
People fear those in the 70's, but today they have become accustomed to
it. What kind of title makes people afraid today?
|
| Hütter:
Perhaps "Computer bombs". With computers you can drop bombs. The
technique is the same as that we use for producing our music. |
| Stern:
That means, you could control bombs with your studio equipment? |
| Hütter:
Let me explain it in such a way: in the 70's and early
80's we didn't get permission to enter the Eastern Block with our computers.
They thought that they were tools of war. |
| Stern:
You once said that you don't feel like Ralf Hütter but like Kraftwerk. How
does that feel? |
| Hütter:
In the German language, names are often occupations, like Müller (Miller)
and Bauer (Farmer). I don't feel like Mr. Hütter anymore but rather like
Mr. Kraftwerk. I feel like a robot. |
| Stern:
The Expo-Jingle, which was the basis for the Expo 2000 single, lasts 4 seconds.
You got a reward of 400000 Deutschmark. How long did it take to produce
the jingle? |
| Hütter:
That isn't possible to measure the time. We don't work with a stopwatch.
But it definitely took longer than 5 seconds. |
| Stern:
Do you feel lonely when working? |
| Hütter:
It is beautiful to be lonely. Silence is important because humans are permanently
threatened by waste of music. That is why we demand days of silence. Sometimes
we walk around with pincers to cut the loudspeaker cables. If we stop the
permanent molesting of music, we get the chance to listen to genuine sounds.
How do tools sound, doors, clocks, cars, bikes... |
| Stern:
Is the Düsseldorf studio Kling Klang then a factory or rather a monastery? |
| Hütter:
A factory of music in which the machines may be silent. |
|
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Interview
to Oliver Creutz
|
|
Translation to english by Marienkäfer - Düsseldorf
- Germany
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