I had hoped to make this a reminder post about Atari Teenage Riot's show tomorrow night at the Magic Stick, but it turns out that it's been canceled. I'd already done an interview with Alec Empire of the band a little while back (damn, it takes a while to transcribe a 30 minute conversation), so I might as well go ahead and post it. Maybe it'll still be interesting.
Detroit Area Dork: So how long have you been on tour?
Alec Empire: We started in May, and we're currently in Jacksonville Florida
DD: So do you have any time to explore the cities you stop in?
AE: It depends. Some of the cities I've traveled before, like some times you have off days, or maybe a few free hours. It really depends. For instance, once we played L.A. right after San Diego, and then had to leave right away for Las Vegas, but I've been to L.A. several times, and it probably hadn't changed that dramatically since the previous year, but sometimes we can hang out.
DD: What's your take on Detroit techno?
AE: It's a really big influence on what we do. In Berlin, when we started making our music, especially myself, back in 1990 or something like that, it was really the stuff we liked, that we played as DJ's. Detroit techno has been a way bigger influence on my music than German techno. So yeah, it's still to this day, on the new record, tracks like "Digital Decay", it's really influence by Detroit techno of the late 80's, early 90's I would say. The way the drums are programmed, the kind of vibe, I could really identify with that. The Berlin I grew up has some similarities to Detroit. This sort of cold atmosphere to the city. There are some things that make us connect to Detroit, or at least that's the way it used be in the early 90's. Yeah it's a big influence, people like Underground Resistance especially, Jeff Mills, Derek May, Carl Craig, and all these people. If you look at Atari Teenage Riot alone, it maybe doesn't make so much sense, but if you look at my solo work, I think there's definitely a link to that type of music. Which is not that logical because a lot of German artists are more inspired by British artists, which I don't really see as an influence on me so much.
DD: Do you ever see yourself playing at the Detroit techno-fest, with your band or just on your own?
AE: Yeah, that would be great. Do they have outside artists, or is it all Detroit based artists?
DD: They get people from all over the place. One year they had Booka Shade, another year they had Moby.
AE: That would be amazing, of course. That would be great to do I think.
DD: It happens in late May, so if that's ever free on your schedule.
AE: That's pretty interesting, because CX Kidtronic, the new guy in Atari, he lived in Detroit for a couple of years, because he grew up around that area. When people think of Berlin they have a certain image of the city in their minds, which is of course not 100% reality, but with the whole alienation of electronic music, the way it works, it's very much linked to what we do. The certain type of synth sounds, which are not like happy, you know what I mean? Because so much electronic dance music is so much like drinking beer and partying, and I think the Detroit stuff is always more futuristic, and I totally like that.
DD: I understand that your music inspire by politics and your opposition to neo-nazis and other far right groups? Do you think that far right movements in Europe are more of a threat than far left movements?
AE: Of course. The left is not really about killing people. Even the very radical left wing in Europe, they are more about questioning the power of corporations, and systems. They're not about killing people with different skin color, or who have different religious faiths. If you look at the neo-nazi groups in eastern Europe, especially Russia, they are really so militant, that they're at a totally different level, they're way more dangerous to people than the ideas of the left radical. So I don't think it even makes sense to compare both in terms of who is more dangerous because the mindsets are so different. The left is more about creating about different systems that are more about working for the majority of the people, while the neo-nazi groups are really about wiping groups of people off the planet. So thats a huge difference. The rise of the neo-nazi movements is a big threat. I think we've seen in Norway that guy who shot all those people, this stuff is out there, and often the mainstream media forgets about that. I think that at the moment, people are confused about muslims, or what's going on in the arab countries, so I find it shocking how especially young people are inspired by the theories of Nazis, which is in my opinion completely absurd in our age, which is about coming together, networking on a global level. To have this mindset that "we are the master race" and everybody else should be basically killed, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. You could have said the same thing a hundred years ago, but back in the day it was a very different world. Not to excuse that or something, but when Adolf Hitler was in power, people couldn't get alternative information that easily. They were very dependent on what authorities told them. People back then thought that Africa was a continent with wild savage people or whatever. If you think stuff like this today then you're really more nuts I think, because you could assess alternative information easily and educate yourself about different cultures. I've experience that certain stereotypes just don't work any more in our age, because it's never 100% like that. Especially with religion, it's so diverse, whatever someone calls themselves, you can't just categorize a large number of people like that. In the age of the internet, you're not limited the a few number of news channels.
DD: Well, what I'm leading up to is that in the past there were far left groups like Baader-Meinhoff that caused deaths, and you think that far right groups are more dangerous than they were?
AE: I think you can't really answer a questions like that. You have to look at Baader-Meinhoff in the whole context. Of course I'm a different generation. With them, it's very important to understand that they grew up in a time when it was about 15-20 after WW2, they were the children of the nazi generation. At that time in Germany, there were a lot of old nazis in charge. After Germany lost the war, the Allies needed to keep the people in power to run the country. I can't really judge that, because I wasn't even born at that time. Of course it was almost pre-programed that things would escalate. You had judges and police leaders that were former nazis, or teachers, or professors at universities, and politicians. The younger generation, they really felt this was just wrong. Things were really escalating. You had two forces. One was just like extremetly conservative, nationalist, these idea of the older generation, and you had these student movement who were inspired by the anti-Vietnam War protests in America. These ideas were really crashing. Baader-Meinhoff really started to pick up weapons when the police shot a student at a demonstration for no reason. The generation at that time was worried that the country to revert back to a nazi like system, or something that could compare to that. To me it's like when terrorism happens, or when violence happens, it's always the result of fear politics. If you don't solve problems in society, then at some point things will boil over and it will escalate. For me, the Baader-Meinhoff group is a very good example of how dangerous these dynamics can be if those in power just keep these as they are, use their authority, and people with uniforms and guns to defend their ideas. Sooner or later that will lead to violence. You could look at the riots in London this summer in a similar way. The problems existed, and they're being consistently ignored. At some point, things just escalate. I think it's hard to answer a question like that because what the Baader-Meinhoff Group did was wrong. Why did they do it, and what led up to those events, not to excuse it or anything, but it helps to understand how these kind of events can happen.
DD: What do you make of German Chancelor Angela Merkel's statement "Multi-culturism has failed in Germany"?
AE: I think it's sad. I complete disagree with Germany's direction since reunification. When I started the band, it was about "should Germany become a country with a strong national identity?". I was opposed to that because I thought why rebuild on that history? When Berlin was occupied by different countries we differnt kinds of radio stations and television shows from the east and west side, and I'd meet American soldiers at the clubs. I always felt the diversity was a good thing. We should have interaction with as many types of different people. I think what we see now with the politics of Anglo-America is a result of the politics of the reunification of twenty years ago. I think it's very backwards thinking. You look at Germany, there are less people around, less babies are born. Germany needs people from other countries who are qualified to do high profile jobs. To try to be popular and getting votes by saying things like that, it works against the country. When it comes to the financial crisis, [Chancelor Merkel] needs to take a stand. She's very slow and not really doing anything. In the past, when action really mattered, at least the opposition could make the hard decisions. I'm not of that politician. The way she grew up, in easter socialist Germany, and made her career there, in the party, I think she's an oppotunist in a way.
DD: What's your opinion on the efforts toward greater integration within the European Union, and has it inspired any of your new music at all?
AE: What do you mean by integration?
DD: Like the way the EU has made it easier to move from country to country, and the efforts to standardize and synch up the laws across the union?
AE: It has made everything much easier. Especially for musicians like us who are traveling. If you're coming from Berlin, and you're touring with a bus you have to cross into Holland and France, and you took the ferry to England. When we started with the band in the 90's, it was always a complicated procedure, and it took much longer. Now it's different. With the Euro currency, it made things much easier to keep ticket prices at a certain level, or like the merchandise prices. It's always a pain to go through Switzerland, which isn't in the union. They always inspect your van, or your bus, or your luggage when you fly in. If you bring 5 cd's with you to give to friends, you have fill out forms. I think this has made interaction much easier. For example, I think now how musicians, promoters, journalists, and anyone in the music industry in Europe, it's just much closer now. It's much easier for an artist in Berlin to play a show in Spain, or in England or something. I think that's good, it leads to more interaction. Also the question in the 90's, "What's that sound of the U.K., or France, or Holland?", those lines are really blurred, and you can't say that much any more. It's not so much about the local scenes.
DD: Are you in support of the European Union expanding eastward?
AE: (Laughs) The thing with the European Union, I'm not in support of the political institution or stuff like that, I just like the effects its had for music. To me the problem sometimes is that with a central government, governments are very often in the way of things. If you ask me a question like that, I'll point out all the dangers, and the problem at the local level to be able to influence their politics. There's so much stuff being decided in Brussells that's working against people in certain areas of Europe, or certain parts of countries. I'll always criticize that. I'm not the kind of person who thinks that Europe should be this kind of super powerful...
DD: So you don't want to see a United State of Europe?
AE: (Laughs) Some people say it would be good to balance things out between the large powers of the world. I don't know if I have enough information to make up my own mind on this sort of thing. It really depends on the politicians in charge. It's such a complex thing to discuss, I'm not sure if I'm the right person to do that at this point.
DD: To get back to music, what are you listening to right now?
AE: I always listen to all kinds of differnt stuff. For example, on tour, I was listening to John Coltrane, James White. I like classical, Shoenberg, or stuff like that. A fried game me a bunch of promo CD's, DJ stuff that I checked out. I'm always curious to hear different things. What's really good is that Kidtronik plays a lot of underground hiphop on the tour bus. Certain demos or whatever he's been given. I like to listen to a wide range of music. Otto von Sheer, who's on the road with us, he's got a whole computer full of early 80's Miami bass stuff, that I wasn't previously familiar with, I find it really interesting.
Read more about Something Like A War creator John Kalogerakos here
John K's mind at work
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