Klaus Dinger interview transcript
- Issue #208 (Jun 01) | Published 21/05/08
- By: Biba Kopf | Featuring: Klaus Dinger, Neu!
Unedited Klaus Dinger interview by Biba Kopf in early 2001 for the Neu! article that appeared in The Wire 208
Can we start right at the beginning. You and Michael were in this touring version of Kraftwerk?
Ja.
Could you recall what was happening then?
What was happening? How do you mean what was happening?
It was you, Florian [Schneider] and Michael [Rother], wasn’t it?
Michael, eh hm. It was, overall and in general it was quite a nice situation, I think... quite a successful team, ja, quite a lot on the way at that time, for it was a very short period, several months only, but yeah, I liked it very much.
Was this pure improvisation, or were you working on songs?
We tried, and I think we quite well did, we tried to promote the first Kraftwerk album. We played these titles, like “Ruckzuck” or “Vom Himmel Hoch”, and so on, and we tried to do these live, mixed with, ja, but that sounded a bit different or so, I mean, compared with the originals on the LP. But it probably was much more live. You probably know this Beat Club recording, film (referring to this lineup’s TV appearance).
I’ve heard about it but never seen it.
You never saw that? Well, I’ve got a copy at home, but I heard it was available as a laser disc, as a bootleg, years ago already. Ja, what else can I say? Can you ask more precise...
OK, you went on from Kraftwerk? Ralf Hütter rejoined Kraftwerk and then you and Michael started working on Neu!? Can you tell me how Neu! Came about, how it came out of that early lineup?
Ja, we separated from Florian, I think it was end of June 1971, ja, nice summer holiday I remember, “Im Gluck”. Ja, this story, Hanni [?? his then girlfriend, see further down] went to Norway and so on. It took quite some time, several months until we finally decided we would go on together. After we split it was all a bit undecided and open. For instance, Michael was not so sure about whether that was possible to do this. That was also about the time when he started studying Psychology as an alternative from the other side, or so... you know what I mean. Ja, in the meantime I somehow arranged that with [producer/engineer] Conny Plank that — and finally by the end of the year or so, we decided, and the opportunity was there to go into a studio in Hamburg, and we recorded the first album. Was that about what were asking for? [chuckles]
That’s the kind of thing, yeah. Did you have songs or did you just generate them in the studio?
Well partly we had songs, well not songs really, I mean sketches or so. But I think the most important things happened in the studio.
To decide on this lineup, drums and guitar, was unique to Neu! wasn’t it? It was quite a strange combination without a bass player?
Well, ja, we didn’t see any other chance at that time, there were not so many people like that for instance today, the younger generation here is much easier to find people to understand musically or work with together, which was very difficult at that time, because everything else was far away from what we wanted to do. But I think we somehow found, especially during this work with Florian, we somehow found what we wanted to do alone.
Can you recall what it was you were aiming for at that time, and what it was you didn’t want to do?
What we did not want to do? You mean in relation to Florian?
I mean in relation to the other music happening at the time...
Oh, ja, I mean it’s probably more easy to understand, or quite easy to understand if you listen to the records and compare with other music of the time, I think. I don’t see so many... at least for me at that time, let’s say Ralf und Florian were the only ones possible. Also I’m not such a big fan of Can or Guru Guru, or whatever. I mean, many things are a matter of taste, what you like and what you don’t like, and, ja, I mean from the beginning I felt we were quite special. And also later, after the first album, we tried to find people and also did the six or seven concerts, but gave up because they were not the right people somehow, they couldn’t do what we wanted to do. Ja, a bit difficult, ne?, with just two people at that time. Today is a totally different story.
The music of Neu! and what Kraftwerk were doing at that time seemed to be very consciously not rock in an American or English sense, it seemed to be very much defining a different kind of rock, but not in a nationalistic sense.
Ja, and it was very conscious, also.
What were you trying to avoid in British or American music?
Well, I like lots of British or American music, but as you said, we were not British or American, and, ja, music-wise, in this area we have a quite big past, I think, and also, in a way it also came quite natural, I mean this, everybody, I think, wants to somehow, well, maybe also wrong, maybe not, be different. I mean, I always promoted the individual, the original and so on, and it still doesn’t make sense to play Beatles, or so. It’s quite natural.
When one compares what you and Kraftwerk were doing, compared with other European countries, in Düsseldorf and Hamburg you had the confidence and self-belief to be able to define a kind of music that was very much your own, which was a rock music but did not directly take anything from whatever was popular at the time? Where did this confidence come from to make your own music in this way? It didn’t seem to exist anywhere else in Europe.
Ja.
Could you recall what was happening then?
What was happening? How do you mean what was happening?
It was you, Florian [Schneider] and Michael [Rother], wasn’t it?
Michael, eh hm. It was, overall and in general it was quite a nice situation, I think... quite a successful team, ja, quite a lot on the way at that time, for it was a very short period, several months only, but yeah, I liked it very much.
Was this pure improvisation, or were you working on songs?
We tried, and I think we quite well did, we tried to promote the first Kraftwerk album. We played these titles, like “Ruckzuck” or “Vom Himmel Hoch”, and so on, and we tried to do these live, mixed with, ja, but that sounded a bit different or so, I mean, compared with the originals on the LP. But it probably was much more live. You probably know this Beat Club recording, film (referring to this lineup’s TV appearance).
I’ve heard about it but never seen it.
You never saw that? Well, I’ve got a copy at home, but I heard it was available as a laser disc, as a bootleg, years ago already. Ja, what else can I say? Can you ask more precise...
OK, you went on from Kraftwerk? Ralf Hütter rejoined Kraftwerk and then you and Michael started working on Neu!? Can you tell me how Neu! Came about, how it came out of that early lineup?
Ja, we separated from Florian, I think it was end of June 1971, ja, nice summer holiday I remember, “Im Gluck”. Ja, this story, Hanni [?? his then girlfriend, see further down] went to Norway and so on. It took quite some time, several months until we finally decided we would go on together. After we split it was all a bit undecided and open. For instance, Michael was not so sure about whether that was possible to do this. That was also about the time when he started studying Psychology as an alternative from the other side, or so... you know what I mean. Ja, in the meantime I somehow arranged that with [producer/engineer] Conny Plank that — and finally by the end of the year or so, we decided, and the opportunity was there to go into a studio in Hamburg, and we recorded the first album. Was that about what were asking for? [chuckles]
That’s the kind of thing, yeah. Did you have songs or did you just generate them in the studio?
Well partly we had songs, well not songs really, I mean sketches or so. But I think the most important things happened in the studio.
To decide on this lineup, drums and guitar, was unique to Neu! wasn’t it? It was quite a strange combination without a bass player?
Well, ja, we didn’t see any other chance at that time, there were not so many people like that for instance today, the younger generation here is much easier to find people to understand musically or work with together, which was very difficult at that time, because everything else was far away from what we wanted to do. But I think we somehow found, especially during this work with Florian, we somehow found what we wanted to do alone.
Can you recall what it was you were aiming for at that time, and what it was you didn’t want to do?
What we did not want to do? You mean in relation to Florian?
I mean in relation to the other music happening at the time...
Oh, ja, I mean it’s probably more easy to understand, or quite easy to understand if you listen to the records and compare with other music of the time, I think. I don’t see so many... at least for me at that time, let’s say Ralf und Florian were the only ones possible. Also I’m not such a big fan of Can or Guru Guru, or whatever. I mean, many things are a matter of taste, what you like and what you don’t like, and, ja, I mean from the beginning I felt we were quite special. And also later, after the first album, we tried to find people and also did the six or seven concerts, but gave up because they were not the right people somehow, they couldn’t do what we wanted to do. Ja, a bit difficult, ne?, with just two people at that time. Today is a totally different story.
The music of Neu! and what Kraftwerk were doing at that time seemed to be very consciously not rock in an American or English sense, it seemed to be very much defining a different kind of rock, but not in a nationalistic sense.
Ja, and it was very conscious, also.
What were you trying to avoid in British or American music?
Well, I like lots of British or American music, but as you said, we were not British or American, and, ja, music-wise, in this area we have a quite big past, I think, and also, in a way it also came quite natural, I mean this, everybody, I think, wants to somehow, well, maybe also wrong, maybe not, be different. I mean, I always promoted the individual, the original and so on, and it still doesn’t make sense to play Beatles, or so. It’s quite natural.
When one compares what you and Kraftwerk were doing, compared with other European countries, in Düsseldorf and Hamburg you had the confidence and self-belief to be able to define a kind of music that was very much your own, which was a rock music but did not directly take anything from whatever was popular at the time? Where did this confidence come from to make your own music in this way? It didn’t seem to exist anywhere else in Europe.
Bookmark with:
What are these?