kmfdm , mdfkm , industrial music 

DON''T  CALL US INDUSTRIAL!!!

An Indepth interview with En Esch 

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        KMFDM the Ultra-Heavy Beat band from Germany, with such hits such as GodLike and Juke Joint Jezebel from the movie Mortal Kombat, have just released there 9th album. The album has no official name other than pictures of an explosion, skull and crossbones, a bomb, a spiral object, and of a crushing fist. The band has 3 permanent members each adding to the band. En Esch is a classically trained drummer and percussionist who also sings, plays guitar and keyboards.Sascha Konietzko sings, plays percussion,and is in chargeof programming and sequences. The final member is Gunter Schulz who plays guitar and does backing vocals. 

On this latest album an array of musicians contributed to the album including Ogre from Skinny Puppy, sometimes KMFDM member Raymond(Pig) Watts, Tim Skold from Skold and Abby Travis from Elastica. For the tour Ogre and Skold played with KMFDM along with ex-Chem Lab drummer Jon DiSalvo while Raymond (Pig) Watts opened the show. KMFDM played at The Chilli Pepper in Ft. Lauderdale(The Old Edge) on December 1st and I had the chance to speak with the eccentric En Esch , standing 6'2 with a wiry build, bald and who spoke with a heavy German accent.

*(Please keep in mind this interview is as accurate as possible with the exact words, since  there was a problem understanding En Esch’s sometimes broken English and heavy accent)

Q. Is En-Esch your real name?

A.  It is a stage name ( Later I found out he prefers to be called nick by his band mates-which is still not his real name..makes you wonder?)

Q. What does KMFDM stand for?

A.   When we started out it was Kein Merheit Fur Die Mitleid. Basically until we came to the states, then after that we just skipped the whole thing, it dint make sense anymore We say it on the record once. Its along time ago and we no longer say that anymore. The original term translated roughly into No pity for the majority. There is also another term which is Kalte Melkerhamde Furchtet Die Milchkuh' which translates into the cow stands in fear of the milkmaids cold hands.(Self explanatory)

Q. Would you change the name now since people just assume it stands for ridiculous things like Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode?

   A It doesn’t matter. It's like David Bowie -nobody thinks about what it means.-it's like a term. So its like a brand nowadays so at this point it really does not matter.

Q. No band likes to be categorized, but for various reasons they must-What would u classify yourselves as or would u invent your own category?

    A. We obviously do not fit into any genera-we do not want to be in any genera and to be called an industrial band its very painful. We said it in the mid- 80's that we are an Ultra-Heavy Beat band.

Q. In the last year and a half many underground Techno bands emerged like Prodigy and Chemical Brothers-do u feel that these bands opened doors for upcoming bands?

    A. Actually we opened the doors- basically from sticking with our stuff for that long. Historically we opened the doors, but not commercially.

Q. At this point what country do u feel is setting the trends in music?

    A. Well it all depends if u talk about Hard-Core Techno-you could maybe say Germany. I mean if u talk about something else it could be Great Britain-Its hard to tell. and There are good US acts .It could be from the U.S., Great Britain or China-its all the same to me. I do not think nationality is anymore We are all international travelers. I try to avoid this international thing, but I slip into it myself-but I try to avoid it.

Q. Sascha had been quoted saying "MTV is an insult to the world"... What is your view on MTV?

    A. Well its a pop music station...(but then again u played the video "A Drug Against War"). I would say it was the record labels choice to do so.........and Beavis and Butthead liked it( En Esch laughs)-(Later I found that the video was banned from MTV except for clips shown on Beavis and Butthead, due to the graphic animation by the artist known as Brute.)

Q. Do u prefer to just record and press an album or do you enjoy the touring? If you have to choose from being on stage or being in the studio which would u choose?

    A. If I have to choose from being on stage or in the studio -I'd rather be on stage-I am happy enough doing both as much as possible ....both are interesting. Of course I would like to be at home -working on my computer and stuff-that's a good thing too... it leads automatically going into the studio in the long run.

Q. Do you feel there is more racism in the U.S. or Europe?

    A. I think at the moment it's more in Europe. They have to live with the new conflict with a lot of people coming from the East block into the the Western European part.--looking for jobs and opportunities. In Eastern Germany especially since the infrastructure is really bad and the unemployment rate is like 20-25% compared to Western Germany's 9 or 10 %. There’s a lot of bad guys fucking around--and people do not like that and it automatically turns into racism.

Q. What is GodLike about?

    A. It's about the U.S. It's based on something I wrote when I came to the U.S. . Due to the culture shock I wrote a few lines in German, which are actually still the middle part of the song. And then we tried to translate it into an easy way and make the whole entire verses in English.

Q. What is your favorite KMFDM album?

    A. I like UAIOE really a lot--it's from 1989-It opened up a lot of things. We started to be recognized and were capable of working on a professional level. On UAIOE we have faster tracks and it was the second album we were able to finish together.

Q.What does UAIOE stand for?

    A. It is just vowels. Back then we just said it was a scream or something.

Q. What is your favorite single or best work?

A. It's hard to tell......More and Faster(1989) was pretty good., Don’t Blow Your Top(1988) was good., and GodLike(1990) is a classic. I think that is one of the better singles.

Q.What do you feel that the best selling album is?

    A. Hopefully the new one....Before that probably Nihl did a little better than Xtort and the new one hopefully does a little better than Nihl.

Q.Who do you think were the pioneers of the electronic music age?

    A. Of course you can say people like Cage and Stockholm...people actually were sitting there with like some old laboratory machine.(En Esch Blurts out a noise sounding like Wheeerrrrrr-trying to imitate the old machines)Kraftwerk where the first electronic pop band so to speak. Most of the members of Kraftwerk started to create music like that in the late 60's..experimenting with delays and similar effects, which was not really too common back then.

Q. Who would you say your biggest influence(s)now would be?

    A. No one else--But us....We are our own biggest influence. When we started out we were down with Tackhead, African headshows, I like Frank Zappa a lot. I took to the early 80's electronic German and mixed it with George Clinton as well..like P-Funk..Phat rhythm going from song to song.

Q. Is there any particular individuals that you would like to do an experimental project with?

    A. I wouldn’t mind working with Peter Murphy. Its a long time dream of mine to use his nice voice and his status and redo the music for him. I think his music is a little lousy, but I like his voice. I talked to him once and a lot of people tell me he doesn’t really collaborate too much with people who are not out of his culture/environment..this little city north of London.

Q. What is the reason you wear fish nets and a dress when performing?

    A. It's just because I feel comfortable and I feel comfortable being on stage with it and I have a certain tradition with it. I am a Hetro Sexual Cross-dresser. I usually don’t dress like that because I live in NYC and professional people are low- key. They are not really overdressed too much. It's kind of like a model wearing a t-shit and jeans so to speak.

Q. How much of your music that is played onstage is real and how much is done through Midi’s, and Digital sequencing?

    A. Everything is basically live because we have a Midi sequencer on stage where we can re-arrange stuff really quick. I mean there are certain machine parts of course that cannot be produced with man power. I would say at least 60% is live.

Q. What do you think of the South Florida's Marilyn Manson?

    A. So far I heard they have really wild shows when they started  out and that gave them the chance to become famous. I think they look good ..and the videos are good and they dress well, but their music is kind of low-key it's not really to exciting. I am fine with their success but, success has made them calm-there not supposed to say anything anymore. There just Icons--just up there.

Q. Is Raymond (PIG) actually part of KMFDM?  

    A. Raymond just comes and goes. He never considered himself a full member to begin with,he was always interested in his own stuff, but participated with KMFDM. I think it's good how it is.

Q. What is Retro?

    A. It was a promotional album to show people what our back catalogue is all about. There were certain plans to release some older singles and that was the last chance to bring the old singles together. It may be available now-But it was never meant to be like that.

Q. Will the supposed Demo Opium be re-mastered and re-released?

    A. It's a little rumored thing. There's other recordings that we released for a cassette through mail order 6 or 7 years ago called KMFDM 84-86. It was about four recordings that I found. I recently listened to some stuff we never released from back then and its quite interesting...it may be released one day. Back then we were stupid enough not to save tapes because we were poor and fucking recorded over some song we dint like anymore to use the tape.

Q. If you could turn back the clock knowing what you do now are there any changes you would make in your career?

    A. That's a tricky question, but if I would know what I know now I might have made certain things different.  I don't know what.... but I would have released my solo work like Cheesy (his first Solo release in 1993) earlier.

Q. Do you really hate Depeche mode like you claim to in the song SUCKS?

    A. I do not hate Depeche Mode-I rather like them especially their mid-80's records..quite interesting

Q. The band's lyrics and image is that of anti-establishment -would that be fair to say?

    A. It's hard to say..from some level .From the point that your record is already in stores and waiting for someone to buy it, you are already part of the establishment...so it's a tricky thing. Establishment is bad when profit goes before Human rights...for the common sense of welfare.

Q. Is there anything you would change if you were to be made President of the United States?

    A. It's probably hard to change something really radical because this country is based on capitalistic principles...so I think a change is not really possible radically...it must be going step by step--especially in this country..otherwise the Mob goes nuts and the economy collapses and that's really dangerous. It's necessary to take healthy steps in the right direction.


Q. Do you think OJ Simpson was guilty in the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman?

  A. I am not convinced he is guilty. I have doubt-I think it's real easy to say he did it and he got away with it. At least his kids have a chance to stay with their father. It's a twisted thing...it's unfortunate that someone had to die no matter who fucking did it...no matter who did it.

I started to talk to En Esch about my trip to Berlin in October...Where I had also seen KMFDM perform in the club SO-36. Your laws are strict there...My friend and I hoppedon a bus thinking our ticket was still good from the night before..and nobody was checkingfor tickets then all of a sudden we got pulled off the bus by a transit-like cop. If we wereGermans we probably would have been given a large fine or hauled off to jail. It seems thatthe authorities are not constantly patrolling, but if you get caught the penalties aresevere..almost like an honor system.

En Esch -”I think it's better here...You don't get in if you don't pay...it's twisted (In reference to Germany) They just did it so it happens faster...more people get on the fucker faster so they don't have to wait on lines. I like the system better like in NYC.. $1.50 your in. In Germany it would not work that way. It's better in the U.S."

Q. How do you feel about censorship?

    A. I don't know...It's a little over rated here.  The U.S. is extremely hard with that shit ( I mentioned that I noticed that the commercials were steamy on network television in Germany as well as their acceptance of showing flyers in the streets with woman revealing their breasts). I don't want to say that if woman show their breasts it's a better culture, but on the other hand it shows that its less tied up.... and less pseudo-moral going on like here and I don't know why that is anyway. I know you see in Europe people drink beer in the street and there are not more alcoholics or more beatings necessarily...so it doesn’t really matter.

Q. Do you believe in aliens?

    A.  I believe in it, but I don't believe in that they look like little green men from Mars. I don't believe in that. If there is a power from outer space or another race that has probably come you wont even fucking recognize it..It may be even like invisible.

As of 3/18/00

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