etherreal
http://www.poemproducer.com/any.php?id=21



From: agf <agf@poemproducer.com>
Date: Sa Nov 29, 2003 20:41:24 Europe/Berlin
To: etherreal@etherreal.com
Cc: annibale picicci <annibale@dense.de>
Subject: Re: AGF Interview

finally

i am sorry it took me a while
i was suddenly trapped in whirlpool of work



question:
So, here are my questions :
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1. For the people who don't know you yet, you are a member of Laub.
AGF is probably a more
personal work, but how would you define your music with regard to that
of Laub ?



agf:
laub is electronic pop music in german language and in coop with jotka
and agf is egoistic artistic experimental playground ... everything possible
no compromises for me antye greie



question:
2. Difficult to know you when your records are difficult to find. You
are from germany, and
signed to Orthlorng Musork, label based in California. How did you met
Kit Clayton and Sue
Costabile, managers of this label ?


agf:
they met me in berlin
when i was working at kitty-yo 99
kit came by and we talk some smalltalk
next time i think we met at sonar with sue
where they listen to my soundinstallation
in the exhibition about berlin...

they like it and said whenever i would like to release something
i should talk to them...

next time i was invited to play in SF at the contemporary art centre
and do a workshop over there.. they invited me to stay at there place
so we becamme friends more and more

when i was looking for a label to release my shit
and i dint find any in europe
i was staying in chicago for a few weeks to play a little tour with
sarah marrs and kyborg... i remembered their words and called them

they said yes immediatly


question:
3. Back to you previous album : very rich, different styles,
experimental vocal work, it was
very new, original, experimental but sensitive.
How did you come to the AGF style ? How did you find your style ? When
did you think "that's
me", "that's what a want to share" ?



agf:
thats a nice question
because it is really the moment when i am satisfied in this project
when i can say to myself: thats me !

i think its when all the doubt is gone and after spending many hours
forgetting the ME

;)

how to find a style... i work and work and work on it


question:
4. You created a new kind of music, treating your vocals as others
work on instrumental
sentences : cut and paste, loop, and all kind of technological
editing. What were you thinking
of your music before releasing Head Slash Bauch ? Were you aware that
you were alone to make
such a music ?


agf:
i was searching and researching
before i recorded head slash bauch i was travelling a lot and playing
concerts to find out what i wanne do as agf

i tried to NOT use my voice

i had the desire to stop having a message
need to "say" somting and make people think

i was admiring works of vladislav delay for instance
who just made 50 minutes calm ambient music almost on one chord

i was looking for music to create what would give people space and relaxation
and warmth ....

so i developed this wall/ dense sound for me and at the point when
i was thinking ...what is my most strenght ...i thought of my voice again

o i thought i cant skip my most preciouse unique thing

so i started to work on the process to get the voice into my music
as a sound... i wasnt interested to do lala or words ... i just read manuals and code
which was laying around in my room anway

it felt most natural to do that :)))



question:
5. You work, you create with a computer, you were reading HTML code in
your first album. How
important is technology in your life, in your music ?
Internet change the way people communicate. Did it also change the way
you create, you write
your music, your lyrics ? In wich way ?


agf:
yeah a lot

technic is a big freedom for me
the symbol for independancy and self determination

still the technic sucks
because always something is wrong/missing
random accidents... etc...

so their is never too much control and safeness

but also its a reliable friend .. my laptop
when i have him around i am not feeling lonely ;))

well its a joke... but its keeps me busy
and connected to so many interesting people and things in the planet
and i like humans and what they create

if i could design my perfect livestyle

i would have a house in the very solitude nearby the ocean and woods
and a super high speed webconnection in the house
and my favourite human with me... and lost of production gear ;))

+ a little helikopter

no entertainment



question:
6. Your second record will be released in a few days. The construction
is different, more like
songs than little tracks based on a sound idea, with only english
lyrics, and sometimes we feel
a funky/hip-hop style. How did you prepare this second album ?
Did you have an idea of what you wanted to do ?

agf:
yeah .. i thought of not repeating myself
i thought of beeing more concrete again
in words and attitude

english came natural... cause its my main spoken language since a few years...

i thought of creating lots of little mini scenes
i thought of it more as a movie

the record should not supply anything existing already
but flirting here and there with many incredience
which could be hip hop or pop or noise or a chorus




question:
7. Can you explain the choice of english lyrics, instead of evocating
things with sounds like
on the first record ?


agf:
at some point i was almost forcing myself
into putting german words in/ cause its my trademark blabla
people where asking me to do it

but it didnt make sense

i thought ok i made 5 records in german
now i make one in english

i wanted to be understood



question:
Westernization Completed is more "text-oriented", more vocal, and you are really singing sometimes. You had things to say that couldn't be said in another way ? Your voice is more than an instrument ?


yes i wanted to become straight
in my view on a few things... still there are some
instrumental parts on it

in the album track contemporary westernized
i really wanted to state where i come from
to explain ... the starting point
like people in hiphop do very much
i think its a good idea



8. The track 9 is called "POEMProducer" which is the name of your
website. On both medias, you
say "LANGUAGE is the most exciting form. learning how to mean." But
meaning is not saying. Are
you learning how to be a poet ? Do you consider yourself as a poet ?

mh i think i dont care so much what i am

i am me

i write poems since i am 7
and i started producing when i was 25

i know what i am

i am antye greie

the poem prodcuer is an expression for the technik
of taking beautiful words out of contexts and put them together
under different circumstances

fool around with words in order to make things different

cause the right expected order is not creating understanding

cause the language how we use it is often useless
not to buy zigarettes but to communicate
with other humans on an caring level

things get fucked ... fall apart... often cause of the lack of language


people expect to be understood .. but are too scared to communicate



i work on that and care about understanding
in generell it would be really appreciated if the word would spent more effort
on understanding and creating languages instead of judging
opinions ...


also i like to create emotions or understanding throught using words
which are maybe NOT making sense in the first place
but they trigger a certain idea of a feeling or intuition to see something
differently

but i also like to say things sometimes really straight

its a question of composition




9. You also write/say "WORDS ARE MISSING". Deleting words in a
sentence is an easy way to mean,
instead of saying.
Could it be a definition of e-poetry ? What do you include in / How
would you define e-poetry ?


for me its poetry created/ sampled out of the electronic media/ web etc


10. During your gig, I've been intrigued by a song like "Shumine"
where you say "I show you
mine". In fact, during the gig, and for a long time, I understood "I
show you my ..." asking me
what was this missing word, and spending my time looking for all the
possible words. But even

;)


in "mine" the mysterious word is still missing. What do you want to
show us with your music,
your lyrics ?
[ you can mean it, if you don't want to say it... :-) ]

i think what i mean ...


... is that by showing me
and how i am and what i do and how i tick and exist
i give a living example of suviving and beeing
creative

i want to encourage people by showing "mine" and also
by doing and action

i get encouraged by that... and i hope that works the other way around

;)))

i am permanent in research
sometimes it sucks... some people get bothered by it
and feel uncompftable... i am sorry for that

its not my intension

i try to work on it


11. When I was young, I was often disappointed that at the end of the
records, the artist was
not saying "Good Bye", or "Thank you for listening".

;)))

The first and last pieces of "Westernization Completed" starts a
dialogue between you and the
listener. You invite him/her to your world, you say that he is your
best friend, and create a
strange relation between the artist and the audience.
Who are you talking to ? To this "hypothetical" human being ?

well originally in my imagination i talk to my best friend

but with putting it as an opener it creates the very personal
intimacy of me and the listener

if somebody is in... he/ she is in

if they dont get through that
they shouldnt listen to this album
it wont give them anything...

i think you need to be quite open and curiouse and brave
to listen to it,.. with open mind and heart and brain



12. You have been involved in any projects, many collaboration (Nanoloop, Audiolab, Vladislav
Delay, Craig Armstrong...)
I suppose that these projects satisfy your need of communication and exchange. How do you study
the opportunity to collaborate with someone ?


audiolab i did on my own

every human beeing is differnt
nature never produces the same thing twice

Is there someone whith whom you'd really like to work ? Someone who
inspire you ?

john lennon

would have been my teenage dream...

well just read today that his murderer will not be released of prison


otherwise i am isnpired by every human beeing if it happens to work with it
i have a 13 year old girl ... friend of a friends daughter she is coming once a week
and we work together on music.. she is inspiring me much !!!

vladislav delay
craig armstrong
sue costabile
lappetites
laub
pyranja


question:
13. You recently created the Lappetites with Kaffe Matthews and RyoCo. Can you tell us a bit more about this new project ?


agf:
elaine radique is with us too

its a work in progress... we met and decided to do it
i like the fact that we are 3/4 woman from different backgrounds
countries and generations to create art together... i am
sooo curiouse what will come out of this

i guess it will be somehow political and experimental
minimal and disturbing .... hopefully beautiful


we will work over the year in differnent stages
and will hopefully get something out of it !!!


its so exciting.. and makes me happy to work with woman
after working with so many man the last 15 years in music




best to you
i would be happy to put this interview on my website
thanks agf