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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 : ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 |