Rockezine.com interview with Girls Under Glass on Apr 28, 2002

with Volker Zacharias on Apr 28, 2002

It’s about time that GIRLS UNDER GLASS have the chance to do their story in Rockezine. Their latest record ‘Minddiver’, their latest tour and the fact that the band exists for 16 years are reason enough to ask some questions
		GIRLS UNDER GLASS exists 16 years now, what’s your story for staying together that long? We leave space for ourselves and the roles in the band are quite clear. Everybody knows his skills and also knows when he just should be out of the way. I’m good in writing melodies and of course as a singer I need to arrange a lot to hold everything together. Axel and Hauke are very good in producing and mixing which is not my thing at all. So we don’t have to discuss about everything. We just do songs, everything works out fine and fits. We know what to expect from each other and that works out fine. And…we have never expected the big success, otherwise we would be totally disappointed and frustrated by now. Making good music is the most important aim.
		If you look back into your past - as a band - what are the best and worst moments you had? There are too many good and shitty moments in 16 years. I think one of the worst news was when our original singer Tom Lücke left the band. Luckily we believed in ourselves and were sure that we could go on with me as a (new) singer, so when we found out that the ‘new spirit’ was just fantastic, that was of course a very good feeling. Another heavy moment was the time that we played such a shitty concert that most of the audience left. We couldn’t do a damned thing. We just had a really bad day and the feeling wasn’t right. On the other hand we also had a lot of really great moments at concerts, so this live-experience is always very interesting. It’s a chemical thing between the band and the audience. If the chemical is right, everybody has a fantastic time.
		What’s the big difference for you between your earlier records and ‘Minddiver’? I think most of the GUG records are very different from each other. We like to experiment around a lot and are also open-minded for any new influences, so we define GUG`s music in different ways with different results. For us as musicians this is very interesting, for our fans it is not easy of course, because GUG is not the band that satisfies expectations. So in the beginning we were an electronic based goth band. Very dark, very doomy, simple grooves. With the years we became harder, the guitars were more present, the song structures became more rock-song-orientated and the synth sounds became harder as well. With ‘Firewalker’ (1997) we reached the edge of this band-progress and recognized that we were far away from our real skills. So ‘Firewalker’ is the most untypical and also most unsatisfying album we made, because it is not unique at all. It’s so much comparable with many other bands who do the same kind of sound and who do it just better! And that’s not the reason why we make music. So with ‘Equilibrium’ we just made a very traditional GUG album and for many fans this album is our best ever. We didn’t try things, we didn’t experiment. We just played the instruments and mixed the whole shit and it was just IT!! This of course helped us for the new album ‘Middiver’, which is more electronic again and more modern. But I think we arranged to combine this new, modern GUG feeling with the strong aspects of being atmospheric, intensive and sometimes also dark. So that’s where we are now.
		On your record you had some help from Mindi Kumbalek (Goethes Erben) and Rainier Kahle (Angels & Agony). How did that happen? At some points I just don´t get the right idea of getting along with a certain song and its lyrics. So then I’ll involve friends to help me out with their ideas. If it fits, we’ll take it. And Mindi and Rainier just did an excellent job.
		You just returned from your tour. Was it successful for you? No! We have recognized that touring these days is a very stupid thing to do. We are living in a club-culture, not in a concert-culture. People hardly care about bands being on tour unless they are as hip as VNV Nation is. So for us this tour will have been the last one for many years. We will concentrate our power for gigs in other countries, to become better known there and of course for festivals, where always people are. We lost lots of money with the GUG tour, mainly because we wanted to present a great show with many special light-effects et cetera.
		GIRLS UNDER GLASS is booked for Eurorock this year and I even saw you have a show in Mexico that should be thrilling things… Yeah, we are very lucky that we have the opportunity to explore other countries this year. We are very excited about that and hope that the concerts will help us to build up the band outside of Germany.
		In the Netherlands we’ve got a discussion going if fantasy and Gothic are the same, thanks to some interviews and documentaries on TV. What’s your opinion about this? What does Gothic mean to you? To be honest, I’m hardly involved in that scene any more. I was part of it from the early eighties on and the vibes were much different at that time. That’s all I can say. I don’t want to annoy anybody, so people….just go on doing what you think you have to do.
		It seems that Gothic, Industrial and Wave got a revival (especially in the Netherlands) at least if you see the current attention in the press. How is the situation in Germany? The music was never out. For many years now these bands are very popular and successful. Since this year we have some new bands that get the kind of attention bands like Pitchfork, Das Ich, Deine Lakaien or Wolfsheim used to get. There is a new scene that gave the old EBM and synthpop-music a new face or at least a new name, ‘Future Pop’. This is the first time for years now that new bands hit the charts and become so successful but I won’t speak about a revival. In my opinion that’s just marketing!
		What are the future plans of GIRLS UNDER GLASS? New material? Other plans? We will release a live album from this tour and in late autumn we might start with composing new songs. We already have some new ideas but don’t know yet when we will have the time to work on it more concrete.
		What are your musical influences? Which bands and acts do you listen to? I personally like any kind of music that is intensive, emotional, atmospheric, or kicks ass. So I have a very bright range from Coal Chamber, Linkin Park and Korn to Depeche Mode, Mesh and Neuroticfish to very smooth stuff like Martin Hall, Enya, Dead Can Dance and Craig Armstrong. But none of these bands I would call influential. I believe that GUG is doing its very own thing.
		Something you always wanted to say, but never was asked… My favourite film is “Shock” by Michael Ninn if somebody is interested in that information
		Read more about GIRLS UNDER GLASS on www.girlsunderglas.de (Beautevil )