Interview with Ralf Hutter in Sydney, Australia on Friday 24 January 2003,
conducted by Richard Kingsmill of Australian youth radio network Triple J.
KINGSMILL: Has the technological advances that have occurred in the last 20,
30 years, has it made it easier for Kraftwerk to play live?
HUTTER: Yes definitely, because now we have our laptop computers, and we can
travel, where before you can imagine, in the 70s, 80s even, we had all this
huge analogue music machines, UK and Europe were (inaudible) autobahn, but
then flying to America, or coming to Australia was nearly impossible.
KINGSMILL: Did it restrict what you could do, and how much...
HUTTER: Yes, in a way, because Lufthansa wouldn't fly us in here for free,
so your cargo charges and
KINGSMILL: ...was too expensive
HUTTER: Yeah. But now we can travel and we're really very moveable, and
that's why we are here.
KINGSMILL: Have you enjoyed playing live, because there's speculation
amongst your fans about whether you actually do like the live performance.
HUTTER: Yes, we don't do that many concerts but it's always a challenge and
so far the computers have worked very well, and ... little failures here and
there, but overall they have been very friendly with us and we have been
friendly with the computers, so things are working very well.
KINGSMILL: I noticed last night (Enmore Theatre, Sydney) just a couple of
glitches along the way... and that was actually surprising to see the
reaction from the audience, because there is speculation about how much of
it is actually being played live on stage.
HUTTER: It's all live, the computers are running live.
KINGSMILL: Do you worry much about those mistakes when they happen?
HUTTER: Uh, no, but there's always a risk of total failure then we would
have to stop, out, and have to make a short speech, re-load, and start
again.
KINGSMILL: Is this part of a, resurrection if you like of Kraftwerk? You've
been very quiet for, you know, the last fifteen years.
HUTTER: Yes, we have been working in our studio, doing all our very very
old, from the late 60s, early 70s, the analogue tapes, we have transferred
it onto digital format, so we put a lot of work on our old Kraftwerk
original sounds. Also now we have been doing re-masterings, which will
probably come out later this year, and we have been doing all these sound
files, to perform with the original Kraftwerk sounds, live, and working on
those.
KINGSMILL: Mmm. A lot of artists like to move on. They don't tend to like a
lot of their early work, do you enjoy listening back to what you created all
those years ago?
HUTTER: Yeah, well we don't listen so much but we have been working in
transferring the sounds, and now putting them forward into our live
performance.
KINGSMILL: What about the new music of Kraftwerk, is there much?
HUTTER: Yes, we are working on different tracks, and when we play some more
concerts on the Big Day Out festivals, then we fly back into Germany in to
our Kling Klang studio, and we will continue work on the next album.
KINGSMILL: Which is how much completed?
HUTTER: Ohff, 99%.
KINGSMILL: That close? How's it sounding?
HUTTER: Kraftwerk-like.
HUTTER: In Dusseldorf we work in our Kling Klang studio since 1970, and the
doors are closed, and we are doing what we have to do. Our work we call
ourselves musik arbeiter,
KINGSMILL: ... which translates as..
HUTTER: Musical workers
KINGSMILL: uh-huh
HUTTER: ... and that's what we do.
KINGSMILL: You are very isolated? I have read, no faxes, no phones, no
contact..
HUTTER: Yes, all this would be disturbing..
KINGSMILL: So you isolate yourself as much as possible?
HUTTER: Yes, for the work, and then we go out again, and we go to clubs, to
dance, and we travel, we are working on all aspects of creating Kraftwerk,
that's the one thing we do, we have never been able to do other things.
KINGSMILL: When you and Florian are working in such an intense environment
in creating pieces of music which would take.... would they take maybe years
to create?
HUTTER: Yes, sometimes, and then we put them away, and listen back again,
and do other things,
KINGSMILL: ... and then change them slightly..
HUTTER: yes,
KINGSMILL: It must be very refreshing then to finally get out of the studio
and take it to people..
HUTTER: Definitely, yeah.. Well we... in the first place we are live
musicians..
KINGSMILL: Mmm, because you and Florian met at conservatory..
HUTTER: Yes
KINGSMILL: Was it in Dusseldorf or Cologne?
HUTTER: Outside of Dusseldorf, there was having some improvisational
courses, so we just hooked up together and did stuff. '68. And then we
organised a loose collection of musicians, and around 1970 we built our
Kling Klang studio and Kraftwerk, and from there on we have been working all
the time, until now.
KINGSMILL: Do you listen to a lot of other artists for inspiration?
HUTTER: Well we hear music all around, we hear the sounds of the
environment, we hear the aeroplanes, we hear the cars, we hear the cities,
we go to clubs, we hear when we are in the festival, so we are picking up
vibes from over all. Our ears are microphones.
KINGSMILL: Yes. Well reproducing reality is I think ... (inaudible) years
ago you said , is that still the role for Kraftwerk?
HUTTER: Yes. Well we take from our experiences, like travelling through
Europe, that's where Trans Europe Express comes from, Autobahn comes from
hundreds of thousands of miles on the autobahn...
KINGSMILL: .... and of course Tour De France..
HUTTER: .. Tour de France comes from our cycling experience, and we've been,
er, the music has been the official music of the Tour de France when it came
out.
KINGSMILL: A couple of questions from people, because there's lots of fans
of Kraftwerk here [at JJJ]. Robbie wanted me to ask you about when you first
heard Afrika Bambaataa's Planet Rock, which had heavily sampled your piece
from the 70s...
HUTTER: It's not sampled, it's replayed.
KINGSMILL: ... replayed with the rappers over the top of it. How did you
feel when that, that was obviously crossing over into another generation..
HUTTER: Well, we have been hearing Bambaataa many years before. Our first
experience was when he was playing Trans Europe Express and Metal On Metal
on 2 discs in a club, and they were experimenting with two record players,
and they had two pressings, and so he was doing that, and from there I knew
there were things going on, and then he did that rap record, and Trans
Europe Express.
KINGSMILL: Did you find it exciting?
HUTTER: Yes, it's a very, very good record.
KINGSMILL: Yes, well its just a completely different generation and also
culture that was picking up on your music. Was that strange for you?
HUTTER: Er, in a way, not, because we had always been accused of our music
being cold, and repetitive, and boring and very machinistic, and we always
found there was soul in the machines, and then one day when these records
came out it was proven that there is soul to the sequencers of Kraftwerk.
KINGSMILL: And another question, just to sort of wind up.. the future is
something which Craig who works here wanted me to ask you about. When you
were little, when you were young, did you think much about the future?
HUTTER: Maybe we thought more about the present, because living in Germany
we were the first post-war generation, and so there was a cultural
emptiness, which we discovered at puberty, and in the first place there was
a little culture shock, living in this total emptiness, but from there on it
was an enormous chance, so we could make it up, we made up our own living
culture, everyday culture, we call eitaks kutuur, and that was a very big
chance. There was no big entertainment scene, or musical scene, of course
there was the classical music from way back the 19th century, and there was
a electronic music scene around the radio stations, maybe those combinations
of situation inspired us to make up our own music. Everyday electronics.
KINGSMILL: Yeah, well there was scene coming up, but it was a rebuilding
wasn't it? Of culture, and of ideas?
It must have been very exciting.
HUTTER: Yes, it was an enormous chance in those days.
KINGSMILL: Do you think much about the future now. There's been so much
that's happened in 20 years, what do you think is going to happen in the
next 20 years?
HUTTER: Oh we have to see, be awake, and keep your eyes and ears open, and
we'll see.
Transcribed by Peter Page
