Krautrock pioneer Michael Rother: "Grönemeyer was our psychotherapist"

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Rother, is it true that David Bowie invited you to record his album "Heroes"?

Rother: Yes, that's true. In the summer of 1977 we talked on the phone for a long time. And it was clear to us that I would come to Berlin . At some point, the management informed me that I was not needed. I accepted that. Bowie told in an interview in 2000 that I had given him a refusal. Since then, I think they set him up then.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why is that?

photo gallery

5 pictures

Rother: His musical development was at that time not understood by the fans, the sales went down. A manager who looks after the career of such an artist, will probably have said: "Now there is still such a crazy, noncommercial musician from Germany, who further encourages him to do experimental things?" It seems plausible to me.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Brian Eno, who produced his Berlin trilogy with Bowie, had less fear of contact there. He even visited you in the Weserbergland.

Rother: He was with Harmonia and me in 1976. We picked him up in Hannover from the airport and drove to Forst, it was a warm September day. The Weser flows directly past the house, every morning there are different light conditions and fog. I think he really enjoyed that. We played for twelve days, without pressure, without effort. It was a bit strange that I played with him his composition "By This River", which was later labeled as a collaboration with Cluster.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: "By This River" is one of the most beautiful songs out there.

Rother: Yes, right? That's what Eno composed for me, under the impression of the Weser next to the property. Too bad, because my guitar would have fit well there as well.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Speaking of guitar: Another admirer of her art is John Frusciante, who has written many hits for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Rother: Yeah, that's what I've been on stage with. Strong Tobacco. In 2004, Frusciante invited me to Los Angeles to play Michael Rother music. I thought we were improvising, but no: he had a setlist, he wanted to work it off. One piece, "Palmengarten", I had never played live and did not even know how to do that. John showed me: "Michael, this is how you played it!" That was very cute.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did you never find this engaging love of the English and Americans for Krautrock strange?

Rother: Oh, musicians like Bowie and Eno were not so fixated on their British tradition. They had art in mind and open ears. Every creative person takes inspiration or finds inspiration. And then it depends on how far away he is from the object or original of his stimulus.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The music of NEW! however, that was exactly what it was: new. How was that possible?

Rother: I did not hear any other music at the time.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why not?

Rother: As a guitarist, I had internalized all the heroes, taken over all stereotypes. I tried to sound like Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and everyone else. But at some point I knew that this does not lead to a personal identity. Then I said to myself: "Now you do not listen to anything anymore!" With these fast guitar fingers you do not even know what value the single note has. That was suspicious to me. I knew, I want to omit everything familiar and learned.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And then?

Rother: I went into the individual components instead and tried to fathom the expressive variety. What is possible with one tone on just one string? The dynamics, the primitive moment of music. In retrospect, it can be easily transfigured, but then was also insecurity in the game. When changing the harmony in the NEW! Piece "Weißensee" in 1972, I had long considered whether that was not a relapse into old bombastic clothes. But it matched the logic of the piece, it is an inhale and exhale.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: So you knew exactly what they were doing?

Rother: Not always. "Hallogallo" is for me the biggest mystery of all pieces. I do not know how that came about. Conny Plank has mixed so much, maybe that's it? But it's true, after a few years I had the security. If you step into an open field and you know there are swamps, you are careful. But then I knew the paths that went through.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You were not aware of your popularity abroad at that time?

Rother: It must have been in 1994 or 1995, a friend in Hamburg had invited me to a concert. I did not know the band. And I really thought I heard myself.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: It played the British-French avant-garde pop band Stereolab.

Rother: Exactly, Stereolab was that. Very nice people, with the singer Laetitia Sadier I played later. Sonic Youth, Two Cool Chicks Listing To New, a little later, then Radiohead: The music was picked up elsewhere, as there was still gloominess in this country.

DISPLAY

Buy CD | Buy LP

at

SPIEGEL ONLINE: gloom?

Rother: In my opinion. My solo records were still running for a while. New! but had disappeared from stores in the early eighties. The musical landscape changed as well. At some point we were all outside. I was in New York, and my heart was bleeding, as masses of New! Pirated copies were being offered in stacks and deep stacks. In Sydney too! Of which we have never seen a penny of license. They did not pay Gema, nothing.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: In addition, there were problems with your NEU! -Partner Klaus Dinger ...

Rother: At that time he prevented larger labels from releasing us. Since Klaus Dinger is no longer with us to defend himself, I'm careful with a judgment. But Klaus was pretty desperate then, he needed money. He lived a little differently than I did and was also very public in it. On his website he proudly wrote "more than 1000 LSD trips". He also released some recordings of old sessions as NEW! Music, without asking me. He was just a very difficult guy. And it was a dark phase.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Until Herbert Grönemeyer answered?

Rother: Quasi. Nobody expected that. He has followed us for a year and a half, also as a psychotherapist, in one-on-one talks and joint talks. To find out where it hooks. Herbert managed that with his Westphalian stubbornness and his energy, in a very tight race ...

SPIEGEL ONLINE: And in the end the NEU! Albums were re-released on his label Greenland.

Rother: They were legal, they were beautiful, they were well mastered: it was lovely. The music went out into the world and was sold much better within a few years than in the three decades before.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Will there be new music by Michael Rother?

Rother: I have laid a musical foundation. A framework in which I can move with some certainty. Will I be able to break away from it to reach another plateau? That may be an assignment. At the moment, I am enjoying how much fun my music is recording all over the world. My heart is laughing, you can look it over me.