December 13, 2018
QA: GUDRUN GUT
1- ‘Moment’ is your new solo album since 2012. It consists of 14 sonic fragments, songs, blurbs, “petites histoires”. What inspired you to write and release this album ?
GG: I had a big music project coming up that fell through. So I had some free time and I thought: maybe I could use it for starting a new album? First track was Startup-Loch and I liked it and than it went smooth. The whole recording was based around more analogue working. I used the computer (w ableton live) more for recording and producing- editing- arranging. So it was based on fun and playfulness and free enterprise . The little star of the album is my new little synth 0coast (make noise). and other old and newer analogue equipment. sequencing it up. experiments. letting go.
2 – The impression I got from listening to this album, was like experiencing random memories, souvenirs encrypted in your head somehow as I can’t really understand german; but the sounds created a new language that allowed me to tune in and imagine the memories on my own without relying on meaning.
GG: Oh yeah- One is about existential fear, one is about music and the night, one is about a lover being good, one is about being hungry or not and one is about being alone in bed etc.
Do you consider ‘moment’ as autobiographical?
GG: No.
3 – Each song appears like a fleeting fragment that was captured in time. The whole album reminds me of a photographer on a hunt for an unconscious aesthetic. The songs sound very different but feel interconnected at the end of the listening.
Adding the vocals to the song creates some depth and narrative.
Does ‘Moment’ follow a linearity in time? Are the tracks made at the same time?
GG: Nice compare! Yes most tracks are made in 2018 – I started in January and it is being released the same year. Thats great that we got this happening. Sometimes it takes 2 years for an album to be actually released. But since I wanted to capture a moment in time as well it was just right to have it out same year. The track ‘biste schon weg’ is older but I finished it up in production this year.
Do you see the songs are interconnected?
GG: Hm. Maybe.
4 – In ‘Baby You Can Drive My Car’ you’re singing “Baby I can Drive My Car, In Saudi Arabia”.
For the first time last summer, Saudi Arabia announced that women’s driving ban was lifted.
GG: Thats why I made a song about it. I am involved in feminist subjects and here you see how patient one has to be sometime…
Is this song related to this issue? Do you consider this song as a political (feminist) statement?
GG: Yes.
5 – In ‘Baby You Can Drive My Car’ , It’s interesting to see how changing pitches to vocals adds more textures to the song. It seemed like many women were part of this song.
What are your favorite vocal techniques or effects when making music?
GG: I used the Helicon fx to make my ‘Sprechgesang’ more interesting and did a lot of my own choir recording- adding lots of different voices and mixing them down.
6 – In this video/ interview, you stated that when you first started music you wanted to make different music, by being ‘bad’ at using instruments and by making noise. Do you share the same mind set today when you make music?
GG: Not being bad at instruments. wrong quote.
Still love noise – its part of music. But not noise only so much.
Yes I am still a Genius Dilletant and not a very good musician. I am much more an artist than a musician. I can make a record which is good without playing the piano perfect. It helps composing if you are not an instrumentalist (see Eno). I am more doing collages and using sounds and frequencies.
7 – It’s interesting, personally i feel the same when i make music as bergsonist, using computers always block me, and learning tools always repeal me. But when i investigate my machines, i always try to follow my intuition without any preconceived knowledge. Do you use intuition when you make your music?
GG: Absolutely. I’m quite easy and good with tech and have no fear to just start it. Getting bored so quick when reading manuals… I do trust my intuition more and more.
8 – In the making of the album, which happy accidents were you the most proud of?
GG: Oh all of them! The whole album is a happy accident. ;)) I secretly love LOVER.
9 – Which music are you recently finding relative to your reality? (Music that currently inspires you and/ you listen to often)
GG: I like Lana Del Ray. I do! Great production. love her text, great music.
But seriously: I listen to a lot of demos, unfinished albums, and a lot of internet radio with fantastic stuff! cashmere radio berlin, dub lab radio LA, Byte fm and many more. love listening to music from other countries. The world is big…)
10 – I’m very curious about the story behind ‘backup’ ? Could you describe briefly its creative process?
GG: It was (like all the other tracks) an improv with my little toys. And this one is the evident. It’s quite chaotic and moves in directions you would not normally take. I wanted it on the album to remind me of how all this started and was done. Memory backup.
11 – Speaking of backups, how do you archive all of your sonic material?
GG: Archive: on harddisc.
12 – In 1997, you created your own record label “Monika Enterprise”. Since, you’ve been releasing amazing music, such as Sonae’s “I started Wearing Black”( which we loved and featured here: >
Does the label share the same vision as when it was created or it has changed through time?
GG: No things change.
Unfortunately the situation for female producers did not change as much as I thought it would…. haha.
13 – What are Monika Enterprise’ plans for 2019?
GG: I will have remixes out in spring. and: more monika werkstatt ! This is a project I love and which goes beyond normal label work and beyond everything I ever have done. Now I have my pop-persona-solo-artist hat on – but with the werkstatt it is only about content and music and sharing.
Thanks for your time ! Selwa
(interview conducted by bergsonist, thanks to Britt Brown)
premiere of ‘backup’
“Gudrun Gut’s story spans many years, scenes, and sounds, from the “ingenious dilettantes” subculture of early 1980’s Berlin as part of Mania D, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Malaria! to her twilit industrial pop trio Matador into an expansive solo catalog of later work scoring films, videos, and radio plays. Her talents extend beyond musician, however, to include founding record labels (the influential imprints Moabit Musik and Monika Enterprise), club nights (progressive electronic pop collective Oceanclub), and experimental feminist collaborations (Monika Werkstatt). “ (source: press release)
Gudrun’ s website
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Categories ALL, INTERVIEWTags abstract, analog, downtempo, experimental, gudrungut, hardware, modular, MONIKAENTERPRISE, soundart, voiceLeave a comment