Klaus Schulze

First of all, I’d like to thank you for agreeing to this interview. I’m a great admirer of your work, and it’s an honor to be interviewing you, Mr. Schulze. We’ve already got a lengthy biography of you on ProgArchives, but could you briefly explain how you came to start making electronic music?

Because I was young and was too lazy for a "normal" job :-)  But seriously: this is nothing special. Many teenagers try to make music, not just in the sixties, but at all times. It could be... er... maybe it has something to do with girls?
It's just that most of them (not the girls, I mean the musicians) do not continue, but soon start to work in a "regular" job outside music. The chance to live from doing music, to pay your rent and feed a wife and kids, this chance is very small. Doing music professionally is a full-time job, a real profession, for many it's a life's calling. You cannot do it just on weekends, at your leisure times, for fun. ... Yes, yes, of course you can. Many do. But don't ask to be taken fully serious.

Which artists (musical or non-musical) have had the largest impact on your decision to start making music and your particular style?

Can you imagine that someone has the idea to create something of his own?
But of course we all listened to the pop and rock music of the sixties, when the sixties happened. And probably we all are more or less influenced by it, but we are also influenced by everything else that had surrounded us, and what we have seen, or read, or heard. 

Always the tools that I need and that are the best available.

The details about the already released LVEs are to find in the discography section of my official website. Even more details are in Mueller's THE WORKS, which is a huge discography with ALL details of my recordings, concerts (etc.) and output. Moreover, the booklets in these 3-CD sets include detailed background stories about many of the tracks.  

Since you’ve previously included elements like vocals and acoustic percussion into your work, are there any other musical elements that you’ve thought of experimenting with in your music (traditional Asian instruments, field recordings, etc.)?
 
Already 37 years ago in BLACKDANCE I used an operatic singer. Later I worked with the great singer Arthur Brown, even later the lovely Lisa Gerrard joined me, and in between there were some others.
Acoustic percussion I also used very often, in concerts as well as in my studio recordings. Sometimes I beat the drums myself, sometimes others. The best was of course Michael Shrieve. But also old pal Harald Grosskopf played his drumset very often with me, at least during the seventies.
"Field recordings"?  If I read that, I have to think of a (now) famous name in music who simply takes such "field recordings" from 1959 (blues & gospel), put HIS name on it and gets rich and famous with it. No, I don't like that and I don't do that. Of course I also use sometimes (but short!) samples, but I can say on principle that I create my own work. It's more joy. 

Is there any important recent news in the world of Klaus Schulze?
 
If there was or will be something important happen, we will put it into the official KS website, and also "The KS Circle" will write about it.

Thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview with me – I and the rest of ProgArchives greatly appreciate it. Is there anything else that you’d like to say to your fans?

Thank you, for asking questions so easily to answer :-)

Klaus Schulze's PA page is here

Klaus Schulze's official website is here