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Joined: March 04 2008
Location: Retirement Home
Status: Offline
Points: 3658
Topic: Shamall Posted: June 14 2011 at 10:48
SHAMALL is the moniker used by German composer and multi-instrumentalist Norbert Krueler, a highly influential DJ in Germany by trade and a passionate part-time musician to boot.
Your
biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's
bypass the biography details. But why did you take up a career as a
recording artist in addition of being a DJ and which bands/artists
were you influenced by ?
I have
been resident DJ in a big German rock club for more than 33 years.
The club had a nationwide reputation for it's great sound and
extraordinary light and laser show. In my youth I was playing guitar
and singing and also had a short stage career. So it seemed to be
natural to use my musical affinity in combination with the given
technical facilities of the club to produce the first tracks to
entertain the audience with some individual music. By whom I was
influenced? Oh my God! When I got my first synthesizer, I tried to
play similar arpeggios than John Carpenter...:-))! But seriously, I
was deeply influenced by Pink Floyd, Alan Parsons, Manfred Mann,
Klaus Schulze etc.
Why did
you choose the Shamall name and what does it means to you ?
Hmmm.
When I was looking for a band name, it should be something which
sounds timeless in my ears..........and something which invokes deep
impressions, like the shamall wind, for example. Now Shamall is 25
years old and the name sounds the same mystic than 1986, when the
band was founded.
How was
the music scene in your area when you started up ?
When
I started up, the music scene was remarkable! Some of the most
important albums of the rock scene came out in that time. Pink Floyd
had their comeback with "a momentary lapse of reason".
Bands like Triumph and Whitesnake ("still of the night")
had fantastic releases at that time. Guns and Roses started their
world career with "paradise city". Marillion came out with
"clutching at straws" and U2 released "the joshua
tree". Many other great bands like Queensryche, Outside Edge,
Stone Fury and Yanni released new albums. It was an eclectic time,
indeed.
This is an archive
based interview also intended for the fans you get well after both
you and I have passed away so let's go straight to your albums.
Please give us your long or brief views on your albums, starting
with...
Journey to a Nightmare from 1989
When I
started making
music, most of the
electronic music albums were taken
by spherical
sounds without
rhythm and
without drama.
Due to the fact, that the rock club had an
extraordinary light- and laser show. It was important to me, to
compose a story that
made this
music more
exciting to the club guests, a music with impressive effects,
changing dramaturgy, living rhythms and different wavy sounds to
underline the most laser effects visually. The result of this "first
try" was my first album "Journey a Nightmare" - an
extraordinary psychedelic electronic album which made its way to a
lot of clubs in the whole country at that time.
Moments of Illusion from 1990
This
album is
a logical
continuation of
"Journey to
a Nightmare" with
new accents.
It was the first album which got international attention because of
its extraordinary dramatic arrangements and effects. Parts of it were
used in many documentations and commercials for a very long time
(Telecom, Time Life etc.). A really great album.
Mirror to Eternity from 1993
It was
the first attempt
to mix
electronic music
with elements of
symphonic rock. It was
also the first album
produced in
our own studio.
Glistening arpeggios
and wild-programmed
drum solos,
coupled with
spherical surfaces
make this album
memorable. No
doubt -
for this one
I received new
technical toys.
In Search
of Precision from 1994
From my
early releases this album will always take pride of place. When I
look back, I am angry about the fact that I did not had the musical
maturity of today, when I produced this album. Eventually, it will
come into my head and then I will to restate "Time Machine"
again. Also "Ambrosia", "Heartland" and the title
theme "In Search of Precision" are still amazing, as well.
But from today's perspective, they are not in timely manner. But I
will never forget how long I worked on this album - and what only a
few people will know today - what it means to produce such a complex
album with the very modest technical means. Today people buy a whole
orchestra in a box - at that time you had to create the same
orchestra - every single instrument - by playing note for note by
hand. It was simply devil of a job.
This Island
Earth from 1997
Retrospectively
one can hear that the electronic concept was almost exhausted. There
are some really nice tracks on this album like "living world"
and "this island earth", although the whole album has not
the class of the previous releases. One can hear that my music is
just before a musical turning point. But at that time I was not sure,
in which direction. So it became that "this island earth"
is a nice psychedelic electro-pop album indeed, but not truly a
progressive milestone.
Influences from 1998
"Influences"
was the
result of my
inner ambivalence.
On the one
hand, titles like 'a
long way from
hell to
heaven" go more rock with
prog-like
approaches to some extent.
And on the second disc, tracks like "the voyager part I - V"
and "caravan to groovania" have a plain portion of trance.
That's schizophrenic. That was the crazy result of a time, where
bands rapped in rock music and rocked in rap music. Different music
styles were crossing over.
Musicians in the whole
world were confused. From my current point of
view, the convenient name for this double release should be
"confusion" instead of "influences"! This is a
nice musical documentation of a really crazy time.
The Book Genesis from 2001
A
great album
that reveals
the musical
development of Shamall.
Hindsight, one
might say, that this album builds the bridge
for Shamall's music
of today
- an experimental
mix of
electronics, krautrock
and progressive
rock. Even
today I
am convinced
the musical change
couldn't have been better.
Who Do They
Think They Are from 2003
Driven by
the dreadful
incidents of
the economically
motivated Iraq
war, I was inspired to use my voice to leave a
political message in my music. So my music
became more native, elements of rock were more
present. The
conversion of
electronic psychedelic
music to
symphonic neo
prog was
insidious and more
incidental. That was my cup of tea. It was always my opinion, that
one shouldn't press bands
or projects into
drawers, because they
should always have the freedom
to change
within their
genre, too.
Because
I worked as a
DJ for 33 years, I
know that
on one side
a lot of music fans demand
from their favorite
bands, that they
should evolve
and if they did evolve,
then the same fans accuse the bands of leaving their roots. For the
artists, that is often difficult to understand.
Ambiguous
Points of View from 2006
hm .... As
my reputation as a pure electronic musician was completely ruined
since "Who do they think they are" - I found myself with
"ambiguous points of view" on a musical playground that
allowed me to follow my heart and to do everything I loved. Now I was
free to expand myself and could keep up in a more native style and
combine rock music with electronic elements, which I started on my
previous album in remembrance to the idols of my early youth. With
"ambiguous points of view" I created an epic rock album,
which will be still the benchmark for each following album.
Questions
of Life from 2008
"Questions
of life" is definitely a logical continuation of "Ambiguous
points of view". It is certainly not a trailblazing development.
But the performance of individual instruments is partially more
sophisticated than on previous albums - which would be worth
mentioning. "What will happen", "Life" and
"Adage" are my personal favourite highlights on this album.
Matthias Mehrtens' guitar work on this album is really awesome.
Is This Human
Behaviour? from 2009
As an artist it is
always difficult to rate his own music
unbiasedly. Almost every musician tries hard to improve with each
album. My general impression of "Is this human behavior" is
that this album is the best Shamall album so far .
On my other albums,
after several years I would sing or play
several passages in a completely different way today. On "Is
this human behavior" I wouldn't change anything. Even if other
critics have a different view about this or that - the point is that
even after almost two years of listening, I still stand 100% behind
every single tone of this album.
How would you describe your music and your musical development from
your first to the so far last album ?
The
first albums up to "influences" were high quality
electronic and ambient. And from "the Book Genesis" until
today my music is more psychedelic rock, symphonic rock and neo-prog
with a touch of art and progressive rock. Many people see
similarities to Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons and as a matter of fact,
these music heroes inspired me since my younger days.
Making electronic
music was a true challenge for me as long as I had to compensate many
technical issues by using creativity and spirit. By the need to
create individual sounds on myself, I could still bring in a personal
touch. I never forget the long nights, when I mapped sounds of
several keyboards to create new "never-heard" pads to
surprise the audience, for example. But times changed. A lot of
manufacturers of the devices overloaded their keyboards and sound
modules with complex presets and sounds, and made them compatible to
the masses. The respect of uniqueness of electronic music died
"quasi" over night. Additionally, the devices were
available at an affordable price. Therefore every professional
musician had to consider what to do with this new situation.
To top
it all, the music market just broke because of the craziest music
combinations at that time. Rock was rapping and Rap was rocking.
Electronic music changed to techno or trance. That was confusing.
I had developed over
the years. So I decided for a complete
break. I wanted to make music for music's sake and stop thinking
about the question, if I would have a commercial success. How should
my fans like my music, if I do not like it? From now on I wanted to
rate each composition with emotional criteria. And in fact, what it
means you hear on all my albums since 2001. I have never regret this
decision so far.
You have
had your fair share of experiences with the music industry. What is
your experiences with the music industry and what do you believe the
future will bring for the whole music and entertainment business ?
I
see the future with very differentiated and with very mixed feelings.
If a musician wants to live off the fruits of his labour, he is
forged to deal with the law. Otherwise, he probably would give away
everything and submit to the mafia-like structures of the MP3
industry. itunes, amazon and a few others are not meant here, but
rather the many middlemen who either don't take every independent
artist or offer that kind of non-transparent rip-off contracts, that
the artist would go away empty-handed. These facts are scary against
the background, that the trend is clear: the medium CD will disappear
from the market within the next years and gives way to digital files.
The sales and streams of mp3 files are often accounted
intransparently - with the result that one must always do more for
less money. This goes at the expense of musical creativity, of
course. I am lucky to be married with a lawyer, but I am thinking of
the many other musicians who are helplessly exposed to those
mafia-like structures. So many artists make great music and get paid
a handout sporadically. And overall they didn't get a differentiated
sheet of their sales, when and where they have sold their music. I
know of a case where someone got 5 € after a year. And there where
definitely sold albums and tracks not billed.....And I know of
another case, where artists should be available in more than 400 mp3
shops and in fact, there were available only in less than 20 or 30
shops.
So
I'm afraid, that independent musicians will expect heavy seas ahead.
Most of the major companies are no longer able to pay and many mp3
aggregators behave highly questionable against many independent
artists. The internet forums are full of complaints from
musicians.
What is
your plan for this year and beyond ?
Currently
I am working on my new album because of the 25th anniversary of
Shamall. Hope to finish it within the next three or four months.
And my second project is
to write a book. Because of my work as a resident dj in a big german
rock club for more than 3 decades I sampled these times as a
contemporary witness. So my upcoming book will tell about the
development of 40 years of rock music. With the emphasis on Krautrock
merging to Crossover - over the years.
Is there
anything you want to add to this interview ?
I
would like to thank
all the music fans around the world for their support, their
faithfulness and their patience. Special mention has to go to
Matthias Mehrtens for supporting me with his beautiful guitar playing
on many albums over the years. And to Mike Bach for playing drums on
different tracks.
Last
but not least: Life is music and music is life!
And one peaceful and ecological message to the world: atomic power -
no thanks! And thanks for reading this output!
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