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. 

If you had to describe your music to someone who has never heard it before, what would your description be?

I don't describe my music. I make my music and I offer it to a public to listen. Some people don't like it, some do like it.

Do you have any musical background before your work in Ash Ra Tempel and Tangerine Dream?
 
My older brother played in a jazz group. And I learned a bit of playing guitar and drums, as many young boys did during the early and mid sixties, all over in the civilized world. Then I had a trio (guitar, organ, and me on drums) that was playing wild, loud & daring hippie music in Berlin clubs.

 
I have good memories of this time.

Your music is very beautiful, serene, highly atmospheric, and each composition tends to flow through a multitude of emotions. Are there any particular atmospheres or feelings that you try to convey to your listeners through the music you write?
 
No.

What is the process by which you make your music?
 
I sit in the studio and play my music. I record it, listen & think about it and work on it, play it again, listen & think about it and work on it, etc.  Until I believe it's ready.


What is your favorite equipment to use when making your music?

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

Would you mind giving your personal thoughts on these albums?

I don't review my albums.
Of course I like them all. If I would not like them, I would not have done and released them.
Often they ask me: WHICH of your album is the best? And I must answer: I cannot and I will not give high marks or low marks. Every album was right in its time. They are like girlsfriends I once had, I also would not assign marks to any of these nice ladies. 

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 http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1613" rel="nofollow - Klaus Schulze's official website is http://www.klaus-schulze.com/kbCuc1NoQZ0Q" rel="nofollow - http://www.klaus-schulze.com/kbCuc1NoQZ0Q" rel="nofollow -

Thanks for the interview .  

 

Klaus Schulze wrote: I don't review my albums. Of course I like them all. If I would not like them, I would not have done and released them. Often they ask me: WHICH of your album is the best? And I must answer: I cannot and I will not give high marks or low marks. Every album was right in its time. They are like girlsfriends I once had, I also would not assign marks to any of these nice ladies.

 

Apparently wisdom comes with the years . http://www.klaus-schulze.com/opinions/topks.htm" rel="nofollow - Here is a list of Klaus Schulze's private top 10's, starting with a top 10 of his own albums dating from October 1997.

 

 

 

That's just awesome!

 

Fun read.

I agree. He kind of offended me by ignoring about half of my questions, and answering the rest with absolutely no interest at all. I didn't find anything funny about his answers, and I'm sad that one of my favorite electronic musicians is someone that I'd never want to have a conversation with.

I guess that Einsetumadur's comment explains something, remind me to turn down any offer I might receive to go live and work in Berlin...

 

Even better is the other DVD bonus of him talking to the engineers and working a nice detail in the music ... adding a sonic addition to your listening from the CD, that you can only get from the live room, and not on the CD as easily. Totallymagnificent and I think one of the things that helped Steven Wilson learn to master and remaster other albums since then.

I'm glad i'm not the only one that thought this. Sorry for the disappointment Alan. 

 

Pt 1

 

Everytime I read this comment, I get scared.

 

Why?

 

Maybe, I had the chance to hear, and see some conversations between literary giants, that gave it away. I sometimes think that some of it is colored in my head, but there are lots of bits and pieces that stand out ... that I think give us better clues as to how to make things work.

 

I have done a couple of interviews in my time. And the best 3 interviews, were the ones where the microphone and the pad were put away ... and it was just a nice chat and fun talk over food, wine, a walk, a breeze, a store ... several places, where you got the chance to be with a person ... not some kind of imaginary ideal of musicality, or literacy, or religiosity!

 

Because some of these are more "personal" than they are anything else, I tend to think that this is not the kind of stuff that magazines or places like PA, want ... because the "fans" don't want friends, or people "they know" ... they want heroes, and someone that knows something more than they do, that can lead them to the Shangri-La land of the best music there is, that is progressive!

 

I don't suppose that you noticed there were three things that were more demanding ... that had nothing to do with this moment in time with a person in front of you! Now, given that separation, and distance you have created, how do you feel you can answer questions ... that don't even reach ... anything that you are doing, or have any connection to who you are as a person or artist? How would you feel about that person lecturing Gary Green about progressive music -- when he was there composing the stuff that we ended up naming "progressive" later? Embarassing!

 

Klaus, has to insulate himself, in order to be able to do his work. And that means that most folks will not have the ability, or the sensitivity, to feel it and help him come out of the "shell" and "expose" himself. And maybe some of the questions were questions were designed for someone with a high school education, not a major artist, whose work is not rock'n'roll, and is not there to appease the glut of the masses and PA.

 

Edgar Froese is the same way ... and he likes to bring along his angry Beethoven bust and put that in your face before the first question. Mind you, he has mellowed out some, but it tells you that he is bored with the questions ... you didn't see that? You have to work harder, to find a thread that will turn him loose ... and say some wonderful things, like he did in the Krautrock special ... you know he was there and has the memory and understands it well ... it's what his work is about.

 

There are others, for example, that could/should be approached that would help clear up some concepts and ideas that the musical world took on ... for example, film makers, theater folks, and other people that don't get the attention and might actually have more to say, than we think. But we are into "progressive" this and that ... and we can not imagine that these people are intelligent enough to see a movie, a play, listen to something else ... and enjoy a little of "life" ... so we ask questions about "progressive" that mostly have no meaning to their experience.

 

Try this ... you let them be the first person in the interview to use the word "progressive" ... you never mention it, until AFTER they do ... and then lets see how things endup? See if you can talk specifics about the album and music ... before you get into silly concepts! See if you can talk to a person, instead of an idea!

 

======================================

Part 2

 

I have, over the years, over 30 to 40 interviews and reviews with some great folks that I liked, that I thought would be neat to spend some time with and share. I felt as an intruder a couple of times, and the rest of these have come from my dreams, and various conversations with those folks. I can not state, unequivocally, that these are perfect, totally true, and that they tell you who the person is ... but I can tell you that it makes me like their music more and more and more every day ... for few people "know" and "understand" their calling in life, any better than these folks do. And some of them appreciate it. Some don't!

 

And the only thing I have ever felt and wanted to do in my whole life was to feel "complete" within my own artistic person, regardless of how. I have no idea what "complete" means, but I can't help thinking that this is an important part of that process ... that helps you grow and live, and learn ... and it never felt wasteful to me.

 

All of these, will be published after I pass on. I do not need the glory, and the exultation, and I feel that these people have been more than an inspiration for my life, my living, and my being ... through their work. Mine is just an observational eye as to what I saw, see, or will enjoy one of these wonderful days!

  

I have felt, and sometimes wondered, how someone would ask me questions about my own work, and many times I have simply dismissed it as a movie inside my head that does not stop ... and I have to hurry up and take note of the details in order to be able to remember it later ... it's all too much, and still no opium to mess it up even more! These are my poems and my stories, and sometimes my ideas about the arts, which are an extension of my own internal work, and experience.

 

I would be embarassed, if someone started it all by asking ... how do you feel about progressive music ... for example ... instead of ... how do you feel, today, compared to yesterday ... about all the music that you have written about, and that we know you love? You see ... now, I have a story ... and a theme ... and we can incorporate progressive in the middle of it sooner or later ... instead of starting with a singular question about progressive music ... which would feel just like, if not worse, than a steely dan would! COLD! And IMPERSONAL!

 

The rest is up to you. If all you want from an interview is a kissypoo idea about supporting "progressive music", I don't think that most folks will sit with you at all! For many of them, it is just music and about the music and its meaning, and has nothing to do with the kitchen pads or pans! And you have to grow up to that, or it will not be a wonder why someone will treat you like an a****le!

 

I, personally, would like to do something different ... I would like to interview some of these folks that do interviews here on PA ... turn the tables a little, just for fun. Some of them are really good, well rounded (and grounded) folks ... but it takes more than a person, to get a great interview in and out of the closet. And rarely, if ever, is it just a word! Remember that!

 

I think it was lost in teh translation, more than likely, and we should not take it literally. But I can't help think that the interview was not challenging for him, in the sense that he had to think about the answers and which words to use.

 

I would like to see Klaus interview Edgar, and then have Edgar interview Klaus ...  just for fun, and I bet they would actually enjoy talking about a lot of things, and reminisce like no one else! At PA, I would think that the only person that could/should interview a Klaus Schulze should have been Dean!

 

I don't think it's rude ... I just think that he probably was worried about what questions he might have faced, but in the end it was nothing to write home about.

 

I do believe that some of his answers were not exactly complimentary to the level/quality of the work itself, and that the person asking the questions was not studied enough to understand/know what Klaus was about. That is the way I see it ... !!!