Dieter Meier is a man of many parts. In a
modern, cultural setting, he is probably best known as one-half of the
ground-breaking Swiss-based electronic band Yello. Musically, he has crossed
genres from avant-garde, punk rock and even mainstream success, while also making
a mark for himself as a conceptual artist, a film director and an International
entrepreneur. He was born to a very wealthy family but instead of following in
their footsteps, he has taken chances throughout his life, both in his artistic
pursuits and in his Business endeavours. Somehow, he’s managed to balance his
success in different areas and continues to follow his path forwards, ever keen
to find out where the next step is going to take him.
Most recently, he has released his first ‘solo’ album, ‘Out of Chaos’. Although containing some similarities with his previous music, it’s also a clearly-defined tangent to the rhythmically-based music you might expect from Yello, and instead delves into more traditional song-structures. The album has also led to a series of live concerts with full band line-ups, which have been the first time Dieter has embarked on entirely-live performances. Not an obvious thing for a 69 year old artist to suddenly decide to do, but again, it’s all about taking the chance.
In September, Dieter Meier brought his band to London to play at the Jazz Cafe and, thanks to the efforts of the ever-charming Nita, I was able to secure an interview. First meeting at the venue, it quickly became apparent that the soundcheck was going to drown-out our conversation, so we promptly relocated to a nearby coffee-bar. I began with the obvious question about his recent solo album – why did he decide to release it at this point ?
‘Well, like many things that have happened during my life, the mountain came in my direction. It’s a pure coincidence. I was about to go ‘on tour’ in Germany with a virtual concert film that we made, a fake concert that we created digitally for the ‘Touch Yello’ album. I began to think that this wasn’t good enough, to have an audience but only show the film and talk to them. I wanted to take something more to the audience, so I wrote three or four songs, found some musicians, a fiddler and a guitar player, and we rehearsed. We went onstage like that and people seemed to be very happy that they finally got to see me live, just singing these three or four little songs. The promoter liked it and said, that worked out pretty well, why don’t you write some more songs and form a whole band… I could organise a tour for you in Germany, Austria and Switzerland… So I said, yeah, that sounds great ! But then I had to disappear to Argentina, where I have my farms, and it wasn’t until a few months later that the guy calls me to say he’d booked some great venues… I thought it was crazy because, at that point, I still didn’t have any other songs or even a band, but I had sorta committed myself to it. I hadn’t taken it too seriously, but now I realised that I had to help this guy out. So there I was, sitting in the deep countryside of Argentina, just with a guitar, and for three weeks nothing happened. I couldn’t write any new songs, it was impossible ! Normally, I would have given-up at that point, I would have said, Dieter, let it be, you just can’t do this. But the very next week, all these new songs started flying my way. They appeared like mushrooms, out of the ground, and I almost felt as if I wasn’t doing this, it was just happening ! Then I was able to come back and put together a very good band. We rehearsed and then we went on tour - that was it ! This was two and a half years ago, and I was very, very scared when I went onstage for the first time. I really didn’t know if I could pull it off. I had to go onstage and sing for 100 minutes and I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to hit all of the notes or remember all of the words. I ended up taking a little book of lyrics with me, just for help. It was a huge challenge for me and I was scared, but it was almost as if I was being pushed into the water and I had to swim.’
Most recently, he has released his first ‘solo’ album, ‘Out of Chaos’. Although containing some similarities with his previous music, it’s also a clearly-defined tangent to the rhythmically-based music you might expect from Yello, and instead delves into more traditional song-structures. The album has also led to a series of live concerts with full band line-ups, which have been the first time Dieter has embarked on entirely-live performances. Not an obvious thing for a 69 year old artist to suddenly decide to do, but again, it’s all about taking the chance.
In September, Dieter Meier brought his band to London to play at the Jazz Cafe and, thanks to the efforts of the ever-charming Nita, I was able to secure an interview. First meeting at the venue, it quickly became apparent that the soundcheck was going to drown-out our conversation, so we promptly relocated to a nearby coffee-bar. I began with the obvious question about his recent solo album – why did he decide to release it at this point ?
‘Well, like many things that have happened during my life, the mountain came in my direction. It’s a pure coincidence. I was about to go ‘on tour’ in Germany with a virtual concert film that we made, a fake concert that we created digitally for the ‘Touch Yello’ album. I began to think that this wasn’t good enough, to have an audience but only show the film and talk to them. I wanted to take something more to the audience, so I wrote three or four songs, found some musicians, a fiddler and a guitar player, and we rehearsed. We went onstage like that and people seemed to be very happy that they finally got to see me live, just singing these three or four little songs. The promoter liked it and said, that worked out pretty well, why don’t you write some more songs and form a whole band… I could organise a tour for you in Germany, Austria and Switzerland… So I said, yeah, that sounds great ! But then I had to disappear to Argentina, where I have my farms, and it wasn’t until a few months later that the guy calls me to say he’d booked some great venues… I thought it was crazy because, at that point, I still didn’t have any other songs or even a band, but I had sorta committed myself to it. I hadn’t taken it too seriously, but now I realised that I had to help this guy out. So there I was, sitting in the deep countryside of Argentina, just with a guitar, and for three weeks nothing happened. I couldn’t write any new songs, it was impossible ! Normally, I would have given-up at that point, I would have said, Dieter, let it be, you just can’t do this. But the very next week, all these new songs started flying my way. They appeared like mushrooms, out of the ground, and I almost felt as if I wasn’t doing this, it was just happening ! Then I was able to come back and put together a very good band. We rehearsed and then we went on tour - that was it ! This was two and a half years ago, and I was very, very scared when I went onstage for the first time. I really didn’t know if I could pull it off. I had to go onstage and sing for 100 minutes and I really didn’t know if I was going to be able to hit all of the notes or remember all of the words. I ended up taking a little book of lyrics with me, just for help. It was a huge challenge for me and I was scared, but it was almost as if I was being pushed into the water and I had to swim.’
When you were writing these songs, why did
you decide to use them aside from Yello ? Did you think they couldn’t really be
accommodated within Yello’s format ?
‘Well, Boris categorically has never wanted to perform onstage. He thinks it would be like cheating, because he could never recreate his music live. It would all have to be on computer, like all these DJ’s, and he would just turn it on and off. He doesn’t want to do that. But to me, as a singer, there’s always been a dream to be in front of an audience. An audience can inspire you to take all kinds of risks, as if you’re being carried by them. That’s such a great feeling after you’ve spent 35 years in a studio, where you can make a fool of yourself for 100 takes and it doesn’t matter. It’s the here and now when you’re in front of an audience, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life than the way I feel after a concert. You really feel that you’ve done something. I mean, I’ve always been a bit of a spoilt kid in the things that I do, I’ve been lucky and things have happened, and I’ve always been able to escape if I wanted to. But here, it’s like I’m jumping off a waterfall and all I can do is hope to land ! It’s such a great feeling when you’ve done it and you’re a normal human being, like everyone else on the stage.’
From a musical viewpoint, the songs on your album are in a more traditional style, as opposed to Yello, which seems to be based more around the rhythms…
‘Absolutely, it’s a totally different approach. With Yello, I come in only when Boris has finished his sound-paintings to, let’s say 70 or 80%. To me, it’s like music for a non-existent film. I can see emotions and characters and then, like a script-writer, I make up my scene. In Boris’ soundtracks, I’m like an actor who plays out different personalities, but for this album, I’m much more like a straight-forward singer-songwriter. I maybe start with one verse or a combination of words that lead into a story, then I put it together on my guitar and I bring it to the band. I can’t read or write notes, so I just have to play it for them, and they arrange it in their way. It’s a totally different approach, and I enjoy both ways. I’ve recently been in the studio again with Boris and it’s always a real pleasure to hear his fantastic soundtracks. I just sit with my typewriter in the sound-booth, on a bar stool, and I listen to the track on a loop, again and again, until suddenly I find a rhythm and a rhyme and a story and a character. Then I start writing down these things, but that’s really inspired by Boris’ soundtrack, whereas, when I’m alone, I just make a fool of myself for weeks until I have some songs.’
‘Well, Boris categorically has never wanted to perform onstage. He thinks it would be like cheating, because he could never recreate his music live. It would all have to be on computer, like all these DJ’s, and he would just turn it on and off. He doesn’t want to do that. But to me, as a singer, there’s always been a dream to be in front of an audience. An audience can inspire you to take all kinds of risks, as if you’re being carried by them. That’s such a great feeling after you’ve spent 35 years in a studio, where you can make a fool of yourself for 100 takes and it doesn’t matter. It’s the here and now when you’re in front of an audience, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life than the way I feel after a concert. You really feel that you’ve done something. I mean, I’ve always been a bit of a spoilt kid in the things that I do, I’ve been lucky and things have happened, and I’ve always been able to escape if I wanted to. But here, it’s like I’m jumping off a waterfall and all I can do is hope to land ! It’s such a great feeling when you’ve done it and you’re a normal human being, like everyone else on the stage.’
From a musical viewpoint, the songs on your album are in a more traditional style, as opposed to Yello, which seems to be based more around the rhythms…
‘Absolutely, it’s a totally different approach. With Yello, I come in only when Boris has finished his sound-paintings to, let’s say 70 or 80%. To me, it’s like music for a non-existent film. I can see emotions and characters and then, like a script-writer, I make up my scene. In Boris’ soundtracks, I’m like an actor who plays out different personalities, but for this album, I’m much more like a straight-forward singer-songwriter. I maybe start with one verse or a combination of words that lead into a story, then I put it together on my guitar and I bring it to the band. I can’t read or write notes, so I just have to play it for them, and they arrange it in their way. It’s a totally different approach, and I enjoy both ways. I’ve recently been in the studio again with Boris and it’s always a real pleasure to hear his fantastic soundtracks. I just sit with my typewriter in the sound-booth, on a bar stool, and I listen to the track on a loop, again and again, until suddenly I find a rhythm and a rhyme and a story and a character. Then I start writing down these things, but that’s really inspired by Boris’ soundtrack, whereas, when I’m alone, I just make a fool of myself for weeks until I have some songs.’
Do you consider yourself a musician as well
as a singer ? You mentioned that you play guitar…
‘I get away with it. I mean, if I had a guitar here I could play some songs, but I’m not a great guitar player. I can strum some chords and sing along, but I wouldn’t play guitar onstage. I don’t really consider myself a ‘musician’. It’s not as if I live music every day of my life. I’m totally different to Boris… to him, being in the studio creating his sounds is like breathing. He needs it. Since he was a little boy, he created sounds with anything he could find. He never learned to play an instrument, so he made sounds with whatever he could use. When I met him, he lived in a tiny, little apartment and he had a whole trunk of musical ideas that he had created with tape-loops. His snare drum would be a newspaper on a table ! He’d record it and put it on a loop and then make something else. He’d make very simple, primitive overdubs because he didn’t have a multi-track recorder.’
The first two Yello albums came out on Ralph Records. Do you think you and Boris had a similar approach to music as The Residents, even though musically it sounded quite different ?
‘Yeah, perhaps… they all came from the same place and had moved to San Francisco. None of them were really musicians, but out of the blue they decided to make music. They had a very dilettante, very open approach to what they did and I think that approach was an influence for us, although maybe not so much their results. But Boris loved The Residents, he was a huge fan, and he went to San Francisco to meet them… not because he wanted to sell them his music, but just because he was a fan. So, he went along and met the people at Ralph Records, and after a time they asked, what do you do, and he reluctantly told them that he also made music, and gave them a tape. They played it and said it sounds great, but there was a lot of noise and hiss on the recordings, so they told him, if ever he makes a tape with less noise he should send them a copy and maybe they could do something with it. And that’s how our first deal came about with them. The recordings were still very simple and primitive, we just had a TEAC 4-track machine, but they liked it and gave us our first recording deal.’
Were there any other particular influences while you were making those early records ?
‘I was influenced by Jazz, but more in a spiritual way. I grew up with Jazz. I listened to Cool Jazz and then Free Jazz, and I loved all the fantastic musicians of that time, like Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, John Coltrane… I was living in that world, but I wouldn’t say it influenced me as a musician. It was just a statement of artistic freedom and it was opening the doors of my mind. It didn’t inspire me to do anything, it just opened the doors and, without that statement, I think I would probably have become a pretty normal, bourgeois guy, maybe a Banker like my father. But the fact that it was possible to be yourself in what you do… that was what I heard in Jazz at that time.’
‘I get away with it. I mean, if I had a guitar here I could play some songs, but I’m not a great guitar player. I can strum some chords and sing along, but I wouldn’t play guitar onstage. I don’t really consider myself a ‘musician’. It’s not as if I live music every day of my life. I’m totally different to Boris… to him, being in the studio creating his sounds is like breathing. He needs it. Since he was a little boy, he created sounds with anything he could find. He never learned to play an instrument, so he made sounds with whatever he could use. When I met him, he lived in a tiny, little apartment and he had a whole trunk of musical ideas that he had created with tape-loops. His snare drum would be a newspaper on a table ! He’d record it and put it on a loop and then make something else. He’d make very simple, primitive overdubs because he didn’t have a multi-track recorder.’
The first two Yello albums came out on Ralph Records. Do you think you and Boris had a similar approach to music as The Residents, even though musically it sounded quite different ?
‘Yeah, perhaps… they all came from the same place and had moved to San Francisco. None of them were really musicians, but out of the blue they decided to make music. They had a very dilettante, very open approach to what they did and I think that approach was an influence for us, although maybe not so much their results. But Boris loved The Residents, he was a huge fan, and he went to San Francisco to meet them… not because he wanted to sell them his music, but just because he was a fan. So, he went along and met the people at Ralph Records, and after a time they asked, what do you do, and he reluctantly told them that he also made music, and gave them a tape. They played it and said it sounds great, but there was a lot of noise and hiss on the recordings, so they told him, if ever he makes a tape with less noise he should send them a copy and maybe they could do something with it. And that’s how our first deal came about with them. The recordings were still very simple and primitive, we just had a TEAC 4-track machine, but they liked it and gave us our first recording deal.’
Were there any other particular influences while you were making those early records ?
‘I was influenced by Jazz, but more in a spiritual way. I grew up with Jazz. I listened to Cool Jazz and then Free Jazz, and I loved all the fantastic musicians of that time, like Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, John Coltrane… I was living in that world, but I wouldn’t say it influenced me as a musician. It was just a statement of artistic freedom and it was opening the doors of my mind. It didn’t inspire me to do anything, it just opened the doors and, without that statement, I think I would probably have become a pretty normal, bourgeois guy, maybe a Banker like my father. But the fact that it was possible to be yourself in what you do… that was what I heard in Jazz at that time.’
Your ‘solo’ album is called ‘Out of Chaos’,
which is also the title of your biography. Is that a phrase that’s particularly
significant to you ?
‘I think life and everything, really, is about dealing with chaos. Whenever you approach something new, you don’t have a finished form for anything. It’s like, after the Big Bang, things were just laying around and it took billions of years for our Solar system to be created. And even now, 90% of the universe is without fixed-form and still fluctuating. I think that is what it’s like when you start something new. Big Bang – no structure – Chaos ! But then, slowly, things start to find their form. So I like chaos, especially when I start something new. I’ve learned to live with chaos and I’ve learned to stumble in chaos and even to fall down in chaos. That’s all very important, but most people are afraid of it. They always try to stay with the past, things that they’ve already figured out, but that just means that they’re doing the same thing all their life and it’s a very narrow path. I was lucky, even as a kid, to learn to fall down. That was something that my parents taught me, that falling down is just another experience and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I was very lucky that the place where I was thrown onto this planet gave me the freedom to fail and I think it’s very important. Even as an entrepreneur, I’ve never been afraid of doing new things or getting into chaotic situations. You have to find your way to establish a system, but once that’s done, you have to go on. I mean, I could say, my agricultural situation in Argentina is quite successful, my Winery is very successful, so I can rest … but that’s not my life ! My life is all about being driven to do something new. I’m never happier than when I’m taking a risk, when I feel like I have my life in my hands. That’s how you learn about yourself, and I think the whole process of life is to do that. I mean, in the Bible there are some great lines that Jesus may have said, and one thing I particularly like is that you should become like children… To me, that’s not saying you should stay like a child, but that people should become like anarchists, really. Because every child is divine, and then all the stupid things in this crazy, Capitalist society destroy the child and we have to tumble through our lives, more or less organised and more or less afraid. That’s a crazy system, but anarchy is all about questioning what’s there, and in a dialectical way, polarising what you have in order to find something new. You have to be able to leave behind or even destroy what you already have, for something new. As long as you can do this, you live. But if you can’t do this anymore, you’re dead.’
‘I think life and everything, really, is about dealing with chaos. Whenever you approach something new, you don’t have a finished form for anything. It’s like, after the Big Bang, things were just laying around and it took billions of years for our Solar system to be created. And even now, 90% of the universe is without fixed-form and still fluctuating. I think that is what it’s like when you start something new. Big Bang – no structure – Chaos ! But then, slowly, things start to find their form. So I like chaos, especially when I start something new. I’ve learned to live with chaos and I’ve learned to stumble in chaos and even to fall down in chaos. That’s all very important, but most people are afraid of it. They always try to stay with the past, things that they’ve already figured out, but that just means that they’re doing the same thing all their life and it’s a very narrow path. I was lucky, even as a kid, to learn to fall down. That was something that my parents taught me, that falling down is just another experience and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I was very lucky that the place where I was thrown onto this planet gave me the freedom to fail and I think it’s very important. Even as an entrepreneur, I’ve never been afraid of doing new things or getting into chaotic situations. You have to find your way to establish a system, but once that’s done, you have to go on. I mean, I could say, my agricultural situation in Argentina is quite successful, my Winery is very successful, so I can rest … but that’s not my life ! My life is all about being driven to do something new. I’m never happier than when I’m taking a risk, when I feel like I have my life in my hands. That’s how you learn about yourself, and I think the whole process of life is to do that. I mean, in the Bible there are some great lines that Jesus may have said, and one thing I particularly like is that you should become like children… To me, that’s not saying you should stay like a child, but that people should become like anarchists, really. Because every child is divine, and then all the stupid things in this crazy, Capitalist society destroy the child and we have to tumble through our lives, more or less organised and more or less afraid. That’s a crazy system, but anarchy is all about questioning what’s there, and in a dialectical way, polarising what you have in order to find something new. You have to be able to leave behind or even destroy what you already have, for something new. As long as you can do this, you live. But if you can’t do this anymore, you’re dead.’
Most of the coverage for your new album
refers to it as your first ‘solo’ record, but in fact, you released a solo single
‘Cry For Fame’ under your own name as far back as 1978…
‘Well, I had actually made a whole album even before then, with Anthony Moore, who was a member of Slapp Happy and also wrote some lyrics for Pink Floyd. He was a very good friend of mine at the time, although we later lost contact. He became a Professor in Germany and I recorded my first album with him, but I never even played it to friends because I was so insecure back then. I just put it away !’
You’d already established yourself as a conceptual artist before then. What was it that made you decide to become involved in music as well ?
‘Rhythm ! I’d always liked to dance and I wanted to use my voice as an instrument. I’d already made some very experimental, 16mm films, which were silent, so I would stand in front of the screen with various objects I could use to make sounds, and I would create live soundtracks. I used my voice as part of that, along with a long-string guitar. I wouldn’t really call that music, it was just sounds, and I never really planned or intended a career as a musician. Even with Yello, we never sent the tapes out to record companies or anything like that… when we got the deal with Ralph Records, it wasn’t because we were trying to get a deal, it was just because Boris went to meet them and they ended up being curious about what he was doing…’
The ‘Cry for Fame’ single, and also the ‘No Chance’ single by Fresh Color (for which Dieter sang lead vocals) were two of the earliest Punk singles released in Switzerland. The music is pretty raw and aggressive - what attracted you to that kind of music ?
‘I liked the energy of it and the way that it was very spontaneous. Initially, I would just go onstage with different bands and we basically started our rehearsals right there, onstage ! I was singing in a rhythmical but totally non-existent language, throwing in some English words and other sounds. I was just shouting loud and screaming. In fact, after one concert, I actually couldn’t speak for two weeks ! My voice was totally gone ! I liked it because it was more like sound-voice performances rather than just music or songs, and it was very primal.’
I wondered if the record label, Periphery Perfume, (which also released another single by Dieter, ‘Jim For Tango’ and the first Yello 12”) was your own label ?
‘No, no, no… this guy kinda discovered me. I think he came to one of my film performances, where I was making live-sounds for the movies, and he thought that was pretty different. He had a very small label and he put me together with these punk bands. That was how I got to record and release something for the first time. But I wasn’t the owner of the label… It was run by a guy who had a small but very successful record shop. And he also went on to release the first maxi-single by Yello.’
‘Well, I had actually made a whole album even before then, with Anthony Moore, who was a member of Slapp Happy and also wrote some lyrics for Pink Floyd. He was a very good friend of mine at the time, although we later lost contact. He became a Professor in Germany and I recorded my first album with him, but I never even played it to friends because I was so insecure back then. I just put it away !’
You’d already established yourself as a conceptual artist before then. What was it that made you decide to become involved in music as well ?
‘Rhythm ! I’d always liked to dance and I wanted to use my voice as an instrument. I’d already made some very experimental, 16mm films, which were silent, so I would stand in front of the screen with various objects I could use to make sounds, and I would create live soundtracks. I used my voice as part of that, along with a long-string guitar. I wouldn’t really call that music, it was just sounds, and I never really planned or intended a career as a musician. Even with Yello, we never sent the tapes out to record companies or anything like that… when we got the deal with Ralph Records, it wasn’t because we were trying to get a deal, it was just because Boris went to meet them and they ended up being curious about what he was doing…’
The ‘Cry for Fame’ single, and also the ‘No Chance’ single by Fresh Color (for which Dieter sang lead vocals) were two of the earliest Punk singles released in Switzerland. The music is pretty raw and aggressive - what attracted you to that kind of music ?
‘I liked the energy of it and the way that it was very spontaneous. Initially, I would just go onstage with different bands and we basically started our rehearsals right there, onstage ! I was singing in a rhythmical but totally non-existent language, throwing in some English words and other sounds. I was just shouting loud and screaming. In fact, after one concert, I actually couldn’t speak for two weeks ! My voice was totally gone ! I liked it because it was more like sound-voice performances rather than just music or songs, and it was very primal.’
I wondered if the record label, Periphery Perfume, (which also released another single by Dieter, ‘Jim For Tango’ and the first Yello 12”) was your own label ?
‘No, no, no… this guy kinda discovered me. I think he came to one of my film performances, where I was making live-sounds for the movies, and he thought that was pretty different. He had a very small label and he put me together with these punk bands. That was how I got to record and release something for the first time. But I wasn’t the owner of the label… It was run by a guy who had a small but very successful record shop. And he also went on to release the first maxi-single by Yello.’
When you make music, do you think there are
any similarities with the way you approach your Art projects ?
‘No. My Art projects always come from scratch. Whatever I do as an artist, I start with an idea and then I have all my doubts, but eventually I’ll do my first piece and slowly, it will find its’ form, out of chaos… But with Yello, there is already a musical script or a musical painting there by the time I become involved. I’m a guest in there, but I feel at ease immediately. I never have to break the ice in order to swim. The lake is already there, and I just jump in and swim. It’s Boris’ world, so it’s totally different.’
Despite coming from a more avant-garde background, Yello have still managed to achieve considerable mainstream success. Has that come as a surprise to you ?
‘Yeah, we were rather surprised… we never set-out to sell 40million CD’s ! But looking back, it’s totally Boris’ world. He’s a very original guy who, because he couldn’t read music or play instruments, had to invent himself as a creator of sounds. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to make music as a young boy, but for him it became like breathing. He would still be doing it even if he had never sold a single copy and had to drive a truck every day. We were surprised when we started to have success, but Boris never made music with the intention of being an avant garde artist. He just wanted to make songs with his sounds, and he had to be avant garde because he couldn’t play an instrument. Nowadays he’s considered to be the Godfather of Techno, because he was the first to work with tape loops, and invented sounds in a way that no-one had done before. I mean, perhaps people had done similar things in the field of modern classical music, but not in the field of Pop. He wanted to make songs that were Pop, but he had to do it his way. We were lucky enough that the zeitgeist was sorta crossing with what we did. It was that which allowed us to have success. But that’s an almost alchemistic wonder… there are a lot of crazy but very interesting avant garde musicians that never have that kind of coincidence and luck which allows what you do to become popular.’
You already mentioned that you’ve recently been back in a studio with Boris, but do you consider the ‘Out of Chaos’ album to be part of a separate ongoing project ?
‘Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m already planning another album, I have some new songs and there are also some older songs left over from when we made ‘Out of Chaos’. I think I’d like to produce the next album in England, perhaps with English avant garde musicians, but still making it accessible. I don’t want to make it difficult to listen to. I already have some ideas and I’m going to be meeting some producers… so it will definitely be going on. The next thing I do could be one of many different things, but I definitely intend to make another album.’
You’ve also been involved in film-making, both as a writer and a director, although to a great extent this is an area of your work that’s not so well-known outside of Europe, mainly due to language-barriers…
‘Yeah, that’s always the problem when you make a film in Europe… I’ve made some films that I’ve been very happy with, but they’ve been commercial flops because they can only be shown in Germany. Nowadays, I still shoot films in Berlin but I make sure they will have a main character from America or England so they can be made in English,and that allows the possibility of the film being shown in other countries. Unfortunately, no-one ever seems to want to see a German flick outside of Germany…’
That’s a pity, because I remember seeing clips from your movie ‘Jetz Und Alles’, one of which featured Yello performing in a club-scene, and I was very intrigued by the movie itself. It’s a shame that it’s never been shown in the UK…
‘Yeah, I think that film could have appealed to a wider audience. It was a very existentialist kind of film, the story of one young man who had an approach to life as if it was chewing gum… he puts it in his mouth, he chews it up and then he spits it out. But that attitude eventually brings him into the world of crime… he doesn’t really want to make money or anything, he just does it as a thrill. He gets involved with a professional French gangster who comes to Berlin with a plan to kidnap a rich Industrialist. He meets our ‘hero’ who has been sorta successful as a punkish type of singer, but he’s not interested in that anymore and he spits that out. They kidnap the Industrialist but then he decides he wants to get out of it... The problem is that he realises, for the first time in his life, he’s confronted with a reality that he can’t just spit-out. He can’t go to the Police, and the gangster wants to kill him because he tries to release the hostage…’
‘No. My Art projects always come from scratch. Whatever I do as an artist, I start with an idea and then I have all my doubts, but eventually I’ll do my first piece and slowly, it will find its’ form, out of chaos… But with Yello, there is already a musical script or a musical painting there by the time I become involved. I’m a guest in there, but I feel at ease immediately. I never have to break the ice in order to swim. The lake is already there, and I just jump in and swim. It’s Boris’ world, so it’s totally different.’
Despite coming from a more avant-garde background, Yello have still managed to achieve considerable mainstream success. Has that come as a surprise to you ?
‘Yeah, we were rather surprised… we never set-out to sell 40million CD’s ! But looking back, it’s totally Boris’ world. He’s a very original guy who, because he couldn’t read music or play instruments, had to invent himself as a creator of sounds. Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to make music as a young boy, but for him it became like breathing. He would still be doing it even if he had never sold a single copy and had to drive a truck every day. We were surprised when we started to have success, but Boris never made music with the intention of being an avant garde artist. He just wanted to make songs with his sounds, and he had to be avant garde because he couldn’t play an instrument. Nowadays he’s considered to be the Godfather of Techno, because he was the first to work with tape loops, and invented sounds in a way that no-one had done before. I mean, perhaps people had done similar things in the field of modern classical music, but not in the field of Pop. He wanted to make songs that were Pop, but he had to do it his way. We were lucky enough that the zeitgeist was sorta crossing with what we did. It was that which allowed us to have success. But that’s an almost alchemistic wonder… there are a lot of crazy but very interesting avant garde musicians that never have that kind of coincidence and luck which allows what you do to become popular.’
You already mentioned that you’ve recently been back in a studio with Boris, but do you consider the ‘Out of Chaos’ album to be part of a separate ongoing project ?
‘Oh yeah, absolutely. I’m already planning another album, I have some new songs and there are also some older songs left over from when we made ‘Out of Chaos’. I think I’d like to produce the next album in England, perhaps with English avant garde musicians, but still making it accessible. I don’t want to make it difficult to listen to. I already have some ideas and I’m going to be meeting some producers… so it will definitely be going on. The next thing I do could be one of many different things, but I definitely intend to make another album.’
You’ve also been involved in film-making, both as a writer and a director, although to a great extent this is an area of your work that’s not so well-known outside of Europe, mainly due to language-barriers…
‘Yeah, that’s always the problem when you make a film in Europe… I’ve made some films that I’ve been very happy with, but they’ve been commercial flops because they can only be shown in Germany. Nowadays, I still shoot films in Berlin but I make sure they will have a main character from America or England so they can be made in English,and that allows the possibility of the film being shown in other countries. Unfortunately, no-one ever seems to want to see a German flick outside of Germany…’
That’s a pity, because I remember seeing clips from your movie ‘Jetz Und Alles’, one of which featured Yello performing in a club-scene, and I was very intrigued by the movie itself. It’s a shame that it’s never been shown in the UK…
‘Yeah, I think that film could have appealed to a wider audience. It was a very existentialist kind of film, the story of one young man who had an approach to life as if it was chewing gum… he puts it in his mouth, he chews it up and then he spits it out. But that attitude eventually brings him into the world of crime… he doesn’t really want to make money or anything, he just does it as a thrill. He gets involved with a professional French gangster who comes to Berlin with a plan to kidnap a rich Industrialist. He meets our ‘hero’ who has been sorta successful as a punkish type of singer, but he’s not interested in that anymore and he spits that out. They kidnap the Industrialist but then he decides he wants to get out of it... The problem is that he realises, for the first time in his life, he’s confronted with a reality that he can’t just spit-out. He can’t go to the Police, and the gangster wants to kill him because he tries to release the hostage…’
You’ve been involved with so many different
projects over the years, from music and film through to Conceptual Art, as well
as running your own businesses and having your own family… How do you ever
manage to balance all of these things successfully ?
‘It’s because I’m a dialogue person… It may all look like so much but, for example with Yello, it can take Boris about five years to finish about sixty pieces… He never works on just one thing, he’ll work on maybe sixty pieces at the same time. He’ll go to the studio, works on one little bit there and then he’ll put it away until he’s ready to work on it again. He always promises me that he’ll concentrate on one song and finish it, but he never does that. He needs that crazy way of being inspired in the morning, working on something for half a day, and then putting it away again, to work on the next thing. My main contribution in Yello is that I make the movies. I was also managing Yello at the beginning, but these days out of three or four years, I will only really be involved for three or four months. That isn’t so much time. Now, with my organic farms in Argentina, it’s organised with people who can run it. I have the ideas of what to do with it and what to produce and how to market it, but it doesn’t really keep me busy. The things that really keep me busy are when I’m writing a movie script or finishing my novel, things like that. That’s not so much… it sounds like a lot, but one advantage I have is that I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. I don’t have to impress people, so I can listen and that’s how I learn a lot. People like to talk about their knowledge, about what they know. Too many businessmen or musicians or a guys in a studio try to pretend that they already know these things, but I never have to pretend. I’m happy to sound like an idiot and say, Tell me, how does this work ? I don’t have to pretend to know anything, and that way, I’m able to learn really fast. It’s like being a child … a child doesn’t have to pretend, a child can listen. I was always a very curious kid, I just wanted to know how things work. So now, when somebody tells me a story or tells me about something they’ve invented, I can listen for days on end. I don’t enjoy reading a book about how things work, but I can always listen to someone who has actually experienced these things. So I never feel that I’m really that busy. Most days, I get up in the morning and I don’t even know what I’m doing that day… The only times that I do have a really busy schedule is when I’m shooting a movie, but I enjoy doing that so much, it feels as if it’s easy for me.’
Dieter has to return to the venue for his part in the soundcheck, so the interview ends there, but it had been a real pleasure talking to him. Now, I have a few hours to kill before the concert begins, so I decide to wander around Camden for a while. But it’s not so interesting these days, there’s nothing really left to see and eventually, I return to Parkway and luckily bump into Nita, so we head up to the Spread Eagle for a drink and a natter.
‘It’s because I’m a dialogue person… It may all look like so much but, for example with Yello, it can take Boris about five years to finish about sixty pieces… He never works on just one thing, he’ll work on maybe sixty pieces at the same time. He’ll go to the studio, works on one little bit there and then he’ll put it away until he’s ready to work on it again. He always promises me that he’ll concentrate on one song and finish it, but he never does that. He needs that crazy way of being inspired in the morning, working on something for half a day, and then putting it away again, to work on the next thing. My main contribution in Yello is that I make the movies. I was also managing Yello at the beginning, but these days out of three or four years, I will only really be involved for three or four months. That isn’t so much time. Now, with my organic farms in Argentina, it’s organised with people who can run it. I have the ideas of what to do with it and what to produce and how to market it, but it doesn’t really keep me busy. The things that really keep me busy are when I’m writing a movie script or finishing my novel, things like that. That’s not so much… it sounds like a lot, but one advantage I have is that I don’t have to prove anything to anybody. I don’t have to impress people, so I can listen and that’s how I learn a lot. People like to talk about their knowledge, about what they know. Too many businessmen or musicians or a guys in a studio try to pretend that they already know these things, but I never have to pretend. I’m happy to sound like an idiot and say, Tell me, how does this work ? I don’t have to pretend to know anything, and that way, I’m able to learn really fast. It’s like being a child … a child doesn’t have to pretend, a child can listen. I was always a very curious kid, I just wanted to know how things work. So now, when somebody tells me a story or tells me about something they’ve invented, I can listen for days on end. I don’t enjoy reading a book about how things work, but I can always listen to someone who has actually experienced these things. So I never feel that I’m really that busy. Most days, I get up in the morning and I don’t even know what I’m doing that day… The only times that I do have a really busy schedule is when I’m shooting a movie, but I enjoy doing that so much, it feels as if it’s easy for me.’
Dieter has to return to the venue for his part in the soundcheck, so the interview ends there, but it had been a real pleasure talking to him. Now, I have a few hours to kill before the concert begins, so I decide to wander around Camden for a while. But it’s not so interesting these days, there’s nothing really left to see and eventually, I return to Parkway and luckily bump into Nita, so we head up to the Spread Eagle for a drink and a natter.
Fortunately, not too long to wait for the gig
itself, so we head into the venue just in time for the show. The band assemble
onstage, a much larger ensemble than I had expected, and after a brief intro,
Dieter Meier joins them for the first song, ‘Paradise Game’. The lighting is
low, almost evoking a torch-song or cabaret performance, and the sound is
excellent. Dieter’s voice is as distinctive and full of character as you would
hope for, perfect for the emotive arrangement of the music. The entire ‘Out of
Chaos’ album is performed, including the download-only track ‘Down Down’, plus
one unexpected Yello song in the shape of ‘Prisoner of His Mind’. I doubt that
any Yello fans would have been disappointed, but this was very-much its’ own entity.
As I’ve said in the review of the album, the closest comparison I can think of
would be Gavin Friday’s excellent ‘Shag Tobacco’ album and, whilst still coming
from a more avant garde direction, this
is certainly accessible, intelligent music. Take a chance with it. Perhaps it
isn’t the sorta thing that you’d usually listen to, but it’s always good to
find something new.
