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Home , Edgar Froese, Tangerine Dream

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FROM CLASSIC PROG MAGAZINE (Rob Hughes) to from – MARCH 2011

- FULL VERSION -

(1) What were your earliest musical inspirations? I believe one of your girlfriends was a classical pianist and that your late father was fond of opera. Did any of this have a bearing on your musical direction?

Fortunately not – otherwise I would have become a very mediocre classical player. So it was my positive destiny to have omit this even if it was a painful procedure. It’s true that I fell in love with a female student during my studies at the Academy of Arts – at the age of 19. She used to be an opera singer. So we were sitting by candle light in a romantic twilight atmosphere, she sang Mozart arias or her favorite aria ‘Ave Maria’ while I was playing like a stupid blinded idiot the grand piano to accompany her truly beautiful voice. It was absolutely unreal. One year later she left me for a 10 years older Porsche car distributor because her view of life was to become famous and to make money – she never did but I was heartbroken. Instead of playing piano sonatas I was too pissed off that I changed over to my second love – the – and started playing Stones cover versions in ’ underground scene – so destiny had a very good eye on me. My father actually was an amateur opera singer – but just behind closed doors as he was too shy to perform in public. The audience was sitting in one room, he sang in another one, but loud enough to be heard on the streets.

(2) How much of a bearing did growing up in post-war have in the music you decided to make? Does this sense of creating something almost entirely new derive from the fact that Germany had to reinvent itself somehow?

I’m sure that all things you experience in life will affect you one way or the other. I grew up in the post-war situation in . People had to wait in long queues to get their allocated daily food. Even as a young kid I already realized that I was a person who jumped off my life train at a wrong time, at a wrong station, under wrong conditions. Later I realized that under the law of causality I would not have had another choice anyway. The first deep impression I remember was the brutal injustice I noticed within the neighborhood of most people I have to had contact with. Endless fraud, people telling tall stories all the time, suspiciousness from everybody’s side, crooked behavior and finally the missing of honest love and warm interest as far as your personal needs were concerned. Decades later, I moved into the political and musical underground because my deep aversion against the phoney establishment was engraved into my system – both conscious and unconscious. Till today I never sympathized with governmental politics, commercial interests or the mediocre taste of the masses.

(3) In the '60s you worked with Salvador Dali. Can you explain what kind of a character he really was, why he thought your music was "rotten, religious music" and what influence the surrealist and dadaist movements had on your approach to Tangerine Dream? Was it really a case of 'everything is possible'?

My relationship to Dali was greatly chappy. On one hand I was truly fascinated by his work during my time as a student at the academy, on the other hand I was somehow disgusted by some of his political attitudes. Because of my very early experiences I hated everything which could have been connected to the term ‘fascism’ in any way. Dali himself never got tired looking up to political leaders like Franco and his sympathizers. During one of my longer conversations I had with him in his olive garden in Cadaques, he turned it into the opposite by saying that he decided to be against everything the public like and adore. So if the masses like democracy he stands for dictatorship and the other way round. ‘If you’re a divine individual, you have to think and behave outside every rule the Bourgeoisie tries to dictate,’ he explained in his mixture of Catalan, English and French. Funny enough, he never said a word in his mother tongue even if I told him that I was able to communicate in his language. But nevertheless, as an artist and cosmopolitan being he was absolutely fascinating. I really think to some extend he was an egocentric performer with great knowledge of his art form and metaphysics as well. On August 8 th 1967 TD performed “The Resurrection of Rotten Christianity – Music for a Sculpture”. That took place as a happening in the olive garden behind his home and atelier in front of a sculpture built out of Coca Cola cans – some flotsam he found in the sea and olive tree branches.

(4) You were using prominently with Tangerine Dream as early as 1971's Alpha Centauri . Can you explain what kind of a reaction you received from others? Did people think synths were just a passing fad?

There was no statement telling that synths would be a passing fad, because before entering in such conclusion you had to understand what it was a passing fad. Here was the problem. Critics even had no words to describe their dislikes of the equipment we were using because they hadn’t seen it before. That did show perfectly the common behavior of people in general. What they don’t know, they don’t like in the first place. Exception: Once you’ve made yourself rich with your inventions, everybody becomes a good friend and has known from the start that you’re going to make it great. It’s the typical behavior pattern we all know about. No, TD didn’t have a great open-minded crowd at their early days. There was a rejection attitude all the way through till we’ve reached number 10 with our first British release ‘Phaedra’ at the Melody Maker charts. I remember the first ever LP review in Britain was truly half a page in Melody Maker – Mr. Steve Lake, one of the MM journalists opened his review for ‘Phaedra’ with the headline ‘Eat more s…, 100.000 flies can’t be wrong.’ Anyway, that was our breakthrough into the international market even if Mr. Lake would have done everything to protect the market from the ‘German knob turners’ – he hated us. Without exaggerating our musical capabilities, but we were just very much ahead of time.

(5) Was there a sense of musical community in Germany in the late '60s/early '70s? Did you ever feel part of the so-called '' movement?

There was a strong musical community in Germany during that period – but TD wasn’t a part of it. We couldn’t even invite others for a jam session or jam around with others because when we were switching on the first knobs everybody became very suspicious like if we were just starting a rocket for a one-way space exploration. We didn’t use any of the Rock’ n ’Roll terms in music nor had we considered practicing a song structure for many days. There was one experience back in 1974 during a gig in Berlin with a band called ‘Amon Düül II’ which was quite strangely organized as well. Before we started I gave the keynote of our philosophy by saying: ‘Dear friends, it’s December the 6 th 1971at 8 pm in the city of West Berlin. Please be that kind to improvise with us the 6 th of December, 8 pm 1971 in Berlin in a way that it never can be repeated.’ They stared at me as if I had taken my head off putting it under my arms….

(6) Can you tell me a little about your relationship with Richard Branson when you signed with Virgin? I've read you played endless games of chess with him for a while?

I didn’t play endless games but just five on his houseboat back in August 1973. He lost three and won two. Richard was a business entertainer all the way through. His ‘Midas Touch’ came from choosing the right people who did help him to reach a position in life he ambitiously wanted to reach. Also he never got tired to play the very high risk card. Others would have gone crazy, bankrupt or would have ended up in a lunatic asylum. Richard never left the plate being a sunny kid everybody has to love – and obviously his little very simple life philosophy paid off. Finally we ended up disagreeing about life, music and business because he turned the world into a personal Virgin space cruiser not realizing that life can and has to be more than a fun fair and commercial success.

(7) When it came to recording Phaedra , you were using Moog and sequencers for the first time. What did these instruments allow you to express that you couldn't express before?

It goes back to my early years as a pupil of classical music when I realized that everything in musical structure is bass oriented. Specifically Bach’s compositions where he explained it perfectly in his fugues and toccatas that even the strict counterpoint in top of a bass line is the backbone of every serious composition. Even in various free forms of musical developments in later years it always reminded me never to forget about Bach’s serious ‘bass line crutches’. It’s true that TD have been the first band ever using the Moog modular system – introduced by Bob Moog and Wendy Carlos – as a standalone sequencer, historically proved by listening to the title track on the ‘Phaedra’ release. The programming of these sequences was time- consuming but it gave you the endless freedom to improvise in top of these bass lines.

(8) When did you first become aware of the term ''? And do you think that term is a reductive one?

In my personal subjective view I like to distinguish ambient noises and atmospheric sounds from so-called ambient music. All of us did grow up with the first description – the noisy world around us. Contrary but not totally excluding you have the so-called ‘organized noise’ called music. In fact, ambient music is the organized description of our daily surrounding with all sounds and natural noises. It’s like all open air sounds have been put through the human filter bank to make it understandable and acceptable. By the way TD has never been a pure musical ambassador for ambient music. This goes to my respected colleague who more or less extended this musical form and its fine and intelligent transformation to a brighter audience. I guess he’s already credited for doing this since decades as a pioneer.

(9) Phaedra was a big success, especially in England, where it made the Top Ten Album Chart. Were you completely satisfied with that album? Was it the great leap forward, artistically?

Ask any serious and deeply music committed person when the point is reached to be satisfied with your production. The answer could be: Not in this life, but maybe later under a new macrocosmic home address. No, as for me I wasn’t happy with any result, because the music played constantly within your neuronal wave patterns can’t be materialized. It’s like a competition between a torch and the sunlight. The sun will always win, unfortunately you can’t hold it in your hands and use it as you use a torch. ‘Phaedra’ did help to build a career I never dreamed of in my early years, so I have to deeply thank my individual karma being guided that way. But in terms of music developments all of us have not even explored five percent of the sound universe. With other words, to work on the same level of exploration, hunger for adventures and knowing that nothing is perfect and satisfying is the most driving energy.

(10) I read a recent interview with you, in which you seemed affronted by the idea that you created "". What is it about that description that you object to, particularly?

TD never ever composed or performed ‘electronic music’. This term goes to people like Pierre Schaeffer, Luc Ferrari, Ishii, Shibata, Stockhausen, , Moroi, Parmegiani and many others within the last 60 years. Also the Ircam studio in Paris or studios in Cologne, Utrecht and Tokyo have been birth places for sounds which were created artificially using early computer equipment, merging lots of tape loops and recording pitchless sounds as source material for various application possibilities. Tangerine Dream was and is using various electronic analogue and digital devices including computer plug-ins to produce structures and musical sequenced pattern in a rhythmical context. The static repeatable event structure is the main difference apart from the philosophy behind.

(11) Can you tell me about the kind of audience reactions you received in the early '70s? Your live shows are famously intense and I believe that some people walked out, expecting a more conventional 'rock' show? And were you ever physically attacked on stage?

Not physically attacked, fortunately, but mentally as well as emotionally very often. If you see the development on the field of arts through centuries it always has been the same intense affront: conservative opinions against the fresh breeze of changing crystallized structures in arts development. The saying: ‘What a dog doesn’t know well, he won’t eat.’ In comparison, the mass audience was and still is kind of an unconscious animal who never would leave the home nest without a guaranteed safe return. As far as TD’s early performances are concerned the stage after a most often short performance was looking like a weekly vegetable market rather than a concert stage. People had some fun throwing bad apples and bananas towards our early electronic gear and were laughing their asses off. You need a lot of trust in your beliefs and even more patience that one day it will be over. And I was right, fortunately. Still the worst and most intolerant country was and still is my homeland Germany. But, I don’t care, I’ve forgiven ‘the Krauts’ even this attitude.

(12) You made some wonderful records for Virgin in the '70s - Phaedra, Rubycon, Force Majeure - but can you tell me a little about Cyclone ? What was the idea behind that album? Were you trying for a different audience?

A different audience? No, we’ve been very happy that we found one audience who did support us, specifically in the UK they were very open-minded. The reason was that I had to ask to leave the band after he had performed a very offended and egocentric affair about his studio buildings and developing his solo career after our two US tours in 1977. Also my relationship with the third colleague C. Franke was quite stained. In that moment two new guests joined the band for recording ‘Cyclone’, Steve Joliffe and Klaus Krüger. Steve’s appearance as a wind instrument player was planned. His voice performance was an ‘out of the box’ decision during the recording session. No one was really happy with the result. Even today I wouldn’t personalize the outcome, it had been my decision to do it, therefore it’s my burden of having created a mistake. Steve was and still is a fine musician, also is Klaus – but the chemistry among us didn’t work.

(13) In 1977 you and Monique helped and when they moved to Berlin. Can you give me an idea of what it was like meeting those two and whether you were all sympathetic to each others' musical visions?

In 1976 I read an interview with David where he extremely praised my solo recording ‘Epsilon In Malaysian Pale’ I did for Virgin. Short time later we met backstage in Berlin during his ‘Station To Station’ tour. We found out during a night long sightseeing tour across Berlin that we had a lot of things in common, both musically and philosophically. I didn’t know much about David’s and Iggy’s background. Iggy was just quietly following our conversation. To make a long story – which lasted 1 ½ years – short, David plus his complete entourage and Iggy moved to Berlin. Monique, my wife and me found a big flat for him in the center of the town and went together through maybe one of David’s darkest periods in his life – drug withdrawal. He was a strong person and finally managed to become clean again. What a fortune for his career and his audience. Among all super heroes I met in my long career he still is a bright light in my memories.

(14) Ricochet is a less ambient album than some of the others, using more guitar and drums. Were you trying to make a rock-meets-classical album in some respects?

No, definitely not because I’ve never been a real Rock’ n’ Roller nor do I have the capability to see myself as a professional classical performer. ‘Ricochet’ was named after an old pinball computer game which we used to play in various hotel lobbies during our 1976 European tour. The final record had been a mix of at least four to five concerts of that tour. Finally, we did some necessary overdubs at Virgin Manor Studios in Oxfordshire. I remember playing the opening piano tune in the billiard room of the studio complex. They had a grand piano badly tuned but the atmosphere was right. Mikes were hooked up and I played it in one take – just being interrupted by Jerôme, my then 6 years old son who threw a billiard ball against my neck. Maybe otherwise the opening tune would have been longer.

(15) Tangerine Dream played two concerts in communist in 1980. Can you describe how it felt being the first major Western rock band to do that?

No other concert in my career could be compared with this one. It was a concert 100 % controlled by a communist government and we’ve been the first band they allowed to perform at their political shrine, the ‘Palast der Republik’. Every step we did was spotted by the East German Secret Service. This concert happened when we were on the peak of our analogue phase equipment-wise, so we did carry tons of keyboards and modular sequencers into East Berlin. The boarder police thought we might be building a new space port in the middle of town. We had a kind of a priority deal with the government who gave us the feeling to do whatever was necessary to make the gig a success. So we partly enjoyed the privilege of fools. The deal was possible because we had to sign a contract to play just instrumental music – no words or messages or whatsoever. Of course, there was a lot of trouble and unexpected situations before we did start the gig, but finally we set again a landmark within our overall reputation as being serious outlaws. You will definitely read the whole detailed story and many more in my coming autobiography which I’m just writing and which should be out in 2011.

(16) Did working with William Friedkin on open up a whole new set of possibilities for you? If so, how?

Bill Friedkin did open the doors to the most bizarre place on the planet: Hollywood. Totally unexpected we got a call from Bill directly in April 1976 to score his new movie the follow up to ‘The Exorcist’. I did not like this film at all. Except the directors Murnau, Buñuel, von Stroheim, Robert Wiene, Rupert Julian and Hitchcock I didn’t like most of the ‘right on the nose’ horror movies. So I told Friedkin that we were not interested. Branson called me 10 minutes later to convince me to score this movie. ‘I’am not on for the second part of ‘The Exorcist’, it’s not part of my philosophy of life!’ I said and hung up. A few minutes later Friedkin called again saying that he wasn’t doing a sequel of ‘The Exorcist’, it was the remake of ‘Wages Of Fear’ by the French director Henri Clouzot. So I apologized being a bit nasty during his first call. Few days later I found myself sitting first class in a 747 to LA. During my conversation I realized that Bill was a very friendly, warmhearted professional who gave us all the freedom we might have needed to score the movie. Six weeks later we met again in Paris were he already started shooting the opening sequence of the movie. I handed over 100 minutes of a final score we had recorded after reading the script. He was very excited. He later said that he heard the music every day during his shooting in the jungle of Puerto Rico while shooting the main sequences. Nothing on that score had to be adjusted. The score made a lot of noises in other Hollywood studios, so we got right away other lucrative offers. It was the beginning of our scoring career which lasted more than 16 years. It did end in the early nineties, because we started losing our identity and became more and more kind of a big screen slave. I had a strong desire to record new TD stuff without being occupied by the Big Boys from Hollywood. But anyway I don’t want to miss that experience in my musical life. All of us did learn a lot from the professionals in the movie industry.

(17) It's interesting that, despite your reputation as a technological innovator, you once said that the greatest of all instruments will always be the human voice, followed by a grand piano. Can you explain this philosophy please?

There is a basic fundamental noise every life is starting with. The first thing you hear after you left the uterus is a voice. The first description of the world given by third parties in your early days is the voice. All education which prepare yourself for the life’s journey comes to you by voice. Most communications, good or bad ones are transmitted through the voice. Your brain is functioning because of your inner voice and so on. Last but not least the singing voice which often has been named ‘the resonance of the soul’. There are dozens of examples why we are so much tied up to the human voice. The voice is a very organized sound, the best one we have, even if it’s not perfect as we know. There is the human multiband filter located in your oral cavity as well as the system of your oropharynx. This filter organ could not perfectly copied by newer technology, it has too many parameters which need to be identified on a very random basis. Therefore the voice is the only instrument which cannot be replaced by anything. The grand piano comes second because of its sound parameters, polyphonic key system and a phenomenal touch velocity. A grand sensitively played will touch all resonance areas on the surface of your body as well as the inner ear parameters. A grand can also not be copied even if it has been tried many times. The reason is very simple: The acoustic sound is totally merged with the three- dimensional room in which the instrument is played. If you count all sound parameters together, you will find millions of coincidental patterns and layers. So bearing this in mind, there will be no chance transmitting this huge amount of sound variations lifelike into an electronic device. I know about nearly all attempts towards a good and original sound transfer and some are quite o.k. But finally nothing will beat a well tuned grand in a perfect room resonance and atmosphere.