The duo of Robert Görl and Sylvie Marks return with another single. If you are expecting GÖRL to sound like Continuity DAF, then you will be surprised. This is dark, brooding, pop with a hint of mystery.
A new project launches in Germany with Robert Görl and Sylvie Marks collaborating as GÖRL. The pair had been working as DAF since the death of singer, Gabi Delgado, but their partnership takes a new step with the statement that “Some Day Is Now.”
The single is elegant and minimal. “Dark Silver Moon Light,” the first album from GÖRL, arrives on 29 May 2026 via Groenland Records.
There were many excellent records released in 2023, but it was also a good year for books about music. From the graphic wizardry of Brian Griffin’s MODE to the scrapbook of Yello, there was something for every bookshelf. We have collected our favourites below.
Brian Griffin, MODE
More than anyone else, perhaps, Brian Griffin created the image of Depeche Mode over their first five albums. At a time when they were capable of issuing an album a year, developing their style with each release, Griffin’s images were the best-known and most-distinctive features of their branding. From a plastic-wrapped lawn ornament to a monumental banner-draped building, Depeche Mode were defined by his eye and the lens of his camera.
Griffin’s best-known shot for Depeche Mode is the stunning picture of a peasant in a field, made for A Broken Frame. It became a sensation and one of the best-recognised photographs of the 1980s.
MODE collects these images, as well as other shots from the sessions and for promotional materials in a limited edition, finely-crafted book. A living archive, it is structured around an interview made for Radio Virus in Sweden. Gareth Jones, who produced three of the five albums with Daniel Miller, provides an introduction.
MODE is an essential read for any fan of the band or music photography.
Robert Görl and Hanna Rollmann, The Voice That Dwells Within
In 1989, Robert Görl was nearly killed in a car crash. The founder of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft survived but was left in hospital with a shattered body. It could have been the end of Görl’s career in music; but, instead, it marked a kind of rebirth.
Together with Dr Hanna Rollmann, Görl has written a book that traces his path from the clinic to spiritual healing in a compelling and dream-like style. Visions appear of the founding of DAF, the band moving to an Earl’s Court basement flat, adventures in New York, and romance in Thailand. Along the way, companions leave notes with their names, hoping for calls that do not come.
DAF changed the face of music with sequencers and Görl’s drumming. They sang in German and avoided the rock-and-roll conventions of Anglo-American music. With a punk spirit, they created a sound that influenced generations of musicians with proto-techno, EBM and Hi-NRG styles. With this book, Görl fills in the missing details of the band’s history and offers insights into a uniquely productive creative partnership.
Wesley Doyle, Conform to Deform
The truth is that Stevo Pearce, the founder of Some Bizarre and legendary Soft Cell manager, has more personality than his body can handle. It bursts out in moments of wildness that surprise and scare record company executives. With a love of the surreal and MDMA, Stevo (no one uses his last name other than his bank manager) took a duo from Leeds to global stardom while creating a label that gave obscure industrial acts access to major label resources.
The suits thought Stevo had a good ear for the underground, and they let him release important records by Cabaret Voltaire, Neubauten, Psychic TV, and Coil. Along the way, there were enormous quantities of drugs, episodes of violence, amazing works of art, outrageous lies, and epic attempts to humiliate the record companies that made it all possible.
Doyle has created a brilliant oral history from interviews with the artists who made music for Some Bizarre. Conform to Deform brings to life the controversies and accomplishments of one of the strangest and most influential labels – and its singular boss.
Cosey Fanni Tutti, Re-Sisters
The intersection of three lives – Cosey Fanni Tutti, Delia Derbyshire, and Margery Kempe – is explored with references to music, feminism, and marginalisation. Tutti, once denounced in Parliament as a “wrecker of civilisation,” is making a film version of her book, Art, Sex, Music, while contributing to another about Derbyshire’s complex life. At the same time, she is reading the story of the 15th century local mystic, Kempe. Similarities emerge about places, situations, and struggles.
Tutti was a founder of COUM and Throbbing Gristle. She told that story in her first book, including the abuse that she experienced at the hands of Genesis P-Orridge. In Re-Sisters, we find Tutti being blocked from using the music she contributed to by P-Orridge’s estate. It is just one example of how others refuse to accept her voice. Whether from Members of Parliament or family members, there is determined resistance against Tutti being herself. Through her story, we learn how Derbyshire and Kempe experienced similar challenges. Overcoming them is the only choice.
Yuma Hampejs and Marcel Schulze, Elektronische Körpermusik
The history of electronic body music really began with DAF. Gabi Delgado sang, while Robert Görl played drums. They used sequencers to play the bass lines and pulses that completed their sound, and the feeling was harder than their disco precedents. The approach was functional but also stylistic. In Elektronische Körpermusik, Hampejs and Schulze explore these origins but also celebrate the movement that grew from it.
The book is an ambitious attempt to cover a lot of ground, so Belgian club nights and Swedish radio shows rub shoulders with generations of bands, from Nitzer Ebb to Zweite Jugend. Like Bengt Rahm’s bible of the Swedish electronic music scene, Den svenska synthen, the book offers both breadth and depth in its coverage of an essential musical movement.
Simon Helm, Walking in Their Shoes
Written by our Editor, Walking in Their Shoes traces the path of Depeche Mode as they played and recorded in London. It locates the venues and studios where the band developed their sound and built their audience. It also includes key locations in Mute Records’ history, such as the Decoy Avenue house where the label was founded. Pictures and public transport details help orient fans visiting the sites. It is the best way to experience London in the footsteps of the band.
Audrey Golden, I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records
If you believe the conventional history, Factory was a group of men making things. There was Tony Wilson, the hero of every story. Rob Gretton, the drug-hoovering manager. Peter Saville, the graphic designer with no sense of time. Barney and Hooky from New Order sulking or scheming like schoolboys. Mike Pickering in the booth at the Haçienda. Everywhere and always, if there was a face to the label and its spin-offs, it belonged to a man.
Audrey Golden sets out to correct the picture with an oral history collected from the women of Factory. From Lindsay Reade (Wilson’s former partner and Factory employee) to Nikki Kefalis (Factory PR and founder of Out Promotion), Golden has tracked down the personalities who did the work, offered the ideas, and found the resources that others have claimed credit for.
There are some gaps – the absence of Martha Ladly jumps out – but this book restores the voices of the participants and fills in the blanks left by XY-biased narratives.
Boris Blank and Dieter Meier, Oh Yeah
The use of a Yello track in the teen comedy, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, gave the obscure Swiss act a hit. By that point the duo of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank, Yello had grown up on the same label as The Residents and were a stable in the record collections of underground DJs. The inclusion of “Oh Yeah,” with Meier’s processed intonation suggesting male lust, opened the money tap and took the band into the mainstream.
Oh Yeah, the book, is drawn from Blank’s archives. It features cuttings from newspapers, press releases, unseen photographs, and notes by Blank and Meier. Yello were from a privileged background, which gave them access to equipment like the Fairlight and opportunities that their contemporaries could only dream of. But it was their love of sounds taken from different cultures, the voices of singers like Shirley Bassey and Billy Mackenzie, and a feeling for rhythms that set them apart.
Placed next to Yello, Kraftwerk seem too serious and Depeche Mode appear naïve. Yello dress like aristocrats and play cards like James Bond. At the same time, they maintain a surrealistic edge. Like the 3D picture disc of “I Love You” that came out in 1983, they have a groove and a sense of humour that are captured perfectly in the book.
“Hear the crashing steel…”
Robert Görl’s story begins at The End. A chance meeting between black ice and his BMW brings the lyrics of “Warm Leatherette” to life, shorn of their Ballardian eroticism. He joins the car crash set in a German hospital, where doctors piece his shattered body back together like a jigsaw puzzle. The wheel of life makes another rotation, and Görl is reborn into a bed where he has nothing but time to reflect on his intentions and his desires. When he learns to move his limbs again, he will act on them.
“Feel the steering wheel…”
There are few living musicians as influential as Robert Görl. As one-half of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF), he reshaped pop music in post-War Germany within the limitations of 8-step sequencers. Born by punk’s spirit and kegs at the Ratinger Hof, DAF rejected the rhythms and languages of the four occupying forces; particularly the American conventions of rock and rule by guitar. After early experiments and collaborations, DAF was stripped to two members, a drum kit, and Japanese synths. Gabi Delgado took the microphone, while Görl struck the skins with a sensitivity that belied the hard edge of DAF’s sound.
Together, they created a new genre. It is hard to imagine Front 242 in Belgium or Nitzer Ebb in England without DAF having cleared the path. Their heat was sometimes generated by friction, but DAF united as often as they split; returning to release the spirit that first inspired them. From their first days in a Philbeach Gardens flat to their domination of the German charts; from the Hi-NRG of “Brothers” to the sharp politics of “Der Sheriff” – Görl and Delgado never lost their touch, even if they were sometimes out of touch for long periods of time. They were the princes of the alternative dancefloor from the beginning until the end.
“A tear of petrol is in your eye…”
Not The End. That is where the story begins – remember? In Das Versteck der Stimme [in the English version, which is found on the reverse of the book, The Voice that Dwells Within], Görl takes us through his experiences with the assistance of Hanna Rollmann. The co-authors take a non-linear, impressionistic approach; rendering an account of Görl’s accident, recovery, and return to life with vivid and personal details. Cut through it are Görl’s recollections of his difficult childhood, unhappiness at school, and the transformative creation of DAF. There are fleeting glances and clothes abandoned; hopes expressed and disappointments delivered; and, through it all, the lure of freedom. It is not found in the neon signs of the West nor the touristy temples of the Far East. It is located, rather, in the simplest of touches and – in both directions – a sense of acceptance.
The book fills in many of the blanks left from interviews. The founding of DAF and the band’s emergence from the Ratinger Hof are coloured in with luminous detail. The excitement of making the magnificent “Mit Dir” and Night Full of Tension spills from the page. Görl’s time in Thailand, where he studied Buddhism and found connection with the daughter of a water-buffalo farmer, is finally laid out. His return to Germany and reunification with Gabi, just in time to take part in the Love Parade, sets the stage for the next volume. Written in a way that conveys Görl’s feelings at every step, it is a cinematic and compelling read that no fan of DAF or student of pop music should be without.
Compared to the privileged founders of Kraftwerk, who were able to launch their project with family money, Robert Görl had it tough. Raised in an orphanage in Munich, he was attracted to punk and became one of the outsiders hanging around Düsseldorf’s Ratinger Hof. There, he connected with fellow spirit, Gabi Delgado, and the duo became the core of Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, one of the leading Neue Deutsche Welle acts. A formally trained jazz drummer, Görl brought a sense of rhythm and structure to the band, which was to spin off acts like Pyrolator and Liaisons Dangereuses.
The first album by DAF, Ein Produkt der Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft, was an experimental, improvised collection of instrumental tracks. It led to a trip to London, which saw the group of German punks sleeping on the floor of Daniel Miller‘s mother’s middle class house in Temple Fortune, London. The next step was an album, Die Kleinen und die Bosen, which was the first full-length release for Miller’s Mute Records label. Given the catalogue number, STUMM1 (‘stumm’ being the German word for ‘mute’), it featured a live side recorded in London and a studio side produced by Conny Plank. Plank’s son tells the story that Görl, Delgado and Miller went to Conny’s Studio in Germany to finalise the material. Miller had booked three days of studio time. On the first day, Plank cooked and chatted with Görl and Delgado. On the second day, the same thing happened. Miller was watching his budget being eaten up – literally. On the third day, as Miller’s anxiety was peaking, the Germans went into the studio and did the entire session in one go. This was the beginning of a key relationship between Plank and DAF.
It also led to the reorganisation of DAF as the duo of Görl and Delgado. After Die Kleinen…, they clinched a contract with Virgin Records and forged a new, minimal sound. The rest of the band were out, and Miller was told only after the deal was done. It was a messy affair, but it led to a series of albums that set new templates for European electronic music. With only a sequencer, basic synths, a drum kit, and Delgado’s voice, DAF crafted a distinctive sound with songs that cut open the belly of punk. Görl’s drums and electronics steered a path between icy anthems and intimate tracks, avoiding the traps of both 4/4 dance music and pub rock, while Delgado purred and shouted slogans and sensual promises with equal intensity.
The new arrangement was successful, but it didn’t last. It couldn’t have lasted. After three albums in two years, all produced in Conny’s Studio, DAF pulled the plug. The passion that kept the music interesting also led to collisions that blew the partnership apart. They regrouped in 1986 for a dance-oriented album, 1st Step to Heaven, but the tensions kept resurfacing. Over the years, the fans pulled DAF back into the studio and onto the stage, but keeping the band together was a recurring challenge.
In the gaps between DAF projects, Görl continued to produce exceptional music. In 1983, after the first DAF split, Görl returned to Mute Records with the single, “Mit Dir.” That led to a further single and album produced by Mike Hedges, including a collaboration with Annie Lennox of Eurythmics. Görl had provided drums for the Eurythmics’ 1981 single, “Belinda,” which appeared on the Plank-produced album, In the Garden, and kept close to Lennox. Although critically well received, Night Full of Tension failed to ignite Görl’s solo career in the UK.
After the second DAF split, in 1987, Görl went off to study acting in New York; quickly finding himself expelled for having the wrong visa. On return to West Germany, he was picked up by the army, which wanted to know why he hadn’t completed his national service. Faced with the choice of joining the Bundeswehr or making music, Görl split for Paris, where he recorded demos in a suburban flat. He took them to London, where Daniel Miller recommended that he connect with the Canadian prog musician, Dee Long, who had set up as a Fairlight operator at George Martin’s AIR Studios. Long had previously worked with Rational Youth on the Heredity album and with Images in Vogue, so had some experience working with the current technology. Before they could properly record the material that Görl had developed in Paris, however, he was involved in a horrific car accident. The drummer began 1989 with broken bones and soft tissue injuries that prevented further work and would impact him for the rest of his career.
The result was a hiatus from music that lasted until 1992. In that time, Görl became a monk at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand; a role he traded in for techno production after returning to a reunited Germany and experiencing Berlin’s Love Parade. His love for Buddhist spirituality remained, but so did his drive to make music as DAF. In 2003, he and Delgado released Fünfzehn neue D.A.F.-Lieder, updating the DAF sound while demonstrating their continuing relevance. More splits followed, but a way forward was always found. In 2021, following the death of Delgado, Görl released the final DAF album, Nur noch einer, drawn from archive material and ideas the duo had been working on together. It was a kind of closure, but not the end of the journey: Görl has recently continued to perform as DAF, and there are other sketches in the vaults that could still be worked on. DAF lives…
It also led to the reorganisation of DAF as the duo of Görl and Delgado. After Die Kleinen…, they clinched a contract with Virgin Records and forged a new, minimal sound. The rest of the band were out, and Miller was told only after the deal was done. It was a messy affair, but it led to a series of albums that set new templates for European electronic music. With only a sequencer, basic synths, a drum kit, and Delgado’s voice, DAF crafted a distinctive sound with songs that cut open the belly of punk. Görl’s drums and electronics steered a path between icy anthems and intimate tracks, avoiding the traps of both 4/4 dance music and pub rock, while Delgado purred and shouted slogans and sensual promises with equal intensity.
The new arrangement was successful, but it didn’t last. It couldn’t have lasted. After three albums in two years, all produced in Conny’s Studio, DAF pulled the plug. The passion that kept the music interesting also led to collisions that blew the partnership apart. They regrouped in 1986 for a dance-oriented album, 1st Step to Heaven, but the tensions kept resurfacing. Over the years, the fans pulled DAF back into the studio and onto the stage, but keeping the band together was a recurring challenge.
In the gaps between DAF projects, Görl continued to produce exceptional music. In 1983, after the first DAF split, Görl returned to Mute Records with the single, “Mit Dir.” That led to a further single and album produced by Mike Hedges, including a collaboration with Annie Lennox of Eurythmics. Görl had provided drums for the Eurythmics’ 1981 single, “Belinda,” which appeared on the Plank-produced album, In the Garden, and kept close to Lennox. Although critically well received, Night Full of Tension failed to ignite Görl’s solo career in the UK.
After the second DAF split, in 1987, Görl went off to study acting in New York; quickly finding himself expelled for having the wrong visa. On return to West Germany, he was picked up by the army, which wanted to know why he hadn’t completed his national service. Faced with the choice of joining the Bundeswehr or making music, Görl split for Paris, where he recorded demos in a suburban flat. He took them to London, where Daniel Miller recommended that he connect with the Canadian prog musician, Dee Long, who had set up as a Fairlight operator at George Martin’s AIR Studios. Long had previously worked with Rational Youth on the Heredity album and with Images in Vogue, so had some experience working with the current technology. Before they could properly record the material that Görl had developed in Paris, however, he was involved in a horrific car accident. The drummer began 1989 with broken bones and soft tissue injuries that prevented further work and would impact him for the rest of his career.
The result was a hiatus from music that lasted until 1992. In that time, Görl became a monk at a Buddhist monastery in Thailand; a role he traded in for techno production after returning to a reunited Germany and experiencing Berlin’s Love Parade. His love for Buddhist spirituality remained, but so did his drive to make music as DAF. In 2003, he and Delgado released Fünfzehn neue D.A.F.-Lieder, updating the DAF sound while demonstrating their continuing relevance. More splits followed, but a way forward was always found. In 2021, following the death of Delgado, Görl released the final DAF album, Nur noch einer, drawn from archive material and ideas the duo had been working on together. It was a kind of closure, but not the end of the journey: Görl has recently continued to perform as DAF, and there are other sketches in the vaults that could still be worked on. DAF lives…
10. DAF – Kebabträume
The first DAF single on Mute, “Kebabträume” is an electro-punk treatment of the controversy about Turkish immigration to West Germany. It deals with the division of Berlin and cold war spycraft, reflecting the anxieties of the times. It was re-recorded by the Görl-Delgado version of DAF for their third Virgin album, Für Immer, with cleaner production and a more minimal style, but the original 7″ in the Simone Grant sleeve remains the definitive version.9. Robert Rental – Double Heart
Görl’s skills as a drummer have been called upon a number of times for other acts. Rental had worked with Daniel Miller on a tour of the UK and France, which had been documented on a one-sided album for Rough Trade. It was natural, therefore, that he would release his second single on Mute. It was recorded at Blackwing Studios, where Miller was working on his Silicon Teens material, with Thomas Leer and Görl assisting.8. DAF – Ich und die Wirklichkeit
The version of DAF that went to Virgin was one that Mute would have loved to have bid for. DAF’s first album for Richard Branson’s label, Alles ist Gut, was to become a classic and a crossover hit in Germany. With the instrumentation reduced to drums and sequenced synths, the duo was able to reinvent electronic music entirely. The live version of this track offers a view of the band’s strong punk sensibilities; rejecting both the hippy ambience of Tangerine Dream and the angular pop of the Anglo-American New Wave.7. DAF – The Gun
The return of DAF in 1987 was at the height of Stock Aitken Waterman’s powers. Hi-NRG was all over the dancefloor, and the band was well positioned to take a run at commercial success. They brought with them an early track – “Absolute Body Control” – and wrote new material, including this funky 12″ single. Some saw this as a sell-out, but DAF’s club campaign yielded a string of excellent singles and an album that added polish to their sound.6. Robert Görl – Dominatrix Supreme
Görl’s return to Germany led to a period of techno production that is sometimes overlooked in his work, but the material is of very high quality. DAF’s sound was one of the major influences on the development of dance music, and it is only natural that Görl would have turned his hand to the music of the clubs.5. Client with Robert Görl – Der Mussolini
In 2006, Görl performed live with Client, the band fronted by Sarah Blackwood and championed by Andy Fletcher of Depeche Mode. At the end of their set, they had a go at this classic dancefloor number by DAF. In 2007, Görl’s remix of the band’s Adam Ant-written song, “Zerox Machine,” was released.4. Robert Görl – Part 1 (Vince Clarke Remix)
The accident that prevented Görl from taking forward his second solo album with Dee Long was very serious. He spent six months in hospital, was implanted with steel pins, and had to learn to walk again. Completely defeated by chance, he took himself away to a monastery and gave up music entirely. The discovery of a cassette with his demos led to the release of an album by Grönland Records in 2018. Vince Clarke provided a remix of this track; hinting at the way the material could have taken shape if Görl had worked on it in London as planned.3. FLA – Eye on You
Canada’s Front Line Assembly called on Görl to contribute to this track from 2019. As Bill Leeb told The Electricity Club: “We met at M’era Luna and another festival. We all hung out backstage, and I kind of hunted him down. One time, [DAF] played right after us and we were hanging out backstage, waiting to change, and I just started talking to him. I was such a huge fan, and the first couple of DAF albums were groundbreaking – kind of like the whole Mute and DEPECHE MODE world. We just started chatting in German, and he’s a super nice guy, and next thing you know we were doing the track.”2. DAF – Ich denk an dich
Released in the wake of Delgado’s untimely and unexpected death, “Ich denk an dich” [EN: “I Think of You”] is Görl’s tribute to his musical partner. Their relationship was sometimes difficult, but it was also productive. Some of Görl’s most significant material is inseparable from Delgado’s contributions. With the last DAF album, he had an opportunity to express this using archival recordings and the sketches made with Delgado.1. Robert Görl – Mit Dir
Released in the spring of 1983, “Mit Dir” finds Görl singing a love song over a minimal, icy-cold set of synth sounds. One of the most beautiful songs released on Mute, it is a masterpiece that shows off Görl’s expressive range and control of minimalist instrumentation. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]Caught by veteran broadcaster Paul Gamaccini in Hamburg, the Basildon boys (and Alan Wilder) sat down to talk about Vince’s departure, DAF, and broken instruments. This 1983 interview is one of the deepest and wide-ranging, bringing in Daniel Miller and Vince Clarke for additional commentary.
Gabi Delgado would have turned 64 on the 18th of April, but time had already taken him from us. The DAF singer was one of a kind, and his rise from the Ratinger Hof to headliner at music festivals was a complicated one. It involved sleeping on the floor at Dan Miller’s mother’s home in Temple Fortune, ditching most of the band with Robert Görl, crafting the template for post-disco German dance music, a volatile relationship with Görl, attempts to break America, (unfounded) accusations of racism, provocative PR based on Baader-Meinhof, millions of cigarettes, and enough plastic bottles of water to make Greta cry.
In this early clip of Delgado and Görl on stage at Berlin’s legendary SO36 venue, the duo showcase the raw energy and minimalist tension of their act. Shorn of the other early members, this DAF lit up the night for three influential albums in rapid succession before flaming out temporarily. They would get back together over the years, to show new generations of artists how it should be done, but this period represented the core DAF experience. With his limbs waving and lines shouted with punk determination, this was Delgado’s assault on the cultural domination of Anglo-American music and domestic schlager. DAF won the skirmish, but the war goes on.
Robert Görl has released a new song, dedicated to the memory of his musical partner, Gabi Delgado.
In a YouTube post, Görl explains:
“Gabi and I had some grand plans. We wanted to make a new DAF album. We were thinking of it being a mix of new tracks created on the fly and a selection of our best hidden gems left over from the 80s. We were really raring to do it. We were certain the album was a done deal.
We wanted to finish producing it this summer. I listened to all our old bare-bones from back then again – absolute treasures!
Gabi departed this life suddenly, a life he loved so much, and I’ve resolved to produce all of these unheard jewels for DAF and Gabi in spite of it all. They were written while we were sharing an apartment on Holland Road in London (1981/1982). I dedicate the song Ich denke an dich (‘I Think of You’) to Gabi.”
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Recorded at a show in France in 1981, this video shows DAF, reduced to the duo of Robert Goerl and Gabi Delgado, give a storming performance of “Verschwende deine Jugend” [EN: “Waste Your Youth”] in front of a wall of cassette decks.
Cassettes, for those born after 1990, were lengths of magnetic tape encased in plastic shells.
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Tina Schnekenburger has worn a number of guises over the years.
From the punk scene in Kraftwerk’s home town to the world of modern art, she is a card carrying member of the avant-garde.
Schnekenburger can be seen in the new Conny Plank documentary, operating backing tracks for DAF. In leather, with cropped hair, she is effortlessly cool: a Teutonic Siren behind Gabi Delgado’s beat-fuelled leaps.
A long-time friend of DAF, she is credited with typography on the liner notes for Die Kleinen und Die Bosen, the very first album on Mute (cat: STUMM 1).
As an early member of Die Krupps, her contributions to the rhythm section can be found on key recordings.
Recently, Schnekenburger held her first showing of modern art. A long-time painter, fans pushed her to present her dramatic artwork to a wider public.
It’s on the back of her Berlin show, Colors and States of Mind, that we took the chance to catch up with Schnekenburger from her base in Germany.
You were part of the German punk scene. What was it like in those days, and what inspired you to start making music?
When I moved from Spain to Düsseldorf, I had a heavy drug and drinking problem. For the first few weeks in Düsseldorf, I kept on drinking and using. Then, one day, I somehow ended up in Ratinger Hof, and the music just hit me!
Punk and me – that was love (or rather hearing) at first sight. From then on, I was in Ratinger Hof every single night. I stopped drinking, smoking and using all together, from one day to the next, because I finally had something that actually touched me inside and gave a meaning to my life. As clichéd as it may sound, you can truly say that punk rock saved my life.
As punk gave me the feeling that everything was possible, even when you were a girl (which was not normal at the time), I thought about getting into making music myself.
As it happened, one day there was a party at the house of Thomas Schwebel’s parents in Solingen.
First, we ruined the garden by kicking a ball around, and then later the guys started jamming (Thomas had all the equipment there). At some point, I just grabbed the bass guitar and joined in. That was that.
Next thing I played bass in Die Rächer, together with Eduardo and Olga Delgado (brother and sister of Gabi).
How did you originally connect with DAF?
Well, Ratinger Hof was the place to be, so naturally I met absolutely everybody there, including the guys of DAF.
I got to know Gabi at the pinball machine. Jürgen Engler, Gabi, Wolf-Dieter Lauenroth and I were the best pinball players around, and you would find us at the pinball machine quite often.
Did you ever have to sleep on the floor at Daniel Miller’s house in London?
Of course! For about six weeks, as far as I recall. That was so nice of Daniel – I will never forget that.
When DAF reduced to a duo, you joined them for live shows. Those were high energy but incredibly stylish events. What was it like for you being on stage with them?
I was incredibly nervous every single time!
First, just putting on the tapes was not as easy as it may sound. You had to wind them exactly to the beginning of the song, and you were always afraid of “Bandsalat”.
Second, it’s not easy at all to have nothing to do between the songs and still look cool. But apparently I managed quite well.
In Die Krupps, you had a role in production and songwriting. What kind of sound were you going for? Did you have specific influences?
That, in fact, is a bit too much credit. I know that in some place it says that I was involved in the production but that was Jürgen’s part.
When I joined, Volle Kraft voraus was nearly finished but it still needed lyrics. So, I wrote some of the lyrics, together with Jürgen.
In Entering the Arena, which still is my favorite, I wanted to go back to the roots – i.e., “Wahre Arbeit, Wahrer Lohn” – something more high-energy and danceable.
You might say that “Wahre Arbeit, wahrer Lohn” was my influence at the time – a great song that is working live still.
When you left Die Krupps, were there musical ambitions you still wanted to fulfil? Will we see you return to stage?
After I left Die Krupps, Jürgen (Engler) and I founded the label Atom H. We released bands like Rumble Militia, a punk-/metal-crossover band from Bremen with a strong political message.
There was also, for instance, Protector, a Thrash Metal band that reminded one of Slayer.
At that time, New Metal was the thing, and there were lots of amazing new bands. It was a great time: we went to lots of gigs, almost every night. It was totally rock’n’roll.
After a while, I got tired of the music business – and especially the people in it – so I left Atom H. I moved to Berlin, just in time for the Wall to come down, where I took up photography again. I later returned to painting.
In London, I was in an all-girl reggae band where I played the drums, and it was always in the back of my head to go back to drumming; so, last year in May, I started taking drum lessons.
Whenever I can find the time in between painting and getting my next exhibition organized, I practice. I am dreaming of playing the drums in a rock band in the future – maybe in 2020.
You are also becoming known as a painter. When did you start? What do your paintings express?
I have been painting since I was a little kid and kept doing it until the age of 16, when I left school.
My mother took me to an art school in Stuttgart (at the time we were living in Heilbronn) to apply – successfully, but I never went. By that time, I already was heavily into booze and drugs, so I didn’t get anything together. Instead I hitchhiked to Torremolinos in Spain, where I lived until I moved to Düsseldorf.
Inspiration is coming to me in two different ways: One way is entirely from inside me, resulting in the darker paintings such as Suicide, the Tatort series and so on.
Those paintings are very much inspired by blood, which for me is the essence of life itself. Without blood we simply wouldn’t exist. Also, I very much adore the color of blood, which you can clearly see in my paintings. Red is dominant.
The other kind of inspiration comes from the outside world; solely driven by a specific color; inspired by something I see – for instance, a scene in a movie.
When I look at something, at first I notice the colors – always! Colors and the composition of colors. As Marie Pellicone (of Marie Pellicone Gallery in Soho/New York) said: I am truly a colorist.
You recently showed your paintings in Germany. Was the reaction encouraging?
Very much so! I even sold a painting weeks after the show, a lady bought one of my drawings for her husband as a birthday present.
Tina Schnekenburger's Colors and States of Mind shows in Hamburg from 7-10 September, 2018. Pop-Up Gallery BloodRedArt, Jungfrauenthal 3 in Hamburg (next to U Klosterstern).
All photos of Tina Schnekenburger by Krichan Wihlborg.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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