Interview with:Solar Fake - Sven Friedrich
Most of you know Sven Friedrich as a the front man of the bands ZERAPHINE and DREADFUL SHADOWS which are more rocking. But now he's started a new project called SOLAR FAKE which is a pure electronic project. The debut album ‘Broken Grid’ is already finished and will be released in February 2008.
Sven Friedrich (SF): There wasn't literally one. In the last year, I finally had the time to deal with that closely. I already collected some ideas and fragments and after the last ZERAPHINE album was released, I could finally start working on them. The fragments became 2 songs and then I just went on, without the thought to accomplish a specific goal. I just wanted to write some songs and look if I would like it, when I got some clearance. This was the case and I wrote and wrote. The ideas just didn't stop. Just like a valve was opened.
RoD: Does the name of your project SOLAR FAKE have a particular meaning?
SF: Sure. It describes something, from which one assumes to know it, but someday it turns out to be something completely different. Imagine that the sun we see isn't real but a hallucination. Of course you can refer that to people too. I like such pictures.
RoD: The debut album will be entitled ‘Broken Grid’. Does that symbolically stand for a break through of a grid that surrounds oneself, for leaving the past behind and the beginning of something absolutely new?
SF: For example: Everyone's free to interpret the title. To me it rather means a partly broken shield layer that surrounds one. A little bit more negative than your interpretation, but it's got if you can create more than one association. It is the same thing with the lyrics. I don't have to tell anyone stories out of my life, it is much more exciting, when the lyrics liberate emotions and the listener can connect it with own experiences. This is another layer, where the listener gets deeply involved.
RoD: How do you create your songs. Is there something particular you start with or is it a mood just a mood or a feeling that you try to transform musically and you're working meticulously on the song until it mirrors this special mood?
SF: I always start with the music and the I’m writing the lyrics. Sometimes I have a particular melody in my mind and I play around on it. Sometimes the ideas in my mind are already very complex, what makes it harder to build the sounds which need to get there. The mood or the atmosphere of a song mostly develops during the composition process unless it is a very complex song idea.
RoD: Where do you get your inspiration for the lyrics. Are they based on personal experiences or maybe on stories which were told you and that inspired you? Dreams can also be a powerful sources of inspiration.
SF: Most times I can't recall my dreams. No, my inspirations really are own experiences and observations. It's not - as mentioned before - that I write down those experience respectively tell them, bit rather try to capture the emotions created there, so they're evoked at the listener. Surprisingly, this works out very well. At least with people, who get involved with it.
RoD: Your not in the music biz since yesterday and like many other musicians you know the problem of dropping sales and increasing illegal downloads. For many people, music has obviously lost a lot of value and the just see it as a mere consuming item, but it can be so much more. How do you explain this to yourself?
SF: I don't know. Even if music is just seen as a mere consuming product, it is not comprehensible, why people are illegally downloading it. I mean, this is the same as if you would steal a washing machine from a store and this n an average of 20 times a year or more. Sure, the prices for CDs are not very customer-friendly, but this is partly because not that much CDs are sold anymore. The production costs and I not only mean the manufacturing of the CD, but anything that belongs to it: studio production, artwork, photos, maybe a video, promotion, marketing and so on. Obviously many people still are not aware of the fact, that they're primarily doing harm to the bands. The list of bands, who lost their contract due to bad sales figures is long, even though the concerts are attended very well and that it's therefore not because of the lack of interest. And without a contract, there's no new album and shortly after that no band anymore and every single download adds to that. For those, who just like one song and don't want to buy the complete album, there are overall legal download portals, where you have to pay approximately 1 EUR per song and this is really not too much.
RoD: What leads me to another question: Can you make a living out of the music or is this meanwhile absolutely impossible and you're making music besides a normal day job?
SF: It's sometimes very hard and without a second mainstay it would be impossible. But on the level on which I try to operate, you're not able to make music alongside and not at all besides a daily job. In so far, the only thing that works for me is the way as a freelance with completely free time management., otherwise it won't be possible.
RoD: Do you have your own studio where you record the songs or do you work at an external studio?
SF: Actually, I did the most work for SOLAR FAKE by myself. Only the mastering was done at the Tommy Hein recording studio. I'm working a lot on the computer, got a good microphone and for electronic music, you don't need that much equipment anymore, I think.
RoD: Do you use hardware synthesizer or rather software for additive synthesis and in which way do they differ sound-wise or aren't there much differences anymore and they are meanwhile equal?
SF: As I’m not a retro fetishist and hate it, when machines with analogue additive synthesis sound different the next day, I definitely prefer software synths. Back then I worked with hardware devices and I had to, because there was nothing else, but I’m very grateful for the development. The soft-synths are much cheaper and more flexible, don't take much space in the studio, always work and they always sound the way you one saved it. With hardware synths - and I had a lot of them over the years - there were always any problems and I’m much to impatient for that, especially when you have an idea and a part doesn't work properly. That's very frustrating.
RoD: The SOLAR FAKE homepage says, that the songs only consist of electronic sounds, but what you can hear in ‘Creep’, very much sounds like real drums. Are these actually real drums or just damn real sounding drum sounds?
SF: These are generated sounds, not even samples. I just treated them like real drums. It's good if one worked at a great recording studio for years.
RoD: You will also present SOLAR FAKE live. Are there any plans for a tour or do you just play on festivals for now?
SF: A real tour is not yet in process of planning. The program would also be too short after only one album. But there will be some single concerts besides the festivals and maybe a small tour as support comes along. That would be great of course.
RoD: Will there be special live versions of the songs or will it be the same as on the album?
SF: For now I’m glad if we mange to get the songs right similar to the ones on the album (laughs). We'll maybe work on special live versions later. For now, the main concern is to present SOLAR FAKE to the people, so they know the kind of songs.
RoD: The homepage also says, that the work on a stage design has already started. Can you meanwhile tell us any details?
SF: Ideas are still in development, will get dismissed again and budgets are sounded out. The only thing that’s set right now is the form of the keyboard pillar for the live keyboarder. It will be a purpose-built. But we're working on it. I think the stage design will take some more time. We'll see...
RoD: There's also talk of video projections. What will they show. Will they be thematically tied to the songs to support their atmosphere?
SF: Absolutely. But I won’t transform the lyrics into pictures. I don't like that. In any case, the backdrop videos will be similar diverse to the music. One time there will just be moving shapes, another time film material or animations or public archive material. Always in accordance with the song of course.
RoD: One line out off the last song on the album ‘I can't remember’ says: “Every ending has a start” what lead me to the following question: Is it mandatory, that something has to end or die before something new can emerge?
SF: I don't believe that necessarily. Depends on what you refer to of course. But I find it remarkable that you found the probably most positive line on the album *gg* because for me every ending is the beginning of something new. I won't hope that there always has to be an ending before a new beginning but in some cases this definitely applies.
RoD: Thanks for the interview and I wish you good luck with SOLAR FAKE
SF: Thanks a lot. I also thank you for the interview.
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