Interview with:Sven Wolff & Lance Murdock - Patenbrigade:Wolff
A new release of the PATENBRIGADDE: WOLFF called ‘Demokratischer Sektor’ is imminent. Sven Wolff and Lance Murdock were very talkative and we talked about the fascination of construction sites and many more…
Sven Wolff (SW): We are PATENBRIGADE:WOLFF and we make ambient for tower derrick operators and Electro for construction zone officers.
Lance Murdock (LM): Sven Wolff sets the musical direction as brigadier. I, brigade leader out of stoic calling take care that everything works according to the schedule and that it’s converted too. It is important for us, that we reach the goals we set prior to every album. Works well! Is good!
RoD: Where does your enormous fascination for construction zones come from. Is that something you were born with?
LM: So to say we were born with that indeed. This fascination has been taught to us by Sven’s uncle Ingolf…
[Sven interposes]
SW: …who is - renownedly - a tower derrick operator. He sits on his tower crane day by day and has this unbelievable overview of the whole city. As he often has much time between the lifting jobs, he is able to enjoy that overview to the fullest. One day he asked us to compose a personal soundtrack for these very moments for him. So we recorded a couple of tapes for him. These tapes were handed around in the tower derrick operator scene and soon there was a demanding for a CD release. Our first CD ‘Laut’ has been compiled out of this tapes.
RoD: When did you reach the point to compose songs inspired by a forklift for example? I mean even if you have a big fascination for construction zones, you don’t ell yourself: “Come let’s write some songs about it” Where was the impulse?
SW: The topic of construction itself is already very inspiring. On one hand there are these mighty machines, which work with an incredible power, but also with rhythmic precision. The big tower cranes on the other hand sometimes seem very elegant and sublime. We work up all these inspirations in our music.
LM: And then I said “Come let’s write songs about it” Hah!
RoD: You also use speech samples in your songs, revealing rather critical undertones. Do you investigate the topic a song is dealing with in advance?
SW: Contrary to other acts, which are thematically dealing with Vampires and dead people, we have the opportunity to interview contemporary witnesses. The current CD ‘Demokratischer Sektor’ is dealing with the construction worker insurrections of the year 1953 in East Berlin. As a preparation, we interviewed construction worker veterans, who witnessed those uprisings. They described their experiences on the construction sites and we transformed their impressions to music. Due to this, we also became aware of numerous original soundtracks from this time.
RoD: Is the topic contingent for the later atmosphere of the song or do basic rhythms and atmospheres already exist sometimes and you stumble across a topic someday, where you say “This is perfect!!!”.
SW: The songs are mostly created around the samples. I find it always very interesting how the atmosphere reinforces the statement of a sample or even works out all new aspects, for example the title ‘Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler’. The sample of this track originates from a TV show called “The black Channel” which aired in GDR television. The host Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler regularly commented current topics in his show and described the system of the GDR to be the superior one in perverting the facts. Today, the original sounds like cheap talking from a crazy man, but the words of Schnitzler have been a shock for the people in that time as they announced the suppression of that revolt and completely denied the causes. It was clear for the construction workers of East Berlin, that their fight was in vain and nothing would change. The track emphasizes the menacing and depressing mood, which dominated after the show had aired.
RoD: How did the cooperation with Linde come into existence, which is a bit unusual? At least I never read the name with another band.
LM: My mentioned dear Uncle worked for Linde a couple of years, but the yearly office parties became stupid and tiring for him in a long run. “Nothing happens there!!” he said “I’m missing the kick”. He recommended us to the managing board that we could tune the whole thing a bit. This culminated up in us blessing the official fork lifting Cup 2007 with our appearance, but they had only sausages, cake, canapés and coffee anyway. We saw no beer, but we’re such big beer fans.
RoD: Why the decision to do some kind of retrospective instead of a “regular” album containing only new songs?
SW: The album stands in the tradition of Trevor Horn, who produced some of the most important albums of the 80s. The album of his project “Propaganda” has been re-released in a second issue containing club mixes and single versions. This concept imposed for the album, which is very calm. So, ‘Demokratischer Sektor’ is an anthology of the numerous club mixes, we collected in the meantime. But we also wanted to deepen the topic of the construction worker uprisings, which we already strived on ‘Hochstapler’, with some more tracks. But we have to mention, that some of the club mixes are differing quite a lot from the original songs and you can actually consider them as new tracks, so I’m considering ‘Demokratischer Sektor’ as a unique album.
RoD: Sara Noxx is also in again. Is she already a member of the band?
SW: Our collective provides very good working conditions for what reason artists like Sara always love to take temporary jobs from us again.
LM: But she’s very busy with her private life at the moment as her own collective increased so we have to regroup ours a bit in the time to come.
RoD: How were the reactions of the people who could already hear the album so far?
LM: Great as always. They’re all cracking up (laughs)
SW: So far all the reactions are positive. The Club Mix of ‘Demokratischer Sektor’ is already a hit on the after work parties of the construction workers. Just an anonymous letter - heavily rating the album and accusing the band of aspersion - reached us, but some leads we have point to a senior member of the ministry for the safety of the state of the GDR being the author of the letter.
RoD: The new alum will also be released in a very elaborate Special Edition as a Metal Box. Do you know someone, who designs them or do you design the packaging all by yourself?
LM: Mostly by ourselves, respectively from my two hands. From the very beginning, we’ve fixed our working spaces very precisely. As the brigade leader I’m responsible for the complete realization of our productions, bit it’s not that I’m founding the metal boxes by myself and then build them together in sudatory work in the factory cellar no, no. Because of the close contact to construction suppliers and corporations, we can always get hold of materials relevant for us. And it has to be authentic doesn’t it?
SW: For sure.
LM: That’s what I said. Already seen the Premium East Collectors Edition of ‘Demokratischer Sektor’?
RoD: No, we got only a single promo disc…. Many bands and projects just go the easy way regarding the packaging and partly release their CDs with quite careless packing. Why do you think is that?
LM: I guess you mean the normal Jewel Cases? You can… could release them in a more interesting way. I don’t know why other bands and projects don’t do that. I think it’s because they don’t have such well-heeled sponsors as we do :-) ehh. I can only tell you that from my point of view, as I was always a big fan of special packaging and eye catchers in every colour and form. Besides that you have to offer the fans something special, not only to say “Thank You!”, but also to build up an apodictic connection in the end.
RoD: It’s also very commendable that you use the full capacity of the CD, which sadly isn’t a matter of course today.
SW: We’re already doing that since our first album. The listener is said to switch off and to get involved with our music at ease. This is also supported by the seamless transitions of the tracks.
LM: As a brigade we’ve always scheduled a planned congestion. Of course we are aware of the fact that we’re outlawed as norm breakers among (Band) colleagues.
RoD: Are you planning to do some more live shows this year as only one date is confirmed on your website so far.
LM: Some gigs here and there, but a big or small tour will probably focus on the later part of 2008. What we will come up with, when we got the budget… mmhhh... but I’ve got a certain premonition that two fork lifters, one auto derrick, a cement mixer, 1t construction waste and a half-finished block of houses would be too much even for our solvent sponsors. Get surprised as the sector boundaries will fall very soon…
RoD: That’s it already. Thanks for the interview and furthermore much success.
LM: We have to thank, especially for the audition!
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