To celebrate the launch of her new live DVD ‘This Happened’, Claudia Brücken reprised her triumphant appearance at The Scala captured on that DVD with another guest filled show at London’s Bush Hall.
With a sparkling band led by her erstwhile Onetwo musical partner Paul Humphreys, on a slightly cramped stage they were additionally augmented by the skills of legendary ZTT producer Stephen J Lipson who worked with Claudia on PROPAGANDA’s ‘A Secret Wish’ and Act’s ‘Laughter, Tears & Rage’ albums. Also present from the Scala gig line-up was Susanne Freytag who performed ‘Dream Within A Dream’ while Claudia took a mid-set break.
HEAVEN 17’s Glenn Gregory participated in some playfully fun renditions of ‘Snobbery & Decay’ and ‘When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time’, while Martyn Ware joined them for a Teutonically ripe ‘Temptation’. Central to the evening though was her stripped down covers of ‘In Dreams’ and ‘Running Up That Hill’ with pianist Andrew Poppy which showcased Claudia’s emotive range and diversity.
But in the absence of Andy Bell came another Andy of the McCluskey variety who duetted with Claudia on Act’s ‘Absolutely Immune’ and OMD’s evergreen ‘Messages’. With other great tunes aplenty from Claudia’s repertoire like ‘Thank You’, ‘Absolut(E)’, ‘Sequentia’, ‘Night School’, the Martin Gore co-write ‘Cloud Nine’, ‘p:Machinery’ and of course ‘Duel’, it was another warm, heartfelt evening with plenty of love from Claudia’s loyal audience in return for an elegantly refined performance.
Just prior to the Bush Hall show, Claudia and Paul talked to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about what their futures might sound like…
With regards to playing live at festivals as ONETWO, you did Vintage and Back To The Phuture Night at Bestival in 2011…
Paul: Vintage was a good line-up. Thomas Dolby was great…
Claudia: …Thomas was brilliant!
Paul: It was great to see Alan Wilder too cos I’d not seen him since Depeche Mode’s ‘101’ tour in America, we had a real good catch up. I really like Alan a lot.
ONETWO seem to be invited to play the cool festivals but is there any reason OMD don’t seem to get asked?
Paul: We will… we’re having an easy year in 2012. But next year, we’re pushing for some really good festivals.
Claudia, have you ever been tempted to accept an offer to play Here&Now or Rewind?
Claudia: I’ve not been asked before…there is this thing about me going out as Claudia Brücken and me going out as PROPAGANDA. If PROPAGANDA was set-up with everybody there, I think it is most likely we would have been approached, but not as Claudia Brücken.
Paul, you’re actually going to do Rewind as part of OMD…
Paul: Yes, this is going to be our first and maybe last concession to the retro thing, but we just fancied doing it really. For four consecutive years, we were asked to headline Here&Now and we turned it down every year! And then they stopped asking…
Claudia: …they stopped asking and then you said “we want to do it!”*laughs*
Paul: Then, we got offered Rewind and almost said no but we discussed it and we thought it might be nice to do a couple of British festivals this summer. The bill for our night is ok; Marc Almond, The Lightning Seeds, Midge Ure, The Christians…
You’ve both worked on some interesting projects like the ‘LA Noire’ computer game soundtrack for you Claudia, which was quite different as it was jazz…
Claudia: During Christmas 2011, I received an email which I thought was spam from the head of Rockstar Games saying there was this part of a German singer for a new game called ‘L.A. Noire’…
Paul: She nearly deleted it! *laughs*
Claudia: They wanted to ask if I would be interested in being the voice on three songs for that game. I thought: “why not?”. I heard the songs and thought they were so beautiful. I found it a really good challenge doing something I hadn’t done before.
Paul: It was out of your comfort zone…
Claudia: …I liked the whole idea.
Paul: What was interesting is that it tuned Claudia onto a much younger audience. Those songs are all over YouTube and some of the comments are from 16 year old gamers going “OMG, who’s this singer, where can I get an album like this?”…so they WILL have an album like this. We’re doing a noire album.
Claudia: What was really nice was that the producer Stephen Coates is London based so that made it all plausible and Paul recorded the vocals.
Paul: Later this year, we get the rights to those songs back from the game but there were some other songs they did that were fantastic which didn’t make it onto the game. Stephen’s written a few other songs so we’ve got enough for an album. It will be with a different twist, not completely jazz, it will be a bit more David Lynch…
Claudia: …a bit dark. Like ‘The Third Man’ meets ‘Twin Peaks’
Paul, you’ve done the ‘Electric Ikebana’ with Douglas Coupland…
Paul: The feedback’s been amazing and I’ve been interested in the comments on the OMD site. People are saying “Oh my god, it’s like Dazzle Ships’ for this century” and “I hope the new album’s got something like this on it”… and IT DOES!
So what about the future projects then?
Claudia: I’ve done a solo album, it’s in the can and we’re hoping to release it in November. The theme is melancholy songs…they’re sad but they don’t make you slash your wrists. I recorded it in four months with Stephen Hague and we had this real clear vision of what we wanted to do. It was recorded after the Scala gig…
Paul: …yes, I went on a big American tour with OMD and Claudia thought “I’m going to make a record”! *laughs*
Claudia: We’d work on the song arrangements remotely but when I was ready to sing, I’d go over to Stephen’s studio in Hastings and that was an amazing experience. I’m so happy about this album because you really can’t put it into a certain time, it kind of ignores what’s current and it’s not competing with it.
Stephen is playing all the instruments and that’s a great gift he has. He loves his electronic references, but he enhances it as he’s a multi-instrumentalist.
So Paul, what’s happening with OMD?
Paul: I’ve been working on ‘English Electric’ which will be out in 2013 and it’s fab by the way. Andy and I are really excited by ‘English Electric’. We’ve really gone to another level from ‘History Of Modern’, which was too much remote work.
We realised we don’t work very well passing files back to each other; we work best when we sit in a room together. And so I’ve been up to Liverpool loads. What we’d do is flesh out the ideas together and then we’d both take parts back to work on separately.
But the spark of this record is us sitting together in a room. We really had a mantra for this album which was “What does the future sound like?”…we’re pushing boundaries. There is a song called ‘Night Café’, which is like ‘She’s Leaving’ meets ‘Souvenir’ and lovely.
The album’s a little bit more musical than ‘Dazzle Ships’, but it is ‘Dazzle Ships’ for the 21st Century in a sense because it’s not just a collection of songs. The album is themed although it’s not a concept album. There are sections that maybe only last a minute and a half, there’s pieces that are three minutes and nine minutes as well. We’ve also got a song called ‘Metroland’ which I think is going to be really fantastic.
And when can we look forward to the next ONETWO album?
Claudia: It’s coming along but obviously with all these projects, the DVD etc, there’s only so much we can do and you need focus. So Paul and I have been writing and recording but personally I thought it would be great if Andy and Paul could make a great album as OMD.
Paul: Who knows if there is going to be another OMD album after this? Maybe there will but if this was to be our last album and I have to think in these terms now, I want to leave an album that is really special. And I think ‘English Electric’ has a good chance of being that album. I’m really happy with it.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys
CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN ‘This Happened’ DVD+CD set is available now through the There(there) shop.
OMD play Rewind Festival on Sunday 19th August 2012 in Henley-on-Thames
Claudia Brücken’s ‘This Time’ career celebration at The Scala in London was without doubt, one of the best live presentations of 2011.
On this wonderful evening, the first lady of cinematic electronic pop was joined by some very special guests in Erasure’s Andy Bell, Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware, Ralf Dörper and Susanne Freytag from Propaganda and one time ZTT label mate Andrew Poppy for an unforgettable and almost certainly unrepeatable concert. The superb event has been captured as a DVD film and accompanying CD soundtrack entitled ‘This Happened’.
This is the perfect souvenir for those who were there (and those who wished they were there). It captures all the warmth of appreciation from that evening when Claudia performed a selection of songs from her career accompanied by a superb backing band led by ONETWO partner and musical director Paul Humphreys.
Featuring Philip Larsen, James Watson, Dawne Adams, Sam Sallon, Melissa D’Arcy and Dave Watson, the company delightfully tackled a catalogue songs made famous by Claudia as a member of Propaganda, Act, Onetwo and as a solo artist. There are many highlights to savour including a exceptionally groovy ‘Absolut(E)’, playful duets with Glenn Gregory and Andy Bell, the Bond theme meets Massive Attack chic of new song ‘Thank You’, the three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA and the surprise inclusion of ‘Dream Within A Dream’ from their highly regarded album ‘A Secret Wish’.
But that’s not all. To celebrate the release of ‘This Happened’, Claudia Brücken will also be playing a new version of the show, ‘This Time Too’ at London’s Bush Hall on Thursday 19th July 2012 featuring OMD’s Andy McCluskey as one of the special guests.
Taking a break from preparing for this upcoming performance, Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys kindly invited ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK to their London studio to talk about the live DVD and reminisce about that wonderful evening at The Scala last March.
It was an amazing night at The Scala, how do you look back on it?
Claudia: It was a complete success, it was great to have all the people, who I have collaborated with, agree to perform with me. It was quite a difficult task to get all of the musicians together and to organise it all.
Paul: Getting everyone to rehearse on the same day was a nightmare.
Claudia: Everybody was individually rehearsed. We told everyone what parts they were doing so they were all well prepared and then we did two days rehearsal…
Paul: …that was mainly for the band really as we were playing a whole load of songs we had never played before. *laughs*
Which songs were the most challenging to reproduce in a live situation?
Paul: ‘Dream Within A Dream’ was probably the toughest because it’s such a complex piece, there’s all these solos and Dawne our percussionist had all these things to do, there were different cues and all the bar counts are changing all the time! To be honest, we never got ‘Dream Within A Dream’ right in rehearsals; the only time we got it right was live on stage at the Scala. On stage, we were all just secretly nodding at each other!
I remember all the gasps of excitement from the audience when Susanne uttered those first few words…
Paul: Yes, you can hear it on the mikes when I mixed it!
Claudia: That was a little personal challenge; it’s such a great Propaganda piece. As Susanne was there as a guest, I really wanted to put that song out there in a live context.
Paul: All the chords are very complex and we had to get in our mate Sam who hadn’t played flugelhorn since he was a kid. So he bought one and he spent two weeks rehearsing…but he did really well *laughs*
The setlist was very well paced and as good as perfect. How did you decide what to perform?
Paul: We played the obvious ones from the ‘ComBined’ album as it was a celebration based around that.
Claudia: Also through Onetwo, we had so many songs already rehearsed. It was just a matter of organising everyone. So it became obvious when we had Glenn as a guest that we do ‘Snobbery & Decay’ and ‘When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time’. ‘When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time’ was pure self-indulgence because we’d never done it before. We thought we might as well do it.
Paul: We completely reworked it, it’s nothing like the original; we did a very electro version.
Claudia: Then Glenn and Martyn remembered they had done an electro version of ‘Temptation’ which was a demo…
Paul: …apparently that was the demo which got HEAVEN 17 their deal. And they had a German singer actually talk it before they reworked it with all the high vocals and the strings.
Claudia: I had this demo as a template and I really like that almost detached attitude so I thought that’s a good way to go with the idea.
Paul: But the biggest challenge for Claudia was ‘Running Up That Hill’ and ‘In Dreams’ with Andrew Poppy because you’re so exposed and any slight mistake, it really stands out.
Claudia: It was quite daring because most people attending the show, their background is electronic music so for me to just come out and bring it right down to just piano and voice…I really liked it for a change of scene. I did a show with Andrew Poppy the other day for his new album ‘Shiny Floor, Shiny Ceiling’. We did a couple of performances at the Chelsea Arts Centre. He’s very clever and such an artist, he’s got his own ideas and he sees it through.
Paul: It was an amazing show.
Were there any songs that you considered, but discounted for various reasons?
Claudia: I would have liked to have played more from ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ like ‘Baby Sign’ or ‘Love: In Another World’ but there was just so much to choose from.
The crowd particularly enjoyed the three quarters reunion of PROPAGANDA…
Claudia: It was great, I’ve always wanted to do it. I’ve been working towards the possibility of trying to get PROPGANDA on the road again and there’s always been hurdles, it’s never been easy! Everything else with ONETWO and the band has always been very easy and pleasurable.
So when Susanne and Ralf agreed to join me, it was the closest at that point of getting those Propaganda songs back up live. I’m someone who doesn’t give up easily and I try different ways to make something happen. I’ve known them for such a long time and it just kind of fell into place.
Is it true Ralf never played live with PROPGANDA first time round when you were on ZTT?
Claudia: That’s right, he was working as a banker and couldn’t get time off. The first time was the Trevor Horn Wembley concert in 2004. Wow! That was a bit of a band wasn’t it? *laughs*
Yes, I’ve seen the video clip of that! Stephen Lipson, Lol Creme, Anne Dudley, Geoff Downes, David Palmer AND an orchestra!
Paul: Now that’s what I call a band! *laughs*
Claudia: A band, Trevor Horn style! *laughs*
There’s an obvious onstage chemistry between you and Glenn Gregory, what do you put that down to?
Claudia and Paul: Mates! *laughter*
Claudia: But we genuinely love each other as well, I’ve known him since the ‘Dr Mabuse’ video shoot which his first wife Sarah did the make-up for. One of my earliest memories about England was going to Glenn’s old house in Notting Hill…I was discussing make-up and stuff with Sarah and there were Heaven 17 sitting on a couch in a darkly lit room. We just became really good friends and went through a lot of things together on ZTT as Trevor Horn used to use him as a session singer a lot on recordings by Grace Jones and stuff.
We’ve already mentioned Andrew Poppy but you couldn’t have had a more polar opposite guest than the other Andrew, Mr Bell?
Claudia: I did some gigs with Andy Bell back in 2005 at Madame Jo-Jo’s and Koko, it was just so natural.
Paul: Again, we’re mates with Andy, we’ve been on holiday with Andy too. He’s a sweetheart. We adore him.
Susanne almost didn’t make it on stage in time for ‘Light The Way’. How did you make sure the evening ran like clockwork while still being able to vibe off the special occasion?
Paul: It was funny while mixing the sound for the DVD and album, all the way through the intro of ‘Light The Way’, Claudia’s going: “Where’s Susanne? Where’s Susanne?”…we didn’t have a stage manager! *laughs*
Claudia: We forgot actually about that didn’t we!! *laughs*
Paul: We relied on everyone to remember their cue, I posted a sheet up in the dressing room! There’s only one dressing room at The Scala and it’s tiny…there were fifteen of us!!
Claudia: All these men dressed in black standing there, it was like a Magritte painting *laughs*
Paul: There were three chairs, all for the girls of course.
Claudia: It was very funny!
How was it trying to fix situations like when Susanne’s microphone cut out during ‘Dr Mabuse’ in the final audio mix? Is it a matter of retrieving sections of the recording or overdubbing?
Paul: It was actually there. It went to record, but our soundman Chicky had it muted on the desk! He had so many cues to remember that he forgot that one! *laughs*
Claudia: It was a bit “let’s see what happens” as well. There was so much information for him there.
With so many people involved, was it a matter of tying it all together during the soundcheck? Martyn Ware mentioned to me it had been a long day.
Claudia: We did have a soundcheck but there were a few technical hiccups which no-one could foresee. At 6.45pm, I said to Paul: “Shouldn’t we be hearing a sound of some sort by now?”
Paul: I was trying to keep Claudia calm and saying “Don’t worry, everything is fine” but knowing that it really wasn’t! What happened was James from the band’s laptop blew up and he didn’t have a back-up….all his virtual instruments were on there. So he was programming all these different sounds on another keyboard that he had using his headphones! But also at The Scala, we had so many lines, mikes and inputs that the stage box wasn’t good enough. You have to split it to monitor desk and front of house but with their box, you could have one or the other, but not both! So I had to hire one really quickly and get it delivered. But I didn’t tell Claudia this! *laughs*
How does the finished DVD look and will it satisfy those fans who there, and also those were unable to make it to the gig?
Paul: It’s fantastic!
Claudia: It’s been a real labour of love, it’s taken us so long to make. We get asked to play Canada, Russia, Finland and the USA but we can’t tour everywhere, it’s not so simple.
So I wanted there to be a documentation of what I’m like live so I hope they like it. We put a lot of love into it… it’s 100% and more to make this an entertaining piece of work.
Is it in 5.1 surround sound?
Paul: It’s not actually, so many people I know don’t have 5.1, so I didn’t think it was necessary. Plus it would have made it far more expensive to make because I mixed it in my own studio, and I don’t have a 5.1 system in here. I’m happy with stereo and most people will enjoy it stereo. In 5.1 you’ve got mix everything twice as you have to do a stereo mix anyway, those balances are completely different. It took a long time to just to mix 98 minutes of music in stereo.
You have ‘This Time Too’ at Bush Hall coming up on 19th July as a follow on event. This time you have another Andrew, ie Mr McCluskey as a guest. What song will he be performing with you?
Claudia: He’s doing ‘Absolutely Immune’ in place of Andy Bell…
Paul: …but instead of ‘Delicious’, we’ll be doing something else which Claudia and Andy will sing as a duet.
Would it ever be a possibility for you to go out with a touring version of this show in Europe, albeit maybe without all the wonderful guests?
Claudia: If I did it, it would make sense for everyone else to join us…anything is possible.
But if they did come on tour with me, I would want them to show more of themselves. I couldn’t ask them to sing just one song…
Paul: Hopefully, Claudia will be touring to promote her new solo album and she will playing some of these songs in the show so it will kind of be happening…
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its sincerest thanks to Claudia Brücken and Paul Humphreys
The DVD+CD set ‘This Happened’ is released on 23rd July 2012 via There(there).
The tracklisting is:
1 Kiss Like Ether
2 Sequentia
3 Dr. Mabuse – with Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dörper
4 Absolut[e]
5 Cloud 9
6 Snobbery & Decay – with Glenn Gregory
7 Temptation – with Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware
8 When Your Heart Runs Out of Time – with Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware
9 Running Up That Hill – with Andrew Poppy
10 In Dreams – with Andrew Poppy
11 Dream Within A Dream – with Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dörper
12 p:Machinery – with Susanne Freytag and Ralf Dörper
13 Night School
14 Light The Way
15 Home (Tonight)
16 Delicious – with Andy Bell
17 Absolutely Immune – with Andy Bell
18 Duel – with Susanne Freytag
19 Thank You
“Put simply, Futurism means hate of the past. Our aim is to energetically combat and destroy the cult of the past” FT Marinetti
How music promotion has changed over the decades… the mid-60s saw the advent of the non-album single with THE BEATLES being particular exponents.
By the early 70s, PINK FLOYD and LED ZEPPELIN refused to even release singles, focussing only on albums. With punk and new wave, acts like THE JAM brought singles back so by 1981, THE HUMAN LEAGUE released four singles from ‘Dare’ while between 1982 to 1984, Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ milked it even further by taking six, thereby turning the album effectively into a greatest hits!
Zang Tuum Tumb was a label financed by Island Records and named after FT Marinetti’s sound poem. Its arch strategist Paul Morley talked gleefully of his belief in “the beauty of the pop single”. Together with his ZTT partners-in-crime producer Trevor Horn and manager Jill Sinclair, they became key to a marketing strategy that changed the course of pop music.
Starting with FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD in 1983, the original 16 minute ‘Sex Mix’ of ‘Relax’ on the 12 inch drew a large number of complaints because it was so radically different from the 7 inch single. Eventually, a more conventional extended version (also confusingly entitled ‘Sex Mix’) was issued.
Aided by the BBC ban, the public lapped up the song in all its various versions and ‘Relax’ was in the charts for over a year. An idea had been hit on and the next single ‘Two Tribes’ saw a new remix released every four weeks to keep it in the Top 40 for as long as possible. The multiple remix, sometimes in a version that bore little or no relation to the original track played on the radio could at times be a rewarding but also frustrating experience. FGTH’s bassist Mark O’Toole summed things up in a 1986 edition of International Musician and Recording World when he snorted “A punter wants to buy a single and there’s half a dozen mixes of it… it’s a pain in the arse!”
But new sampling keyboard computers such as the Fairlight CMI with its ‘Page R’ sequencer gave producers, programmers and musicians the opportunity to construct multiple arrangements of songs that only a few years previously would have needed hours in the studio with endless cutting of tape and real time overdubbing as exemplified by Martin Rushent’s work on THE LEAGUE UNLIMITED ORCHESTRA’s ‘Love and Dancing’.
In advertently helped by the then low sampling rates of these very expensive machines, sounds could be manipulated and distorted into something that was totally unreal, creating a new and original instrumental palette. And now, the two influential ZTT acts that are forever associated with this pioneering phase of electronic music have new deluxe packages available.
THE ART OF NOISE were named after the futurist essay ‘The Art Of Noises’ by Luigi Russolo.
Consisting of engineer Gary Langan, Fairlight programmer JJ Jeczalik, musician/arranger Anne Dudley, this was the team that worked with Trevor Horn on MALCOLM McLAREN’s ‘Duck Rock’ and ABC’s ‘The Lexicon Of Love’. In addition to Trevor Horn, THE ART OF NOISE also boasted as a member Paul Morley who masterminded the group’s faceless image and post-modern manifesto as well as contributing song titles.
‘Influence’ collects together singles (mostly in bite size 7 inch edits for the beginner) from the ZTT era and post Horn/Morley period on China for the first time, along with some previously unreleased material.
From the off, THE ART OF NOISE were rattling cages. ‘Beat Box’ was the track which scared KRAFTWERK enough for them to delay the release of their ‘Technopop’ album and rework it as the poorly received ‘Electric Cafe’. The crazy staccato sample cacophony of ‘Close (To The Edit)’ which was later borrowed by THE PRODIGY for ‘Firestarter’ sounds as fresh and mad as ever, who can forget Smash Hits actually publishing the lyrics as if to declare they were also in on the joke!
And ‘Moments In Love’ heralded a new age in ambient mood music. Such a beautiful piece was always going to become ubiquitous and it ended up in a variety of TV commercials for products such as Brylcreem. It was even played at MADONNA’s wedding to Sean Penn.
Photo by Peter Ashworth
Despite the success, all was not happy among the troops. Jeczalik indicated that he and Morley did not get along and felt his writing was pretentious. Morley said to The Guardian in 2002 “I loved the name THE ART OF NOISE so much that I forced my way into the group. If over the years people asked me what I did in the group, I replied that I named them, and it was such a great name, that was enough to justify my role. I was the Ringo Starr of THE ART OF NOISE. I made the tea!”
Unhappy with their lot, Dudley, Jeczalik and Langan took their talents to China Records in 1985. Continuing their influence but in what some would perceive as a more of a novelty manner, their technologically enhanced covers of ‘Peter Gunn’ and ‘Kiss’ brought special guests Duane Eddy and Tom Jones to a brand new audience. The more soundtrack orientated work like ‘Dragnet’, ‘Ode To Don Jose’, ‘Robinson Crusoe’ (not included on ‘Influence’) and the theme to ‘The Krypton Factor’ were enjoyable, but perhaps not as immediate to some ears. But whatever, THE ART OF NOISE had acquired fans in the jazz and hip-hop fraternities, such was their appeal.
The group disbanded in 1990 but in 1998, Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn and Paul Morley discussed the original intent of THE ART OF NOISE. As a result they reformed, adding 10CC’s Lol Creme to the line up although JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan were absent. The resulting album ‘The Seduction of Claude Debussy’ was partly inspired by Trevor Horn’s epic PET SHOP BOYS production ‘Left To My Own Devices’ and its unforgettable line “Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat” – With a mix of ambient, rap, classical, opera, drum’n’bass and John Hurt, tracks such as ‘Metaforce’ and ‘The Holy Egoism of Genius’ ably delivered the concept.
The second CD of ‘Influence’ contains interesting fragments of THE ART OF NOISE’s history for fans and completists. Various takes and variations of ‘Moments In Love’ appear including an ‘Anne To Tears Mix’ which was rejected by Anne Dudley with the note “I never want to hear this track again!”.
As well as that, there’s ‘Beep Beep’ which is an early version of ‘(Who’s Afraid Of) The Art Of Noise?’ and the lovely ‘The Invention Of Love’ which samples from ‘Moments In Love’ and neatly bookends THE ART OF NOISE story. Meanwhile in the ZTT Building, Düsseldorf’s PROPAGANDA were the proto LADYTRON or ABBA in Hell!
Photo by Anton Corbijn
They boasted within their ranks Ralf Dörper and Michael Mertens along with two mini Marlene Dietrichs in Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag. The magnificent Fritz Lang film noir of ‘Dr. Mabuse’ was their opening salvo.
Produced by Trevor Horn, the success of FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD however meant a delay to the follow-up and the producer’s helm being handed over to engineer Stephen J Lipson although Horn was later involved in the final mix.
The avant pop of that 1985 follow-up ‘Duel’ is still genius, ice maiden cool yet full of pentatonic warmth and boosted by a funky rhythm section. Its crazy piano solo is just one of those great moments! And the vicious industrial dub variation ‘Jewel’ was its naughty dominatrix sister. Both were included on the eventual album ‘A Secret Wish’.
Of the other tracks, the slap heavy attack of ‘The Murder of Love’, the deadpan drone cover of JOSEF K’s ‘Sorry for Laughing’ and the mechanised beauty of ‘P.Machinery’ all still possess the Teutonic edge and the charm of the then state of the art technical tricks that made it such fascinating listening first time round.
With the lengthy ‘Dream Within A Dream’, the listener is taken on a massive aural adventure. It was this epic journey that prompted SIMPLE MINDS to initially recruit Stephen J Lipson for their ‘Street Fighting Years’ album which Trevor Horn also worked on. To the chagrin of Paul Morley, hippy Lipson brought in YES guitarist Steve Howe for a spot of soloing. But it worked, with Howe coming over a bit like ASHRA’s Manuel Göttsching whose album ‘New Age of Earth’ successfully mixed progressive six string indulgences with Germanic electronica.
Other musical notables were also listening to ‘A Secret Wish’. John Taylor of DURAN DURAN made it his album of the year. DEPECHE MODE’s Martin Gore declared it one of his major influences; ‘Black Celebration’ and ‘Music For The Masses’ are testament to that. And MICHAEL JACKSON’s producer Quincy Jones wanted to license ‘A Secret Wish’ for America. As Trevor Horn remarked: “If you listen to Michael Jackson around that time, he started to sound a lot like Propaganda. A lot of industrial sounds… “
The deluxe remaster features a directors cut with restored full length versions including a different mix of ‘Dream Within A Dream’ and a 10 minute ‘Dr. Mabuse’ although the shorter original ‘analogue variation’ is present and correct if that all proves a little too much. On the bonus CD are various rare rarities including the 20 minute cassette megamix ‘Do Well’ which features no less than five takes of ‘Duel’ plus unreleased mixes such as Paul Morley’s 10 minute Unapologetic 12 inch of ‘Sorry for Laughing’ and the Goodnight Mix of ‘The Chase’.
Another added treat is the percussive slaughter of ‘Thought I’, a harsh instrumental cover of THROBBING GRISTLE’s ‘Disziplin’ which in demo form was the track that got PROPAGANDA signed to ZTT.
As with THE ART OF NOISE, Paul Morley was at the heart of the dissent inside PROPAGANDA with accusations of favouritism towards his then-wife Claudia Brücken. The band left ZTT but reappeared in 1990 with just Michael Mertens and featuring new vocalist Betsi Miller plus ex-SIMPLE MINDS members Derek Forbes and Brian McGee for the album ‘1234’ on Virgin.
Claudia Brücken remained with ZTT and formed ACT with Thomas Leer, releasing an excellent album ‘Laughter, Tears and Rage’.
While the 1998 reformation of THE ART OF NOISE yielded an album, the PROPAGANDA reunion during the same period wasn’t so smooth and the tracks that were laid down in those sessions remain unreleased.
Photo by John Stoddart
Both ‘Influence’ and ‘A Secert Wish’ capture the essence of a gloriously adventurous time in electronic music as it moved into the digital age. While their contemporaries were hacking through Yamaha DX7 presets and ending up all sounding the same or sampling whole phrases of other people’s songs, the gang at ZTT were creating a new sound and a new art form that totally encompassed the true challenging spirit of Futurism.
THE ART OF NOISE’s ‘Influence’ and PROPAGANDA’s ‘A Secret Wish’ are available as deluxe 2CD editions via Salvo Records
The release of CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN ‘ComBined’ in association with ZTT/Salvo presents the first career retrospective of the German chanteuse’s marvellous collection of work.
Before LADYTRON or GOLDFRAPP, it was CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN who reigned as the original first lady of icy, feminine led Eurocentric avant-pop.
As a keen collaborative artist, this compilation gathers together her various ComBinations with producers and musicians who included Trevor Horn, Stephen J Lipson, David Sylvian and the late John Uriel among many others.
Her classic PROPAGANDA tracks ‘Dr. Mabuse’, ‘Duel’ and ‘P.Machinery’ need no introduction. They still retain their Teutonic magnificence and cinematic surrealism. Together with Susanne Freytag, Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper, the quartet are still remembered as ‘ABBA in hell’.
However, when Claudia formed ACT with Thomas Leer in 1987, there came a more playful, decadent glamour with political flirtations. ‘Snobbery & Decay’ was a warning about the effects of the Thatcher government while ‘Absolutely Immune’ was a commentary on the apathy of the nation at large with its “I’m alright Jack” selfishness.
Unfortunately, with the sentiment lost on a British public still drowned in blue emotion, the technological and theatrical marvels on the parent album ‘Laughter, Tears and Rage’ in 1988 were sadly unable to gain a foothold in a landscape dominated by the bland mid-Atlantic blue eyed soul and FM AOR that had become the requisites for the then brand new CD format!
Alas, ACT did not continue and Claudia signed a deal with Island Records for her 1991 album ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’. The wonderful ‘Kiss Like Ether’ recalls the rhythmical template of JON & VANGELIS’ ‘State Of Independence’ while her debut solo single ‘Absolut(E)’ is very Pascal Gabriel, the production dominated by his electronic dancefloor vibes.
The reaction to the album was strangely muted and Claudia took a career break to bring up her daughter Maddy, emerging only occasionally to record the odd guest vocal.
One of those included on ‘ComBined’ is ‘Light The Way’ with CHROME SEDUCTION, a percussively frantic club number that also saw the return of one of her former partners-in-crime Susanne Freytag. After an aborted reunion of PROPAGANDA in the latter half of the 90s, she accepted an invitation in 2000 to join OMD’s Paul Humphreys’ tour of the USA; one of the first recorded fruits of their partnership was a cover of ‘This Is Not America’ featuring FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD’s Paul Rutherford. A beautifully crafted synthesized tribute to DAVID BOWIE & THE PAT METHENY GROUP, although recorded in 2001 and shelved, it finally sees the light of day on ‘ComBined’.
Claudia formalised her musical partnership with Paul Humphreys and together they named themselves ONETWO. Open to collaboration with others, the song ‘Cloud 9ine’, co-written and featuring DEPECHE MODE’s Martin Gore, was the stand-out on their debut EP ‘Item’ released in 2004. But it was a few years before their first album was completed.
The crisp and moody ‘Instead’ finally emerged in 2007 and is represented on ‘ComBined’ by ‘Sequentia’, a toughened up remix by Paul Humphreys of the chilling East European flavoured highlight from that album. Finding herself in demand again, Claudia also joined ERASURE’s Andy Bell to sing on two tracks for his debut solo album ‘Electric Blue’. The pair became good friends and their chemistry is particularly evident on the energetic interplay of ‘Delicious’ which sees her in full and rare poptastic glory.
‘ComBined’ also features two brand new tracks produced by Stephen Hague whose credits include OMD, PET SHOP BOYS, NEW ORDER, ERASURE, JIMMY SOMMERVILLE, DUBSTAR and A-HA. ‘Thank You’ is a fantastically moody epic driven by a trip-hop drum loop and swathed in Cold War atmospherics. Closer ‘Night School’ is a more uptempo, but is still classic Claudia with smooth layered textures and rich, minimal guitar melodics.
But for the bonus track encore, Claudia rejoins ZTT’s musical minimalist ANDREW POPPY with whom she recorded the fascinating ‘Another Language’ covers album. The new piano accompanied rework of ROY ORBISON’s ‘In Dreams’ retains the heartfelt drama of the original, but adds a slice of Weimar edginess to what has now become a rock’n’roll standard.
Yes, there are several notable absentees on the CD such as her BLANK & JONES collaborations ‘Unknown Treasure’ and ‘Don’t Stop’. But the former though has been included on the iTunes version of the album in addition to PROPAGANDA’s cover of ‘Femme Fatale’ and a new ‘Geek Boy remix’ of her OCEANHEAD track ‘Eyemotion’ under the title of ‘Augenblick’.
There may be a case argued for her collaboration with HEAVEN 17’s Glenn Gregory ‘When Your Heart Runs Out of Time’, although this is now available in its full glory on ZTT’s ‘The Art Of The 12 Inch’ compilation.
Overall, this is a superlative snapshot of one of Europe’s finest talents and a perfect introduction to her varied and influential musical catalogue.
‘ComBined’ is released on DC and downalod by ZTT/Salvo on 7th February 2011
On Wednesday 2nd March 2011 at London’s Scala, CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN & Friends will play a special concert to celebrate her career. Very special guests include HEAVEN 17’s Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware, ERASURE’s Andy Bell, PROPAGANDA’s Susanne Freytag, ANDREW POPPY and OMD’s Paul Humphreys
Claudia Brücken is the undoubted queen of electronic avant-pop.
Her distinctive ice maiden cool vocal delivery with hints of classic Marlene Dietrich and wispy Nico more than suited the glorious European film noir sound of PROPAGANDA, the Düsseldorf quartet with Susanne Freytag, Michael Mertens and Ralf Dörper in which she first came to prominence.
Together, their songs such as ‘Dr. Mabuse’, ‘Duel’ and ‘P.Machinery’ were fine examples of how new digital technology could be utilised to produce accessible neo-industrial pop music with a chilling edge. Their 1985 ZTT album ‘A Secret Wish’ gained a legion of prominent fans including DEPECHE MODE’s Martin Gore and Michael Jackson’s producer QuincyJones who borrowed their influential sound for the ‘Bad’ album.
Despite the acclaim, PROPAGANDA split. Remaining with ZTT, Claudia formed ACT with early electro pioneer Thomas Leer and released an album ‘Laughter, Tears and Rage’ in 1988 which featured an array of lush synthetic dynamics glossed with a touch of starlet glamour. Not one to rest on her laurels, she released her only solo album so far ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ in 1991 on Island Records before taking a career break to bring up Maddy, her daughter with then husband Paul Morley.
Photo by Stuart Mentiply
During this period, she only recorded occasionally with guest contributions for acts including SPIRITFEEL, THE BRAIN and OCEANHEAD. In the latter half of the 90s, PROPAGANDA reformed and although material was written and demoed, no album was released.
Around this time, a friend at German label Logic Records suggested Claudia should work with Paul Humphreys of OMD. First touring the US together in 2000 before eventually becoming ONETWO, they released an EP ‘Item’ in 2004 and then the excellent album ‘Instead’ in 2007 via their own There (there) label.
Simultaneously, Claudia also worked with BLANK + JONES, APOPTYGMA BERZERK and Andy Bell as well as releasing ‘Another Language’, an album of stripped down cover versions with her former ZTT label mate Andrew Poppy.
With new deluxe 2CD reissues of ‘A Secret Wish’ and ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ hitting a variety of retail outlets, Claudia Brücken invited ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK down to ONETWO’s London studio to chat about her career and her upcoming musical retrospective which is expected to feature the mouth watering prospect of some unreleased tracks and new remixes.
Who were your original influences?
There were people like THE VELVET UNDERGROUND and PATTI SMITH, I thought she was wonderful. I was completely mesmerised by David Bowie and I also liked Klaus Nomi. And then KRAFTWERK came along. It just questioned everything that came before because with ‘Autobahn’, you were wondering “what kind of sound is that?”. It was just so revolutionary at the time!
Of the electro stuff I was into, there was early HUMAN LEAGUE, CLUSTER, MALARIA! and NEU! I loved LA DUSSELDORF, DAF and also DER PLAN, they were completely arty and had these tiny electronic keyboards and they dressed up in these really weird costumes.
And I was also very much into the very first Nina Hagen album amongst other things. I’ve never been into one specific musical direction only; I was like a sponge soaking everything in from when I was 15. I drew from so many other sources. This would have been the time I was in a band with Susanne. There came a point where it seemed that everyone wanted to be in a band.
The Düsseldorf scene was very small. There is a street in Düsseldorf called Die Ratinger Strasse and there was a club called Ratinger Hof where a lot of bands and students from the University of Art would mingle. All the bands and people from the art school or university would all meet around there. There was this interaction between art and music happening and everyone kind of knew one another.
With ‘A Secret Wish’now receiving the deluxe remaster treatment, what are your immediate memories of that period on ZTT and the recording of that album?
Working with Stephen Lipson really. There were four studios in Sarm West, ZTT was upstairs at that time and there was also a flat where PROPAGANDA were staying at the very top. It was this place of creativity so there were these rooms where PROPANGANDA were programming in, FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD were in Studio1 and THE ART OF NOISE in another.
We were in a little studio for recording which we called ‘The Spaceship’, a tiny little room with lots and lots of lights and electronic equipment. And for me, it was one of the most creative times in my life. I don’t really dwell on the bad bits.
Photo by Peter Brown
Stephen J Lipson’s production on ‘A Secret Wish’ proved to be highly influential on variety of people; DEPECHE MODE, SIMPLE MINDS and QUINCY JONES to name but three. What sort of technology were you using on the album?
We had the PPG in Düsseldorf so we worked with that. I had moved to London but I was flying back and forth so we would be doing lots of writing on the PPG.
We also worked with a Linn Drum and our data was recorded onto floppy disks as far as I can remember, which we then would give to Stephen… but I’m not really the one to talk technical here, that would be a question for Michael.
Most of the PROPAGANDA sounds were actually from the PPG. It had a really great identity that PPG, I could identify it immediately like “oh, that’s a PPG sound”… it just had something that was different and distinct about it.
The Fairlight we only used on ‘Dr. Mabuse’ as far as I remember because JJ Jeczalik who operated it was part of Trevor Horn’s team and Trevor produced the song. When it was decided that Stephen would produce the album, it was mostly the Synclavier that was being used. I think at the time there were only three Synclaviers in the world and Trevor had one of them. Stephen did all the Frankie songs using the Synclavier, he was one of the few engineers who knew how to use it! *laughs*
How did you find working with Trevor Horn?
Trevor has his own way of working because when we worked with Stephen, Trevor was the executive producer and he’d go “ok, play me what you’ve done” and go “ok, I think that’s not working yet”. So he would check in every night to give us his comments and walk out again. We’d meet the next day again, that’s the way he worked.
And Trevor, he can take a lot of time for one thing only to come back to the very beginning to say this is what he wanted! But he goes through all these alternative ways to realise this was the best idea. Extremely time consuming and costly but that’s what you get when you work with Trevor, that’s his way. Someone told me the other day that Robbie Williams gave Trevor his entire album and said “Trevor, see you in six months, do with it as you wish!” and came back six months later and just absolutely loved what he did.
Photo by Peter Brown
Was it quite interesting for you to hear the PROPAGANDA sound on say, a Michael Jackson record like Bad? Or did it not register at the time?
It really didn’t… Trevor mentions this on the new sleeve notes and I was very flattered, that’s just brilliant. I remember hearing QUINCY JONES wanting to licence ‘A Secret Wish’ but I didn’t realise that it had captured his imagination so much. So that’s validation isn’t it? It’s wonderful!
PROPAGANDA could be considered a forerunner to the modern female fronted electronic acts like LADYTRON, GOLDFRAPP or CLIENT. Were PROPAGANDA ahead of their time?
Yes, I think what was interesting for us was we fitted into Paul Morley’s avant-garde vision of ZTT. There was the pop act he wanted which was FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD but he also wanted something which was edgy and different, and we kind of fitted in with that picture. Susanne, Ralf, Michael, Andreas Thein and I, because we were five at the time, we had that essence. What was magical about it was that we were given this opportunity.
It is interesting what happens when you put five industrial bashing experimentalists like us into this playground where we can work with the best musicians, the most amazing equipment and an absolute stunning producer… what happens if? You couldn’t have predicted what it was and this came out of it. I think you can hear that in the music. People were saying “have a listen to this” and “why not try that?” and it all just came together. And it then created this very special album. But PROPAGANDA wasn’t so easily digestible at the time, we confused the hell out of people who just thought “who are they?”… we didn’t fit in really!
Photo by John Stoddart
How do you look back on being part of that whole remixing, multi-formatting marketing machine of ZTT? As a non-native English speaker, how did you find trying to understand Paul Morley’s sleeve notes?
Well, I did have to get the dictionary out at times! Obviously the Nietzsche quotes I could understand as a German so I had no troubles there.
But some stuff was like “Hmmmm! Where’s this coming from?”. The thing with Paul, and that’s what attracted me to him, was we had a very similar way of thinking and approaching things so we were talking the same language although I did have difficulties with the English language at the time.
Paul would have an idea like “let’s remix this song”… there would be a house engineer available, a downtime studio free so let’s use it rather than have it standing empty, let’s do something and be creative. That was Paul’s energetic spirit, we were all kind of rebellious and driven. We weren’t really questioning things too much, we were just doing. I was 19-20, you don’t question everything you do at that time… you do it when you’re older… sadly. *laughs*
When was the first time you actually dreamed in English?
I don’t know. I cannot answer that question because I can’t remember that moment. Now I think and I find it much easier to write in English. I find it really hard sitting there and construing a sentence in German because the grammar is probably completely the opposite to the English language. So I find it much easier and I think now after 25 years, I feel more Anglified and I feel really kind of English.
Photo by Patrick Lichfield
What caused the eventual PROPAGANDA split and to you forming ACT with Thomas Leer?
Well, it was the deal that we signed. I always say we had a management which wasn’t really management in a sense that it was divisive towards the band! I wouldn’t class them as good managers, a good manger knows how to pull things together and make them happen. In this case, yes, we did have a bad deal. But I remember Jill Sinclair, ZTT’s label manager didn’t want to lose PROPAGANDA, she already had lost Frankie. She loved what we did, she was very proud of this album and what it had achieved at the time. And she did not want to see another band of hers go. So she said “come to me and negotiate” which I later did.
But I was in a tricky position because I wanted to work with Paul, I loved working with Trevor and I loved working with Stephen. Obviously, my loyalties were with my husband also and I knew what he had done for PROPAGANDA. He would have done so much more for us, but it was the others who wanted to leave. I know how the album was made so I knew you couldn’t put that kind of team together on another record company. I very much knew that.
It was a magical team, I do always believe it’s all in the team that you’re working with. When you have that, why give up something that works? It was the decision that the others took. I really didn’t want to leave them but I just didn’t want to go to a different major company either.
What would a second PROPANGANDA album on ZTT have sounded like if the team has stayed together to follow-up ‘A Secret Wish’?
Much like ‘A Secret Wish’, very much so… I think it would have been a very natural progression of what we had written and recorded before.
Do you think you’d have got artier and avant, or do you think you could have gone the way ‘1234’ sounds, dreamy but almost with a mid-Atlantic pop accessibility?
I personally would have liked to have explored a similar direction to ‘A Secret Wish’. For me it was a perfect marriage of pop accessibility and the arty avant side of us. There was a rebellious side to Susanne and me and although we love pop music, there was a dark and a bit disturbing side to us as well and we wanted to combine these two sides. We were a band full of contrast, light and dark, dreamy and nightmarish. The combination of the two was what intrigued me.
Also musically, Stephen picked up on that. The voices would be very soft and the backing would be very hard. And then if I’d go really really hard, the music would sometimes become very soft so it was just this interplay. Yes I think we could have made a great second album on ZTT.
Photo by Patrick Lichfield
Do you think it could have turned out how the ACT album sounded?
No, that was a different vision altogether. For ACT it was all decadence and glamour. And we wanted the drama of it all and we moved kind of politically further. We’re now in ’87 and it was the decline of Thatcher’s Britain and we just had a completely different message altogether. It was a lot more theatrical and spielerisch, which is kind of more playful in a sense. It left aside the dark side, the Teutonic-ness. But also musically, Thomas was such a different kettle of fish altogether.
Do you think the UK didn’t get ‘Snobbery & Decay’ then?
No, sadly they didn’t *laughs*
Unfortunately they didn’t, or perhaps it was just not the right moment for this song… I do think it’s such a great song. Thomas wrote me an email the other day and he does think that perhaps we were ahead of our time. But also what happened was ZTT at the time changed companies to work with so they went from Island to Warners. And when that always happens, and we were just right in the middle of all that, the MD who takes over is often not that interested to take on what he’s been given, he has a complete different vision about what should be. So it’s sad because it happened to me again with my 1991 album ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’. The MD and the team you work with change and the artist is no longer a priority. The artist gets caught in record company politics.
When I was doing ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ with Pascal Gabriel, we were working in the studio on the last two songs of the album and the MD from Island suddenly left and all the people who worked on my album left as well. A new guy came in and already I could sense what would happen so Pascal and I decided to get really experimental and we did so on the song ‘Surprise’ with THE BOW GAMELAN ORCHESTRA who were using fire and huge pipes to create sound. We realised we’d have trouble selling this album now. It had nothing to do with the artist or the content of the album.
‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ is being reissued by Cherry Red. You must be very pleased that this is fully available again and able to be re-evaluated because it’s very under rated?
Yes, maybe this time people can get the feel of it. At the time, I didn’t get much promotion.
I understand there may be a Claudia Brücken compilation in the offing with some unreleased songs and remixes as well as collecting together material in all your various guises?
Yes, it’s going to be called ‘Combined’. I’m hoping that it will be released on Union Square as well, because it’s a licensing nightmare *laughs*
There’s so many other record companies involved and I don’t necessarily have the knowledge of how to do this. In this particular instance, I went to Union Square and said it would be great if they could get that together for me because they do this all the time. And it will make things easier.
Photo by Patrick Lichfield
Will this include stuff like the BLANK + JONES, OCEANHEAD, THE BRAIN and APOPTYGMA BERZERK collaborations?
None of those, but there’s going to be all the singles that I’ve made. So it’s going to be three PROPAGANDA tracks, two ACT tracks, two from my Island days. There’s going to be a new electro version of ‘Sequential’ on it, Paul Humphreys has done a really good version of that. ‘Delicious’ with Andy Bell of ERASURE is going to be on it and so is ‘Cloud 9’. All in all there will be 14 songs on ‘Combined’. There’s two tracks that I’ve done with Stephen Hague called ‘Thank You’ and ‘Night School’, they’re completely new and I wanted to find a home for them.
Also I want those two songs to promote the album so I’m hoping to make videos etc. We haven’t decided which one we should put out as a single so we may make two.
Will any of the unreleased PROPAGANDA material from the late 90s reunion be included?
No, we’re not going to put that on. I didn’t want to go there.
Is there any possibility of the four of you working together again?
Actually I’ve been working with Michael, Susanne and Ralf again, we’ve written one song and I like it a lot. I’m really happy with the song. Now we just have to find the best way of releasing it. I think it’s a song that’s very suitable for the Olympics actually! Maybe we’ll get it out by 2012, hopefully before, we just have to see. But it’s written, it’s recorded and almost produced… in my view it sounds really fresh and very much like PROPAGANDA.
But a few years ago when we tried this, Ralf was absent. What was really essentially missing for me was Ralf because he has a way of saying things with words and he also formed PROPAGANDA with Andreas and Susanne. And he had a good vision about the band, what it stood for intellectually and so on. It felt more right when we wrote together again about a year ago; I’m comfortable with that format. That is PROPAGANDA, the four of us.
Photo by Hege Saebjornsen
How did you come to work with Paul Humphreys?
For a few years I was a bit lost, unsure of what to do next musically… I’ve always been reliant on working with other people, I don’t really work that well on my own. I do like to have other people’s input. So Paul and I started working together when he asked me to do this 2000 tour in America *laughs*
That’s when Paul and I discovered that we work well on stage together. Again, with Paul, it’s brilliant because we are very playful, we are not too precious.It doesn’t have to sound like OMD or PROPAGANDA. We can take elements if we wish but we’re not labouring over it.
How are plans coming together for the next ONETWO album?
We are writing and we’ve started. I’m hoping we can put something out by April 2011. That’s what I would like to do, that’s my plan! But you know, sometimes things take a little longer but we’ve made a good start.
‘Instead’ was very well received, but what are your reflections on the album now?
I think we did really well. The other thing that I now think about the album is I wish we’d have gone out with it live before because we’ve got Philip Larsen who adds a lot of electronic blips and also James Watson who’s such a great musician. So because we did all the gigs with ERASURE and THE HUMAN LEAGUE and we added things on, I would have liked to have gone in the studio now and recorded it because it would have got another bite to it and a bit more aggression behind it.
It’s a little bit like making a wine, the sediment has to go down and settle… it’s the same kind of thing with music. We’ve grown into a really good live band now that we know what we’re doing and now we can play around with all the parts as well. So I would have liked to have gone back and now recorded the album and I think it would have sounded more electro and energetic. But that’s something we’re now aware of and we’re thinking with the next songs that we’re writing, with the next ONETWO gigs that we have, to take them out and rehearse them live, then record them later.
Photo by Hege Saebjornsen
Who do you think makes up the ONETWO audience? Are they mostly your fans or OMD fans? Or are they new fans who are not necessarily aware of you and Paul Humphreys’ history?
I think all of those. To be honest, when we did THE HUMAN LEAGUE and ERASURE gigs, I think people had no idea who we were and then they realised when we were playing ‘Messages’ and ‘Duel’… “Oh, it’s them!”
We were something new and how do you get to know a band like ONETWO if you don’t have any radio or TV and only a few people who write about you?
We had to start at the beginning and I’m just really pleased that THE HUMAN LEAGUE and ERASURE gave us a platform for more people to discover us.
Before ONETWO, you were not really known as a live performer but it’s like you tour like mad now. You recently appeared live with HEAVEN 17 too performing ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’. It was on TV, how do you think it went?
I haven’t seen it because I never watch my own performances. I got the live bug I guess, I just really like singing. In a studio environment, it’s all so controlled… but I’ve just become this live singer! Teaming up with Paul Humphreys, he made me discover that when I was doing a tour with him in 2000 and I thought “this is good fun”. And then I realised singing PROPAGANDA songs, how well people responded when they got a chance to hear them. Now I just want to spread the word because they are great songs, they are part of my past and I’d like people to hear them.
Is a solo concert ever going to be a possibility?
My plan for ‘Combined’ is to make a special evening with special friends, so I’m trying to pull as many people who are on this album to appear with me. I’m trying to get Susanne, Michael and Ralf in, I’ve invited Thomas and I hope he’ll be able to join me.
I’m hoping Andy Bell can do it. I’m sure I couldn’t get Martin Gore… but Glenn Gregory I think I could get; we keep on helping each other out. If he’s around, he probably will do it.
I will ask everyone who’s been involved to join me, it could be great night….let’s see!
You do seem to have worked with quite a few legends from the ‘Synth Britannia’ era.
One special thing about ‘A Secret Wish’ was that it has opened a lot of doors for me. I’ve got so much respect from fellow musicians, people just kind of go “Claudia, I want to work with you, can you do this?”. That’s pretty much how all of my collaborations came about.
Is there a stand-out memory from any of these collaborations?
It was amazing when David Sylvian came in. On ‘P-Machinery’, there is this line he wrote on a little keyboard that he brought in, it’s that theme which is also ‘Thought II’ from the bonus CD.
Photo by Anton Corbijn
Is that David Sylvian I can hear on the middle eight of P-Machinery?
That’s just the girls. The “calm but steady flow, our strength is running low” bit, that’s me! But I tell you who does the backing vocals in ‘Duel’… it’s Trevor!
What did parts did Glenn Gregory do on ‘A Secret Wish’?
Glenn did the shouting on ‘Jewel’. It was me, Paul Morley and Glenn!
‘Don’t Stop’ was your most recent recording in collaboration with German dance duo BLANK + JONES. You also recorded a marvellous song with them called ‘Unknown Treasure’ in 2003. How did those songs come together and how much input were you able to contribute to the final results?
With ‘Unknown Treasure’, that was quite magical really because Piet Blank and Jaspa Jones sent me a basic groove.
And onto this groove, I wrote the melody and all the words. Paul Humphreys was brilliant, he helped me to record the voice and edit it. He’s so patient with editing vocals and putting it all together. It’s a very time consuming process. So we sent them the entire vocal track and two weeks later, they sent me a CD back and to my delight they had turned it into this beautiful song, it was just this lovely journey. And I think they did such a great job, a real collaboration. Don’t Stop was in reverse, they gave me all the music and then I did the words and sent it back to them. And this is how these two songs came together.
Is there any reason why ‘Unknown Treasure’ is not on ‘Combined’?
It’s not on ‘Combined’ because ‘Kiss Like Ether’ is on, and ‘Kiss Like Ether’ is very much in same the vein as ‘Unknown Treasure’. Before, ‘Combined’ was a double CD and pretty much everything I ever did was on it *laughs*
And then it was like, we’re only doing one CD. And then I had to put some songs aside. So with ‘Unknown Treasure’, I really wanted it on but I wanted ‘Kiss Like Ether’ instead. Tempo wise, it’s very similar so it had to go… it was a tough decision!
You’ve done quite a few cover versions in all your guises as well as doing the ‘Another Language’ covers album with Andrew Poppy. Are there any other songs you’d like to do?
There’s so many great songs, I’m a singer and I like good tunes. ‘Duel’ for example is one of my favourite songs because it’s a singer’s song, composed for my voice. I love Motown stuff but at the moment, I’m singing ‘Plastic Palace People’ by Scott Walker. I’m pretty random with my choices that I like to sing. I love electro and I love heavy industrial stuff. I love Chanson and drama. When I grew up, my grandma listened to Lotte Lenya and Bertholt Brecht. I think you can put me in any kind of musical outfit really and I can make it work in my own style.
What did you think of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s and Mandy Smith’s covers of ‘Duel’?
I like Sophie’s and Mandy’s versions of ‘Duel’ and I’m glad that they’ve picked our song as they make other people aware of PROPAGANDA’s music.
Personally, when I do covers I like to put the songs I chose in a very different light to the original. In that way they become my own interpretations. My approach is more similar to SUSANNA & THE MAGIC ORCHESTRA or the way Martin Gore works on his ‘Counterfeit’ albums.
Photo by Peter Brown
The Mandy Smith one was done by Stock Aitken & Waterman so they obviously are secret PROPAGANDA fans!!
It’s very funny but on the sleeve notes of ‘A Secret Wish’, Paul Morley was saying that when Trevor Horn was not available to be producer anymore because of FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD, he wanted David Sylvian.
Meanwhile Jill Sinclair wanted Stock Aitken & Waterman!! That would have been a wrong choice, nothing against them! *laughs*
Have you heard that track by HURTS called ‘Wonderful Life’ which sounds a lot like PROPAGANDA?
I think that track is really beautiful; I can really hear how PROPAGANDA influenced it musically, especially from the middle bit onwards because it goes into that dreamy motion until the end and the choice of instruments used remind me a bit of ‘A Dream Within a Dream’.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
My daughter gives me songs to listen to, so I don’t lose connection. I’ve been listening to BEACH HOUSE, NITE JEWEL, THE RAINCOATS, SUSANNA & THE MAGIC ORCHESTRA and the new ARCADE FIRE album. You have to discover acts yourself now, I preferred the old-fashioned way of listening to the radio.
Another truth installed by the machine…
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Claudia Brücken
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Claudia: It’s coming along but obviously with all these projects, the DVD etc, there’s only so much we can do and you need focus. So Paul and I have been writing and recording but personally I thought it would be great if Andy and Paul could make a great album as OMD.
in place of Andy Bell…
, we’ll be doing something else which Claudia and Andy will sing as a duet.
and PROPAGANDA’s 
are available as deluxe 2CD editions via Salvo Records
is released on DC and downalod by ZTT/Salvo on 7th February 2011
is reissued as a 2CD package by Cherry Red on 30th August 2010
is available now and released by Salvo/Union Square
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