Interview: KMFDM’s Founder Sascha Konietzko on the Making and Reissue of NIHIL
KMFDM is undoubtedly one of the most iconic bands in the history of industrial music. Their trailblazing style - known as “The Ultra-Heavy Beat” - features dark, danceable tunes, politically relevant lyrics, propaganda-style album art, and a continual spirit of rebellion.
Throughout their 34-year-long career, KMFDM has released more than 200 singles and 20 studio albums. Despite several line-up changes, KMFDM’s founding member and leader Sascha Konietzko has remained the driving creative force.
Like many bands, KMFDM started out with small-batch DIY releases. Early albums like Opium (1984), What Do You Know Deutschland? (1986) and Don't Blow Your Top (1988) were a hit in the German club scene. In 1990, Chicago-based Wax Trax! Records took notice and invited the group to move to the U.S to sign, record, and tour with Ministry. Konietzko accepted and the resulting tour, albums, and singles catapulted KMFDM to the leading-edge of the growing industrial music scene, helping make Wax Trax! America's preeminent industrial label.
During their decade-long tenure on Wax Trax!/TVT Records, KMFDM released some of their most critically-acclaimed albums. Among the most notable: UAIOE (1989), with a guitar-heavy sound that’s said to have inspired Ministry's own embrace of the instrument; NAÏVE (1990), hailed as a milestone album for industrial music, and XTORT (1996), one of the highest-charting KMFDM albums.
Every industrial band has their timeless fan favorite - Ministry’s The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste (1989), Skinny Puppy's Too Dark Park (1990), NIN's The Downward Spiral (1994), etc. For KMFDM, this album is NIHIL, the band’s best-selling album, considered a masterpiece by fans from the 80s, 90s and beyond. NIHIL contains one of the band's biggest hits, "Juke Joint Jezebel", which has sold over three million copies in various formats.
More than 20 years and 12 albums have passed since NIHIL was released, yet it continues to be a reemerging, relevant album in the history of KMFDM. So, when Konietzko was asked to revisit it he didn’t pass up the opportunity to delight old fans, engage new fans, and have it remastered for a favourite medium - vinyl. Now thanks to KMFDM, their merchandising outfit Fulfillment Merch, and manufacturer Kindercore Vinyl, a re-release of NIHIL will be available on September 1, 2018.
We caught up with Sascha Konietzko to talk about the history of KMFDM, the making and reissue of NIHIL, and the new KMFDM album, tentatively-named Nu, that’s currently in production.
INTERVIEW
Q: You’ve been the driving force behind KMFDM for over 30 years and counting. What’s the fuel that keeps you going?
A: It’s what I’m good at. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and have to go into the studio and flesh out an idea. There’s a certain routine I do, and if after 30 minutes I don't find myself completely immersed in it, I do something different. I find myself strangely inspired more often than not. I’m just lucky like that.
Q: What was the catalyst that made you want to start KMFDM in the 1980s?
A: I never thought about starting a band. I was playing in a bunch of little punk rock bands, and it kind of just happened by accident. I was asked to drive this group of painters to the opening of their art exhibition in Paris because they were all heavy drinkers and I wasn’t. So, I took these guys and we thought it would be good to have some sort of unnerving soundscapes that would intimidate visitors. I started making noise with some bass guitar, vacuum cleaners and what not. Then I did some more stints accompanying members of this group during their openings of exhibitions, and at some point this guy came to town from New York City. We were introduced and he asked me if I could put together a band for him. I said, “Sure, I know some people and we can do a one-off gig.” In the course of that, I met Nicklaus "En Esch" Schandelmaier (vocals, drums, guitar, programming, 1985-1999). We were fiddling around with a couple synthesizers and drum machines, and then we started actively making music. It was not planned, it just happened that way.
Q: How has the sound of KMFDM changed over the years?
A: It was really personal preferences and the style of music that I liked to listen to. I let those run into the production of early KMFDM material. My preferences have changed since then. At first, it was really noisy Cabaret Voltaire type stuff. Then I got some inspiration out of early electronic music. It was just a small step to combine heavy metal, which I liked as well, with these kind of straight dance-y electro-type beats. The progression over the years has resulted in a pretty polished, produced and thought-out sound. It wasn’t so much a choice, but an evolution.
Q: How have the lyrics or songwriting process evolved?
A: In the early days, it was out of a lack of monetary funds. We would be in a studio and everything had to happen really quick. The music would be kind of halfway recorded and it was like “oh shit, we gotta record some lyrics” [laughs]. It was a bit of an afterthought in the early KMFDM days. Nowadays, I have my own studio in my home and I can take all the time in the world to do something. More goes into it and the outcome is more refined than scribbling some words onto a piece of paper and going into the vocal booth. I’m not saying it’s better, but it’s different because there is more time for review. And, sometimes that’s not a good thing. That said, whatever I write down I pretty much disregard when I’m in front of a microphone. I just see and hear how the words flow and if it feels right. There’s a lot of last minute decision-making.
Q: Your latest album Hell Yeah (2017) deals with many different lyrical themes, such as individuality, totalitarianism, fake news, etc. Where did inspiration come from?
A: The song “Fake News” was really an afterthought to the album. It came pretty quick out of left field [laughs]. There were some catalysts for some basic ideas, but I don’t recall anything specific. What I do in the morning is wake up, go into my studio, turn on all the equipment, fiddle around with some stuff, and things happen. I read books and newspapers, I watch the news. I sometimes completely zone out and watch movies all day long. Everything kind of gets worked into the general thought process, and somehow finds it way. It’s like a mirroring phenomenon that happens with every person that creates something artistic.
Q: What was informing or inspiring the making of NIHIL in 1995?
A: I always think of NIHIL as like glam rock album of KMFDM because it’s so weird and incoherent. It took a very long time to make that album. I started writing it and did a first run in the studio with very few musicians, so we could start fleshing out the ideas a bit more. Then we did a second run where everyone was involved. Raymond Watts (vocals, programming 1984-1988, 1995, 1997, 2002-2004) was brought into part of sessions for NIHIL, and he contributed to a lot of the lyrics and vocal recordings. It was a bit helter skelter. We didn’t really know what we were doing and what we wanted to pursue. And, obviously we didn’t really pursue a plan. We were just struggling to raise money for studio time. The whole album was made at Hole-In-The-Wall-Studio in Seattle that was very expensive and our previous album ANGST (1993) hadn’t sold any copies. Wax Trax! Records had just taken over by TVT Records, and this was our first experience with TVT Records. They weren’t really keen on sinking an arm and a leg into the making of another KMFDM album. We were frantically struggling to get shit together and just laid down as much stuff as possible. Then, everybody departed and I sorted through the wreckage and basically finalized the stuff. At the very end, me and the engineer (Chris Shepard) spent another month or so producing and mixing the album. The final product was NIHIL. It was really unlike any other KMFDM album. It was a lot of chaos just to get the band on a silver platter.
Q: Some bands love their most commercial record, others hate their most commercial work. What is your relationship like with "Juke Joint Jezebel”, the main single from NIHIL?
A: After I was done editing the song, mixing it, touring with it for two massive tours of the U.S., shooting two videos and editing the videos, I was getting sick just thinking about my next day of working on that fucking song. I fucking hate it [laughs]. I don’t ever want to perform it again, I never want to hear it again. It was a great windfall in terms of selling lots of albums and being the first real hit that KMFDM had. It still pays the bill to this day. But, do I like it? No, I don’t.
Q: Were there any interesting songs or collaborations left off NIHIL?
A: There were a few of them. In fact, one of those stragglers was recently released. This guy who does these mixes, Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music To Cure Cancer, used one of them on the latest release. It’s a KMFDM song called “Make Love”, which is basically a cutout session from the making of NIHIL that never got entirely finished and it didn't really fit with the rest of the material. There are about two or three songs that didn’t make it. There were quite a few songs that started out one way that ended up on the album a totally different way. We had about 15 different songs to start with, but then some of them wouldn’t go any further or there wasn’t time to further develop them. It was over 20 years ago, so I don’t recall every aspect of the making NIHIL. I just remember being breathless and eager to finish it.
Q: The cover art from NIHIL breaks the mold of the propaganda-style artwork that KMFDM is known for. What is the story behind the cover art?
A: It was a time when Aidan Hughes at BRUTE! was nowhere to be found. He was in transition and moving, and I just couldn’t get a hold of him. There was little or no internet at the time, so we were writing postcards and trying various phone numbers in Britain to get ahold of him. Bill Rieflin’s (drums, programming, percussion 1995-1999, 2002-2003, 2011) wife, Frankie (Francesca Sundsten), is a very gifted painter and I was like, “Hey Frankie, can I commision a piece?” and she said, “Sure, but if you commision it, it will be very expensive. So, why don’t you have a look at the pieces that I have standing around here from the last exhibition.” I did and thought that the person depicted in that painting was so horrifically ugly that I fell in love with it right away. Currently, it’s hanging in my studio. I didn’t really think too much about whether or not the album would be liked because it’s not consistent with all the BRUTE! stuff. When the record came out people told me that it was a fantastic record, but that the album artwork sucked. I think NIHIL did so well because of the weird artwork...just kidding, but it’s possible, you never know. I used to buy all my albums pretty much based on the cover. I would go to the local record store and just pick out what looked great, then take it home to see what it was.
Q: KMFDM’s artwork from BRUTE! features lot of explosions. Is there any meaning behind the images or a thematic statement you’re trying to make?
A: I don’t know. That’s probably a question you have to ask Aidan Hughes. It seems like he’s at a standstill in a pubescent state where big-titted women blow-up shit and carry heavy guns. Something about that stuff must turn him on to no end. It’s so pulp, I love it. It’s completely boom in your face and has great recognition value. Like it or not, it has become the branding for KMFDM. I was introduced to Aidan in a Pizza Hut in London in 1987 when some guy wanted to re-release What Do You Know, Deutschland? as a UK edition. He’s like, “Here’s my friend and he’s an illustrator.” And, Aiden had little cigarette pack-sized booklets in his pocket with art that looked like a little magazines for toilet reading. They were little short stories like “Billy the Pig Farmer wakes up in the morning and looks over his land - no hogs.” [laughs]. I fucking fell in love with that kind of humour and weird imagery. That badly drawn kind of spaghetti western sort of stuff. We did the next record and I called on Aidan to do the artwork again, and again and again. Then for NIHIL, we couldn’t reach him, so we had to go with something different.
Q: What can you tell us about the special vinyl reissue of NIHIL that will be released later this year?
A: It was made from the original master tapes and not the digitally remastered version that came out in 2007. It was also mastered specifically for vinyl. It has two 12” discs mastered at 45 RPM. We kept each side under 12 minutes. Sometimes there’s only two songs per side, so the sound quality is mind-boggling. It’s like a disco single, it's loud and has tons of low-end. It's more than a collectors item - it’s real art. NIHIL was released on vinyl back in the day. I have a copy of it, but vinyl was totally on the downfall back in those days. They didn’t make very many and it wasn't done quite right. If I listen to that version on vinyl, it’s not good. So, when Mike with Fulfilment Merch came up with the idea of re-releasing of NIHIL, I said yes. They told me about this new boutique pressing plant called Kindercore Vinyl in Athens, and I was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.”
Q: Are you still in touch with any of the band members from NIHIL? Were they involved in the reissue at all?
A: I am completely out of touch with all of them for a number of reasons. They didn't really have any role in the re-release, but I will make sure that they all get sent a couple of nice copies to adorn their walls or dens or man caves, or wherever they dwell these days.
Q: The majority of records in KMFDM discography are on Wax Trax! Records/TVT Records. What was it like being on that label for nearly 10 years?
A: I mentioned this British guy earlier who wanted to re-release What Do You Know, Deutschland?. He became the licensor for Don’t Blow Your Top and UAIOE too. Without asking me, he sublicensed these three albums to Wax Trax! Records. Then one day in 1989, I got a postcard from the founders of Wax Trax! in Chicago asking us to give them a call. I scrounged up some cash and got to a phone booth. I couldn't understand them because of their accent from Chicago, but I got the jist. They wanted us to come over and open for Ministry. At first, I thought Ministry were some Christian band until I did some research and found out they were a synth-pop band with four guitarists, two drum kits and hard as fucking nails. I went to my local bank to apply for a loan to fly our asses over there.
When we got to Chicago, we were introduced to the people from Wax Trax! - Jim Nash and Dannie Flesher. They were completely lovely hosts. We stayed with Buzz McCoy from Thrill Kill Kult who lived close to the label and they filled our fridge daily with everything our hearts could possibly desire from Russian vodka to American bourbon. After the end of the tour with Ministry, which was 45 shows, Jim and Dannie wanted to sign KMFDM. They wanted to do a direct deal, and I said that I didn’t want to do a deal with a record company because I didn’t believe in record companies. They said, “We’re not really a record company. We’re just a bunch of crazy guys that do what we think is great, so let’s go take some LSD together.” So we did [laughs], and the rest is history.
It was kind of weird because a few years later they told me they were in financial trouble and filed for Chapter 11 - bankruptcy protection. They asked if I could come up with a contract that gave them the rights to future records, so they could have assets to enter into negotiations with another label for financial support. I sat down with an attorney and we drafted up a contract where KMFDM would commit to six more records. They had that in writing from me and got some funding from TVT Records, and everything seemed to be great. But, TVT Records was owned by a real asshole that completely pushed Jim and Dannie out of their own business. Then, Jim died of AIDS-related complications in 1995. Dani who was the other partner got butted-out by the TVT people and things took a turn for the worst in about 1998, and so forth. It is a long story, and it’s not always a pretty one. But, I did my best to remain loyal to people who did well by me, which was Jim and Dannie. I owe my entire life’s career to Al Jourgensen from Ministry because he heard the KMFDM record at the Wax Trax! office party and was like, “I gotta get these people to tour with us”. If I hadn’t done that tour and hadn’t got that loan to fly out, then none of this would have happened.
Q: After Wax Trax! Records/TVT Records, KMFDM moved to Metropolis Records for about 12 years. What was your experience like at that label?
A: It started out as a record store in Philadelphia and then slowly turned into a label. It was a labor of love. The founder, Dave Heckman, was the shop owner and an old punk rocker. It wasn’t all that different from Wax Trax! Records. We had a stint on Universal Records too, but that was completely corporate and didn’t work for me. Hell Yeah was released on a pretty corporate entity, earMUSIC, out of Germany. The corporate stuff doesn’t really jive with me. I need to sit down with people in peace over a beer, not at like 10:30 AM in a cafeteria. I think business deals are - for a lack of a better word - Trumpian.
Q: Some of KMFDM’s albums like Opium 1984 (2002), SKOLD vs. KMFDM (2009) and Krieg (2010) were released on KMFDM Records. What can you tell us about that label?
A: KMFDM Records was run by three super cool guys that had to move on in life for all kind of reasons. There was this period in time where everyone was focused and we could make things happen that we probably can’t make happen ever again. It was such a fruitful and inspired way to be going about things. Those times may be gone. We’ve been playing with the idea of creating a full-blown label releasing other acts and delving into the whole label business side of things. I’d probably be very good at it, but it’s not what I want to do. I don’t want to sit over the books all day long and count the money and release crap records just to make money. I do what I’m doing for the love of it and not for the money. If I were only in it for the money, I would have made some very different decisions.
Q: When can we expect to see a new KMFDM album?
A: We’re about half-way there. We have about 16-20 songs circulating right now. Songs meaning musical structures that will need to be turned into songs. Not all of them will make it. I think by the middle of January we will probably be doing the final mixing. Probably mid-2019 you’ll see the release. Right now it’s called Nu (2019), but it could have a completely different title next week or by the time it comes out.
The vinyl re-issue of NIHIL is limited to 1,000 physical copies, 500 of which will be pressed on to green vinyl, 250 copies on black, and 250 copies on smoke grey, all manufactured with pride by Kindercore Vinyl.
Click here for more information and to purchase KMFDM's NIHIL vinyl reissue directly from Fulfilment Merch.