Featuring thanks MiG and Andreas from OHcy-êspé Interview by Ruud Dreessen aka ebm-industrial.nl 29 may 2010 8:14

 

 

01- For the first question will be - Thanks MiG and Andreas that you have found time to give answers to these questions,How are you doing?

MiG: [I'm fine, thanks.] Right now I'm re-mixing our old tapes in order to complete our discography. [That's a lot of fun and good memories come flooding back.]

 

02-Hello MiG what noise do you make in OHcy-êspé?

MiG: I'm primarily concerned with singing and playing the keys plus the Mellotron.However,I prefer to think of myself more as a metteur en son a director of sound arrangementsthan a generic musician,as I work with lots of pre-recorded tapes, an out-of-tune zither and other even more obscure sonic sources.

 

03-How's the start of 2010 been for you thus far?

Andreas: Ambiguous... We are in the process of developing our new stage show…

 

04-do you know the netherland?

MiG: I went to a Heavy Metal festival in s’Hertogenbosch when I was in my junior years. I really appreciated the Dutch peoples' hospitality... For this year at last, I have put Amsterdam on my itinerary.

 

05-For a lot of people, this is probably going to be their first full introduction to OHcy-êspé so how about you tell us a little bit about how you guys know each other and how the band came together?

 

MiG: It all happened by mere coincidence: A musician from Chile had been staying at my place for a few weeks. In some snack bar he stumbled over an ad posted by a band looking for a singer and a bass player. I called these people – and this is how Andreas and I met for the first time. We would play Punk Rock with this band... but Andreas and I spun off Ohcy-êspé at the same time in order to be able to play more experimental music.

 

Andreas: At out first meeting I already knew that there was potential for more than just Punk Rock. I was proved right very soon, and the Punk Rock band was history.

 

06- Do you follow the electronic music Psychedelic,Electronica,Alternative,do you have any other favourite bands?

 

MiG: Sure, besides Ohcy-êspé there's a lot of bands I prefer. The bandwidth stretches from Syd Barret’s Pink Floyd via The Can, Faust, Amon Düül II, Palais Schaumburg up to Test Dept., SPK, Coil and Front 242.

 

Andreas: I'm not predetermined at all; I listen to every kind of music that transports emotions and has been made by people committed to their work. Run-of-the-mill tracks conceived in vitro are anathema to me. I also listen to classical music.

 

07-How is your relationship with other electronic bands?

MiG: We're more like “lone warriors”. We are closely connected to Faust and Oberer Totpunkt... Please see and hear the fantastic “Paul ist tot” by Oberer Totpunkt. I’m singing in the background choir…

 

08- Can you give us a brief run-through of OHcy-êspé story so far?

The Underground band OHcy-êspé was founded by Michael Riewesel and Andreas Wiersig at the end of 1984. It was supposed to be an experimental answer to the dull mainstream of the 1980s.

 

By means of various tape recorders, samplers, computers, a genuine Mellotron and a piano frame, OHcy-êspé provoked excessive Psychedelic orgies during numerous concerts until the end of the eighties. Their reputation as one of Hamburg’s most innovative and most hardboiled Underground bands was rapidly established.

 

At the beginning of the 1990s OHcy-êspé started to deal with some more complex and elaborate forms of artistic expression. So, in addition to their vanguard performances with slide projections and video installations, OHcy-êspé produced a couple of short movies that were shown at several independent cinemas.

 

After a good deal of improvisational concerts and studio productions the band’s sound characteristics have grown increasingly sophisticated. OHcy-êspé incorporates elements from EBM, Electronic, New Music and Dancefloor into the already existing Psychedelic-Industrial sound.

 

Since the year 2000 OHcy-êspé have been busy composing and producing scores for independent films. In addition to these remittance works OHcy-êspé managed to place some successful tracks in the Independent Charts. “Satimata”, for example, hit number one and was elected best track of the month.

 

Up to the year 2008 the psychedelic opera „Adventures In An Iron Lung“ is created. It had its premiere at the theatre Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. 2009 OHcy-êspé presents the multimedia-spectacle "Manège à trois plus une" at the Avantgarde Festival Schiphorst and are working with the new drummer Falk Karolczak on their new CD.

 

By the way, this is a good time and place to finally reveal the secret of the band’s name:

 

“OHcy-êspé” (pronounced: O.C.S.P.) is a kind of a riddle. In German the “êspé” part is pronounced like the letters S and P (the accents, not being part of common German typography, are solely there for artistic reasons). Replace “êspé” with “SP” and you get “OHcy-SP”. Read it backwards, and there you are: PSYCHO.

09- How did you start to make music and what is Gothic for you?

MiG: After some tape collages I had recorded single-handed at home at the dawn of the eighties, I met some musicians at school and became a singer and a songwriter in various Punk Rock bands …

 

Gothic? Interesting question. When Andreas and I founded OHcy-êspé in 1984 we were in the midst of the post-Punk and Dark Wave era; there was already Batcave – but a real Gothic community (that went by that name) had not come into being yet... And those few people headed in that direction found our music too dark and dismal.

 

10-What did you guys do for a living before OHcy-êspé?

 

MiG: I was in high-school then and had just moved into my first flat of my own.

Andreas: I moved out from my parents' at the age of 16 and lived at my girlfriend's place while searching for my first flat.

 

11- When did you form OHcy-êspé? What inspired you to make music together?

 

MiG: The official founding date was December 26, 1984. Inspired by the aforementioned ad Andreas dropped by at my place with his fellow musicians and I played my sonic experiments to them. I knew on the spot that I would be making music with Andreas.

 

Andreas: That was like D-Day or the birth of Jesus Christ … a day history was made.

 

12- What are your top ten favorite Psychedelic,Electronica,Alternative Club Songs of all time? Who are you influenced by? What would you consider your favorite cd's?

MiG: That depends … The top ten I would name today might be very different tomorrow. Concerning the second part of your question: The answer to that one would be kind of lengthy

 

13- What are the future plans for OHcy-êspé?

 

MiG: We are working on a new tour program and a new CD.

Andreas: And a spectaculous new stage show.

 

14- Do you have a record label? Are you a member of any music organizations?

 

MiG: Unfortunately, we don't have a label yet – that makes us literally an independent band. Serious offers would make us happy, though. We are not members in any music organisation.

 

Andreas: Our productions are published by Euroscreen Media, our own label. So we can keep the rights and our artistic freedom. The promotional budget is kind of limited, though.

 

15-What are you currently listening to on your MP3 player?

 

MiG: I do own an MP3 player but I never use it. I always find it thrilling to perceive the environmental sounds directly.

Andreas: OHcy-êspé, of course.

 

16- By the way do you like my questions? tell me what you think about it! ;-)

MiG: Absolutely. Answering them takes some time, though.

 

17- What is the main idea, the message you want to leave to people who listens to you? What is your motto?

 

MiG: We create music that leaves the listener some room for interpretation. Subjective images and movies should arise in the audience's heads while listening to our music. We mainly paint moods that the listener fills with emotions. It's a soundtrack without a movie. Except for the few lyrics we take a political standpoint in we encode our lyrics in order to leave a potential for interpretation.

 

Andreas: That's right. But we can do it the other way round as well. We composed some film scores for independent movies – but generally we're not limited to independent productions.

 

18- What’s the name of your band? where did the name come from? or what's the story behind the band name?

 

MiG: Well, we wanted to make experimental psychedelic music, so why not make the band's name a riddle; it was more than obvious to take the title of Hitchcock's “Psycho”, write it backwards and alienate it with French accents. Unfortunately, I hadn't been thinking of marketing departments and radio presenters who were having a hard time pronouncing that name.

 

Andreas: … which forestalled success in the English speaking parts of the world. Though, in Mongolia, they didnt't have any problems with the pronounciation, which was really kind of interesting.

 

MiG: Pronounce it O.C.S.P.

 

19-If people don't know what you and your music are about, how would you describe OHcy êspé?

 

MiG: Unlike the aforementioned Gothic scene we never tried to create a certain image for ourselves. The dark and perishably sounding Mellotron as well as sad cello parts or „Once-Upon-A-Time-In-The-West“-type guitars on LSD were always ment seriously and always reflected our respective outlook on society.

 

That's to say, we're no „Political Rockers“ at all, but we are well aware of social discrepancy and addressing it in our artistic context. In addition to that, there are  philosophical observations on the relevance of art in a world that is infected with idolism. The last believers in Change are abandoning the sinking ship …

 

Andreas: The social discrepancies MiG mentioned were part of our own socialisation – and so we don't simply reflect them but we merge them with individual states of being, which results in completely new mutations. These will become part of the social upheaval and sentiments of the next generation. It's like a perpetual motion machine.

 

20- "Murat Cy", 'The Live Tapes,Surfin'", "The New World,Greatest Hits 1985-2007" and "Manège à trois plus une"where did the concept come from? and whats planned now that your album is finished? or anything else you're working on? Tell me why this title,"Murat Cy", 'The Live Tapes,Surfin'", "The New World,Greatest Hits 1985-2007" and "Manège à trois plus une"Tell us a few words about the concept of this?

 

MiG: The question isn't quite complete, as I'm digitally re-mastering all our material since 1984 – and these will just be the first re-mastered CDs. I hope to finish this project until the end of 2010 to make the complete discography of OHcy-êspé available for purchase...

 

Back to the question:

 

„Murat Cy“ was our debut album and it was recorded as a live session in our former rehearsal room. We were into checking out the boundaries of experimental music. In addition to post Punk songs, we tried to find our own sound by what the current Gothic scene would refer to as “black” tracks and recklessly experimental arragements for an opera singer, bass guitar, drums and Mellotron – the ultimate Ohcy-êspé sound.

 

„The Live Tapes“ meant turning away from the practice room period; It was our first encounter with a real-life audience as an experimental band – and it worked: The first three concerts were recorded live between June and October of 1985. We didn't have any pre-designed show whatsoever and thought that we would be most authentic as a live-improvisional band. We surprised the audience by playing psychedelic hardball being experimental at the same time; we were referred to as early Pink Floyd and Amon Düül II. But the most important thing was the performance: We had only an initial sequence as a concept to start from, and the rest just happened. The experiment escalated – and we became talk of the town in Hamburg as vanguard newcomers...

 

“Surfin' the New World” is my personal favourite. It is our second studio-recorded work and in contrary to the yet unreleased “Endless Snapshots” it's the most atmospheric one we produced in that early decade. We had experimented a lot at that time, and Andreas and I made any kind of music we felt like making. Just like with “Endless Snapshots” the programme almost completely consisted of solo pieces that represented each of our personalities most efficiently.

 

I think there are only three tracks we Andreas and I are to be heard together. It is also an artistic turning-point; in the beginning we had in mind the concept of a 'democratic band' with no band leader at all (who often is the singer or guitar player). In 1986, we unfortunately had to discover that all artistic impulses were coming from Andreas and myself; the other musicians were too busy with political activities or they couldn't keep up with our compositions. Apart from two tracks by Hayo von Wittke, who after all was a band menber until 1995, the whole album consists of solo tracks by Andreas or me. Anyhow, despite the fact that the album was the most nihilistic one we had produced so far and was located somewhere between Electronic Punk, Industrial and Dark Wave, it contained the three club hits “Surfin' USA”, “Awaken” and “New World”.

 

I think the title „Greates Hits” is self-explanatory. All these tracks are my favourites of the ones we produced up to 2007. “Greatest Hits” is meant, of course, ironically: we were planning on throwing copies of the CD on the bargain racks of several 1-Euro-Shops to shake up some family celebrations in faceless townhouses... Mother yelling “Turn of that Beat Music!!!”

 

I don't want to talk too much about about our latest album “Manège a trois plus une” because we will expand our programme by our new drummer Falk Karolczak and new ideas.  I can only recommend it to the interested audience: Come and see our show!

 

21- Some quick fire questions: guitar or synthesizer? 

 

MiG: Guitars, Mellotron, Synthesizers, Drums, Tapes & Devices

 

Andreas: Why should we emulate real instruments when we are able to play them? We are not against alienation, though.

 

22-band or solo

Andreas: Band & Solo

 

 

23-How is the current promotional tour going for supporting this album?

 

MiG: We’re planning on hitting some bourgeois town squares with our reshaped Swedish military truck…

 

Andreas: … with our self-sustaining show stage including light show and real-time multimedia. Currently we have some invitations to bigger festivals. Where we're going  to play is yet to be decided. For those who'd like to come and see us it's recommended to consult our web site at myspace.com/ohcy. There you'll find current dates and information.

 

24- What do you think of a modern Gothic and about Psychedelic,Electronica,Alternativescene?

 

MiG: It's nice if not all people give in to the casting show frenzy, trying to sound like Beyoncé even as a man.

Andreas: No matter how you refer to a kind or style of music, most important are content and emotional output. 

 

25- What's your favourite track of yours?

 

MiG: They're all our children.

Andreas: At what time?

 

26-What and who gets you excited about music today?

 

Mig: The new mixes of King Crimson

Andreas: Muse.

 

27-Our usual question - what is music for you?

 

MiG: Adventure and feeling that I'm a homo sapiens.

Andreas: A drug.

 

28- What was your best live experience so far?

 

MiG: We performed in front of thousands of people in the “Fabrik” and the “Markthalle” here in Hamburg – which may impress folks. Definitely the best was our debut concert as Ohcy-êspé in front of an audience of eighty in “Lichtspiele”, in June 1985. We didn't know how that would end …

 

Andreas: Ruhrstraße in 1992. My guitar sounded like bursting steal; that was like cocaine for my ears. We were incredibly loud, hard and uncompromising. The audience was like paralysed by the impact of the sound only MiG and I aroused.

 

29- Please list the name, age, school, and respective instrument of each band member

Michael Riewesel, 43, Vocals, Mellotron, Synthesizers, Zither, Tapes & Devices

Andreas Wiersig, 42, Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Synthesizers & Devices

Falk Karolczak, 42, Drums & Percussions

 

30-What are your views on the current state of this Psychedelic,Electronica,Alternative scene in Germany.in terms of creativity and audiences? And the scene in other countries?

 

MiG:  Sadly, those are the global mechanics of the market: Music is merchandise like the burger at McDonald's, and I think that in times of worldwide casting shows with John Does trying to imitate the top 10 douchebags, we remain a small persisting community of hopeless romantics – and honestly, you are having fun with it, too, don't you?

 

Andreas: Plus there's the endeavour of developing software that creates music almost autonomously. All the “musician” has to do is add his name for printing the CD cover and getting his pay check from the performing rights society. Computers don't have emotions and music is not mathematics. Music is one of the most crucial symptoms of our evolution and pure emotion.

 

31- you have very nice numbers` tell me about lyrical compositions what you can tell about the done work? How does your music creation process work? How do you create a song?

 

MiG: Try riding home on a bus or train at rush-hour, at 7 a.m., with a beer can in your hand. Most of the passengers don't agree and sneer at you. But there also people whose sheepish glances tell you that they would rather be in your shoes. The beautiful woman  flirtatiously yawning wishes herself back in bed with whoever – but she is on her way, at least she imagines to be … She wouldn't realize if the landscape rushing by outside the windows at the speed of lightning were a moving backdrop from the silent movie era... Ruud, if I added bit of drama I'd get a story, that's to say: the lyrics.

 

What often bugs me of the Gothic community is its claim to absoluteness; whatever doesn't fit the cliché is faded out … The human being with his however pathetic reality of life is not in the focus of the action, but everything is about the image labelled “Gothic”; the CDs are marketed with a grim-looking face of a 1969 Alice Cooper lookalike on its cover, while laughing at the audience's sad reality.

 

That's what I consider very embarrassing and regarding to Ohcy-êspé, I would always dissociate myself from behaviour like that.

 

32-What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences?

 

MiG: I would refer to our music as “New Psychedelic”. I am influenced by the 80's Industrial as much as I am by the 60's Pschedelic, Dark Wave, Neue Musik and Punk Rock. The key element of tension in music is gaining a certain amount of distance in order to start at a metaphorical “ground zero” and discover music with all its temptations from anew.

 

Andreas: I can't say for sure whether the music I have listened to has been essential to the music I'm making. Though, it frequently happens that I adapt a certain melody or sound unconsciously; of course, I don't use the result, unless it's an adaptation of mood and atmosphere. Strictly speaking music styles are indeed adaptations of mood and atmosphere.

 

33-Since the music industry is more open now to purely electronic music has this made things easier for you?

 

MiG: There's certainly a broad acceptance for our music…

 

Andreas: I think it's overrated; the major companies have always been chasing trends hoping to convert them into cash by selling shopworn trends to hillbillies as cutting edge stuff.

 

 

34-So what are their main influences as a band at the moment?

Andreas: I think the time has come to compose even more uncompromisingly. History surely is at a turning-point, amidst a social escalation, even though we're not making political music, we will reflect the disruption of this era in our music.

 

35-What is currently inspiring your material as an artist? tell me all about the Psychedelic,Electronica,Alternative scene of Germany?

 

MiG: Nothing.

Andreas: Absolutely nothing.

 

36-Do you think that people from the music press didn't expect you to grow up musically?

 

MiG: We can't bribe the music press. We don't have major companies.

Andreas: What holds for major companies as well as for the “free” music press as an ally is: They all are rusty junk by now – fossiles.

 

37-what is the key to making music from OHcy-êspé and what inspires you to keep growing as a musician?

 

MiG: Boring music. Bored women.

Andreas: To grab the neck of my guitar and stick it like a penis into the audience, wanking all over them with notes and sounds.

 

38-How do you see the future of download / Copyright in area of goth-Psychedelic,Electronica,Alternative music ? What are the best ways to develop it in your mind ?

Andreas: We are offering our music as free downloads. Though collectors who love our music will get limited CD editions with sophisticated artwork and specials…

 

39-what was your childhood like?

 

MiG: I owned a yacht made of styrofoam at the shore of a romantic fire pond on a city crossroads.

 

Andreas: I  drowned my hamster because he didn't quite like me one day – I learned that from my father; only my mother was tougher and survived this – me too, for the most part.

 

40-If there was one thing you want people to know about your band what would that be?

 

MiG: That we are different from what we'll be next time.

Andreas: That we are different from what we were last time.

 

41-Please let us know about your upcoming plans, some new releases you like to confirm here

 

MiG: We succeeded persuading every unemployed Hollywood composer and made them join our guild, as we are for a collective action against boring blockbusters.

 

Andreas: … besides, we are working on a 5 year plan. We are embedding all combines and we're on the verge of gaining musical key technologies that will allow us to ohcyespemise the global music market completely.

 

42-It has been a pleasure to interview you on your musical activity,Well,any last words to your ebm-industrial fans?

 

MiG: If you are no social cripple tell your girl not to go home; take her to a local off-licence and pronounce with a face of a steadfast Sir Edmond Hilary that you need supplies for an expedition to the long-lost Land of Full Employment. Dream with her of a self-determined life where –  like ghostly visitations – the late dock workers are terminating their shift; and fuck her on a Blohm & Voss steel bollard before this one loses its purpose as well...

 

Andreas: We hung about a lot on industrial sites; we infiltrated machine blocks and recorded their noise while risking our lives. I could not recommend that, just like I wouldn't recommend going to see one of our upcoming concerts; but the former is at any rate free of heavy metal legacies and asbestos. However it's not free of emotional aberration.

 

43-and what is next on Germany agenda?

 

MiG: Become a shipowner. Styrofoam yachts certainly have a future. The Hamburg Alster Lake must be decapitalised.

Andreas: We'll infest the normality of suburban zones and recklessly impose our music to their inhabitants.

 

44-How can fans-to-be gain access to your music? Do you have a website with sample songs or a demo CD?

MiG: Yes, we do have web page. It's a reliable source for all information concerning us.www.myspace.com/ohcy

 

45-How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?

 

MiG: I believe that yesterday is the tomorrow of today...

 

Andreas: It sure has evolved. Evolution can take every possible direction. There's no definition of “straight ahead”. What matters is that it evolves.

 

46-How is the new line-up working out?

 

MiG: Andreas is the MacGyver of the underground, in terms of our home-made equipment (speakers and sound systems); he as well built our mobile recording studio and our “Live Mobile” which Andreas reshaped according to our needs. Just add a water tank and we could give a concert in the Sahara for a Tuareg audience. Well, not really.

 

Andreas: We optimised the system. We are now able to perform independent from any electric power supply. As part of a festival program or, of course, traditionally as a live gig.

 

47-And, finally, what does the next twelve months hold for the band?

MiG: On the 3rd of July 2010 we’ll give a concert at the Avantgarde-Festival in Schiphorst (near Hamburg), Germany.

 

48-Any last words?

Andreas: Enjoy our music!!!

 

49-Thank you for your time MiG and Andreas Good luck

MiG: Many thanx…

 

 

 

 

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