…So sang Marlene Dietrich in the 1940s, harking back to her homeland.
Over the last few months of chatting to musicians and browsing networking sites, it’s dawned how many Irish musicians are upping sticks and choosing to gig away from home: Berlin in Germany, to precise.
Perhaps Ireland shares a subconcious affinity with the Germans, having also rebuilt a ravaged economy into a thriving hub of exciting artistic development? Berlin was always a highly cultural city: classical composers Bach and Mendelssohn called it home and today there are a staggering seven symphonic orchestras in the city. Although schmaltzy, the gloriously hedonistic image portrayed in Liza Minelli’s Oscar-winning Cabaret was supposedly an honest representation of the city’s nightlife prior to the horrors of WWII, cementing a reputation as an open community for artists, musicians and those of an independent disposition. The 60s/70s style known as ‘Berlin School’ furthered progressive music with offerings from John Peel’s favourite conceptualists Tangerine Dream whose early forays paved the way for Techno, the biggest revolution in pop music since jive rock in the Fifties. A few years later David Bowie and Brian Eno sought refuge in the city’s creative haven and produced some of the most critically acclaimed material of their careers.

 

When the wall dividing East from West was demolished in 1989 and the nation’s reunification began, derelict buildings on the old west side, many untouched since the war, were reclaimed by young people looking for seclusion in which to play the ultra-loud Techno. Hundreds of galleries and museums, low cost of living and tolerance for individuality meant that the creative reputation gathered momentum and expanded into continental Europe’s unofficial capital of culture with musicians and artists from all over the world flocking to lay roots there. Several of our home-grown artists now use the capital as a base: Humanzi took a break from the Dubscene rock’n'roll for R’n'R of a different nature and ended up recording the as-yet unreleased follow-up to 2006’s succesful Tremors there. I tracked down some others to find out what influenced their choices in making the move.




Royseven: six-piece Royseven signed to Universal Berlin and established a strong fanbase after forging links with management and booking companies.




Queen Kong: LadyFest, an event promoting females in music, was Queen Kong’s first introduction to the Berlin scene. They’ve been known to play live in their grubby greys, as you can see by this gif.




Lluther: Industrial rockers Lluther acquired a distribution and publishing deal in Germany which proved so succesful, the band decided to establish a permanent base there.




Nina Hynes and the Husbands: Nina lives in Berlin full-time, and spent time in Ireland this year promoting her new album, Really Really Do.






You’re Only Massive: Maebh studied in Berlin three years ago and loved the city so much, she reclaimed an ex’s flat as her own and is now a member of Trickster Verein, a small, community-run club.




Party Weirdo: Eager to experiment with fresh geography, Party Weirdo decided to try out the Berlin gig scene on the recommendation of guitarist Cara, who moved to Berlin two years before the band formed.




First up, how do clubs and venues differ to those we know in Ireland?
QueenKong: Clubs and pubs in Berlin are places where art and politics actually happen rather than places where people go to avoid them.
Nina Hynes: Small Indie venues and clubs are dark, dingy and smoky but atmospheric…the sound systems can be pretty dodgy here as money is not as abundant as in Ireland.
You’re Only Massive: Beer is cheaper - also the law is more relaxed, there are quite a few illegal or semi-legal places.
Lluther: The big difference is that they look after bands’ stomachs a lot better. There’s always food waiting and a main meal later. After 18-20 hours travelling in a bus, freezing your ass off and possibly hungover, good food is better than anything else on the planet!
Paul Royseven: They are very homely and the design is more personal, less corporate. Berlin itself is a very bohemian, cultural city and there is a night life option to suit everyone!
Cara Party Weirdo: There isn’t the extortionate rent to pay for a venue in Berlin, most of the time it’s free and bar earnings will go to the venue and the rest to promoters/bands. For smaller gigs there might not even be an entrance fee, just ’spende’ or donation at the door.
Emily Party Weirdo: There are lots of autonomous spaces, ‘housing projects’ aka squats and a culture that goes along with that. On the other hand there are more established places, like West Germany or the King Kong Club which are more on the commercial side but still cater for a highly alternative-oriented and actually, queer scene.

 

Can you draw comparisons between certain hangouts in Berlin and our famous ones here in Ireland?
QK:Berliners bend over backwards to make you feel welcome, especially at the Kit Kat Club, just like Dubliners did when we first moved here from Cork.
NH: People tend to stay out all night here slowly getting wasted instead of getting it all in before 3am and filling the streets with broken glass and puke..it’s more subdued.
P R: Germany has a cafe culture where bars and restaurants stay open as long as they wish and people tend to drink to meet people, not meet people to drink. Ireland has closing times and no cafe culture. We, in Ireland, do our best to drink as much as we can before last orders whereas here in Germany you tend to drink in a more casual relaxed manner, as there is no seeming urgency. Also, it’s a lot cheaper here to eat out and buy alcohol.
E PW: With difficulty. The most obvious place to draw a comparison is Dublin’s Seomra Spraoi, one of the only alternative to drinking, car and money culture that has monopolised Irish culture. There were lots of these places in Berlin, from Koepi (punk, hardcore, crust squat) to Liebig 34 (frauenlesbentrans, queer, electropop-type housing project) - that’s with music of preference included by the way! Seomra, catering for a wider variety, has a wider variety of styles.
YOM: There is a thing called Kiez Kultur in Berlin, which is like neighbourhood culture, meaning people feel affiliated to their neighbourhood. So if you hang out a club for long enough you will get to know everyone. The scene in Berlin is very diverse. You can go to electronic music nights and there are at least ten or fifteen scenes which rarely cross over - in Ireland it tends to be relatively mongrel like and mushed together.

 

Are there similarities in current music trends between the two countries?
L: I think in Ireland, musically we tend to mirror what’s going on in the UK. In Germany the majority of influence is the US. I suppose in Ireland we have more of a singer songwriter/indie trend, in Germany electronic music and rock is much bigger.
QK:The standard of musicianship is higher in Dublin but in Berlin it’s more acceptable to start playing gigs before the band is fully formed. Its more acceptable to be crap.
NH: On a rock band level, it seems looser, punkier or rawer and not so aimed at record executives’ attention…musicians seem to really want to collaborate so you tend to see a lot of people in different bands…though that happens in Ireland too. On a surface level, it seems to be electro here and more Indie in Ireland.
E PW: Irish promoters like Skinny Wolves or Maximum Joy can be compared with the shows which are put on in places like West Germany. The punk culture there however, is completely removed from the Irish experience, to extremes. Even in comparison to Ireland’s hardcore scene - especially drawing from Belfast bands (We Are Knives being particularly popular) - promoter groups such as Porco Dio, Armed Ambitions, Organised Ideas, the style and scene is completely different to Berlin…thats probably more to do with geography but the financial and economic position of Berlin can’t be denied in contributing to a wider variety of culture. As long as you have a culture that revolves not around employment and morgages, you’ll have a lot more interesting cultural initatives - something we are sorely missing out on.

 

What do you believe are the perks of working a city so far removed from home?
NH:Well, the anonymity of a big city is always more freeing than a smaller one and I get the feeling that people are living out their fantasies more here and reinventing themselves when life becomes too stagnant.
L: We decided to work Germany because it has something like 52 million people and outside of the US, it’s biggest rock market. I suppose the perks are that you can constantly tour if that’s what you want to do. Every night in every major city in Germany there are great international bands playing so the competition to get audiences to come to see you instead is more like it is the US. I think it makes you work a lot harder.
P R: Apart from being cheaper and less congested, playing in other countries gives you objectivity, about the industry, your own career and life in general. It’s good for anyone to spend time away from home…musician or not.
YOM: Far from home - although it means a giant carbon footprint, flights are cheap - it’s cheaper to go from Dublin to Berlin than getting a train from Dublin to Cork, so it’s possible to live in Berlin and still gig in Ireland. I’m doing it in December, flying back for two gigs in Whelans and one in the Sugar Club. My favourite thing about Berlin is that the people I’ve met there tend to value their time over their money.
E PW: When I returned home the first thing I noticed was how bombarded we are by our own preoccupations: housing, traffic, money money money. Berlin provided Party Weirdo with, literally, a freer environment for creativity, beyond musicality I think. Spending time there made me realise that Dublin needs more ‘Berlin people’ and Berlin projects. In a more practical way, Berlin opened up the road to the wider European landscape. Having recently done a tour of Lithuania and Poland, we have invitations to play in Zurich and Paris, among others.

 

How do you apply your experiences of German gigging to working in Ireland?
YOM : Gigging is gigging, I don’t think there’s that big a difference. Emceeing in Germany gave me the confidence to come back to Ireland and make You’re Only Massive happen.
E PW : Haha, at times in Berlin I thought it had become a parody of itself. People had become aware of how ‘cool’ Berlin was that it affected the fun of playing. But as we gained popularity over there people loosened up big time. So when I play in Ireland now I can really appreciate the warmth of an Irish audience.
QK :It’s made us more aware that the power of what a band does onstage can go beyond entertainment and be political too. Sounds pretentious, but it’s true.
C PW: I think as an experience it’s quite similar, the difference, is we are generally not the only female musicians on the stage
P R : In Germany, we tend to have quite full tours and they are far more intensive than in Ireland as there are more cities and venues to cover, so its good to build up that stamina methinks.

Do you think there’s a demand for Irish artists in Berlin?
E PW : The Berlin I experienced was totally multi-cultural. Although mostly white, there was a huge Turkish community but the majority of people I came across were central European. Also a significant amount of people from Israel, all doing extremely interesting and creative things there… so really Irish people were just another element of that mixture.
L : I don’t think there’s a demand specifically for Irish artists. Maybe it’s a little easier to get shows if they know you’re Irish, - probably because it’s something a little different. I think the novelty factor only works once though. If they book you again, it’s definitely not because you’re Irish.
NH :I think there is a demand for artists here in general, not neccessarily Irish but I notice that a lot are moving here because Ireland is too expensive to exist in an artistic way for most of us. Berlin has a history of art and experimentation so naturally artists are attracted.
P R : Irish people are popular in Germany and looked upon favourably. As a nation, it’s also got a strong reputation of providing high quality music so with a little PR I am sure most Irish acts could do well. Its about knowing where to play.
C PW : Berlin audiences are music hungry and exposed to different genres/styles of music so they always crave new and different acts.
YOM : No, I don’t think there’s a particular demand for Irish artists over other nationalities. I think the interest is the other way - lots of Irish artists want to go to Berlin. It’s a big credit to Irish musicians that get gigs in Berlin as it’s very competitive. Those I can think of off the top of my head are Queen Kong, Party Weirdo, Sky Histoire and Heliopause.
QK :There is always a demand for good art everywhere at any time regardless of where it’s from. Bad artists should just stay in bed.

 

Is there a difference in treatment from Industry people there? Are the shows well paid?
E PW : We predominantly operate on a strict DIY, anti commercial circuit, we don’t have many dealings with ‘industry heads’. But I’ll tell you one thing - you’re treated as guests. When you’re asked to play, you’re taken care of: food, beer and a place to stay being the fundamentals. Also, it’s much easier to request travel expenses and stuff. Even the DIY events cater for band expenses. So much cooler than here. Although once you are even semi-established here you’ll be paid something! I have a sneaking suspicion its the bands on ‘the outside’ that get shit deals.
L : Yeah, the shows do definitely pay better. I think the main difference is that when you start off, you really are little fish in a big pond. Because of the population, the ‘industry’ there is on a major scale, but that’s a good thing.
NH : I tend to meet a lot more people working in labels or publishers than in Ireland and they seem to be genuine music fans and not so caught up in any industry.
On a small Indie-level, shows are less well paid because it is much cheaper to go to see a band play but everything is cheaper here so the costs are not as high. I’m sure on a larger level, the shows probably wouldn’t differ that much money-wise.
P R : The shows vary in payment. We’ve built a fanbase in some cities and these busy shows tend to pay for the markets we’re still building. On average we are paid much better for shows here, plus we get accommodation and catering in the deal. But I’m sure that has a lot to do with management making it happen. We’ve also been lucky to have been sponsored by Guinness and Volkswagon respectively.
Industry heads are industry heads, journos are also friendly and warm, label reps tend to be aloof and booking agents/promoters are all too cool for school! In a good way of course

 

And how about reception from would-be fans?
L : We’ve always enjoyed playing there.
P R : It’s like any market, you build a fanbase, get your regulars and it’s a great atmosphere. We have an official fanclub here and we meet them on the last date of each tour somewhere near the venue - thats always a laugh - and we have meet and greet sessions with competition winners from radio and tv before each show.
QK : It was great: instead of wanting to get pissed with us, afterwards we ended up having deep discussions about class and gender, which was refreshing, it certainly opened my eyes. We generated intense debate and challenged everybody’s perceptions and preconceptions, including our own.
E PW : The first show we played was a total black and white mixed reaction. Some people absolutely loving the insanity of it all (we hadn’t played together in two months and we had a guest accordian player with us, Experiment totAl) and others…seriously - arms crossed, glaring! But that could probably be described as a red herring gig because all other shows we’ve played have been terrifically received and contributed to growing support.

 

Are there any German acts from the gig circuit you like, and how would they fare if they were to gig Ireland?
NH : I have been to a few lake-side Berlin summer techno parties where DJs play by the lakes all day…which seem to be quite like the raves in castles in Ireland in the 90’s.
QK : I saw Blowfly in Berlin (admission €10). He played to a full house yet the following week he played in Dublin to a handful people (admission €22). Draw your own conclusions.
E PW : Tocotronic and Mit are the biggies over there. But my favourite is the Jolly Goods. Two girls, kids really, low-fi rock’n'roll grunge. They are fantastic. I think the Indie fans would lap them up completely. In fact I hope to bring them over next year so keep your eye out.
P R : Look up ‘Fotos’…they were sponsored by VW like us and I love them. They remind me of one or two Irish bands and they’re just as good. Tokio Hotel are a teen band signed to our label and though I don’t like their music, I notice Irish kids on Bebo picking up on them which is impressive.
C PW : I’ve been introduced to a lot of music since I moved here, some punk: Largactill, The Rampant Peluca, Lorena and the Bobbits…unfortunately, in Ireland (and one of the reasons I moved to Berlin) these bands would be lucky to get thirty people to their gigs, the exposure to this kind of music and women in music is not yet fully appreciated in Ireland.
YOM : There’s an emcee in Berlin I really like called Wuzi Khan, I’d love him to come to Ireland but i think the language barrier might be a problem.
L : We’ve played with some really good bands and also with some of the strangest bands I’ve ever seen. One band we played with in Berlin were dressed as transvestite Nazi’s and had a guy in a robot suit playing keyboards - they ended their set by kicking the lard out of each other on stage. I don’t know how that would go down here, but it entertained the shit out of me

 

Thanks to Gerry Owens of Lluther, Nina Hynes, Cara and Emily of Party Weirdo, David and Amy of Queen Kong, Paul Walsh of Royseven and Maebh of You’re Only Massive…yer all putting us up when we stampede over to Berlin!

 

All photos subject to original artists’ copyright.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 6:07 pm and is filed under Unsigned Bands, Music, Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.