Sielwolf

Interview by Chris Jagasits


In order to get to the meat of Sielwolf, you'll have to go farther past the pummeling, metal influenced noise tracks into the CD Metastasen. If allowed the time, the senses will pick out keen details from the incedible mix. The label electro doesn't exactly apply. Their work is void of electronic programs so characteristic of the present genre. The group: Peter Prochir(sampler + voice), Petra Tausenpfund(sampler), Thomas Loew(guitars), Udo Betz(bass guitar +stick) & Jan van der Glass(drums) is more interested in compaction and oddity. The use of mechanistic and white noise textures is chaotic. Their stylistic mark is ambiance,however. Imagine a child scared shitless of the dark, he or she pays attention to every detail of the night; the sounds of the streets, the sky overhead, nature's creatures outside, every delicate creak in the house comes to the child's mind with unpleasantness. A fear factory has been born. This is Sielwolf.


NIS: Who formed Sielwolf?

P: Sielwolf was founded in 1989 from P. Tausenpfund and P. Prochir.

NIS: Sielwolf is very fond of noisy structures in music,was it like this from the start?

P: We always had a noisy structure in our music because of the noisy sounds(mostly movie sound samples) we used from the beginning on. But we also have quiet structures if you listen to "Nautilus" on Nachstrom or "Antimon" on Metastasen.

NIS: What inspied the noisy personality of Sielwolf? Was it music that you heard that caused you to step into another direction? For example, hearing too many commercial bands or not liking pop music influenced the way the music was/is made.

P: The noisy personality of Sielwolf was influenced by only one reason: First of all we need the noise to express our agrgessions which may come from inner conflicts, but also from surrounding fields. The quiet structures are necessary for us too. It takes us to the deep side of the psyche.

NIS: I imagine when Sielwolf uses samples, the taken samples are distorted all to hell into other noises, thus making them your own work. The only real samples that you can hear are a few bits of movie dialogue.

P: We don't see a problem using the obvious samples from an artist's work. Our CD is stickered so that other artists are allowed to use our samples.

NIS: What are your musical influences?

P: Our influences come from too many different music directions, so we can't go into details. We have listened to Mark Stuart,Stooges,Chrome,Swans,Brian Eno,Wagner,Penderecki...

NIS: Upon reading the background info of Sielwolf I came across the term "psychohygiene", Can you elaberate more on this?

P: "Psychohygiene" means that everybody has to swallow allot every day; if you don't look after yourself or don't get rid of your aggressions you get mentally or physically ill. There are different ways to act out aggressions. One is to make a certain kind of music. It's not a therapy, but if you need one it might be too late anyway. So it's better if you do something before it's too late. Like brushing your teeth everyday instead of going to the dentist too often.

NIS: Good explanation. Any previous bands or projects before Sielwolf?

P: Peter was drumming in a wide range between country and punk bands and was a member of Free Jazz-Avantgarde-Formation Kassiber(H.Goebbels, Alfred23Harth.K.Cuttler)with me. We create sample performance projects Collectionism and Der Riss.

NIS: Your passion for video shows up through your samples.What movies to you like best?Any favorites you like to sample from?

P: Now we don't use movies anymore because we are bored by it. In the past we sampled from Videodrome,Taxi Driver,Dirty Harry(German version),Apocalypse Now(Marlon Brando),Cape Fear,Henry...and many other unknown movies.

NIS: Since Sielwolf is a member of MACOS as is Lassigue Bendthaus and is not related to any of the fluid electro-techno artists such as Lassigue Bendthaus how did the mix of "Beweglich Animalisch" by Lassigue Bendthaus come about?

P: We live in the same city and we found some projects of Uwe Schmidt(Lassigue Bendthaus) interesting. We were curious, it was an experiment.

NIS: Could you provide the translation for each of the following songs from Metastasen. "Beweglich Animalisch","Spruck Den Dreck Aus","Dreck","Antimon", "Metastasen" and "Die Mieter"

P: It is not possible to send you the lyrics in english at the moment. Our english is not the best and we are looking for someone who can do it for us. It's very complicated to translate the lyrics because of the atmosphere that must be transfered too. You can't do this with school english. If we find a person we will send the translations to you.

NIS: How is your attitude towards getting released in America? More musicians using electronics are presently being accepted in the music market. Lots of electronic/industrial artists are going ever so close to heavy metal,mixing electronic effects with heavy guitars. I can see how Sielwolf may find an easy way into the hands of listeners although there is a large part of experimentalism in the music.

P: We would like to make a tour in the U.S.. We would prefer to do a support act. We think that now is the right time to try it in the U.S. because of the crossover of different kinds of music. Peter and I like the states a lot. We were married there in 1994 on the 25th of August in Miami.


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