Emigrate Promo CD (interview)

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Before Emigrate's debut album was released, a promotional snippet CD with a few promotional sheets was sent out, which included an interview with Richard and his alter ego, Emigrate. <translate>

Interview

<languages/> DIALOGUE EMIGRATE - RICHARD Z. KRUSPE

QUESTION: "Mr. Kruspe, the music world knows you as the guitarist of RAMMSTEIN. Recently, you have spoken positively several times about the work of your friend and fellow musician EMIGRATE, who is currently releasing his first album, "Emigrate". How long have you known each other?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Actually we know each other for a long time, we come from the same area. But we used to meet each other rather fleetingly. At some point he approached me directly because he had his own ideas and wanted to know my opinion."

QUESTION: "EMIGRATE, how did you come to meet RICHARD Z. KRUSPE of RAMMSTEIN?"

EMIGRATE: "RAMMSTEIN is a great band and Richard is a guitarist and songwriter I respect a lot. I had hopes that he could help me realize my own projects and so I approached him. He was very open and interested in what I was thinking and doing."

QUESTION: "When people see you together, they're a little irritated at first..."

EMIGRATE: "People say we look alike. I actually don't think so. Anyway: we were often on the road together. I was his shadow, Richard wanted it that way."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Some people might find him a little scary at first. Often he just stands to the side and scowls. You often feel him rather than see him, his energy, his restlessness. He showed up more and more as time went on and we listened to a lot of music together and discussed. I found EMIGRATE interesting as a person and also noticed right away: he knows something about music.

QUESTION: "Where do your musical similarities lie?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "We both like music that is rather dark, the early years of Swans, Big Black, Ministry, but also classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, or Black Sabbath have influenced us musically."

EMIGRATE: "We both have preferences for songwriters like Trent Reznor, Martin Gore or Jeff Buckley, a musician who died at an early age."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "I'm also interested in the melodic in pop music, which is not seldom missing in hard music. Both elements I try to combine with each other"

EMIGRATE: "We agree on this point. That's what's special about RAMMSTEIN's music: it's rough and at the same time very melodic."

QUESTION: "How did their friendship develop? It all sounds very harmonious!"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "It was sometimes also quite exhausting with him. If a song seemed successful or a concert, he still came around the corner with criticism. At some point I gave him the advice that he should try himself, that he had to make his own music."

EMIGRATE: "After a while, something had built up in me. I had the impression that I had to change something radically. I didn't get along with myself and with Berlin so well anymore. That's when I decided to go to New York."

QUESTION: "What was the beginning of your career like?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "I came to music in different ways. In my hometown of Schwerin, I played in the first punk band that existed there. It was called DAS ELEGANTE CHAOS. At some point I just stood in the band's rehearsal room and joined in. I was pretty loud, but the others in the band liked it."

QUESTION: "You also have a classical music education..."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "That's right. I marched into this conservatory into the entrance exam and played a song by UFO: 'Dr. Dr. Please.' They were pretty surprised, but then said I could stay."

EMIGRATE: "I never really wanted to play other bands' music. I wasn't really interested in that. I tried out a few things. Today I know: music is the medium in which I can express myself best. Richard understands me very well there, I think."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Writing music can also be a kind of therapy. I think it is with you."

EMIGRATE: "Writing songs is actually my life; I get sick if I can't make music every day. Rest is not my thing. When it gets comfortable, I go crazy. Others go on vacation. That's O.K., but I can't do that. On the other hand, when a song succeeds, that's the most beautiful moment of all for me. You almost feel like you've just fallen in love. And you want to experience that feeling again and again."

QUESTION: "At some point you decided to record an album of your songs..."

EMIGRATE: "It was very important for me to produce this album. I didn't care about the rest of the world, I did it for me first. That may sound strange, but that's the way it was."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "I encouraged him in the idea of making this album. I was impressed by the intensity, one might even say obsession, with which he pursued this project."

QUESTION: "You live in different cities for the most part. What does that mean for your work?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Places, climate and people have a great influence on me. I can only write certain music in certain places.

QUESTION: "EMIGRATE, you even dedicated a song to New York..."

EMIGRATE: " Without New York, the album, EMIGRATE would not have existed. Something else would, but not EMIGRATE. In New York there was the initial spark, so to speak. New York inspires me, the city has a magical effect on me. Berlin, on the other hand, often seems destructive and cool to me."

QUESTION: "How do you explain that?"

EMIGRATE: "I don't know. Maybe it has to do with all the dead people."

QUESTION: "???"

EMIGRATE: "In Berlin, after the war, a lot of dead people were just buried there, where they died. After all, there wasn't enough room in the cemeteries. You can sometimes feel that they are still under the pavement. There are such vibrations, such a cool breeze in Berlin, sometimes. It's certainly no coincidence that West Berlin became such a drug stronghold in the eighties. In the East, people had alcohol. People wanted to escape into another world, forget something, numb themselves."

QUESTION: "So your move from Berlin to New York had been in the making for a while?"

EMIGRATE: "In a way, it was also a spontaneous decision, after all. At a certain point I knew I had to leave, the city wasn't good for me anymore. I left everything behind and practically started from scratch."

QUESTION: "When did you leave for New York?"

EMIGRATE: "It was 1999, and when I arrived in New York, I knew almost no one there. But many places were strangely familiar to me from the first moment. I felt the same way about the people. Some people in Berlin think Americans are superficial. I, on the other hand, would describe them as open. More open than many in Germany. In Berlin, I don't feel lonely at home, but I do on the street. In New York, you don't feel lonely outside; you feel more alone within your own four walls. That has something to do with the openness of Americans in public life. America has always been a land of brave people who wanted to start something new and also a land of criminals. The city is characterized by an amoral pioneering spirit. There is first a promise for the future, an opportunity for every newcomer."

QUESTION: "Mr. Kruspe, what did you think when your friend went to New York?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "I thought it was exciting. For me, it was out of the question. There are a lot of my friends in Berlin. RAMMSTEIN has a lot to do with Berlin, with the German language. New York seemed like a juggernaut to me on my first visit. But clearly, New York is one of the most difficult and at the same time most beautiful cities in the world."

QUESTION: "Was it worth the step for EMIGRATE?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Yes, enviable: he's sitting there in an old firehouse in Manhattan writing his music! I've visited him there a couple of times. "

QUESTION: "Why is your project called EMIGRATE?"

EMIGRATE: "After all, the Port of New York has seen the arrival of many generations of immigrants who had left their original homelands behind and sought their fortunes in this city. EMIGRATE for me has to do with both physical and spiritual emigration. I was also on the run for a while - from myself and from the 'shadows of Berlin'. Thank God I came to New York. The city is my asylum and my Babylon. In a way, it has baptized me EMIGRATE. It has led me to the core of what I want to do, how I want to live. It has focused me, so to speak. New York works like a filter for me, weeding out everything unimportant. The city is also full of drama and stories. I need that to be creative. In my house in New York, for example, I notice a special energy. It may sound strange, but you can feel the ghosts of the past moving through the house."

QUESTION: "While RAMMSTEIN works with German lyrics, EMIGRATE writes in English..."

EMIGRATE: "It was only natural for me to use the English language. When I'm in New York, I think in English. I haven't tried, but I don't think I could write in German in New York. I feel very comfortable using English here."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "German is a sonorous, deep language with many nuances. It's my mother tongue. I actually grew up with American music. Those are my roots, but I realized after my first visit to America: I have to do something that is connected to the German language, to German culture. We then founded RAMMSTEIN. RAMMSTEIN could never have been created in America, in New York."

QUESTION: "EMIGRATE, your first album is very personal. Was it difficult to express your feelings in words?"

EMIGRATE: "No. So much happened in my early days in New York that I had to process it somehow. I didn't really know where the journey was going in the beginning."

QUESTION: "Can you be more specific now about where the journey is going?"

EMIGRATE: "For me, the old Chinese saying, 'The journey is the destination,' continues to apply."

QUESTION: "Does it help you in the development of the EMIGRATE project that your friend RICHARD Z. KRUSPE has had a lot of experience with RAMMSTEIN? In other words: does he give you one or the other good advice?"

EMIGRATE: "Sure, he helps me from time to time, but I make the important decisions myself. Richard made contact with longtime RAMMSTEIN producer Jakob Hellner, who served as co-producer for "Emigrate"."

QUESTION: "Wasn't there a risk of similarities to RAMMSTEIN's sound in the process?"

EMIGRATE: "Of course Jakob and I paid attention to that, especially in the beginning. However, it was soon clear to me that we would do something of our own there. Jakob Hellner was a helpful interlocutor and advisor throughout the production period, and we sought his opinion."

QUESTION: "EMIGRATE, who are the musicians with whom you recorded your first album? And will there be a second one?"

EMIGRATE: "All friends and good musicians: Arnoud Giroux (bass), Henka Johannson (drums), Olsen Involtini (guitar), Sascha Moser (programming). It was a natural and organic collaboration, there was really a good chemistry between the people who had never played together like that before. Regarding the second part of the question: EMIGRATE is a long-term project. There are already some ideas for a second album."

QUESTION: "You sing yourself. Was this clear for you from the beginning?"

EMIGRATE: "No. I was also looking for other singers. But at a certain point it came down to this. My friend Arnoud Giroux made it clear to me: you wrote these songs for yourself, you have to sing them. That's the only way."

QUESTION: " When you hear the music, you immediately think: this has to be played live.... Will you perform together with the musicians you recorded the album with?"

EMIGRATE: "The idea exists. It is already a great attraction for me to perform with EMIGRATE in front of an audience, but currently there are no tour plans. The record features busy musicians who live and work in different countries. That was already a challenge for the studio production."

QUESTION: "What role do visual aspects play in your artistic work?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "For me, it's very important. With RAMMSTEIN, we have tried out a lot in this regard. For example, I find it fascinating to slip into a different role, into a different character. If I had the chance, I would like to try something in that direction. Sometimes I think there's more than one person in me. I'm fascinated by such stories as "DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE."

EMIGRATE: "I have a great passion for movies, for cinema. I believe: in one way or another, this will be seen in EMIGRATE's public appearances - wherever they will be."

QUESTION: "What is the difference in the work of EMIGRATE compared to a classical band?"

EMIGRATE: "On the one hand, I can decide quite freely where the project will develop. On the other hand: the friction, the permanent creative input within such a band as RAMMSTEIN is certainly very productive. I've often envied Richard for that..."

QUESTION: "Will you two work together one day, record an album or even perform together?"

EMIGRATE: "I would have a great desire to do so, but I can hardly imagine it at the moment. Richard has more than enough to do with RAMMSTEIN again in the near future."

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Someday - why not? Who knows what's still to come!"

QUESTION: "Mr. Kruspe, can you tell us something about the near future of RAMMSTEIN?"

RICHARD Z. KRUSPE: "Without giving too much away: we are intensively at work. RAMMSTEIN is a unique project. Authentic, uncompromising outwardly and inwardly. Sometimes some RAMMSTEIN fans worry about the future of the band. I can assure them: RAMMSTEIN will go on, that's for sure. There's a lot to look forward to in the near future."

QUESTION: "We are curious. Mr. Kruspe, Mr. EMIGRATE, we thank you very much for the interview." </translate>