Leaether Strip - It was madness...

Industrial music CDs on eBay USA | eBay UK | eBay GER

31 Aug, 2009

Leaether Strip - No Rest for the Wicked
With yet another double-album, the warmly received Ængelmaker, under his belt, Claus Larsen has certainly been a busy man, as this is only the cusp of his recent activites. Not only has he reawakened the Leæther Strip tour machine, but his recent live activities have sent him to countries he never touched back on his fateful 90’s tour. Now, Claus is fresh off two back-to-back performances in the U.S., playing for a crowd for whom some waited nearly twenty years to see Denmark’s EBM pride in action. From finally fulfilling his dream to write a film soundtrack to hinting at a new release for next year, to filling us in his Retention re-released series and his retackling of his classic Solitary Confinement, Claus takes a quick breather to catch up Side-Line on his non-stop whirlwind of activities to predict his productive future and as well as reflect on his tumultuous past. (By Vlad McNeally)

SL: When I caught you performance at the Power Strip Festival in Philadelphia this summer, I was surprised that the majority of the material you performed came from your older releases. Why did you choose to go that route, rather than focus on your slew of new releases?

CL: First of all, I would start by thanking Patrick Rodgers (Dancing Ferret) for making those two nights possible, and to thank all those loving people who traveled from near and far to come to the shows. I will never forget the way you all made me feel welcome. It was unforgettable. I was deeply moved several times on both nights, so for the first time ever, I shed a few tears while performing... or was it too much smoke? I couldn’t never have dreamt of a better U.S. live debut that that.

The set list for both nights was a trip down memory lane. I decided to add only a few new songs for these gigs because it was my U.S. debut and I knew from requests I’ve had from fans that they wanted just that sort of trip. Also, it was a way to thank all the older members in the audience for following my work for the past 20 years, and to show the younger ones that the old shit still has something to offer and so they can start exploring the great bands that roamed the scene in the 90’s.

SL: Considering you've been rather vocal about the U.S. over the course of your discography, what was the experience of visiting and performing here like for you?

CL: I think some have misunderstood some of my more anti-American lyrics. Every time I have been in America, I have been met with such friendliness and openness from everyone. I love you guys, but your whole double-standard system and the poverty, racial, religious, homophobic and health system pisses me off like nothing else. Hopefully, something’s going to change soon now that Bush is out of the White House.

I really loved Philly, or as one guy told me, ‘Killadelphia’. I know you can’t judge a city in a few days, but it really felt a lot like walking in a European city, though it was a lot cleaner and nicer smelling than any big European city I’ve been in. I want to go back to Philly and the rest of the U.S. to play again and maybe stay a little longer. The fans are not as ‘nuts’ on the dance floor as over here, but they do know how to make me cry on stage. But if I stay too long, I’ll gain too much weight, because holy cow you make good food in Philly! I LOVE cheese steak to death!!! You only need to eat one in the morning and it’ll keep you happy for the whole day. Now THAT’S food for a growing boy!

SL: I was rather surprised to see you selling copies of Satanic Reasons - the Cleopatra Records unsanctioned 'best of' compilation - at the Power Strip festival. When I interviewed you a few years ago, you were rather peeved about that disc. Was that matter settled...?

CL: Yeah I was, I would have been more than happy to make some new remixes or songs for that, but I had no idea that they were releasing it until it was too late to add anything. I am okay with it now, though. It gave some new listeners the chance to get some of my work on CD after the whole back catalogue went digital. The reason that they were selling it at the show was that Cleopatra had a few left in stock. Stuff like that happens in this business; at least they pay me... unlike some other people I’ve had the pleasure of doing business in the past. Like Cargo records; they have never paid a cent to me for Penetrate the Satanic Citizen and you can still get that CD after all these years. They owe me big time.

SL: Speaking of your live show, I could have sworn I spotted a keyboard on stage with you. Are you reconsidering your relationship with 'software only' synths...?

CL: Yes, I do use synths for my live act. The laptop runs a combination of .wav files and midi sequencing, and the keyboard is controlling some soft synths. I also have one more synth on stage for synth strings and other sounds. As I am only me on stage, and because my songs are very vocal, I am not able to do a whole lot of ‘look at me, I can play keyboards’. All my songs are sequences and I have never been a concert pianist, and I refuse to use synth zombies on stage as so many other acts do these days. My shows are not about what is love and what isn’t; it’s about the energy that the audience and the songs together create. To me, EBM is all about that energy and not about who is playing what on stage, or if it’s a sequencer or a HD recorder playing. I know that all the oh-so-qualified and so fucking disrespectful snobs on the (Side-Line) forums will disagree, but they are not the people who attend my shows, so who gives a shit about them? Let them sit on the forums and bash other musicians if that gives them a hard-on.

I know the joy I see in the faces when I stand up there. That feeling is amazing, that something I did right there in my ‘oh so messy’ studio can make people feel that way. I am SO happy that I got my back problem in check so that I can get up there. It makes all the hours, weeks, and months’ work seem like nothing. That feeling can make a 40-something man, one who gets a cramp if he has to walk to the store, perform for two hours, for two days in a row. That’s what it does to me.

SL: At first, you seemed rather hesitant to bring Strip on the road, yet now your blogs read as if your vision has been even further reinvigorated by the experience. How do you think these performances will affect where you take Strip in the future?

CL: Actually, it has already had an effect on my music. I knew from the last tours in the 90’s that you get really inspired by playing live; it’s the best medicine for a songwriter who is stuck. It also made me write some new songs that remind me a lot of my first two or three albums. Sometimes, I can just get lost on a song and fiddle with something for ages, but I found that spontaneous vibe again after I returned to the stage.

I was supposed to finish Retention no.3, but I was so inspired and filled with ideas for new songs that I had to get them written first. So, there will be several new songs out very soon... though I cannot tell you what they’re for right now, but there will be a fall or winter release with lots of new material on it. And I want that out first. Retention no.3 will be a little delayed... but it’s almost ready. This time around its Solitary Confinement I am remaking. I’ve gotten about 80% of it written, and I can’t wait for you all to listen to it.

SL: In contrast to your recent performances, you've described your last tour in '92 as being 'destructive'. Considering it put you off to touring for so long, what was that experience like and what lessons did you apply to how you would handle these new shows?

CL: It was madness. If it hadn’t been for my old mates Peter and Jesper, I would have dropped that tour after a few gigs. The planning was catastrophic, to put it mildly. I have no idea how we pulled it off, but as I said earlier, you get ‘superpowers’ when you perform. I did several shows where I had a bad fever and absolutely no voice when I walked on stage, and then from out of the blue, I got everything back and could perform the full show.

We did about 17 shows in 18 days with no roadies and no night liner... it was just us three in a van. No wonder a lot of musicians end up on dope or alcohol. It also made that back problem I was born with come back in full and I couldn’t do anything other than sleep for a month after that. So, this time around, it’s no more than two shows a week tops and NO booking agency or tour manager. These days, I deal with every venue and booker myself. This time it has to be fun for me, too. And so far, it has been amazing. All the people I’ve done business with have been super-nice and I trust them. And I’ve made a lot of new friends in the process, too!

SL: Apparently, it's our fault your back in the studio working on new material already! If that's the case, would you care to share with us what you've got planned?

CL: Well, as you might know, I have a whole new album ready for a spring 2010 release. It’s my first soundtrack for movie. Finally, that dream came true. But it’s not a ‘normal’ soundtrack; it has vocals and up-tempo songs, too... and the instrumentals are not your typical, one-humming sound that goes on and on for ages. I really tried my best to make this an album that can stand on its own two feet, but before that there will be a new very special and limited release. One with lots of new songs that were inspired by the gigs I’ve played so far, and the people I’ve met on my travels. After that, it’s Retention no. 3 time!

SL: Speaking of the Retention series, how has that experience been so far? What’s it like revisiting old, personal works, and then re-recording them?

CL: Well, I decided to do the Retention series that way because I know what happens to ‘re-mastered’ re-releases... or at least I know what happens to the countless ones I’ve bought over the years, anyway. Most of them sit on the shelf collecting dust, because there isn’t anything on them you haven’t already heard. But we collectors buy them anyway, because we can’t live without them. At first, I thought it would take away inspiration from writing new material, but I quickly learned that it had the completely opposite effect on my inspiration.

It was almost scary how the thoughts started to go back to those times when I started to re-make them. Stuff I had forgotten about until a particular lyric or sound popped back into my head. I would highly recommend (the process) to other musicians who are thinking about a re-release. I’m learning a lot about myself all over again.

Content Continues Below

Get your CDs at the following eBay sites:
	eBay USA	eBay België/Belgique
	eBay UK	eBay France
	eBay DE	eBay Nederland
	eBay Canada	eBay Australia

SL: As you said, next up for the series is your classic, Solitary Confinement. Considering it's considered by many to be nearly flawless, I'm curious as to what you make of the record. What do you see as missing or in need of improvement with this one?

CL: Let me just say that should in no way be seen as doing these re-makes as a way to improve the original songs. I’m just having some fun with the songs... basically, just jumping on board and seeing where they take me this time around. I am doing the same thing with the Solitary songs. I know it’s in a lot of people’s eyes my best album and it really has a life on its own out there... and I am really proud that I wrote a collection of songs that many years ago that people still mention. It’s just that same pride I was dreaming about in the 80’s when I was learning to write songs.

I was still wet behind the ears when I wrote that album. My favorite remakes so far from Retention no. 3 are ‘Croatia’ and ‘I Am Your Conscience’, and as I said, I am about 80% done now. I am sure the people who like the old album will like the re-makes. Also, it was the album on which I found the ‘Leæther Strip identity’, and you can still hear that in what I compose these days. And yes, it’s always a little scary to embark on the old songs... but when you have as much fun doing them as I do, the fear goes away fast.

SL: So, let’s talk about that soundtrack you’re writing. Apparently, it’s for a movie called Dark Passages, and you’ve stated that it will get released regardless of whether or not the movie does. What's the story behind this project?

CL: Someone finally asked me to do a soundtrack. One day, there was a message on Myspace from a guy called Cesar from the indie film company, Outworld Entertainment, He asked me if I wanted to do a song for a film on which he was working. I didn’t really believe it at first, but then I got the script for the movie... and that one song turned into a whole album. It’s been a dream of mine to do this since I watched John Carpenter’s first Halloween. That soundtrack showed me how much music can do to a film, and I wanted to try that so badly. The dream finally came true; the script was so amazing that the whole album just wrote itself, really. I really feel that some of the songs on it are among the best I’ve ever written. The film ran into some delays, though; they lost some financial sponsors because of the financial crises and that’s why the soundtrack isn’t out yet.

We will release the album in spring 2010 and the movie will be out later in the year.

SL: Also, while you've told your fans not to expect a sequel to your first soundtrack-without-a-picture opus, Serenade for the Dead, can you share with us what the end results might be like?

CL: Well, I might have gone and changed my mind about that. I have always been really happy with the Serenade album, and I wrote it to prove to myself that I could do a soundtrack.

So, I might do something similar to that in the future. Dark Passages can’t be compared to Serenade at all, though. Dark Passages is more like a ‘real’ album, containing what some people would call ‘typical’ Leæther Strip. It’s been hard for me having the album ready to release for months; I like to get my work out as fast as possible. I am not used to having to wait on others, but maybe it’s good for me in some really hard to find way. Also, I can’t wait to see how the pictures I had in my head while I read the script and wrote the music will fit with each other. It’s a dream come true for a soundtrack writer to have only a script to work with... normally, a film’s music composer gets three to four weeks to write and record a score. THEY are ‘slaves’ to the pictures, and they are really restricted by the director of the movie. I got 100% free hands with this one.

SL: Back in the day, your presence as an artist was confined to Leaether Strip, which also was exclusively you and you alone. However, recently, you've been making guest appearances on a slew of other artists' releases, such as on Supreme Court's latest. Likewise, you collaborated with Erica Dunham of Unter Null for a cover of the Human League's ‘Don't You Want Me’ on Yes, I'm Limited IV. What changed?

CL: People started to ask. I have always loved working with other artists and remixing other’s work, but I was rarely asked in the past. Don’t ask me why.

I remember selling a synth to two guys I met through my job in a record store, and that was the start of Psychopomps, and I ended up producing their first album in my one-room flat. It was such a rewarding experience. I am also mixing some songs for Erica’s (Unter Null) next album, and that’s been a lot of fun. I have done a lot of remixing for other artists, but it’s more like writing one of my own songs, really. It’s a lot of fun, but it would be even better if I could do more direct collaborations in the future... but the time is also limited because of the concerts these days. But we’ll see... there might be something on the way... cough, cough.

SL: You've released quite a few cover songs over the last few years, not counting your Soft Cell tribute from back in the day. Why is that? Are there any artists left that you feel need the 'Leæther Strip touch'?

CL: All the songs I’ve covered over the years are songs that mean a lot to me. I never do them because I think I can do it better that they original band did; I have always seen it as a tribute and a ‘thanks for inspiring me’ kind of thing. There are so many songs I grew up with I would like to cover, and there will be more cover versions from my hands in the future. A couple of songs I got in my head at the moment are ‘All stood still’ by Ultravox and ‘Pleasure boys’ from Visage, which was also written by Midge Ure. But I also have some ideas for one more Soft Cell tribute.

I actually dreamt the other night that I did a version of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’... I do have the strangest dreams at times. In fact, I dream about a lot of my songs, so I guess it’s not that strange.

SL: Between ‘Carry Me’ and ‘After the Devastation’, you've stated that you only wrote two songs in that gap. What's the story behind them, and why were you committed to finishing rather than scraping them?

CL: I was really trying like mad to get back to writing music during that dark period of my life.

I just kept on flogging that dead horse and as soon as I tried, the hole I was in just got deeper and deeper. So after trying, I just gave up and I turned into a vegetable, only really living when I was around my partner. Then when I got the deal with Alfa-Matrix, I thought I owed it to myself to finish those two songs I left in limbo. The two songs were ‘Sleep is Only Heartbreak’ and ‘I Was Born That Day’. Just thinking about those songs makes me sad. What a waste of five years. I am glad that the hate I have towards the two people who put me in that dark, dark place is fading now. I can only thank my partner, my music, and the people who didn’t forget about me while I was gone.

SL: From what I understand, when living your private life, you tend to stay pretty remote from the rest of the world. Is it jarring when you step foot back in the heart of the scene, or hear claims from sources like Wikipedia naming you as being instrumental in defining your musical genre?

CL: Yes, I’m a loner and though I like to be among people, I need to dive into myself and just be with my thoughts and my music. I’ve been really lucky that there are people out there how have opened up to my music and put it out there for people to listen to it. I try not to read too much into what’s being said about me and my music online. The only stuff I take really seriously is the messages I get on my sites and I always try my best to answer them all personally.

So many artists give up and quit. After my “little’ encounter with the darkness, I discovered that my music meant a lot more to me than I ever thought. So now I know what happens if I stop writing about my thoughts and feelings, and I don’t want to go there again. I would rather die than to be in that hellhole again.

I really found out who was there for me 100%, who would wait for me to get back on my feet. I don’t think I would have had the patience my beloved Kurt showed me. And the way I was welcomed back to the scene by the supporters was something I never would have dreamed. I was treated like I never left. That’s why I keep on going. It means so much more that you’ll ever know to be able to give a little back performing live again. That’s the main reason I’m doing it. I need it to stay in the ‘happy place’.

SL: While Leæther Strip's been in high gear lately, Klutae has grown relatively quiet. Do you have any further plans for your 'fun' project?

CL: I worked really hard on the Hit’n’Run album, and last year I also did a song called ‘Long Live EBM’ for a compilation. Will there be another Klutæ album? I don’t know. I do have some ideas, though, so we’ll see. I might hop on another project, though... who knows.

SL: When most artists seem to be pining for the old days of pre-internet sales, you are reveling in the new. Now that you have several years of experience dealing with the modern music industry, what have you learned? Is there a key to your happiness you think other may be missing?

CL: Well, as many musicians learn, this business is full of parasites. But since the market has gone to hell, the parasites have jumped ship. I guess they don’t think there is any talent left to suck dry, or no money left to make. The only people left in this scene these days are the people who love the music. As long as we have the hardcore fans supporting the bands and labels with buying the releases, there is still hope. After playing those shows this year, my hope has grown to a whole new level. The supporters are there. We all just need to fight a little harder to support the scene and the whole underground art world, because who can live without that side of life.

SL: Thanks for your time, Claus! In parting, do you have any words for your fans?

CL: Thanks, mate. All I have to say is thanks for your support and I hope to see you all at a concert soon.

I have started to receive booking offers for 2010, so if you want me to come to a place near you, go kick your local booker and make them write me a message on http://www.myspace.com/leaetherstrip !

Industrial music CDs on eBay USA | eBay UK | eBay GER

38500

Posted by: ElectronicBlueOcean on Sep 01, 09 | 12:00 am

Tell your friends the Psychopomps to get their asses back in the studio!

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DAILY NEWSLETTER

Advertisers

Leaether Strip - It was madness...

More headlines

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR DAILY NEWSLETTER

RECOMMENDED MONEY MAKERS

THANKS TO

SHORTCUTS