Rotersand Interview: ‘We make it sometimes difficult for ourselves’
Rotersand (Picture by Falk Scheuring)
(Edited by Katrin Diekhof / Interview courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries) In just over 20 years, Rotersand have built a serious reputation. When Gun and Rascal—soon joined by producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg—launched Rotersand in 2002, they were often associated with Future-Pop artists. Over the years and across the albums they released, however, their music proved far more difficult to categorize. I prefer to describe it as a blend of influences: from Electro-Pop to EBM, at times extremely danceable and club-oriented, at others more floating and atmospheric.
From album to album, Rotersand have consistently confirmed that they possess a distinctive sound of their own, while always maintaining a strong focus on intelligent lyrics and a critical reflection on the world around us. Their latest album, “Don’t Become The Thing You Hated”, released last year on Trisol and Metropolis Records, is yet another testament to the German group’s talent and flair for composition and grand sound production. I spoke with the musical mastermind Krischan J.E. Wesenberg.
Rotersand interview
Q: Rotersand doen’t seem like the kind of band that releases an album every year, but rather one that takes its time between releases. I imagine this is partly a conscious choice and part of your creative process — but how does that feel for you personally? And what ultimately inspired you to start working on this new album?
Krischan: Actually we are kinda constantly working on Rotersand songs. For us it just needs time and especially breaks and pauses to finally come to a point at which we think that we don’t just have a collection of suitable songs but also have an album that works on different levels and feels balanced and coherent and is still expanding our sonic cosmos. We tend to rearrange and reproduce songs, alter it structurally and musically till each song and all together do please us. Yes, we make it sometimes difficult for ourselves, but this has been the modus operandi for Rotersand ever since.
Q: The new Rotersand album has been out for about five months now. How do you view the result today, and how critically do you approach your own work? Were there any aspects or influences in your collaboration or compositional and technical approach that evolved or changed during the process?
Krischan: Surprisingly we are still happy with how the album turned out as whole. That hasn’t been like this with every record. Actually “Don’t Become The Thing You Hated” contains a lot of songs that went through massive changes. Some of them over a large amount of time. I guess it was I:Die:You:Die’s Bruce Lord who pointed out that he felt that “Heaven” had something which reminded him of “Random Is Resistance” and he was totally right about this. I don’t know what tickled this impression… this song was actually part of the song-pool for “Random Is Resistance” – if i remember it correctly it has been originally a ballad. Over the time it went through at least 4 stages. there was a slower abstract dancy version, another midtempo moody club-interpretation, another ballad’s approach…
Q: From the outset, there’s been a lot of discussion about the album’s title — but especially about the idea behind it. It’s a very profound and critical reflection, clearly shaped by the zeitgeist we live in. Can you elaborate on this concept, and what your own experiences are with this phenomenon?
Krischan: To be honest “Truth Is Fanatic” or “Random Is Resistance” as album titles could still be also aligned in the current ‘zeitgeist’-debates. To cut a long thought fairly short it’s about the question whether the methods to react to or change something you oppose aligns with what you want to achieve. To fight authoritarianism you can’t use authoritarian means, like ‘forbid’ something. To ensure freedom of expression you can’t silence those who fight against it. Yes, the tolerance paradox is a tricky and complex thing even if it looks fairly simple.
For us “Don’t Become The Thing You Hated” became kind of a mantra, a question we ask ourselves before we react impulsively, a hick up of self-reflexion and an anchor telling us that we aren’t perfect or coherent at all.
Q: The title’s message is certainly thought-provoking, but I’ve also been wondering about its impact on artistic expression in general — whether in music, visual art, or beyond. What role do you think music can play in today’s rapidly evolving world, marked by division, unrest, uncertainty, and alienation? How do you see that evolving?
Krischan: First of all, I don’t have a problem with division at all. Flipping the coin ‘division’ means different, colorful, individual, pluralistic… to me it feels strange that I grew up in times in which individuality and freedom to express yourself and be and become who you want to be weren’t a given but got achieved more and more. And now it seems that this kind of complexity and diverseness isn’t handleable and a lot of debates reduce people to members of one group. In fact everyone is part of a lot of groups and even most of the groups have far more than two sides and those are overlapping in a person’s character and shapes the individuality or special character.
To twist it back to the album title it means that I need to accept the complexity and insecureness and alienation to ensure my individuality and individual freedom. Technically I’m an ‘old white man’ but I’ve never been put in this archetypical social group. Its more about ‘and’ than ‘or’.
Q: Were the themes you address already present before you started composing for this new Rotersand album, and how did they influence the music? In other words, did they shape the sound design or the atmosphere you wanted to create and vice versa?
Krischan: Yes. It’s a back and forth. Some songs lead to and inspired the album title which then kinda send a feedback to other songs and especially the album as a whole. Once we found the album working title, which isn’t necessarily always the final album title it starts to bind and hold songs together and gives a bit of a guideline at which the songs unfold and stick.
Q: Musically, I still find Rotersand quite a unique band. It’s difficult to categorize the Rotersand sound within a specific genre — it feels more like a blend of different influences, with a balance between ethereal and harder, danceable tracks. What drives that diversity, and what influences your sound and compositional process?
Krischan: Unlike most other projects in this blend of genres Rotersand still works as a band with 3.5 members, Rascal and Krischan plus Rotersand as a character itself and especially Gun, who isn’t technically part of the band anymore but still is around for feedback, input and critical mind. Every musical idea floats between us
Q: I believe two tracks — “It Was Night” and “Train” — are exclusive to the CD version. Why were these songs chosen for that format, and how do they fit within the overall concept of the album?
Krischan: Actually it’s mostly a marketing driven decision. “Train” stands out as a very personal song for Rascal so it qualified for a special feature.
Q: What’s next on Rotersand‘s agenda for the coming months? Are there other projects or collaborations in the pipeline?
Krischan: We will definitely get back to our routine of doing some reworks of album tracks. Evaluation never ends and creation is doubt, so we are already revisiting some album tunes in which we found some aspects to stretch and different angles to look at them.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
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