http://www.slavestate.se/?e=2149
Oomph are a German industrial metal band that were
founded in 1989 by Andreas Crap (guitar, keyboards), Robert Flux (guitar, bass,
programming) and Dero Goi (vocals, drums, keyboards).
Many consider them to be the pioneers of Deutsche Neue Härte that combined
electronic music with heavy rock guitars. Several bands, including Rammstein were
influenced by them.
Over the years they have produced 11 studio albums. They had a number
one hit in Germany in 2004 with “Augen auf” and, that same year, they were also
named “Band of the Year” by leading radio station, “Radio Eins”.
“Monster”, released in 2008, reached number 2 in the album
chart.
The style changes have been frequent. At the beginning it was
Industrial Electro Body music progressing through dark, doomy heavy metal and,
more recently melodic, heavy rock. Their latest album “Des Wahnsinns fette
Beute” released in 2012, is lighthearted poprock with a lot of humour and mixed
musical styles. A prime example being a seashanty with accordion and lyrics
about anal sex!
In spite of a huge fan base in Europe and almost a legendary status they remain relatively anonymous in Sweden.
I met the singer and frontman Dero Goi after a concert in
June at the See Rock festival in Graz, Austria. It was a day of record breaking
heat, and must have been +45 degrees Celsius in Oomph’s dressing room. Dero was
still wearing his stage outfit, a sailor’s uniform. When I sat down he said “Tack”
(Thank you) to show me that he knows a bit of Swedish.
-
I have been in Sweden 6 or 7 times. Kalmar,
Stockholm, Arvika….Oslo (!?)
I was there for holidays and we
also played at the Arvika festival. Our first video “Sex” was made in
Stockholm. Don’t really know why, but it was our management that had a
contact with a team that could make a
video professionally. It was a nice weekend. Stockholm is really sweet.
What I thought was funny is that
when they have a price bargain on something in Germany it is called
“Preisknüller”! Then I found out what “knulla”
(fuck) means in Swedish.
This is followed by a dirty laugh. When he has calmed down
we started to talk about their stage names. They all have unusual names but
nothing beats “Crap”!
-
I don’t know why he calls himself that. Probably
because we don’t take
ourselves seriously. It’s a bit
punk style with our names and a bit of fun.
Like Johnny Rotten.
Dero means “tramp”, “derelict” and Goi is Hebrew for
nonbeliever, which made me wonder about
his own faith. During their earlier career he wrote a lot of songs about how corrupt
and hypocritical religion can be for example in “Der Neue Gott” where he sings
that “God is dead, he was ugly, old and sick”. The theme of religion continued
later with “Gott ist ein Popstar”, where the church is compared to a TV casting
show that uses Jesus as their idol to seduce the public. The latter got them
into trouble in 2006. It was the same year as the Danish Mohammed cartoons, and
everyone got scared of religious sacrilege. The Video where Dero plays a Mephistopheles
like figure that picks up a homeless man and turns him into a Jesus like figure,
was not allowed on MTV in Germany. This has lead to some religious people
accusing Oomph of being Satanists, but Dero now says that he believes in a god.
-
I am still critical about religion and religious
structures. But there is hardly
anyone that just believes in
nothing. It definitely feels like the
universe is
created and I have felt several
times like higher powers have helped me.
I consider myself a believer. But
not a traditional one and I am not planning to move to the Bible belt.
Crap and Dero have known each other since childhood in their
home town of Wolfsburg. They met Flux when they were 17-18 years old during a music
festival where they were playing with their former bands. After the festival,
they started talking and realized they had the same feelings for music. They
left their bands and formed Oomph instead. They have now played together for 24
years and it hasn’t always been so easy to keep the peace.
-
There are no proper relationships without
tension and anger. It would just
be ignorant to think that there
will be no tension. It keeps it alive. You have to struggle and argue. It is
important to find the contrasts between each person and balance it. Every
person has his advantages and disadvantages. Over the years you learn to deal
with it.
Before the music started to pay off, Dero used to work in pubs
and as a DJ, something he still does just because he enjoys it.
_ I also used to work in a porn video store.
It was really funny because of all
the strange
people that used to come in. You had to wear rubber gloves
when you
took the video cassettes back.
Oomph’s albums are very diverse and they don’t want to be
typecast. The first albums were electronic and Dero admits that they were
inspired by Nitzer Ebb who were influenced by DAF (Deutsche Amerikanische
Freundschaft). Other influences were Kraftwerk and Einstürzende Neubauten. The
electronic phase then progressed to a very dark gloomy industrial metal.
“Wunschkind” released in 1996, is a theme album about child abuse. It starts
with the lines “Suck my dick, I like
it!” and after that the longed for child is born into a life of violence and
abuse. It ends with us all dying senile in our own shit.
Before he chose music as a career he studied psychology at
the university in Braunschweig. The first choice was to be a teacher in English
and German but he realized quickly that it was not his thing. During that time
he also thought about becoming a professional football player. Instead he
became a rock star and a sex symbol! How does it feel to be worshipped in that
way?
-
It belongs to music, it would be boring if it
wasn’t there. But it’s kind of
strange for musicians to see
that. I don’t think I am special. I am not a typical Rock’n Roller who really
lives fast with Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’ Roll. It is too much of a cliché and I
really make fun of it. For me it’s strange to see people’s behaviour reduced to
its basic instincts. But it’s a free world. Everyone can choose for themselves
what to do. As long as someone is not forced to do it. For me it’s more
important to be authentic with my music, than with a cliché lifestyle.
Dero is really not a cliché. He has been married for about
20 years and he has 2 sons. They sometimes come along to concerts and he claims
it’s not difficult to have a family. As long as you know what you want.
Rammstein have always said that the band that inspired them
the most was Oomph. When they were a newly formed small band they wrote to
Oomph and begged to be allowed to play support for them. After that they had
their breakthrough thanks to a spectacular and shocking stage show. Oomph have
never staged any similar spectacles.
-
There are enough bands who do that. If your
music doesn’t work without
it, it has failed. I know there are many people that like that kind of
thing.
Same thing with films. People
want to see explosions and special effects in 3D. I personally prefer smaller
films. The last film I liked was “True Grit”.
No special effects, just good
acting.
It seems like they want to be as genuine as possible and
that also comes over in their live shows. During the earlier years they used
pre-programmed DAT recorders and ther were 5 of them on stage. Now they’re 7,
with the addition of a live keyboard player and percussionist..
-
To me it is important to transmit the atmosphere
and vibe we have on the
records. The more musicians you
have on stage the more chance of spreading the vibes. It is good for us even
though it is hard for us to deal with 7 people on stage, but it’s a challenge
and fun. You’re not so fixed as you are with a DAT recorder. We did free
ourselves with the new concept.
When it comes to touring, Dero likes visiting new countries
where they have never played before the most. However he doesn’t like it when a
tour lasts for too long . One month is enough and then he needs a week’s break
and after that he is ready to continue. That is the only thing he doesn’t like.
Otherwise he loves playing live.
Maybe the wish to be honest with their music and the fact
that most of the songs are in German stopped them from becoming really
internationally big. In 2010 they decided to translate some of their hits into
English on “Truth or Dare”.
-
That was also a challenge. We have always
thought that our music speaks for itself. Whether it is in German, English,
Turkish, Swedish. Our music is not dependent on the German language. It was
time for us to see if we could do English adaptations and tell people the real
meanings of the songs. I worked with an American native English speaker and it
took quite a long time to catch the moods and meanings. The danger was to lose
the original spirit. I think we managed it really well. There were so many
people that said it was the first time they really got our lyrics. In the
future we will stick to German lyrics though. I can express myself much better
and deeper in my own language.
Everyone in Oomph also has side projects. Dero is in a joke
band called “What about Bill?”. Him and a producer friend, Chris Wolff, were
arrested when they pissed on the street
in New York. They were locked up in a cell where they started to sing swing
jazz covers of famous rock songs like “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. The police
were entertained all night and released them in the morning. In the cell there
was also a third person called Bill. Hence the name. This made them record a
few videos where they are performing in police uniforms, just for fun. To their
own surprise it became a big success and they are now taking it further.
-
The side projects are keeping us more alive. You
have to be careful so things
don’t get boring. It was time for
us to try things that do not have anything to do with Oomph. The other two have
a side project called “300mph” where they remix and produce other artists like
Apocalyptica.
I don’t know what will happen
with “WAB?” We will see how it develops. We will first play a few festivals in
Germany and see how people will react. We are working hard on releasing an
album but with cover versions that don’t sound like the original, it is not so
easy. You need to ask for permission.
What the future holds, Dero can’t really say. Maybe he will
write a book and do something completely different.
-
We will continue with Oomph as long as we have new
ideas and something
to say. We have already written
60 songs for the new album. Everything won’t obviously be released, but that is
a lot of material. It will be darker, heavier with more guitars. When we record,
we all write, produce and play all the instruments ourselves. We are all multi
instrumentalists. I also play drums, keyboards and, sometimes, bass. We change
the instruments around to keep it alive. Everyone is free to do what they want
to. It’s not focused on one person. If I have a cool guitar lick, we use it and
if Crap comes up with a good lyric line, that gets used as well. It is real
functioning socialism.
Another pet hate are TV talent shows like “Pop Idol”. They
won a TV competition “Bundesvision”, themselves in 2007 with “Träumst Du”.
-
They feel so artificial. More like a freakshow
than a music event.
“Bundesvision” was different. It
is a songwriting contest with real professional musicians that write their own
material. It doesn’t have anything to do with “Eurovision”, they just stole the
name to make fun of it.
Politics are also very important in their lyrics. They have
sang against racism, organized religion and, with “Sandmann” they raised
awareness of child poverty in Germany.
Because of that, the charity organization, “Sandmänner e.v”, was founded to help children in need. The
latest album deals with homophobia and Dero also dances around in a little
Bavarian Drindle dress on stage. They are now going on tour to Russia where
they have just introduced a new law against promotion of homosexuality. Will
they change their show?
-
We do what we want! We will see if they arrest
us. If they don’t want us to
play there, they can ask us to
piss off!
The latest album, “Des Wahnsinns fette Beute” received a
lukewarm reception from the old fans. Dero now starts talking with an old
woman’s voice when he describes how some fans want everything to be like it
used to be.
_ There will always be people that say it
was much better before. People
everywhere
can be conservative even though they think they are being so
alternative
and cool. They have mohawks and tattoos but they are actually
scared of
change. Then you just get the same old, same old, like Motörhead
or
AC/DC.
I personally found the album funny and brave. I also asked
him where the sailor theme came from.
-
We are asking ourselves the same thing. We
sometimes have the ability to
commit commercial hara-kiri. But
if I wanted to do the same thing all the time, I could have become a factory worker
or a porn star.
Can’t help but wonder how Dero compares a porn star with a
factory worker.
They only released two singles from the latest album :“Unzerstörbar”
(which was on the German soundtrack for the Kevin Bacon film, “Super”,
something that they have done before with “Wach auf”, which was in “Alien vs
Predator 2”), and “Zwei Schritte vor”. Dero does not think there will be any
more. They will concentrate on the new album instead. This is where I had to round
it up . Since we were talking about the latest album I asked Dero if they
wanted to be gay icons now.
-
Yeah, why not. Everyone is welcome to enjoy our
concerts, apart from
Nazi arseholes!
Live photo's: Maria Bergman
Interview photo's: Leyna Rolinski
