Sielwolf: not in sheep's clothing...

Interview with Petra Tausendpfund by Mel

cyberia: Outside of music, what influences Sielwolf?
Petra: Sielwolf is first influenced by Peter and me, the structure of our personalities, our upbringing, inner conflicts, fears. Peter has to do different jobs to survive, he would prefer to live on the music, so he is unsatisfied sometimes, you never know whats going on next. I am influenced by my profession (psychologist), working in a clinic with drug addicts, it makes me sad sometimes because most of them are really intelligent, creative people who were not strong enough for expectations of society. We are living in Frankfurt, which is quite a cold town, everybody is after money all the time, the music scene is very commercial. No other experimental bands that you can communicate with. All this is expressed in our music. There are good things too: that Peter and me met 1983 because our thoughts and music tastes are very simular.

cyberia: Do you feel Sielwolf has tapped into some late 20th century zeitgeist? Or is the angst more personal?
Petra: Sielwolf is a very personal thing but I also can see this tap into the Zeitgeist in this way that we are using new technology to express ourselves which is something more and more done by bands. The bad thing about it is that you become more isolated because most work is done at home, communication is rare, so you have to be careful not to get to much into your own mind.

cyberia: As musicians, do you feel you have some sort of responsibility to the listener? I'm thinking of your idea of psychohygiene specifically -- do you feel it's your "mission" to improve our mental health through your music?
Petra: It was not our intention to be missionaries but I can imagine that some of our listeners feel it in the same way we do, you can watch it at live gigs how people get into it sometimes, it's very interesting during the slow parts live, people are totally quiet and concentrated. I have a friend who doesn't listen to this kind of music at all but he is using Sielwolf for a kind of self experience when he feels stressed.

cyberia: It seems that ideologically Sielwolf differs greatly from any other industrial bands who seem extremely hopeless about both personal and political issues. While your music is harsh and angry, it is cathartic. Does that mean that you're basically happy people?
Petra: I think we are basically happy people because we found a way to express ourselves in music, I also love my profession but I think catharsis doesn't give you a guarantee to be happy. It only lasts for a little while, so it's important to have more self experience if you want to for example integrate your dark sides better in your personality structure.

cyberia: In some ways Sielwolf reminds me of a mix of Dada poetry and Cubist collage, with a lot of influence from the "happenings" of the 50s and 60s. Do you feel aligned with any particular art movement?
Petra: We used to have a band (Collectionism) in 1984 and made art performances life. We were working quite a lot with light effects and symbols. Maybe it reminds you of the happenings because of the cathartic effect again. Peter wrote down his dreams right after he woke up for the lyrics and he didn't change anything of what he remembered that's why it is similar to Dada poetry. We are interested in Max Ernst, Camilla Horn, Reinald Goetz (Poet) and Charles Bukowski (we used samples of him on our last record "4" which came out 1996 and was produced by Mick Harris/Scorn).

cyberia: This question is for Petra: many women who work within the electronic music genre are producing music with more of a gothic feel. As a woman who makes very powerful and sometimes angry music, do you feel it difficult to reconcile this with the traditional ideas of the feminine in this society?
Petra: I think that women in general are not able to show off aggressive feelings because most women are brought up to be pretty, friendly, calm. But they have got aggresions like men too so I wonder sometimes what they do to compensate them all the time. One example: a friend of mine is a very calm person, never aggressive, once she felt down a horse on her head so she was in hospital for a couple of weeks. I visited her many times and she was very aggressive all the time, nobody found in her the same person as before. So she must have had suppressed all those aggressions before but they did exist.

cyberia: Do you consider Sielwolf Jungian or Freudian?
Petra: That's a difficult question. Freud is the Father of Psychoanalysis. He used to be very revolutionary when he said that women too have sexual wishes and aggressions, also children. He wasn't accepted any longer in Vienna. But he stayed consequent, thats what I like about him and he created the whole psychological movement. Today Freud is not accepted by feminists because of theories like the "Penisneid" but you can't compare the beginning of the century with nowadays. I am more into Kohut than Freud. Kohut's theories are about narcisism, that society and people have this narcisistic personal structure. They become hurt by not taking them seriously so they become depressive, feel empty and useless and have to comensate it (some try it in taking drugs for not feeling when they get hurt). So the biggest fear for people is the desintegration fear: not to be the winner but useless. So the person doesn't fear the physical death in reality but to loose humanity and to die in a psychological way.

cyberia: I like the fact that Sielwolf is musically accessible without being intellectually compromised. Is that a difficult balance to maintain?
Petra: Its possible for us because we don't live on our music, that's the only advantage about it that we are not under pressure to become commercial.

cyberia: Are the songs written in the studio? When you gather samples, do you have any idea of how you'll be using them?
Petra: No, everything is ready when we go to the studio. We have a strict concept. If we accept a producer we let him do, like Mick Harris is very talented and has got a similar sound and musical taste. In the past we had the sample sounds first and built everything else around them. We were looping quite a lot with our old Fz1, now we are using rhythms first, most of the times but the atmosphere of the song is there from the beginning on.

cyberia: Can you tell us how you've evolved since Metastasen and how Magnum Force differs from it?
Petra: Magnum Force came out first in Germany, then the follow up album Nachtstrom which will come out here in october. The albums are different in Germany, Magnum Force is just an EP. After this the Metastasen came out, which is different because we were using less sampled vocals and it is a little bit more introvert. My favorite is the German Nachtstrom version! The album 4 and remixes are even more introverted only with a few samples of Charles Bukowski. We always change our concepts and we like to take new styles within.

cyberia: Favorite books?
Petra: Max Frisch, Mein Name sei Gantenbein, Herman Hesse, Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse, Demian Paul Auster, New York Trilogy, Patricia Highsmith, Edits Diary.

cyberia: And, finally, who is your favorite Spice Girl?
Petra: I can't tell you this, ha,ha but I can tell you one secret: I really love German Schlager sometimes. My father has got this single collection. My favorite is Roy Black. I am sure that most of the people found him worse than the Spice Girls. Greetings... Petra

more on sielfwolf at van richter records page

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