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Christian: That was only an exception with the last album, which mostly featured texts by Erich Mühsam. In that sense, “Sich Fügen heißt Lügen” was more of a project album.
Original lyrics actually belong to the band. That has always been an expression of how we perceived the environment around us. And simply also an adequate expression.
Elf: We made the “Sich Fügen heißt Lügen” album because we thought that after almost 1 ½ years of reunion tour, if we wanted to continue, it would be great to release something.
In that short time...
There were a few songs I had already made, but they weren't enough, and not all the lyrics appealed to everyone. We coordinate more or less. If several people are against it, if the majority is against it, then the text gets thrown out and is not used. And that's why the idea came to do this Mühsam thing. It was easier. The texts were just there. I already knew beforehand that it could fit well. I suggested it to the guys. We made demos, and then it could be implemented quickly. Within half a year, we agreed:
“Cool, we can do this. Good idea!”.
Accordingly, it has now taken a bit longer. It has already been over 4 ½ years since the Mühsam album. Getting something together with good, original lyrics was a bigger struggle, I would say. Especially to ensure that everyone is satisfied with everything.
Christian: The important question was simply not the themes, the classic themes of SLIME, such as resistance and real protest, disagreement with many things affecting society, but rather the process that was necessary to perceive ourselves, the five of us, somehow...
Regarding the band theme “SLIME,” what makes up the history. What it means. Where do we actually stand now, in 2016/2017? That was
actually a central point. We are, of course, no longer 16. The lyrics and our attitude have simply changed. To be authentic, that is a very important point for us, and to get to the point textually has simply taken time.
Frank: You also have a certain heritage to carry in terms of lyrics. Was that in the back of your mind when writing the songs? How did you deal with it? Was it difficult to write new lyrics?
Elf: How can one deal with it? Well, it is clear that we do not fall back on the first two LPs (“SLIME” 1981, “Yankees Raus” 1982, author’s note) in terms of the form of the lyrics. The slogans that were more at the start, like “Germany must die,” “Bullenschweine,” or something like that. That is not possible. We don't want that at all.
We wanted to achieve a different quality. Just like on the second album in the 90s (“Viva La Muerte,” author’s note). That is not so easy. If someone like Stefan Mahler (drummer and lyricist, band member from 1981-1983 and 1992-1994, author’s note) is no longer there, you have to see how to manage it differently, in a similar way. Less slogan-like and still express yourself well, but also without it coming off as clumsy and embarrassing.
Unlike many German punk bands, as I see it. There are many bands that only cover the first SLIME album, musically and also in terms of the form of the lyrics.
Frank: You are still a major influence for younger bands.
Elf: We want to stay at the level we reached in the 90s. The Mühsam album has a completely different lyrical quality because he was simply a great poet, that man.
You can’t just fall back on, “Now we’re doing something like ‘Bullenschweine’ again.”
Christian: It’s exactly what I just said. It’s about being authentic. It’s less about, “This could now be a SLIME theme. We need to write a text for this.” If you work like that, it’s like a project you’re writing. It simply cannot be that for us!
So, for us, it comes together, a certain anger, dissatisfaction, which expresses itself... towards certain things and then the choice of tools. As for the songs, where we stand musically, what we like, and also what images we use in the lyrics. That naturally differs from the stuff from the 80s or the first two albums.
Frank: What I find very striking about your lyrics, especially the older ones, in the context of here and now, is that they still have a great relevance. Little has changed.
How is it for you when you see the old lyrics, which describe political and social circumstances, and you still perform them live, knowing that they are still relevant?
Elf: That’s what the new song “Unsere Lieder” says.
We would prefer that the old lyrics were no longer relevant. But many of the old lyrics are still relevant. The world has not changed for the better. So, the rightward shift is not just in Germany.
The rightward shift is much more severe in other countries, like France and Hungary. The “Brexit” is also such a thing. That is also a rightward shift. When retirees vote the country out of the EU...
Although the EU is not necessarily the best, but better than individual nation-states.
Frank: What does the new album “Hier und Jetzt” offer?
Elf: The B-side of the single “Unsere Lieder” is completely different from the A-side. It goes in the direction of Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and maybe No Means No. The text is also completely different in style. This runs through the whole album. The album is very varied musically and lyrically.
It is more like “Viva La Muerte,” which was also very varied. “Schweineherbst” was less varied.
Christian: I think you could even say:
The new album is as varied as “Viva la Muerte” but as cohesive as “Schweineherbst.”
The new album is really cohesive.
Elf: Yes.
Christian: It’s a block, ultimately, that melts together.
Frank: That sounds good. “Viva La Muerte” is indeed very stylistically diverse. For me, it’s also a thematic album.
Christian: Yes, because it works with the image “Viva La Muerte.” The ongoing abuse of power. The album was a collection of pieces that were important to us at the time. It was the reunion album.
Elf: On the reunion album, we weren’t all completely clear about where we wanted to go. We just did it as it came! We took songs that came to each individual. That’s what came out.
I mean, I still think it’s pretty cool. When I listen to the album in between, we also put together some really good stuff. In terms of variety, I find it cooler than the album “Schweineherbst.” But whatever, that’s a matter of taste, as always.
As Christian already said, the new album is varied, but it has more of a line. Also in terms of sound.
We recorded the new album ourselves. Christian directed the recordings in his own studio in Berlin.
Someone else mixed it. Olli Zülch is the man. He has also worked with Die Ärzte. I believe he has mixed two albums by Die Ärzte. He also mixed the last album by Hass. So he also does such things, punk rock!
Sportfreunde Stiller he has also done.
Christian: And Eisenpimmel.
Elf: Yes! He does such things, I believe, often.
So, he gets finished recordings, the finished sound files, and then you tell him which direction it should go, and then you let him do it. Then you listen to the first two or three songs he offers and say what you like about them or what might need to be changed, and then you let him work again. You’re not sitting there yourself anymore, but you let yourself be positively surprised. He simply has the knack for bringing the songs in the direction you want them to go.
Christian: He did a really great job.
Elf: And then it’s a direction! The whole sound fits. It’s all of a piece, so to speak.
Back then, “Viva La Muerte” sounds as if it was recorded in ten different studios.
There were three, right?
Christian: There were several studios.
You can hear from the record that a lot of work was done on it at every stage of production.
The new album is the exact opposite!
We went into the studio and didn’t rehearse the songs beforehand. Instead, there were just demos. We made quick decisions in the studio about what we wanted to change. We implemented that and left it as is. It was mixed similarly. Without precise specifications. Not like you would expect from a band like us. Where old geezers know exactly how things work because they actually master all production processes. Everything is thoroughly examined, everything is exactly on point.
Precisely not that!
It’s partly raw and a bit awkward. It’s just left that way.
That makes the new album so fresh in the end.
Elf: Yes, that reminds me, I recently saw a clip from a documentary about the Broilers by chance. They were talking about it, Sammy was it, I believe, the singer of the Broilers. He was sitting in the studio with Vincent Sorg (producer, among others of the album “Noir” by Broilers, author’s note) where Die Toten Hosen, the Broilers, and others are produced, and said that they are there for three months, just so casually. They rehearse for months beforehand and of course also write the songs in advance.
But then they sit around in that studio for another two to three months and refine every single note somehow.
So, we didn’t do that, for example!
We didn’t play live, but first the drums, then bass and the guitars. As Christian said, everything was done in relatively quick, short time compared to that. We probably needed about twenty days in total. One day per song, roughly speaking.
Christian: Yes, exactly, roughly speaking.
Elf: It still has a...almost a live touch.
Christian: That’s about our production.
Then we also have some guests on the new album.
We connect with bands and other music styles that today simply transport our content as we did in the 80s. For example, from hip hop. There’s a song where Swiss from “Swiss und Die Anderen” has his guest part, as well as Pablo from Irie Revoltes. It’s about the theme of patriots.
Then we have a song called “Let’s get united.” It’s simply about... the theme of leftist resistance. What is left at all?
And it deals a bit with the topic of “left fragmentation.” It’s about simply coming together and seeing the positive. It’s actually also a theme that actually turns things around for us as a band, which has always identified itself as being against something, and now says that there are also positive things. We also need to stand together!
Solidarity! That’s what it’s about.
Elf: For the song “Let’s get united,” we also invited guests.
We have Enrico, who is the singer of Los Fastidios, on board. “Antifa Hooligan” is the “hit” of the band. And The Wakes from Glasgow. That’s a friendly band that has also played in our support before. We’ve known them for a long time because they are Celtic Glasgow fans.
Dirk (singer of SLIME, author’s note) and I are big FC St. Pauli fans. There is a fan friendship between the Celtic and Pauli fans that has existed for 20, 25 years. We met the guys years ago. They are a great band. They do folk’n’roll with a bit of punk attitude and are political.
The first verse in the song “Let’s get United” is sung by Dirk in German. Then Enrico comes in and sings in Italian, and the third verse is sung by the Scot in English.
Together we sing the English chorus “Let’s get united.”
The music goes in the direction of street punk. It’s already quite old school.
In the other song that Christian just mentioned, with the two rappers, the song has... yes... it has two hip hop parts. They stand out completely. No one would expect that from SLIME, that something like this happens. The electro-punk-hip-hop beat in the two hip hop parts was created by a friend of ours, where our guitars are completely out. The two rap on the beat. Then comes the chorus, and everyone sings it together.
“Build a wall around every patriot. Let him be proud of the place he stands.”
Frank: How do you assess your influence on the left scene?
Christian: Which left scene?
Elf: Influence on the left scene? I don’t think we have any influence there. I can’t imagine that!
So, we are certainly a soundtrack for many people who consider themselves left, to... whatever. At parties?!
Maybe also... We are definitely played at demos, on demo trucks. That could be.
But an influence as such? Really... no idea.
What can you achieve with political protest songs?
That’s a good question.
I don’t know exactly. As a soundtrack for certain...
Well, you can perhaps give food for thought, that’s important.
Christian: Yes, also for people we want to address. People who share something of our self-understanding.
We are not a rigid left band. Precisely because we don’t fit into any musical drawer. We do what we enjoy. Our five personalities flow into the music. You can hear that. It’s open-minded.
The lyrics are compact. That simply appeals to many people. If they are the ones who can do something with it, all the better.
We honestly don’t operate with the term “left scene.”
Elf: What should that be?
For example, we have never supported a party!
Except for DIE PARTEI, of course. But that’s not a real party.
We are more like spontaneous... anarchists. But not in a specific form that can be politically clearly justified.
Maybe we are more like Konstantin Wecker and Hannes Wader now. I just happened to see an interview with Konstantin Wecker in a talk show. He told some great things. He says what he thinks, even when he’s sitting in a bourgeois talk show. I can relate to that. He’s also, I believe, 70 years old or so. As old as Udo Lindenberg. But he makes even bolder statements than the panic-Udo.
I think we are then more in such a tradition, although it’s not the same, musically and so, but in terms of content.
Hannes Wader was also once a heavy communist somehow. He was a DKP member and so. I can’t imagine he still stands behind that. More like “Freedom! What’s all this national pride and patriotism crap?” Just this attitude has Wecker expressed in this talk show. That’s exactly our thing, for example.
Christian: For example, you can also mention Erich Mühsam, because he was exactly that! He sat between all political chairs and also let it rip. He had an attitude, he had a life... when you consider that, it fits us well.
Something boundless, we also make it our own.
Frank: You already mentioned your guests on the new album. Dirk has recently participated in many other albums by bands. Why do you do that?
Elf: You mean now, because Dirk does guest appearances?
Frank: Yes, or vice versa.
Elf: This crossover story, so “Hip Hop meets Rock,” this song already existed two years ago as a “mobilization clip” for an anti-Nazi demo in Magdeburg. With another... almost completely hip hop. Only at the end do we come in with our part, which has now remained as is. That’s the chorus, so to speak. We wanted to use that...
Christian: but with a different text.
Elf: We now have a completely different text on it. But it was clear that it would be great to bring in two of these hip hop guys to create such a mix. We’ve known the two for a bit longer. We think what they do is great! They also have a younger audience. They do what we did in the 80s. It’s just great to connect that.
Christian: But how does something like that come about?
It’s not a concept or an idea where you think, “How can we design the whole thing so that we reach as many people as possible?” But it’s more about meeting colleagues, friends at concerts or elsewhere, and then you get into conversation and then you get asked. Also because you think what the others do is cool. That’s how collaborations ultimately arise.
Although with “Let’s get United,” for example, it was actually Dirk who had the idea. Dirk had this chorus, this line, and the idea: Let’s just ask this and that. Those were then The Wakes and Los Fastidios. In the end, everything fit. In that case, there was already an idea behind it. But it’s more about content-related things.
Frank: On December 16, 2017, you will play together with DRITTE WAHL in Dresden. What connects you with DRITTE WAHL?
Elf: I, for example, have known them since the 90s.
At the “Force Attack” festival, I played several times with Die Mimmis or Rubberslime. They always played there too. Since then, we’ve actually known each other quite well.
DRITTE WAHL are, alongside DIE SKEPTIKER, the coolest band from the
East!
They are great guys! Our drummer Alex is good friends with Gunnar from Dritte Wahl. Although he no longer lives in the East, but somewhere near Münster, I believe. They see each other more often. They both have kids. That fits somehow.
DRITTE WAHL are good people who have always done great things. They have written good lyrics, good music. They put on good shows, it gets wild. Sometimes it’s almost too much of a party vibe.
But they are also big fans of SLIME. It fits together well. Then you come up with something like that and do such stories together.
Frank: What will happen after the release of the album and the tour with SLIME? Will you play festivals in 2018?
Elf: That will show itself. So, festival booking has to start sometime this year as well. Alex, our drummer, will take care of that. And then we’ll see how the album is received overall. Whether that leads to us playing at some festivals. We have played at the “Deichbrand Festival” before.
With “Sich Fügen heißt Lügen,” SLIME has made a comeback. An album featuring set texts by Erich Mühsam. Original lyrics were not found on the album. It was a much-discussed album.
Now a new album is coming out.
With original lyrics! The first album from SLIME with original lyrics since 1994!
I spoke with Christian (guitar) and Elf (guitar) about the new album on August 15, 2017.
