EISENLAGER was founded by me in 1999. in the eighties I started experimenting with music, that I manipulated and changed. I didn't do that seriously. The tapes from this period have all been lost. At the end of the nineties I got the urge again to start new experiments, and as the age of the affordable computer had come, I bought a computer and started to express myself with sounds. Twenty years have passed now, and it will always go on.
2.You have put out over a hundred albums, how would you describe your musical progress over the years?
I hope that I have made no progress because I want to remain the same as I did on the first day when I proudly put my first EISENLAGER album on the internet. There was no bandcamp, only were forums and websites. I had my own website and wrote in countless forums. My album could be downloaded from my webspace. In the last 20 years I have never tried to develop on the technical side. I still want to make it pure and simple. I am not a technology freak and quickly lose patience in these matters. My tool was and is simple. Of course you learn a lot about it, but I couldn't name it. I think I am still a kindergarden electronics technician.
3.When I looked at the bandcamp page, you had plenty of material do you spend a great amount of time writing and creating music?
Yes, I spend a lot of time with it. but these are phases. Sometimes nothing happens for a while, then suddenly I hear a word in a netflix series, that I like and I want to make an album called like it. I jump up and sit down at the machine and start. Or I hear a noise while driving with the elevator, which I absolutely have to record with my iphone, and then I often want to make a track out of it very quickly. But there were also periods of very long downtimes. During these times I built websites for nights. But the internet has changed and so have my interests. I just became a music worker much more. In addition, making music helps me to keep my balance and drive out inner demons.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Eisenlager'?
In German, EISENLAGER means a storage for iron. For example, a factory that processes iron will have a warehouse somewhere where it will bring the finished products. Iron is heavy and cold and I felt that my music is cold and difficult to consume aswell. In recent years I have also been producing warm tones like ambient and dark ambient. Sometimes I thought the name didn't suit me anymore. But that is the beginning and should also be the way and the end. If you name your daughter Emily and she becomes a footballer or construction worker, you will not rename her either. I also liked the clear structure of the name. That goes well with German electronic music.
5.With this project you record everything by yourself, do you have any experience working with other musicians?
Oh yes, I have had a lot of experiences with that. It has become part of EISENLAGER. There is also an EISENLAGER HIMMELHOLZSTEG. Artists send me pieces or sounds and then I am a cook and tinker pieces from several musicians to a whole new piece. Sometimes I ask a musician if we should make an album together, sometimes musicians ask me if I want to do anything with them. It happens that musicians send me a piece or a very long one and tell me, that they don't know what to do with it and whether I can use it or whatever. Albums have already been created this way.
6.Have you done any live shows or is this strictly a studio project?
There has never been and never will be live shows. EISENLAGER is a studio project. If there should be a live show, I would have to sit there with big sunglasses and a cigarette in my mouth and fog and slide my hands back and forth on a computer. A friend from behind starts the CD or bandcamp ;-)
7.What are some of the record labels you have worked with other the years?
I think i forgot a few but that should get around. Lately I have been working less with netlabel, because I produce so much and am impatient and want to publish the music quickly. A netlabel can't do that. My two house labels, which regularly publish my music, are attenuation circuit and Kalamine Records. Everything else is on my bandcamp website. You can find everything I have ever produced on my bandcamp page even if one or the other album has also been published by a netlabel.
PETROGLYPH MUSIC
M.I.S.T. Records
Hortus Conclusus Records
attenuation circuit
Kalamine Records
Studio 4632 Netlabel
BFW recordings
Fraction Studio
God hates God Records
dhatūrā records
Cian Orbe Netlabel
suRRism-Phonoethics
8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of experimental and ambient?
Oh it always surprises me, that there are people all over the world who appreciate my music. That goes around the earth. There are people, who even buy my music. That makes me really proud. I don't want to make any money with it, but bandcamp forces me to enter something, otherwise the 200 free downloads are quickly used up and I have to change every album for hours. 0.50 cent is almost free. I always look incredulous and grateful, when someone spends 0.50 cents or more in order to own my album. I am grateful to everyone who loves and wants to listen to my music. You are the best! I am also very touched, when someone on Facebook or in an email expresses a positive opinion of my music, or when I read a nice review. Sometimes I have tears in my eyes.
9.Where do you see yourself heading into musically during the future?
There will always be a mix of experimental industrial and ambient / dark ambient. This is my world, this is my home, and I think, I bring a German touch, the German experiment into my work. I love to create music for films that never have been made. The best thing is to lie down in bed or on the sofa or a comfortable armchair and close your eyes. If you like, you can of course lean against the wall. I believe, that my music can create a different film in every person. I hope so. That is my goal. I want to achieve this. This is my life and my digital diary. EISENLAGER is my bloodstream.
10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
La Düsseldorf and Neu! (klaus dinger is god)!!!
I grew up with all of the seventies and eighties electronic music. Germany has electronic music in its bloodstream. KRAFTWERK, TANGERINE DREAM, KLAUS SCHLUZE, and and and. We listened to this, I listened to this. I also listened to gothic and pop but the electronics built a nest in my body. There are so many bands that I love. I don't know if they influence me. I try not to imitate anything but I admire, adore and love so many. I can list a few bands that I appreciate and love.
French 79, Daft Punk, Aes Dana, Aphex Twin, Arcana, Biosphere, GAS, Bohren & der Club of Gore, Brian Eno, Endraum, Silke Bischoff, Global Communication, H.U.V.A. Network, I N A D E, La Düsseldorf, Harmonia, Neu!, Lustmord, Pete Namlook, Sephiroth, Solar Fields, The Field, Winterberg, and many many more.
11.What are some of your non musical interests?
Ok, I am a netflix junkie, I build websites, I take pictures and I like to spend time with friends. I have to look at all music documentaries and like to read biographies from or about musicians, Lemmy R.I.P
I like to prepare food in iron pans and pots. I'm open to everything.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thanks to all people who listen to music. Music is life, and life is beautiful. Thanks to all musicians who make music, you help to make life beautiful. Thanks to all people who listen to EISENLAGER. I thank you from the heart, because every artist wants to be heard and seen. You are the most important part in the chain. I also thank you for doing this interview with me, that means a lot to me. Thank you very much. to all who hate Greta, stop hating Greta. We have to stick together. Music will continue to carry ideas. nobbi aka EISENLAGER
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