02.02.2007 : Interview with Richard Lederer (Die Verbannten Kinder Evas) - February 2007
The past year brought us two great releases where Richard Lederer took part in: Summoning’s “Oath Bound” and Die Verbannten Kinder Evas’ “Dusk And Void Became Alive”. I had an opportunity to talk to Richard. The conversation was about music, art and photography. Richard told his opinion on Dead Can Dance, current state of things in music and much more...
Hello, Richard! It took about seven year to record new DVKE album. Why is it so?
The problem were only the various singers I was working with in the last 3 years, otherwhise the album could have been released 3 years earlier. First I tried to work with he former singer Tania who sang on the last album In Darkness Let Me Dwell, but after a while I noticed that due to her passive psychological state she did not practice enough for the new songs and therefore was not able to even sing the most simple tunes of the new songs. So I searched for a new singer and found Sinem (a girl from Turkey with a good voice for DVKE). I sent her the instrumental versions of the songs and she sung the tunes I also sent her and sent them back via internet so that I could make a rough demo mix just to check how the final result will sound. First everything was perfect and I was sure that in a few weeks the new CD will be out, but then she went into the studio and the guy there had such a weird taste in female vocals that he told her not to sing so loud and rather have this kind of fragile little girl voice style that you can find everywhere, that the result was a pure disaster. I told her to record again, but after this disaster her motivation faded and faded so that week by week she delayed the final recording and finaly after 18 months I gave up waiting and worked for Summoning to use the time that was passing. During that period without intention I got to know Christina, and after a short time it was clear that she will sing. She flew to Vienna and only after a few days the recording was finished.
Are you satisfied with the result? Or maybe you expected something different?
Sure I am satisfied with the new album otherwise I would not have released it. I can not imagine any person releasing something he is not totally satisfied with. I would rather wait some more years till I consider it as perfect than to release something that I don't consider as totally perfect. Maybe if you are a total beginner and have a certain idea or vision of your music in mind that you are to unexperienced to realise it could happen that you release an album that you think could have done better, but not after 13 years of experience. This does not mean that all people have to consider it as perfect, I just talk about my view of course.
Could you describe Dusk And Void Became Alive the way you feel it?
I always describe it as classical orientated melancholic slow darkwave music. It has always tunes and varies from silent songs with modest instrumentalisation to powerful full orchestra sounding songs. Polyphony is quite important that as I like to combine different tunes together enabling the listener to dive deeper into the music the more often he listens to it.
Please, tell us some words about Christina.
Christina is a 19 year old girl from Greece that already sings since some years. The first time I heard about her was during a chat with a guy from Turkey who told me about a girl that sings very well and would like to sing for DVKE. So I added her to my list and we talked a while; she sent me some sample mp3s of her voice and I immediately liked them and the next day I asked her to sing for the new album.
Lets talk about DVKE's lyrics now. How important do you find them for this project?
In all of my project I always see the music as more important then at words. I don't mean that I consider lyrics as a minor for of art then music, but for me as a pure musician who is neither talented in lyrics nor gets patience while trying to write any, of course the music takes the first place. For example, I would surely buy a CD with good music but bad lyrics, but for sure never a CD with bad music but great lyrics.
But there are lyrics by different authors on DVKE albums. It probably means that you pay them some attention as well. How do you choose them?
Sure I never said that I don't care about the lyrics. I like to have cool lyrics for my songs and I am also happy when I discover that songs I like have fine lyrics as well. So I do my best to use good lyrics and as I don't consider myself as a poet I take lyrics from real poets. In the past I searched books for lyrics that suited. Of course I tried E.A.Poe, but for some reasons the lyrics did not fit to the music. Then suddenly I found Shelley, which I never really knew before, and it was a perfect symbiosis. Later I discovered Dowland when the suiting lyrics of Shelly run out.
You said that you would rather buy a CD with good music but bad lyrics. But what about artwork? For example, you always do it yourself. This means that you don't pay it primal attention as well or you enjoy the process of creation in it’s every form?
In contrary to writting lyrics I feel much more comfortable when I do the booklet and cover design. For me images and music are more a unit than music and lyics. I can listen to music and get certain images while I do it, but I never hear music and imagine a certain text to it. Actually the visual side of a CD is naturally the first impression of a CD. So normally it is first the visual side, then the music and at the end the lyrics which catch my attention after I bought a CD.
For the second album of your another project Ice Ages you used a picture by Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski as a cover. How did you find this picture and why decided to use it?
I found it cause my bandmember from my metal project Summoning showed me a book of his works, which he baught in order to find pictures for his industiral project Kreuzweg Ost. I immediately liked his pictures and thought about Ice Ages cause they are so extremely dark and so morbid. But I was not sure at the beginning. The main problem was that his paintings have rather warm colors with orange and read, while for the name Ice Ages you imagine rather cold colors like blue. So I got the idea to change the colors more to blue and use it. I later wrote Beksinski a letter if it is ok to use it and if I can even change the colors, and he said yes, the only thing he wanted is that I add his name.
Beksinski is a photographer as well. And what about you, do you like taking photos for yourself, not for artwork?
Yes I know, in his last period he made photo manipulations instead of painting pictures. I actually take some pictures with my camera but rather on holidays. If I ever make fotos for artistic reasons I only make them in order to manipulate them later. Just pure photos are not interessting for me to create. The main exciting thing is to get the right mood by deciding the darkness of each shadow and focusing on special details. Thats the way I did it on the last DVKE as well.
What about travelling, visiting other countries, sightseeing? Is it intersting for you?
Yes sure, but actually I don't do it much because of lack of time. The problem is that I have to work to pay my bills, and also have to make music for my 3 projects and surely also have a normal private live as well. Actually I was in Latvia, Estonia and Finland 1,5 years ago, and maybe I go to Norway this time, but this is unsure.
Do you miss live perfomances since all your projects are studio ones?
Actually they are not all strict studio projects. I gave already concerts with DVKE and Ice Ages. But actually I see my main interest in creating music instead of playing already done songs again on the stage. That’s because I see myself as a composer and not really as a music instrument player. On the stage other things than just music become important. Like presenting yourself and your personality to the audience. But that’s surely not what I am really interessted in. My personality does not help anybody to understand my music better, so I prefer making my music in my studio as I did all the time.
So probably if you were giving live performances you would prefer small concert halls with a little amount of people and warm atmosphere?
Yes sure, a smaller one would suit better to DVKE. Also one where people rather can sit than stand. But generally the music of DVKE as well as all other projects are no real live ones for me, as they are all done with electronic devices. Only the singing is real (and in Summoning the guitars). I also like to make some real hand made music as well, but I don't like to integrate this in my projects. For example since 1-2 years I play arabic percussion very patient. A fine feeling to finally integrate the body to the music, but for my projects it works better fo focus more on the mind, and that not so suitable for live performance.
Do you like Dead Can Dance? (By the way, they were giving live perfomances, though they also were a studio band).
Yes, they are fine, although I must say that I never really got into them though they where considered as a super cult for any dark wave band. Maybe I have to check them again, but when I listened to them I could not really discover a real style. The problem is that they mix up a bit too much for me. They sound dark and very authentic, but some songs sound like oriental music, some like medieval chants some are something else. This all does not give ma a feeling of a real band style. More authentic reproductions of music that already exists. But as I said I really have to give them another try in the near future.
Do you have any plans for shooting videoclips? You are such a talanted person that I think you can make them on your own.
No, for sure I can not make it on my own. I simply have no experience at all in that. And I never made anything I don’t have experience in. Maybe I could get some experience and make something fine after that, but this would definitely need plenty of months or years, and surely would take away too much time for me. Apart from that there are no real plans for video clips.
So for you professionalism in everything is the primal thing?
Well who would like to see a video of my music which is done totally lousy. I guess noone would want that.
OK. Now one of my favourite questions: imagine yourself living in some other epoch (100, 500, 1000 years earlier as you wish). Could you describe yourself, your life, profession?
Well I must say that althought in DVKE I sing about past epoches I really would not like to live in any of them. It is fine to sing about it and think about it in a romantic way, but not it they are real. Most people imagine themselves always as beeing kings or at least nobels in that time. But only a very small minority had that luxury without any work, whereas the great majority had to work from morning to night to give those guys the money to live that luxury live. So if I think about living in the past I think that I would be some pour guy as most. I think that probably many of my friends or relatives maybe dies because of decease like pest etc.
But living now, in the XXI century, do you think that you do what you have to or maybe you have some doubts?
Well actually I am quite happy with the time I am living in. Just take a look about the music I make with electronic devices. I could not have done this in the past, unless I was some nobel or some nobels would kindly give me some money to afford a real orchestra. Now we have a great time that you only need a PC and alread can make full music if you want. I think thats great. And also in my work I am programmer, and see programming as my second hobby beside music. For me programming is a way of thinking that is not so far from composing music. Both activities are a very abstract way of thinking. And I can compare even notes to variables and tunes to functions. I know this might sound strange to most readers now but I really see those similarites. Anyway you see I am a quite pure 21 century person.
What would you like to change in music history with your own creations?
Actually I never think about changing anything when I make music. I make music for the sake of music, and don't intend to use music as any tool for anything (this means not for transporting any messages, change humanty or music, etc). But actually I sometimes whine that the music scene would be a bit different, where the composition comes more to the front. And I would like to hear more music with polyphonic strucutres as well. I think nowadays music is too much focused on one line, while everything else is the background. I like that several aspects in a music shell have the same importance.
And the final question, a traditional one: please, tell some words to our readers and your fans in Russia.
Thanks for the interview. Greetings to all fans in Russia. For all who don't know the music check out the mp3 section on my page, there are samples of all songs.
Thank you for your time! I wish you a good luck and many great inspirations! ______________________ Questions by Omnius Est
