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ANTYE GREIE

Interviewed by Analog Tara via email, June 2005.
Photo by Vladislav Delay.

Antye Greie (AGF) is a "poem producer" who crafts distinctive electronic music from her voice and beats, exploring and transforming boundaries between sound-as-language and language-as-sound. AGF gained international attention beginning with her work with the band Laub in the late-1990s, which released their first album on the Berlin-based label Kitty-Yo in 1997. Since then she has released solo albums and collaborated with artists including Vladislav Delay and Sue Costabile. First interviewed for Pinknoises in 1999, here AGF discusses her history of working with music and poetry, her experiences growing up in East Germany, and some ideas on music and gender.

Q: Let's start from the beginning - tell me where you're from, where you grew up.

A:
i grew up in halle-neustadt
a socialist utopia fake socialist dream city
built in the 60s artificially for workers
in east germany

Q: I'm curious about your early involvement with music. What music were you exposed to when you were growing up?

A:
when i was small and unknowable
the world including my parents brainwashed me with
schlager + blasmusic and all german folk i guess
russian folk as well and east german rock

when i became teenager
i started listening all kind of pop
bee gees beatles

my first groupie thing
freakin out on one person was john lennon
my whole girls room was covered with him

when he got killed i was wearing black in school
for ages

with 14 i got a guitar and i started playing
songs from bob dylan/lennon/all i could get

Q: When did you start making music?

A:
yeah with 14
i wrote songs in the school (mainly peace songs
humans rights etc)
and started a group

Q: Did you have any formal music training?

A:
not really
some voice lessons along the way
i am autodidact with everything i do since 15 years

Q: How did you end up making electronic music specifically?

A:
after playing in many male dominated rockbands
i was sick of it
having no control and influences in sounds
i started getting interested in electronic music
i was lucky
somebody sensed my talent
somebody gave me a commodore 64 and
a kurzweil keyboard

that was the beginning

when i could buy my first sampler AKAI 3000
and with atari i was a free person
to do and write whatever i want

it was sooooo exciting
and difficult with midi and shit

but i figured it
back then there was no internet and schools for this kind of thing

the laptop and home studio grew etc

Q: You talk about this a bit in the lyrics to "Westernization Completed," but how have you seen things in Germany change within your lifetime? And have these cultural changes affected the music that you make, or the professional opportunities you've had?

A:
sure

dramatically

growing up in east germany was safe but very restricted
and computers / any object of consume
microphone etc was hard to get

and the travelling
we couldn't leave the socialist countries

it was most influential to realize
that the world is a place i can travel around freely
and it's so colorful

also when my country vanished
the internet came
so i kind of for a while escaped into that space
and updated myself

i don't know what would have happened to me
when the wall never would have come down
i guess at some point it would have become too small for me

Q: What music currently inspires you?

A:
lots of rappers and mcs from all over the world
i always look for original music

interesting beats with interesting vocalists and
things to tell and best is also innovative musical elements

it's hard to get

but also any form of folk
classical music
i like
i just discovered fado

some jazz... like miles, coltrane

Q: Are there things going on in the contemporary electronic music and art scene in Berlin that are particularly interesting to you?

A:
sure

but everywhere you know
people in the east... ukraine / belgrade
do nice stuff too
there is a special mood now

i know people all over the world doing amazing stuff
a city never really influenced that so immensely for me

there is a few brave and precious persons living in every city

Q: I'm very interested in the ways in which you combine code with poetry, particularly on the album head slash bauch. What inspired you to work with phrases of code in this way?

A:
it was the time i wished to use my voice without
expected content without saying things
i was so fed up being so judged by my words and poetry

i wanted to be independent on making opinions
stories attitudes messages
to not first reach peoples brains when you open your mouth

i am a brain person definitely
but also very emotional
i wanted to be free from meaning
in the end that created another meaning
which is nice

at that time i was reading a lot of manuals and learned html and
max/msp... so i was reading a lot of code and started to
re-design my daily use of words

falling in sleep mode and stuff like that

and also i wanted to test the processed voice
so i just read manuals and code pages into the computer
to check how it sounds
and it sounded amazing

i like contrast

when i was working with the scottish composer
craig armstrong he gave me a very emotional orchestral
piece to sing on
and everything i would sing emotionally would sound like bjork
or so over the top that i felt i need to do something which balances this out
so i read html code into the orchestral composition
and broke the code a few times into poetry

it turned out very strong

so i discovered the beauty of code on music and poetry

i think in the end it took the balls of me and craig
to really publish it

later i performed this piece with huge orchestras
in barbican london or paris and brussels
me and the code and behind me 30 people
on ancient instruments

Q: What do you enjoy about working with language as a creative medium?

A:
everything

language is the most

it's very creative and in the end part of my main instrument
i am a singer and performer

that's my main skill i guess
with that i walk down different roads
it's interesting

i guess many things people do
have to do with their skills

if people make most amazing beats they most likely
have been drummers since 12

you know what i mean

i was reading poetry as a kid
and wrote poems in my whole childhood

poetry and lyrics were a big thing in east germany
you could express things deeper and differently
in an non-democratic society... via poetry

it's a skill too

Q: Is "poem producer" your preferred description of what you do as an artist? How did you start using that term?

A:
i made the song
poem producer

i am a powerful poemproducer

and i needed a domain name

you have to be something i thought

i don't know what else makes sense to call me

e-poetess is nice too

Q: Do you identify your music with the term "glitch" (or is that just a term that the music media puts on it)?

A:
i don't know glitch really
it's an american word

glitch [n.]
Haken (<-->) [m.]
Stšrimpuls von sehr kurzer Dauer [m.]

it's funny

...disturbing factor for a very short time

hahaha

i hope i am disturbing for a life time

;)

in general i am glad if people are creative with calling things

and i understand the need of media and promotion and distribution
to find words to sell or people to communicate

it's ok

Q: In your career, which has included working with bands like Laub as well as doing solo work and other collaborations, have you encountered particular stereotypes or obstacles because you are a woman? Do you find that people have certain expectations about what you do, either with your voice or with technology, because of your gender?

A:
well when i was still surrounded by rock musicians yes
but that's over since 10 years
since then i am pretty fine...
i am glad more and more ladies are joining me
that's fun

boys are so competitive and sometimes not very open

girls you can meet them and be friends next day
not always of course

Q: Do you consider gender to be an important aspect of your creative expression?

A:
i wonder.

i guess i am a female
and it plays pretty much a big role

but i grew up in east germany where women where
totally taken for granted being equal

even it wasn't reality all over
cause women had to work double hard
have business life and family

but in my family actually there was a great amount of
equality between man and women
my father cooked every sunday for the whole family and
my mom was working 9-5
there was a career on both sides and so on

there also was no tits and dicks around in media
no pornography or sex sells shit at all
me personal stresses it out all this sex in public stuff
and i think east germans are known for having a lot of
sex and fun and kids etc

so i kind of grew up genderless

or it wasn't that important you know
didn't play so much a role if you are female or not
i mean of course when you became a teenager
and all this things happen to you

but before that
it wasn't such a training there to feel and look and be female
before you even have tits
we also didn't have products much
even you of course miss them all the time
in a way i am happy i didn't have them
cause it's like i was playing in nature with everybody i liked
and nobody had fancy things
we just had the trees and the old empty places

so i grew up as a human first

which is nice i think

same by the way goes for drugs

they haven't been there
i am glad about that
it's much better to decide the damage you do to yourself when ur adult

Q: Is collaborating with and supporting other women artists something that you consciously make an effort to do?

A:
yes

i like hanging with girls

it's mostly more fun

Q: Tell me about your process of composing. What elements do you usually start with, and how do you work it up from there?

A:
u guess i start with some sort of sample/vibe
i found collected or built
often in rather max/msp based patches
then i import that into logic
set tempo and harmony... very simple

then very fast i sing / use voice
record many layers
and then process it

lately bass became very important

then i look what's missing
to make it taste good

sometimes
in the end to make people happy
i add melodies

PEOPLE LOVE MELODIES

i am ok without
but i see it's necessary
otherwise it's like you serve food
and it looks loveless or ugly

i have the theory
that really emotional happy expressive people
almost negate melodies in their work
and people who are very introverted and
hide a lot of emotions
they use a lot of melodies

;)

my small theory world ;)

Q: When we last did an interview (5 years ago) you were working on an MPC. Do you still work with this?

A:
sure

i have 2 now

Q: What other equipment, hardware or software, do you use?

A:
mpc 2000xl
mpc1000
apple pb g4
logic
M-audio
max/msp
lawson L251 microphone

(to record / master and final mix i use the white room
studio of vladislav delay)

Q: How is your setup different for recording vs. live performance?

A:
in studio i love to micro arrange things
like really compose very deeply
go over a song a couple of 100 times

live i am limited
i concentrate on singing performing
and making a good concert
means i touch people

Q: What do you like best (and least) about the tools you are working with? About working with software vs. hardware?

A:
i like the independence most
that i can create a personal sound alone

or if then in a collaboration

least i like the sound possibilities
the dynamic

when you listen an orchestra in a good sounding room
100 individual good musicians highly motivated
and they create emotions and a sound which is so dynamic
it gets louder and louder and doesn't distort

that's what i am missing in digital production

and often the soundsystems you play in are limited too

but i am learning

Q: Tell me about your collaborations with deLay - your partner in life and (sometimes) music. How did you start working together?

A:
we wanted to work when we met
he was looking for vocalists and i loved his music
then we fell in love
and then it took a long time to make an album
now it looks like we make it

it's not easy
but if it works it's the most beautiful thing to me

Q: Also, I am curious about your experiences working with Eliane Radigue in the Lappetites project, someone who represents an older generation in electronic music history.

A:
she is beautiful
i am so grateful
that i had the chance to meet her
and work with her
i am very lucky

more on a human level
it was so inspiring

she is really cool and warm hearted and
i hope i see her again

it was crazy to have tea with her
and she was sitting beside this crazy huge arp synthesizer
and telling about her life

she made me do work on one ! single sound for 4 days
that was impressive

Q: Tell me about your live work with Sue Costabile, and also the visuals you have on your website (poem calligraphy/graffiti). Do you consider visual elements to be an important component of the music you are making, in live performance or otherwise?

A:
sometimes

i like collaborating with humans i like
sue is one of them
she is amazing and a beautiful person
that's the main thing
she has an incredible technic and is very talented

i like to fuse our both works

live it's nice that the attention is a bit away from me
i have more freedom

unfortunately i never see what she does really

right now we work on a dvd
it's gonna come out in autumn

it's gonna be mini movies

the calligraphy is my thing
exploring poetry into different fields than music

the possibilities you have with music / music business
are limited

i don't like that

More info at www.poemproducer.com and www.agfproducktion.com.