15 Questions to Genevieve Pasquier
Tobias
Hi! How
are you? Where are you?
Hello to you, too! I am well, thanks for asking! And can you believe it:
I’m sitting behind my computer in my house in Bavaria on this planet in this
universe somewhere in the void.
What’s
on your schedule right now?
Not that much, really,
answering some interview questions, enjoying my leisure and maybe work on some new
songs. Oh, and for those who are interested: Ant-Zen decided to re-publish my
Vinyl-releases as a sort of Best-Of. I am currently remastering some pieces,
adding newly sung vocals.
What or
who was your biggest influence as an artist? Do you see yourself as part of a
certain tradition or as part of a movement?
I’d like to mention my
parents as the biggest influence. It was thanks to them that I got to know Kraftwerk,
Jean Michelle Jarre, Pink Floyd and other similar bands at a young age. Didn’t
that just pave the way for how my life was going to be! One could say that they
were slightly different. The more or less social environment certainly played a
role as well. My fantasy, for a big part, which already got me into trouble in
school. And finally, my husband, who showed me a new world in musical terms.
I don’t think I conform or belong to any traditions, at the same time I don’t think that I’m part of some kind of new movement. What I do could just as well have been done 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years ago, if it had been possible at the time. Actually, I don’t consider myself as part of any group at all, simply because I never had the right access to those scenes or bonds. I’d like to keep things that way.
What’s your view on the music scene at present? Is there a crisis?
A crisis? Looking at it from a global perspective, I’d say no. If related to certain scenes, maybe. And if there is, then they’re the ones to blame. Musicians and listeners alike were slowly but surely deterred by too many and too mediocre releases over the last few years – it simply wasn’t any fun any more. It got too easy to quickly burn some stuff on your home computer and then sell it as your new album. You can blame those musicians, who shit out a CD each month, thereby making it a terrifyingly hard task finding the really good stuff among the thousands of releases. There just isn’t any functional filter any more, seperating the wheat from the chaff.
But let’s get slightly more serious again – everyone who wants to make music, should do so. It’s just the way of the world, everything changes. Maybe for the good. Maybe for the bad.
What does the term „new“ mean to you in connection with music?
There’s no such thing as new music! It basically always stays the same. Only time and arrangements change. Everything’s been done before and if you listen carefully, you’ll quickly find the parallels. There were abstract compositions in Classical Music, then you had the futurists of the 20s, etc... And everybody gets influenced by this, everybody!
How do
you see the relationship between sound and composition?
Either of the two can’t exist without the other. It
will only remain a sound or a tone, as long as it remains singular. Two noises
or tones already constitute a minimal composition. And then it’s up to
yourself, what to do with them or how complex to arrange them. Or would anyone
like to disagree here?
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How
strictly do you separate improvising and composing?
Composing, in itself, is a way of improvising. You
start with a tone and then go from there. What I try to do is to use different
arrangements, sequences and harmonies in order to create a mood, which reflects
my own at the time. Sometimes, I will start with a certain theme and prepare a
pool of sounds and lyrics, mirroring it in the best possible way. Making music,
to me, is an expression, a sort of feeling, which I translate into sound. Really
composing in a concerted way would imply a certain coolness of heart: aa b aa b aa d b aaaa bb aaaa bb a b d aa b aa
b aa bbbbbbbbb dd b a bb dd .... My god, it’d be so boring!
What
constitutes a good live performance in your opinion? What’s your approach to
performing on stage?
A good live-performance should visually present the
music the best way possible. If I visit a concert, I want to be drawn in by
what’s happening on stage. And a good concert should always be honest.
For my music, a background video should work as an accompaniment and a support, but it should not act as the sole carrier of the music. I mostly focus on my voice during concerts, on little gestures and facial expressions, which go along with the music. I am not a person of grand gestures. Simply because we’re pretty active live, pieces can sound quite different, which brings us back to the question of improvising. It’s the overall-picture that matters.
A lot of
people feel that some of the radical experiments of modern compositions can no
longer be qualified as “music”. Would you draw a border – and if so, where?
The way I see it,
everything which has to do with sounds and noises is music in some way or the
other. You can call it sound art or experimental music. There will always be at
least one listener, who’ll consider it music – and if only the composer
himself. Music knows no boundaries, only the human mind does, or its threshold
of tolerance.
Are
“serious” and “popular” really two different types of music or just empty words
without a meaning?
It’s all just empty words. Serious
music, popular, succesful… I mean, these are just questions of image and
marketing. The clothes you wear, the video clip you shoot and the label you’re
on can be helpful in this regard. On a social level, the border between the
genres runs from the academics onwards. Popular
music stays in the charts. And what about good music? Who knows?
Do you
feel an artist has a certain duty towards anyone but himself? Or to put it
differently: Should art have a political/social or any other aspect apart from
a personal sensation?
Art und music are free forms of expression.
Everything should be allowed – as long as it doesn’t get abused as propaganda.
True or
false: People need to be educated about music, before they can really
appreciate it.
The fundamental things in
education happen between the age of two and six. Looking at it from this
perspective, one would have to influence the subconscious for that. I doubt
whether that’s the right way.
I am, however, in favour of allowing everyone capable of making up his or her own mind to inform him- or herself about the current musical styles. The internet has made this thoroughly possible, but education in schools should consist of more than just Mozart and Beethoven as well. It’s rarely that one finds out about contemporary music and mostly it ends with Jazz or Pop. Musical education is always 50 years behind. What a pitty!.
Imagine
a situation in which there’d be no such thing as copyright and everybody were
free to use musical material as a basis for their own compositions – would that
be an improvement to the current situation?.
It won’t make too much of a
difference, whether copyright gets lifted or not. It’s either that we’re
marking time or there are more and more bad cover versions. Using certain basics
is a nice thing, in a way, but it also seduces one to just take something old
and leand it a new face. On the other hand, it doesn’t really matter for the
underground. Noone cares if anyone should steal some notes from Herbert
Grönemeyer (Germany’s biggest pop/rock star) or not.
You are
given the position of artistic director of a festival. What would be on your
program?
If possible, I’d prefer a
mix. Doris Day accompanied by the „Einstürzende Neubauten“, SPK in the original
line-up of 1981, using contemporary instruments. Jean Michel Jarre performing „Equinoxe“,
Frank Sinatra should be around as well. Ahh... you
could start dreaming....
Many
artists dream of a “magnum opus”. Do you have a vision of what yours would
sound like?
It’d be nice using the old recording equipment, like old amplifiers and
microphones. My dream of an epic would be a perfect symbiosis between chansons
of the 20s, combined with the impulsive rock n roll of the 50s and the plethora
of destructive frequencies of already existent instruments, as well as some new
entrants. Presented in a breathtaking dress on a big open air stage. Simply the
condensed beautiful, intense vocals with the enormously charged rhythms and the
simply congenial rock guitars and their full force of destruction. It would be
a dream being able to work with this and to explore the full range of
instruments and styles, to be able to experiment and to tap everything out to
full potential, thereby creating something new and getting lost in a new world.
Lovely sounds, which destroy themselves just like myself.
Discography:
solo:
Virgin Thoughts (Ritalin Aktif/UMB)
Soap Bubble Factory (Ant Zen)
with Thorofon:
Kommando 1 (1993) WDND
Kommando 2 (1994) WDND
Yttris Oxides (1995) WDND
Maximum Punishment Solutions (1997) Stateart
We kicked the Audience (2001) UMB
This Summer Suicide (2003) L.White
New Heroes (2005) UMB