Interview with Herp
On Saturday, February, 10th, we sat down with Herp Gugushi to discuss his current state of mind, the arts, the new DC record and anything else.
what are you working on right now?
After my breakfast, around 08:30 I sat down and worked on my Heine soundtrack that I am doing at the moment. Unfortunately it is still not entirely finished. I have to do some mixes and work on the rest of the poems until next week. Later I went to an Emscherbruch rehearsal, which was great. It s great to work with all those people again. Last year we had such a fantastic time together. Mario Stork says that it was his best work experience ever in his life. Which sums it up quite nicely. After our conversation I will continue working on Heine and later in the evening I will talk to Morgan Lariah, discussing ideas for projects, we are working on together, including Heine, and some other stuff. Morgan helped me with a lyric, probably included on the next DC album, called “Transatlantic Flight”, which, for me, results in an amazing state of mind and is a little bit of an epiphany. The time between two time zones is a great inspiration for lyrics.
speaking of DC, can you tell us, when the record will finally be released?
Well, we are still working on the record. I think that we are about 80 percent finished with it. But the last 20 percent are always the hardest ones to work on. I don t know, to be honest. I don t want to rush it, but I am definitely aiming for a 2007 release. The thing is that we all are involved in so many different projects at the moment that we have problems, seeing each other. Plus we are trying to organize a system to publish the record in a different way than before, which turns out to be hard work.
can you talk about the lyrics?
As I said earlier in the recording process, the lyrics seem to be kind of black. Well, not entirely black, there is always a thing called hope in them. So, yes, that s about it. I worked really hard on the lyrics and I think I managed to write the best bunch of lyrics I ever did, I am a little bit proud of them. Almost all of the lyrics are finished now, I think I worked on 15 different songs so far, which makes for 15 songs, so we definitely have enough songs for a record.
what music are you listening to right now?
Wow. That’s a tough one. I don t really listen to music at the moment. Just the stuff that I am doing or the band is doing. That is surely enough. I am surrounded by music 8 hours of my day. Any films you watched lately? Nope.
you have got a new member and new projects. how did the sound change? what is similar to "science fiction" what is new or different?
Yes, the sound definitely changed. Well, it s not like we are a completely new band now. But I think, when you have seen our concerts last year, you could easily recognize that Thorsten added a lot to our sound and so he will add a lot new stuff to the new record.
why did you pick thorsten gumball?
He seemed like a nice guy to hang around with. Apart from that he s a good songwriter and musician. He s a musician with a lot of experience. I think he was involved in one million musical projects before he became a dc member.
can you compare your new sounds to other bands?
I can t. Sven is good at that shit. Ask him.
do all the bands side projects help or stop the development of new tunes and sounds?
Well, it depends. (laughs) Personally, i am in a really good mood regarding our work at the moment. Although, frankly I have to say that I have a tons of other stuff to do at the moment.
what are you doing next to music?
I am doing a lot of music at the moment. Over the years, it has become a 9-5 job, so to say, although I don t really work from nine to five. I prefer the late night hours. The hours when everyone else is sleeping. I usually get up late. I am a late night worker. Like Harald Schmidt, except his show is recorded earlier in the day. I began to write some poems again lately. Which I find quite interesting I haven’t done it in years. Hmmmm, what else? Well, I don t know. I always make plans and tell them other people, who most likely will be bored when I called them on the phone three times a day. I called Mario Stork four times today. which was fun for me, but not for him I imagine. (laughs)
what do you do if you are not recording or playing live?
I work on a lot of other projects.
how important are visual concepts for the band?
That is a question regarding Svenny. If I am correct, you will do an interview with Sven too in a few weeks, so please ask him. I am not the visual expert in the band although I am thinking in a very visual way, I think.