Ten questions with Günter Schlienz
I have written elsewhere on this site about how I discovered Günter Schlienz but it bears repeating (and I won't cut and paste).
Sometime in the mid two thousands I started writing reviews for Foxy Digitalis. I don't really remember how it came about but it likely happened because I really enjoyed the music being put out by their label, Digitalis Recordings (plus their website was a wealth of information on what was happening in the electronic, folk, new weird America etc underground). As part of doing these reviews, Foxy Digitalis would send me packages crammed to the brim with promos for possible review. In one of these packages, I discovered a tape by Günter Schlienz. I really wish I could remember what the tape was but it might have been, Furniture Sounds but then again it might not have been (memory is a funny thing). Either way, I was immediately taken with it. What stood out was how genuine it seemed and so I started looking for other releases by him.
From there, I tried to keep up with Günter Schlienz but he is very prolific – but I still managed to get quite a few (and I am still adding to it). The amazing thing about being this prolific, is that I have not found one release that I have disliked. When I buy one of his albums, I know that I will enjoy it.
Below you will find an interview I did with Günter Schlienz which was conducted over a couple of weeks via a shared document. This interview came about because I had purchased his latest release and in return, Günter Schlienz emailed me and provided a personal thanks. This really struck me – especially since I believe I (and the world) needs more connection and so I extended an invitation to do an interview with me. Which he graciously accepted.
Ten Questions with Günter Schlienz
Q1: When did you realize you had a passion for music making and listening?
Günter Schlienz:
Quite late, already playing in rock bands for years i was asked what i will do if the band stuff is over. „music i guess“ was my spontaneous answer, to my own surprise. Until this very moment i thought i‘m gonna be a writer, haha.
Daniel:
I have a degree in English literature. I also thought I would be a writer but somewhere along the way fell into IT. Flash forward 30 years give or take and here I am. Music listening has always been a passion but didn’t get into releasing/making music until I was in my mid twenties and then I took a very long break. Do you still write? I hadn’t for a long time but then a light bulb went off and realized I could just write for myself. Sounds silly I know — should have realized this. It is hard to put yourself out there and so doing it for yourself makes it that much easier. How do you handle putting yourself out there?
Günter Schlienz:
I don't write any more. did write stuff a couple of years after my exams (history, social science, American literature), mostly history stuff. But it got less and less writing, and someday i skipped this out of my mind because there wasn't enough time for it to do it properly, because recording music had been become more important.
how i handle this? don't know, ask myself this question a lot, why i'm doing this? why you propose yourself? vain? if I'm in a good mood i think it is necessary for my art to get in a kind of discussion with the audience, other times i think I'm plain mad.
Q2: Do you have any formal training? Currently, what is your preferred instrument or way of working?
Günter Schlienz:
As a kid basic training on recorder for two or three years. I love my diy modulars the most since i soldered them together. Most of the time i play alone with my synths, to record and to rehearse. Sometimes i do sessions with other musicians, but not very often. Almost everything will be recorded.
Daniel:
I am in the camp that formal training etc should not be a gatekeeper.
Just because someone didn’t study music, they can produce serious (or not serious lol) music. Sounds like you have similar ideas around this.
Günter Schlienz:
because of my job I'm in close contact with lots of classical trained musicians, and i have learned that they need the training and to practice this their whole life otherwise they won't be able to play those symphonic pieces together with around 40 other musicians. but not everybody wants to listen all the times to symphonic music, there's plenty of room for other conceptions of music, and not all of them need those super trained musicians. for several reasons sometimes it is even better to know not that much about it, fluxus and the like artists taught us this in the 20th century.
Q3: What is drone music to you?
Günter Schlienz:
The magic of reverberation.
Daniel:
I love this — concise but yet full of meaning. Lately, I have been thinking about intent and focal point — how that is important in the composition of music. That isn’t to say the music has to be composed etc — improv can have just as much intent. So if my intent is to make drone music and the focal point is drone then it is drone. Of course, you can intend something and fail. Thoughts on intent and focal points?
Günter Schlienz:
not sure if I understand the difference between focal point and intent.
what i have experienced for my work is that i have to have at least a kind of a loose knit concept, kind of an idea what kind of feelings i want to have working on it, and later listening to it. this loose knit concept is in the beginning not even verbalized, its more kind of an image in my mind.
Q4: We can all agree that the world is not in a good place right now. How does this affect the music you are making?
Günter Schlienz:
can‘t really put my finger on in. We always react in a way we don‘t expect, don‘t we?
Daniel:
Well said, You are right we won’t really understand the effect until we can get some distance and look back.
Günter Schlienz:
yep, have a degree in historical science, very much the center of thoughts like this.
Q5: How much improv and/or happy accidents are part of the music you release? Music you play live?
Günter Schlienz:
The recordings rely heavily on happy accidents, the live sets not so much. Quite a lot of my solo sets are composed, I think it is very hard to improvise alone. Is this possible at all? For my other project „navel“ with my good friend Floyd there is a lot of improvising, on recordings and live.
Daniel:
This is how I record too — I have an idea in my head and start from there.
Where things go from there is kind of a cosmic mystery. Where does all that creativity come from?
Günter Schlienz:
yeah, I've always wondered about this as well. "creativity" is such a big word, i prefer the word "ideas", doesn't sound so holy.
Q6: What are you currently listening to?
Günter Schlienz:
Right now a lot of Klaus Schulze.
Daniel:
I never tire of his work — there is always something new to discover. Currently I am listening to:
For Leolanda by Maria Moles
at Black Mountain College Museum by Setting
Both are on repeat…
Günter Schlienz:
nice! thanks for the links!
Q7: If you could collaborate with someone (dead or alive), who would it be and why?
Günter Schlienz:
I would love to record with Roedelius. Since the first time I've heard some of his solo stuff i want to do this, don‘t know why exactly, to learn perhaps?
Daniel:
Have you read this article?
Günter Schlienz:
very nice, thanks for the link. i really like that his wife Martha can tell a bit of her side of the story, very interesting!
Daniel:
I am just amazed that he is still active and sharp as ever. I should be so lucky.
Günter Schlienz:
indeed, he's really blessed.
Q8: Do you have a career outside of music? If so, what do you do for a living? If not, do you find it difficult being a musician?
Günter Schlienz:
I keep myself independent with a job as a sound guy at the staatsoper stuttgart. I think it is almost impossible to keep your independence as a freelancing musician.
Q9: You appear on a lot of small labels (which is great – as that is where the innovation happens) – how do you find them? Are there any “big” labels you would like to release on?
Günter Schlienz:
I find them through the music they release. Actually i don‘t know much about the current „big“ label scene. Is kranky still alive?
Daniel:
I actually had to check and they are. Something just occurred to me, you don’t really hear about these once big labels releasing music anymore (but they do). I think a possible cause is the death of record store culture and the loss of mailing lists/forums. Social media just isn’t the same. Or maybe I am just an old man yelling at a cloud.
Günter Schlienz:
here another man yelling at clouds. i really think we have to leave those pre internet understanding of music behind, which means there aren't any "big" labels any more. the really big ones are sony and mgm, and they don't care about music (they do a bit showbiz, ok).
Q10: What is your favorite comfort food and why?
Günter Schlienz:
Nuts! Since a couple of years i have to be picky with food because of several intolerances I've developed. But nuts i can eat in whatever amount i like. And they taste delicious.
Daniel:
I love the ritual of shelling pistachios and eating them. Something very satisfying about that.
Günter Schlienz:
yeah, i love that as well. it gives me a kind of stone age feeling, sitting like an ape and shelling nuts, those comes very deep from the spine, love that.
Günter Schlienz's latest release is zeitmaschine - which I recommend (and was reviewed here)
Photo by Daniel De Los Santos, Lake Travis TX