by don campau
His own music has sometimes taken a backseat to his fame as a radio broadcaster but is no less important when it comes to his legacy. His voice is sometimes whiskey hued and gruff, at other times a high tenor with a bit of a nasal quality. He has strong musical abilities on guitar and other instruments. He leans towards "authentic expression", that is, simply done, from the heart type songs with a poignant message or insight, although he has also ventured into harder rock, electronic and experimental areas.
When I met Lord Litter at his home in Berlin in 1991 I was impressed by his good humor, charming and inviting aura. It seemed everyone in the local and even international scene and had run into him at some point and he was widely acknowledged as "the guy to know". He has worked hard day and night to keep the flame for home recording and attitudes of independence alive and vital.
Kevyn Dymond and I traveled with him ( and Das Freie Orchester) for a couple of days on a short tour of Southern Germany not far from Bavaria. It was classic with two Russian cars breaking down and being repaired on the way there, the camaraderie between these German artists, the endless laughing and finally the wild and loud live show in a small town where the audience revered this band from the big city. When the show ended the members of DFO went into a circus sideshow of physical fun and frolic culminating in a 3 man pyramid with arms fully raised in triumph. Who says Germans are always serious?
It's me with Mr. Skull, my co-host at the Shared Night .. he says the real *dirty* things that I don't *dare* to say .. well that's the idea .. I do whatever I like hosting the nights .. singing songs .. playing a pre-produced sketch ... recently it's internet (etc) satire .. sure also announce the musicians etc.
Mick Magic
If you say the word ‘legend’ is bandied around too much these days, you’ll be accused of using a cliché. Even to say ‘but for some people, no lesser word than legend will do’ has become a cliché in its own right. Lord Litter, however, defies ALL clichés, because he IS Legend. With a capital L. I don’t believe there is a person on the planet who has done more for the cause of true independent music. Jörg Dittmar für Präsidenten!
Lord Litter has generously allowed us to freely download or stream this classic tape.
Many thanks to this important artist and radio host. Visit him for more information:
Artist Spotlight
Lord Litter
(artist, radio host, The Lazy Sleepers, Das Freie Orchester, many others)
March 2010
When did you first adopt the "Lord Litter" name?
That was 1983 when I needed a name
for a music competition .. it means being inspired by *high class* art /
culture (Lord) as well as *street trash* art / punk (Litter). It still
fits!
Does your musical activity go back to your childhood? Were you in
bands in school?
Yes it does .. but at school I was member of a classical choir singing
BACH etc. I was the solo voice. It was a *professional* choir with
touring etc. .. bands that was much later.
You have a passion for "roots rock" and "no frills" kind of music.
What attracts you to these forms?
All in all I think it's the
*nothing to hide* aspect of this music .. handmade .. so *roots* is a
bit misleading as it became a concept to sell something. Recently I see
selected standard jazz artists at the Shared Night concert series I host
.. VERY inspiring!!! I also like "constructing" music with machines but
that's to often formula
and template music to me these days. Buy a good program click once or
twice and the song is ready to put online as MP3 .. no way to fake that
with an acoustic guitar.
Was listening to the radio as a kid a big influence?
Radio - yes .. but I stopped
listening to *official* radio in the mid-80s, as Radio was mutating into
what we have today .. well coming to think about it . selecting and
buying records inspired me much more than listening to radio .. yes I
think that did it ..
friends came with records .. we listened .. then I said .. well lets
find out what the singer did with his prior band becauss I liked the voice
... an endless journey started .. still traveling today!
Which groups or artists inspired you?
That's a tough question because you
ask it today. I see the past in a different context these days, which
tells me who really inspired me. Some weeks ago I realized that PF Sloan
via bands like The Grassroots had an incredible influence on my
songwriting. I guess the main influence was British music from the late
1960s to the early 1980s .. I was always looking for "something
different", so it was logical that I found "different" artists .. and I
was always interested in all styles .. I remember an early birthday -
everybody wanted to listen to Pink Floyd .. I played Slade ... then I
remember in my extreme "underground" days I bought my first Bert
Kaempfert releases .. well I'll give some artists .. The Kinks ..
(early) Zappa Mothers of Invention .. Bonzo Dog Band .. Antonio Vivaldi
... Slade .. (early) Pink Floyd .. Bee Gees
... (early) Kraftwerk ... The Move / ELO ... Ramsey Lewis and more *Jazz
innovators* .. Osibisa ... and "every" artist that "no one" knew .
You have had a radio show for a long, long time. How did it first
happen?
I became *known* as the cassette
expert here in Berlin and was approached by Radio 100 to host a regular
cassette scene show. Radio 100 was the first *real* alternative station
in Germany, which died after the wall fell in Berlin and all media was
bought to become todays version of ..??
One of your first underground contacts was Matthias Lang I believe,
from IRRE Tapes. How did you come into contact with him?
Thomas Pradel, an early cassette
activist in Germany had published the "Independent Kontakter", a booklet
that presented about 600 "real" independent addresses. I picked one
address .. that changed my life .. it was the first time that I got a
reaction to my own *unusual* music from outside of Berlin .. that was
Matthias Lang ..
before that I only had contact with Joachim Reinbold (JAR) here in
Berlin, who produced the Berlin Kassette, a compilation with all kind of
"cassette music" .. Matthias sent me his compilations and Flyers .. one
was from Andy Xport, who also produced compilation series .. on the
first cassette I received from Andy I found Don Campau's address ... yup
.. the rest is history.
Here in America we had had magazines like OP, Option, Sound Choice,
Gajoob and others to contact other home recording musicians. In Europe
were publications a way to contact people? If not, how did people know
about each other ( there was no internet at the time)?
Yes there were many magazines ..
not too many *open mined* ones .. most of the ones I remember where into
a certain scene
.. electronic / avantgarde / "serious" music.. whatever .. I never liked
these separations ... please don't ask for names because I took a
different way to find all these people ..direct personal communication
.. recommendations via handwritten(!!!!)letters .. addresses taken from
compilation info sheets .. I think that these cassette compilations were
extremely important .. one could listen to the music ..pick the
addresses from artists one liked .. send an own cassette .. and perhaps
there would be a new contact who would send you more recommendations ..
networking!
What interested you about the home taping scene?
The *complete* freedom of creation
- the worldwide contact with artists, with a similar attitude - the new
unheard music ..
discovering a new worldwide culture .. well .. becoming part of it. I
wrote my magister thesis about the home taping scene . which sure took
me nowhere, no one could sell it, so besides the ones that took part in
this movement, no one was interested.... it's really always the same -
if one can make a profit all is different - there was someone who wrote
a magister thesis about Punk .. immediately got published .. became
known etc etc .. all in
all that was a *golden experience* to me .. my way will be *undergound*
forever .. that made me free .. everything I do is TOTALLY FREE ... yes
I guess that is one *result* from my start in the *home taping scene*
You also performed live with several different bands over the years.
Did you play mainly in Berlin?
No .. we traveled Germany .. and
one unforgettable concert with Das Freie Orchester in Holland. With my
Litter and The Lazy
Sleepers we decided to only play Berlin in the end .. the world was
changing and no one wanted to see unknown bands .. plus I guess we were
extremely non-fashion with our Pub-Rock .. so in the end in Berlin our
concerts were always packed with people who wanted to see us .
In the late 80s or early 90s you joined the improvising band Das Freie
Orchester. How did this happen?
I played many of their tapes at my radioshow .. exchanged letters ... I visited them several times in East Berlin before the wall fell .. somehow it was a logical move to join the band the day the wall fell .. we even had plans that I would become a "undercover" remember when the GDR still existed .. twas not "allowed" for a West Berlin citizen to be in an East Berlin band .. well history had other plans .
They were a much different band with you than with Jorg Thomasius,
whom you replaced. Was this just a by product or natural result of your
personality and the way you responded to the group dynamics?
The band told me later that it was
me .. all in all I think several aspects came together - on the one
hand, the band had an incredible female singer, who also left when Jorg
Thomasius left and I joined the band after the wall fell in Berlin,
which brought other "dimensions" into focus... the funny thing is that I
think the band was much more "interesting" and "better" before I joined
.
You have been an outspoken critic of many aspects of the Internet.
What is it that really bothers you?
To make one thing really clear - I
LOVE the internet! It really helped me to gain my todays freedom .. what
bothers me is that people don't think and analyze before they join what
the internet
offers. To me it was very obvious that uncontrolled growth of networks
like Facebook, MySpace would lead to a very unhealthy way to collect
data to be used in other ways. Today even the "mainstream" realizes that
companies like Google could become a dangerous force .. in fact I think
it already is a very dangerous force.
Do you think that social sites like Facebook or MySpace can be used
creatively or are they just a waste of time to you?
That is not the question to me ..
what I mean I tried to explain above. We'll soon have a world where you
can find a way to
discover the color of my underwear if you follow the links offered via
Facebook, MySpace etc. ...or in other words - the *hard core*
underground man talking - Facebook /MySpace etc etc are an *obvious to
be exploited* mainstream offering .. you *pay* with your data, which is
used in an uncontrolled way ... my idea about "free art / independent
creation" was something completely different when I started .. I think
it's extremely difficult for people to find a relation to the things
they did before ..because the whole internet world is something
completely new ... probably I'm
in a lucky situation that I *studied* multimedia (incl internet) about
ten years ago .
The term "independent music" is thrown around a lot these days. How
do you think its meaning has changed since the late 80s or 90s? Is
"independent" a term that really applies anymore?
No .. it became a trademark to sell
.. now I use the expression "underground" again, which is also no longer
defining what it
used to define .. the language changed in recent years .. today a
"friend" defines something completely different .. thanks to Facebook.
Over the years you have pulled back at times and reassessed your
position and priorities. Has this been a good way for you to not get
burned out? Is this a way to "keep it fresh"?
Oh ya!!!! .. to keep going I need
to get out of situations from time to time .. it's a bit like being 50
years old means one "must be"
an "oldie" fan .. only listening to music that was new when one was
young .. for me it's impossible to find new things this way .. plus ..
one gets trapped in structures, like me - in the end I was producing
about 10 hours of radio shows per month for 3 radio stations. The result
was I started to hate to listen to music .. started "checking" CDs no
longer listening to them .. I started to think in categories .. this is
a good "radio song" ..etc etc .. analyzing is important! I once loved
music .. suddenly I realized that I put it into categories to *get rid
of it* .. I was shocked!!
Today I produce one show per month presenting the music I listen
to at the moment .. so I'm getting inspired by the music and have fun
producing a show with the music I love at this very moment.
What have you learned about yourself from your own art?
I see my own development .. coming
closer and closer to my very own "truth" .. about one month ago I had a
major breakthrough - I realized that I finally can create in a
"controlled" way. If I want a song to go a certain direction . and
incredible finding.. after years and years of slowing down recording
more and more I'm completely addicted again .. I could record daily at
the moment .. ALL ideas come to a result that REALLY satisfies me. In
the old days I was controlled by coincidence .. example: I recorded 10
songs and thought 3 are ok. So what I learned is that my idea of "keep
going" that I live in recent years is absolutely perfect .
Thanks for the interview!!
www.lordlitter.de