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As Was: An Interview with Nitzer Ebb

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[ photo ]
by Dan Sicko

Sometime before Nitzer Ebb's monumental induction into the Metro Music Cafe's Walk of Fame. (who are they next to, Mitch Ryder?) I spoke with Douglas McCarthy about their approach to the industry, and their latest album, SHOWTIME. Aside from his confirming that it is pronounced Night-zer , (there go all the Mister Ed jokes) I managed to get some interesting insights.

Nitzer Ebb started out in England back in 1983, two young English teens, who basically just wanted to make music, and above all provoke their audience. They weren't bent on making any kind of political statements. Instead, Douglas adds, their imagery and minimalist lyrics were basically "intended to piss people off."

"We were being told that we couldn't use this imagery, we were being told we couldn't look the way we looked. It upset people, and 'it wasn't a nice thing to do, and we weren't ever going to sell any records, or be popular if we made ourselves look like this.'"

By their defiance of the "guidelines" for appearance and imagery, they attracted more than a few supporters in the U.S., and more than a few harsh critics back at home. Douglas elaborates, "In the U.K., a lot of kids concentrate on the dark and oppressive side of our music and don't enjoy it as much."

The "dark and oppressive" element of Nitzer Ebb is still evident on the "Showtime" LP, but the overall sound has taken a turn away from the rigidity of the first two releases. What exactly prompted them to make this change?

"Well, it was because they were really restrictive. When we started off, we knew what we wanted to do. In terms of music, we wanted to make a really fast dance album, which was pretty easy to do, but it also let us get a lot of aggression out, which had been building up. A lot of those songs were written when we were really young, like 15 years old."

Like a number of alternative bands who used to have similar sounds, Nitzer Ebb is absorbing a lot of the traditional rock-oriented sound, and reflecting it in their compositions. In terms of what specific kinds of bands spark their interest, Douglas adds, "At the moment, it's really different from what we started listening to. Not that much, but at the moment I'm listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I really like the new Depeche Mode album. I really like a lot of rock, the sort of cliched rock. The idea of Aerosmith and things like that.

Did these rock influences contribute to the "Getting Closer" track? "What we had in mind was a sort of Guns 'n' Roses kind of thing," McCarthy adds. "At the time we were listening to a lot of Guns 'n' Roses and stuff like that. We just wanted to make a really fast rock track, more of a thrash thing, really. When we started off, that track was really fast, and we slowed it down just as an experiment, and it seemed to work better."

The experimentation seems to have paid off, leaving Nitzer Ebb in a much more human realm of music. The songs are about people now, not concepts, which reflects their interest in blues, and the way blues songs are composed. "It's (the blues) a really interesting feel because it's orientated around being human, It's not all this premeditated programming of the song, it just happens."

Shifting gears a bit, I asked of the various collaborations Nitzer Ebb has been involved with, namely Die Krupps, and the enigmatic Flood. Douglas elaborates on the first of these: "Well, basically we were in the studio recording the BELIEF album, and Ralf Dorpler, one of the members of Die Krupps called us up, and said that he read we were influenced by Die Krupps, in our early days as a band. He wondered if we'd fancy working with him or doing a mix or something, on this remake of one of their old tracks (The Machineries of Joy). For us it was really just a self-satisfying thing. It was quite good for us to do at the time, we did some production, and some mixing. But afterwards ... they still haven't paid us and things like that."

As far as Flood goes, I didn't really get much out of Douglas. Seeing Flood everywhere as a producer is bad enough when you don't know the first thing about the man, it's even worse when McCarthy adds this bit of helpful commentary: "Flood is Flood." His identity still a mystery, Douglas goes on about Flood, "He's great really. We spend a lot of his money. He came in the studio one day, and said he got his credit card bill - a thousand pounds more than he expected." Nitzer Ebb seems to have a good working relationship with Flood, or at least his credit card. "His card gets a credit on the back of Showtime," McCarthy adds, "'Flood's Plastic'."
Finally, McCarthy clarified his band's stance towards dance music, and the direction they might be headed. For the most part, he made it clear the at they won't abandon dance records, but they're "not going to sit down like we used to, and think 'Let's try and get a really good bassline, and a really good rhythm,' because it's boring. Boring to make, and boring to listen to." It seems that this attitude has carried over into the studio, especially with "Fun To Be Had."

"We really made an effort with 'Fun To Be Had' not to work with anyone from England, so we went to the States, and got George Clinton. Most of these DJ's that people work with have only been on the scene for a few years, whereas George has a real solid history of being involved with dance records."

It seems that Nitzer Ebb has really progressed since the last few albums, without subscribing to the typical success-oriented, "Hey, maybe we can work with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis" attitude. When I asked Douglas what took up his time outside Nitzer Ebb, expecting the usual "producing, acting directing" garbage, I got "Skateboarding, and my baby daughter."

The general consensus on Nitzer Ebb's new record "AS IS" is that it's more commercial (What can you expect from touring with Depeche Mode ?). Let's hope that's not the case - I don't want them to justify their place in the Metro Music Cafe.



Published by A-M Publishing. Copyright 1996 A-M Publishing.

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