Formed in Germany during 1986, Girls Under Glass have since become a long standing band within the dark underground scene of Europe. With their distinctive brand of progressive Electronic-Goth-Rock GUG now present their latest album Minddiver, with it’s high calibre production, lyrical depth, and musical dynamics, shows their evolution to-date.

Here vocalist Volker Zacharias gives insights to behind the scenes of GUG.

DH: What made you decide to cover a Madonna song, and why Frozen?.

ZV: Frozen is one of the very few pop songs I ever liked, so it was a big challenge to cover an actual song.

DH: You gave Frozen a Goth-Rock sound, when I feel you could have done it much better in your Dark-Synth-Pop style, what made you choose the musical direction of this cover?.

ZV: I think, it works perfect. The song was in many club charts and college radio charts in Germany. So the success tells me that our decision about the way of doing this version was right.

DH: How did your collaboration with Das Ich take place regarding their remix of Wings?, what did you like about their version?.

ZV: We just changed mixes, we did a mix for Das Ich, so Bruno did a mix for GUG, very simple. We know and respect each other now for more than 10 years, so there was nothing spectacular about Das Ich doing a remix for GUG. I like the mix because its very different from the original but still works. But, I prefer the original of course!.

DH: The Bitter End show's you have a great strength when creating innovative Dark-Synth-Pop songs, so much so it makes your Goth-Rock style sound out-dated in comparison, what is your views on this?.

ZV: Yeah, maybe you are right, but what we do comes from the heart so we don’t care about the music by thinking about how we use styles to make a song better, we just DO.

DH: Have you ever considered making a whole release based on dark electronic music-songs without the guitar driven elements?.

ZV: No, but Minddiver, our new release is much more electronic, and we have a pure electronic-project, TRAUMA. So we already do 100% electro music, why should we do the same with GUG?.

DH: How do you feel about the Wolfsheim collaboration regarding Grey In Grey, I felt it didn't bring a dynamic energy from the joint effort, more just a typical merger of both bands into one composition, how do you feel about this?.

ZV: I think you are wrong, I think Heppners vocals fit 100% to the song. By the way, this collaboration happened 9 years ago. At that time not many people cared about Wolfsheim or if this kind of collaboration would work or not.

DH: I thought the cover artwork and design for Minddiver was very creative, can you give some insights to it's concept and who was involved regarding it's creation?.

ZV: The boy is meant to be the Minddiver, who travels into different minds and tells the listeners the stories he catches up. I also think that the artwork is excellent. Poppy, but very deep and a bit scary.

DH: Minddiver seems to be a turning point for GUG, as you have embraced technology to a higher level than on your previous releases, and achieved a near perfect balance of Electronica, Dark-Synth-Pop, Goth, Rock, Dark-Wave, Metal elements within your musical compositions and sound design, what are your views on your musical progression to-date?.

ZV: Hmm, in a way I think its a very typical GUG album in the way that we use a mixture of different styles and influences as always, but again with a new result. The main aim behind GUG is not to copy ourselves forever and ever. We have fun creating new things, mixing up styles, otherwise we wouldn’t have fun after 15 years of doing music, we would be bored out of our mind.

DH: How did you come to be involved with the female vocalist Serena Gruss?, and how do you now view the collaborations you made with her on Minddiver?.

ZV: She is a friend of pure live musician Lacasa Del Cid, who has his own project together with Markus of Wolfsheim by now, called CARE COMPANY. So we knew Serena and her voice already. We thought it would work out well and obviously it did!. The backing vocals therefore are not as obvious as on the Equilibrium. They are more like classical background vocals.

DH: Will Serena Gruss become a new member of GUG?.

ZV: Definitely not, the only "members" are Hauke, Axel and me.

DH: Give some insights to the collaborations with other guest musicians that feature on the songs of Minddiver like; Lacasa Del Cid, Rudolph Naomi, Dirk Moller, how did GUG become involved with these characters?.

ZV: Search and find, or don’t search and still find. We are doing music for such a long time now, so obviously we know hundreds of musicians. Its exactly one telephone call to get somebody who likes to co-operate with us. We found Rudi by searching for a live drummer in a magazine. Rudi was a permanent member of KMFDM in the first couple of years, so he was the right guy to get for drumming. We found Lacasa when he played 20 different instruments for the last Aurora Sutra album. He is a genius and we want geniuses!!. Dirk Moller is a friend of Hauke who is not deeply involved in the music scene, but we gave it a try, just for fun. Sometimes we try people just to see how a song develops and gets new inspirations.

DH: The lyrics within the songs of Minddiver are written by several people; Volker Zacharias, Mindy Kumbalek, Axel Ermes, Reinier Kahle, Lacasa Del Cid, how did this come about?, is there no set song writer within GUG?.

ZV: The main lyric writer is me. The songs are all from GUG. For some of more danceable or poppy-stuff I had problems with finding the right words. So I asked some friends as Mindi from Goethes Erben and Rainier from Angels & Agony if they have an idea. Sometimes I am just not in the right mood to write lyrics. For me its easier to express myself within a real dark
context and musical input.

DH: During the initial creation of the Minddiver album, how did it first start to take shape, and via what type of process did this happen?.

ZV: In the beginning the songs were purely electronic and later I added the guitars. After that we invited some friends and guests to get some new input. And after that we produced the album and the final mix. It took us almost 9 months from the first note to the final mix.

DH: Tell us where Minddiver was recorded, and who else did you work with in the studio, in terms of production, programmers, engineers?.

ZV: Most of it was recorded in the Project Pitchfork studios (Candyland) which originally belonged to GUG. But we had to sell it for financial reasons. The final mix we did at the Soundgarden studio. That’s one of the best studios in Hamburg and we already recorded and mixed our famous Live At Soundgarden album there. The mixer, Chris, was our first sound engineer we had in the very early state of GUG.

DH: What is your working method once in the studio?.

ZV: Usually 2 people meet and work on a song. When this is more or less worked out the third member listens to it and gives his input. When we start doing music we mostly do it in private sessions at Haukes place. Its very relaxed. We drink tea and try out different things until an idea becomes a shape and we start to like it.

DH: Who or what is the dominant and most creative production factor within GUG?.

ZV: There are too many factors that make an album to pick out one certain factor that is outstanding.

DH: How do you feel about the songs and production of Minddiver, now you are sometime past it's creation?.

ZV: Its an excellent album, well produced, very catchy and deep emotional songs. I am proud of it.

DH: What can we expect form GUG when you approach the writing and recording of your next release?, what direction will the music evolve in?.

ZV: We even haven’t started to think about a new album, so I can’t tell you anything: re, this question.

DH: What plans do you have for international touring?.

ZV: We work on a tour for March - April 2002. There are no international gigs planned unless we get some offers. We might fly to Mexico next year and when Axel is back from his tour with VNV Nation we might start to contact promoters in USA to see if there is a realistic chance to tour there. We never made playing in England which is also a big shame. Whoever likes us to play and pays enough money to cover our costs, we will play there.

DH: What are your plans for the next few months leading us into 2002?.

ZV: We prepare our shows for the March - April 2002 shows and we are working on a remix single for Erinnnerung we want to push in the clubs. The mix will be faster and more lectronic and modern. I think it can be a real club burner such as Frozen is.

© Darrel Hughes - ELEKTRA, Krusafix.co.uk, 10.12.2001
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