For those into industrial music, many U.S. fans may not even be aware that right now we are speaking with a band that not only has releases going way back to 1988, but has also had remixes done for them by such legendaries as Die Krupps and KMFDM! I recently asked Volker why he thinks American audiences have been unable to sample the Girls Under Glass experience, and it does have a bit to do with the fact that "Firewalker" actually got American label interest, but it's best to hear it in his words:"Okay, I'll start with the Nuclear Blast story. After being on an independent label for ages we wanted to be on an internationally working label. Nuclear Blast was interested and they had an international net of label partners and distributors. The U.S. department was our biggest hope because we see a good chance for us in this market, but Nuclear Blast wasn't very active in promoting and marketing this record so we didn't have the chance to get built up to American audiences. The change to another label was due to Nuclear Blast's decision of concentrating on metal only acts, basically we didn't fit into their roster anymore. By that time we were already in touch with Van Richter Records, as they were quite impressed by our project Trauma. So I sent him also Girls Under Glass material and after awhile we decided to work together. At that time however we didn't have plans for doing a new record, and having just one Girls Under Glass record released wouldn't give you the right impression because most of our records are very different from each other. I believe this compilation "Nightmares" is perfect to give you an idea of what we are all about and what has happened in the last 13 years. We already made a new album that will hopefully come out next year in the US."

After listening to "Nightmares" in great depth, I can undertsand fully what Volker is saying, you'll hear some synth pop covers and downright harsh and heavy industrial numbers. I can hear some of his best works with tracks lifted from "Christus" and "Darius" while the worst song seems to come from not only their earliest album, but also a different lead singer on this one track 'Ten Million Dollars,' which Volker explains: "Well, you're absolutely right about 'Ten Million Dollars,' it's utter crap! Tom was a founding GuG member and his way of singing was obviously a bit more exaggerated than my way of singing. After two albums he decided to stop doing music, he was bored and wanted to concentrate on other things. We had decided at that point if we just give up the band or give it a try with myself doing vocals (in the early years I was jut playing guitar). Luckily we kept going and became more successful with the new lineup. ''Flowers'' is a very intense record that I like a lot, I must say my least favorite albums are ''Humus'' and ''Firewalker.'' We do try to vary our styles and musical tunes with every album; we don't like to repeat ourselves for years and years, of course that's a bit boring. You are also right in sayimg that ''Christus'' is one of the strongest records, such as ''Darius'' is. ''Darius'' was released one year before ''Christus'' and much more poppy. Before ''Christus'' we founded the band Trauma and decided to concentrate on the more moody, mellow and dark electronic side with this project. For GuG this meant that we can concentrate on the much harder side of our musical influence. We just split our musical ideas into two projects." Wow. I actually own both Trauma projects and never had any idea that it was this group that was involved in the creation of such an interesting side project.

Covers. Eventually all the best bands in the industrial scene either contribute their remixing skills to other favorite bands or projects, or if you have been repected and in the scene long enough, bands offer to do remixes for you. I think a strong testament to the longevity of this band is the fact that KMFDM AND Die Krupps both have remixes on this compilation, and Volker once again explains how this came about: "First off, the press has always been very friendly. We are a highly respected band, maybe because we never had this big success such as Project Pitchfork, Deine Lakaien or Wolfsheim have in Germany. For our fans and for the media it was always very obvious that musical integrity was more important than record sales, and even when we had a good sales success with a certain record, for example the album ''Darius,'' the follow up was totally different. So we were never the type of band that sells out by copying a certain success oriented style, we just do what we do, and you must admit this is very untypical in the music business. On the other hand there were always juornalists still comparing a new record with our first ''Humus'' and saying we were the best in the beginning, a typical reaction which I can understand, though ''Humus'' is crap and we became better with nearly every record. KMFDM were friends of ours in the late 80's before they left Germany and moved to the United States. Die Krupps we got to know a couple of years later, because Hauke our keyboard player has a diploma as an electro- technician and invented a new instrument (a data to midi converter) that was announced as the best quality kind of thing available in Germany at the time. So lots of musicians asked Hauke to build one of his converters, and that's how he met Chris from Die Krupps for the very first time. We asked him and Jurgen to do a mix for us, and they did for the track 'Die Ziet.' Very simple thing." So now we come to the covers they have chosen for this album, one being a sort of movie song for "Halloween," and a Gary Numan song. "Gary Numan," Volker tells us, "is definitely one of the most influencing artists for us. We see ourselves as children of the 80's, a most impresive time for new bands and new sounds. Of course we don't only want to transport this sound into the nineties, we only try and make our roots obvious, combining this with modern sounds and modern production. There are not many bands that really influenced us. These days I am still into very melancholic and dark stuff like Type O Negative, Tiamat, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode and good 'ol Numan. We don't try to copy the bands we cover but show our respect and give all versions a strong GuG appeal, which we think works."

Wrapping this up, there were a few points the liner notes of "Nightmares" didn't make clear. One was the use of female vocals, something GuG used to strong effect on a couple of tracks. "Oops," Volker seems to ask ashamedly. "Did I forget the chicks? Hmm, let me think. On ''Positive'' and ''Darius'' we had Conny Millison singing, a very good friend of the band. On ''Christus'' it was Yvonne Ritz-Andersen, who is a well known singer-songwriter lady from Denmark now based in Hamburg. This was a studio job for her, very quick and professional. On ''Crystals And Stones'' we had a female ex-colleague of mine, Sanne Sprenger, who has quite an interesting voice. Generally we like to work with different guest musicians and singer on our records. Music is communication, every record is a new adventure so we like to work with new and different people to see how new collaborations work and what effect this has on our musical result." Finally, the touring situation. A band that has been able to exist for 13 years has obviously toured quite a bit, though Volker's take on the touring scene, and my question on his touring the U.S. may show people over here that maye there is more work that needs to be done before more overseas bands venture onto our shores: "We are not very big fans of big tours. It's not that I don't like playing live at all, but we are very keen in optimal sound and lights and effects so for the last three tours inbetween five years we always lost money. Because of that we haven't earned any money for ages now and that's getting a bit depressing after awhile. I doubt that we will tour in the US unless any of our GuG records become a bit sucessful there. At least we have to be able to cover all costs and believe me, touring in the States is mega expensive, especially for a German band. The other thing is that we don't like to be treated like jerks and that's what usually happens in the States: For most local promoters musicians are just a stinky, drug taking bunch of asses and I don't like that attitude. Everywhere else in the world it's very different. We played in France and Spain, and there everybody takes care of you and is very friendly and helpful." So when will we see Girls Under Glass's massive back catalog released in the States? "I have no idea," Volker says. "In the moment the rights for our older records still belong to our old label that is just not able to set up anything in countries apart from Germany, which is a shame. As soon as we get the rights back I have to deal with the rights for the U.S. First of all we want to release our last record ''Equilibrium'' stateside, as that album is announced to be our best one in nearly all the German papers. It's a masterpiece and has to come out in the U.S.!"

© Vibrations Of Doom Magazine, #22
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