Interview with Kai Schmidt of Funker Vogt-By The Elektrobank on 5/28/99
PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS INTERVIEW WITHOUT ASKING FOR MY PERMISSION!

Me-1. Who are the members of FV, live and studio crew?
Kai-Up to now we have only Gerrit and Jens in the studio, live they get some support from Bjoern of Ravenous and Thomas playing guitar.

Me-2. How did you get involved with Funker Vogt?
Kai-I was always involved in Ravenous, doing management and writing some lyrics, so when Funker Vogt was born out of Ravenous, I just did the same for them.

Me-3. How popular is FV in Germany? Sales in Germany vs. the US?
Kai-We never talk about sales in the public, and on the other hand I wouldn't believe in sales figures a band is headlining in an interview, but as it looks at the moment we sell much more in Germany. This is one reason,why we are still not sure if it is worth to do a tour in the states.

Me-4. Do you have a regular job besides manager?
Kai-I have almost finished my biology studies and hope that I can start this year with my phd and make some money, you cannot live by managing industrial bands, that is just fun, the money is just enough for the expense.

Me-5. What would you be doing if you weren't part of Funker Vogt?
Kai-Standing on the other side of the stage. I think nothing in particular.

Me-6. Why do you think people always compare you with Leaetherstrip and Wumpscut? In my opinion I see almost no similarities between them and you except the distorted vocals and maybe some songs.
Kai-That is exactly what I am talking about. We belong to the same scene and so there must be some similarities. But the music itself is completely different. I wouldn't say Wumpscut is a copy of Leaether Strip, nor is Funker a copy of one of these bands. People just didn't take the time to listen carefully, they just hear distorted vocals on hard electronic music and say oh yeah that sound exactly like leaether strip.

Me-7. How did FV get signed up to Zoth Ommog and then picked up by Metropolis?
Kai-We send out a couple of demos and got some offers. The best offer was from Zoth and it was the label we wanted from the very first beginning.

Me-8. What influences your lyric writing? War seems like a major theme.
Kai-As Funker Vogt has a certain image, the lyrics have to fit in. But there are also some topics beside war, but yes it is true that there are lots of lyrics about war. I am just writing about things I see, and I do this most of the time very bluntly. Try to hit them straight in the face and they still don't understand.The lyrics develop in different ways. Sometimes I just see something happening and want to put this action in a lyric or a story a friend told me. Sometimes it starts with a sentence I hear or read somewhere which has a good sound to me. Then I try to develop a story around this sentence or sometimes it is just a word.

Me-9. How do you feel if someone calls Funker Vogt a neo-nazi band?
Kai-That really fucks me up. I think how stupid can people be? You can also say Funker Vogt are all Aliens, and this is much more likely.

Me-10. How is the industrial scene in Germany?
Kai-We have lots of clubs, where they play this music. And during the whole year there are also lots of concert. So it is not too bad at the moment. The only problem with the concert is, that the people getting tyred of them. In some places people are just standing still during a concert. That is really boring. I wanna see them dance and have a good time. Otherwise what is the point in going to a concert?

Me-11. What band would you want as an opener on your own tour and who would you would like to open up for?
Kai-Hm, I am not quite sure what Gerrit and Jens want, and even I cannot think of support act right now. I think a band who is doing slightly something different from our music would be good. Actually I would like to have Novakill, a new industrial band from Sydney doing a support, they have some quiet good songs and besides that they are friends of mine. I think it might be fun to play a support for NIN or Rammstein.

Me-12. What is your opinion of the MP3 scene? Have you evert tried to upload like a song or two on MP3.com for more exposure?
Kai-No not yet, people which are interested can download fragments from our homepage, but not in mp3. We might do this in the future. We will see.

Me- 13.I have seen photos of Funker Vogt live and I see that the band wears military fatigues, is this to keep with the military theme?
Kai-Yes that is true. Just during the last concert we tried a new stage outfit, but I think we will go back to the camouflage clothes. It just fits,and people have accepted it.

Me-14. Do you think Industrial would break into the mainstream around the years 2000-2002?
Kai-That would be cool. I think lots of people are afraid of this. I don't know why. I wouldn't mind to be a little bit more popular, but to be honest I cannot believe that this will happen with Funker Vogt. Some bands like Pitchfork, Deine Lakaien, Wolfheim, And One and other made it in the official charts and I think that is good. Makes the people aware that there is more than just the general mainstream stuff.

Me-15. Have you ever thought of making Funker Vogt "radio-friendly" or creating a side-project that is?
Kai-I don't think it will be possible to make Funker radio friendly, but yes we are thinking of a radio friendly side project. On the other hand we already have side-projects which are almost radio friendly.

Well there you have it, an interview with Kai Schmidt of Funker Vogt. I would like to thank him for taking the time to answer my questions.

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