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 Elf interview:The name ELF is one that needs no introduction. He is simply one of the best known musicians/singers in the German punk scene & has been for almost 30 years. As a fan of his music in all its incarnations it was definately an honor to do this so I really want to thank ELF for taking the time to answer these questions. I think his fans will be pleased!! :) -Mikki 8/09 DML: Where did you grow up & what music inspired you back then to make your own? ELF: I grew up in the northern parts of Hamburg. Inspiring music was first three LPs my parents had: Chuck Berry, Elvis and one of the Beatles. Next stop was 70s Glam Rock and then came the first Ramones LP.... DML: When did you start making music and how and why? ELF: I had my first guitar lessons when I was 15, that was in 1977. I took the lessons for about 1 year and then we started forming a Punk Band. The reason to do that was simple. We heard the first Punk LPs, Ramones and The DAMNED, and decided that we want to play this kind of music ourselves. "Here are three chords, now start your own band...." DML: I'm also curious how you got the name "Elf". I imagine you weren't given that at birth... ELF: Thats a nickname I got in school before the whole punk thing started. I had an Alice Cooper T-Shirt and my friends thought it is funny to call me Elvis because thats more cool than Alice. After a while all the nicknames changed to a shorter version and my name up from then was ELF. Silly but true... DML: You've been in a lot of bands over the years (though you are probably best known for your involvement in Slime). Could you tell us a bit about the different bands you've been in, how you became a part of them and how they differed from one another in attitude as well as style? ELF: My first band after SLIME was "Targets" with Eddi and Stephane Larsson who both played in the last incarnation of Slime. When Slime split, we three wanted to carry on playing Punkrock and Targets was not so much different from the Slime style. After Targets split in 1986 I had 2 or three projects which are not interesting enough to mention, no records, no gigs. Next band after that was "Destination Zero". Our first record "Suiciety" recorded in 1988 was a bit more Rock then Punk, English lyrics and I was the singer because we could'nt find another. 2nd record with DZ called "Survive" recorded in 1990 was way more Rock then Punk, more inspired by the first Danzig LP and the CULT album "Electric". 3rd record was "Mr.Evil" another Rock album from 1991. In 1989 I was asked by Frank Z., mastermind of "Abwärts", if I would like to play guitar in his live band to promote the third Abwärts album on a live tour throughout Germany. Of course I did that because Abwärts has been a great band in the beginning of the 80s (more in the New Wave Underground then Punk) and it was a great honour to be asked to play with them. So I suddenly had two bands at the same time to play and record with from 1989 on. Then in 1990 we started playing live with SLIME again and I suddenly had 3 Bands at the same time. I did that until 1991 and then finished the Destination Zero project because that was too much to handle. We did 2 new studio albums and 1 Live album with SLIME and split in 1994. Abwärts split in 1995 after releasing 5 albums with me as guitarist. I never wanted to stop playing music and so I gave it a new try with my band -ELF-. We started in 1997, released 2 albums with Rock inspired Punk with German lyrics and split in 1999. In that time I was involved in another Punkrock project named C.I.A. . That was kind of an "Allstar" thing. We had Dirk, lead singer in SLIME, Marco from "Heiter bis Wolkig", Minne (Rubbermaids, Rubberslime) and Olly who played drums with the famous "Abstürzende Brieftauben". We did only one album which sold about 5000 copies and then split. A few years later, we started the "Rubberslime" project where we played Slime and C.I.A. songs for about 3 years. We did one Live album ("First Attack") and one studio album ("Rock'n Roll Genossen"). DML: Which bands were your favorite to be in and why? ELF: Slime of course and Abwärts because they were the most successful and in that time I could really make a living from working as a musician. Today my favorite band are The RABBLEROUSERS, check it out: www.myspace.com/therabblerousersband DML: Do you ever look back at videos and pictures from the 70's and 80's and wonder what the hell you had all been thinking? ELF: No, I don't really like to look back because of all the bad haircuts we had.... DML: The band, Slime, was very politically minded but your later music didn't deal with politics quite so much. Why is that? Also apparently some people feel that you no longer believe in the old songs & by playing them you are *betraying* punk (their words). I'm not sure why they feel that way but what do you say to people who think like that? ELF: First of all this is not true. If you look at the ELF records from 1997-98 you will see that we had very political lyrics. Maybe the Destination Zero project was more a not so much political inspired Rock Band, but that was what I felt I had to do at that time. I see myself as a musician not as a politician. We always wrote lyrics about what we felt is going wrong in the world but we never did that because we thought that we can sell more records with lyrics like that. We always did that for ourselves and not for a "scene". If some people say that I or the bands after Slime I was playing in were "betraying" Punk I would tell them an honest "Fuck Off" you don't know me and I don't care about opinions like that and I don't care what Punk means to other people. For me Punk means to do your own thing, to realize your own ideas in case of art, music, and maybe politics as well and not care about what other so called "Punks" or other people think about that. No compromise with anybody except the other band members that was what we always did and that's what I will always do. DML: Do you still believe in all the old songs or do you find some of them to be misguided now that you're older? ELF: Some of the old songs lyrics have to be seen in the context of the time they were written in, most of the old lyrics are still very up to date. DML: Also, in what ways do you think you have changed since 1979? ELF: I play much better guitar today.... DML: Speaking of politics, what is your current world view? Do you think we're all in a lot of trouble and should start building bomb shelters in our basements or do you think there is hope for the human race? ELF: I think that the world has not changed so much in the last 30 years in case of wars, violence, a lot of countries with no human rights etc. It's not getting any better in most parts of the world. But I think it makes no sense to have no more hope. If there is no hope, you can commit suicide. There have always been brave people all around the world who carry on risking everything for a better world and those are the people who give hope to the rest of the world. I mean people like Aung San Suu Kyi in Birma who is fighting against the military regime since many years or maybe a guy like Obama in the USA can change some things in America to make it a better place than it was in the last decade.... DML: You've been involved in the German punk scene for a couple of decades now. How has the scene changed for better or for worse since you first experienced it? ELF: I was only involved in the first few years of the german Punk movement, that was from 1977 until 1984. After Slime split in 1984 this first "Scene" was over and there was nothing like it after that. Today there are of course still a lot of young Punkrockers around but I'm not so much involved in this scene that I could tell if it's better or worse than the scene that we had back in the old days. I see all those young bands playing Punk music and that's good enough for me but thats all I can answer to this question. DML: You are certainly one of, if not THE, best known names in the German punk scene. How do you feel about that? Does it sometimes make life difficult? ELF: No....it sometimes makes it easier to talk to people you don't know and to play gigs with some new band etc... DML: Your MySpace page says you are from Bremen? Yet you seem to have quite an affection for the St. Pauli area. Did you used to live in Hamburg or do you have another reason for liking that area? ELF: I'm living in Bremen since 4 years because my girlfriend Nici (Bassplayer in "Die Mimmi's) lives here. I was born and raised in Hamburg, I discovered this whole Punk thing there, I became a musician there, and Hamburg will always be my hometown No.1. DML: I saw you play with Die Mimmis last year at the Ruhrpott Rodeo (which was great!!) & it was really exciting to get to hear "A.C.A.B." played. I never thought I would hear a Slime song live!! And Dirk appeared at the recent Force Attack to play 3 Slime songs so you know people want to hear these songs. Is there any chance you might get back together for a tour so those who missed the band the first time around could also experience the greatness of Slime live on stage? If not, why? ELF: We have plans for a few gigs in 2010 because we realized that it could be the right time now to get up on stage once again. A 30 years anniversary tour could be good fun and we have really a lot of requests from our younger fans who never had the chance to see us live to do it one more time. DML: A fan had three specific questions for you so I am putting them together here for you: Why did you finish your solo project "ELF"? (for me, "German Angst" is one of the best German punk-rock albums!) ELF: After two records and maybe about 40 gigs the other bandmembers decided not to carry on with this punk band. The problem was, that they all were not so much into Punkrock music like me and they wanted to play more in their other Rockbands. DML: Did you ever consider a Destination Zero revival? ELF: No, definitely not! DML: What's going on with Ma Teng and Chris Both (two very great musicians you played with)? ELF: Ma Teng is working in some Film/Movie business and still plays with me in the "Minnies" band, thats a band with 5 adult musicians and about 8 children who are singing. Bandleader and songwriter is Minne who played in Rubberslime and C.I.A.. I don't have any contact to Chris Both, I only heard, that he was playing in "Razzia" a few years ago I think.... DML: Over the years you have played live with a lot of bands. Who were some of your favorites to play with and what shows really stick out for you as particularly memorable (good or bad) & why? ELF: I would say the 1990 Slime Show in the St.Pauli Millerntor stadium was the best gig ever because of the 15000 people there all singing our songs with us and pogoing to it. Another great experience was the production of the ABWÄRTS album "Herzlich Willkommen Im Irrenhaus". We've been in Copenhagen, Denmark for 4 weeks in the studio of Flemming Rasmussen who was the producer of 3 great Metallica albums and working with a producer like Flemming was a totally outstanding thing in my life as a musician. DML: What have been your best & worst experiences while playing as a musician? ELF: The best ones I just mentioned in the question before. The bad ones I can't remember because I was maybe too drunk then.... DML: What songs are your favorites that were released either in a band or as a solo artist and are there any that you wish had never seen the light of day? ELF: Favorites: Deutschland, Bullenschweine, Störtebecker, Religion, Schweineherbst, Der Tod ist ein Meister aus Deutschland (Slime), König von Deutschland, Morituri Te Salutant, Rebellen (C.I.A.), Zonenzombie, Europa, Phil Collins Hymne, Fehlkonstruktion, Moritz Heroin, Hallo ich heiss Adolf (Abwärts). St.Pauli leuchtet nur hier (ELF & Rubberslime Version), Soldatenlied, Rock'n Roll Plenum (Rubberslime), Religion (ELF) Non Favorites: Mein kleines Hirn, Madalina Ray (ELF) because of the stupid lyrics. And I don't like most of the third Destination Zero album because we had no idea what we were doing and why.We just recorded an album that no one needed.... DML: What do you do besides make music? Work, hobbies, etc... ELF: I'm collecting stamps and go fishing, no, just joking. I have done some strange jobs to be able to carry on with music, like taxi driver, security for concerts, working in a record company in the promotion departement etc...All bullshit jobs, but if you need money for living, you have to work sometimes. The job I like the most is more a hobby. I am a Punkrock DJ once or twice a month in Bremen bars and sometimes in Hamburg as well. DML: Are there things that you still hope to achieve in the future &, if so, what are they? ELF: I want to be playing music as long as I can, that's all I need.... DML: I've really enjoyed all the music you've done in the past (& the present) and am looking forward to more great things from you in the future!! Thank you so much for doing this interview, is there anything you'd like to add? ELF: Thanks for the interesting questions and : Vive le Punk !!! More at: |
