Laibach - Interviews - Metal1.info

Deutsche Version lesen LAIBACH are in many aspacts not a band like others. To get an interview from the Slovenian artists‘ collective answered can take more than a year, for example. And of course not a single person answers, but the collective „we“. If that is not enough information for you, you will receive a quick and brief answer: „LAIBACH. Eber, Saliger, Dachauer & Keller. It doesn’t really matter, but we can assure you it’s LAIBACH. Best, LAIBACH Informbiro“. Well then …

LAIBACH emerged from an artist collective – is there still anything left of it today, or has it completely passed over to the LAIBACH music project?
LAIBACH was never “just a band“ or a music project; we were always thinking and functioning wider and collectively. We don’t consider ourselves artists, but engineers of human souls.

In this context: Do you see your music as the centre of your artistic creation or rather as a medium that transports your art?
We see it as a language that transports ideas in a way that other languages cannot.

Some time ago a book with scientific treatises on LAIBACH has been published. Have you studied it, and what do you think of it when art critics and philosophers try to interpret the motifs in the art of LAIBACH?
We see every interpretation relevant, even those that we don’t agree with. Some are more relevant, some less. They help us to understand ourselves and other people, particularly those, who are affected by LAIBACH.

Your appearance in North Korea can certainly be seen as action art. Were you not afraid that something might go completely wrong – and you might be arrested? Already in the welcome speech you weren’t exactly welcomed …
Of course we were afraid, we always are, but where would courage be without fear?

In the original version of the documentary about the show were interview sequences with a well-known musician from Germany, which had to be cut out afterwards under threat of legal action. Why?
He praised LAIBACH too highly.

Then you were on tour with „A Sound Of Music“ that you interpreted for Korea. Did that also work as a concept in Europe, since the film is far less legendary here than in Asia?
Of course it did; the “Sound Of Music” is among the ten most popular films of all times in the western cultural hemisphere, so it must have worked as the very concept of Europe. Just remember the Goebbels family, the Fritzl family or Trump family and many similair ones, creating Europe and America’s history, culture and politics.

On Brutal Assault 2018 you played an extremely dark, politically dystopian show. What motivated you and is there a chance to see a comparable show on an indoor tour?
With a good sound system and lights and with a great, willing crowd everything happens by itself. Indoor or outdoor – it makes no difference to us.

On the other hand, you play „Journey Through The Universe“ live, with you wearing that cowboy-head. How seriously can you take yourself, and how much humour can you show as LAIBACH?
We always took humour as a deadly serious matter and of course we also take ourselves seriously enough.

Mina Špiler wasn’t on stage during the last tour. Isn’t she part of LAIBACH anymore?
Mina will always be a part of Laibach, but now she has a life to give to her children first.

Your last album was „The Sound Of Music“, before that „So sprach Zarathustra“ – two albums using kind of a template or arranged for a purpose (as a theater-play). Was „Spectre“ something different in so far as it was created without such a basis?
Life itself is a very spectral theatre play of a kind and “Spectre” (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion organisation) was somehow always part of our lives.

Did the music on this album from your point of view have more artistic expressiveness therefore?
We don’t know why would Spectre be more artistically expressive than other albums; it is just different in its subject and therefore it resonates differently.

Are you planning to do another album like that?
Probably not like that, but yes, we are working on many new albums at the moment, researching many different directions.

Another project you have contributed to is „Iron Sky – The Coming Race“. How does that fit together, what fascinates you about „Iron Sky“?
The director, Timo Vuorensola. He is a great guy in all aspects. And the plot is good. Plus we love trash, always did.

The first one was still very dark, the second one is completely bizarre and more humorous. Which one did you like better?
We don’t judge other people’s work and we don’t want to make decisions on the basis of taste or pleasure; in our decisions we only follow our instincts and our destiny.

Altogether, with LAIBACH you traditionally make art and ironic actions. What comes next?
Some serious actions and some non-traditional art!