Vor dem Tourabschluß Konzert in Hannover trafen wir Stephan Groth zum Interview. Ein wenig müde vom Vortag stand er uns Rede und Antwort und äußerte sich zur aktuellen Fansituation.

How would you describe apop? Are you a band with a lead singer, a solo artist with musicians?

It's a band ...
No, it has changed over the years. I've been the mainman all the way and it's still my vision, even if it's a real band now. It's build on the work I've done for so many years, but I gues it's normal. Every band is build on somebodys visions and ideas. But now we're just a band, a regular band.

The Voice of Kathy in "Kathy's Song" is a syntheziser voice from MacOS. Do you prefer Macs instead of Windows Computers? Do you use Macs?

Yes, I'm totaly Mac. I use Mac for everything there is. Well, the Voice of Kathy is from the old MacOS 9. I even got a mail from Steve Jobs after releasing the song where he said "Thank you", and he was happy that we were Mac Fans.

Would you describe yourself a kind of "computer fanatic"?

I got my first computer when I was maybe ten years old, about '81. I've never been a programmer, I just like to play computer games and always liked computerdesign, of course computer music and even now I'm listening to 8bit stuff, music from the commodore64 and stuff like that. I listen to it daily. It's been one of the most important ifluences of my life. I'm the first generation ever in history who grew up with music from games. So it's been very important.

Is this why you created songs - like on harmonizer - which sounded like 8bit stuff? Photoshop sucks ...

Yeah, Photoshop sucks. That did not really have to do something with computers. That was another thing. I got a lot of hate mail after that because there are a lot photoshop fans ... On the new album we have also sounds from the music chip of the commodore64. I just like those really old sounds. That's great!

Your albumtracks are much different to the released single versions. Which ones do you like more?

Album. Do you mean on the last album?

Yeah, any album. For example Kathys Song ...

Oh yeah, there are 15 different versions of it. 12 remixes ...

Usually, what ends up on the album is what I am most about. Singles are moste times some part of record companies strategy. What ever ends up on the album is the most true and how I wanted it to be.

Your lyrics changed a lot during the years. On the last albums the tracks were telling stories, now they are getting more simple.

Are they? I don't know. I haven't followed it really. It's a process that comes to me. It's tons of work. There's always two levels to understand the lyrics. First level is if you just listen to the song on the radio, the first impression. And when you hear them instantly, if you sit down and go through them there is other levels where the lyrics are saying other things. And that why on this album we printed the lyrics for the first time. We never had printed lyrics before. One of the reasons was, that I was really really happy with the lyrics. They were very personal and I think they are very good!

What do you think about the fan discussions between the "old ones" and the new fans? Many people say you became to much commercial with signing at gunrecords as a division of SonyBMG.

Yeah, I still think that "Welcome to earth" was the most commercial album we made. People have over the years forgotten that, I don't know why. I mean, Kathys Song was in the charts, as we just talked about. There are 12 remixes of it. That sounds commercial to me. It's been put out on a million sold compilation cd's. That's commercial. I mean, that we are doing commercial things thats no news. That's news of the 90ies. That we are doing popmusic is no news ...

How do you feel with having so many new - young - fans?

That's very good, I love that. I think all their parents should send me a "Thank you"-Email. 'Cause we are giving their kids some real good music, so they don't have to listen to Britney Spears all the time ... So we are doing a great job and their parents should thank us.
No, when I was young once, too. I went to a Depeche Mode concert when I was 15. I know what it's like to be a kid in the front row and scream. That's cool, it's a part of my youth. Because I've discovered Depeche Mode at a early age my music direction changed and that's good and thats what's happening to these kids.
I've seen on the internet how older fans say things like "teenie stuff" and all that. It's strange, they were probally once 15 years old themselves. Slaging people of because they are young, what the fuck is that about?
I don't care. Whoever want's to listen to apop can listen to it, I don't care if they are five years old or so on!

Interview: Magdalena Pawlas/Michael Vogel
Fotos: Magdalena Pawlas

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