egodram - Das Ich US fan site

From Bayreuth Bavaria, home of the Wagnerian opera, comes Das Ich. Their performance is a truly frightening vision, full of primal energy and imagery. Despite the language barrier their music comes through loud and intense, and like them or not, one can scarcely resist watching Das Ich. Behind this awesome display are a most personable group of people. Das Ich is comprised mainly of Bruno (composer,producer,creator) and Stefan (vocalist and dancer) who, along with a live drummer and a second keyboardist, put on an excellent show.

Das Ich: Since 1989. Before that we were in some different bands. They were more New Romantic or New Wave, but then we tried to do something really expressive with the German lyrics. I think for the American public it's not so easy because they can't understand the lyrics, so we make it more of a concept with the show and everything. We released our first album "Die Propheten" in 1989. It was a big success in Europe. Then we had a long break for the band because we all had our other productions on Danse Macabre Records. We started doing some compilations. In September 1994 our new album is coming out. It's called "Staub" which is Dust in English. We will be doing a tour beginning in September throughout Europe.

Das Ich: At the moment it's really difficult, but we are trying to get a good deal with a bigger company, so we hope that perhaps in a few months it will be easier. We're on Cargo in the US right now but we're not getting any promotion. We're working on that. We're meeting with another company in New York soon and perhaps a contract will be signed.

Das Ich: At the moment there's a big gothic scene, but it's interesting that in Germany and Europe it's not only the gothic scene. I think in Germany we have five to ten thousand goths, but a lot of normal and mainstream people are listening to such a sound. There's a lot of interest in industrial and alternative as well.

Das Ich: In the past we listened to "Einstürzende Neubauten" and stuff like that. And the English band "Curve".

Das Ich: It's difficult to explain, but with each album it has its own concept. Our first album, Die Propheten, was a concept about a dream. Someone forced to dream. In the dream all the symbols of religion are coming up and he's beginning to analyze all these symbols. At the end of the whole story in the last song, he wakes and he's gotten rid of religion. It's something that tries to show our own opinion of the fight which everyone has with religion, because there's all these symbols we see in our youth and they are so strong. They give you such a bad feeling. For instance, the Catholics are very strong in Bavaria and they've got such bad symbols. They give children a lot of fear and you will have this when you are growing up and so on. We are trying to overthink it. Our new stuff is different. It's about politics. It's about social problems and envirornmental problems. We try to give each record its own concept. A whole story.

Das Ich: Das Ich means "the ego". Our music tries to show one person in common in music and in words and in acting out their dreams and such. We don't try to give a big message or anything, it's all about the ego. I think it's influenced by German Expressionism. Like Brecht and the over-ego. One problem is that a lot of people from the media are thinking that we are doing some satanic music or something, but that's not true. Bavaria is such a religious place. They really try to give us this image.

Das Ich: Yes, it's our label. There's a lot of other bands on it. About twelve I think. There's one band called "Printed At Bismarks Death". They just released two albums. They're really well known in Germany. We've got "Placebo Effect" and "Tilt". I think they are known here.

Das Ich: No, this is our first time. It's really great. I think the stages are more relaxed than at home. The people are very nice.

Robin: What do you think about Procession (...the World Gothic Festival from 1994)?

Das Ich: It's a great concept to do a tour like this with one band from each country. I want to say a really big "thank you" to William Faith who organised it all. He's a great guy. And for us it's great to do this tour in the States.

Das Ich: Yes, we have a lot of festivals but it's not usually with bands from different countries. We had a big "Danse Macabre" festival tour through Germany and Belgium. We played at the Womad festival with Peter Gabriel with bands from all countries.

Das Ich: Basically it's from Stefan. It's our idea to combine music with strong expressive dancing like this, and Stefan was doing dancing like this before on his own. It's really coming all from him. The only influence is perhaps the desire for freedom of expression. One message in Stefan's dancing is to behave as you are, not as anyone wants you to be.