**The Making of NEU! (Self-Titled) - featuring Michael Rother**

Intro:

Dan Nordheim: You’re listening to Life of the Record. Classic albums, told by the people who made them. My name is Dan Nordheim.

NEU! formed in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1971 by Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger. Rother and Dinger had joined Kraftwerk before leaving to form their own band. As they began playing as a duo, they booked studio time in Hamburg and asked Conny Plank to produce the sessions. While recording over four nights, they ended up with what would become the debut NEU! album, released in 1972.

In this episode, for the 50th anniversary, Michael Rother looks back on how the album came together. This is the making of NEU!.

Michael Rother: I’m Michael Rother (German pronunciation). You can call me Michael Rother (American pronunciation) and I'm here to talk about the first NEU! album which is already 50 years old. I'm of course happy to hear that younger generations pick up these ideas. And maybe if they pick up also the basic wish, which was the foundation of the music of NEU! and my idea about music, to be different, then maybe that would also lead to new unheard music or somebody being immodest. Because of course I was quite the opposite of a modest musician. It was quite hilarious to think you could reinvent the wheel, sort of, but that was the truth.

Well, of course in the beginning when I was 14, 15, 16 and I was listening to the new music that came from Great Britain mostly, and some of the music also from the States, but most of the music, Beatles, Stones, Kinks, et cetera, came from Great Britain. And it was exciting for me. I had a very bad guitar at home, but my mother was so supportive. She endured my endless finger picking around notes, making mistakes probably and probably making terrible music for several years. And then I joined the band Spirits of Sound. There were two people, or three people actually for a time in my class and they were in this band and they invited me to join them. And I was the youngest, but because they realized that I was the guy with the melodies so I became the lead guitar player and that really filled me with so much joy. It was also a difficult situation. My father died in 1965 and I guess being in a band, sort of an extended family, also supported me. But the music thrilled me totally for several years. My main wish, my only wish was to sound as close as possible to the originals, so to imitate them as best as I could. But that gradually changed. There was not a specific moment when I suddenly thought I can't go on with this. In the late sixties of course, turning to an age of 18, 19, reading philosophy and being interested in politics and so your mind sort of takes on a new view of the world, of your own identity. And I think that was the reason why I realized that I needed to overcome the traditions if I wanted to be able to express my own musical identity, being free from the heroes of the past. The political backdrop and the sociological changes, the upheaval, student rising and also terrible things like the Vietnam War, those were topics my friends and I and young students with whom I sometimes met, were discussing. And this was clearly in the air. There was so much change in the art field, also in the film world, with Wim Wendors and Fassbinder was there, Herzog and other film directors from Germany and other countries, which had clearly a new take on filming. So there were inspirations coming from other fields, politics with students, demonstrations, a lot of questioning of authority everywhere, I guess that also influenced me. Later, these changes that were happening in the political cultural world, political figures I looked up to were Willy Brandt for instance. He became the German Chancellor, I think in ‘69. And he was the first to look towards the countries of Eastern Europe trying to establish connections, in the end, also asking for forgiveness for the atrocities German soldiers, Nazi soldiers, had committed in their countries. This was something I totally supported. NEU! by the way, played for in support of Willy Brandt at one event in 1972. He was a great figure, maybe, you know, from history that Willy Brandt knelt in Wasaw at a memorial in memory of the victims of Nazi terror. And that was something which enraged the conservatives, of course, how could a German Chancellor kneel somewhere in a foreign country? But I was totally impressed by that. And anyway, all this backdrop probably made it quite easy for me to develop this idea of the importance of being individual, of overcoming conservative structures, also in music, and being unique.

It was a period of maybe two years in which I became more frustrated. I still played with the band. I felt a bit bad because when I finally told them that I would join Craft Work and would no longer be able to play with them, or didn't want to play with them, the band broke up. But there was no choice for me, really. It was letting go of the past, leaving it behind, the musical heroes of the past behind while still loving them. But instead the focus was on creating my own music. I already stopped the fast finger movements, for instance. That was already something I had dropped. Being a lead guitarist in the 60s with heroes like Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton, later Jimi Hendrix. The challenge was to be able to move around the guitar neck with that speed and play many notes. Of course, they are great guitar players, but I stopped my hand and my fingers from fast forward movements and started to instead to focus on individual notes. So that was already the case when I joined Kraftwerk. In early 1971, I was working as a conscientious objector at a mental institute near Dusseldorf. So when some of the other objectors were also demonstrating with me in Dusseldorf. This one guy, who was also a guitar player, asked me whether I would like to join him because he had an invitation to go to a recording studio, to the studio of a band called Kraftwerk in Dusseldorf. I had never heard of Kraftwerk and thought the name was rather silly, I must say. But after contemplating for a few moments, I luckily decided to join him. And so I ended up in the Kraftwerk studio where Florian Schneider and Klaus Dinger were sitting on a sofa. But Ralf Hütter was playing organ and he was accompanied by a drummer, Charly Weiss and I thought that sounded interesting. So at some point I picked up a bass, a bass guitar, and just started jamming with them. I very much enjoyed that experience because back then, in 1971, I was very alone. There was no one in my site who had any similar hopes, aspirations. And so it was the lucky circumstance that I did join this fellow musician and went to the Kraftwerk studio where I met Klaus Dinger, Florian Schneider, Ralf Hütter and found that I was definitely not alone. There were a few, not many, but these musicians at least were on a similar path. I wouldn't say identical, but of course each one of us has had their own specific ideas where they wanted to go, take the music. But I could relate to them. And that was the beginning where suddenly everything made sense and I could start creating music that was Central European, basically, and free from blues and had some kind of musical background that had to do with the traditions of my family, of our families. And it was very easy for me to communicate musically with Ralf Hütter. Actually, I know that everyone in the room realized that there was real understanding, common understanding in the air. We exchanged phone numbers and I was not surprised to receive a phone call maybe one or two weeks later when Florian Schneider asked me whether I would be interested in joining the band for live performances. And that's when the story really took off.

With Kraftwerk, Klaus Dinger and I had some incredibly exciting concerts. Some were so explosive and I was totally blown away by the power with which Klaus Dinger played the drums and Florian Schneider also creating super exciting sounds on treated flute with octave and fuzz and everything. So it was a very primitive, simple music, very dynamic, and the good nights were amazing. But when we tried to record an album, the second Kraftwerk album with Conny Plank in Hamburg, we realized that the concept which we had, it was not suited for the recording studio. We couldn't transfer the excitement of the live appearances into this sterile atmosphere of a recording studio. So after recording maybe 25 minutes, I think that's what we got on tape, we gave up. And it was quite clear to all of us, without probably even talking about it, that we didn't want to continue working together. The problem was that both Klaus and especially Florian Schneider were very spiky characters, with some issues going on which made them at, sometimes rather nasty (laughs). But it was easier for me to imagine working with Klaus, although he was also quite a different personality. To be honest, he had traits which made it impossible for me to consider him a friend. But as an artistic collaborator, he was just incredible. We thought, “Okay, let's give it a try and work as a duo. We should book with Conny Plank at a studio and then try to record what we can deliver.” Slightly different concept, of course. And so that's what we did. We talked with Conny, he was immediately enthusiastic. It was very easy to convince Conny Plank to do something crazy because he was just as enthusiastic about developing new structures and being inventive in the studio and in music. So we didn't have to push him in any way. He just went along and helped us in a great way. Neither Klaus Dinger nor I had any experience, especially me. That was the first time I really was in a recording studio, apart from one recording with Spirits of Sound, but that doesn't really count. Klaus Dinger and I were very careful and wanted to avoid any influence or power of, say, by a record company. And therefore we thought about how much money we could put up and scratch together the money to book the recording studio with the help of Connie Planck, who put in equal share. We were very optimistic, really. We could only afford four nights. That was all we had, all the money we had for the four nights. And we worked at night, because the rates at night were cheaper than during the daytime. Although I must say I hate working all night long (laughs). If I look back at the situation, I don't know how lucky we were that it was possible to record what ended up on the first NEU! album in such a short time.

“Hallogallo”

Yeah, we somehow managed to get music on tape. We could easily have failed, really. It was a matter of luck that we ended up with enough music on the tape to release the first NEU! album. And these days, if I listen to a track like, especially a track like “Hallogallo,” which has for me still so much of a mystery, it's like a cat. I look at it and I think, “Yeah, it is really good.” And these things Conny Plank also put together, the guitars, he mixed my guitars, the backwards, forward guitars. That was a great job and so impressive, because I couldn't imagine myself being able to memorize all those parts where the guitars were great, where he could show them, and at other parts where the guitars were not so good. So it was all done manually. The mix was done by pushing the faders up and down. And Conny Plank also did a wonderful job recording the drums. That was something Conny was very much into. He had given the recording of drums a lot of thought and experimentation and I think they still sound great today.

We always went together into the recording room to record the basic tracks, Klaus played drums, I played guitar on “Hallogallo,” and so that was the foundation, the basic elements. More than ten minutes in the case of “Hallogallo,” I think nearly eleven minutes. And then the next step was to decide what to do because we didn't have a clear, precise plan of the elements that would go on top of these basic recordings. It was clear that I would play guitar and that I would try to create something that we used to call clouds, like melodies that change color in the sky, while the motorik, I should not even use that word, but the car or the vehicle you're riding on, moves along the highway to a distant point or maybe even the horizon. And a lot of that was, of course, everything happened on the spot. And there were some lucky circumstances. For instance, when I recorded the first overdub, I had a wonderful feedback. I had Altec Lansing loudspeakers, my own guitar box I brought along. And with fuzz and wah and the feedback, I was able to play the long syrupy notes that weave through the air. And Klaus played this kind of rhythmic, very interesting, also with wah pedal. In the case of “Hallogallo,” this guitar was very important. It still is very important and gives some propulsive element. And then I recorded more melodies forwards and then Conny turned the tape around and I played more melodies. I was of course inspired by the sound of the music running backwards, something that always interests me. I love backwards sounding music and also slowed down music. So this was great. I was in the recording room, I was surprised by this and of course very happy to hear the music like that. And when Conny Plank turned the tape back into the right direction, suddenly you had these backwards guitars mixing with the forward melodies. And the next step was, which I already described, the magic, the incredible talent of Conny Plank to memorize the good parts or the right parts, where the guitars would meet in the sky. Well, it's just a picture, but I feel the melodies flying around somewhere above my head and it's magic.

Klaus was a magnificent, powerful, determined drummer. But he was not a skilled drummer like for instance, Jaki Liebezeit, who was a magician at the drums. He was a virtuoso. And Klaus was like me. We were both similar in that respect, a primitive player. So he was the best Klaus Dinger impersonator like I'm the best Michael Rother impersonator on guitar or on other instruments. And it was only very clear from the first moment when I did rehearsals with Kraftwerk that his powerful drumming style enabled magnificent rides. Having said this, because praising Klaus is important and recognizing his qualities, what I am a bit confused or unhappy about is when I have the feeling that people don't realize what they enjoy. They think it is the drumming, it is the combination of the drumming and all the other instruments. If you take one element away, it would not be the same. Nobody would want to listen to ten minutes of the drums in solo or my guitars in solo. So really the meaning of the music comes together only in the combination of all the elements we played on all the instruments. So I don't know, it's clear to me, although it's sometimes difficult to imagine how nonmusicians hear music, but it is clear that the drums as sound source are the easiest to identify, probably for the audience. So you can hear this is a snare drum and that's a cymbal crashing and so on. And of course the drumming is very, very impressive. But again, the magic happens when you combine it with what gives the power, the meaning, and that the meaning comes from the musical instruments that are creating a harmonic, melodic world, along with the drumming.

If you imagine just one element missing in a track like “Hallogallo,” the whole thing could have easily fallen apart. It is a very dynamic song, but also it has this frailty and I don't know really how this was possible. This beauty and this frailty and like I said, even today I'm confused and surprised and of course thankful for Conny Plank for organizing those sounds in that beautiful way. Everything could have also failed because of the lack of time. So actually that is something I even try to do today, although I have all the time in the world nowadays with my own recording studio and of course with computers, endless hours of recording possible. And if I don't finish the song today, I will do it tomorrow or next year. But back then everything had to be done so quickly. There was not any time really to contemplate and to fuss about details. So it was like creating something on the run.

“Sonderangebot”

“Sonderangebot, special offer,” yeah that’s the translation. That was the result of Klaus playing cymbals with a bow. I don't know if he used my bow. I played also bass with a bow and sometimes guitar with a bow, and he did very delicate sounds on the cymbals with the bow. And when Conny Plank phased, put everything into phasing, that's when suddenly these recordings get some kind of new dimension and it starts floating around.

Actually, I'm not so sure really how I played that. I didn't have an EBow at the time. So maybe it was just a guitar with a volume pedal, which I liked to use, also on other tracks. But maybe I maybe thinking about it now, I think I used the bottle to play that melody on “Sonderangebot.” Yeah, I didn't have a proper slide finger glass tube or something like that at the time. So I used a bottle which contained fluid for the cleaning of the guitar (laughs).Yeah, there was no real plan. So unfortunately, I cannot recall the order in which we approached the songs. Maybe we recorded the basic tracks on several songs and then picked one to continue. And then maybe Klaus went into the studio and did the bowed cymbals. It wasn't so much the idea of, “We have to have another four minutes.” It was something that we enjoyed doing. So also, the other tracks, apart from the main three elements, “Weissensee,” “Negativland,” and “Hallogallo,” they were also essential for the feeling of the album.

“Weissensee”

I had this guitar, which I called “dehgitarre.” It's quite a pun, it's a joke, because every string was tuned to the note D. And I played it with a bottle. I hit it, the strings were slightly higher. And this, together with a bowed bass, I think, created a drone, which is still interesting for me. The drone hasn't gone away. And the melody I actually had already in my mind before we met in Hamburg for the recordings. And Klaus played wonderful drums on “Weissensee.” He was a drummer, that's very important, of course, who at the same time, while playing drums, had his eyesight on the whole musical picture. So he was not a drummer who was only bothered about getting his drums in a perfect way, but thinking how this certain feel or stop, whatever, would help shape the sound. The song and the melody is, of course, deceptively, if you will, simple, innocent and peaceful, which is not deceptive. It is meant that way.

These harmonic changes, they were something I really thought about for quite a long time, whether they were justified at all. Because it was the beginning of a part that went on for many years of trying to assemble one step to the next of a new musical language that was mine. So I wanted to avoid running into cliches of traps, of things that were around already. But in the case of “Weissensee,” I convinced myself, and I'm glad that I did, that this was justified, this harmonic change, because it is like breathing in and out. And so if you listen to the melody and when it comes to the point of the harmonic change, this is like breathing in. It's tension in the body. And when on the other side it is released, it is like breathing out, exhaling and like water coming down a waterfall. And then the drone continues. So this was something that I very much enjoyed when we had that together, was beautiful.

Like breathing in. And then at the end of the other side, that's when it goes back to D. Sorry. You see, I'm still a primitive musician. I can't give you the proper expressions, which there are, of course, proper words for that movement from D to G. But it's all in my mind (laughs). The movement on the slide ring or slide on the bottle was not meant to sound like blues. But there is, of course, some similarity. If you move up strings with a bottle or a slide finger, that is how it sounds. But yeah, it was just one simple step up and then the release of the tension. And the melodies also, they are in that moment like a slightly confusing waterfall, like when things just bubble along and then the song, the drone calms down and it continues on the main forward movement. Well, it was one basic melody which I had in my mind before going into the studio to record. There were not 20 melodies on my mind. It's pure luck that we got away with that very reduced input and maximum output. It was the result of being maybe under lucky stars. And of course, with the help of Conny Plank, who also made that track, “Weissensee,” sound so wonderful.

“Im Glück”

Klaus Dinger was on a holiday trip with his girlfriend and he just recorded rowing in a boat on a lake in Norway, I think it was. So this was like the title also indicates “Im Glück,” sort of being happy.

Those seagulls are guitar sounds, short sounds I made on the guitar. But the main element is, of course, the field recording. And the “Negativland” element that follows was, I guess, for Klaus, especially the expression of his deep frustration when the parents of his girlfriend decided to move back to Norway. And they were not very happy about the relationship between Klaus and their daughter. This seems to happen a lot. It also happened to me that the parents of my girlfriend were not happy about me. But in the case of Klaus Dinger, he had this anger, which sometimes in his case, led to amazing creativity in later years. For instance, “Hero” is one wonderful example of the creative energy Klaus got out of these feelings of despair, anger, frustration. And I think that jackhammer was even from, could be a disappointment, but it's just some kind of a sound source we found in the studio. It was the disruption, I think it was included, I don't think, I know it was included to disrupt the harmony of “Im Glück,” the peaceful, joyful boat ride Klaus shared with his girlfriend. And suddenly the disruption of this joy.

“Negativland”

The phasing, and that was Conny Plank’s contribution, they added this special flavor. It's like somebody when you cook with three people and then one adds special spices and suddenly there's a new life, a new color in the dish. And it's wonderful the way Conny Plank used phasing. He stood between two tape machines in the studio with identical mixes and then did what people used to do, slow down one machine by putting his hand on the rear and then letting go in the right moment and listening to the effect of these phased sounds.

I played bass on “Negativland.” Everything Klaus played was sort of played like a drum. So he played a Japan banjo. Also, in the case of “Negativland,” you see the marvelous work of Conny Plank, who phased the Japan banjo, which in itself is all good and fine. He played it very rhythmically and interesting, slightly dissonant. But the magic starts the moment when Conny added his manual phasing to this recording. And certainly it's some kind of like a dust, a cloud of dust which moves up and down. I don't know, just thinking of Stranger Things, something like that, the series (laughs). But this wall of sound, which drifts above the straightforward bass and drum elements, this is the result of Conny Plank’s wonderful treatment. Another example of his creativity.

Yeah. I hate to say this, but Klaus uttered some claims which I cannot support, and maybe my memory was a bit different than that of Klaus. He cannot, of course, he's no longer around, so he cannot disagree or contradict me. If Klaus claims that it was his Japan banjo which made movement, maybe he's right. He was right, but maybe it was slightly different (laughs). It's common knowledge, I guess, amongst the fans that we were in later years also on not so friendly terms, he caused a lot of problems due to the development of his career and freedom, the liberties he took with my music behind my back. But in the end, for me, since Klaus has died, I prefer to focus on his great creativity, which enabled me, with him and Conny Plank, to record that music. But some of the claims Klaus has uttered, especially in the 90s, when he was sort of living on a different planet, it was very difficult for me to handle that. And I don't know if I should even talk about this, but it's not even a secret, because he said so on his website back then. He was proud of having taken more than one thousand LSD trips, so that was, I guess, one of the reasons why he got estranged from so many people and also from me. And I couldn't handle that.

We spent ten years struggling to find an agreement about the NEU! rereleases, and we were again very fortunate when somebody appeared on the scene, somebody nobody would have expected. I don't know if he's so famous in the States, but Herbert Grönemeyer is a German musician. He was also famous for his acting in films like Das Boat, this famous U-boat film. But he's a household name in Germany. He sells millions of albums. And when he was, he had the very unhappy period when his wife died in the late nineties, and also his brother, and he was blocked, he couldn't work on music. But he had still, because he's a very energetic, powerful person, wanting to create things. And so he stumbled, again, so many coincidences around my life. He didn't know NEU!, the music of NEU!. But he was in this photo shoot in London and somebody decided to play “Hallogallo,” I think it was, NEU! music. And Herbert Grönemeyer said, “What's that? That's interesting.” And they told him, “Yeah, there are two German guys.” “A ha. Where can I get it?” “Oh, you can't get it. They are crazy. They refuse to release the music and they can't get along with each other and they are total hopeless cases.” And so when Herbert heard this, he suddenly had this idea, “Well, this is a challenge for me. I want to make this happen. This music deserves to be presented to the world again.” Because there were only bootlegs and you could find them everywhere. And so Herbert set out on this mission to convince, especially Klaus, I didn't need convincing because I was always willing to release the music. But Klaus distrusted people. He thought everyone was there to rip him off. That was the sad story of the time. Hebert had individual talks with each of us and sometimes talking with both of us at the same time, try to find out where the problems were, what prevented this music from being released. And he started his own label, Grönland, and NEU! was the first release on that label. He managed to convince Klaus and I don't know, I will forever be thankful for Herbert Grönemeyer for his contribution to help NEU! being presented to younger audiences. Not only 30 years later, but 50 years later. It's still on Grönland Records and it's amazing. But I already mentioned the effect of lucky circumstances and that was one of the major elements also in our career.

Yeah, “Negativland.” I also see it as a positive element because I didn't share this frustration. Of course, I play “Negativland” live these days and people really enjoy it. And I also enjoy playing “Negativland.” So it's not with a feeling of frustration. It's also another nice example of NEU!’s forward moving music.

“Lieber Honig”

I think I only played the drone on that. So the guitar was played by Klaus. He had a twelve string guitar, which only had eleven strings and slightly detuned. And Klaus couldn't at that time couldn't really play guitar. I think he even played it while singing.

This is another example, which I think is beautiful, the way he transforms his sadness. It's another example of his sadness about the loss of his girlfriend. And his voice breaks and the guitar sounds helpless, sort of. And many people have problems with the track, but for me it is a very honest, artistic expression of Klaus. And it's great that that track ended up at the end of NEU! one.

Yeah, that was the experience of the whole album. We were fortunate to get away in four nights with an album. We then spent a week mixing in a different studio. We paid that studio with giving away the publishing rights, which in the long run was a very bad deal (laughs). But that's another story. When we were in the studio and we listened at the end of the sessions to what we had, I think I was quite happy. But nothing compares to coming home with a tape and playing the first NEU! album to my family, to my mother, my brother and my girlfriend, and seeing them being just as happy as I was. And it sounded great on the home stereo. And this was one of those moments which I will not forget, because the studio situation, with all the pressure and the time and the studio clock running forward, counting down the last seconds, minutes, like Johnny Cash, “7 Minutes to Go” (laughs). That was just such a beautiful moment to realize, yes, outside of the studio, it does sound as great as you thought it was in the studio. And your crowd, the people who are close to you and to your heart, they are happy with what you did.

Yeah, well, it really feels a bit unreal to talk about a span of 50 years, going back to the recording and release of the NEU! album. I was still 20 years old (laughs). When I met John Frusciante in 2003, when we jammed in Hamburg when the Chili Peppers played there, and he couldn't get enough of my explanations. “And you were so young!” (laughs). Yeah, well, okay. Of course, over the years, first, in the late 80s, NEU! disappeared. The company stopped pressing new copies. There was no demand. Apart from maybe Brian Eno and David Bowie talking about NEU!. But the general audience and the general idea was nobody knew the music. But then there were the first news from American bands picking up the ideas, talking about NEU!, Stereolab, of course, and Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth. And it was very funny when I, for the first time, heard (Ciccone Youth’s) “Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening To Neu”. This phone conversation with music, NEU! music in the background. At that first moment, I thought, “Is this a singular event? Maybe it doesn't mean much.” But then the signals got stronger and stronger and Daniel Miller of Mute Records wanted to release NEU!, and other people wanted to release NEU!. And so when finally the NEU! albums were rereleased in 2001, all over the world, it was amazing to see the reception, the comments we got from David Bowie, from Thom Yorke, from many musicians. And it's wonderful now to see with the NEU! box set and the contributions of these bands and musicians, that they take inspirations from the music Klaus Dinger and I did. So I don't know. I'm just very grateful for those moments. In the end, I can say there was some very fortunate element working for us. It's not the result of our superior qualities. There's such a big element of fortune involved.

Outro:

Dan Nordheim: Visit lifeoftherecord.com for more information about NEU!. You’ll also find a link to stream or purchase the first NEU! album, including the 50th anniversary box set. Thanks for listening.

Credits:

"Hallogallo" (Dinger/Rother)

"Sonderangebot" (Dinger/Rother)

"Weissensee" (Dinger/Rother)

Side Two: Jahresübersicht

"Im Glück" (Dinger/Rother)

"Negativland" (Dinger/Rother)

"Lieber Honig" (Dinger/Rother)

℗ Brain / Motor Music

Produced by Conny Plank/NEU!

Banjo [Japan Banjo], Drums, Guitar, Vocals – Klaus Dinger

Engineer [Sound Engineer] – Konrad (Conny) Plank

Guitar, Guitar [Dehguitar], Bass, Bass [Bowed Bass] – Michael Rother

Recorded in December 1971 at the Windrose studios (Dumont-Time), Hamburg.

Mixed at Ralf Arnie's Star-Musik studio, Hamburg.

Episode Credits:

Theme Music:

“Winter Cold” by North Home

Intro/Outro Music:

“Is You” by Blume from the Repetition EP

Episode produced, edited and mixed by Dan Nordheim

Additional mixing and mastering by Jeremy Whitwam