Music, Style & Culture

Hallogallo 2010: Having A Good Time

We have a chat with Hallogallo 2010's Michael Rother, Steve Shelley and Aaron Mullan.

Guy Purssell has a chat with Hallogallo 2010 - the new project from Neu! founding member Michael Rother, Sonic Youth's Steve Shelley and Tall Firs' Aaron Mullan, together playing songs from Neu!'s back catalogue.

Hello! How are you finding Dockville Festival?
Michael Rother: Well we’re just arriving actually and it’s still a bit confusing but it’s a great festival. As far as I know it’s a friendly festival, it is not the money-making kind. It has nice extras like an art space and it is also for children, part of the festival is for children. I think that’s over already, I think I missed it but it’s a sympathetic festival.

So would you say that the festival shares the same regenerating values with some of the experimental German bands from the 60s and 70s?
Michael Rother: I’m not sure, I didn’t discuss that really with the festival director but from what I heard and what I see it is a sympathetic approach. It is not carting in as many people as possible. I heard the story that last year it was already overcrowded from popularity and they decided to close the doors and not let more people come in. People could stay outside and listen and maybe you heard about that terrible accident at Love Parade [there was a stampede in which several people died], he did that before that happened and so that tells you the idea about Dockville, it’s not about getting as many people in, it’s about people having a good time

What bands, especially German ones, will you be watching?
Steve Shelley: I don’t know everyone who’s playing yet, maybe when we finished the interviews we can walk around and see a bit, we don’t have a schedule yet. I heard about this German soul / funk singer from Hamburg that we should see.
Michael Rother: Jan Delay?
Steve Shelley: Yes, that’s the one.
Michael Rother: But we’re on stage when they’re playing.

So, what’s your opinion on the term 'Krautrock'? Do you find it at all offensive?
Michael Rother: I love it! No [laughs] not anymore I think in the beginning it was something that didn’t have anything to do with my music and the origin was at least something ambivalent you know, it all links back to the terms in the war with krauts and stuff like that but I made my peace more or less with that term. I don’t use it for my music I don’t want to use any term with my music. But I just realise that it is a term that is being used all over the world for German music out of the 70s and late 60s and people love the music so I mean the term is somehow revalued.

Can you tell us a bit about the Neu! boxset that you recently released, including the release of Neu! 86? How did that come about?
Michael Rother: Well the idea is not actually new, the idea to do a Neu! boxset right from the beginning after releasing the originals with Grönland Records in 2001 but unfortunately it was very difficult to agree on anything with Klaus (Dinger, co-founder of Neu!) and so we just had to leave it and also the release of Neu! 4, which was the main Klaus Dinger version in the 90s. The original name was Neu! 86, which is the name I gave the album now. That was also in the air but unfortunately it was not possible to find agreements with Klaus. He died two years ago, unfortunately. His widow, Miki Yui, has a different approach - she’s very friendly and able to compromise and so when I offered to re-work that album, she agreed and she waited for the result and when I presented my version, she was quite happy. She said that was fine and so everybody was pleased.

How did Hallogallo 2010 form, and how does it feel to play it again?
Michael Rother: Well, before Steve and Aaron come on, I have to explain the start - I met Aaron in 2008 and when he did our sound at ATP in Camber Sands and he was so great and a friendly guy. Then three months later he was a volunteer at the front of house desk at ATP in New York and so we became friends and he introduced me to Steve Shelley. We did a recording session in the studio and we’ve been in touch ever since. And so when I finished working on the Neu! boxset I had the idea to do live shows it was the obvious decision. They were enthusiastic and that’s how it started.
Steve Shelley: So earlier this year we started talking about live shows together, originally we were thinking of going to Monterrey in Mexico for this sister festival to SXSW but we got this idea kinda late and it was decided that it wasn’t good timing and that actually worked in our favour not to go and then we thought about additional shows when the Neu! box came out and that’s how we started booking dates together.

And this recording session you mentioned, will the material you recorded ever see the light of day?
Michael Rother: Well actually Aaron did a nice edit of the recordings and we have just released a seven inch.
Aaron Mullan: You’ll probably need to find either me or Steve for one though, maybe we’ll have a few later.
Michael Rother: We’re doing it all ourselves, making them ourselves.
Steve Shelley: So yeah, so far we’ve only had 50 at a time. We sold a bunch in New York City in Center and we’ve got a few with us today. Hopefully we’ll make enough so they’ll be in the stores in a couple of weeks.

So is Hallogallo 2010 a series of shows just for 2010 or are there further ideas in the pipeline?
Michael Rother: Well, things are developing so quickly and we keep adding shows until the end of the year and already offers are coming in for next year so we shall see. I think we are going to continue next year, that also depends on the availability - Steve will be doing shows with Sonic Youth next year and Aaron also with Tall Firs and so everybody is so busy but at the moment it is just so great to have the opportunity to do these shows together and I look forward to them, going around the world and presenting this music.
Steve Shelley: We’re going to Mexico in a week or so, so that should be…
Michael Rother: Is it already a week?
Steve Shelley: A week and a half for you, a little over a week.

It seems that in Britain very few German bands “make it”, besides the likes of Rammstein [Michael laughs], what bands could you recommend and why do you think so?
Michael Rother: Current bands, or any bands? It’s difficult to decide. I don’t listen to other bands that much, I stopped listening to music more or less in the early 70s to be able to concentrate on developing my own stuff. I love Can, I played Can yesterday when I was DJing and it knocked me off my feet to hear Jaki and the great rhythm of that great track Yoo Doo Right from Monster Movie and of course I respect Kraftwerk, they did some wonderful stuff, even though after leaving them in 1971 I never regretted not going back. They asked me back in 1975 but I was too busy with Neu! and Harmonia, because I need more dirt, rock n roll in the music.

Freedom?
Michael Rother: Freedom! Yes!
Steve Shelley: Harmonia records are great too, if you have a chance to check them out
Michael Rother: I couldn’t recommend my own stuff!
Steve Shelley: That was why I was doing so!

Later this week, Hallogallo 2010 will play at ATP New York, curated by Jim Jarmusch and ATP. For more information, click here.