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Artist Interviews
Q&A: Claudia Brucken
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 27 April 2011
Bavarian singer Claudia Brucken joined synth-pop outfit Propaganda in 1982, releasing their debut album ‘A Secret Wish’ through then-husband Paul Morley’s ZTT Records three years later. She went on to form electro-pop duo Act with Thomas Leer, who put out their sole LP in 1988. She worked on a number of solo ventures throughout the 90s, with debut long player ‘Love: And A Million Other Things’ emerging in 1991 by way of Island Records.
Having teamed up with Paul Humphreys of OMD, the pair toured together and released a collaborative album in 2007 under the moniker Onetwo. Her best of record, ‘Combined’, a select retrospective chronicle of her classic hits to date, came out earlier this year on ZTT. It features duets with Erasure’s Andy Bell and Paul Rutherford, plus some hitherto-unreleased material.
As she looks forward to an appearance with members of Kraftwerk and Propaganda at a pre-Eurovision electro night in Dusseldorf, Claudia was kind enough to take a look back over her career via our Same Six Questions.
Q1 How did you start out making music?
The first band I joined were called Fatty Acids, mainly because two guys in the band were doctors. It was mainly a covers band of which I was a backing singer. I then formed the Topolinos, which was an all-girl band from Düsseldorf. Susanne Freytag was also in this band; she was approached by Ralf Dörper and Andreas Thein to join Propaganda and I was also recruited by them later. Soon after I joined Propaganda we signed to ZTT which was based in London, but I was still in college in Düsseldorf at the time.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
I’ve considered making a compilation of some of my favorite works for a while now. The problem with doing this is that all my works are on many different labels, which makes it a very difficult logistical and legal process to compile them all on one record. Union Square recently licensed all of ZTT’s catalogue and they heard of the idea of putting this album together and offered to do this work for me and to release it on their label.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
It varies depending on whom I’m working with. However, mostly it starts with working out the music and melody first, then usually I will find the lyrics last of all to fit with that melody. I have my own studio in London where I do most of my recordings these days but I usually like to work out and develop my ideas at home on my laptop before recording them at the studio.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
My early influences were Patti Smith, David Bowie, Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Klaus Nomie, Kraftwerk, Can; but as a musician I listen to a lot of music, so it becomes harder to identify what influences you in the end. At the moment I’m listening to James Blake’s album a lot, the song ‘I Never Learnt To Share’ is a very beautiful piece.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
It depends on which piece of music of mine that they are listening to as I have done a lot of diverse projects over the years. Propaganda’s music was cinematic synth-pop, Act was more dark showbiz fantasy and my solo works were very influenced by electronic dance music and club chill out. Since then I have done more electronic work with Paul Humphreys as Onetwo but I’ve also done a very stripped down and bare one instrument, one voice cover album with ex-ZTT label mate Andrew Poppy. Because I have done so many different things over the years it’s hard to know what to say to someone as it depends on which of my different works they like and what genres they would be interested in. The only thing I can say is to try out and hopefully enjoy it.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
I’d like ‘Combined’ to reach as many people as possible and I hope this album can help to introduce me to people who may not be so familiar with my work or only know my Propaganda songs, as that was only a small part and the beginning of my career. People have asked me if I’m releasing this album as my full stop or final offering but I have many plans and many more things I’d like to do musically. Continuing on my diverse theme, my current project is working for a top video gaming company as I’m the singing voice of a character in their new high-profile soon-to-be-released game which I can’t mention at the moment! I also have plans to do a new Onetwo album with Paul, which we hope to continue working on in April.
MORE>> www.ztt.com/news/claudia_brucken_combined_2.html
