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Veljanov



Gatherer Of Cultures



Prologue
Alexander Veljanov is a cult personality of german gothic scene. Some call him "prince of darkness", others rank him among the supreme assembly of world-wide gothic subculture, there are also people who see him as a prophet, while there are others who believe him to be a godfather of german underground music and one of the founders of darkwave. Yet there are some more who perceive him just as interesting person and talented musician. Mother Nature endowed Alexander with a strong, deep, emotional and heartfelt mellow voice, which has been providing a great basis for the music of experimental duo Deine Lakaien for 20 years. The constant hunger for experimenting and discovering new verges of himself became a motto of Veljanov’s life and his collaborations in multiple side-projects only prove it. Solo works of the Berlin-based genius are worthy considered among the most successful projects in this line. An enormous human charisma and fascination, a unique point of thinking, vital philosophy and irregularity of exterior, melancholy, sensuality and touching dreaminess of incorrigible romanticist are combined into Veljanov in striking manner. Isn’t he an ideal of dark aesthetics?!
Veljanov
Alexander, having heard your Slavonic name, every Russian person will inevitably think of your being "ours". Does it confuse you? After all, you had lived a plenty of years in country with the best Western traditions. Do you relate yourself to the Slavonic world?

I have German and Macedonian roots and I was grown up by my parents in both cultures, the so-called Middle European and Southeast European. I always had to manage this bicultural thing, including totally different languages/alphabets. Today I am very happy to have this richness of understanding and feeling two different cultures. And I consider myself as an ambassador between Western and Eastern Europe.

It’s not a secret that your solo works became in a way a revelation for many people who were accustomed to see you as a part of Deine Lakaien. Musically two projects seem to be diametrically opposed, but you have never been scared to follow another way. What shoved you against it? What do you wanted to underline with it?

Both members of Deine Lakaien, Ernst Horn and me, always worked also on different projects outside of the band. I had different bands in the late 1980s and early 1990s and worked in different projects as a guest. In 1996 I decided to start a solo-project called Veljanov to bring different people together in my house. The released results are the Veljanov CDs. I wanted to realize ideas as Veljanov, which didn't fit into the Lakaien concept. It is a kind of luxury to be independent of the rules of a band context. You can experiment with everything you would like to. At the moment I try to make a choice for a new Veljanov CD, there is a lot of material I worked on during the last four years and it seems that a new release will see the light of day maybe at the end of this year.

As a person who never wrote poetry and doesn’t know what it is like to compose a melody, I have always been interested in the way of creation - what the influences are for that, and what induces musicians to it. Should there be some kind of specific atmosphere? What do you need for that? What can inspire you?

I was always interested in all kinds of art, literature, theatre, film and especially music. All kinds of music, because I believe that you can find something interesting or fascinating in almost every style of music from any period of time, and there is an unlimited treasure of human creativity and emotions since many many centuries. Inspiration comes from life itself and the deep desire to express feelings and fight against evil, to show respect for beauty and wisdom. I did not insist in becoming a singer but it is connected to fate, when people tell you again and again that you touch them with your voice than you start to believe it. You want to satisfy their wishes without giving up the personal ideals and rules.

Have you ever had moments when your working as a musician annoyed you, became a routine? And what are you occupied with in such periods?

That is a serious problem. I tend to build up aggression when I feel forced from outside to function, to do things that I wouldn't have thought of myself. It is difficult to try to stay independent in mind, when the machinery of success tries to dictate you what to do. The music business is a dangerous field, but if you want to reach people, you have to use modern ways of distribution and communication. Of course I am thankful that people from all over the world can reach us
Veljanov
and we can reach them, for example via the Internet. I have never been to Russia before but there are people who are waiting to see us play concerts. I love to visit foreign countries and present my music there, because it is always fascinating to meet different people's mentalities. And you learn a lot about a country and their people from that. Otherwise sometimes the promo activities that you have to do for a new release are a bit too much and you have to take care to avoid things that you don't want to do.

What kind of material do you have for the next solo CD? How long have you been working on it?

I have been working on new material for a few years and I try to bring it all together this year. I spent a lot of time in Macedonia to bring some more influences from my Slavic side into the music, experimenting with instruments from the Byzantinean time and harmonies which maybe are a bit unusual for "western" ears. Also I want to combine it with some German influences and other things. I will also use different languages on this recording, something I already started on previous releases.

I never even thought of your possible abilities of playing any other musical instrument apart from your voice. But after release of your first solo-album "Secrets Of The Silver Tongue" I understood how greatly I had been mistaken! So what instruments are you playing? How often do you practice in composing?

I always work with musicians who are experts on their instruments. The songs develop in different ways depending on the team I have chosen.

How much the lyrics you write mean for you? Which part of yourself you put in it? And how your personality reflects in lyrics?

That one is difficult to answer. I sang so many songs during my career, some were written for me, some are based on lyrics of mine. Some songs are based on a conceptual idea of a whole album. In general I can say that Deine Lakaien’s lyrics are more connected with the aesthetic style of Deine Lakaien, many of them influenced by literature and art in general. Lyrics for my solo recordings tend to be more connected to the person Veljanov and his experiences. But that is not a 100% rule.

Whether I should say that your voice is admirable indeed! It’s so heartfelt, sensual, emotional… absolutely fits your image of a cult gothic-scene vocalist. But are you professionally trained in it? Do you have a professional musical education?

Thank you, very flattering. I started very early with singing and always kept in contact with singing technique, thank god I learned how to breathe to avoid ruining my voice because of false treatment. I never studied at a music university, although I was thinking about going into the classical direction. At this time, when I was about 20 I was very interested in film and theatre, that is why I chose to study these subjects. All these years until now I learned to improve my abilities and it is still going on...

Do you look back into the past a lot? What profession would you have had if not a profession of musician?

Film or opera director maybe, or ...a dentist? I would love to write books, maybe I will do it anytime...

There are such notions as "Slavonic soul" or "Russian soul", that people use from time to time. In your opunion, what meanings do they put in it? Is it really true that souls of Slavs are diff
Veljanov
erent from souls of other people? Are they connected?


I live with this image for many years. In Germany they always intend to put these attributes on me: melancholic, dark, eastern lord of.., that is sometimes very boring. In fact I do have a voice with a Slavic or Slavonic timbre, that is the genes. In Germany people seem to be a little bit afraid of too much melancholy and pathos, unlike eastern and southern countries. You can hear it especially by comparing the different folklore music. But on the other hand you can find a lot of sadness and seriousness in German classical music, but it is not allowed in the so-called "popular" music... I don't know why.

Alexander Veljanov’s name is often used with bright words such as, for example: cult figure, gothic icon, founder of darkwave, "prince of darkness", godfather of german underground, etc. What do you think of how people appreciate you?

What should I say...? There seem to be some people who think that I am an important representative of a so-called "scene". I have always tried to offer interesting music. If people think that I am a special person then I just can be thankful.

As far as I know, Deine Lakaien celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! I want to congratulate you and Ernst with this good round figure! Also Deine Lakaien is a headliner of this year’s Wave Gotik Treffen festival. Are you preparing anything special there on the occasion of this jubilee?

At the WGT we will play our part, presenting our show like we did on our latest "April Skies" Tour. We hope that the people will enjoy this mixture of new and older songs from our repertoire.

Are you planning to add special parts to all concerts of this year?

Sorry, but I don't understand that question. (smiles) If you think about our jubilee, than I have to say that we will play very special concerts with a big orchestra in winter, probably in February.

You have always been experimenting with sound, trying to combine incongruous (as one would think) things in attempt to unify a quantity of cultures and tendencies to achieve some absolute art. Are you still following this utopian idea? What kind of results was reached?

We always tried to create a special and unique sound, music. The most important aim was to offer something that you cannot compare to other bands and artists. We hope to sound like Deine Lakaien and that everybody who is really interested in discovering our music will have the feeling that this is something special, something that you cannot find elsewhere. That maybe sounds a little bit strange... but why should we exist if anyone else offers the same music.

During all these years you’ve made songs in English, German, Macedonian and finally French language. Appearance of such songs is always unexpected and animates audience. How many languages do you know? What language you would still like to sing in?

I really love to sing in as many languages as possible, especially because the whole world expects pop/rock music to be sung in English. I will continue to offer songs in different languages, already did it in German, French and Macedonian. I could imagine to sing in other languages, maybe some day in Russian... (laughs) Especially because I love so much the music of composers like Mussorgsky, Tschaikowski and Borodin.

As I
Veljanov
remember, there was a time when you were very interested in theater and cinema. Which projects of these kinds were you taking part in? Do you proceed to work on anything of this kind nowadays?


As I already mentioned I was studying theatre and film. I used to work at the Munich opera and almost stayed there... Today I am not really thinking about getting back to these fields. But I am still very much connected to people who work in film and theatre. Maybe there will be some projects in the future...

Tell me please more about the latest Deine Lakaien album - "April Skies", which was released at Europe in April 2005. What kind of novelties does it offer to Deine Lakaien fans?

When we recorded our last album "April Skies" we wanted to make it sound like a book that will tell many different stories. We thought that it would be interesting to offer as many different musical aspects of the Deine Lakaien world as possible. We tried to combine all our experiences of the previous years and make them float into a new album. It was also important to include the colors of our live musicians, so maybe this time there are more real instruments like violins, cello and guitars than ever before. We wanted the songs to sound like a perfect combination of electronics and real instruments. I guess that the variety of sounds is as rich as never before. And I hope that the variety of emotions is as rich as never before, because I believe in the fact that every new step in the history of a band or project should be a step forward, the people who follow us should have the chance to discover something new and interesting.

Deine Lakaien’s lyrics are often full of irony and sometimes touch upon various political or social themes. What is it irony directed on? And what public phenomena are you acting against?

Oh what a question! For many years people recognize us as the most romantic and serious band on earth... OK, I'm kidding, but irony and humor were always parts of our world, you cannot be a romantic and emotional person in this world without trying to use humor to survive. So we did and will always do, many sidelines in our work are full of humor and maybe dark irony, you just have to find these moments.

Your fans in the official Deine Lakaien forum often try to interpret your creative work in their own way. Particularly, the song "Supermarket (My Angel)" from the new album caused plenty of such discussions. What is this song actually about?

"Supermarket" is about a society, which is manipulated by commercial leaders and power. Sometimes you can find people who misunderstand the beauty of reality and real persons with the plastic beauty of advertisements and TV. We would like to dedicate this song to these poor individuals.

What’s your attitude towards interpreting as a whole? Are you considering things like this with fans?

I don't like to explain lyrics and I think that a good song with good lyrics should stand for itself. Everybody should be invited to join the world of individual interpretation.

Could you share with us your impressions of the "April Skies" Tour? Especially, how was the concert in Riga, Latvia, going? After all, I know that you wanted to play in any former Soviet republic for a long time?

Last year's concerts where we presented our "April Skies" album were very nice, we had beautiful audiences
Veljanov
in Germany and all the other countries we have been visiting. The final concert of this tour was in Riga in December. This was a very special night in a wonderful venue with an overwhelming audience. People came from all over the country and from other ex-USSR countries and we had a wonderful night. Thanks again to all.

By the way, late last year when your gig in Latvia was already confirmed there were rumors that Deine Lakaien would visit Russia, too, and even some dates were mentioned. But you did not come to play in this country back then. Was it just a rumor? Or you really were about to come?

We wanted to come to Russia, but it did not work out, but now it is going to happen. We will come to Moscow and St. Petersburg in the middle of June and we are very curious how the Russian music lovers will react. I just love the fact to play concerts in Russia for the first time in our career.

A piece of news appeared lately on the official Deine Lakaien site, which mentions some special new release. What sort of project is it? Please tell me more about it.

There is no official new release of Deine Lakaien this year. Maybe you talk about a very special fan item, which is a DVD from a fan concert from last year, which we will release, for fans only.

What are your favorite compositions from Deine Lakaien’s and Veljanov’s repertoire? Why?

I can't tell you. Because I don't know… There are so many songs and they have their own story. I spent so many years now with my music and sometimes I try to remember where it all started. It is all so strange, sometimes you rediscover a song which seemed to be totally forgotten and then you choose it again and rearrange it for a new live version... Sometimes I love them and sometimes I hate them...

Well, I can’t omit a question about your haircut. (laughs) The hair of Gary Oldman, in his romantic role of Count Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola’s "Bram Stoker’s Dracula" movie, looks very similar to yours. Is it only a coincidence? How does it happen that your hair has such an unusual shape? Has it something to do with your infatuation for post-punk?

That is maybe the most reasonable answer, in the early 1980s I started with unusual haircuts, but the Stoker film was much later, so it wasn’t an influence on me. During the years I just got used to it (laughs), but nature and time will force me to find a solution.

And one more stupid question. When you perform live on stage, you always accompany your singing with some sort of strange hand-gestures. What are these gestures for? (laughs) What do they mean? Is that how you feel music?

I never tried to act on stage like somebody who learned choreography. If I do strange things with my hands than it must be connected to the way I feel the music and want to express at the moment, but I do it by chance, it depends on my mood. I don’t like usual rock performance, with all that "flap your hands everybody" stuff, that is hilarious. I also dislike people, who pretend to be bad, mean and horrifying and produce cheap horror shows. Often the music is very ordinary behind the masks and absolutely not special. But people are sometimes happy with clichés and cheap entertainment...what a world, aahh.

Thank you for finding time to answer our questions. I would like to talk to you again when another serious cause will appear; there are still a lot of questions! Any finishing words, special wishes?

Finally I want to thank you and the music lovers in Russia and neighboring counties for their interest and hope that we will have as good shows in Russia next June as we did have last December in Riga. Thanks and see you...


Special thanks to Alexei "KIDd" Kuzovlev (Irond Records) for arranging this interview

Maria Tsarkova
May 13, 2006
1 èþí 2006
the End


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