Dear Micha
thank you for listening to Dubnobass
it has been a strange cathartic journey to revisit it
& to perform it with all the nuances of back in that time
to sing as I did – 20 years younger- & then perform it in public today
strange also to take on the persona of the man who wrote those words
as we performed them in public (some for the very first time)
I of course could not see myself in the mirror
though friends who know me through all these years commented
that they had not see that character on stage with UW before
it is one I feel connected to
feels ‚honest‘ in the context of Dubnobass
& perhaps beyond
actually this is my favourite of all UW albums
a catalogue of references that went beyond all our contemporaries
building bridges between the tribes of disparate music factions
so that they would meet in a different place, recognise the similarities in their aesthetics
& go on to form a new, more inclusive (& perhaps open minded) tribe
I saw all this happen one night at Brixton Academy
saw them gather in the same place
saw them check each other out
„What are YOU doing here? This is OUR band!“
Like watching oil & water
by the end of the night
they had integrated into a wholly different tribe
it was the first & last time
the artwork too was ‚outsider‘
as our contemporaries made their record sleeves on computers
2D imagery to represent 3D musik
We came together & ‚Jammed‘ art in a room
taking as our inspiration the Abstract Expressionists
& a nod to the Futurists
the depiction of dynamic movement
My ‚lyric‘ writing approach
though I see it more as a mapping of journeys
was largely inspired by Lou Reed’s ‚NewYork‘
to my mind he sang ‚conversational America‘
the rhythms of which were more interesting to me than most standard lyric poetics
they were unpredictable
polyrhythmic in ways I found fresh & inspiring
the music of streets
the rhythms of conversation
& people say such fabulous things
we are coming to Germany with the Dubnobasswithmyheadman show next March
would you like to come?
Karl