BERLIN/GERMANY

UNCUT: Many reasons have been suggested for moving to Berlin: the local art and music scene, to escape superstardom, for spiritual and physical detox - plus the creative stimulation of being in an isolated, edgy, divided city. Are these theories accurate? Can you remember why the city appealed?

db: Life in LA had left me with an overwhelming sense of foreboding. I had approached the brink of drug induced calamity one too many times and it was essential to take some kind of positive action. For many years Berlin had appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary like situation. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity. I was going broke; it was cheap to live. For some reason, Berliners just didn't care. Well, not about an English rock singer anyway.

Since my teenage years I had obsessed on the angst ridden, emotional work of the expressionists, both artists and film makers, and Berlin had been their spiritual home. This was the nub of Die Brucke movement, Max Rheinhardt, Brecht and where Metropolis and Caligari had originated. It was an art form that mirrored life not by event but by mood. This was where I felt my work was going. My attention had been swung back to Europe with the release of Kraftwerk's Autobahn in 1974. The preponderance of electronic instruments convinced me that this was an area that I had to investigate a little further.

Much has been made of Kraftwerks influence on our Berlin albums. Most of it lazy analyses I believe. Kraftwerks approach to music had in itself little place in my scheme. Theirs was a controlled, robotic, extremely measured series of compositions, almost a parody of minimalism. One had the feeling that Florian and Ralph were completely in charge of their environment, and that their compositions were well prepared and honed before entering the studio. My work tended to expressionist mood pieces, the protagonist (myself) abandoning himself to the 'zeitgeist' (a popular word at the time), with little or no control over his life. The music was spontaneous for the most part and created in the studio.

In substance too, we were poles apart. K.'s percussion sound was produced electronically, rigid in tempo, unmoving. Ours was the mangled treatment of a powerfully emotive drummer, Dennis Davis. The tempo not only 'moved' but also was expressed in more than 'human' fashion. K. supported that unyielding machinelike beat with all synthetic sound generating sources. We used an R&B band. Since 'Station To Station' the hybridization of R&B and electronics had been a goal of mine. Indeed according to a 70's interview with Brian Eno, this is what had drawn him to working with me. (QUOTE).

One other lazy observation I would like to point up, btw, is the assumption that 'Station To Station' was homage to K's 'Trans-Europe Express'. In reality 'S to S' preceded 'Trans' by quite some time, 76 and 77 respectively.

Btw, the title drives from the Stations of the Cross and not the railway system.

What I WAS passionate about in relation to K. was their singular determination to stand apart from stereotypical American chord sequences and their wholehearted embrace of a European sensibility displayed through their music. This was their very important influence on me.

Interesting sidebar. My original top of my wish list for guitar player on LOW was Michael Dinger, from Neu. Neu being passionate, even diametrically opposite to K.

I phoned Dinger from France in the first few days of recording but in the most polite and diplomatic fashion he said 'No'

UNCUT: Some biographers speculate the Berlin era was an instinctive reaction to the mid-Seventies ethos of punk rock - dressed down, blunt, serious, doom-laden, emotionally raw. A plausible theory?

db:Whether it was my befuddled brain or because of the lack of impact of the English variety of punk in the US, the whole movement was virtually over by the time it lodged itself in my awareness. Completely passed me by. The few punk bands that I saw in Berlin struck me as being sort of post 1969 Iggy and it seemed like he'd already done that. Though I do regret not being around for the whole Pistols Circus as that kind of entertainment would have done more for my depressed disposition than just about anything else that I could think of.

Of course, I had met them fairly early on when I was touring with Iggy, at least Johnny and Sid. John was obviously quite in awe of Jim but on the occasion of meeting Sid, Sid was near catatonic and I felt very bad for him. He was so young and in such need of help.

As far as the music goes, Low and its siblings were a direct follow-on from the title track 'Station'. It's often struck me that there will usually be one track on any given album of mine, which will be a fair indicator of the intent of the following album.

UNCUT: Was there ever a serious plan to record with Kraftwerk, as some biographers claim?

db: No, not at any time. We met a few times socially but that was as far as it went.

UNCUT: Did you cruise the autobahns listening to 'Autobahn' non-stop, as Ralf Hutter once insisted?

db: Certainly on the streets of LA in 1975, yes. But by Berlin Autobahn was rather last years news. So, in short , no..

UNCUT: Were there any meetings or planned collaborations with other 'Krautrock' bands like Cluster, Neu! or Tangerine Dream?

db: Not at all. I knew Edgar Froesse and his wife socially but I never met the others as I had no real inclination to go to Dusseldorf as I was very single minded about what I needed to do in the studio in Berlin.

db: I took it upon myself to introduce Eno to the Dusseldorf sound with which he was very taken, Connie Plank et al ( also to Devo btw who in turn had been introduced to me by Iggy) and Brian eventually made it up there to record with some of them.

db: Yes, it was a dangerous period for me. I was at the end of my tether physically and emotionally and had serious doubts about my sanity. But this was in France. Overall, I get a sense of real optimism through the veils of despair from Low. I can hear myself really struggling to get well.

Berlin was the first time in years that I had felt a joy of life and a great feeling of release and healing. It's a city eight times bigger than Paris remember and so easy to 'get lost' in and to 'find' oneself too..

UNCUT: Is it true that Chateau d'Herouville was haunted by the ghosts of Chopin and George Sand, and David refused to sleep in the master bedroom because it was spooked? Did this affect the record's mood?

db: It was a spooky place. I did refuse one bedroom, as it felt impossibly cold in certain areas of it. To my knowledge though, the place itself had no bearing on the form or tonality of the work. The studio itself was a joy, ramshackle and comfy feeling. I liked the room a lot.

UNCUT: There are rumours that Robert Fripp was involved, but uncredited. Was he?

db: No.

UNCUT: Rumour also has it that an alternative version exists with different lyrics - is this true, and if so, why?

db: If there had been different lyrics to anything, then I'm sure they would have been working lyrics or 'placement' words to identify a melody that I wanted to use. I do remember singing joke words to some of the melodies but I frequently do that when I'm getting a feel for where I want it to go. Tony would have wiped or recorded over them when I put down final vocals. I'm not aware of any existing alternative versions.

UNCUT: The couplet in 'Breaking Glass which begins "don't look at the carpet" - is this a reference to drawing Kabbalistic symbols on the floor in LA?

db: Well, it is a contrived image, yes. It refers to both the cabbalistic drawings of the tree of life and the conjuring of spirits.

UNCUT: Is it true that 'Weeping Wall', 'Subterraneans' and 'Some Are' were left over from David's proposed soundtrack to The Man Who Fell To Earth?

db: The only hold over from the proposed soundtrack that I actually used was the reverse bass part in Subterraneans. Everything else was written for LOW.