Robert Carrithers

New York Portraits 2010: Richard Lowenstein

I was in New York last October to be in and to help curate the Club 57 Art Show and to film the Mudd Club reunion. I did as much as I could in New York with the time that I had. I found out, much to my surprise, two days before leaving, that Richard Lowenstein was in New York. Last year Richard sent me on an Odyssey through Prague, Vienna and Berlin filming interviews for his documentary film about Rowland S. Howard. I battled with an Icelandic volcano to interview Lydia Lunch from Prague to Vienna. I struggled with technical difficulties and the decadent debauchery demons of Berlin (Chris Hughes being one of them) to interview Oliver Schutz, Christoph Dreher, Mark Reeder, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler, John Murphy and Steve Morell. I completed the interviews in Prague with Phil Shoenfelt, Pavel Cingl, La Petite Sonja and Hank Manchini. I enjoyed the journey very much. I was able to discover some really fascinating special people and got to know them. Some of them are friends, so it was nice to work with them and I also made new friends as a result. All in all it was work, but a nice experience. It was a pleasure to work with Richard and for me it was and is most important to help and contribute in some way in the memory and total respect of the unique talent and personality of Rowland S. Howard. 

It was totally unexpected and amazing to meet Richard in New York. It was my last night in New York. I had a small going away party at the Horse Shoe Bar on Avenue B and 7th Street in the East Village. Those last few days in New York were hectic and I was in contact with Richard by email and let him know about the going away party. I did not expect him to turn up that night because of his busy schedule in New York, but sure enough he was there. It was nice to finally meet him. We had never met before. We were only in contact by email and phone. This was our first face to face meeting. I was very exhausted from all the running around, but got a second wind that night. It felt like some circle had been completed. He introduced me to some of his friends and I introduced him to fellow filmmaker Nick Zedd. Australian cinema visionary meets East Village cinema of transgression. An interesting combination to watch. That was my memory of that night anyway and I hope to meet Richard sometime soon when I have had some sleep. 

What to write about Richard? For me he is a filmmaker who is a true visionary and he was way way ahead of his time. (ten years to be exact) He made his film "Dogs in Space" in 1986. It has a strong chopping chaos that captured the turbulent world of musician's lives in Melbourne. Richard made this film ten years before the film "Trainspotting" that very much works with the same sort of themes and styles. He made ground-making films prior to that with "Evictions" and "Strikebound" and won numerous awards. In between and after all this Richard made a lot of music videos and worked closely with the bands INXS and U2. Richard won five MTV Video Music Awards in 1988 for his work on INXS "Need You Tonite/Meditate" music videos. He went onto make what I consider another revolutionary film "He Died with a Felafel in His Hands" from the John Birmingham novel. It was incredible that Richard was able to make a film out of a series of anecdotes about living in share houses in Brisbane and other cities in Australia. It was considered unfilmable. The film with it's wonderful cinematography (Andrew de Groot), captures the psychology of each Australian city and the youth of each city with their day to day existence. He has co-produced the satirical australian music TV series John Safran's Music Jamboree and John Safron Vs God. Richard is a partner in the Melbourne based production Company Ghost Pictures and is also a partner in the feature film production company Fandango Australia Pty Ltd with Italian producer Domenico Procacci. There is so much more to write about Richard. I am just touching the surface here. Please click on the highlighted name/words above to find out further information. I am pleased to write that Ghost Pictures is producing the film "Rowland S. Howard: Autoluminescent" and that I am happy to be involved in it. If anyone can make a film about Rowland S. Howard, certainly Richard, the filmmaker wizard of Oz is the only one and the right one who can make that magic happen.

Lydia Lunch

What to write about Lydia Lunch, that has not been written? She has been called an American icon. She´s certainly a confrontationalist. A provocateur/multi-talented woman on the highest order who uses her talents to fight against a corrupt system and society. If you ever go to see Lydia and her band Big Sexy Noise or to one of her spoken word performances, expect to be challenged. It is certainly not something for the faint-hearted. You can click on Lydia´s highlighted name and be led to her amazing website that will give much more details.She has expressed her creativity through her music, books, spoken word performances, film, video, photography, poetry and ... I am sure I am forgetting something else. I would have to write a detailed Lydia Lunch history book to cover it all. I really appreciated her collaboration with Rowland S. Howard on the two albums "Honeymoon in Red" and "Shotgun Wedding". It was a big influence on me and it was because of that, I met Lydia once again. I will write a bit about Lydia and then end with a story of how I met Lydia after all these years because of Rowland S. Howard. It involved a nasty volcano and a happy ending in Vienna. Please click on any highlighted name to be directed to another page for further information. Lydia Lunch has been called "One of the 10 most influential performers of the 1990´s. I have always admired her energy and anger and how she throws it all into all of her art. She started singing and playing guitar for her band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks in New York when she was 16, all the way back in 1976! She was one of the major innovators behind what was known in 1978 as No-wave music. Brian Eno attended a series of their shows along with other bands of that time such as The Contortions, Mars and DNA. He produced an anthology album of these bands called No New York on Island Records. A revolutionary album at the time in 1978 and is still somewhat shocking after all this time. Her next band 8 Eyed Spy took off in another intense direction. She went on to make her solo debut influential album "Queen of Siam" in 1980. As Lydia became more involved in a wider range of artistic pursuits, her musical endeavors of the 80's focused on an extended, infamous series of collaborations with the likes of members of Sonic Youth, Birthday Party, Foetus, Einsturzende Neubauten and many others. In the present decade to date, Lydia has undertaken repeated tours of Europe and the U.S., and has giving spoken-word performances and been featured at internationally prestigious events. Her still photography has been exhibited at galleries in Prague, Paris, Eindhoven, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, Melbourne, Australia and England. She went on to make underground films with Richard Kern and Beth and Scott B. In 1998, Lydia had an international retrospective of her photography which culminated in Paris at the Museum of Erotic Art, where 4 of her pieces are now on permanent display. She was the poster-girl for the Whitney Museum of Art's Underground Film Festival (Oct. 96-Jan. 97), Lydia appeared in 8 films in the festival including the gut-wrenching films of director Richard Kern. She shook up people with her performance as the phone-sex worker in Kern´s infamous film "Fingered" which captured Lydia´s and Kern´s vision of sexual violence and desire She started her own production company Widowspeak which released her spoken word collaborations and her books. Such as the compilation, "Our Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven" (1990) features Lunch and author Hubert Selby Jr (Last Exit to Brooklyn), Henry Rollins and Don Bajema. She has traveled through the world with her bands and doing her intense spoken word performances. She has published quite a few books. Some of the books that come to mind: Her collaborative book of poetry with Exene Cervenka entitled "Adulter´s Anonymous", "Video Hysterie" a retrospective of Lydia´s music collaborations from 1978 to 2006 which comes with a DVD, "The Gun is Loaded" and "Paradoxia: a Predator´s Diary". This book has been described as a gorgeously battering experience, I will have to include a quote here: The unspeakable sexual confessions of underground legend Lydia Lunch."Paradoxia reveals that Lunch is at her best when she's at her worst . . and gives voice to her sometimes scary, frequently funny, always canny, never sentimental siren song." --Barbara Kruger, ArtForum. Her recent book is out now and is called "Will Work For Drugs". Lydia devoted still more of her time to writing, spoken-word performances and lecturing at academic institutions at home in the U.S. including teaching a class on Performance Art at the San Francisco Art Institute and even more so abroad with foreign engagements taking up the bulk of her time in recent years.The 2004 release of "Smoke in the Shadows", a full length LP which features Tommy Grenas, Len Del Rio, Nels Cline, Terry Edwards, Carla Bozulich and Adele Bertei, who together have created a jazzy, late night noir masterpiece which twists even further the unique genre she originated with Queen of Siam. Lydia's involvement with cinema was further expanded when she was invited by Asia Argento to operate as official still photographer for Asia's film based on JT Leroy's "The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things". Lydia´s new band is called BIG SEXY NOISE formed with the musicians Terry Edwards, James Johnston & Ian White from the rabble rousing band Gallon Drunk. I saw them play in Prague and the combined intensity of Lydia´s singing vocal assaults and the raw, but hard harmonic sounds of the band blew me away. If you have the chance see them. You won´t forget it. OK, my story: Phil Shoenfelt contacted me last March. He had heard that the Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein was making a documentary about Rowland S. Howard. There was going to be a tribute concert in Rowland´s memory and Richard needed to have it filmed. I contacted Richard, one thing led to another and it was agreed that I would put together a film crew and capture the concert and do interviews with the musicians who were performing. The line up was Phil Shoenfelt´s band Southern Cross, Kill The Dandies! and Lydia Lunch´s band BIG SEXY NOISE headlining. The very fact that Lydia was involved in this concert, it was obviously very important to film it and do an interview with her. Lydia had a long and very close creative collaboration with Rowland spanning many years. Lydia had promised to project some film footage of her and Rowland while her band played. I put together the film crew, arranged the interview with Lydia, we got all of the equipment together, the fateful day was nearing and we were ready. I had met Lydia several times a very long time ago in New York. I never really got to know Lydia. We had a lot of mutual friends. I´ve seen Lydia perform with her bands over the years and went to her spoken word performances. She was an intense person to say the least and I was bit nervous to interview her. Lydia normally does not do interviews and made an exception in this case because it was about Rowland. I did not know what to expect, so I did my best to prepare for the interview and to do my best, but fate intervened. The concert was on Monday night and it was Saturday. I had been in contact with Lydia and the concert organizer Ondrej Sturma from Scrape Sound.There was a problem, an Icelandic volcano called Eyjafjallajokul (I love her name) was spewing ash in the atmosphere and all planes were grounded in Europe. Lydia and her band were in France doing some concerts. They were having trouble getting out of France. On Sunday, Lydia had to cancel playing in Prague. All planes were still grounded. They wanted to take a train, but guess what, there was a train strike in France. Surprise, surprise! No rental cars available, so that was the end of that. Even Lydia Lunch couldn´t win against the force of nature with Eyjafjallajokul! I started to think that there might be something to Lydia´s apocalyptic premonitions. We all felt that Rowland must be laughing at this absurd situation. We all carried on anyway. The Rowland tribute still happened and was filmed without Lydia and her band. The bands were great, good crowd, atmosphere, we filmed the concert, did all the interviews and were pleased with the results, but I was not satisfied. I kept in contact with Lydia hoping that we could hook up and do the interview at a convenient place while she was touring through Europe. Some of the concerts had to be canceled, but it seemed that the volcano threat calmed down. Lydia contacted me that she was doing a special performance in Vienna in June. Vienna is only five hours away from Prague, so it all seemed good to me. I contacted the filmmaker/Lushfilms Andrew C. Standen-Raz  in Vienna. I knew I could count on him. I saw his talent through his documentary film about the Vienna music/performance scene called Vinyl. He promised to get a good camera person, he would film with another camera and I would be free to interview Lydia. The time came and Andrew was true to his word. He got the talented cameraman Sako Missirian. Sako had organized a van for us to film in and Andrew put together a music studio to do the second part of the interview in. The day finally came. I was prepared, but a bit nervous not knowing what to expect from Lydia. We picked her up in the van and she didn´t want to waste time and we got right into it. We filmed Lydia in a van that moved through the streets of Vienna. It was perfect, Lydia spoke intensely as I saw the background of Vienna going by. Sako was crunched in a very uncomfortable position filming with his big camera. The seats were movable and my seat was turned around and I was able to interview Lydia properly, while Andrew was driving the van. Lydia was in good form and spoke intensely about politics, culture and of course Rowland. We continued the second part of the interview in the music studio. While Andrew and Sako set up the equipment, I took this photo in the courtyard of the music studio. I was totally relaxed with Lydia. She was intense, no bullshit and directly to the point. It was one of the best interviews that I did and I was really pleased with the results. I enjoyed the time spent with Lydia. She was very gracious and at times inspiring. We found the right note to the interview concerning Lydia´s work with Rowland and finished, but my work was not finished. I continued to interview people in Berlin that was connected to Rowland. I photographed them as well and have included the portraits in this series: The Rowland S. Howard documentary interview portraits". Final thoughts about Lydia: The wonderful thing about Lydia is: she has never ever sold out once.  The best thing to end this with is this: Do yourself a favor and listen to these Lydia Lunch songs. These are some of my favorite ones at the moment. Dance to these songs and kick in some walls. This is music made by a true passionate artist unlike all the Gaga crap that masquerades itself as being underground and shocking. Have a taste of the real deal! Click on the following highlighted songs:"Kill Your Sons "  with Lydia´s band Big Sexy Noise, "Some Velvet morning" her demented beautiful ballad with Rowland, "Atomic Bongos" from Queen of Siam, "Touch My Evil" and finally I thought it proper, fitting and showing respect to end this with: "What is Memory" with Rowland´s screeching guitar playing.

Prague Portraits: Phil Shoenfelt

I was walking down the street on a nice sunny day in Prague, in a good mood, minding my own business, when all of a sudden a very familiar face came into my line of vision directly opposite of me. We both did a double-take and instantly recognized one another! It was Phil Shoenfelt, former frontman of the New York band Khmer Rouge, who I thought I had left for dead who I thought I had left for dead back in New York. The last time I had seen Phil was back in the ol ´80s in New York. He was with his then wife Marcia and they were both major junkies. I can remember the sight of them holding onto one another for support, looking a bit green around the gills, coming out of some seedy hotel and approaching me asking for some money. They made Sid and Nancy look like amateurs. I told them the old story about being broke and shuffled away. I had not seen either of them since that time. At the time, I thought that they would not last much longer in this world and did my best to forget. I was in shock to see a somewhat healthy looking Phil standing in front of me. I was then pleasantly surprised to find out that Phil was happily married to a Czech woman, played in several bands in Prague and Berlin and wrote several books that were published.

Phil and I are now very good friends once again. I went to see his bands and was inspired by both. In fact I was so inspired, I have been making a documentary film about his Berlin based band Fatal Shore for three years now. I am in the process of going through all of the footage on tapes for editing. I have over 50 tapes, which means over 50 hours of looking for the best bits for editing. My eyes are tired, but I am looking forward to completing this film. It was because of meeting Phil on that fateful day in Prague I got to know so many inspiring people. I hope to do justice with the Fatal Shore film for Phil, Chris Hughes and in respect and Honor for the incredibly talented Bruno Adams, who passed away in 2009. I filmed Phil´s band and interviewed him for Richard Lowenstein´s documentary about Rowland S. Howard. I would write Phil´s bio information, (I always do the writing about people, but I make an exception in this case) but fussy Phil would find some objection to it I am sure, so I will let write Phil Shoenfelt introduce himself in his own words. Click on any highlighted names above and below for information, it will take you to the specific site.

Phil Shoenfelt is an English musician/singer/songwriter/author who has lived in Prague since 1995. He is a veteran of the UK and New York punk and post-punk scenes, and during the early 1980’s was the front man and principle songwriter for the New York-based band Khmer Rouge. In the five years the band was together, Khmer Rouge was a favorite on the NY club scene, and toured in the USA supporting such acts as The Clash, Tom Verlaine, Alan Vega, Nico and Billy Idol. Returning to the UK in 1984, the band did two UK tours with The Fall before finally splitting in 1986.

Phil then began his solo career. His first single was released on Mark E. Smith’s Cog Sinister label in 1989. A support slot with The Fall followed, as well as several concerts supporting Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds on UK tours in 1990 and 1991. Two solo CDs were released on UK independent labels in 1990 and 1993. After a Czech tour in 1994, Phil decided to move to Prague on a full time basis. Since moving here, he has recorded several more CDs, both with his Prague-based band PHIL SHOENFELT & SOUTHERN CROSS and with the Berlin-based Australian band FATAL SHORE. Although Fatal Shore ended with the death in 2009 of founder member Bruno Adams, Phil continues to play regularly with Southern Cross at venues across Europe. To date, he has had a total of 13 CDs of his music released on various labels in the UK, USA, Czech Republic, Germany and Greece. The latest is Golden Vanity, a collaboration with the late Nikki Sudden, which was released in 2009 on the UK label Easy Action. At the moment Phil is mixing the new PS & Southern Cross CD, which will be released in October 2010 by Easy Action.

As well as these musical activities, Phil has had two books published to date: Junkie Love (a fictionalized autobiography) and The Green Hotel (poetry and song lyrics). Junkie Love was first published in Czech translation in 1997 (as Feťácká Láska) by Maťa Books of Prague, and has become something of a cult book for young Czech readers. The book was published for the first time in English in 2001 by Twisted Spoon Press, and went on to win the Firecracker Alternative Book Award (NYC, 2002) for best book in the Drugs Books section. Since then it has it has been translated and published in Italian by Fazi Editions of Rome. A Greek translation is being prepared for publication by Electra Books of Athens, and an extract has appeared in Erotika – Drogen und Sexualitat by German philosopher Wolfgang Sterneck. In 2006 Junkie Love was licensed to Ebury Press/Random House for UK and Commonwealth distribution, and this new edition was published in July 2007. Phil’s writing has also appeared in literary magazines such as Gargoyle (USA/UK), Garageland(UK), the Prague Literary Review, Optimism (Czech Republic), Hele (Czech Republic), Blatt (Czech Republic), Apple Of The Eye, (Greece), Morgana (Germany) and Vlna (Slovakia). He is also included in the The Return of Král Majeles, a recently published anthology of post 1989 Prague writing put together by the Philosophic Faculty of Charles University. At the moment Phil is working on a new book (Stripped), an autobiographical novel set in downtown New York in the years 1979-84.

Prague Portraits: Pavel Cingl

I first met Pavel Cingl through Phil Shoenfelt. I had not seen Phil in ages and he told me to see his band Phil Shoenfelt and Southern Cross. The band was really good and the violin player really grabbed my attention. He would occasionally switch over to playing mandolin. A rock and roll violin player... I have heard of violin in bands from the Velvet Underground and... well, there are others, but a rock and roll mandolin player? Unique, but then again, Pavel is unique with his style of playing. He puts his heart into it. Pavel was born in Teplice, Czech Republic. He started playing violin when he was six. He was expected to go into classical music, but formed a rock band in high school playing guitar and singing. This evolved into a punk band called Ineptus. They were very popular and played at lots of clubs and festivals, but they were not too popular with the Czechoslovakia Communist Party. The communist party said they were too negative and anti-social and were swiftly banned and when you were banned, you were banned. You could not play.

Pavel was a member of the popular Czech band band Nahlas with Ivan Hlas. He met American singer/guitarist/songwriter Brad Stratton, and together with Australian Grahame Ryan they formed a band called Snake Eaters in 1992. Pavel still continues to play in this band with Brad Stratton, Vladimír Vytiska and Jaroslav Kvasnička. In 1997, Pavel met Phil and became a member of Phil Shoenfelt's group Southern Cross along with members Pavel Krtouš and Jaroslav Kvasnička. He now plays rhythm guitar and mandolin in the band, as well as violin. Since 2005, he plays also in duo with Phil Shoenfelt, which is promoted as "Phil Shoenfelt & Pavel Cingl". Pavel has played with many other bands. I saw him last playing with Mark Steiner and his Problems. He was one of the Problems on violin. Pavel plays on film soundtracks, for theatre performances and on Czech TV. Pavel played in the Rowland S. Howard tribute concert which I filmed for Richard Lowenstein´s documentary. Pavel will continue to play throughout the world hypnotizing people with the melodies from his violin and mandolin.

Prague Portraits: La Petite Sonja and Hank J. Manchini

It was a warm summer day when I met Sonja and Hank to do the photo session. They were both nervous about playing at a festival in London. They had no idea how they were going to get there with all of their instruments. I told them that they have enough loyal fans here in the Czech Republic that would probably be more than happy to drive them there and back. Sonja and Hank play in a band called Kill The Dandies! I first saw Sonja and Hank playing on stage with their former band Moimir Papalescu & The Nihilsts in 2003. Sonja was singing wildly in the mic with her hair going all over the place and Hank played guitar while making deep low guttural sounds in the mic. The band was quite special. They were one of the few Czech bands that broke away and developed a sort of international fame, but sometimes when a band starts to get famous they break up. Why? I don´t know, but it sure seems to go that way sometimes! The band broke up in 2007.

Sonja and Hank being the creative resourceful couple that they are, did not take this lying down. They regathered their energies and formed Kill The Dandies! with Richard Fischer on guitar, harmonica and vocals, Wratislav Placheta on drums, Martin Horejsi on bass (Martin Růžička used to play with band. He played bass and steel guitar on the band´s new album) and of course La Petite Sonja - vocal, keyboard, synthesizer and Hank J. Manchini - vocal, guitar, maracas, lap steel, and synthesizer. The band has been together for three years now. They have been playing lots in Czech Republic and touring Europe. They have surprised quite a lot of people with their unique sound. It is a mix of sixties garage rock with a Cramps style of psychotic rock and roll, mixed with a lot of rawness of Hanks voice that reminds one of Lux Interior, but then Sonja starts to sing and her voice is a cross between a Japanese pop singer ala Shogun Knife and some unworldly alien. Steve Morell best described them as psychedelic western rock and roll. They have just released their first album "I saw White Fields" (featuring Steve Morell) produced by legendary Flying Dutch Bert Neven on Berlin‘s BLASS Music / FREIBANK, distributed by Pale Music Int.

Kill The Dandies have developed quite a following. I last saw them play at the tribute concert for Rowland S. Howard. I filmed the concert and interviewed Sonja and Hank for Richard Lowenstein´s documentary about Rowland S. Howard. They put on a great show. We did the above photo after a lot of walking around and deciding it best to take a relaxed photo of both them on a nice sunny day along the Vltava River rather than in a dark damp practice studio room. Sonja, Hank and band did get to London and they played at the festival. As a result of playing in London their album is now being distributed by Rough Trade.They are happy Kill The Dandies! If they are playing near you, do yourself a favor and see them! Click on any highlighted names above to get further information about them.

Berlin Portraits: Steve Morell

I met Steve Morell many times and he has always impressed me. Steve has a great presence and a true talent. I met him in the process of going back and forth between Prague and Berlin. I would meet him in one city or the other. Like me, Steve is also connected with both Berlin and Prague. He is engaged to an amazing czech woman & performer Monika Pokorna (They also are creative partners doing many collaborations together such as the recent video for Paula Immich. It is a video of Steve´s music.Steve and Monika sing on it) and has the strong connection between both of these cities. I am still trying to understand the connection between these two cities. I first saw him DJing, perhaps at White Trash in Berlin, but then again Steve is so much part of the night cultural scene in Berlin I must have met him and experienced his creativity and music many times. I have featured him in the earlier Einsturzende Neubauten photos and writing.

I wrote earlier that John Murphy was the last person that I last interviewed for the Richard Lowenstein documentary about Rowland S. Howard. It was not true. Steve was the last person and we were frazzled and frenzied. Everything was going wrong, we were late, Chris Hughes and I met Steve at the Dead Chicken bar otherwise known as Eschaloraque.in Mitte, Berlin. After being far too late, Steve had enough and was not the happiest. We managed to do the interviews and I took this photo in the toilet at this wonderful sweet Berlin bar. It is the result of this mayhem. It is a frazzled and frenzied photo.

Steve is an incredible Berlin producer, musician & DJ. He has just released 12” single of a haunting song called Loneliness. It is a release from Steve´s forthcoming album “The Life and Death of Jimmy Pheres and his Rise from the Underworld” There are two versions from Steve and refined by the backing vocals of Johanna Sadonis as well as one Remix by Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten) and England's best electro producers Punx Soundcheck who just finished a remix for Bloc Party. Steve is the head of Pale Music International. It is a music production company that produces and works with very special musicians. Steve does wonderful remixes with people he enjoys. One of a kind.... Steve Morell. Some times the least amount of words capture a person. Please click on the highlighted names above to find out further information.

Berlin Portraits: John Murphy

John Murphy was the first and last filmed interview that I did for Richard Lowenstein´s Rowland S.Howard documentary. At the time John was living with Chris Hughes. (Chris as usual helped doing the interview) There were a lot of jokes that John was Chrisˇpermanent flatmate. He kind of just moved in when he was exiled from the UK and never left. John has since left and went onto something much better and actually got married somewhere in Finland or the shamanic lapland regions. I have to say John is one of a kind. He is very mild mannered. He is a very private, quiet and mysterious person until you enter his world..., if he allows you to. One would not automatically think of him being in bands such as Death in June and Knifeladder with their reputations of violence and aggression . I should emphasize that reputations and myths are very similar and sometimes is not in fact a true reality, but that is what creates hype and gets attention. I can easily go off on a tangent about Death in June and the sensitivity about symbolism and imagery, but there is not enough space.

John is a drummer and is originally from Australia. Unlike a lot of people involved in the industrial music scene, John has had quite a bit of musical training in all music forms from classical, jazz, soul/funk, military/Scottish pipe band to rock 60s garage music, 70s punk to metal and Prog. He has played in numerous Australian and British post-punk, ambient and industrial music bands over the years. John first joined forces with guitarist Ollie Olsen to form the post-punk band Whirlywirld in Melbourne in the late 70s. Olsen went on to form The Young Charlatans along with Rowland S. Howard. Jonh was very much in involved in the Melbourne music scene and that is one of the many reasons why his interview for the Rowland S. Howard documentary was so important. John went onto play with so many bands after that. There are so many, but to name a few, he was involved quite a lot with SPK and The Associates and playing on sessions with Nico, The The, Gene Loves Jezebel and Shriekback. Jonh had played for quite awhile with Death In June. John enjoyed the challenge of Death In June performances. It gave him lots of musical flexibility and creativity from the use of hand percussion in the more acoustic-orientated pieces and to the more extreme martial/military rudiment type of drumming and using classical innovative percussion such as typan, tubular bells and oriental gongs. After 35 years of experience, John still has an intense interest in exploring and bettering himself musically. 

He presently plays in the industrial electronic trio Knifeladder. Knifeladder is a three industrial piece act. John plays drums/percussion ,voice, found sounds, some electronics, drones and loops. ANDREW TRAIL on samplers ,electronics ,synthesizers, loops, vocals and arabic, moroccan horn, and HUNTER BARR ,on bass guitar ,treatments and loops ,engineering and production. Knifeladder has been in existence since towards the end of 1997. Their sound has been at many times over the last few years referred to as Voodoo Industrial Power Electronics. A successful Knifeladder performance is meant to be a emotionally draining and cathartic. A friend of John´s once described their sound and overall performance approach as sort of "like being confronted by the ancient Scythian hordes rampaging over the Eurasian steppes at the end of the Bronze age ..1200 BC.

John also plays in the folk-noise group Foresta Di Ferro and records solo under the name Shining Vril. When John plays in Knifeladder he often does three things at once, playing drums, contributing dronish, hypnotic-orientated vocals and various forms of electronics, samples and live looping. It is extremely difficult to do, but somehow he manages to come out alive after each performance. Shining Vril is for the most part a recording experience. There have been only a few live performances. Shining Vril gives John freedom to do whatever he feels like. There is no sound-shape to the project. How to describe it? In John´s own words, "It tends to be in-between very dark ambient, industrial, some power electronics and Ritualistic, with a little dry Anglo-colonial humor thrown in."

Jonh was refused re-entry to the UK due to visa issues and he moved to Berlin. John is now exiled in Berlin and certainly makes the most out of it. I could think of worst places being exiled. To find out more about John and the bands, click on the highlighted names and it will bring you to their sites or pages with information.

Berlin Portraits: Mark Reeder

   I was in Berlin frantically running around with Chris Hughes filming interviews for Richard Lowenstein´s documentary about Rowland S. Howard. We met with Mark Reeder to do an interview. We had planned to do an interview somewhere outside in Kreuzberg since it was a nice day. We wanted to do it in a park and opted for sitting outside a pub/bar instead. Mark was very patient with me. I took far too long setting up the camera properly for the perfect composition. All I knew about Mark at that time was some connection with Lydia Lunch that I wanted to follow up with after I had interviewed her. Chris and I had more or less specific questions exploring Rowland S. Howard´s working relationship with Lydia. Mark was on tour with both of them and got to know them. At that time he worked as a sound engineer and was co-managing the all-girl band Malaria! They played support for Lydia and Rowland. Mark told many funny stories about being on the road with them. When we had finished the interview we went into the old style Berlin bar and I took this photo. I think it catches Mark´s impish nature in some way. Little did I know at the time, I had interviewed and photographed a Berlin historical character that had influenced Berlin music for three decades.

I knew the name Mark Reeder was familiar, but it wasn´t until several days after the interview did I realize who exactly we interviewed. He is known as one of the Godfathers of the early electronic music and gothic music scene. He is a musician and record producer. He started working for a Virgin Records in his native Manchester when he was 14 and it took off from there. He moved to Berlin in 1978 and has been an early pioneer of the electronic music scene . He is founded the electronic dance music label MFS, (which stands for "Masterminded For Success") The name MFS was actually taken from the initials of Ministry for State Security  otherwise known as the Stasi in East Germany. It is said that he coined the term trance music. He also discovered and guided the international DJ Paul Van Dyk. Mark's career has spanned over three decades. He has been a participant and behind the scenes influence for many now famous artists, spread over a wide cross section of contemporary musical genres.

There are too many things to write about Mark, I will try to get to the main points, but you can read more in his own words if you click on his highlighted name. Mark Reeder first formed the early punk band The Frantic Elevators in Manchester in early 1977. In 1978, he decided to leave England and moved to Berlin.  He became Factory Records German representative promoting the bands Joy Division and A Certain Ratio and at the same time worked as sound engineer and manager of Malaria! and Die Toten Hosen. In 1981 he formed the band "Die Unbekannten" along with Alistair Gray and Thomas Wydler that combined the best of new wave, gothic and post-punk music. In 1983, Mark helped put together the Berlin Special of The Tube, a popular and highly influential UK channel 4 TV pop programme. This show featured music from both sides of the walled city.  It was also the first time that a British TV crew had ever filmed a pop programme both in the GDR and West Berlin.  In 1984, "Die Unbekannten" changed their name to "Shark Vegas! " and toured Western Europe with New Order. Mark had contacts with the East berlin underground music scene and travelled a lot to East Berlin for concerts. He helped to smuggle Die Toten Hosen over to East Berlin for their two secret gigs in 1982 and 1988 (the 1982 gig being the first concert by a western punk band in East berlin, disguised as a religious service). In summer 1989, he was officially asked if he would produce the album Torture, for up-and-coming East German indie band "Die Vision" for the East German state owned record label AMIGA in East Berlin. This was probably the first East-West joint venture. Mark is recognized as the only Englishman ever to have make a record in the East, because literally days after finishing recording the album, the notorious Berlin wall fell.

Mark had made useful contacts at AMIGA the (now former) East German state owned record label, now renamed ZONG He managed to convince them to allow him to set up a new electronic dance label office in the "Abhoer Raum 101" situated in the building directly behind the Reichstag. In December 1990, Mark founded his own music record label "Masterminded For Success" or MFS as it became known. Mark had a gift for uncovering the hidden talents of many early techno and trance artists. As an artist himself, Mark was the creative driving force behind his labels, which provided a great platform for many young and then unknown artists. He ran both his labels with an unconventional approach and a passion rarely seen in the music industry. Reeder was deeply devoted to all his artists and was involved in almost every aspect of their musical productions, from their concept, recording and mastering, to PR texts, as well as their artistic cover-design ideas.

In 1993, a trance music documentary Berliner Trance was born, presented by Mark Reeder, directed by Ben Hardyment.Since then MFS have unwittingly pioneered in creating trends rather than following them, for example, in February 1992 MFS released the worlds first real Trance Compilation:Tranceformed from Beyond (this album comprised of specially remixed and sequenced tracks). It was also the first time, that a compilation had been created whereby the music continuously melted together without a pause - like a DJ mix - all tracks were specially remixed for the compilation by Cosmic Baby & or Mijk van Dijk.

In the meantime, Mark has returned to his own music production. He worked with German filmmaker Joerg Buttgereit on many of his film and theatre projects (In 1991, Mark starred in the Joerg Buttgereit splatter film Nekromantik 2.) Reeder has since remixed tracks for many well-known artists like the Pet Shop Boys, Sam Tazlor-Wood and Bad Lieutenant. In September 2009, he released a collaboration album of reworks of tracks by Blank & Jones called Reordered for which he rewrote and replayed all the tracks. This album features vocals by such artists as Robert Smith of The Cure, Steve Kilbey of The Church, Bernard Summer of Joy Division/New Order/Bad Lieutenant, Claudia Brueken of Propaganda and Anne Clark. Mark just keeps going and going like an Energizer battery working and creating. Listen to his music and read his own words by clicking on his highlighted name which will bring you to his site.

Berlin Portraits: Christoph Dreher

I was rushing around Berlin filming interviews for Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein for his documentary about Rowland S. Howard. I was very curious about meeting with Christoph Dreher. I had heard so much about him. When The Birthday Party first came to Berlin they stayed with Christoph Dreher. When I met Christoph I was having difficulty because I had to film with two cameras without any help or assistance. I was all thumbs and a bit awkward, but Christoph graciously put up with it all and told some great stories about Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, Mick Harvey and the Birthday Party band members who had stayed in his loft. Christoph was there from the beginning in Berlin involved with music and film. He was one of the first revolutionary music pioneers in Berlin when he founded the post-punk band Die Haut in 1980. Die Haut was primarily an amazing instrumental band with sometime guest singers such as Lydia Lunch, Nick Cave, Debbie Harry, Oliver Schütz etc. The first line up of the band consisted of Thomas Wydler, Martin Peter, Remo Park and Christoph. He had studied film-making and started making music videos for his band Die Haut and then went on to make music videos for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for songs such as "Tupelo", "The Singer" and "Mercy Seat“. He then went on to make numerous music documentaries as director and writer and won lots or awards such as the Grimme Preis. He made a lot of incredible music documenteries for German TV ZDF such as "POP ODYSSEE 2 - HOUSE OF THE RISING PUNK" covering the New York punk scene and the 18 part series "LOST IN MUSIC" for ZDF/arte/3sat. Please click on Christoph´s highlighted name to see his extensive bio and all other highlighted names for further information. Since 2000, Christoph is a well respected professor teaching audiovisual media at Merz Akademie for Design in Stuttgart and he still continues to make film

Berlin Portraits: Thomas Wydler

I was in Berlin filming interviews for Australian filmmaker Richard Lowenstein´s documentary about Rowland S. Howard. One of my first interviews was with Thomas Wydler. I had been filming on my own in Berlin with out any assistance using two cameras. The big camera Sony Z1 and then the smaller Canon 7D because of the great HD quality of the camera. I had filmed two other people prior to this, Oliver Schütz and Christoph Dreher. I was stressed, running late and Thomas was very patient. I was all thumbs that day and as a result Thomas was kind enough to do a second interview with my loyal and helpful ha, ha assistant interviewer Chris Hughes. We managed to do a proper interview in the same restaurant. The one thing I like about this photo is the colour coordination. Here Thomas looks deep in thought pondering the future of the universe.

Thomas is a Swiss musician who has made Berlin his home. He has been one of the core members of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. He has been playing drums for the band since 1985. He was also one of the original members of the infamous Berlin band Die Haut. He is presently pursuing a solo career and has put a new CD called Soulsheriff. Please click on his name to go to his myspace page to listen to some of his music.