PILLOWDIVER:
TOKAFI
by
Tobias Fischner
15 QUESTIONS TO PILLOWDIVER
"I
guess the tracks that I released on 'sleeping pills' are more
structured than other releases within this field of music",
René Margraff says, "this is something that I am
aware of and that I cannot change too easily." Then again
- why should he? Infusing a genre relying foremost on timbre
and harmony with a healthy dose of compositional zest and subtle
thematic development is certainly what continues to make his
releases stand out. After mainly working under the Ckid moniker
since the beginning of the new decade and building a sizable
discography mostly through renowned netlabels, Margraff is now
back with new project called Pillowdiver, dealing with brittle
and intimate soundscapes. Even though the same could have been
said about Ckid, not everything has remained the same. While
his former solo outfit combined dense, dreamy atmospheres with
metalically ringing percussion and hushed vocals, Pillowdiver
zooms in on the nanostructures of these textures, replacing
rhythm with a field of interconnected field recordings bound
by a mysterious magnetism: Minimal melodies rise up from a well
of brooding tranquility, slowly expand along the shoreline of
nocturnal drones and then gradually lapse back into silence.
What has remained, however, despite the notable absence of Margraff's
voice, is the songwriting character of these tracks, whose melancholic
lyricism needs no words to tell a story. Which is why, even
though it doesn't move mountains, "Sleeping Pills"
has turned out a work which appears set to last a lot longer
than several of its counterparts from the scene which are often
all too closely focused on beauty for beauty's sake. "I
cannot improvise alone with myself, I guess I would need input
from other people to change", Margraff notes in our interview.
While creative input may be a good thing most of the times,
let's just say that - purely from an artistic point of view
- we wouldn't mind if he stayed alone in his studio for the
next Pillowdiver full-length.
Hi! How are you? Where are you?
Hello, I am doing fine. It was a nice weekend. I am at home
in Berlin.
What’s on your schedule right now?
I just finished remixing Spartak and Jasper Tx. Apart from my
dayjob, I try to work on a liveset and new tracks.
What’s your view on the music scene at present?
Is there a crisis?
I am not sure if it is a crisis, I just think that the music
scene or also “market” is completely oversaturated.
This is just a negative side effect of the (positive) facts
that it is a) quite easy to create music with modern tools and
b) put it up on a website and c) the easy availability of it
all. I guess this is just a natural consequence of the digital
era and the internet. There is no use in bitching about this
– however, this is something that affects my entire life
– my attention span is quite fucked and I try to get away
from the internet a bit more these days. Also, most people are
fed up and overstrained by the variety of music out there these
days. However, there are also very cool small movements against
this situation and I think it is amazing that some small labels
do release quality and also still get some recognition for it.
Maybe the future “hardware” music scene is more
like an artbook store... So, not everything is lost although
the business is fucked. Thankfully I never allowed myself to
dream of making a living through my music, so I do not care
too much about the economic side of this so called crisis.
Do you see yourself as part of a certain tradition or
as part of a movement?
Not really. No.
How would you rate the music scene of the country you
are currently living in?
I do feel more sympathy for other European or international
acts than for most German ones. I am not part of a scene. Of
course I also admire some German traditions like Krautrock and
experimental and electronic music from the 80s, 90s and 00s.
But I think I do not listen to music or want to rate music just
because it is from one country or another...
How would you describe your method of composing?
I always hope that the track or song finds me while I am fiddling
with my devices. I am usually trying to track something I like
and then develop it a bit further. The hardest moment is to
know when you should stop working on it.
How do you see the relationship between sound and composition?
My music is composed but not in a traditional way. I always
try to find and combine sounds to create something which I cannot
express in words, a certain feeling or mood I have in mind.
This mood can also be created and channeled by a certain sound,
like the sound feeds back into the mood and creates something
I cannot explain. This sounds a bit esoteric. Sometimes I think
that there has to be a process that feeds back into itself and
only tracks that do have this characteristic develop into some
piece of music I want to finish. I cannot separate the sound
and the structural elements of my music.
How strictly do you separate improvising and composing?
I guess the tracks that I released on “sleeping pills”
are more structured than other releases within this field of
music, this is something that I am aware of and that I cannot
change too easily. I cannot improvise alone with myself, I guess
I would need input from other people. If I think about the sound
I am creating I would not call this improvised. It is more that
I find something while I explore the possibilities and then
use this sound in a more structured manner.
What does the term „new“ mean to you in
connection with music?
I guess it has all been done and I would never ever say that
I do something new or groundbreaking... I only hope that people
like to re-visit my music and feel like it is a kind of sound
“language” they enjoy.
Do you personally enjoy multimedia as an enrichment
or do you feel that it is leading away from the essence of what
you want to achieve?
After my first gig last year I only decided to not use any background
projections anymore when I play live. It feels like an excuse
for my boring presence. Friends even told me that it was rather
distracting and saw it as add-on that colours or even overshadows
what it is happening. However, I would love to do soundtrack
work or more abstract things for sure. This should take place
in a different context, not as a videoclip or pathetic slide
show. It should be clear from the start and not one or the other
medium slapped onto the other.
What constitutes a good live performance in your opinion? What’s
your approach to performing on stage?
This is something that I think about a lot lately. I think it
is more rewarding to see a live gig that is different from the
record, pure recreation of recorded stuff is something that
might make sense for bands but as a solo artists this would
feel like faking it too much. I don’t want to just press
buttons on stage. However, when I play live, I try to recreate
some tracks and also let them flow a bit longer or add some
more noise to it. I try to bring my guitar on stage, I am not
sure if the people feel that I am doing something live as I
still stare at the screen far too much. If someone out there
would create a proper “freeze and drone” pedal,
let me know, then I would show up without a laptop.
Do you feel an artist has a certain duty towards anyone
but himself? Or to put it differently: Should art have a political/social
or any other aspect apart from a personal sensation?
Another tough question. Do we need another Bono? No. Also most
music with a strong political background sucks. This said, I
think everybody and not only artist should be aware in everyday
life and not only act political by voting once in a while.
How, would you say, could non-mainstream forms of music
reach wider audiences without sacrificing their soul?
I am not sure if this necessary. I used to be a freelance music
journalist but stopped doing this due to time constraints. Sometimes
I feel bad about that as I think the role of music journalism
as “filter”/”selector” becomes more
and more important while the media coverage becomes more and
more samey. So, this is nothing I see as the duty of the musician
who engages in non-mainstream stuff.
You are given the position of artistic director of a
festival. What would be on your program?
This list would change each day... I know some would be unavailable
but today it would be Codeine, Deathprod, Kate Bush, Long Fin
Killie, Bark Psychosis, Nico, Seaworthy, Boduf Songs, Horace
Andy, Seefeel, Oren Ambarchi, Scott Walker, Ben Frost, The Fall
and 60 more artists...
Many artists dream of a “magnum opus”. Do
you have a vision of what yours would sound like?
“Magnum Opus” sounds like something orchestral...
I guess this would be more like one of my personal nightmares,
I’d rather keep it small.
