Claudia Brücken burst into the general public consciousness with Propaganda, Düsseldorf’s biggest digital export since Kraftwerk, and a key worldwide signing to Trevor Horn’s ZTT Information. Their formidable debut album, 1985’s A Secret Want, is now thought-about a stone-cold traditional. Regardless of modest gross sales on launch, it stands the take a look at of time. After parting methods with Propaganda, Claudia went on to immerse herself in numerous solo albums and collaborative initiatives, with artists together with Thomas Leer, Martin Gore, Andy Bell, Peter Hook, and members of Tangerine Dream and the aforementioned Kraftwerk.
However Propaganda had unfinished enterprise. Regrouping with unique co-vocalist, Susanne Freytag, and producer, Stephen Lipson, they returned to the charts in 2022 as xPropaganda with the acclaimed The Coronary heart Is Unusual. Now, Claudia’s again once more, this time with a brand new solo album, Night time Mirror, working with producer and longtime writing accomplice, John Williams (The Housemartins, The Proclaimers). They’ve crafted a compelling report that blends Propaganda’s modern electronica with an natural heat.
How did the Night time Mirror album come about?
John Williams and I’ve been a writing staff for a very long time. He lives in London, as I do, so we might meet weekly and simply begin writing collectively – little bits right here and there. We initially started engaged on my album The place Else… in 2013. A number of years later, when Susanne and I began work on the xPropaganda album, I requested John if he wished to affix the writing staff, which he did. After The Coronary heart Is Unusual, we continued to collaborate. John is de facto good at driving a venture and ensuring issues get achieved. He’s only a great producer, pal and reducing accomplice, actually.
What made you’re feeling like this was going to be a solo enterprise versus one other xPropaganda report?
It’s fairly intense writing an album and getting all the weather to work. Initially, we began engaged on xPropaganda, however it simply grew to become obvious that they sounded extra like Claudia Brücken songs, as a result of xPropaganda themes are very completely different from my solo initiatives. With xPropaganda, Susanne and I all the time name ourselves Voice One and Voice Two. So, there’s a special setup and clearly Stephen Lipson is integral for the Propaganda sound. It’s all the time a query of Stephen being out there to fulfill up, as a result of he’s a really busy man. The subject material can be very completely different. It’s extra like making statements in regards to the outer world, whereas Night time Mirror may be very a lot reflections about myself in relation to what I’m experiencing.
Do you strategy a brand new venture with a particular theme in thoughts?
I by no means go in with a transparent concept in my head. With John, we nearly all the time begin on a guitar, which is tremendous completely different from working with Stephen, the place the setup is rather more digital. It’s extra about sitting down, engaged on chords and progressions, and step by step letting the track emerge – discovering a phrase, discovering the story.
Inform us extra about this idea of Night time Mirror, and songs rising within the evening…
You understand how you simply lie awake in mattress at evening, and ideas undergo your head? You concentrate on previous occasions, making an attempt to make sense of them. All these sorts of disturbances. It’s the identical for John, and there are a whole lot of songs about reminiscence and never wanting again in a very sentimental method. John works late hours and sometimes pings me when he’s acquired one thing that he desires me to take heed to – that might typically be at three o’clock within the morning. So, it is vitally a lot about that nighttime expertise and the issues that undergo your head.
This report has extra pure instrumentation than your work with xPropaganda. Was that intentional?
It’s like, no matter comes your method. We’re actually open-minded. For instance, on Sincerely, there’s an outdated pal of John’s who occurs to play the flute, and we simply requested him to come back by. It was all very natural. Then there’s Jason Mayo, who performed on The Solely Ones, and has achieved a bit of remix album for us. He works with modular synthesizers, which is very attention-grabbing. He lives three homes from John, in order that they’re neighbours, and that’s how Jason entered our world.
My Life Began Right now is paying homage to Lou Reed’s Satellite tv for pc Of Love…
I’m glad you picked up on that, as a result of Lou Reed has been an enormous affect for me. I actually like the best way he simply talks – talks and sings. With My Life Began Right now, it’s self-talk, actually. It’s an affirmation to oneself, like saying: ‘It’s worthwhile to change, get your act collectively! This isn’t working, attempt one thing completely different.’ I feel a whole lot of the songs on this album are self-motivational or have these sorts of self-affirmations.
In the case of taking Night time Mirror out on the street, how do you propose to translate these songs right into a stay surroundings?
One can do that in a really stripped-down model if one wished to. I may simply do it with my pal, with John, two guitars and me, however I wouldn’t need that, essentially. These songs invite themselves to be performed with a correct band. I should be requested to do a gig after which I form of discover methods round it. So, if that ought to occur, we will do it in any form of format!
xPropaganda’s The Coronary heart Is Unusual LP reached No.11 within the UK charts, outperforming A Secret Want, which peaked at No.16 in 1985. That’s a tremendous feat. Did it really feel like a vindication of kinds?
It was extraordinarily thrilling for us, as a result of we didn’t need to simply be remembered for A Secret Want, which all of us adore. All of us love that album and taking part in it stay. However we additionally actually felt that we wished extra materials for an xPropaganda live performance. It’s all the time so great to work with the beautiful Susanne and wonderful Stephen. It’s only a nice mixture. It simply appears very simple for us to create collectively. And we now have a great time.
It should have introduced a way of closure, however was it additionally a brand new starting?
It felt very very similar to opening a brand new chapter. It was actually good to current one thing new, you already know? Individuals all the time go, ‘Oh, why doesn’t it sound like then?’ It’s this type of sentimentality that makes me go, ‘Cling on a minute, let’s simply keep right here, let’s simply be current and do one thing now!’
So, are there plans to return to xPropaganda?
Oh yeah, I hope so, sooner relatively than later! We’re engaged on extra materials, which is enjoyable. It wasn’t only a one-off. We’re all into it, we meet recurrently, we report, however we actually want Stephen to place all of it collectively. I feel it’s going to be fairly energetic. I’m actually excited.
You’ve collaborated many occasions over time, with the likes of Martin Gore, Andy Bell and Peter Hook. Are there plans for some other initiatives?
Oh, it was unbelievably particular to work with Martin. He’s simply such a fantastic particular person. All my collaborators have been wonderful; it’s so insightful to see how they work and I study a lot from them. I liked it when [Kraftwerk’s] Wolfgang Flür requested me to do the singing on Birmingham. Then it simply opens different doorways for assembly different individuals. On the finish of a venture, one other venture will then recommend itself.
What are you hoping followers will get out of Night time Mirror?
That it connects with them on a deeper degree, like, for instance, A Secret Want did. I consider that all of us have a movie in our head – the best way you interpret life and the issues that occur to you – and I hope that this album matches into their very own movie. I can’t consider {that a} track like p:Equipment was so way back, however individuals nonetheless have such a deep connection to it. That’s actually essential about music – it’s like an outdated portray that may evoke all of those feelings. Listening to a Nico album from the 70s can nonetheless grip me and fascinate me. It hasn’t misplaced any of its magic. Isn’t it sensible when music does that?
Launched by Demon Information, Night time Mirror is offered on single CD, single LP, and Blu Ray Audio and digitally. A double CD and double LP, which incorporates the Nighttime Mixes EP, can be out there as an unique to Lexer Music. Order right here
