“Do what you want to. Believe in yourself and your aims. Dreams can come true. Get up. And war hurts; peace is the most important thing in world.”
With her DIY ethos and anti-war convictions, Ellen Allien is a classic product of Berlin’s post-unification creative explosion, coming up through the city’s squat scene and subsequent techno explosion that followed the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Though through her DJing, music making and continuing efforts as creative director of the label she founded Bpitch Records, she’s also one of its most successful and influential players. “I developed my drive very early on, it was always clear to me that I’d have to establish my own network,” she tells Jonty Skrufff. “I was initially a part of others’ groups, but I wasn’t that happy, because they weren’t always based on respect and trust. “For me, the starting point was entering the techno scene. I immediately had a vision, because everything was different and at the same time possible,” she recalls. “For example, take the gender issue: it was no longer important in techno if you were a woman or a man, unlike in hip hop where they had, and still have, those fixed gender roles.”
15 years after she discovered her direction she remains evangelical about the transformative power of music, particularly techno. “With techno we developed a whole culture, an alternative way of living, fulfilling our dreams and earning money with it at the same time. But the money was never in the forefront. It was more important to go a different way, to be part of that small and friendly revolution that enabled us all to be artists. And we also changed the understanding of art,” she continues. “It still works in Berlin, the clubs are always full of new faces, and when I go into the record stores searching through the vinyl I often see new names on the labels, which I never have heard before, and the music is still great. Dance music will never die .The network is boiling and growing and growing.”
Adding to the record store stocks, is Ellen’s latest album Thrills, an electro-tech record she considers her best. “What connects all my records is the way they reflect my life; where I stay, how I life, the records are a mirror of my personal development as well as my musical and professional development. And a thrill is the wideness and the excess of music, the trip of running a label and keeping it alive; loving my beloved (boyfriend) so that we are happy. Or finding no sleep when I’m jetlagged, when I can’t feel my skin anymore. Thrills is when people totally freak out in front of me, when the feeling of being together grows more and more in my heart, because we all search the same. A thrill is my whole life, the outcome of the inside,” she adds.
Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): Thrills is your third full length studio album- does it get any easier with experience?
Ellen Allien: “Sure, it gets easier in terms of the production, I’ve learned over the years how to make music, or how that certain sound in my head can get outside. But in another way it gets more difficult, because of people’s expectations which I increasingly start thinking about when the album’s finished and approaching release. Will people like it? Is it too minimal? Too poppy? Too techno? Too much/ too little? But I guess that’s a normal process, because I release something very personal, something that makes me sensitive to people’s reactions. Though having said that, Thrills is also the first record which I’m totally satisfied with, or perhaps I’ve reached a level in my life where I’m satisfied with what I do.
Skrufff: the biog says ‘Thrills makes a firm statement: her passions have become her profession”: how much do you see you music as art, how much about entertainment?
Ellen Allien: “Making music is always an experiment, which brings a lot of fun. And all the technical aspects are amazing, they allow to grab all my emotions. And the process of making the music is always more intensive and interesting. I have a certain understanding of art: every item we make with our hands is art in a way, because it changes our life. It develops a certain way of living. And it’s the same with music. We get into contact with our inside while we are doing music and we try to materialize it, to make it real somehow. With Thrills I was materializing all my influences, experiences, all the nights I’ve spent awake in front of an amazing audience or alone home in front of my computer screen, or my experiences with the travelling and touring, all the people I’ve met when I was around the globe. All that is in my music.
I view my albums like a diary, I record my emotions, state of minds, ideas, thoughts. And of course, I give them a different shape, a shape where I can work with. I’m a DJ, you know. So I suppose my music is art and entertainment at the same time, because people are curious, they want to share a person’s life. They search for the person behind the music, as you do at the moment. The ability to be creative is my motor, it’s so necessary for me like the air that I breathe. I need to be creative; it balances me. And I guess that point is very important for many artists. On the one hand we need to express ourselves, entertain ourselves and others while on the other hand we need that rest, that pause which happens when making music; the calmness and the quiet as well as all the noise, laughter and faces in front of your mind.”
Skrufff: You lived as a squatter in the late 80s: what kind of environment was that?
Ellen Allien: “It was more like a crowded house, full of artists, with some rooms for making music and a Brasilian cultural centre. I learned in those surroundings to open my eyes and ears to things that really make me happy. I met a lot of artists there and I also did some music, such as playing saxophone for example. The experience also opened my eyes to all the alternatives we have in society. We don’t necessarily have to work in an air-conditioned office then go home to our puppet house designed for watching TV. It was a step into more artistically orientated surroundings, an entry into underground club culture. And I still think of these days regularly.”
Skrufff: It seems like a big jump from squatting to running your own record company and everything else:: at what point did you develop your drive?
Ellen Allien: “I developed my drive very early on. It was always clear to me that I’d have to establish my own network. I was part of others’ groups, but I wasn’t that happy, because they weren’t always based on respect and trust. For me, the starting point was entering the techno scene, I immediately had a vision, because everything was different and at the same time possible. For example, the gender issue: it was no longer important if you are a woman or a man, like in hip hop where they had and still have those fixed gender roles.
With techno we developed a whole culture, an alternative way of living, fulfilling our dreams and earning money with it at the same time. But the money was never in the forefront. It was more important to go a different way, to be part of that small and friendly revolution that enabled us all to be artists. And we also changed the understanding of art.. When I started weren’t that many record labels in Berlin and I felt I wanted to do something, to change the city. I just found the courage and energy to release the music I really liked and I also got my own radio show at Kiss FM, from 1994. So you see, I stepped very early into that (business) world. But I didn’t want to release any more records on the other label, because I didn’t like the other music. Do it by yourself or die.”
Skrufff: in a recent interview with Index Magazine you said ‘it took me years to learn not to fear the future’, how did you learn?
Ellen Allien: “Music has changed my life. Through music I’ve found happiness and a passion for life because I’ve found an outlet for my emotions. To be honest, I’m still a bit afraid of the future, because nobody ever knows what will happen. But my fears back then were more about the lack of a vision, of a vision for my life. With the development of my label, of my carreer, of my skills in DJing and producing I managed to find the real thread for my life. And that was the moment when I lost my fears, when I became satisfied with my life.”
Skrufff: you grew up in Berlin before the Wall came down, and I’ve always remembered Christiane F’s bleak and dark depiction of heroin addiction in the city, what do you remember of the city’s vibe before reunification?
Ellen Allien: “It was like a prison sometimes. It wasn’t that easy a place to leave, like sitting on an island without a boat. But it was also a very safe location, because it wasn’t in the centre of attention, like it is today. Bowie and other artists came here because of that freedom, of the opportunities for doing and living alternative. I had a nice childhood and Berlin is a very green city. Everything could be overviewed, sometimes it was quite calm at places where today the air is burning. But it wasn’t that dark and melancholic for me, sure the mood was melancholic because of the political situation, but I was a child. It was very strange for me to know, that people in the East of the city weren’t allowed to listen to West German music or watch West German TV. I was always wondering why.”
Skrufff: How do you feel the vibe is in the city today: what’s your stance towards incomers moving to Berlin today?
Ellen Allien: “That special vibe is gone and I’m not sad about it, because with the coming down of the wall everything has changed and has opened people’s ears, eyes and hearts. We are the only city worldwide where former east and west melts together and creates something new. That implies a very unique spirit. And you can feel it everywhere. Berlin isn’t that old, there aren’t many routines like you find in other big cities. Sure, it has also changed other things but Berlin is very international. And you can feel that around every corner. But at the same time it is still Berlin, good old Berlin. I guess Berlin is the only German city where you have that freedom for just being yourself. There’s still enough space left for experiments, for art, for critique and for innovation. I really love Berlin, it’s my home. That feeling strengthens me a lot.”
Skrufff: How about Brits and Americans who don’t learn German?
Ellen Allien: “Most Americans and Brits I l know who live here are speaking German very well and I have to admit that I like speaking English because it gets better and better and better.. The Brits have a very unique kind of humour, I love staying in London or sharing my time with some friends there. It’s very amusing. The MFA are from London and they will also release a maxi in August..
Skrufff: Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the border had very aggressive border security: what’s your stance on America with all their increased travel restrictions etc is it a place you’re keen to visit?
Ellen Allien: “Oh, I’m getting angry when you’re asking me that…. Grrrrrrr. Last year I had to buy a very, very expensive visa for travelling into the USA. They stopped me at the Canadian border and took my finger-prints and photos. It’s a paranoid country. I just want to play my music, you know. But I like so many American artists, it’s difficult to avoid visiting USA, also because of my American friends, the clubs, the tours… I do not agree with Bush, in no point.
Skrufff: Berlin’s Love Parade was recently cancelled for a second time: how significant is that?
Ellen Allien: “Yes, that’s true. But over that weekend there are nevertheless a lot of parties. It’s a love week without the Love Parade. I’m not that sad about it, because when something is dying, there’s space for something new. And something new will definitely come; watch out. And the Love Parade isn’t that important for the real independent culture, because it’s too much, too many people, too much stress.. We have the love week and we celebrate us and our culture without all that huge commercial interest.”
Skrufff: Berlin DJs Paul Van Dyk and Hell are both global celebrity figures: how much do you seek the same status for yourself?
Ellen Allien: “I’m still one of the few women in Germany who run a label. I view myself as a pioneer, an activist and a music lover. And I’m rocking the clubs every weekend again. I’m also in the media’s attention. But only what happens directly in the club is the truth; that’s what is important for me. And it’s so unbelievably great to live a life like I do! I see the world, I can work with so many talented people. The label is still very important, but not so easy all the time. But it’s necessary to remain my freedom. And I still have my freedom – that’s more important than fame.”
‘Thrills’ is out now on Bpitch Records. Head to http://www.bpitchcontrol.de for more details.
