ED2013 Cabaret ED2013 Interviews ED2013 Week2 Edition

Die Roten Punkte: Art rock cabaret

By | Published on Tuesday 13 August 2013

Die Roten Punkt

Meine Damen und Herren, the cabaret Fringe has some serious indie credentials this year, as Germany’s finest indie rock duo Die Roten Punkte return once again to play Assembly’s George Square Gardens. With a new album up-coming, and a movie in the pipeline, we managed to grab a few moments with Astrid and Otto to ask some quick questions.

CC: Welcome back to the Fringe, how are you finding the Festival this year?
Astrid: Super and great! It’s awesome being at the Assembly George Square Gardens. Each night before our show, I grab a sausage from the German sausage shop outside and then I just roll down the astro turf slope to the beautiful Bosco tent, ready to rock and roll!

CC: Let’s go back to the start for a moment. How did you guys come to form the band?
Otto: One night Astrid and I went to see David Bowie at the Deutschlandhalle in Berlin and it changed our lives. From that moment on we knew we only ever wanted to be in a band.

CC: Your official blurb says “a sonic collision between B52s, Kraftwerk and early Ramones”, which is pretty eclectic. How do you describe your music?
Otto: We definitely love all of those bands.
Astrid: I guess we are like indie rock, but we also have pop and punk influences, like Blondie, Devo, Talking Heads and The Pixies.

CC: You have a brand new album in the pipeline. How does it compare to what’s gone before?
Otto: Well the last album ‘Super Musician’ was a straight-forward rock n roll album and we love it. But this time we wanted to do something more arty. We’ve been listening a lot to John Cale, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson and Einstürzende Neubauten.
Astrid: Otto also made me listen to the sound of teaspoons rattling in a thermos for ten hours for inspiration. Which was horrible.

CC: There’s quite a lot of music at the Fringe, but not so many indie stars like yourself. What would you say to persuade other indie rockers to the Fringe?
Astrid: We’re a serious rock band, but we have a terrible manager who keeps putting us in comedy and theatre festivals all around the world. And then people come and laugh at us. So we’re hoping this interview will bring some more serious music lovers to our concerts.

CC: Those are interesting accents – where exactly in Germany are you from?
Otto: Where exactly? Well, we grew up in Grunewald which is out in the woods on the edge of Berlin, but then after our parent’s were killed by a lion we moved to Kreutzberg.
Astrid: They were killed by a train, not a lion.
Otto: Then we lived in a squat in Kreutzberg and one day Astrid brought home a video player, but we only had two videos, ‘Sixteen Candles’ and ‘Pretty In Pink’. So Molly Ringwald pretty much taught us how to speak English.

CC: Taking of films, did I hear mention of a Die Roten Punkte movie?
Astrid: Someone is making a feature length documentary about us touring all over North America. They start filming this November after we finish touring with Amanda Palmer.

CC: Will you be doing any songwriting while in the Festival City? Is there anything about the Fringe that might inspire a new song?
Astrid: I might write a breakfast song dedicated to The City Cafe which has a chorus featuring bacon, pork sausage, haggis and black pudding. It will be called, ‘This Little Piggy Went To Edinburgh And Never Came Home’
Otto: That’s so gross! That song will not be on any Die Roten Punkte album.

CC: We’re half way through the Festival now, are there any other shows you’d recommend we go see?
Otto: I love Red Bastard.
Astrid: And I love Lords Of Strut. They can strut all over me any time they like…

‘Die Roten Punkte – KUNST ROCK (ART ROCK)’ was performed at Assembly George Square at Edinburgh Festival 2013.

LINKS: dierotenpunkte.com

Photo: Kat Gollock

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