Many of the circumstances surrounding the production of the album “She’s Conspiring” are unknown. However, certain facts or at least partial certainties can be gleaned from the interview posted below. Additionally, an early track list from October 10, 2016, has recently been unearthed. It features six tracks that cannot be found on the final album, marked by an asterisk (*), providing rare insights into the order in which the individual tracks were recorded.
- Aspirine, the Beginning *
- Cellophane Nightmare *
- Giant But Not Unfriendly Robot
- GOD Is a GODDESS *
- Imperfektionist *
- Porcelain Walls
- Quantum Lover *
- RFA Dream
- Stealth Nuke
- (Will You Be My) Valkyrie
- Zoetrope, the Never-Ending *
Tracklist
01 ⋅ Anima [feat. Córka] ⋅ 3:10
02 ⋅ Carving ⋅ 4:10
03 ⋅ Giant But Not Unfriendly Robot [feat. Flick] ⋅ 4:10
04 ⋅ Interlude ⋅ 2:10
05 ⋅ Porcelain Walls ⋅ 5:20
06 ⋅ Reverie ⋅ 3:00
07 ⋅ RFA Dream [feat. isn] ⋅ 6:20
08 ⋅ Stealth Nuke ⋅ 3:50
09 ⋅ Tale in Bm ⋅ 2:30
10 ⋅ Token of My Interest ⋅ 3:50
11 ⋅ (Will You Be My) Valkyrie ⋅ 3:20
Interview with the Artist
Hello, Mr. Imperfektionist. You’ve recorded a new album for us?
Of course, I do that every year now. Not to advertise, but there’s “She’s Inspiring” (2014), “She’s Expiring” (2015), “She’s Aspiring” (2016), and now “She’s Conspiring” (2017).
“She’s Conspiring?” “She’s plotting?”
A title as good as any other. Alternatives could have been “Perspiring” and “Transpiring,” but unfortunately, both mean “sweating.” Originally, I had planned dance music, but that went awry when the first time changes and odd meters sneaked in.
Since you rarely answer our questions, we’ll let you just talk this time.
You’ll have to give me some kind of starting point. How about we go through the album track by track? As usual, there are exactly eleven tracks, and alphabetical order was heavily considered while writing.
Sure. What exactly is an “Anima?”
It’s the feminine form of the Latin word “Animus.” Mind, courage, heart, soul, disposition, and so on. In this context, the word directly refers to an artificial lover that I’ve created myself to show her the world out there. Ironically, I know everything about her except where her soul comes from. From myself? Attentive listeners and readers will notice the reference to my short story “Die gebaute Frau” (“The Constructed Woman”). The dominant colors in the song are green and black, representing the good and bad in the world, respectively. I plan to make an animated music video for it someday.
You’ve found a very beautiful voice for the Anima.
You’ve misunderstood! Córka isn’t singing the Anima but rather the scheming side of my own personality. You only hear the Anima in the part afterwards, sung by the electric piano, and its motif is the ninth. The solo in the middle sounds so eerie because I played the guitar twice, but once with a bottleneck. A bottleneck is a metal or glass tube you slide onto your finger, allowing you to slide up and down the strings without being restricted by the frets. I hadn’t used one before. Additionally, you can hear my new five-string bass, and the slowing down at the end was Daniel’s idea. But enough about “Anima.”
With “Carving,” one immediately thinks of skiing.
That’s fine, you can think that way, as in the video I imagine a boy chasing after a girl in a classic manner. Why shouldn’t they do that on skis? Primarily, however, I carve stone, over and over again, never doing anything different, let alone completing my work. I realize that the girl in the song has a negative touch, as she’s the stone. I carve art from rough stone girls until I end up cutting myself on it. The increasingly faster ending of the song is meant to underscore this. Eight improvised guitars enter one after another, each insignificant on its own, and together even dissonant. It sounds like tuning an orchestra at the beginning of a concert. At the end, you start to hear new melodies emerging from the total cacophony. Death to the guitar solo!
Uh, yeah. Google says that “Giant But Not Unfriendly Robot” is a quote from a book.
You’ve caught me there. That’s from the autobiography of the great Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut, space guitarist, and now apparently an author. He used those words to describe the Russian space station when he docked there for the first time. In the song, too, the “giant but not unfriendly robot” is a space station. It grabs the girl and takes her into space. At first, she finds it beautiful there, but soon she gets bored due to loneliness. She starts teasing the kind and harmless robot to the point that he stops caring whether she intentionally opens the airlock and dies. Of course, he regrets it when it’s too late and is condemned to serve her as a space mausoleum for all eternity, so that they can remain one. I’d like to send the astronaut the song, but I’m too afraid.
Oh, he’ll probably appreciate it. Whose enchanting voice are we hearing here?
That was sung by Antonia, and I made the song specifically for her. I even included her last name: “I don’t mind if you flick the switch…” The collaboration worked out great; she was well-prepared. Maybe I’ll have other people sing for me more often now. You know, my own voice is only a B-minus at best, even though I’ve always tried to compensate for it with everything else, at least to encourage the listener to be forgiving. For example, did you notice that most of the song is in 5/8 time? The only exception is the middle part, where the narrative perspective shifts directly from the omniscient narrator to the robot. Or did you notice that the acoustic guitar you hear throughout is actually an electric guitar? I’ve really come to love the Acoustic Simulator.
Did you use that in the “Interlude” too?
I don’t remember anymore. I rarely keep track of which effects I use where. It’s quite negligent and unprofessional, as I’ll never be able to recreate the same sound again. But the interlude doesn’t need that. It’s one of those things you come up with, record immediately, and never play again. I’ve already forgotten it. Incidentally, it’s my very first recording with no vocals. Completely free of tempo limits; imagine me spinning a zoetrope in which a little horse is constantly jumping over rocks and logs. The scratching sound was my roommate; I called him on my phone while holding it up to the pickup. But I’m talking about the song more than it’s worth.
Moving on to “Porcelain Walls,” then.
By far the most complex recording on the album. I really need a more powerful computer and ideally a modern DAW to efficiently handle this many audio tracks. Mixing it was truly no joy, and I’m afraid to make any changes to the song now, as it could upset the balance.
And what’s the song about?
Well, the usual: unapproachable women. In this case, one who used to be very close to me. I don’t know why I still make songs about her. She barricaded herself in her beautiful but hard and still fragile porcelain walls. It’s about Greek mythology, especially the Iliad and the battle for Troy. As long as I’m outside the walls, I want nothing more than to shatter them. But once I’m inside, I realize that it’s not necessary at all. In the end, you hear me and my galley on the way back home. The whole endeavor was utterly pointless, but you can feel that I already miss the climbing.
What exactly does “Reverie” mean to you?
Just a daydream. Opeth, my favorite band in autumn and winter, also have a song that’s similar in name, but I actually came across the word from a current TV series, which the song is also about. Without giving too much away: It’s about the Wild West and very human-like robots; about the question of when consciousness and life truly begin. The problem is complex because one day, even the artificial beings will want more than they are entitled to. For the song, I took the effort to step into the role of the artificial father who wants to warn and save the artificial protagonist, as they believe themselves to be human. The sad part is that this scenario has probably happened a thousand times already, but they keep getting reset. They live in loops, and every attempt to break free just leads them into another loop. I’m just glad that we humans don’t have this problem.
Oh, you’re talking about Westworld. Do you want to send the song to them?
Damn good idea! Like Chris Hadfield I mentioned earlier, Evan Rachel Wood also makes a lot of music and would probably appreciate a song. Her ex-boyfriend Marilyn Manson has already made her a song once, which I didn’t like at all, but she even played the main role in the video. She’s also in Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” music video… with another ex. Well, I’m quite hesitant… especially without a noteworthy online presence. Let’s talk about something else.
How about discussing the next track “RFA Dream?”
Originally, it was just supposed to be “RFAD,” but people find it surprisingly difficult to connect the dots to the anti-drug cult film “Requiem for a Dream.” I’ve always found Jennifer Connelly beautiful, but it was only after watching that film recently that I wanted to dedicate a song to her. In the song, I take on the role of the protagonist who contemplates whether the relationship could still be saved. The film cuts off at a crucial moment. By the way, I don’t think he would have succeeded. Heroin and cocaine destroyed them.
And who’s singing the voice of Jared Leto? It’s not actually Jared Leto, is it?
No, but the next best thing: my buddy Daniel, a bandmate from Fantastic Nightmare, my we R.I.P. in peace. He got to choose a song, and this one appealed to him the most due to all the nightmare references. Imagine lots of skyscrapers and falling bodies. Falling and floating, falling and waking up, falling and crashing… that’s how I envision the drug swamp. The vocals represent our protagonist’s clear moments, the piano the bewildered ones. The guitar isn’t doubled this time, but its echo bounces around the room a lot. By the way, it’s the longest song I’ve ever recorded at six minutes and twenty seconds. So, it’s definitely not pop music.
Quite the opposite of the next track, “Stealth Nuke.”
That was the first one I recorded for the album, and also the first with the new electric guitar. A big thanks to my guitar teacher, Thomas, who simply gifted it to me after the last album when I wanted to buy it from him. I’ve used it in every single song. The frets on my old guitar had worn out, but it wasn’t valuable enough to repair. It’s been sitting untouched in the corner for almost a year now. Poor thing. Maybe I should open the case and see if it hasn’t dissolved yet.
So, is it still there?
Hard to say. You see, instruments have a soul and are more than just their wooden shell. This one will need a lot of coaxing and, above all, a new set of strings. Anyway, back to “Stealth Nuke” … the stealthy nuclear bomb. Sneaky little thing. She especially shouldn’t know that I made this song for her, as she has a partner. The partner shouldn’t know either, as I know her through him. I don’t find her that great, to be honest. I just wanted to remember an unnecessary evening she made a bit more bearable for me. I’ve also incorporated a few subtle references to a video game and a book that both interest us. It’s my only track where I sing in falsetto. I can’t really say more about the song. Next.
Moving on to “Tale in Bm.”
Neeeeext! [laughs] … Just kidding. An uncomplicated, little fairy tale that doesn’t have much to offer and thrives on repetition. It’s my second instrumental track on this album, meaning on all my albums. But these songs without lyrics offer a lot of room for interpretation. It’s much older than the other compositions, so I associate it with the time when composing was still easy. You just needed to pick up the guitar, and your fingers would be guided by your ears. I’m not sure if you can hear it, but for a fuller sound, the guitar is recorded simultaneously through a microphone and a pickup.
Can’t hear it. Let’s move on to “Token of My Interest.”
Ah yes, one of the mass-appeal tracks. By the way, it’s my fastest song with a steady 160 BPM. It’s also the first one where I incorporated harmonics with my right hand. The technique is quite old and simple: you fret normal chords on the left and tap with your index or middle finger on the right on the notes that are exactly one octave above the fretted ones. It creates something that’s neither plucking nor strumming. I think it’s also my first song where I whistled, isn’t it?
I have no idea. Does the song have a meaning?
I made it for reasons of self-interest and for a girl where I might have been a bit too honest, too bold, and too fast. Someone once said that women like honesty and when you make the first move, and you shouldn’t take too much time, but they probably had no idea. We’ve known for a long time that they can’t handle receiving songs. Anyway, I refused to send her the lyrics and never heard from her again. They weren’t necessarily positive, but for me, they summed up the girl quite well. She once said my music sounds like Nirvana, which I didn’t understand at all, so in the chorus, I asked her how she dares to compare me to Kurt Cobain. But she didn’t understand that either, especially without the song’s lyrics. So, I’m not any wiser today.
There’s one more track left, “(Will You Be My) Valkyrie.”
Finally, the one I’ve been waiting for all this time. I like it because I like the girl. She likes me too, but we don’t see each other often enough. Unfortunately, she doesn’t write much either, but then I just listen to her song and think of her. I have no clue whether she listens to it sometimes, but she liked my “gentle” voice, so I’ll sing that way more often now. The guitar is simple, the harmonies are meant to provoke, and you have to imagine the solo because she never recorded it, even though I left eight bars for her. You must imagine the girl like a tree – it doesn’t come running to you. You need to visit it. My ideas are a thousand bees, buzzing from blossom to blossom in its crown, hoping that someday there might be fruit and honey.
We would believe you, were it not for your latest book.
Caught me there. I can’t deny the references to “Walkürian” (Heyne Verlag, publication year 2046). There’s actually a scene in which the narrator asks our beloved protagonist Luzie Winterfeld to be his Valkyrie. You must know that Luzie lives in the area where I was born and now live again. The streets there are named after trees. As fate would have it, the mentioned (real) girl is also named after a tree. It just fit together too perfectly.
Coincidences do happen. What happens next?
Good question, every year anew. I could create an online presence now. Write to a few radio stations or record labels. Look for musicians and go on tour. Or I could buy a decent computer and start working on the fifth album. By the way, it will be called “She’s Respiring.” Or I could just start recording right away and put the technology in the background again. Who knows.
We believe you’re just lazy.
No, you’re wrong. I simply refuse to prioritize. Your mistake lies in not understanding that fame doesn’t bring happiness. I’m glad I understood that before becoming famous. Others let themselves be pushed into the spotlight and have difficulties leaving it later. That won’t happen to me.
You of all people should know. Is there anything else you want to tell your listeners?
No. Which listeners are you even talking about? There aren’t many left, since my ex-ex-ex-girlfriend had a child and now has no time anymore to listen to music.
Alright then! Mr. Imperfektionist, we thank you very much for the interview.
Goodbye and so long.
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