Girls Under Glass Interview

Girls Under Glass

By Miki

Nightmares cover art MIKI: Nightmares is your first N. American release. How does it compare to your previous releases? (Style, music, lyrics, etc.)

AXEL ERMES: it is a best of. so you will find many different songs from all of our different albums.

MIKI: What is your favorite cut off Nightmares and why?

AXEL ERMES: we love most of the songs, but perhaps "when I think about you" is our favourite song because it is a perfect wave-pop-song. also "reach for the stars" is a nice track.

MIKI: Many people in the US aren't familiar with Girls Under Glass. How would you explain your music to them?

AXEL ERMES: electro-gothic with wave guitars and nice melodies and mostly undistorted vocals.

MIKI: What do you hope to achieve with Nightmares in the US?

AXEL ERMES: we try to introduce ourselves to the US, and hope to find some people who like our kind of music. we know that there are many people who share the same feelings and emotions and it is just a matter of time to reach them...

MIKI: How long did it take for you to record the album?

AXEL ERMES: again : it is a best of! ... so it took roundabout 12 years.

MIKI: How did you come up with material for the album?

AXEL ERMES: we are in the business for more than 12 years now, that gave us some time to collect material...

MIKI: Out of all of your releases, which one(s) do you feel captures the essence of Girls Under Glass? Why?

AXEL ERMES: every album captures the essence of girls under glass at the time it was recorded. that's why we made so many different albums. e.g. "firewalker" was the most aggressive one because we had some personal trouble inside the band at that time. so everybody tried to be as noisy as possible instead of beating the other bandmembers...

MIKI: What are some of your influences?

AXEL ERMES: sisters of mercy, bauhaus, daf, einstuerzende neubauten, the mission, front 242, suicide

MIKI: What made you choose a career in music?

AXEL ERMES: our parents decided that we should do something

MIKI: Girls Under Glass has been together for 12 years. What element(s) do you feel is necessary for a band to work together as long as you have?

AXEL ERMES: success, money, friendship, girls, sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, good catering, long guestlists, more girls, more sex, less drugs, no rock'n'roll, good drivers, state-of-the-art-synthesizers, sequencer-software-updates, apple-computers, good soundengineers, good tour-managers, even more girls.... and so on.

MIKI: How did you all meet?

AXEL ERMES: we met on a sisters of mercy concert in hamburg in 1983 or 1984. we founded the band "calling dead red roses" and split in 1985. then one half founded the band CANCER BARRACK, the second half founded GIRLS UNDER GLASS.

MIKI: Over the last 12 years, what stands out the most about your career?

AXEL ERMES: we think the most impressing thing is that we still are together after 12 years. there are not many bands who can write this into their biography...

MIKI: What would you like to see happen to Girls Under Glass in the next 5 years?

AXEL ERMES: it is definitely getting time to cross the atlantic and play the US. we will produce some more albums. and perhaps also axel will score and become the 3rd father in the band. we also would like to play a concert iside the MIR (russian spaceship), broadcast it live in the internet, but the russians have a really weird public transport system. so we might never get the right aeroflot-ticket to the MIR.

MIKI: What aspects of the industrial genre do you like? Dislike? How could things improve for the genre?

AXEL ERMES: we dislike ignorance, we love melodies, we dislike intolerance, we love noises of all kinds. we love the idea of independence, we dislike record companies who try to take control of everything.