She Put A Record On: An Interview With Gudrun Gut

Malaria!

Popshifter: What was your involvement with DIN A Testbild, as well as Einstürzende Neubauten?

Gudrun Gut: I played the “Stylofon” in DIN A Testbild, and the Korg MS20 synth with Neubauten. Both bands were pretty improv-based, and I wanted to go in the more pre-constructed field.

Popshifter: I have read about why Mania D disbanded (Bettina Köster getting fired and Beate Bartel being more engaged with Liaisons Dangereuses) and how Malaria! formed from those ashes with you and Bettina. Then Matador formed with you, Beate, and Manon P. Duursma (who was also a member of Malaria!) Plus, you formed a project called Miasma with Canadian Myra Davies. Plus you did some theatrical work as Madame Bovary. This timeline gets really confusing—so many “M” monikers! So which of these entities still exists, if any?

Gudrun Gut: No, none of them do exist any more, except for Monika. We never really closed Matador, but didn’t work together for a while. Might do so.

Popshifter: So how did the other girls get recruited for Malaria?

Gudrun Gut: Bettina and I were very clear about wanting to play a lot of live shows, and we needed more people in the band to do that. We looked around and quickly the line up was found in our circle of friends.

Popshifter: Also, why did Malaria! disappear in the mid 80s, only to resurface in the 90s (and then disappear, again?) Is there a love/hate relationship with you and Bettina? Actually, same question for Matador . . . is there a love/hate relationship with Beate?

Gudrun Gut: A love/hate relationship with Bettina . . . could have been. I hardly see her these days. With Beate, she is living on the same street and we see each other quite often. Its like this with these old friendships and relationships . . . there are times when your paths go together, and sometimes you go a different way and then suddenly you walk together again. No hard feelings. That’s life. Full of surprises!

Matador
Photo © P. Gruchot

Popshifter: Any plans to re-release any of the back catalog of Matador? (By the way, my dog LOVES “Tote Stadt” by Matador . . . he starts barking along with it.)

Gudrun Gut: Ha! I am like your dog . . . I like “Tote Stadt” as well. Beate, Manon, and I are discussing remodeling the Matador tracks. Some kind of remixes/reworks by us of our favorite tracks. . . but nothing confirmed or started yet. Who knows . . . maybe next year.

Popshifter: I also heard that you and Myra Davies just released some new works on The Girl Suite EP and Cities and Girls. Why isn’t this called “Miasma,” but released as “Myra Davies”? Also, how did you and Myra ever cross paths in the first place?

Miasma
Gudrun Gut and Myra Davies

Gudrun Gut: We met in Berlin when Myra was studying Romanticism at Humboldt University. We met through friends, I guess. I really liked her text, and I thought it would be a great idea to have music with it. Since I had some free studio time, we started to try it out and it worked fine. After some theatre work and the two and a half CDs we released, the Miasma circle was closed and we thought it is good to continue working in a different way. More open. . . and since I am busy with my solo work (among other things) we thought it wass good to have it clearly stated as a “Myra Davies” album, cause the lyrics are the main thing in this project.

Click to read more from Gudrun Gut on. . .

Not the average girl
Mania D, Matador, Malaria!, Miasma
The Ocean Club
Monika Enterprise and Mac
Recent activities
Not so serious

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7