She Put A Record On: An Interview With Gudrun Gut

Photo © Kerstin Anders

Popshifter: The video for “Move Me” is cute.Are those your daughters or family members in the video?

Gudrun Gut: The video for “Move Me” was made by my best friend’s (Manon) daughter, Zarah (and her girlfriend). The idea came because they were doing videos every day for fun and Manon told me about it. So I just asked them if they would like to do a video for “Move Me.” and they just did what they wanted to do. Then we had a really good editor (Ute Schall . . . she does lots of theatre video for a Berlin hot shot theatre producer named Pollesch) and she offered to do the editing . . . which was fantastic!

Popshifter: One thing I’ve taken visual notice of is that you aren’t a show-off. You seem to be rather demure. I could be wrong in that assumption, but you come across as the type of girl who puts her intelligence and talents in the foreground (and it should speak for itself). You don’t portray yourself as eye-candy or a sex kitten, nor do you come across as a woman who doesn’t care about her appearance. A better way to put this is that you don’t stick your tits in the camera or something ridiculous like that; you clearly have more tact, confidence, and modesty. To me, that is fabulous! I can take an artist more seriously who isn’t an exhibitionist, so to speak. There are so many female musicians that succumb to playing up the sexy motif, and I think that tarnishes their actual capabilities, so it’s really awesome that you don’t do that. (And at the same time, you look incredible! You are aging gracefully, my dear!) Am I right in some of those assumptions, or am I way off the mark?

Gudrun Gut: Thanks!!! I absolutely agree with you on the sexy-attitude thing. I hate these rap videos with naked girls around the “big boss”! I think it’s offensive. I think female sex is used very often as a product for the male appetite. But female sex has many different sides. . . as does male sex.

Popshifter: Tell us about GUTaRIST?

Gudrun Gut: My friend Pipilotti Rist and I did this installation last year at the Polish Embassy (for the Sonambiente Art Festival). We just locked each other up in a room and worked on video and music for days with hardly any food.

Popshifter: What is markeB?

Gudrun Gut: MarkeB was a festival for the Berlin music scene. It featured Berlin labels with their showcases.

Popshifter: How did your recent shows go last year? Any fond memories?

Gudrun Gut: I really enjoyed the live shows. I travelled quite a bit, and enjoyed playing the songs in a different arrangement. Lots of fond memories . . . some of the gigs were small places, and some I was headlining quite big shows. Some audiences were going nuts, and some were very quiet. . . . What can I say!

Photo © Gaga Nielsen

Popshifter: I read about a recent festival you were involved in, and it had something to do with Nico from the Velvet Underground. Could you tell us a bit more about it?

Gudrun Gut: Nico died 20 years ago, and she would have been 80 this year . . . so it was called the “Nico 80/20 Festival.” It was organized by a very good friend of hers. He asked me last year to be part of it, and I was very happy to be able to play some Nico songs in her memory! I did this together with Michaela Melian. We did one song of Michaela’s called “Baden Baden,” and one by me (“Tip-Tip”). We also did two Nico songs together . . . “Facing the Wind” and “Little Sister.”

Popshifter: Any new stuff for 2009 you’d like to talk about? I know you’re doing a show in Boulder, Colorado (so could you expand on that?). Any Monika news? Any art exhibits?

Gudrun Gut: Yes, I will be in Boulder in April. I will have a class at the University Of Colorado at Boulder, and do a concert at the opening of the Communikey Festival. I will do more US dates after that; we are building a tour at the moment. Before that I will be in Australia, New Zealand, and China for some concerts and workshops . . . which will be quite a trip!

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

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