Slave Republic – 12-04-2010

Interview with: Slave Republic
By: Nina Mende

• You began in the 90s and then reunited in 2007. What did you do in the decade between?
Alec Fu: Well actually we did not do alot that was related to music. We pursued our carreers and unviversity degrees, so actually we tried to live a pretty normal life.
Alex Alice: But we failed just living a normal life… I set up the Gute Welt Studio in Duesseldorf and kept track of the newest technical developments in music. Somehow I just couldn´t let go music…

• Why going separate ways in the first place?
AA: We were not good enough for a professional music career at that time. Our sound was basically crap – but we had some good ideas already.
AF: The thing was that we had no idea how to take it to the next level. We thought playing twice a week would be enough to get better. That was wrong.

• What is the difference between now and then band wise (besides that you’re only a duo now)?
AF: We are older and wiser. Today we know that being a musician on a professional level means hard work, discipline and the ability to accept criticism. Sounds pretty German I guess…

• How do you think has the music business changed since then?
AA: Due to the technical progress anybody who has a decent amount of patience and ambition can make a good sounding record in 2010. Actually there is no need for the big studios anymore. Some of the best albums of the past few years were made in a laptop. This is what you really could call Independent Music!

AF: The golden years of the record labels are over on the one hand and a lot of ill produced crap has taken over on the other hand. Casting shows and auto-tune have taken the charts to a new level of evilness. But fortunately bands like us are also able to profit from new developments. We were discovered on MySpace for example.

• You have just released your debut album. Why just now and not earlier?
AF: It took a long time to go from where we were to a modern New Wave sound.

• What are your future plans with Slave Republic?
AA: We want to put some serious time into developing some new sounds. In the recent past some very good IDM stuff has come up. Intelligent Dance Music is what we are inspired by right now. The stuff from France and the UK that keeps you moving… We want to combine our style with that. Its is going to be an interesting journey.

Will you play any festivals this summer?
AF: We will play at the Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig in May (21st, in the Moritz Bastei) and we will play on the Nocturnal Culture Night in Deutzen on September 9th. This is very exciting for us! We get to play with on the same festival as Alien Sex Fiend, Diary of Dreams and The Klinik.

• What feedback to the album did you receive so far?
AA: Absolutely positive. The critics agreed very much regarding a good combination of synths, guitars and vocals as well as our New Wave apeal. Some noticed the sound quality, which might be related to the excellent mastering studio Exchange in London. Some didn´t like that it was too Pop. That´s more than fine for us!

• Are you thinking about adding some live musicians to your band?
AF: Honestly we did actually think about adding live musicians. We discussed to play with an additional guitarist and a drummer. But what we found out for ourselves: We are best as a duo right now. Maybe in the future we will discuss this again, but for now we feel that playing as a duo determines Slave Republic.

• Do you have any musical background? (Classic vocal education, piano classes… anything?)
AA: I´ve had years of classical education playing the flute and changed to Bass when I was sixteen. At my school we had the Roland System 700 modular synth. That was a great inspiration at that time.
AF: I`ve had guitar lessons and vocal coaching as well as drum lessons. Now I stick to training my voice.

• What does Slave Republic stand for?
AA: Everybody is a slave to something. Think about it. Even though we ourselves are fortunate enough to live in a free part of the world. That was the inspiration behind it.

• In the booklet you can only find the lyrics to “Less Of Me” and “The Driver”. Why only these two songs? And why is the biography in there as well?
AF: I wanted to emphasize them and wanted the listeners to figure out the other lyrics themselves. As simple as that. The bio is in there because we felt it would be interesting to read while listening to our tracks. I am always happy to read stuff like that in CD´s I buy.

• Adrian Hates is mentioned in your Thank You’s (as first person as well!) Did you have any collaboration with Diary Of Dreams? Or is there another reason why Adrian is mentioned there?
AA: Well the answer is simple: Adrian is the owner and founder of Accession Records, our label. And we owe him a lot.
AF: We like working with him – he is a very experienced guy and is able to point into the right direction whenever needed.

Many thanks for your time and the answers.