Everything is Possible: Alien Transistor Interview

Stewart Gardiner spoke with Alien Transistor’s Markus Acher about DIY community spirit, working with Tenniscoats and putting on an Alien Disko

The internationalist Munich-based label Alien Transistor, and associated collective of artists and bands, are open to the moment, drawing out a breadth of voices, sounds and styles into the world. From label instigator Markus Acher’s The Notwist, through the delicate microcosmic worlds of Kama Aina, to the outsider pop supergroup Spirit Fest, special care and attention has been given to each aspect of every project. Warmness, gentle experimentation and a strong sense of community flow out from the sonic results.

Mat Fowler (of Concrete Islands favourites A Happy Return) is one of those artists. He describes the label as “having a sense of shared musical adventure and discovery that feels far reaching, and nurtures an organic and ever growing community of friends, music makers and kindred spirits.”

It was a pleasure to chat with Markus over a period of time, which resulted in the following dialogue.

Please introduce yourself.

I’m Markus Acher. I sing and play guitar and drums, but also some other instruments that I don’t actually know how to play, in The Notwist and Spirit Fest. Also in Hochzeitskapelle, Rayon, You + Your D. Metal Friend, Le Millipede and some other bands and projects. I run the label Alien Transistor, together with my brother Micha, Flo Steinleitner and Flow Zimmer. And organize the festival Alien Disko, that happens every year ( for 3 years now ) in December in Munich, also together with my brother and Christoph Gurk.

How did the Alien Transistor label come about? Was it linked to the development of The Notwist’s sound?

We started Alien Transistor 2003 with the solo recordings of our friend Saam Schlamminger aka Chronomad, who had also played with us on the Notwist record‚ Neon Golden. We liked his music very much, and thought it has to be heard. So in the beginning, the releases were all linked to us personally or from friends, and musically, they could be associated with The Notwist or other bands, we played in at that time.

But at one point, we realised that if we want to keep the label interesting for us and others, we would have to reach out and include more people from outside our music scene. That happened the later years, when we got the chance to release the Tenniscoats, Jam Money, Mimicof, byul.org and Odd Nosdam, which makes us very happy and brings back a lot of ideas for our label, but also for our own music. And brought new friendships.

What should listeners expect when hearing an Alien Transistor record?

There is no common style, more a common spirit in being open-minded and curious. Experimental in the sense of having no fear of inventing sounds and combining styles you normally wouldn’t. It can be everything from songs to very abstract soundscapes – there are no rules. I learned so much from people like Tenniscoats, Jam Money or our friends in 13+god, and how they create their own genres and worlds, and live their art. I think they are all very experimental in the true sense of the word, as they don’t care about genres and expectations, and just make their very own music.

Alien Transistor seems very community driven. Not only through the musical projects and the artists, but through the other labels you collaborate with. Can you talk a little about that?

As much as we are musicians, we are fans, and so we love to work together with other people, whose music or art we love. Gutfeeling for example are friends for a very long time and they have a similar past, as, like us, they are coming from the Munich hardcore / punk scene and became more and more interested in all kinds of music from all over the world. Shared experiences in the form of a release or concerts is always better then co-existing, and in a conservative and rich city like Munich even more, as it is hard to survive as an independent musician and find your space. So, we can help each other a bit.

I’m interested how it works when you’re involved with another label. For instance, Spirit Fest on Morr Music and Kama Aina on Hochzeitskapelle and Gutfeeling.

Both Thomas Morr from Morr Music and Andi g-rag from Gutfeeling are very old friends, so there is a very normal and easy way of communicating about all this. It’s all about the music in the end. We all know that we will not make much money from selling records and only can make it better by collaborating sometimes. And for Spirit Fest and also the Kama Aina / Hochzeitskapelle records, it felt like it fits both collaborating labels musically.

The Pastels, their Geographic label and the Monorail record shop are not only a vital part of the Glasgow music scene, but form an integral part of a global community. That’s how I was introduced to the likes of Kama Aina and Tenniscoats for example. Does Alien Transistor play a similar role in Munich?

I really hope so. At least we try to invite our friends to Munich, and visit them as much as possible. And find new scenes and bands that have similar ideas.

Are The Pastels fellow travellers? How did you meet? Has this friendship helped shaped what you do in any form?

Yes, The Pastels were always a big influence and role model for everything we do. I love their music, but also I like their artwork, their interest in collaborations, their independent way of doing things and their taste. I met Stephen when touring with Stereolab, as far as I remember, and then I always visit Monorail when we are in Glasgow. Stephen’s recommendations are always the best, and much of my favorite music I got to know from him.

I feel what Alien Transistor and the above allow is global music disseminated through local scenes. A DIY community spirit as opposed to the corporate de- localising. Please discuss.

When growing up in the small town Weilheim in Bavaria, I didn’t really feel at home and, like my friends back then, very soon became attracted to art and music collectives like the Dadaists or the hardcore punk scene, that seemed to create an alternative way of living by collaborating and working together. So in the 90s, inspired by the New Zealand DIY scene and American tape labels, we started to record with 4-track-recorders, released our own records with hand painted covers, make fanzines and organize concerts with international bands visiting our small village. It felt like everything is possible. Later it broke apart because of many people moving away to bigger cities, but the spirit stayed and with people like The Pastels, and now recently the Spillage Fete collective and the Tenniscoats, we found friends who have a similar way of always looking for collaborations and interactions. They help me to continue.

Mat Fowler, whose A Happy Return album was one of my favourite albums of 2018, introduced us. It completely makes sense that you’d bring him and Tenniscoats together. What a beautiful idea! Is that what happened? How did you start working with Mat?

When Stephen wrote something enthusiastic about the Jam Money record, I ordered the LP from Mat, and he wrote back and a very nice communication developed. And one day we invited them for a small tour with Le Millipede and The Notwist, and now it’s a friendship with him and his partner Aimee that’s very precious to me.

So, as we had talked about the Tenniscoats before and Mat liked them so much also, I wanted to invite him and his very unique way of finding sounds and songs to be part of the recordings.

Let’s talk about Spirit Fest. What a dream line-up of collaborators! How did the project come about, how has it evolved and what’s it like working with the others?

We were thinking about curating this festival‚ Alien Disko, in Munich, and the first band I would invite, was the Tenniscoats. They are my favorite band, and I had met them once, when we played in Tokyo. As we had talked about recording something together, I organized a small apartment studio in Munich and we recorded 2 weeks before the festival. I had asked Mat, and also my friends Cico ( from The Notwist and Joasihno ) and the producer and musician Tadklimp, because I thought this could fit musically and personally, and because these are all people I admire for what they do. And the nicest people I know.

And it worked so well. We didn’t have to speak so much and just played and there was immediately a common language in music. A really wonderful experience. And this continued with the recordings for the second album and the touring in Europe and Japan. I am very happy about this band. It is something very precious to me and one of the best musical and personal experiences I have had so far.

The artwork on your releases is always very beautiful. I’m assuming that’s a very important part of Alien Transistor?

For me personally I get a lot of inspiration for music through art and books, so the dialogue of visual art and music is very important and can create something wonderful. The good thing is that all the bands on Alien Transistor at the moment all feel the same and are very unique visual artists too, like Odd Nosdam or TaeSang Cho from buyl.org, Ueno and Saya from Tenniscoats or Mat Fowler and Aimee Henderson.

Can you talk about the Alien Disko festival. It looks like a dream festival.

The Alien Disko festival originated in the fact that many interesting international bands don’t come to Munich anymore on their tours. When we got the chance to curate a two-day festival for a theater called Kammerspiele here in Munich, we invited many bands we really like, and who wouldn’t come normally, and combined it all with a special aftershow party of Munich friends and bands. The idea of the whole festival is a lot about uncategorisable music, people who in their way don’t fit in, and a lot about collaborating (but there is nothing forced, it just happens). And as in Germany, like everywhere in the world, recently there is a strong tendency towards patriotic, nationalistic and racist thinking again, the whole festival also is a statement for a colourful and open-minded togetherness without boundaries.

You described the most recent Alien Disko as old and new friends coming together in a sort of utopian state. Could you expand on that?

Saya and Ueno from the Tenniscoats became a very important part of the festival over the 3 years, and last year they also curated a part of it and invited their friends Otomo Yoshihide, Umeda Tetsuya, the band Eddie Marcon and their wonderful brassband Zayaendo. Also they invited Bill Wells and The Pastels. So there were many meetings of friends on and off the stage. The Pastels played with the Tenniscoats and Umeda Tetsuya, Bill Wells played with Tenniscoats and the Hochzeitskapelle and Umeda Tetsuya, Tenniscoats played with Hochzeitskapelle and Zayaendo, Notwist played with Zayaendo, etc. And it felt like dreaming for two days, a coming together of wonderful and inspiring people, on the stage and in the audience. I loved every moment. But for me personally the Tenniscoats concert then was especially moving and everything started spinning. It was free, very quiet and very loud, and very touching. I will never forget.

alientransistor.bandcamp.com