Nervous pop – Chris Imler: “I also dance to Boney M. at the fire brigade”

They moved from Augsburg, their hometown, to West Berlin in the early 1980s. Then, as now, the greatest possible contrast, right?

Yes! I grew up in the middle of the city center, in the strike shadow of the Augsburg Cathedral. My family was also Catholic, which is why I was also an altar boy. I was totally bad at school. With ADHD and total difficulties of concentration, I was quickly branded as a fidget-philipp. The best thing was the library – there were blues plates, for example by Robert Johnson. “I’m standing at the corner with my suitcase in my hand.”

So is Chris Imler a blueser in the heart?

No no! For a short time I thought I would become blues musicians, but shortly afterwards I didn’t have much to do with blues music. In the 1980s, the blues plates with glossy technology were recorded, which did not match for me – similar to a scrap place with shiny cars. Blues has to sound dirty and rusty, otherwise he doesn’t make sense.

This also seems to apply to their music in a similar way, right?

Yes, I have a soft spot for broken things. Somehow they always stay up-to-date, at least for me, because they do not submit to any optimization logic. Similar to the first album by The Velvet Underground: As a teenager, I got to know that through my long -haired, parka -wearing cousin. I just thought: wow, what is that weird! And even today it sounds very modern.

Have you already played drums in your time in Augsburg?

Yes, that started relatively early. It started at a jazz fair, so I worked up to the drum player. They quickly noticed that I bring a certain rhythmic talent. Shortly afterwards I got the first drums and started playing in a school band.

Where did the connection to West Berlin come from?

My brother had studied there at the time, and I got to know the city during my visits. When I moved there, I started playing in garage bands.

What did the city look like then?

It was a crazy playground. The atmosphere was somehow very artificial, not to the extent grown for a long time as in other places. Everyone who was there either depressed themselves in front of the Bundeswehr or no longer endured it in the province – a good mix! You could do anything for little money. And there were all the disputes with the system – unlike today, when it comes to defending the status quo and the few achievements that exist. And the cultural world, compared to today, was even less goods -shaped.

(In the background of the Neukölln pub, where this interview takes place, “Money, Money, Money, Money” by Abba, Chris Imler sings briefly)

What from back then do you recognize in the city of today?

It is now an oller term, but I think there is already something like a DNA in the city: the hedonistic, the manure, including the wasteful. That was already in the 1920s and that still exists today, even if it now looks different than 20, 40 or 100 years ago. I used to think that something like gentrification came to a natural end at some point. Today I know: there is no end. The gentrification and commodification never stop, it comes in waves and again and again. And we in the cultural business, we are all the drivers of this process, even if we sing against him.

So How to do you on your new album “The Internet Will Break My Heart”?

Exactly. Everything revolves around algorithms that are created by commercial companies that certainly have a lot in the sense, just not to promote good in people. Instead, our needs are drawn in a market -shaped manner and our lower instincts are exploited. This is a blatant market dictatorship. I also notice it with myself: I used to read any comics or books on the toilet. Today – just like every other person – I no longer go to the toilet without a cell phone. I think without my smartphone, I couldn’t shit anymore.

Your solo debut from 2014 is called “nervous”. Is Chris Imler music conceivable as a basic state without nervousness?

It’s a bit like the question: Is life without seals possible for polar bears? Whereby: the hunting now also Caribus, I recently learned through a reel. To come back to the question: No, my creative work would not be possible without nervousness and my ADHD. I think she is also a major reason why I can be so badly drawn. I always look to the left and right, aggregate completely opposite to something new. I am always interested in a lot of things at the same time, so I find it difficult to focus on one thing. (In the background there is a song of the Scorpions). Now the scorpions are still running. They definitely have no ADHD, you can hear that …

At the time of the appearance of “nervous” they were already in their mid -50s. Why did you actually start with your solo project so late?

For a long time it was not an issue to stand alone on stage. The idea actually only arose as part of a Daniel Johnston tribute, which was more than ten years before my first record, in the early 2000s. I was asked if I wanted to contribute something. And me like this: okay, I’ll do it. At that time I had a new sampler and combined it with my drum set at that time and then interpreted a song by Johnston relatively freely. That was pretty well received at the time.

In the rockabilly and garage scene, in which you previously moved with your band Golden Showers, the connection between analog and electronic elements was certainly not well received everywhere, right?

That’s right, the rockabilly culture can be very narrow-minded, but I didn’t care. In Berlin it started with techno in the early 1980s, and I never had any real fears of contact, on the contrary. The loop and repetitive, also the hypnotic is very connected for me to what I liked in my childhood and youth on the blues and later in the 90s to Jungle and Drum’n’Bass. In general, I have no points of contact with music from a wide variety of strings: If it has to be, I also dance to Boney M. on the ball of the volunteer fire brigade. I find it exciting in musical terms, from limits that you have imposed on yourself again and again. For example, I am currently working on something like emo songs that are about great feelings.

Chris Imler: »The Internet Will Break My Heart« (‎Fun in the Church/H’art)