A
lphaville remain best known in
the UK for their debut single Big
In Japan, in 1984. But although
it was their only real success in
Britain, the German synth-pop trio
fronted by vocalist Marian Gold
were far from one-hit wonders.
Big In Japan was a smash all
over the world (except in Japan,
ironically) and the global hits continued
with Sounds Like A Melody, Jet Set, Dance
With Me and Forever Young. The band
has released seven albums, with the most
recent, Strange Attractor, making the Top
40 in Germany. Their debut long-player,
Forever Young, has just been reissued in
deluxe format.Were you involved in the reissue of
Forever Young?
Not me, because I’m just the singer.
Bernhard Lloyd [the synth player] was very
involved on the technical side. But we were
both of the opinion that after 35 years it
was about time to remaster Forever Young
because back when we recorded it, it was
mastered for vinyl rather than CD.How did Alphaville begin?
I met Bernhard in West Berlin in 1981.
He shared an obsessive love for the same
kind of music as me, which was especially
indie bands from the UK. Tubeway Army,
Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvres
In The Dark were strong infl uences on us.
Along with Frank Mertens [Alphaville‘s
other keyboard player], none of us could
really play an instrument. The music was
in our heads, but we were dependent
on synthesizers and drum machines and
things like that. Bernhard already had some
equipment, so we were able to compose
and record songs.Synths and computers must have
been expensive at that time...
The equipment we had at that time was
basically toys – the cheapest monophonicsynthesizers you could imagine. We had
a little studio in a basement, made a
couple of demos and sent them to some
record companies to try to get a deal. We
didn’t have much hope, but we had three
offers and from that moment everything
happened very fast. We released Big In
Japan and within seven weeks it was No.
in Germany. It was a rocket ride of a start
for a band that no one knew of a couple
of months before. I remember sitting in a
restaurant where I was working, peeling
potatoes and stuff like that. Suddenly our
record was on the radio four times a day.
After a week or so the cook came up and
threw me out! He said, ‘Why are you still
here peeling potatoes? You must be earning
a fortune. You don’t belong here anymore!’What was the story behind Big
In Japan?
We originally weren’t sure whether we
should put it on the album, because it’s a
bit autobiographical in that it refl ects my
time in West Berlin in the late 70s, with the
drug scene around the train station andthe zoo, and all the underground things. It
has nothing to do with Japan. It was that
line where if you’re a complete loser you
tell people, ‘Well, I’m nothing over here but
in Japan I’m a big star.’ I actually got the
title from the British band Big In Japan who
were on a compilation album I’d bought a
couple of months before. The funny thing is
that when we released the song four years
later, we were at No.2 in the German
charts and No.1 was Frankie Goes To
Hollywood, whose singer, Holly Johnson,
was the original singer in Big In Japan.
We never got to speak with him but he must
have wondered, who is this German group
with a song named after my band!You didn’t tour much in the 80s...
We didn’t feel we were good enough
musicians. These days it wouldn’t be a
problem to go out and play with tracks, but
at that time it was really complicated. We
didn’t feel like we were performers. We felt
more like we were studio rats. The studio
felt like a safe environment. So, much to
the annoyance of our manager, we didn’t
play very much. We started playing live
in 1993, when we became better on our
instruments, and began touring from there
on. Since then, we’ve never really stopped.For anyone who only knows
Alphaville from Big In Japan, which
albums would you recommend
they listen to?
The last one – Strange Attractor! Also,
Prostitute. There’s a great variety of styles
on that one.Do you have another album on
the horizon?
We didn’t have much time to record in the
last two years since Strange Attractor, but
on the other hand we have a lot of material
in the vault. We probably have enough for
a new album but I don’t think we will be
releasing one this year. It will probably be
in 2020. Douglas McPhersonGODFATHERS
of
MARIAN GOLD
© MG RTL D / Robert Grischek● The deluxe edition boxset of Forever Young is out now on Rhino.