Prager Handgriff

First of all, tell our readers a little bit more about Prager Handgriff.
Stefan: - "Prager Hangriff has existed since 1990, that will make it a little bit over 12 years so far. We started out together in a kind of school band."
Volker: - "Yeah, we have known each other from school since 1986 and about 1990 we formed Prager Handgriff. When we started we had a third member, a female keyboard player but only for a few months. Later we went on doing some demo tapes. After the release of three demo tapes we got a contract with G.A-Records. We produced our first album with "Brenal" from "Calva Y Nada". The first two CDS we recorded in his studio. After that we started to record and produce on our own."

For us that are not familiar with the German language, could you please tell us what "Prager Handgriff" means?
Stefan: - "It's a medical term."
Volker: - "It's a special technique to pull an embryo from the womb of the female body."
Stefan: - "The Handgrip of Birth. We started this new band and we wanted to have a name similar to birth."

You started out doing all the lyrics in English, but later you went on doing all in German. What do you think is the advantage and disadvantage with that?
Volker: - "I think it started when we began doing live concerts. Right before the concert we talked in German, our first concert we did here in Germany and the crowd spoke German of course. So for about 45 to 60 minutes we used English and we thought that was kind of absurd. So after that we decided to do everything in German. It's our native tongue."
Stefan: - "It's easier for us to express our feelings in our own language. If you want to sing in English you have to know the language very well. We were only taught English in school for a few weeks. We can't express or feelings in another language as we can do in German."

Do you feel it's important to reach out to the foreign audience or do you only concentrate on the German one?
Stefan: - "No, not just the German audience. We play allot in Belgium, Switzerland, France, Netherlands and we have allot of fans in the States."
Volker: - "We played in Stockholm as well."
Stefan: - "It's a big stage and we have allot of fans in South America. Brazil, Mexico and we have an offer to play in Chile, but we'll see about that."
Volker: - "We have learned that German bands singing in German also can reach the foreign countries. It's not a problem for the foreign people. I think it's more honest for us to sing in the German language."

Do you express any political ideas in your music?
Stefan: - "I think our thoughts are close to the left wing fraction, The workers movement. We also deal with the problem of new fascism which I think is a big problem for Germany, especially after the reunion of East and West Germany. I think it's important if you have this opportunity to reach allot of people with your music to deliver your thoughts."

A couple of months ago you released your album '1000 Fuer'. What's up for Prager Handgriff now?
Stefan: - "It's a good question. Right now we play at festivals like Wave Gotik Treffen and after that we will release a "Best-of" that we have planned for a year. First it was going to be released for the United States but that label in the US went bankrupt. So it doesn't exist anymore. The name if this album were 'Neurotix'. We have plans for releasing it in Europe and in US, but first we want to rerecord some of our hits."
Volker: - "It will contain some original songs from earlier albums, but also rerecorded ones and remixes as well."
Stefan: - "We have plans for recording old songs with female background singers. We think it's a good idea to rerecord some songs and not just have old songs on this CD. Hopefully we will write some new songs for our next album which will be released 2004."

What about remixes for other bands? Any plans?
Stefan: - "We have done some remixes for a Belgium group called Ionic Vision and they will remix us. Prager Handgriff has some problems with remixing. We do everything with hardware sequencer and allot of bands are using software. So we can't remix anything with just a software disc. It's a technical problem."

Are you planning any tours with other bands?
Stefan: - "Not at the moment. We want to concentrate on festivals like this one (Wave Gotik Treffen) and other larger festivals. We don't want to play in small cities anymore like we have done in the past. We don't have allot of time, we both have regular jobs and music is not our main occupation. So we only have time playing at weekends."

Any final words from Prager Handgriff to our readers?
Stefan: - "Many greetings to our friends in Sweden. We had a great time and it's a great audience."

This interview was made 2003 and initially published on Neurozine.com