Interview: Casper – A result of more than ten years eating shit

WIth his 2011 album XOXO Benjamin Griffey aka. CASPER revolutionized the German rap scene and became one of the biggest hypes the German music scene has seen in a long time. Now he is back with his new album Hinterland, an amazing follow-up album with which CASPER will probably make it to one of the biggest German artists ever. NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION sat down with Ben to talk about the time between XOXO and Hinterland, the recording-sessions of the album, the collaboration with EDITORS frontman Tom Smith, writing a stadium album, ten years of eating shit and of course hope and passion.

CASPER: The DIY thought is hope and passion.

Two years ago you released “XOXO”, which was a huge success, now you are back with your new album “Hinterland”. What happened in this time for you as a person and as a musician?

To be honest there are no big changes on the private side. I still live in the same commune and I still live the same low life. I think people who meet me and don’t know me, they surely think that I’m a student.

But can you still walk through the streets without getting bothered by fans?

Well, it works pretty well. In small cities it happens that people say “no…it’s not him” and here in Berlin or other big cities it is like “aaah yeah”. But what happend and this goes together with your first question, we did a huge tour with tons of shows. I think it was the best we did, since we had to find ourselves as band. When the record was done, the band doesn’t write the songs but perform it live…I mean they are absolutely more than live musicians since we are very good friends…we also feel as a band. So I’d say CASPER is a band. But at the end I go together with producers to the studio and write and record songs with them. And the band has to learn these songs then. So we had to find together as band, which was a process. But all in all we toured for about two years, released a live DVD in between, played the last show in late September 2012 and not even one week later I was already in Spain with the producers to start working on the new album.

I had this sexy thought from the “Sound City” Documentary (Dave Grohl)…they came back from tour, went directly into the studio and back on tour again. And I thought I should totally do it like this, too. And then in March/April I really felt tired and down. But at this point we had huge pressure since the album was already terminated and a lot of things were already planned and going in the back. So I’m really surprised that the album now sounds like it sounds. I wanted to have a loose sound and songs that sound uplifting…but in the end “Hinterland” became an album with pretty dark lyrics. At least when you compare it to what I had in mind before. And it’s really crazy that we didn’t fall into depression while working on the album, because the mood was really more than grey at some point.

CASPER: I was just so tired and I should have taken a break and should have never gone directly to the studio to work on a new album.

In Spain you only did instrumentals?

Mhm…in Spain we wrote the songs “Hinterland”, La Rue Morgue, 20qm…all the songs that sound a bit lighter. Actually this made us announcing the album to the management and the label. All because it was so amazing there. “Ah let’s go to the pool. Ah let’s do barbecue. And then let’s record more great stuff.” We were so creative and worked so productive. And then suddenly “hey…I’m just so tired and I should have make a break and should have never go directly to the studio to work on a new album.” But now we’re sitting here haha.

But still I’m really relaxed now. I used to be very nervous when I was about to release something now I’m really happy and am really looking forward to give the songs to the people. And I’m very much looking forward to play these songs live. I’m also looking forward to getting feedback, whatever it may look like. The fact is that I’m very very very happy with the result, since I never had a vision like that, that I even brought to music almost 1:1.

When did you came up with that vision for the new CASPER album?

Well…rap music is rap music. I mean it’s not “only” rap music, but still it is rap music in a way that you work in parts. “Let’s do a part here, let’s do a part there.” With the “XOXO” album it was the very first time that I recorded an album from the scratch on and not just took a beat, rapped on it and knew what it will become. We wrote the entire music for it. I mean we had this rock feeling on it. But I learned on tour what things we should have focused on more and what not worked like it should have. So we modified the songs on tour, played some parts longer because then the crowd starts clapping.

And that’s were I started thinking. People obviously want me to release a “real” rap album, since they think that “Halbe Mille” is the best song I ever wrote…what I never really got haha. So people somehow expected that I now really will do a “real” rap album. I knew that I didn’t want to do the same thing like on “XOXO”, because I feel somehow finished with what I had in mind there. So somehow I really wanted to do a stadium album. If it is rock, pop, folk, doom, drone, step or gaze wasn’t interesting to me. I just wanted to release a stadium album. And suddenly there was Konstantin Gropper.

Think of bands like FLEETWOOD MAC or ARCADE FIRE. When they enter the stage they don’t have to animate the people, tell them that they should jump, clap or sing along. They just play their songs and the crowd just does it. And this always impressed me at ARCADE FIRE, OASIS or THE SHINS. I wanted to develop with writing refrains. Just think of “Don’t Look Back In Anger”…when this song starts literally everyone starts singing it. I mean it is amazing when people jump and sing at our shows – and they really do it. But I think the major league is when they do this without telling them that they should do it now. That’s what I wanted to reach. I wanted that everything happens just by the songs and that I don’t have to be the aerobic trainer with my 31 years haha.

How did the collaboration with Konstantin Gropper from GET WELL SOON came up?

Well…I knew him before. I’m a big fan of GET WELL SOON. When I did “XOXO” he was busy as hell and wasn’t able to work with me on the record. Actually I wanted that he produces “Alaska”. Imagine Konstantin Gropper would have made “Alaska”…wow. But hey…it still became awesome. But just imagine.

This time I told him “Konstantin, this time you will” and he told me that he would love to, but only if we do several things in a totally other way. He told me that my voice could be so much more and I could sing like TOM WAITS. In the end I sung way less than it was planned, but the courage to sing I totally got from Konstantin. We had more melodic rap parts and I was asking him “but who’ll sing this now?” and he was like “you”.

CASPER: When Tom Smith (EDITORS) came to Berlin to work on a song with me I was sweating so much, because I’m such a fan of his music.

There are two features on “Hinterland”. One with KRAFTKLUB, who have the same management as you have, and one with EDITORS. How did the EDITORS feature came up?

Well…Tom Smith finished the new EDITORS album and told his publishers that he would like to collaborate with other artists, since he never did that before. As far as I know he also wrote pop songs in the UK, but wasn’t really convinced by the pop world. Then his publisher told him about that rap guy from Germany who released a record called “XOXO” that became extremely huge. And that this guy is talking about EDITORS all the time. At the same time someone from a German label told Tom Smith that he should check out my record. So he listened to “XOXO”, wanted to come to Berlin and write a song with me. I was super-excited, because suddenly I wrote emails with him and sent him song ideas. Then he came to Berlin and I was sweating so much, because I’m such a fan of his music. That was really great. Now we are something like pen friends, write email to each other… But also the three/four days he was here were totally relaxed, we were talking about music and how the song we write together should sound like. What I really like about this collaboration is that it is a true and real thing that wasn’t bought but really grew over time. Of course the start came via business stuff, but still this is a true thing.

But is this international collaboration the first step outside the German market for you?

Well, HURTS hyped me a lot in the UK. And after the NME feature I still have some things on my list: pitchfork, NME Mag, a song with JUDITH HOLOFERNES and an US tour.

Your a-level grade?

3,4. I’m not as smart as people might think haha.

What is your favorite flower?

I don’t have an opinion to flowers. Well, it might be a goth-cliché, but shortly I saw a black rose and it looked really nice.

Do you already have a support act for your next tour?

There was one, but that one sadly jumped off. I really can’t tell about the new one, since we just sent out the request.

Will there be a club tour without band just with DJ?

Yes, definitely. Before that a lot of other things will happen, but I can’t tell them right now. That’s still a secret. But yes.

With which artist would you like to work together someday?

MAX RAABE.

Since you often wear shirts of hardcore bands: would you rather listen to rap or to hardcore at home?

I listen to everything. Today I listened to MASK INTRUDER, COLLISEUM, GRAVEYARD, ASAP FERG, BIG SHAWN, DARKTHRONE. I really listen to all of them.

What comes after “Hinterland”? Do you already have plans?

Maybe this goes together with the DJ tour. Who knows. (laughs)

CASPER: I can switch from amazingly happy to totally angry within three seconds.

Are there any things that friends keep telling you but you never listen to what they say?

That I should just relax a bit. I’m still totally dogged, I still live in that “I have to prove this, I have to prove that. I have to, I have to, I have to…” Even when I have a day off I still check everything and don’t really calm down. And to be honest: I’m really thrilled before I go on stage, since I really don’t think that people will love what we do on stage. I also don’t know if people will love Hinterland, I’m really proud of it and I’m not afraid to release it…but I don’t know what people will think about it. But still I live in the panic of going on stage, releasing a record and being broke again. I’m still very much driven to release an album that people will still listen to in many years. That’s more important to me than earning loads of money within a short time.

If there would be one thing in you’re life that you’d like to change, what would it be?

Well, bi-polar would be exaggerated, but I can switch from amazingly happy to totally angry within three seconds. But that goes away within a few seconds again. I think I’m also very unpatient. For example when I stand in line in front of the ticket machine and there are tourists in front of me that don’t get what to do, then I’m really like “booooah ey. Fuck.” and everyone is like “hey Ben, calm down.” But I really denounce that the Berlin train station, the train station of the capital city of a pretty big country, has only two ticket machines. And everytime I think “who planned this?”

How do you cope with the fact that you are the idol or role model for a lot of your fans?

Well, not at all. I really don’t think about that. I think I would go crazy as soon as I would think about that or try to cope with that. Sometimes I realize that I do or did things that I should not do or shouldn’t have done. For example being in a club with friends, totally drunk, spilling beer over our heads…and then I find a video of this on YouTube. Then I’m like “noooo. Damn, you shouldn’t have done that, Ben.” That’s when I realize how I simply don’t think about all the things. Or a cigarette in my hand on a cover. I don’t even smoke, but used the cigarette as stylistic device. I’m thinking of Liam Gallagher when you look angry and hold a cigarette in your hand. I definitely don’t want to tell anyone to smoke, since smoking is definitely nothing that should be considered as something cool.

What also pretty often happens is that I go to a concert and just want to see a band live and tons of people come to me and ask if they can take a photo with me. Then I’m just like “noooo, I just wanna see the concert.” But I’m learning to cope with that, stay friendly and say “hey, let’s do it after the show. I’d really like to see the concert first. Please.” Not everyone understands it, but if they don’t I really can’t do anything.

The last song on “Hinterland” is called “Endlich Angekommen” (“Finally Arrived”). Are you finally arrived with your new album?

Yes, I think so. It was a process with the band, it was a process to cope with that – let’s call it – pop star. And now we go on stage and say to ourselves that we might not be perfect, but we’ll definitely always give the best we can. “Arrived” also with our feelings. After years of fighting, fighting, fighting. And now we got to the point we realize that it’s going. Not only with CASPER, also with KRAFTKLUB, K.I.Z. and the other acts our management takes care of. What we do here works…and it works to our own conditions. This definitely feels like being arrived. What we have now, no matter what happens in the future: no one can take this. Even if “Hinterland” fails: no one can take what we experienced and what we have in our minds.

CASPER: Hope and passion are the things I learned in the hardcore scene and that I still carry in me.

What do “hope” and “passion” mean to you?

Hope and passion are the things I learned in the hardcore scene and that I still carry in me. I knew pretty early that all I’d like to do is music. So even my study was some kind of “extra time” I took until I really was able to be just a musician. Like pushing the sudden death point to the future haha. When I did the “Hin Zur Sonne” album, we played tons of shows, even in shitty clubs with as few people in the crowd as you can imagine. But we always trusted in ourselves and said to ourselves that we can make it and we will make it someday. I think everyone who wants to do something, should just do it and invest a lot of energy and blood, sweat and tears. You have to love what you do and never give up. And just by being so focused you will make it somehow. I started doing music with 19 and it took me ten years until I was able to live from it. Ten years. Ten years of doing everything. Ten years of working in shitty jobs instead of taking my study for serious, because for me it always was clear that I don’t want to be a pedagog, I always wanted to play. It was a process of more than ten years. At some point I was physically sick, I was psychologically down, but still we worked on and on – even after only two hours sleep. I also don’t see our big shows as the result of one hit-album, I see it as the result of more then ten years work and more than ten years of eating shit. Yeah, for me the DIY thought is hope and passion.

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CASPER