Photo by Alexander Nussbaumer
HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR consists of queer identities, soul singers, dancers and vocal artists. How do you assemble them? Is there a need for a balance between inspiration and message?
Everyone who participates in HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR inspires me, that’s just key. We just had an argument with one of the singers and what came out of my mouth was: ‘I know that you as an artist are more important than the songs that we are playing’. And it really is like that. The experience of everyone participating in the project is paramount and just as important as any others in the project.
They are there for a reason. They have a message, they have something really important to transmit and they have their own voice which is a big voice and I am inspired by each participant. I have sometimes fallen into them by accident, like seeing someone at a gig and contacted them afterwards. But in general they have to kind of ‘wow’ me.
Working with so many different people on one project, is it all about compromises in the end?
Omg. Yes. (laughs) That’s all what collaboration is. It’s just negotiating egos and eventually sometimes you have to walk away from each other which has happened numerous times before.
The sound of disco always awakes memories of the american queer-culture. Artists like ZEBRA KATZ and genres like ‘Queer Hip Hop’ are now getting more and more into mainstream. But with anti-homosexuality acts and hateful anti-gay comments of politicians it is quite a contradictory time. Do you think society is making steps back?
It is a difficult issue and it is a mess. Are we moving towards tolerance or repression? Different cultures have different values, cause society is different. I believe on a whole we are moving towards tolerance. There is still a lot of fear about homosexuality. I recently read a funny statemant: ‘homophobia is not being afraid of homosexuality. It is about you being an asshole.’ I dont know if I actually do agree with that. But I think that there is some fear in hearts of men, they are afraid of it. All these men shaving their beards after the whole Conchita Wurst winning. I mean, it says a lot. It says, that these men think that their masculinity is defined by some facial hair, they really think that. These men are living in a culture which is obviously very repressed. We have played maby ten times in the past two years in Russia and everytime we play we see tons of smiling happy people. And I feel like there is a need for bands like HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR in Russia. We voice something that they can’t voice for themself.
How do you evaluate this trend concerning the music business in the US?
Well, America got it’s own thing. There is a really big battle still to be waged in Hip Hop around homosexuals. I think it is cute, if one of them puts an outfit together for JAY Z – but there is still a lot of resistance and hate, that is gonna be spewed at them on the microphone. People like MYKKI BLANCO and ZEBRA KATZ are very brave people.
And lastly, what do hope and passion mean to you?
When I think about hope I think about young people and that society is getting through a dark period. Figuring out the problems about distribution of wealth and tolerance – I have hope that they will fight to make things different. And passion: I think about my work. I hope that it will remain as meaningful as it is to me. And that I will not wake up and feel like, this is not worth doing it anymore.
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