VIBRAVOID an (very very) old interview with them before their second album on peace frog#2

When the first album of the German Vibravoid was in my hands I must admit I didn’t know a thing for them. With the first hearing Vibravoid were recorded in my conscience like one of the most important psychedelic groups. Inconceivable songs in creation, that hid in them, traces of Barret from Floyd, Dukes of Stratosphear and a bunch of other psychedelic groups. The most important was that Vibravoid didn’t stay in their sixties or eighties but moved on to psychedelic music and other sound spaces! Incredible energy flows from each song in this lp and in general, from all their releases which are not quite a few. While waiting for their new lp let’s see what Christian Coch, singer, composer guitarist etc, and the only one left from the group’s earliest day. (by gp)

How are your childhood music memories? Did that music help you go to psychedelic and if yes in which way?

I can΄t remember to have left my childhood behind, so everthing I hear is a part of my process to deal with music. I started probably with a couple of singles my parents gave to me to keep my quiet, way back in the early 70΄s when I was really small, some Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Les Byrds (a french 7"!), the Move and stuff like that. I don΄t know if that really got me into psychedelic..I think I got more turned on by some freaky sounds from old 1960΄s movies...you know, that kind of scary echo sounds...

 When did you start play as Vibravoid and from which stages did the group passed, until the first album?Around 1996, I think, my last band broke up and I was working on the "Variations of the Void Vibrations", I just took the name of one of that songs and concentrated on recording, with the ambition to release a record as VIBRAVOID. The beginning was just a one man project that needed a band to play live. Over the last years it was like there was only a short term steady line up (which recorded the Void Vibration album and played that material live). Basically the group was and still is a come and go thing with a lot of people being involved. This summer our long time keyboarder has left the group, physical effects are not known yet...

 

In my opinion, your first album has more psychedelic elements that the second. If you agree please tell me what changed in the period between these albums

That΄s quite difficult to figur out and depends very much on the likes of the listener, I admit that the first one makes more use of classic psychedelic gimmics, but the second one contains some really good songs like Black and White or Creepy People which work with less of those elements. Probably the second LP is more Space Rock or maybe Rock in genral while the first is a more freak beat type record. It is a different type of collection of songs.

Which are your inspiring fields for music?

Daily life, which is such a shit, that there is a need for protest and revolution! We want to take people into another dimension where thay can see that love is definitely freedom and turn on other people. The music is the inspiration in itself. It is the need to create a situation where the psychedelic experience can be stimulated, so we are just collecting things to try this.

The making of music is a one-man job, or you all help and contribute?

Well, I don΄t know, everyone is helping or stopping me. There are ones who are closer connected to the thing and some are less, there are some living the Vibravoid which is a different type of thing. I have done alot on my own and at the moment I΄m the only member left of the very original line up, but without the help of alot other people I couldn΄t do the things I do. Everyone on the planet is in that way contributing to the Vibravoid - what means contributing to yourself!

Your vinyl releases are fabulous & reflect quality on all production stages involved. This fact combined with their limited edition release results in rising the cost & retail price.

What could Vibravoid do to help people that weren’t able to purchase a sold out release or can’t afford to buy expensive lps?

I think vinyl prices exploded anyhow, so most of the releases we do are somehow (for German relations) reasonable priced, one thing I have to complain about are retail prices as alot of people try to make money from  "just" selling the stuff at high prices.

The best thing is to buy straight from the band or the lable to save money.

Anyhow to find lables elsewhere to release the records (like the japanese one) could keep costs low for people in other countries. Frankly, I love vinyl and wanted to have the released the way as they are (with the following costs) and probably I am willing to fork out money to get a real cool release, so I often paid prices for original vinyls from

the 1960΄s and that money goes nowhere except the dealers pockets. Basically the whole market does not work...I don΄t mind if people load down Vibravoid stuff from the internet, this is a very cheap alternative to get the music... even for free. It depends on what you want, a vinyl record or the music and this makes the price anyhow. It is sad, if people couldn΄t get a limited edition of a record but that is a matter of the limitation. We don΄t have the money to produce thousands of records and to be honest I doubt that we will sell bigger editions at the moment

Under which situations do you write lyrics and what are their main topics?

Mostly I write lyrics when I΄m forced to do it and it seems that those turn out to be the best. I try to use alot of funny or strange things to support the psychedelic element of the music, so I hope that they are whatever "psychedelic lyrics", what is important to me. Every song of the Vibravoid deals with the struggle against social repression in the one or the other way. Everything is protest music against the establishment and this society of the pervert and idiots.

(When I was sleeping I dream of Jim Morrison. Do you have same dream too?)

Dreaming is for beginners... we have no time to sleep and should better try to change this planet to a cool place. The nightmare of daily life is dream enough.

What do you mean by saying “dreams are for beginners”? How are Vibravoid trying to change the world? Witch is the ideal society for you and witch is the way to get there?

It would be sooo cool the Vibravoid could change the world, but everything is so much out of focus. We all have lost the game allready whihout knowing it, everything we do is so helpless, desperate stupid and idiotic that it hurts. This resulting pain in body and especially in soul causes hate which results in even more stupid

stereotypic patterns of behavior. Like don΄t we learn? That΄s why I think dreams are for beginners, the situation is so very broken that it is overdue to change everything. I think most of us want a life without fears, diseases, exploitaion, racism and smoggy air. A lot of this can be changed by technology, other things by spirituality (what does not mean religion but a certain way of natural "intelligence" how to use things). I can΄t tell what an ideal society is but something that is opposite to this shitty one we have must be wonderful.

The most important thing is education and that people learn to see the mechanism and connections behind the things. Well, if you take the Live 8 shit for example: take all the money from those Madonnas, Bon Jovis, U2s, Elton Johns and so on, you could probably transform whole Africa into one big hospital. Those "stars" don΄t need custom cars or big houses to make their shit music. So where is the problem? All people should be aware that they have a bithgiven right to have a cool life.

 

How are things for Vibravoid in Germany? Are you well-know there? Is there a strong psychedelic scene or the groups are only conswrued about themselves?I wish I could say we are a popular attraction. It is OK for us and we are working to get the band going without making compromises that is more important than commercial success. To be honest, I don΄t think that there are much psychedelic groups around. Alot of bands that claim themselves as psychedelic do that kind of 1960΄s retro music and style without any psychedelic intention, many of them play extremely boring progressive rock. It is not to copy certain styles, it is life to be lived conforming the psychedlic experience. If you see it like this, apart from some isolated turned on freaks spread in the country, we do not have any psychedelic scene in Germany, I think that we even don΄t have anything like culture, subculture (there are some punks) or something cool.

 

I saw in a flyer you had sent me that your concert tickets have very reasonable prices (especially in comparison to Greece). This fact is due to your efforts to keep the price low or it’s the way things are in Germany? 

Oops, I really have to say that we have got both here, I think Germany isnt΄t anymore that rich country it was in the 70΄s or 80΄s so I think that alot of tickets (especially for all the shit and Top 10 rubbish) are really overpriced compared to the money the people have, but they are stupid enough to pay. Especially after the Euro everything raised drastically. It is depending how "professional" everything is, if you go to a venue that has the capacity of 5000 people you really pay for that and are ripped off. So we usually play shows in "toilets" and cellar bars booked by ourself to keep prices low. It is more an underground thing we do, so we try to be fair to everyone and attract people with low prices. In February we play a free concert here in Dόsseldorf.

 

What are the fans reactions at your concerts?

Usually when the music works they start freaking out, on one of the last shows we even got stage divers (I can΄t believe that!). Most of them really dig it. Some are offended by the loudness and maximum volume, others are scared...many are really turned on and left mind blown!!

What kind of equipment do you carry with you in your concerts? 

We try to keep the equipment as small as possible, through the change of line up to a trio it is even less allthough I play now to seperate guitar amplifiers to get a massive sound. Usually we have got an old Farsisa organ-amp for the bass on the road as this one really blows you off and adds more frequencies to the sound. Marion plays a normal drum set and we have got loads of effect boxes for the trippy sounds. Depending on what we need for the lightshow, it varies in amount and system. Eveything else can΄t  be said, as what we do is secret....

How you deal with the magazines? (printed or network)

I try to prostitute myself as best as I can and I can΄t read, that makes things a lot easier, I keep looking to the pictures!

Do you believe that psychedelics are usefull for writing music? Also do you think that they can help with relations, between people or they just manage to turn the

brains of anyone which use into hot soup

If it turns the brains of all of us into soup, why not... could be better than it is now. Anything, not just psychedelics that turns on people to be cool human beings is a great thing

 

Who are the group members at this time?

We are shrinked to a three-piece line up. Marion is playing on drums and she is really blowing you off. Martin, a good friend of us is playing the bass vibrations.

What should we expect from your new album?

In short: to be finished and I hope that it will be the best of all releases so far (that΄s why it takes so long), it will be: Wild hallucinogenic freaked out weirdness, a lot of backward sounds and probably a record  that sounds more like the first one.

Which are your next and future plans?

Finishing the next record and than turn on All the greek people!!!...and if it helps we come in trojan horses.

Would you like to add anything else?

Yep, stay tuned and keep cool!