Icons: EDM Legend Dieter Meier of Yello Goes Solo with “Out of Chaos”
New York City, get ready.
That’s right…Dieter Meier is coming.
In a metropolis awash with big shows every night, a very rare one is scheduled for this Sunday, May 18, at Le Poisson Rouge.
That’s when no less than Dieter Meier, co-founder of Yello and therefore one of the most influential figures in EDM, will take the stage and present Out of Chaos, his first-ever solo album – and a damn magnificent one at that. The concert is presented by Zürich Meets New York: A Festival of Swiss Ingenuity.
For plenty of people, Yello awareness stops and starts with “Oh Yeah”, that merrily expressive track that put Ferris Bueller’s Day Off over the top. But for many more, the entrancing and wildly creative sounds of Yello were a sonic eye opener – a wildly fun/deadly serious evolution of electronic music that advanced the art form by light years, influencing countless dance artists and DJs in the process.
In business along with bandmate Boris Blank as Yello since 1979, Meier’s voice has always been the fascinating centerpiece to Yello’s dazzling sonic creations: Classic albums like Solid Pleasure (1980), You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess (1983), and One Second (1987) through to 2009’s Touch Yello – their 12th studio album — are testimony to that.
With Out of Chaos, the 69-year-old Meier has put his decades of experience to work in entrancing fashion on track after track, recorded in a Berlin studio backed by an all-star lineup of Swiss jazz musicians.
The results are unforgettable: “Jimmy” is the most deliciously evil song you’ll experience – hectically hyper-tense, crushing, and paranoia-inducing. Or dig upon “Buffoon”, which is hilariously funny and fucked-up funky at the same time – think Snoop Dog in a beer hall, getting happy on a delightful new drug. Finish it off via the monklike meditation of “Schueffele,” where Meier puts his low, low voice to a spooky and spiritual new use.
SonicScoop talked to Meier in his native Switzerland on the eve of his NYC voyage, and learned much more about this inimitable music meister.
You do many things — singer, musician, conceptual artist, experimental filmmaker, professional poker player, organic farmer and entrepreneur: what do those other things allow you to express that music can’t? And what can you express with music exclusively?
Music touches parts of your mind that cannot be touched by other things. It is a not entirely rational thing. It’s something that has a lot to do with emotion and feeling.
It’s not like when I’m writing or doing conceptual art or my films – these are pretty rational processes. But the way I make music is more like something emotional.
Also, the way I compose is very much what the title of the album says, “Out of Chaos.” I’m not sitting at the table and I start writing a composition – I’m taking an old guitar, somewhere in the deep provinces of Argentina where I’m farming, and out of a total chaos of chords, notes, words that mean nothing I always start a song made of non-verbal phrases.
Suddenly there is a feeling. One line is born. And this one line becomes sort of the program to the song, which then emerges out of chaos. That’s always a wonderful process, from which I never have the feeling that I was the writer, that I was doing this. It’s much more like it happened to me.
Has that always been your writing process?
With Yello, the process is very different. With Yello, I’m kind of diving into the sound pictures of Boris Blank.
The music of Boris is like the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist. For me this immediately evokes scenes, emotions, situations – I’m kind of writing lines for a character for this non-existing movie, and then I’m impersonating this character. This is not really Dieter Meier the singer. It’s me acting out characters within Boris Blank’s movies that are not visible.
Where was “Out of Chaos” recorded?
“Out of Chaos” marks the first solo album in Meier’s long career.
We worked in a very grungy studio in Berlin called Chez Chérie. It’s in a sort of quite rough area, in a run-down sort of house, but it was a very, very warm and emotional studio. They did not have separate rooms for the instruments: just playing the songs live in the studio was the concept, and sometimes my voice was recorded in one take.
This album was created under the artistic direction of a very distinctive production team: Nackt, Ben Lauber, and techno-producer T.Raumschmiere. How did all you work together once you were in the studio with your band?
They have this approach of electronic, digitally produced music, but then a lot of the sounds are very acoustic. For example, they have about six or seven grand pianos in their studio which are very weathered and old, and they use them as rhythm instruments. To create background sounds, they drum on old guitars that have no more strings. It’s a very acoustic-merging-with-electronic concept.
What they produced is a very interesting fusion – we used cellos, violins, and timbales, together with electronic music. If people know how to merge this properly, it leads to very interesting sound concepts, as this album shows.
Did you all write the songs together, or did you start them and then bring the band onto them?
I had been touring with a band of mine that was a trio for about 1 1/2 years, and we had some concerts at places like the Montreaux Jazz Festival. I basically played this band that concert so they knew how the songs sounded. Then I left them alone, and gave them total freedom to do their interpretation of the songs
When they developed these songs, they were five or six guys in the studio playing live. It was a very, how should I say… it was not an intellectual composition approach. It was a sound approach that they had.
Then I came to Berlin several times. They had two or three new songs, and I found my way into the songs. It was not always easy, but I really appreciate it was so different from the live concert, that I had to find a new approach to singing the songs. It was challenging, but very interesting for me because of their unique sound concept.
How has your use of your voice as an instrument evolved over the years?
Well, of course when we started Yello I was not at all an experienced singer. As you can hear, quite a few of the songs at as they say in the Italian Opera were cantata — in the middle of talking and singing. Our first dance hit in the US, which became very popular with the black and Latin communities, “Bostitch”, was just one note.
Why I chose this way of singing was because I always had a good sense of rhythm, but I wasn’t the greatest hitter of notes. But over the years, and especially now after being onstage for more than two years, I learned that I can hit the notes at this quite high age.
I’ve discovered myself as a singer. I’m surprised and pleased that I’m able to be on stage for two hours and sing songs. If someone had told me two years ago that you’d play New York City with your band for two hours, I’d say, “No way, that’s not possible.” In a way, I’m the most surprised guy about the result of this CD.
Do you have a preferred mic for recording vocals? What do you want to hear in your vocal tracks during the mix/master?
I want to hear the three dimensionality of the voice. In the studio for Out of Chaos we had quite a normal mic – I think it was a Shure. But when I sing for Yello, we have a very elaborate condenser, very old-style Neumann mic.
On my next album that I’m probably going to do with the same producers, I’m going to use one of these Nina Simone mics.
I’ve always liked how the way you used the lower register of your voice.
Thank you. I have a naturally low voice as you can hear — it’s quite a low voice. I lived in LA for quite some time, and I had a press agent there and he always say, “Dieter, you should use your voice for VO work in movies,” which I never did. People always seem to like my low speaking voice.
Which song on Out of Chaos turned out the most surprising to you?
I like all the songs, but of course “The Ritual,” where I sing almost a capella with a very limited backing, this is probably the song that surprises me the most: that I can carry such a song, and I’m not being carried by the music.
A song I also like is “Luftblind,” and “Paradise Game” is a nice song. Also “Buffoon,” which is quite a funny song. Have you seen the video to “Buffoon” yet? I’m sure if you like the album, you’ll like the videos.
Do you concern yourself with duplicating the sound of the record onstage? When do you try to replicate the studio sound exactly, and when do you let that go?
The general sound concept is very much from the CD, but we have lots of parts where we have flows of music, and within these I have the chance to improvise. We have a genius, fantastic fiddler (Tobias Preisig) from my old band — we often do duets between the fiddle and my voice. Or some of the songs I might just perform at the piano.
But the basic sound concept is the same as in the studio, which makes a lot of sense, because this band played live in the studio. Of course, we did some overdubs as well.
What do you like to do in NYC when you’re not playing concerts?
Well, I’m definitely going to stroll around the old areas where I lived – I lived in New York City twice.
I lived at a friend’s loft in SoHo, when Fanelli’s was there – very typical old-style New York, and I’m going to look for these old places. In a sense, finding my own situation of 40 years ago.
And of course, I’d love to be guided to the contemporary clubs and places people go today. When I lived in New York City, Danceteria was very big and there were fantastic clubs, an incredible club life. You have all these amazing clubs – I’m hoping that you can show me around!
You got it! Next up, did you ever expect “Oh Yeah” to be a hit? How did it get made?
Not at all. It was one of the few songs where the music of Boris did not immediately evoke an image.
I remember in the studio that I didn’t have any idea what to sing in the song. He said, “”Dieter, imagine you the King of an island near Tahiti, the sun is going down there is a very light breeze from the ocean. Someone offers you a great drink, you’re having a great time at the beach, what would you say?”
I said, “Oh YEAH!” And that was it.
And then there was this young filmmaker, John Hughes, who did Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He used this song in a very popular scene in that movie, and that is what really kickstarted this song. We had hits all over the world, but in the US we were never supported.
Why do you think that song has been in so many famous music-to-picture scenes?
First of all, the music of Boris works naturally in movies. I remember a friend of mine worked for Disney. He was watching the first cut of a film, and someone said, “Why do we always have to listen to the music of Yello?” Because all the editors used the music of Yello to look good before they created the soundtrack.
Boris has this incredible talent that the music always works to picture, because of the complexity of his rhythms and the imaginative sound.
In the case of “Oh Yeah,” with this one word you express unconditional happiness. It’s stupid. It’s easy. But it is a very direct expression. This is what everybody understands, and that’s probably why this song is still a hit.
You have enjoyed such a long and productive partnership with Boris Blank – what’s special about the way you work together?
In duo format — Yello is Dieter Meier and Boris Blank.
The very special thing is that we hardly work together!
Boris is a genuine sound creator. He was never able to learn an instrument, but since he was a little boy he created sounds with whatever he could find – stuff in his mother’s kitchen, drumming on tables, tossing shoes against walls, throwing snowballs. For him, the sound of things was as important as it is in Chinese music, which is much more of the sounds of an instrument, then the composition of notes.
Creating sounds is his life. To this very day, he spends eight or nine hours in his studio. Just like a painter who mixes his colors, he creates these genuinely unique sounds. Out of these sounds emerges pieces of music that are totally unplanned. He’s like a painter who starts on the left corner of his canvas, then he sees something that looks like a rose…and then there’s a donkey over there. He totally surprises himself. And he regularly has 60 or 70 pieces going at the same time, working on them in parallel.
To complete the analogy with these different canvases: When I hit the studio, to these most inspiring canvases I am finally allowed to supply the characters that jump into his sound paintings.
Boris spends three years in the studio, and this suits me well, because I’m not a studio nerd. I travel, make wine, whatever things, and he’s like the anchorman for Yello. He’s there creating his beautiful sounds, and then Dieter is allowed to jump into this. Within 12 or 14 days, because his music is inspiring for me, we create the songs.
If this were a normal band with a normal singer, the singer would whine a lot because he wouldn’t hear a piece of music that he should sing to and he’s never in the studio for three years. But for me it’s perfect.
I compare our marriage to the marriage of a sailor: He is all over the ocean, goes to Shanghai or Rio, and then he goes to his home harbor. There his partner is, ready for him to sing.
— David Weiss
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