Interview - MICHAEL SCHOLZ - (ENG)

Today, Jeu D'Ombre is proud to present a very special interview with a legendary man who lived at the forefront of the emergence of the German Post-Punk/Goth underground. A true witness and player of an era, Michael Scholz played in a number of bands that have become cult favorites among dark music fans. An artist who is too often overlooked, Michael has played in Taste Of Decay, Garden Of Pleasure and his solo project Shadowplay, as well as other bands in a variety of styles. For some of us, his work is a source of inspiration and nostalgia ; pieces of passion with dazzling, untouchable flashes of genius.

Today, our zine gives the floor to a man whose career richly deserves to be highlighted, as does his extraordinary personality.

For the first time in Jeu D'Ombre, the interview is also published in original version for all the fans of Michael's work around the World.

Interview by Xzvrey in autumn 2024.

1/ Greetings Michael ! I’m quite moved to have the opportunity of having this chat with you as your are one of my musical influence 😊. How are you ? What are your activities those days ?

Hello Xzvrey, first of all I thank you for being interested in my old stuff. I am fine, thanks. What activities do you mean? Musically I guess. Well there is not much happening in the last years, just re-recording some of my old songs, contributing additionally guitar tracks for 2 songs on the Album “Roaring Silence (At The End Of The World)” of a german gothic band called The House Of Usher and had a 30 years anniversary concert with my old band “Garden of Pleasures” in 2018. If you like, you can watch the whole concert on Facebook here https://fb.watch/uKyPheTssg/

2/ Before talking about your musical activities, can you please tell us some words about you ? Where are you from ? Where are you living nowdays ? How old are you ? Do you have a job or other activities during your daily life ?

My name is Michael Scholz, I was born 1963 in a village (Harrislee) south of the danish border in Germany. After a long time living in Flensburg I moved 2002 with my girlfriend to a smaller village in the vicinity of a town called Rendsburg, about 60 km south of Flensburg. I am 61 years old. I work as an applications administrator (Atlassian Jira and Confluence) for a mobile communication company (freenet AG)

3/ You were active in the cult band Taste Of Decay back in the 80’s. You did two demo tapes and a EP. Can you tell us the story of the band and give us your thoughts about the songs and this experience ? Why did the band stop by the way ?

After I left the band “Das Grauen”, which was a kind of hardcore punk type of band in 1984, somebody I didn´t know called me on the phone and asked, if I was willing to start making music with him and a friend. It turned out, that these 2 guys were Simon (bass) and Felix (guitar), who were jamming together in Felix parent´s basement. The first session took place on 17th of June 1984 (It was a public holiday called “Tag der deutschen Einheit”. So we called the band “Projekt 17. Juni”.

At first we used a drum machine and a girl called Karen was singing together with me. Unfortunately the tape with the first recordings got lost, but the first song was “My Heartbeat”. Later a friend of mine (Lenni), who was a punk rocker, joined the band on drums. Shortly after that Karen left the band because she did not like Lenni and we changed the name to “Taste Of Decay”.

We all liked bands like Bauhaus, Joy Division, The Cure, Siouxsie, X-Mal Deutschland and the “Sisters of Mercy”.

So it was clear that we tried to push the music of TOD in that direction. We all loved those old black and white silent horror films like “Nosferatu” by Friedrich Willhelm Murnau or “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. We also were big fans of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. That´s why we designed the cover of the first tape with pictures from that era. The lyrics of the songs were also mostly inspired by films of that genre.

The band split because of a simple reason:

Felix went to West-Berlin in 1985 for studying reasons and because he didn´t want to join the army. When you were a citizen of West-Berlin, they couldn´t force you to serve in the army. In the summer of 1986 Simon went to Kiel, a city that is 100 km away from Flensburg, to study at the local University.

Lenni and I were the remaining members left in Flensburg, and so we decided to end T.O.D., because it became difficult to come together for rehearsals on a weekly basis.

4/ A compilation of the first demo tape + the EP « calling » was released through Mannequin and Infrastition record labels. How the deal took place ? The second demo is absent on this release and has never been repressed. Do you have plans to re-release this second demo too ?

The guy from Mannequin Mailorder, his name is Alessandro, contacted me via E-Mail and asked, if he could release the Calling EP along with our first Tape on CD. So I wrote back and sent him a copy of the master recordings and some photos.

Alessandro has never asked for the second tape, which I think is much better than the first one. But nobody else seems to be interested in it.

5/ Taste Of Decay was active from 1984 from 1986 is that correct ? On the CD compilation’s booklet, I saw some gigs pictures. Did you play a lot of gigs back then ? How was the atmosphere ? What was your relationship with the audience?

Yes, the years are correct. We only played 4 gigs in these 2 years. The atmosphere was quite familiar, because we knew the most people as we only had local gigs, apart from one at the University of Kiel.

I did not talk much on stage, just announced the song title and then we played it. I remember being not really communicating with the audience and we just played our set. One gig was outstanding. We were at a big stage and had fog and red and blue lights. It was a festival with some local bands in a venue called “Deutsches Haus” in Flensburg. It was also recorded on tape and even filmed on Video. Sadly I never saw the video, but I have some nice pictures and an article with a photo of me in the local newspaper.

6/ Can you tell us the best memory you have with Taste Of Decay please ?

Well the best memory with TOD was that we had some interviews with local journalists after the release of the Calling EP. That was a nice experience I have never had before. We felt a bit like pop stars.

7/ Michael, after Taste Of Decay disbanded, you have been very active during the end of the 80’s. You created the solo-project Shadowplay (which is very good if you ask me). Can you tell the story of this act please ?

This is a project, in which I can do anything I want without discussing it with others in a band context. I always had ideas for songs which were rejected by other band-members. So I started recording the songs by myself. I always loved bands like “Sad Lovers and Giants”, “Chameleons” or “Comsat Angels” and “Danse Society” which all transport a certain mood. I wanted to make such kind of music in a band, but I couldn´t find people who would join in.

In 1983 I started recording ideas on a Revox B77 tape machine (which I lent from my older brother Ingolf). I used an old string ensemble keyboard and a MFB Fricke Beatbox. The only types of rhythm it had was some sort of Bossa Nova and you could change the patterns by turning a switch at the front of the box.

Then I recorded the instruments with all sorts of effects like flanger, distortion and tape echo.

At that time I had first experiences with hashish and mushrooms, but I soon discovered that it would do some sort of damage to my psychological health. In fact, I had some real bad trips and really scary feelings of paranoia after consuming these substances.

I also had frustrating experiences with “friends”, just the usual “relationshit”.

I tried to “heal” myself by writing and recording songs.

It lasted 4 years until I released the first tape. I thought that these songs were too personally and nobody would want to listen to them.

7+/ Do you know that the song « Shadowplay » from Joy Division is my favorite song ever ? Besides, the name of our zine : « Jeu D’Ombre » means « Shadowplay » in french ! Is the name of your project also a reference to the song form Joy Division ?

A friend of mine heard the songs I recorded and he liked them very much. He said, that I should release the songs on a tape under the name “Shadowplay”, because he heard similarities to Joy Division. I accepted the name because I am a great fan of Joy Division as well.

8/ Shadowplay is more gothic-rock influenced to me. Why choosing this kind of artistic orientation back then ? What was the feedback of the audience back then when you released the first tape : « Another Autumn Day » ?

I am not sure what you mean with artistic orientation? I just made the songs in a way I was able to do. In my opinion “Shadowplay” reflects my state of mind at that time and the music I listen to. If I am in the mood for gothic-rock, I write gothic-rock songs. If I am in the mood for darkwave, my next song goes in that direction.

The first tape was released on a tape label called “Individual Pop” and the owner, Claus Korn had some connections to other tape labels and fanzines. So I was involved in a type of international underground tape-scene which grew bigger and bigger over the following years. In fact, there are some nice reviews of “Another Autumn Day” in a few small fanzines. It was all before the internet existed, so there was no more feedback apart from those fanzines. I got some requests to contribute to their compilation tapes from tape labels in different countries all over the world. I contributed Shadowplay songs to a french compilation tape by “Orcadia Machina”. Even nowadays I still discover my songs on tape compilations I never heard of before.

9/ You released 2 more tapes in 1991 and 1992. How was the creation process of those two records ? You seemed very inspired back then to write all those songs. Did you ever thought about gathering a live line-up to play those songs on stage back then ?

I think I had a lot of things to deal with, so I was constantly coming up with new lyrics and I had a lot of time to record songs. I was a student and didn't have that much money to do much else. So I sat in the basement of my parents house and recorded one song after the other. I never thought of playing the songs live. That changed with my band “Garden of Pleasures”. We initially started playing together with some Shadowplay songs. So you could see this band as a kind of live band of Shadowplay.

10/I got the CD « From Darkness To Light », which is a super record for me. It features « Out Of Control », so a re-record version of a song from your first tape. Are the other songs new ones ?

This is a mix of old and new songs. I have re-recorded the old songs and changed them a little bit.

11/ You recorded this album between 2009 and 2011. Can you tell us the story of this album please ? After all you recorded it 20 years after « Tears » your previous release back in 1992 ! Please, tell us all about it ! It is some kind of legendary tale for people like us 😊

After the release of a Shadowplay song called “Rising” on the compilation CD “New Perspectives” on “Plastic Frog Records”, Klaus Weinrich (the owner of the label) asked me to release a CD album on his sub label “Holy Hour Records”. So I sent him a tape with 10 songs which I already finished recording and a cover idea. He released the album on CD. There is not much more to say about it. Quite boring, isn´t it? ;) After working in a Callcenter for several years, where I earned not much money, I got a new job in a small software company.

Suddenly I got a lot more money and worked only 30 hours per week. So I had enough money to buy recording equipment and a new PC. Now I was able to record my songs independently with a program called “Reason”, where I have nearly unlimited possibilities. Now, in my own studio I started to record new songs and also re-recorded all the old songs in a way they should sound (at least to me). I read lots of books about recording and mixing and tried to do it all by myself.

12/ The first album « Another Autumn Day » has been re-released through Low Ambition Records on limited tape format. Will the other two albums will be re-released too in a near future ? How the deal took place by the way ? Are you satisfied with this special edition ? I mean, more than 30 years later, your cult first tape is released again… in tape !

Yes, it was a bit strange to be asked for releasing a tape these days, but I found it interesting to do, although personally I would never go back to cassette tapes. I still have a tape deck, but just for digitizing my old tapes. Matt from Low Ambition Records just wrote to me via Bandcamp messaging in October 2021. He planned to start a tape label and wanted to release a tape with a special cover design. He wanted to release my tape “Another Autumn Day” on his label and so I thought, why not? I think this release is well done in it´s own way.

Funny enough, some time before Matt contacted me, I uploaded “Another Autumn Day” on my private Bandcamp site, just out of curiosity if someone would download it.

13/ Besides Shadowplay, your were the singer of Garden Of Pleasures, a post-punk/gothic-rock band from Germany. Can you tell the story of this project too please?

With “Garden of Pleasures” I had the most fun playing live, and we had a lot of gigs. It all started in 1987. I had a girlfriend who went to a danish school in Flensburg, which was not unusual in this region, as we have an established minority of danish people. Her name was Kerrin.

Anyway, she had some classmates who were playing around with instruments in a rehearsal room, nothing serious. They were just at the beginning of making music.

So one of the guys asked my girlfriend if I wanted to come to one of their rehearsals and maybe we could make some music together. My girlfriend asked me and I thought, well, why not. At that time I had no band, T.O.D was long time dead, so let us see, what those young lads are doing.

I went to this old deserted house, it has rooms where bands could go and make music without disturbing other people. Of course you have to pay for it. There was no toilet. No that is not correct, because there was the staircase…

I then opened the door to a small room, there were four young boys at the age of 17 to 19 years playing around with musical instruments. I showed them how to play one of my Shadowplay songs (Out Of Control) and it turned out to be quite good for the beginning. Kim, who was the youngest of them, was a really good drummer, Mark played his guitar in a way I would play and Stefan turned out to be a decent bass player.

3 months later we had 10 songs and announced our first gig in our rehearsal room. It was the evening before Mark´s 18th birthday. The room was full of people who were invited to the party and there was a lot of alcohol involved. This gig was recorded on tape and we had a lot of fun.

At some point I fell backwards into the drum kit and broke one of its cymbal stands. I had a huge blue spot on my thigh but I didn´t feel any pain.

I could tell you a lot more funny stories we had with GOP. We even had the honour of supporting “Every New Dead Ghost” on their tour at one venue. Too bad that we never released an official album at that time. So we only gave away tapes with our songs to our friends.

14/ You were involved in this band and doing music with Shadowplay at the same time, so I guess music was really something important in your life at this moment ?

Yes, music was always important for me, not only at this moment. But I don´t want to bore you with my history. ;)

15/ After the year 1992 and Shadowplay’s album « Tears », you seemed to be less involved in music but still, I saw that you did some featuring in few bands and soon will record the awesome « From Darkness To Light » album. Can you tell us the story of those years between 1992 and 2009~2011 ?

I still was making music, but it maybe was not so important as before. 1994 I sang for “Animal Passions”. It was some kind of The Cure and Fields of the Nephilim influenced band. We had only a few gigs and never released anything. I have a live video from one of our gigs, but that´s all. The drummer soon left the band and we tried to carry on with a drum computer. Then our base player left for being a student in Berlin and the band was history (as always).

I started to make a complete different kind of music with the remaining member, which was Peter Rowell. He had a synthesizer and so we began doing synth pop and EBM (electronic body music), but we also used guitars.

We called the project “The Whiplovers” and we released a self produced Maxi single CD called “Y2K” on our own in 1999. After that we had a proposal from a guy called Stefan Kuboteit. He lives in Hamburg and managed a few other bands like “Dance or Die” and “Paralysed Age”. He came to one of our gigs in Flensburg and liked our music. So we started to get managed by his agency.

The name changed to “RE-SET!” and we were “forced” to write something that should bring us on top of the independent charts. But our songs were not good enough for the charts. We had some interesting gigs and an album until 2005, then we decided to end the partnership and the project. We were not successful and I didn´t have the time and power to carry on.

16/ Lets discuss about this through another perspective. What is the importance of music for you ? What kind of impact did it has on your life then and now ?

As I already said, music was always a part of my life, from the beginning. It gave my life a meaning and kept me sane. In the last years this has changed. It started with the growth of social media in the internet. So many bands came to my knowledge and they were much better than me. I thought, every lyrics has been written and every chord has been played. So there was an end for me to carry on with making music. I had no more to say.

17/ Do you still are involved in music and somehow in the gothic universe ? Do you still listen to Post-Punk/Gothic music ? Do you still buy records here and there ?

Yes, I still listen to all the bands I used to listen to. I even like some of the new Post-Punk and Goth-bands. Thanks to Discogs I found some old records that I didn´t buy in the past, because I had not enough money. But now I can afford it. On Bandcamp you can find some new and interesting bands. I can buy their stuff directly from the bands, which is great.

18/ If you should compare the post-punk/goth people and universe of the 80/90 and the nowadays « version », what could be the differences according to you ?

 

Nowadays it is more of a fashion and commercial masquerade. Back in the days we had to make the clothes by ourselves or we had to travel to London or other big cities to get Dr. Martens boots or gothic style clothes. Now you google it and buy it from Amazon or the website of a shop. You can find every kind of music online and connect to everyone via social media. It became so easy to release an album and even find the right people who would buy it. That is a huge difference to the time when I was playing in bands. Now you can easily reach out to people in the whole world and connect to nearly everyone.

19/ How was it to play in a post-punk/goth band when you were involved in Taste Of Decay and Garden Of Pleasures ? Was it easy to play on stage ? Was there more bands, audience, labels, venues etc ? For us who were born later, it seems like a golden age that we’ll never be able to reach...

 

Oh, it was very difficult for us, because we were not in Hamburg or Berlin or any other big city. We only had youth centers or small clubs, where we could play live. It was restricted to the local scene. I always wanted to move to a big city, because I thought, that we could reach more people, especially music journalists and record label owners. As I said before, nowadays you can reach more people through social media. I think, today is more like a golden age for bands.

20/ Well, usually in the zine, the question n°20 is the last one but I think we are far to be done with you so lets go on haha. I offer you a little break though. Now is the time for the most feared question ever : what are your favorite dishes and drinks ? ^^

 

My favourite meal? How long should this interview get? First one is Spaghetti with my self made sauce and nearly every italian meals, vegetarian of course. My favourite drink, where shall I start? As I was born near the city of Flensburg in Germany I was raised with the local “Flensburger Pilsener” beer. I even like a good cocktail like “Planters Punch” or “Long Island Ice Tea”. It would be easier to tell, what sort of drinks I don´t like :)

21/ I can’t skip this usual but yet interesting question : what are you musical influences. What are the key albums of your musical tastes that leaded you to start playing music ?

 

One of my all time favourite albums is (surprise): Closer by Joy Division. The first Bauhaus Album has a big impact as well and the early Cure records. I was a lot influenced by “Feeding the Flame” by Sad Lovers & Giants, but also “Only Theatre of Pain” by Christian Death inspired my music writing. But the first record that made me start making music in a band was “Ramones” by The Ramones. I started in 1979 with 3 friends in a band called “Chaingang” where we play Ramones and Clash songs, before we started to write our own Punk Rock songs.

22/ Well, lets discuss about something special. We get in touch because we did a cover of one of your songs with my own band : The Last Oath. We have chosen the song « calling » to do a cover of Taste Of Decay. We still play it since 2016 now !

How did you realize that we did a cover of one of your songs and what kind of feelings did this produce in you ?

 

I first noticed a Discogs entry just a few weeks ago. I read that “Calling” appeared on your album “Palynsyndrome”. I listened to it on your bandcamp-page and I thought, why would one honestly play this song? It was interesting to listen to it without my vocals and even with different lyrics. I only wondered, why didn´t you write to me and ask for the lyrics? I´d happily send them to you. But anyway, I was not upset or something like that. I was just curious and tried to get in contact with you. So here we are. 😊

23/ You know, we were not able to find the original lyrics of your song so we created a different version of it on our own. Besides, our version is very short compared to the original song. Weren’t you disappointed to notice that we transformed it a lot ?

 

No, what you did was great, although I miss the break (l love breaks). The guitar sounds nearly identical. I could not recreate it myself. So congratulations to you. I never thought that someone would care to play it.

24/ You know, when we play your song, we ALWAYS explain that it is a Taste Of Decay cover song. And it happen sometimes that people know the original song ! Did you know that, for some people, Taste Of Decay is a cult band ?

 

Thank you very much for mentioning us. Back in 1986 we made jokes about TOD being “the secret cult band of the north”, because we did just a few gigs and broke up before we reached a wider audience.

25/ If it was possible, would you come on stage with us one day and sing « Calling » with us ? :-D

 

Certainly, but I have to insist on singing my lyrics. I am too old to learn new ones.  😉

26/ Michael, this is an honor for us to be able to ask you all those questions. So here are some more : are you proud of your musical career ? After all, you wrote so many great songs. Were you hoping for greater recognition ?

In any case, you have all our admiration for what you did.😊

 

Oh, thank you very much.

Well, I was not really hoping for greater recognition, because my music was not produced good enough and I had not the right connections. Living in a small town wasn´t helpful. We were far from the big venues, so we didn´t get the chance to come in contact with people from record companies.

27/ You know, we unfortunately have to stop somewhere but I really don’t want to end this interview. So one very important question ! Will we have the chance to hear some new songs from you under the name Shadowplay or another name in a near future ?

 

Yes, I did some new Shadowplay songs and maybe I will release a last album. In fact, I uploaded new songs on my bandcamp-site and on my soundcloud-site as well.

28/ Do you still play music for yourself sometime ? I mean, with friends and doing some jam sessions ?

 

My old friends all live far away or are already dead, so I just play alone with my new bought western guitar, which is really relaxing for me.

29/ Would you like to say something to the people who read this interview ? Some specific message maybe ?

 

Welcome to the end of the interview, it was quite a long journey for us.  😊

30/ Well Michael, thank you VERY much for giving us some time and answers. I really hope to see you face to face one day, that would be a real pleasure.

Please accept my deepest sympathy and admiration for your entire career.

See you as soon as possible.

Cheerz ! 😊 

 

The joy is entirely on my side, I do hope we meet some day in person. Maybe we could make some music together, thank you very much for your time. Take care.