ALPHAVILLE interview 1/3

“There is nothing less interesting than making a “best of”.” (Marian Gold)

Almost to the day on the 40th anniversary of “Forever Young” on the occasion of the best-of “Forever! Best of 40 Years”, which will be released on September 27, 2024, we meet up with Alphaville for a chat. A well-coiffed Marian Gold quickly captivates us with his lively narrative style. It’s all about astral companions, full-blooded people and David Bowie…

“A very moving moment.”

How does it feel to look back on such a long career? Gold reflects briefly: “It’s a pretty great feeling. But it takes a while to sink in. I’m a person who lives in the present. In all these 40 years, I’ve only ever focused on what was right in front of me. We resisted making a “best of” for decades. From an artistic point of view, there’s nothing less interesting than doing a “best-of”. But after 40 years, it’s different because you’re putting yourself back together again. You suddenly find yourself in a kind of panorama, surrounded by all kinds of things you’ve done in your life. Only then do you realize how far you’ve come. A very moving moment.”

“… always an improvisational element.”

For Alphaville, it ultimately doesn’t feel like a “best-of”, but more like a new studio album. After all these years, Gold is still discovering new facets to the songs. Especially when it comes to the stage. “There is always an improvisational element in the live performance,” he explains. “The piece tells you something new, and that’s only because you’re performing it right now. If it hadn’t happened at this exact moment, you would never have received this new information.”

“…the last innocent decade …”

Many people like to look back nostalgically on the 1980s as the last decade without smartphones and the Internet. What positive things did Marian take away from this decade? “That the eighties were the last innocent decade of the Western world,” he answers promptly. That’s why they were already over in 1986, namely on April 24, 1986 with the Chernobyl disaster. Because that was the first time it became clear that everything wasn’t just happening in the movies, but in reality.” He becomes thoughtful: “If you look at the songs that really mattered in the eighties … almost all of them were written between 1979 and 1986. The nineties actually began in mid-86. That’s also reflected in the music. Bands like Nirvana would never have fitted into the eighties. That kind of disillusionment. People wouldn’t have understood that at all. It was a completely new way of perceiving things. The eighties, on the other hand, were the Western world’s last wet dream, so to speak.”

In the next part, we talk about positive things in the present, influences and dreams that come true.

Katrin Hemmerling

Experience ALPHAVILLE live:
November 02, 2024 DE-Kempten, bigBox Allgäu
November 03, 2024 ZH-Zurich, Kongresshaus
November 16, 2024 DE-Bremen, Metropol Theater
November 17, 2024 DE-Lüneburg, LKH Arena
November 29, 2024 DE-Lingen (Ems), Emsland Arena
November 30, 2024 DE-Wetzlar, Buderus Arena
December 10, 2024 DE-Nuremberg, Meistersingerhalle
December 11, 2024 DE-Pforzheim, CongressCentrum
January 23, 2025 DE-Kiel, Wunderino Arena
January 24, 2025 DE- Hanover, Swiss Life Hall
February 06, 2025 DE-Düsseldorf, Mutsubishi Electric Halle
February 07, 2025 DE-Bochum, RuhrCongress
February 13, 2025 DE-Berlin, Tempodrom
February 14, 2025 DE-Hamburg, Inselpark Arena
February 22, 2025 AT-Vienna, Raiffeisen Hall in the Gasometer
March 01, 2025 DE-Freiburg, Konzerthaus
March 02, 2025 DE-Frankfurt, Myticket Jahrhunderthalle
March 08, 2025 DE-Mannheim, Rosengarten Mozartsaal
March 09, 2025 DE-Bielefeld, Stadthalle
March 17, 2025 DE-Magdeburg, Getec Arena
April 14, 2025 DE-Stuttgart, Liederhalle Hegelsaal
April 15, 2025 DE-Saarbrücken, Saarlandhalle
April 29, 2025 DE-Leipzig, Quarterback Immobilien Arena
April 30, 2025 DE-Dresden, Messe Dresden, Hall 1
May 27, 2024 DE-Munich, Circus Krone
May 30, 2024 DE-Münster, Messe+Congress Centrum Halle Münsterland
August 23, 2024 DE-Latschach, Burgarena Finkenstein

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