ANGELZOOM interview (1/2)

From 1995-2007 Claudia Uhle was part of the band X-Perience . In 2004, she founded her solo project Angelzoom. X-Perience was revived for its 20th anniversary, but split up again in 2024. We talk to Claudia Uhle and producer Bernd Wendlandt about the new album “Grey Devotion”.

Orkus: How did the desire or need to revive Angelzoom come about?

Claudia Uhle : The “20th Anniversary Double Vinyl” album, which was released to mark the 20th anniversary of the first album and on which we had also produced five new songs as a bonus, provided a bit of an impetus. Working on bringing Angelzoom back to life was a great feeling. It felt completely normal and right to just get on with it. The feedback from fans across all platforms was also great and encouraged us to keep writing. Musically, things didn’t work out at all with my band X-Perience at the end of 24 and until mid-25. Different views on content and musical direction made me leave the band again at the end of 2025. Since then, there has been a lot of pressure in the Angelzoom system. We’ve written more songs and released singles over the last two years, including the wonderful duet with Jester Mullholland “The Darkness Behind Me”, so we were almost ready to release an album. “Grey Devotion” was born and we just had to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

O: So this has a lot to do with your renewed departure from X-Perience?

CU: That was a very decisive trigger. Musically and in terms of content, there wasn’t much going on, the guys just wanted something different and I didn’t play a role in that. After the single “I’ll Remember” (spring 2024), there was no real joint effort to produce the seventh album. In contrast to the work on albums 5 and 6, “555” and “We Travel the World”, where we always pre-produced demos and Bernd and Matthias had already presented many ideas for discussion, this time there was a kind of standstill and isolation. Matthias discovered the power of AI and hardly wanted to respond to any necessary concerns on my part, e.g. in terms of key or content. I was supposed to sing what he had generated there. Without the usual discussion, without consultation, just “Just sing it.” My emotional low point was the performance of such demo songs, against my will, without consultation and without my voice, at our anniversary concert live in front of a sold-out Kesselhaus audience in Berlin. Presented as “listen to our new songs for album 7.” They were also no longer interested in working with Bernd as a producer and label. Although a large part of our comeback in 2020 is based on his idea, activity, productions and label work. But KI doesn’t cost any production money, holds all the licenses and we are self-sufficient in writing. Band means teamwork, collaboration, development. Unfortunately, that had completely stopped. To summarize: It was probably just about time again, because we were almost in the same situation without KI in 2007. From my point of view, the respect of the guys and the recognition that my part is also a part of the success is simply missing. Not just the composition, it’s all part of it, my voice, the recognition, even the production. Which also came from Bernd in 1996. It’s a great pity that it’s now been five years since 2020 since we rebuilt the band for the fans and media partners as a team of four with Bernd. We were determined, very effective and hard-working. Unfortunately, this is now finally over in this form.

O: How did you come up with the album title “Grey Devotion”?

Bernd Wendlandt: It was quite a long process of discovery. We wanted something clear in terms of direction and recognizability. We wanted the title to tell you what it could be musically. It should be something that is associated with Angelzoom, rare or even unique, the hashtag works. (winks) We wanted recognizability and a bit of mystery. Nowadays, there is also the media component. Like graphics, lettering, conspicuousness, uniqueness, functional drawers. The corridors of attention are narrow. I think a big plus is that the name is easy to remember. The image of the cover is also unusual with a lot of mystery and questions. Shades of grey with the red color accents symbolize: The world is not black and white, yourself keep feelings and your heart at the center. There is hope in most phases, whether it is dark or light.

CU : In my songs, I am mainly concerned with the spaces in between: the moments when you are neither completely strong nor completely weak. De-stressing, letting go, trying your way. Gray is indecisive, not clearly black and white. Exactly what happens in life. “Grey Devotion”: the ambiguity fascinated us and has just the right touch of Depeche Mode that connects a lot in our heads.

O: How much Depeche Mode is already in the title?

CU: Sure, that’s how it should look. But find something that hasn’t already been used and is good. (winks) and also outlines the right perspective without being a copy. We had two very successful cover versions of Depeche Mode on albums 1 and 2 and our musical love and history also has a lot to do with it. So there’s a loving wink in the title. “Grey Devotion” – a reduced but emotionally intense force, musically and thematically the title fits perfectly with the 80s synth aesthetic and my melancholy lyrics. “Grey” symbolizes these nuances between light and dark, hope and despair and is short enough to be memorable and recognizable. The main aspect was that it had to be independent so that it could be immediately assigned to Angelzoom on Google and the like.

O: You have also created your videos with the help of AI. It’s a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it’s a useful tool, but on the other, there are increasing fears that it could ultimately replace the artist themselves. How do you see that? To what extent have you used AI to work on Angelzoom – while still remaining authentically “Angelzoom”?

BW: Yes, a very useful tool, I’ve been using AI for some time now. Initially for beats, new “samples” and lots of little helpers. Now I also use it for instruments, choirs, arrangements and ideas. Plus graphics, images, videos. You can be incredibly creative in realizing your ideas here. There is hardly a relevant artist at the moment who does not use these possibilities. The important thing – and this is the decisive factor – is your own creativity and taste, as well as further processing in the studio. I see these tools as one of the best collaborators, who should be happy to help, but not determine the direction. We have never been able to avoid new technologies. How long was the “argument” in the studios about what sounds better? Analog tape or digital recording – nobody talks about that anymore. C64, ATARI, MAC, PC, drum machines, DAW computer programs, autotune, samplers, plug-ins, all building blocks that have ultimately led to almost complete automation. It’s hard to resist this, what remains is the uniqueness and creativity of using these tools. Ultimately, it also enabled me to create, edit and create entire video worlds.

CU: Like all new technologies, you should make the most of them. However, it is important that you always remain yourself. That you are recognizable as a voice and, above all, as a unique person. Ultimately, anyone can now press the “Generate” button as often as they like and have songs created in all kinds of ways. Tell the AI with a prompt: “Analyze song XY for me, write a new matching prompt for it, generate a ‘new’ song that is similar from this prompt” – it’s really not complicated. But is that still creativity? Is that still the artist? Can the listener still tell the difference, is that what the listener wants? The special, the extraordinary, the unique – that makes the difference and will become increasingly important in order to preserve one’s own identity. Ultimately, fans identify with the artist, his music and his content, not with the shell of it.

O: “Trap in Time” was released as a single. A somewhat softer song that nevertheless remains in the ear. How did the choice come about and is there a story behind the song?

CU: We wanted to choose a song that was eye-catching, radio is not an issue for us anyway, so we preferred an unusual, less uniform format. An hourglass runs, but time pauses. The single selected for the album release captures this moment where past and present collide, with a pounding loop, spherical vocals and a hypnotic beat that pulsates like a heartbeat. It’s about the traps we set for ourselves and the beauty of not breaking free. A track for everyone who is caught between then and now. Use the time, it’s running out.

BW: The beautifully quirky video also encouraged us to add this song to the album to draw attention to “Grey Devotion”. Give your life meaning, make the most of every day. This is symbolized by the hammer in the video, which admonishes you or the figure to wake up. Practically a gigantic wake-up call. (winks)

O : The song “The Darkness Behind Me” with Jester Mullholland is also very nice. Is there a story behind it?

CU : The song was planned with a duet partner in German, something along the lines of “Back in the Moment” from 2004, but unfortunately that didn’t work out, so Bernd asked the singer of his current production, Jester Mullholland, if he would like to stand in. And, yes, with a few modifications it worked out wonderfully and became a wonderful song. The voices were sent via the Internet and Bernd mixed the song together. Something similar to what happened in 2004 with the cellos from Apocalyptica. They also only communicated and made music via telephone and internet.

BW: Jester’s rough, slightly piercing, distinctive voice meets Angelzoom’s spherical vocals, a contrast that perfectly captures the inner turmoil. He sings the anger, she sings the subtlety. Again, the theme, as visualized in the video. Don’t let it stop you, do your thing, no matter what haunts you, it’s always behind you.

Claudia Zinn-Zinnenburg

In the next part, we continue our in-depth interview.

Listen to Angelzoom in our “Current Issue” playlist on Spotify: