Interview with Schloss Tegal
Procession Of The Dead was released in 1989 on the band's own label, Tegal Records. A 7-inch release, which became a minor underground dark-ambient cult hit in Germany, and this (of course) gave this known veteran project a pretty good start. Schloss Tegal has often been mentioned as a pioneer in the development of the dark-ambient genre, but I´ve always seen it more as an industrial-inspired ambient act.... In contrast, dark ambient more often depends on soft drones and slow synths. Schloss Tegal utilizes real sounds to create their haunting, collage-made soundscapes, often exploring conceptual, esoteric ideas that lie between the worlds of futuristic science and the paranormal realm of the occult. Since 1989, Schloss Tegal has released several albums and appeared on numerous international cult industrial compilations. And to this day, the project is still active. I managed to hunt down the madman behind the project, to really find out... is there a link between science and the world of the undead?
Nice to meet you, Richard. I've prepared some questions. My first question is, what motivated you to start this interesting project, and what inspired you to undertake it?
Just the desire to create something from my own ideas and my own personal ideas...that is how it started, really. I was going to art school and experimenting a lot with painting and lithography.
I was also playing around with a lot of tape loops and things like that in the studio at the time, very primitive. And then I really got interested in doing a project later when I was working at this radio station.
It was called KJHK Radio, and I had a special program there called Tesco Disco. This is before the Tesco organization. It was called Tesco Disco, where I played music from 2 a.m. till 6 a.m., and I could play whatever I wanted.
So I would just collect records, you know, at that time. Then I discovered this band called Throbbing Gristle one day by accident, and that really sparked my interest in doing something with music or a performance.
And performance art was just starting there, too, at the time. People were interested. That was in 1980. This is around the early 80s. Okay, yeah. I would say 80. Yeah. Around 80, 81, when I was starting to experiment a little bit.
Then I met the other member, Mark Burch, at the radio station too. He had the show before mine, and it was called London Calling, which played a lot of imported punk and music like that. So we sort of met at the radio station because we had the same interest in music.
But then we started getting more interested in all these things, so we decided to start just messing around and playing around, experimenting with tapes and things like that with various friends, and it just evolved from there.
Then we decided, okay, we need a name or something, or a mnemonic or sentence or just something, you know. So we're both working at a scientific journal factory where we print scientific journals, and we're reading in one and it said that the Menninger Clinic in Kansas was based on this place in Germany called Schloss Tegal.
And we thought, wow, that's very interesting, you know, so let's go to this place, the Menninger Clinic, and see if we can find some information on this Schloss Tegal. So we went there and we went to the Menninger Library, and sure enough, we found some journals there with references to Schloss Tegal and how the Menninger Clinic was based on this place in Germany.
They used music and art, which is the main point, which is why we started, because they used music and art for art therapy for people who were mental patients. And it still exists in Berlin, the place where it started.
So we just used that as our name because we thought, oh, that's really so cool, you know, like using art or music for therapy. And then at the same time, we saw SPK too. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I saw Throbbing Gristle in San Francisco, which really influenced me a lot.
I already knew about it before then because they came to the radio station in Lawrence, Kansas, and we interviewed them on the radio. Mark did, myself on the radio. So I met Peter and Genesis, and they were compiling the William Burroughs album there in Lawrence, Kansas.
So they came to our house, they had barbecues, so we felt related to them too. We were inspired by them to do something. Then, the next year, SPK played in Lawrence, Kansas.
And that changed everything. Yeah. You know, it was so shocking, and nobody had ever seen anything like that before, even me. So I thought, I have to do something now.
So I bought a synthesizer. Well, my friend had one, and I played around with that. I was playing guitar and doing stupid stuff in the studio. And then I bought a couple of ARP Odyssey synthesizers and started playing around, working in the studio.
And then just decided to put out a record. Yeah. I said, Okay. What were the seven inches? Well, before we put out the record, I had a cassette label called Tegal Records. And we put out two cassettes.
One called Collective, which is now a CD that I gave to you. And one was called Custom Slaughtering. And the other one was Maurizio Bianchi. I put out Maurizio Bianchi's Symphony for Genocide. And also I put out one...
I can't remember the other cassette. But anyway, so it started out as a cassette label, basically. And then I decided, oh, let's put out a 7-inch. Then I released The Procession of the Dead.
Which became a success. Donna Clem, I gave her some copies of it in Germany, and she was selling them on Artwork Productions. And she said, Richard, you should do like a dance record or something because they're playing this Procession Of The Dead in all the clubs.
You know, like some anthem, you know. I was like, I can't imagine some dance record. So that's how I got connected with Artware and Tesco Organization and all these other places because I was looking for some place to distribute this record, and I couldn't find anything in those days because there was no internet.
So I just opened up a copy of Industrial Nation magazine, which was called, in America, and they would review everything. And I just opened it up and said, Artwork Productions released this record of Hybryds, you know.
So I wrote them, sent them a promo copy, same way with Tesco, sent them a promo copy, and they all wrote back and said, Send me more, send me 10. You know, I thought, oh my God, you know, so that's how it started, you know, just releasing the first record.
Then it continued from there. How do you track down these interesting concepts for the releases? Is it due to some personal interest?
I would say that Schloss Tegal comes from my interest and Mark's interest. And I think a lot of the early influences come from what was happening at the time because Mark was living in Kansas City.
And we found out later that just a few blocks from the house where he lived, Robert Berdella was murdering people and torturing people in his basement. He's a serial killer who was in Kansas City. And at the time, there was Ted Bundy, and Green River Killer, and Jeffrey Dahmer.
All this was going on in America at that time. So everybody was fascinated by it. So we decided to put out the Grand Guignol based on all these serial killers that we were hearing about and everything. That's where the Grand Guignol record came out on Arduino Productions.
But I was also interested; it's just based on all my interests. And at the time, there was a lot of interest in crop circles and UFOs and things like this that I was interested in.
I try to create something, to give people something to hold on to, to take them somewhere else, to a different place for a few minutes. I try to make movies. So you can listen to these things, and you can visualize whatever you want. Same with my paintings. I try to do the same technique
Starting your own label, Teagle Records. Why did you choose to start your own label back then?
Because there were no other outlets that did it.
Another influence from Industrial Records was to release yourself independently because nobody was doing that. At the time, you had to go into a studio and pay big money to record, and then you had to send the recording to some record label, and they're not going to accept you anyway.
So it was really just to get stuff out there with no restrictions. To be able to release something and myself. Be independent.
Is there any interest in industrial music in Czechia? And how is it to live here compared to the United States?
In Czechia, people are more interested in metal. There's a whole metal scene here, but there really isn't any sort of industrial scene... We have a lot of people who are doing modular stuff, some people are doing rock and roll, and other things.
But for the whole country, I would say there's really not much.
No, I tried to look it up, and the only band that popped up was Autopsia?
Autopsia, yeah, he's one of the first ones. Yeah, I know him.
He's one of the first ones. Okay. Yeah, and the more legendary ones, you know, from the 90s. I was buying his things in the 90s. It was on Staalplaat Records. It was one of my favorite CDs.
Is it better to live here in the United States?
Oh, much better. Yeah, much better. Especially now with what's going on with politics and Trump and everything. It's just degenerated into Nazi fascism in the United States. They're detaining people and deporting them without any trial. It's horrible.
It's quite like the fall of the Roman Empire.
It is. It's the fall of 1938 in Germany and America. It is. Everything Trump is doing is the same thing Hitler did. Yeah. Attacking the media, attacking people.
What current bands and music are you into these days? Do you follow up on new releases within the dark ambient genre?
Not really dark ambient. I just search for things at random. Yeah. Like on SoundCloud or anything like that.
I'm into lots of different styles and not just dark ambient. I'm into some noisy stuff. I'm into old electronics. I'm into lots of different things. But I normally just let it happen. I don't really go out and search for it.
Search for spoilers. Jeanette really finds the. My wife finds the best stuff. Okay. Yeah, for me. I'll be listening to what you're listening to? She's searching for things. I'm to the point where I'm just making music.
I don't really listen to many things. But I can't think of anything that really blows me away nowadays. I've been discovering some really interesting techno, you know, like, you know, not techno, but rhythmic stuff, you know, that I've heard on SoundCloud that I really liked, you know. Yeah. Watch movies every day, too.
Proudest moment of Schloss Tegal and why? Do I have one of those moments? The highest moment?
I don't know. It's still going to happen.
For me, the one record that gained attention for your project was when Cold Spring released Black Static Transformation. That was my first experience.
Yeah, that's right. It sold a lot. Yeah, I sold like a thousand copies of that.
I remember people in Denmark were talking about that one album for some reason.
Yeah, yeah. Mainly because of maybe the dead voices on there.
Yeah, maybe. There are dead voices and recordings from a friend of mine who was a mortician, and his ghost hunting. And a lot of the voices on there are actual recordings that he made from doing his ghost hunting in places. So they are authentic EVPs on there.
It was hyped in the same sort of way, where people who were into death/black metal were suddenly catching up on bands like Endura and bands from Cold Meat Industry. And then some started talking about the Schloss Tegal.
I remember. I think we influenced a lot of metal bands. I have a lot of metal people who are into it. So we jump to the next.
You have been called a pioneer within the dark ambient genre. Do you identify yourself as a dark ambient action?
No, I don't identify myself with that.
After the golden days of the label Cold Meat Industry, all the bands were starting to leave the label, and we got labels like Cycle of Law, Cryo Chamber.
Are we to expect any new material to be released?
Yeah, yeah. So what can we expect? There's a label in the United States called No Holiday Records. And they're releasing the Grand Grignol as a double LP. It should be released now in the United States; it's on vinyl, and it's a beautiful cover made by my friend in Spain, named Alonso Urbana, who is a graphic artist. And he uses the original artwork of the Grande Vignard cover, but it has like an eviscerated body laminated over it. It should be beautiful with beautiful inserts inside. I'm excited about that. I'm surprised they wanted to release it because it's our most brutal record.
I'm also working on this new album called Terminated By Script. It's almost finished now, and I'm mastering it. It should be done in about a couple of months, I would say. I'm trying to get it finished before the Bratislav Festival and release it before then. It'll be on Tegal Records too. I think you'll like this one, it's pretty good and it's very different than what I've done before.
So I'm gonna wrap it up now. Any last words?
I'm thinking about doing a limited edition of 25 records with my paintings on the cover, or drawings, or printing on the cover. I've been doing a lot of work in the studio at home and in my painting studio. And I'm working more in this direction now, this new album, I think, might be the last one for a while, then I'm going to do more digital art for art galleries and things like that. Just to do something different, I'd like to do many different things. I don't want to do just music or noise; it's easier to be more creative when you have different channels to choose from. Different ways to do creative things.
