Originally published at kemptation.com on 17 March 2015. Words by Andrejka Zupancic

Laibach are one of very few acts truly deserving of the cliché, ‘more than just a band’. Formed in 1980, in the rural town of Trbovlje, Slovenia, Laibach became the musical arm of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art) collective, a group so radical that it would go on to found its own country, even issuing passports and opening embassies.

Laibach have influenced many great acts across multiple genres. According to Trent Reznor, if there had been no Laibach, it would be hard to ever imagine Nine Inch Nails or Rammstein coming into being.

Laibach, relevant as ever (or perhaps even more so), are currently haunting Europe with their eighth studio album, Spectre. We speak with the band about the new album, its message, the future of Europe and the concept of their international Party (you can’t leave the Party, apparently, but the Party can leave you).

 

You are currently on tour, promoting your album, Spectre. The lyrics have quite a political tone. What is the message of the album?

Spectre is basically a kind of ‘manifesto’ of the international Party, which we founded at the launch of the new album. There is an increased engagement in consciousness in Europe and elsewhere in the world – people are tired of the existing political and economic order and want to take power into their own hands and return the dignity and solidarity to social relations in ordinary life. In doing so, we can only support them and, in addition, we simultaneously try to return some political relevance and dignity into popular culture.

The entertainment industry should be fun (in the first place, at least), but it should also take its fair share of responsibility for the common social and political climate. Most of the popular entertainment industry today is completely trivialised and lost on all levels, particularly in the context of the basic issues of social justice and politics. One of the reasons for the establishment of a party is, therefore, also self-destructive; a cynical status in popular culture. Today, nobody takes music seriously, musicians and the music industry have gambled it away. But we believe that music can, in principle, still work as a mobilising force – think of all the brilliant periods in the history of pop culture – if it is not encumbered with itself, if it does not behave only as ‘music’, if it exits from its media and operates in the so-called ‘underground’, if it anarch-organises itself – not as a sub-culture alternative, but as a whip of God. Spectre therefore deals with this kind of content.

What is the purpose of the Party?

We established the Party as the classic ‘Stalinist’ international Party. It is available to all those who may be inspired by Laibach and who want something more than to just blindly consume ideas and objects. We do not want it to be a fan club; rather, we want socially and politically sensitive members who will actually engage themselves in their environments and connect and support one another (and help with other related projects), even remotely. We will also direct them a bit, so as not to get too mired in strange waters, but we will still allow them enough freedom, or at least its illusion.

 

You all have pseudonyms: Dachauer, Keller, Saliger and Eber. What do they mean?

Laibach works as a team, with a collective spirit, following the model of industrial production and totalitarianism. This means: no individual speaks; the organisation speaks.

The entertainment industry should take its fair share of responsibility for the common social and political climate.

Our work is industrial, language is political. The internal structure works on a directive principle and symbolises the relationship of ideology to an individual. The members of Laibach, since 1982, are Eber, Saliger, Dachauer and Keller, making a quadruple principle which, predestined, conceals any number of sub-objects (depending on needs). The flexibility and anonymity of membership prevents eventual individual deviations and allows a permanent revitalisation of the inner life juices. Subject, which can in the process of work be identified with extreme position of contemporary post-industrial production, automatically becomes a member of Laibach. Others hold the status of colleague.

Where are most of your concerts taking place and do you have a favourite audience?

We do not discriminate between audiences – or, at least, we pretend not to. We are politically correct enough that we are willing to lie about this. Nevertheless, our favourite audience is one that most loves us or hates us; those are the ones that are most inspirational.

The group was founded in Trbovlje. Do you still come back and organise concerts in your hometown?

Yes, we do that on a regular basis, in part because we were banned in Trbovlje when the band formed in 1980. It was in 1990 that we finally performed there for the first time – and even then under the watchful eye of the police. But Trbovlje gave a sense of perseverance, humour, ruggedness and sophistication. It marked us, so completely and thoroughly, that we still return to this, the most beautifully ugly city in the world.

It wasn’t until 1990 that we were finally allowed to perform in Trbovlje – and even then it was under the watchful eye of the police.

This is a typical Slovenian trait of dark cynicism and scepticism, but people in Trbovlje, though they are subject to all the junk of social roughness, are actually very sensitive and good. Today, the city varies considerably and instead of mining, power plants and heavy industry, there are now sophisticated companies such as the software company Dewesoft, which makes software for NASA in the USA and similar. A new youth culture has emerged, too, which organises the radical sound and music festivals. A new avant-garde collective has also formed, which hosts an annual international festival of new media called Speculum Artium – a few days of the year in which Trbovlje transforms into Slovenian Ars Electronica. Guests, artists, scientists and theorists come from all over the world – and we, of course, imagine that this change happened partly thanks to Laibach.

 

In your song, Eurovision, you proclaim ‘the collapse of Europe.’ Do you have a vision of how much time Europe has left?

Europe, as we know it and want it to be, does not exist. It is just a fiction, a desire, an illusion. The Europe that really exists is an intertwined and interdependent system in constant disintegration. And it seems this disintegration is the only stable principle through which Europe de facto has always been established. This was the case in the past and this will probably be the future. We wish her a safe journey and hope someday Europe will span the territory from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

After the release of your new album you are again getting politically active. In the 80s, the British press described you as “the most dangerous band in the world”. Why?

We do not know why. It probably seemed inconceivable to them that there could be such a radically different interpretation of the world, so different from the vision offered by the British and Anglo-American pop-rock sentiment.

 

What are the similarities and differences between Spectre and NSK (New Slovenian Art)?

The NSK was established at its inception and defined as an ‘abstract organism, supremacist body installed in a real political space as a social sculpture, consisting of the body heat, spirit and movement work of its members’. It is open to all, without exception, who want to become its citizens. Therefore, we left the country to its citizens, to organise themselves in any way they know how.

Unfortunately, nothing significantly different came out of it than just a kind of Laibach-ish. The NSK fan club was all about being some kind of artistic installation and trying to be to be more papal than the Pope. Therefore, we decided to establish a Party that would require from its members a specific social and political engagement and, therefore, give them specific tasks. Party membership is open to anyone to whom Laibach can serve as an inspiration and a formal link with like-minded subjects around the world – and we ourselves will be the ones conducting the Party.

 

In all your years of existence, who has tried to censor you most?

Ourselves. If this was not the case, today we probably would no longer exist.

 

What are your plans for the next album?

It exists, and we will start getting more involved with it, intensively so, in the second half of the year. But, for now, it is still too early to talk about it.

 

SPECTRE DIGITAL DELUXE ALBUM & SPECTREMIX OUT 30 MARCH 2015

UK Tour Dates:

30 March – Brighton, Concorde 2
31 March – Glasgow, Classic Grand
2 April – London, Electric Ballroom
3 April – Manchester, Academy 2