Page 40 - Zone Magazine Issue 018

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In fall of 2003 Anne released her book; “Notes taken, traces left,” mainly for the German market. This book consits of all her lyrics of her songs, translated into German with personal comments, interviews and photos.
From 2004 her co-operation with the Electro Band 'Implant' from Belgium became very intense. She performed new versions of her hits on stage with them. She also performed the vocal parts for several Implant songs such as; “Tune up your chips and circiuts,” and “Surface Tension” (2005), as well as “Your World” and “Was it always this way” (2006). “Was it always this way” was a duet with Claus Larsen from Denmark, who was a guest singer for Implant too. It grew in the electro scene through the fans of Larsens Project; “Leather strip”.
In 2008 Clark was in Germany to record her next album; “The Smallest Act of Kindness”, which was released in September 2008. This album was dedicated to her late mother Cecilia Ann Picton- Clark (nee. Murray).
At the end of 2010, Anne Clark released the first chapter of an ongoing project; "Past & Future Tense", the first release on her own label, After Hours Productions.
In January 2011 Anne contributed an arrangement of the Charles Baudelaire's poem; "Enivrez-Vous" (Be Drunk), to the audio book and radio play; "Die künstlichen Paradiese" (The artificial paradises), (Hörbuch Hamburg/Radio Bremen).
In January 2017, Clark collaborated on the song; "Donald Trump Praesidend (Quack Quack)", with artist Ludwig London. The song was meant to be a parody in light of the recent election of Donald Trump.
In 2016, Clark announced she would take a year sabbatical from creating any other material, she also announced her appearance at W Festival would be her last one for the foreseeable future. In July 2017, Clark headlined the W Festival in Belgium alongside acts such as Peter Hook and others.
Finally she had the concert at the Electri_City Conference in October 2017 where I meet her. The concert was absolutely great. Although the stage and the location were were just “mid-size”, lightning was kind of simple but effective and the audience of about two hundred people could not be described as enthusiastic at first. Well, I did'nt expect anything other than this from the last years. After all it was still a conference and not a stadium concert. But then from the moment Anne entered the stage everything completely changed. I could feel goosebumps running all over me from head to toe (this did not change until we left the CCD later that night). I was absolutely stunned of how this woman could fill the room with her charisma, just by standing there on the stage. Well, it seemed to me that I was not the only one to feel this. Everyone in the audience was suddenly caught by the mood of excitement. Her performance was really hypnotizing.
Just before the concert there had been a stage interview where I asked here for an interview for Zone. She agreed to and we met backstage after the concert.
Well, I must admit, I was very nervous this time; I was kind of intimidated by the whole situation. She is still an idol of my youth and I guess that kind of scared me a little bit.
Weeks before the conference when I was preparing for it, I broke my head for the questions to ask Anne Clark in an interview if I would really get the chance to ask. There were so many things I wanted to know that it would have been enough for days, but I selected some questions that I thought would be interesting for our readers too.
When I prepared for today I was quiet impressed with what you've done. Singer, songwriter, pianist, Poet and electronic
musician. I guess that's quiet a lot and not so usual today. Can you tell me how this all began?
That's a very long story and it goes back a long long time. You know, since I was a child music has always been essential and necessary for me as to hear and to make. I was very fortunate that I grew up in South London in 1976-78, when the Punk Rock thing happened. So there was this huge explosion of not just music, but culture and politics and everything. I was fortunate enough to be in the area. For me it was very intense, very powerful and very short. It was a very short time but everybody just had this energy and if you wanted to do something, you just did it. It did'nt matter if you were a trained musician. It was the passion for being creative and everyone tried something new then.
Sleeper in Metropolis, our Darkness and Wallies are still huge milestones in electronic music today. How did you get the idea to combine poetry with electronic music?
Why not? I mean, when I was growing up I loved music, every kind of music, but electronic music too, and I loved literature and books and poetry. And then Punk happened and you had Patty Smith and Lory Andersen and so on so why not put that together.
Live performance and studio work are two very different things. Which do you prefer?
Without any doubt Live or I used to. Now I´m getting older and my energy is a bit different and I had some things with my health that make it more difficult but when you perform live, everything comes together. You have the musicians, you have the material, you have the environment, you have the public, everything comes together on stage. Sometimes it doesn't always work as you hope or would like but it´s this energy again, this connection. It´s the feedback and this positive feeling. When you are at the concert or you go to see a great film or theater or exhibition, it´s this positive connection between people.
Are there special people you wish to work with in future but did not have the chance yet?
I have been so privileged to work with the people that I worked with. I mean David Bowie would have been a dream but unfortunately he´s gone. But I don´t know really apart from that. Patty Smith might be great to do something with. Over the years we kind of met, and came close to do many things, but it never really happened. But now with the Internet and the technology everything is possible. There is a guy in the deepest Siberia making the most incredible music and I would love to work with him, the options are endless. The possibilities are endless.
When thinking of your gigs, what was the funniest experience you ever had on a gig?
I´m always so nervous I never really have much fun, I mean I have fun but the funniest thing? Of course when all the equipment fails that´s always very special. We were doing a tour and it relied fully on electricity and fortunately we also had a violin player. All the equipment went and she started to play an Irish and Scottish fiddle. So while the technicians started to fix everything again we had this bit of a Keighley with the fiddle and this saved the day.
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