Currently, the quintet is plowing across the States on tour with Numb and Front Line Assembly, putting on a powerful performance if their show in Portland was any indication (see review in On Stage) and winning new fans in each town. I met up with founding member Jurgen Engler just hours before the first show of the tour for a few words...

What has Die Krupps been up to since The Young Gods tour last summer?
JURGEN ENGLER: We went on a big European tour to promote the Odyssey of the Mind album that just came out here. 

When did it come out over there?
JE: In July ('95). So we promoted that album in Europe and it was a big success. After that we came back to the States for another tour with Sister Machine Gun. We only played shows from the East Coast to the Midwest, like 30 shows or something. Actually it was pretty good, it was the territory that we didn't work on the first tour with The Young Gods. 

How did that tour with The Young Gods go?
JE: I think it went pretty well for us, having been here for the first time ever. Okay, we played a coupel shows in New York and Boston a couple years ago, but for being on the first American tour, I think it went pretty good for us, we built up a following. We could tell by the second tour when we came back with Sister Machine Gun that we definitely have a following. This tour [w/ Front Line Assembly] is probably going to help us even more.

Could you talk a little bit about some of the lyrics on the new album?
JE: The lyrics on the new album, I would say, are a little bit more introvert. On Rings of Steel and the older material, the lyrics were more like against war, against fascism, things like that, negative things. On this album, it's more or less how these negative things have affected me, on the psyche, so it's more introverted.

Lyrically, it's a concept album. It starts out with "Last Flood," which is a description of negative situations and goes on to "Isolation," which is you withdraw from all these things. You know what's going on, but you withdraw. You gain freedom out of isolating yourself. "Odyssey of the Mind" is about wanting to break out of your environment, to go on to something new, and you're afraid to do it. I don't know if you've seen the cover [art] it has this cage with wings, which means you're actually free to do it, you could do it, but you lock yourself in. Like the story of the bird that's been in the cage for ten years. You open the door and it won't leave because it's afraid. You're fullfilling your wishes in your thoughts, but not in reality. It goes on to "Eggshell," where you reach your breaking point, where you actually break with your past and get on and find new ways. That's what "Scent" is about, the search for the new, and it goes on to "LCD," where you try to be the normal, the average person, which for me was always like...didn't work out. Then you come to the point where you have to choose which way you want to go, the good or the bad, you've gotta choose for yourself what you want to be. In "Metalmorphosis," you gain new strength out of things that you've found that are important to you. It's basically about gaining new strength and finding yourself again, what you're really about, what everything's really about. Then, on "Alive," it all comes back, you arise again with new strength, power, values, and all that. 

It's like a whole story and I think people can probably relate to that better than our older lyrics because I think everybody has probably gone through stages like that, experienced similar things. 

So it's a pretty positive outlook then?
JE: It starts out negative, but the end is positive. That's probably what our lyrics are about all the time. I have a negative outlook on things, I know what's going on and am very interested in what's going on, but I'll always have this positive energy and I want to change things for the better. Make the best out of what there is and change it for the better. We don't preach nihilism, that's not what this band is about. 

What are the lyics like on some of the earlier songs?
JE: They were basically about the same thing, just in a different way, more of a slogan-type, like four or eight lines, depending on how important the words were. So they were repeated over and over again, but it was about the same thing, about realizing your own strength and making the best out of it. 

Speaking of the older albums, do you know if Cleopatra is going to release any of that material in the U.S.?
JE: Yes, they are going to release a compilation of all the old stuff, from '81 to '92 very soon. 

How have you been dealing with your success?
JE: It's not hard to deal with. We've worked on it for such a long time. I started the band in 1980, so success did not come overnight. I've worked on it and I'm so involved in this whole thing that I don't really see a drastic change. I see that now we're touring with a nightliner and years ago we used to do it in a tiny little van, but it didn't change drastically. I don't have a big head now because we're selling 100,000 albums in Germany.

How was it writing the new album? It sounds more experimental in a lot of ways than The Final Option.
JE: I think it has more of everything that we've done before. A lot of the electornic component that Die Krupps was always about, plus the metal aspect, with guitars, plus more of the old industrial type. On this album, I think it's pretty well balanced, that's very important to me. I think this is more what the band is about than The Final Option. It's definitely more to the point. Beside that, sound-wise, it's probably the closest to a Die Krupps live show, very aggressive, very hard. 

What do you see as the next step in the evolution of the Die Krupps sound?
JE: We have to deliver the new masters for the next LP to our record company by October and I haven't even thought about what we're gonna do and I don't want to. When I meet with Lee, the guitarist, and we write new songs, everything that we've absorbed, we just spit out. With Odyssey of the Mind, Lee and I met in Austin, we went to the rehearsal studio for ten days, we said we're going to write ten songs in ten days. We made it to nine. "Alive" is an old song of mine, but nine songs' worth in ten days. I think it has to be spontaneous because I always want Die Krupps to remain a progressive band and you can't just plan ahead and be progressive. You've got to do it when you need to. 

How does religion affect society in Germany compared to the U.S.?
JE: That is very very different. Here, for example, religion is a very big thing, it's very serious. In Europe, it's not. It's a little bit like they've lost their values, which is not meant in a negative way because I'm not religious. My parents never went to church, which is not a thing out of the oridnary. I mean, there's mainly older people who go to church, but bascially, it's not as dominant as it is here. We have churches, don't get me wron, but they're more like museumes. When you go to a church, you may see a couple people praying, but I'd say 90% of people just basiclly walk around and look at it like they're in a museum. 

Have you made any videos for this album?
JE: Yeah. It's a pain to do, I don't like making videos. It's not really my interest. You have maybe a day, or a couple of hours to shoot a video. We don't have the budgets to spend a week, which actually you need, but the way we can afford to do it, you make a video in a day and it's going to cost you $40,000, which is already a lot of money. I have to say, the "Isolation" video we shot was pretty good, probably the closest to how good it can get in a day. 

What happened with your old drummer, Darren Minter?
JE: Oh, Darren... The drummer you saw on The Young Gods tour [not Darren], he is with the Genitortutrers, but Darren got thrown into jail for some stuff. Not really serious stuff, but Nine Inch Nails called us up, they wanted to go out on tour with us, they asked if we wanted to support them here in the States for a few shows, and we had to get Darren out of jail. We had a lot of problems with Darren before so nobody was really willing to get him out of jail and pay for the attorney. So we decided to just send the money and get him out but decided not to continue with him. 

What kind of stuff do you read?
JE: I'm reading a book right now called "Freakshow" by....his last name is Saunders, it's really good. It was released in '54. I'm not reading a lot, because I don't have the time. 

Die Krupps have really honed their songwriting skills over the years and Odyssey Of The Mind is their most powerful release yet. The band may take some slams from electronic purists who object to their incorporation of guitars and live drums, but the band just shrugs it off and continues to evolve while others stagnate. Go check 'em out on this tour and grab a copy of the new album. Jurgen and Co. have a lot to say and do it with more style than most bands out there today.