Formed back in 1991, Oomph! is still made up of the same three individuals, namely Flux (guitars/sampling), Dero (vocals/drums) and Crap (guitars/keys).  Flux was kind enough to answer some queries via e-mail recently, so here is a look behind the scenes of the powerhouse that is Oomph!….

First of all, I'd like to ask the most basic question - where did the name Oomph! come from?
We found this in an old English dictionary.  The description for Oomph! was 'when something is full of energy, power and sex-appeal, e.g. Marilyn Monroe had lots of oomph!'  We found this as a good description for our music and took the name.

How did you guys first get together?  Did anyone work in any other bands prior to Oomph!?
Dero and Crap raised up in the same flat and had an unimportant electro-new wave projekt before, I played in an unimportant rock band. We met at a local talent festival in Wolfsburg and decided to form Oomph! in order to make music honestly as a profession, with all our efforts and with heart and soul. We wanted to combine the best of what we love in electronic and rock music in Oomph!.

The line-up has remained consistent for your entire career - a rare thing indeed.  What do you attribute this to?
We are all of us three very strong individuals who respect each other for what each of us is able to do. We discuss everything a lot before we decide. And luckily we always had a positive progression in our career so far. So why change anything?

Has anyone in the band worked on any side-projects?  Any plans to in the future?
No, not yet. We think that Oomph! isn't limiting us in any way so that we don't need side-projects. But we did remixes for bands like Korn, Such A Surge, Joachim Witt and Sin. We would like to produce another band some day.

The production on all of Oomph!'s albums has been excellent.  Is there one particular person who handles most of the production work or do you all work together on it?
Thanks! The production is done only by us three (Virgin Rec. trusts us :-)), and I'm responsible for the mix.

How did you settle on the title Plastik?
Plastik stands for the plastic-times we all live in and which reflects on our behaviour. We communicate more and more through plastic media as we do now and less people talk to each other face to face. This makes it easy to lie... We don't crucify the new technology, but you have to be careful and be aware of how you use them and when.

Not being able to speak German, I was wondering if there was a common theme that runs through the lyrics on Plastik?
This is not really a concept album like Wunschkind or Unrein, but we all live in the plastic-world which effects us and Dero's lyrics.

Do you have any plans to get a US distribution deal for Plastik?
We hope to get a US distribution soon, we are working on this.... We know that we already have fans in the U.S. We played there in 1993 at the NMS in New York in the Limelight and at The Bank. We had very good reactions and "Der neue Gott" and "Ich bin Du" have been in the college radio charts.

I've seen a lot of bands complain about their treatment by the Noise/Dynamica/Machinery label.  What was your experience with them like?
Oh yeah, the same! They didn't believe that this kind of music could be successful and they didn't let us go although we had offers from a lot of major record companies in these days.... Forget about this, it's over!

How did you land the Virgin deal?  Are you pretty happy with them so far?
After finally being free, we could choose between 7 major rec. companies and we decided for Virgin, because they already offered us in 1995 a record deal, long before there was the little band called Rammstein. They are really interested in our music and they trust in our work as producers. And we still think that this was the right decision....

I noticed that you guys charted pretty high in the German top Albums with Plastik.  Were you at all surprised by the reaction to this album?
It was very nice to see that we have such a strong fanbase. But it was like the reward for very hard work we all did in the last years.

Outside of Germany, where is your largest fanbase located?
Austria, Switzerland and France.

Do you keep up much on what is going on in the industrial and/or metal scenes at large?
No! We don't feel being in one particular scene at all. But we try to keep informed of what's going on in all kind of modern, innovative scenes.

What is your take on some of the more modern sub-genres of electronic music (drum 'n' bass, trip-hop, etc.)?
We are let's say "mainstream" informed of those sub genres. We love Massive Attack, Björk, Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and bands like that, but we are not digging to discover new stuff on our own...

Oomph! were one of the first bands to successfully integrate live drums and guitar into an electronic format.  What inspired you to take this route in the early days?
We grew up with bands like AC/DC and Motörhead, but also with Bands like DAF, Depeche Mode or the Cure. And so we tried to combine everything of what we like and what is interesting on guitars and synthesizers in music. We always wanted to surprise ourselves with our music.

I think when some critics hear Oomph!, they only hear the guitars, but you guys have done some incredible programming and sample work, too.  Who handles most of that work?  Do you have any particular favorite gear?
Everybody of Oomph! can do programming and sampling and play keys and guitar. So we are not fixed on only one instrument that keeps you open-minded! We use so many equipment in our own studio, e.g. Sampler: Akai, Emu, Synth: from Minimoog to DX7 to Roland Jupiter8 to Waldorf Pulse, From Gibson Guitars to custom made Guits, from Yamaha Digital Amps to vintage tube amps.... I love my gear!

When you guys write, is the music built first on guitar or with the keyboards?
Both, sometimes only in the head first. Sometimes in a session, sometimes everybody on his own. No rules!

Has your song-writing process changed any over the years?
No.

What kind of set-up do you utilize for live shows?
Crap and me play only guitar, Dero sings, Toby (bass) and Leo (e-drums) complete us as a Live-Support to a whole rock-band. They are good friends of us who help live to get everything heard that we recorded in our studio. The sequenced synth and samples are played by a DAT-Recorder. No fake keyboarder on stage!

The cover of the debut album has always intrigued me - what exactly is that a photo of?
It's an old picture of a wind tunnel from a car factory (I think it is GM).

Speaking of covers, the cover art for Fieber is also very cool.  Who came up with the idea for that?
Oh, I have to say, it was me! We all thought of something which has to fit to the fashion-style of this period and of something with heat...

Your collaboration with Nina Hagen on Fieber was very successful.  Do you think you will work with her again?
She is a very nice and strong character. It was incredible to work with her. This collaboration has been done very spontaneously. So everything sounds fresh. If this freshness could be kept, why not, some day....

Is there anyone else you'd like to have as a guest on a future Oomph! album?
No plans yet, but who knows? John Lennon would be nice to have!

Looking forward, do you have any long-term goals for Oomph!?
Keeping it fresh, innovative and successful in the future...