Alex Kriegshund, the mind behind Kriegshund
Kriegshund (war dog) is an industrial project by Alex Kriegshund, a Serbian musician born in Croatia by the year of 1982. During his childhood, he faced the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995), also called Yugoslavian civil war. Because of this conflict, by the age of 11, he had to move to the Serbia. This is a fact that impacts Kriegshund’s creations, as we can see in songs such as
Yugoslavia. In this interview, Alex tells more about his life and career, since he had left his Law career to become an industrial musician.
You wrote on Kriegshund description that the war in ex Yugoslavia has a huge impact in your life. Why? Did your relatives have something with this conflict?
Alex: That war changed everything for me and my family. Even today I’m trying to figure out what kind of marks it left on me. When it comes to that, I’m really inspired with the work of Erich Fromm. He also examined his own life experiences, and I’m impressed with his objectivity towards himself when it comes to his life anamnesis. I’m also trying to judge objectively everything that happened in my life, constantly striving to look at everything from a wider point of view and not letting emotions to bend the whole picture. My relatives had nothing to do with conflict. Luckily they all survived it, mainly because of a fact that most of them never accepted nationalist ideals.
You studied Law for 5 years, worked on it during a period and then you just quitted. Why did you do so? Are you only working with music right now?
Alex: Yes, I did. I decided to quit the job because it didn’t feel right since the beginning. Everything that was alive in me was dying in office, in front of computer with a bunch of papers around me. That’s why. I had it enough at one point. Music was always passion number one in my life, and the idea of having my own music project was in my head for a long time. So I decided to give it a shot. I’m mostly into music right now, and for the first time in my life I feel great for doing something that I really love. I’m gonna keep doing this forever, even if circumstances eventually force me to find regular job again.
Would you say so for people who want to live as musician?
Alex: Yes, definitely. No matter how much it sounds like a cliché, it really is the best solution for every man: to follow his intuition, to discover all the potentials that lies in him and then to make best of them. I don’t know if they will be able to live as a musician, especially if they choose this underground industrial music genre, where only a handful of artists can afford decent life from this kind of music. But still I think it’s definitely worth the effort.
How is it to be an artist in Serbia? Does the government have some facilities for art? Or the contrary, do you have some kind of art censorship?
Alex: To be an artist from this underground music scene is horrible. (laughs) There is only a small number of people who are familiar with this genre. With this project of mine, I’m more oriented towards publics from Germany, Poland, Russia, England, Sweden etc. Situation with censorship is not different than in any other European country, same goes for art facilities.
Did you have some concert outside Serbia? Do you DJ on parties too?
Alex: Right now I’m in the process of finishing my debut album, so there is not enough material for live gigs currently. When it comes to being a DJ, I’m not so much into playing other people stuff.
Even though you say Kriegshund is not political, you do have some political point of view as a Serbian citizen.
Alex: I’m anti-nationalist, I always was and I always will be. Unfortunately, nationalism is still very much alive. Many people can’t seem to get rid of that prehistoric primitive urge to be a part of a herd. Sad but true. Even today you can hear many people saying: ‘’I’m proud to be Serb’’ or ‘’I’m proud to be Croat, Italian, German, Russian’’ or whatever. George Carlin, the man that I respect a lot, once said: ‘’Pride should be reserved for something you achieve or obtain on your own, not something that happens by accident of birth. Being member of some nation isn’t a skill… it’s a fucking genetic accident’’. That’s my favorite quote from him. Unfortunately, that’s the fact that many people simply can’t comprehend.
Did you serve the Serbian army when you were 18? Do you have some kind of complementary military service?
Alex: After finishing high school, I started with studying Law, and because of that army service was deferred. Later, army became fully professional and there was no need for service anymore.
About your work. Which kind of samples do you use on your songs? For example, in WW2, are these quotes by Hitler?
Alex: Yes, in
WW2 I’ve used samples with Hitler, also with Stalin. In the song
Yugoslavia’, I have used samples from Yugoslavian leader Tito. So you can see that I use all kind of samples, everything that catches my attention.
Would you consider Kriegshund similar to Feindflug or Funker Vogt?
Alex: Both of them had certain influence on my work. I listen Funker Vogt much longer though, for more than a decade I think, ever since I heard their
Tragic Hero hit.
Do you have some kind of military aesthetics for yourself? As we can see on your Facebook page, the logo for Kriegshund is an image of soldiers, but we cannot see the artist, just the concept.
Alex: There will be in time, but for now, as I mentioned earlier, I’m 100% focused on finishing my debut album.
How does the Yugoslavia war influence your work?
Alex: In numerous ways. It’s complicated to explain but I’ll try to give you a picture this way. For example, during war, when I was 10 years old, most of children around the world who were same generation as me were reading comics, playing with marbles etc… at that age I was already interested in serious things, like reading true life stories and stories about World War II. I have discovered them on
feuilletons that was published once a week, and those articles got my instant attention. I enjoyed reading them very much. I don’t think that would be the case if war didn’t happen. Serious circumstances around me at that time have shaped my interests back then in a different way. And I think that all that changed me very much. In high school I was already reading Nietzsche. Without war I think that I would be completely different person today. So this project of mine is just one more stadium of my life, one more of many stadiums that were all triggered by the war. At the beginning of the process that led to who I am right now as a person, there was –
Krieg.
Have you ever faced some kind of prejudice against your military aesthetics? Some kind of interpretation connecting Kriegshund with fascism, right-wing or Nazism?
Alex: No, I haven’t. Even though I have my personal politic views, with this project of mine I will never glorify any particular political idea, right-wing or left-wing. And I think that people understood that. Kriegshund is a musical retrospective of human society in general and I made that clear statement on all sites for my project. In my songs people will find all kind of motives simply because fascism or communism are not taboo subjects for me. They are part of our history and running away from them is running away from ourselves. Facing the past is much more wiser and healthier than denying it.
What is your main influence for the music and for the aesthetics?
Alex: Self-destruction of mankind. We are the only of all species on this planet who is terminating itself on such a large scale. Not just by killing each other but by polluting our environment as well. Native Americans used to say long time ago: what you do to the nature, you do to yourself.
What do you want to communicate with your music?
Alex: I want other people to be aware of our constant self-destruction as well, because this civilization of ours have no future with current shape of things.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kriegshund
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/kriegshund
Entrevista em Português
