Max Raabe: "Of course I play with clichés"

With the Palast Orchester, Max Raabe has been making music in the style of the 1920s for more than twenty years. He successfully toured Asia, performing at Carnegie Hall in New York and at the wedding of shock rocker Marilyn Manson. Now the Westphalian resident of Berlin has recorded a solo album. In conversation, he politely offers mineral water, now and then straightens the tie and tells of his aversion to jeans and his predilection for black humor.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Mr. Raabe, you seem to have fallen out of time in your appearance and your music. What is the most modern thing about you?

Max Raabe: My alarm clock. This is such a digital device with batteries in it. It works without you having to raise it. I think that's the most modern thing I own.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Many musicians go through the night and sleep until noon. How is it with you, are you very disciplined?

Max Raabe: No, I'm not disciplined at all. When there are premiere parties and I actually have to go to bed because there's a concert the next day, I'm often the last person to leave the party. Although I always do it differently.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: How was it in your youth when your classmates heard Abba and poured into the discos. Since you have loved old shellac records?

Max Raabe: Yes, that was my music. But I did not talk much about it.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Was your musical taste embarrassing?

Max Raabe: I already knew that what I liked was not quite up to date. But I did not think it was very secretive either. When we were on the road, I heard what the others heard.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Did you dress differently then your classmates?

Max Raabe: Not noticeably different. I liked corduroy jackets. Once I also had a pair of jeans, but I found it uncomfortable. In winter it was too cold and too warm in summer. So I switched to corduroys again.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: What do you wear when you hang out on the sofa on a Sunday afternoon and watch a movie - sweatpants?

Max Raabe: No, sweatpants certainly not. I have a selection of baggy corduroy trousers that I put on for rapping.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Do you sometimes feel like you're living in the wrong time?

Max Raabe: That's it. But I am very satisfied with the time we live in. Except for the short trip in the Weimar Republic, we have for the first time in our hands, who governs us. Before that the Germans lived under crazy monarchs or dictators. Now we live in very orderly conditions, we are fine. We can buy the best stuff, avocados and mangoes, for example. We have central heating, you are not constantly attacked on the street. And we can do music that is not from the present time, it did not exist before. In Bach's time, only what was modern at the time was heard. And in the classics all Bruckner and Wagner, but hardly anyone heard Beethoven.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: The pieces you interpret are mainly from the Weimar Republic. What fascinates you about the 1920s?

Max Raabe: There has never been such an ironic handling of words and content at any other time. The lyrics were cleverly worded but at the same time humorous and incredibly entertaining. That did not happen before, but not afterwards. Luckily now it is recovering slowly, there is again very clever, German-speaking pop music. But what's called a hit is still in a pretty murky state.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: The copywriters and composers on your current album "Übers Meer" are all of Jewish origin. Was that a conscious choice?

Max Raabe: No, that's how it turned out. It has a lot to do with humor. Copywriters like Fritz Rotter and Robert Gilbert have spurred on each other, became more and more sophisticated and bizarre. And they happened to be Jews. I put the record together according to musical aspects and then realized that they are all pieces of people who could not stay in Germany after 1933 and had to emigrate. That's why the title "Übers Meer".

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: The protagonists of these songs are sometimes fist-thick behind the ears, they cheat on their wives or make slippery offers, for example in the song "Do you know what you can".

Max Raabe: Yes, that was a freedom after decades of censorship that the copywriters took advantage of. I really love that black humor, but it's still temperate on the current album. This time it was more about the quiet, soulful title.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Why did you record such a thoughtful record without an orchestra right now?

Max Raabe: For the pleasure of recording songs in a warm, intimate mood in the studio. I often sing privately for myself. And I noticed that then I sing whole quietly. In this style, I wanted to make a record.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: How do you like such songs?

Max Raabe: I go to archives or to the basement of music shops, where there are usually some drawers in which old saddle books are stored. "Five o'clock tea" is the name of the game or "Tea and Dance", in front is a very colorful cover with a dancing couple on it and in it the dance hits of the time are collected.

I do not want to piss anyone off

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: One topic of the album is the farewell. That should be very familiar to you, you are always on the move.

Max Raabe: Yes, but everyone knows that feeling. That's why the recordings are very withdrawn and quiet. I do not want to upset people with my interpretation.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Is that the reason why you act relatively reluctant on stage?

Max Raabe: (laughs) Yeah, I do not do much either. When I sing about the sun and the moon, I do not have to show up. And I do not have to be theatrical about heart when it comes to love.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Anyone who has experienced it live, is nevertheless blown away. They are obviously also very withdrawn.

Max Raabe: I'm trying for it. My concerts should not be a university lecture, but an entertaining evening, but this music has been written.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Can you explain why your music works so well abroad? The word joke is lost for most listeners.

Max Raabe: It works purely through the music and the way I use my voice. In addition, I often explain between songs in the local language, what it is about.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: For many foreigners you are the epitome of German. Does it bother you to be a kind of representative?

Max Raabe: Everyone is the representative of his country as soon as he leaves the borders. Whether you go into a restaurant with shorts and slippers now or with a free upper body in the ice cream parlor.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: You would never do that.

Max Raabe: No, I would never do that. I just wanted to make it clear that everyone bears responsibility for the image he communicates abroad. Of course I play with the image of the German. We serve stereotypes with our accurate appearance, our very well organized entries and exits. What makes people stupefied is that there is such a thing as humor and self-irony in Germany.

I am not disciplined

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Is there much laughter at your concerts abroad?

Max Raabe: Yes, to be honest, even more than in Germany. When I'm doing a moderation in the US, I sometimes feel like a comedy series with superimposed laughter.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: Do you feel more like a musician or entertainer at such moments?

Max Raabe: When I sing, I'm a musician. And when I stand there and tell something, I am different and entertain the people. Both belong together for me.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde-woman.de: What would you have done if nothing had happened to your vocal career?

Max Raabe: (laughs) Penner? I dont know. Actually, I have studied for opera. I financed my studies with the music I'm doing now. It was not planned for me to stick to it. But it went well and I realized that's what I want to do. You have to be incredibly disciplined as an opera singer. That's not me.

Max Raabe: Over the sea

Unusually soft tones Max Raabe strikes in his solo album "Übers Meer": 15 songs, all from the 1920s, written by Jewish musicians. Classics such as "Somewhere in the World" or "At the very back where the lighthouse stands" we know in the original of the Comedian Harmonists and Hans Albers, other pieces are real pearls that Max Raabe has dug up in the archives. A warm, intimate record - but we miss the black humor that the singer loves so much.

In April, Max Raabe goes solo on tour. All dates can be found in our Culture Calendar.