Interview with Rolf Maier Bode

V-12: Hello Rolf! Could you introduce yourself to all the people who might not know you or just don’t remember you?

Rolf: My name is ROLF MAIER BODE and I started producing music in 1991. The most successful project was „RMB” with Farid Gharadjedaghi (Redemption, Spring, Reality…). The last RMB release were in 2004 and after that I started composing music for TV, advertising and agencies. In the beginning of 2008 I came to the decision to produce my own music once again under my real name ROLF MAIER BODE.

V-12: Tell me something about your new album called Thirteen Stories. How much time did you spent on composing new tracks and what gave you the inspiration?

Rolf: I started doing a lot of songs in many styles in May 2008 but saw that I need a guideline if these songs should ever be together on one record. So I came up with the STORIES concept. THIRTEEN STORIES should become an album where each and every track tells a story. I chose the 13 songs that were the most „storytelling” and produced them the way I liked it most. Final production and mastering have been made in February 2009 and THIRTEEN STORIES was released only by direct mail order (rolfmaierbode.com) in March 2009.

V-12: Why did you decide to release your album as an independent artist?

Rolf: I for now have no label or publisher for THIRTEEN STORIES because I liked to be totally free what the sound and the construction of the album concerns. The STORIES concept would not work if there are only three „hit single” songs on it and 10 more „filler” (like on many CDs). I thought that a manager or guy from a record label would only try to have one or two hit singles and the rest of the album finished as fast as possible.

V-12: Can you tell me something about how to order your new CD?

Rolf: There is a new front page on my website with a button „buy CD”. You simply click there and enter your e-mail address. You will get a mail with ordering possibilities. For European customers these are for now EU bank transfer via IBAN/BIC or PayPal. The price for the CD (Digipack with 16p. Booklet) is EUR 15,- plus shipping.

V-12: Any chances to have Thirteen Stories released as Vinyl?

Rolf: That depends on how well the CD album is going to sell. But definitely not before summer.

V-12: What about some of your work tunes (for example Finale One, Doctrine Of Sin etc.)? Will they ever be finished or/and released officially?

Rolf: For now I would like to concentrate on the 13 songs that ARE on the album not those that aren’t ;). But if enough people are interested in my new sound there will be more releases for sure! Any news can be found first in my blog.

V-12: Are you planning some live acts in the near future? Is there any chance to see your live performance in Poland?

Rolf: Not in the next months, but if people really like my new sound I am thinking about live sets as well.

V-12: I’ve heard some rumors that at the beginning of your music career you’ve been using Commodore 64. Is that truth? If yes, then could you tell me something about it?

Rolf: Yes, I was programming the C64 years before I started making my own music. I had piano lessons, but was much to lazy (and to slow with it) to write scores from what I improvised. I started with about 13 or 14 years and ended programming „intros” in Assembler… But didn’t find a good contact to the „programming scene”. Then I bought my first synthesizer, a Roland D-10 and started to use the C64 as a sequencer. As I was 17 I got a used Casio FZ-1 Sampler and with that „equipment” I did my first (half) record → NAUTILUS. It was released on Talla „2XLC”´s label „Suck me Plasma” and it was mixed in a little music studio near Frankfurt… This mixing session was so inspiring that I gave up programming and really started making (techno) music in all my spare time (I was of course still in school).

V-12: What are you thinking about nowadays producers, musicians?

Rolf: You have to differentiate between electronic and other styles of music. I don’t think that pop and rock music is that bad if you don’t only listen to „ringtone” music TV – but I wonder why electronic music somehow is worse than ten years ago although the technical possibilities are breathtaking today. It seems like it is TOO EASY to make some kind of „song” with a computer nowadays – so that there is so much mediocre (or worse) stuff that you can’t find the pearls… I mean how many really great electronic albums have been released in the last years – I mean real artists albums, not mixed „dance” cds…

V-12: Yes, that’s right.. Okay, now some final words to all of your fans.

Rolf: Many young people don’t take the time to listen to a whole CD at once or even don’t buy music at all. Music is counted in GigaBytes and often heard on iPods or cell phones only. But I have a dream. That one day these people will find an album that touches their hearts and open their eyes. They will tell their friends how great it is to just sit down and listen to a great album from the first to the last song. And if people with such an attitude stumble over THIRTEEN STORIES chances are good that they really like it.

V-12: Thank you very much for the interview!

Rolf: You’re welcome!

Interview by V-12/Tropyx.