Interview with KMFDM founder Sascha Konietzko ahead of Hau Ruck 2025

Transmission 205: Interview with KMFDM

KMFDM is a multinational industrial rock project founded by Sascha Konietzko in 1984. Originally conceived as a performance art act in Paris, the group soon relocated to Hamburg, where Konietzko collaborated with En Esch and Raymond Watts. Their early cassette Opium circulated through underground venues, while their debut album What Do You Know, Deutschland? marked the beginning of a long association with politically charged lyrics, programmed electronics, and heavy guitar riffs.

Title: HAU RUCK 2025
Artist: KMFDM
Release Date: 2025-05-23
Genres: EBM, Electronica, Experimental Music, Industrial Music
Label: Metropolis Records
Description: Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM talks about Hau Ruck 2025, early experiments, Wax Trax years, and his new projects with Annabella and Metropolis Records.

After relocating to the U.S., KMFDM became closely tied to Chicago’s Wax Trax! Records, gaining wider visibility with albums like Naïve, Angst, and Nihil. Tours with Ministry and soundtrack placements helped establish the band’s stateside presence. In 2005, Konietzko established a stable core lineup with Lucia Cifarelli, Jules Hodgson, Steve White, and Andy Selway, producing Hau Ruck, recorded between two Seattle studios. In 2025, Metropolis Records will release HAU RUCK 2025, a 20th anniversary remixed edition, on 23 May. Konietzko has continued producing new KMFDM material and collaborating with his daughter Annabella.

You’ve cited Bowie, Zappa, and GBH as early influences—are there any lesser-discussed inspirations that informed your early vision?

I grew up in a house full of music. Throughout the 1950’s my father had made field-recordings of african tribal chants and drumming that he constantly played in his workshop, my grandfather was a lute-playing singer of german folk music, my mother and grandmother were also nonstop playing something on the radio or the reel-to-reel, there was everything from Italian Opera to Miriam Makeba floating around. At the age of 6 or seven I built a sort of electric guitar with 3 strings and a headphone speaker as a pickup. Music was always important to me as I was able to forget the world around me when listening. I had this perception that “the world” was a somewhat negative thing that it was worth to keep at arms length so to speak, to create a barrier between it and myself.I still sometimes feel that way.  When I get up in the morning on a regular day and go into my studio,  suddenly it will be dinner time. I literally forget time and space when I am working on music.

What initially attracted you to sound as a medium for performance art back in 1984?

I quickly realized that performance art wasn’t exactly my thing and after a few brief stints I turned away from it. I enjoyed working in a controlled studio environment much more.

How did your experience in Missing Foundation and the Hamburg underground contribute to what later became KMFDM’s early output?

Missing Foundation was a one-off show I did with an acquaintance from New York. He somehow managed to book a night for a happening in a local underground club by simply telling him that he was somewhat notorious in the New York scene. We were introduced and he asked me if I would be able to put together a band for this show. I did and in search of a name for this event I suggested calling it Missing Foundation, a bit of a pun, his last name was Missing and “Missing Foundations” was a line in a song from Bourbonese Qualk, a band I liked at the time. It was very much a spontaneous gig, we had rehearsed a few numbers and when the night came we landed a very chaotic performance which included besides noisemaking smoked fish, feathers and fire. The next day we went into a recording studio and laid down the songs on tape. It was all leaderless chaos which is something I don’t appreciate. So if anything, I learned from that experience , it was to follow a vision, to have a plan, to consequently pursue my ideas and not get lost in a “band” situation where everyone has input and nothing comes out in the end.

Can you describe the first steps that led to recording Opium and how it circulated through Hamburg at the time?

Remember the little stickers that appeared everywhere in the 80’s that said “HOMETAPING IS KILLING MUSIC” ? OPIUM was meant to be duplicated and circulated as a statement against that statement. It was a silly idea but somehow it worked and there were quite a few copies in circulation after a few weeks. It was played in dim-lit drinking halls and shady bars, in clubs and probably some bordello. In and by itself it was also a very silly “album” with songtitles such as “Mating Sounds Of Helicopters” or “Helmut mein Helmut” after german chancellors Helmut Kohl and before him Helmut Schmidt.

What were the main logistical or creative obstacles you encountered when forming the first stable lineup?

The first line-up that was stable was myself and Klaus Schandelmaier, whom I named En Esch because his real name was so not-mysterious. We have worked together since Missing Foundations, to which I recruited him solely on the basis that I had heard a drummer from the south of Germany was moving into my girlfriend’s old apartment.

We had a few good years and really came up with some interesting stuff. He was very open to experimentation and silly stuff like myself. We got some good laughs together.

How did your relocation from Germany to Chicago affect the band’s musical direction and visibility?

It was THE turning moment in the history of KMFDM. All of a sudden we had hundreds if not thousands of people showing up at concerts. Back in Germany we had toured with and opened for some well-known bands such as Einstürzende and Borghesia and Young Gods but whenever we played as the headliner there were maybe 30-50 people on a good night. Having opened for Ministry on the 89-90 The Mind Is A Terrible -Tour had put us in front of huge audiences and kicked all doors wide open for KMFDM. Suddenly there was a lot of money to do things with in terms of spending time with real sound professionals in real recording studios and that boosted everything. I never cared about money , I always hated worrying about it though…;-)

In retrospect, how do you view the impact of Wax Trax! on the development of industrial music in the U.S.?

Massive ! For KMFDM it was the duality that made the hugest impact: On one hand the tour with Ministry, and on the other hand and much more importantly in the long run the union with Wax Trax who saw in KMFDM one of their new superstars. It also happened that I lived in the Wax Trax building for a few years, directing KMFDM’s future alongside Jim and Dannie (thje founders of Wax Trax).  They achieved gigantic successes with their taste in music and their releases. In a business sense they had no clue what they were doing, it was all about living in the moment, la vida loca. When they sold their business to TVT Records it became clear to everyone what financial potential Wax Trax presented. TVT milked the sinking ship in an obscene fashion. But that’s another story.

Has the political climate of the past two decades altered the way you hear the original HAU RUCK material?

With perhaps the exception of the Obama years 2008-2016, no. After 8 years of a certain hopefulness the US fell back into the dark ages. The entire world is so dominated by US politics that it is inevitably reflecting everywhere. It is the same record as it was back then, a rallying cry for change. 

How did your production workflow in 2025 differ from the way HAU RUCK was originally recorded in 2005?

Actually it hasn’t changed all that much. It was recorded into Pro Tools back then and it was incredibly easy to re-open the old sessions and get to work. Fortunately in 2014 when I changed from an antiquated computer system to the then-current version, I eliminated all plug-ins of the old versions and therefore could open everything without a glitch.

We didn’t add things or alter anything from the original, it was just freshly mixed and put together. 

Do you remember what kind of energy was in the room during those original sessions in Seattle?

Already in the Seattle days we worked in a modular way, meaning we had 2 Studios, my KommandoZentrale and the “Pigsty” where Andy our drummer and the two guitarists Juels and Steve lived and worked. The studios were perhaps a mile or so as the crow flies, about ten minutes by car so we worked in parallel sessions and exchanged files via online technology. All the principal recording of drums and guitars happened at the sty and vocals and synths as well as mixing took place in my room. It was an incredibly efficient way of working. And no expenses for studio rental, tape etc. Just Liquor, Fish & Cigarettes ;-)

Outside of music, which writers, theorists, or filmmakers have significantly informed your worldview or creative decisions? Are there specific works of art, architecture, or design that shaped the visual and conceptual aesthetics around KMFDM?

Books, films and architecture have always been a huge interest of mine. History is another thing, politics as well. There are so many things that I find it hard to decide where to begin. As a teenager I read a lot of political books by  Bakunin, Marx, Engels, stuff to do with Anarchy, Urban Guerilla, Baader Meinhof and some philosophers Kiekegaard, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Hesse and lots more. I was never one to watch TV so I had plenty of time to read. After the reading period came the film time, Carlos Saura, Wim Wenders, Schlöndorff and Herzog as well as Tarkovsky and old Japanese Samurai films were my favourites. I got into architecture when I was living in Chicago for some 5-6 years, a city with magnificent buildings, old and new alike.

Still reading a lot these days, mostly history and some historical novels, some sci-fi, Cixin Liu and Jeff VanderMeer, favourite author is Cormac McCarthy. Current fave architect is Santiago Calatrava.  Cooking is also one of my favorite things to do. I find many resemblances between cooking and making music.

Are you currently working on any new material or collaborations that should be anticipated?

Yes, I am working currently on a brand new KMFDM album as well as on some material with my daughter Annabella for her solo release and I got a couple of remixes for some friends in the works also. There’s never a dull moment around here !

Photos courtesy of KMFDM

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others