Theresa Stroetges has and always will be a traveler. Under the name Golden Diskó Ship or as a member of bands like Soft Grid or the improv collective Epiphany Now!, the Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist has continuously been moving through the fringes of experimental music, but also extensively explored the possibilities of tried and tested formulas – whether folk, rock, techno or pop.
With her fourth solo album, her first for the Karaoke Kalk label, the Golden Diskó Ship is yet again venturing into unknown territory. »Araceae« is inspired by environmental changes and the eerie feelings that arise when faced with natural beauty – when everything seems perfect on the surface but something feels off underneath it all. As a whole, it is notably more focused on electronic grooves that provide the foundation for Stroetges’s poetic long-form storytelling.
Below our 11+3 questionnaire we did with her back in January 2015.
Facts
1: Possession Island
2: Deception Island
3: Christmas Island
Questions
What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Life and strange dreams.
How and when did you get into making music?
I played viola as a child, then started to play guitar and other instruments in a band . Some years later a friend gave me a music program for my computer and a microphone and I started doing what would become golden diskó ship.
What are your 5 favourite albums of all time?
Björk – Homogenic
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works I
PJ Harvey – Is This Desire
Portishead – Third
Cat Power – You Are Free
Four Tet – Rounds
Wait, thats 6!
What do you associate with Berlin?
Openness.
What’s your favourite place in your town?
Columbiabad. Almost as good as a lake, and it is great extra entertainment fun to watch the kids´ competition jumping off the diving towers while swimming.
If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Travel, i hope.
What was the last record you bought?
Dean Blunt – Black Metal
Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Someone who will rap and play the drums at the same time.
What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a performer, the show at Berghain in march 2104, an incredible feeling. As a spectator i would say PJ Harvey solo at Admiralspalast a few years ago, playing every instrument i can possibly imagine. Totally mindblowing.
How important is technology to your creative process?
Quite important. I record snippets of ideas into the computer, so the creative process is partly determined by the possibilities and the interface of the software. At the same time, technology is just a tool, and other tools would also do, just with different results.
Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career?
I don´t have any siblings.
Equally weird and unconventional as well as ultimately catchy, informed by the anthropocene and climate change awareness. Stroetges’ understanding of sound has expanded and refined. The charming Lo-Fi Organ of the early days is still in here somewhere, but extended by bold professional arrangements containing strings and tribal drums. Or by dry 80s Synth funk reminding of YMO and other acts of the Japanese boom years, filtered by a Berlin club socialisation. Altogether the outcome is pleasantly avangardistic and voluminous pop, subject to continuous change that does not need singularly obvious hits such as “Pacific Trash Vortex” any more. – GROOVE, Frank P.Eckert
Photo © Sara Perovic
