Interview with Detlef Petersen

Author : Detlef, how did it come to the founding of Lake ?
Detlef : Dieter, Martin and me, already met ten years ago. We played together with the TORNADOS. We did that for three years. Then we got off to found Lake.
Author : Does the name Lake's have a deeper meaning ?
Detlef : No. Lake - we liked it, nothing more about it. The creative process of a band naming is often less mysterious as people would normally imagine it to be. Afterwards the thing is being torn apart and being analysed. Sometimes outrageous things are the results.
Author : What caused you to found a new group ?
Detlef : In 1973 we felt fed up by playing the charts up and down. We wanted to play own songs and said to ourselves : 'So, now we'll found our own alternative band !' Jeff, the other keyboardplayer, soon joined us ...
Author : And Jim, your lead singer ...
Detlef : We found Jim in London. We had not found a matching singer here in Germany, hence went to England. In the end, Alex joined us.
Author : How did the situation look like for Lake then ?
Detlef : Of course, we did not have a record deal. We earned some money for living with sessionwork. We recorded for other people and finished recording demos at that time. With these demo tapes we approached all the recording companies. All of them didn't think this was great. Some intended to sign us, but with bad conditions. Playing as a group, we would have earned less money as some little pop singer. Author : Because of this you have financed your debut LP youselves.
Detlef : Yes, together with the music publishing company Francis, Day & Hunter in Hamburg, who gave us some support. We went to England, because at first we wanted to book a cheap studio and at second be secluded and far away from big city stress. All this, we found at Sawmill-Studios, Cornwall.
Author : How expansive have the costs for production of your first LP been, and how long did it take you ?
Detlef : The production costs were about 25.000 Mark and took three weeks.
Author : And what about these amounts today when working on a new LP-recording ?
Detlef : We are about 100.000 Mark. Today, we don't record an LP in one step, but piece by piece. We don't spend more than ten days studiowork at once. We found out that the ability of concentration leaves us and the toughness is exhausted. Listenting to loud music fourteen hours a day, you suddenly find you can't hear anything at all.
Author : How do your songs develop ?
Detlef : Jim writes the lyrics, because he knows best how to use the English language. My part on the music is about seventy percent. The other songs are being written by Jeff and Jim. Now the other members also start composing, which is a good sign. Afterwards we would arrange the songs together. Thus we're pretty finished when we go into the studio. We chose eight out of twelfe pieces for the use on the new LP. Actually in the studio we only have to concentrate on the tight playing.
Author : What explanation do you have on your success ? Have you been pushed by your record company or did the feedback increase because of your successes in the USA ?
Detlef : Everything went well off from the start, because the press was right behind us, which was the most important thing. This is promotion, that doesn't cost you anything. It was the best that you can have. Maybe this was because we were different in manners of style than anything else that has been done before here in Germany. Of course, this isn't meant in general.
Author : What was it that you have done in a different way ?
Detlef : At least we have made one different thing. We played songs that we have composed by ourselves. We are all pretty influenced by England and America, because that is where the roots are from.
Author : hence you haven't been trying to get rock-music from German roots.
Detlef : No, also I would not know where these should be. One can say, we should have oriented on classical music. We actually did that on some songs. It is very common to unconsciously takeover harmonical sequences. I had studied classical music in Hamburg. But I grew up with the American music. Rhythm & Blues and the whole era of beat music have had a lasting effect on us. We could not get away from that, and we never wanted to do so.
Author : What effect did the USA-success finally have ?
Detlef : It was very important for us. Referring to the question about the record company helping on this I have to say that this didn't happen. Before we went over there, we had already sold more than 150.000 records. Everything went well for us in the USA, because we had the airplay from radio stations there. The record company couldn't initiate such a thing.
Author : Which experiences did you have during your USA tour ?
Detlef : Is was a pretty good feeling to realise that we could make it in other countries as well, without having to be afraid. We learned that the rock lords over there are doing a similar thing and people took us in as excited as they would have with their domestic bands. The only thing important was that the music was getting over great. When we had a bad day, we surely did not turn out to be great. But if we were doing well, they screamed, standing up on their chairs. In this particular case we stronly felt the difference between the U.S. and Germany. The American audiences were a bit more frank and they are of the opinion 'I'm going to see a rock concert and I want to have fun !' In Germany there are still people who deeply sit down in a chair, crossing their arms above their chest and demand 'let's show me, what you're able to do'. Of course, this is an attitude that doesn't bring much amusement to the muscian, because you really have to fight a lot to get over this barrier.
Author : Being used to concert halls for 2- to 3-thousand people, does it make a big difference for a German group to play in a big arena or at an open-air-festival to an audience of 40-50.000 people ? Detlef : The experience that I have made - and everybody may be of a different opinion - is like this : playing in concert halls you lose the feeling playing to one hundered, one thousand or fiftythousand people sitting in front of you. Even acustically you're not able to realise the difference. There is a definite difference to playing in a club and playing in a concert hall, that's obvious. With playing in a club you have the personal contact, and even the views are different. In a concert hall you're urged to stay seated for about two hours.
Author : Critics often complain you're standing up on the stage without moving and playing your music as if it would come from the record. Somebody once wrote, you'd stand on stange like you were fixed to the stage carpet.
Detlef : That's a point of view. We're not the kind of guys to jump all over the stage. And we will never do that. It's not our kind of style. Nobody ever complained about jazzers who were not twisting on stage, but everyone would listen to their music. Why does it have to be different with us ?
Author : With your group, Alex Conti, the solo guitarist, often makes people talk about him. The press takes advantage of this point and claims him to be the fastest fiddler.
Detlef : Thank god, in our group there are no stars nor star appeal. Not our beautiful blue eyes but our music is standing upfront. We are a team. If someone is developing forward, it's a natural thing. We reject any kind of starcult. We are happy that Alex, who within the band holds a stylistic function, is coming out great. But we would definitely dislike any starcult as it's being pushed, with the Bay City Rollers, for example.
Author : You are a hard working band. How many venues come together within one year ?
Detlef : This is the first tour of the year. Thirty concerts in five weeks.
Author : A tremendous stress.
Detlef : Yeah, that's right. I can honestly claim not to be in such a good condition at the end of a tour.
Author : Do you also need an oxygen shower after a concert, like other bands ?
Detlef : Nope. You only need that when you have turned down you blood circulation even before that.
Author : You talked about the tolerance within the branch is not the way that it probably should be, in your opinion. Detlef : Yeah, there should be more tolerance. You should leave bands like they are. Not only one stlye of music should control the market. More pluralism. That's a thing I found very comfortable staying in America. Everybody is accepting the other musician, it's not such an insider's fight as it is in Germany.
Other than that it's characteristic that we are claimed to be too perfect in Germany. This is a statement, I can't handle at all. Being too perfect is a thing that is not existing. It's ridiculous. Reproaching musicians, who have worked for ten years to become perfect, with such a thing has to be a joke. If somebody would say : 'The music is too artificial.' Okay, we could talk about that. This way you know what is meant. But most times people don't even use the German language in a consequent way. That's a disturbing point. Someone throws in a word, and others repeat it without even thinking about it.
Author : Show on stage is not your usual program ...
Detlef : We're stubborn in this case. Okay, there are others that can make a big show, and that's okay for them. If some people really like to have a big show on their concerts, they can have that, for God's sake. But don't reproach that on others, who don't like that. Everybody should care for his own stuff. We have different listeners and visitors as the SCORPIONS or somebody else. And that's okay. I'm reading different books. One likes Konsalik, the other one is keen on Grass. Why should it be different with music ?
Author : What are you gaining for in the future ? You talked about one million records sold ...
Detlef : Well, yeah, perhaps ... things are developing. But you should be careful. The rock business is so shortlived, that it may even be over as fast as things have started. I saw that with our opening group BLUE. They are playing a great old ... well, you could call that almost anachronistical pop. But very beautiful. I like it very much. I have grown up in that time. But in England they have no chance to reappear again. The print media is full of punk and new wave. Doing this kind of style, you're almost old-fashioned and have no chance at all.
Author : The musician has to follow the spirit of the age ?
Detlef : I believe that there was a time when a band like GENESIS simply would have had no chance at all. To stay with BLUE. They have had their time, when their music was matching perfectly. But they're standing still. If you're strong enough and wait, until you will get along with the stream, because styles return every now and then again, you may probably be 'in' again suddenly. That's a strange thing.
I only wanted to say that you need to have a whole lot of luck in the rock business. Funny that you call it 'to consume' and 'consumer' and not 'to liesten' and 'listener'. That's obvious for our time today ... I have to keep thinking about that ...