All the good songs were coming from England and America, so for some time I didn't try to compete by writing in English.
And these ideas the writers are having about us using machines and becoming like machines - they must be making a joke.
As for Germany, the situation seems mainly OK. Most people have good living standards.
As it happens, I am not a very good keyboards player anyway. In fact, I am a lousy keyboards player.
As it is we are having enormous problems with the drums and percussion, for example. Because you are staying with one tempo, you have to change how you record that tempo.
Disco does work better with black artists or players. They just feel it more.
Disco is music for dancing, and I know that the people will always want to dance.
Disco is music for dancing, and people will always want to dance.
Donna Summer worked for 10 years and suffered a very hard life with her daughter.
Donna's appeal... she is a beautiful woman, but it is the whole production, the package, that matters more.
Even with Kiss, you must never forget the work that goes into making them a success.
Every business is there to make money, and making a record is business. This tends to be forgotten by many.
I achieved something specially different with Love To Love You Baby and I Feel Love. These songs will endure.
I am certainly not racist; I even like the British.
I am looking for ways of changing natural sounds in other directions, away from pure electronic treatments.
I am much more happy doing what I know I can do than what I am not sure I could do.
I am not a politician, I am a producer.
I am not a very good keyboards player anyway. In fact, I am a lousy keyboards player.
I am not so complicated or intelligent a composer, nor am I very interested in becoming so.
I am not so complicated or intelligent a composer, nor am I very interested in becoming so. I am much more happy doing what I know I can do than what I am not sure I could do.
I am reluctant to judge things without being informed.
I consider women to be the same as men. I am deeply fond of my girlfriend.
I didn't even think to notice that for the large audience this was perhaps a very new sound. We did the whole thing in a day.
I don't know about that technical stuff. I'd rather not know. I just listen to it.
I don't think there is too much art involved in what I do.
I had my first hit as a composer about six months after I started writing all the time, with a German song in '68.
I have to admit, I do not listen to much rock music.
I liked very much the sound of Motown in the early times, but now they do not have such a recognisable feel.
I prefer Tangerine Dream, that kind of thing. I used to know these guys very well. Tangerine Dream became a little boring. You can only do so much with all these sequencers.
I really see not much difference between our way and that of someone like Phil Spector. Both our intentions and our artists are different from rock musicians.
I think it would be stupid for us to try and tell people who are dancing in a discotheque about the problems of the world. That is the very thing they have come away to avoid.
I was happy to have a hit, but my intention was always to compose with an English or American feeling.
I worked very, very hard for seven or eight years without making anything back at all. I was losing much over my productions.
I would have liked to make records like the classic Motown records, but five years ago we weren't advanced enough.
I would myself have liked to be able to make records like the classic Motown records, but I guess that four or five years ago we weren't advanced enough.
I would never be interested in producing a punk group. I probably wouldn't be able to feel this kind of music sufficiently. I prefer to stay within the fields I am capable.
I would not be happy to do what I do unless I felt that the large audience wanted it.
If I were to find a disco group who could play by themselves, I would produce them. It is becoming a bit boring to work with the same musicians over and over again.
If we had been based elsewhere other than Munich, we might have achieved our success earlier. In London, for example, you have more facilities and are nearer the pulse of the industry.
If you want to buy a car in Italy, you have to bribe someone to get a licence in 10 days instead of two months.
In actuality, if we had been based elsewhere other than Munich, we might have achieved our success even earlier - because there in London, for example, you have more facilities and are nearer the pulse of the industry.
In both pop and disco, the meaning of the lyrics is not too important. I have nothing I feel I particularly want to say.
In pop or rock you can make a fast song or a slow one, but in disco there is really just the one rhythm.
In the studio these days you generally change the sound of natural instruments - but then, if you are not careful, you get just another synthesised sound.
In the studio you generally change the sound of natural instruments, but if you are not careful, you get just another synthesised sound.
It is at least 10 times more difficult to get a good synthesiser sound than on an acoustic instrument.
It is nonsense to say that we make all our music automatically. I know how difficult it was to get a certain sound.
It's really hard to believe that in five years' time nobody will want to dance. Maybe they are bringing back the tango or the waltz. Who is knowing? Not me.
Many producers began to make disco records after our success. This is a great thing for the industry in Europe.
My music was typically continental - nothing like, say, The Beatles.
Myself, I liked very much the sound of Motown in the early times, up to seven or eight years ago, but now they do not have such a recognisable feel.
Not only is the government in Italy corrupt, but the whole system. You have to do the best for yourself and that is it.
Nowadays you need so much money to be able to launch a new artist, notably in America; you would hardly believe the sums involved.
Obviously on certain albums you do what you know can sell them, but I think you should always try for difference. It is not easy.
Phil Ramone is very special. Barbra Streisand or Diana Ross... they are the best.
Punk lyrics, so many of them I can hardly understand at all. Nor do I know much about the social movement or the political life.
Some of the industrial sections of Northern Italy, people are not at all happy there. I can understand The Red Brigades because they have the support of people who are not heard by politicians.
Some writers have this thing about German producers and players. I am not German, Donna is American, so is Roberta Kelly, so are Silver Convention.
Something like MacArthur Park is different, very complicated to make.
The audience is becoming more and more sophisticated.
The communists in Italy are very different from the usual communist world. They are very left socialists.
The disco sound, you must see, is not art or anything so serious.
Then all the good songs were coming from England and America and so for some time I didn't try to compete by writing in English.
There is more to that band Kiss than four guys with faces painted to look like cats. Neil Bogart risked his professional standing to launch Donna and Kiss, all his savings.
There were discotheques in the States before, but we have taken a lead in making the music. Perhaps we just had the correct professional attitudes.
There were, of course, discotheques in the States before they were here, but we have somehow taken a lead in making the music. Perhaps we just had the correct professional attitudes.
These ideas about us using machines and becoming like machines-they must be making a joke. We are having the last, longest laugh.
They say that I, a white producer, should not make songs with a black girl. This is ridiculous.
This is a great thing for the industry in Europe, for us to be able to make a way for others, but it could really be anywhere, you know, I don't think there are any special methods we have here that others could not have if they wanted. And this more artistic aspect, I have no involvement with it.
To me, the only European leaning of the disco sound is that so much of the music is actually created here.
Too many of these writers in the music papers, they are misunderstanding everything. The disco sound is not art or anything so serious.
We are always trying to improve the overall quality of our work. If I were to record another synthesiser album right now, I wouldn't do it at all like I Feel Love. That sound is out of date.
We are always trying very hard to improve the overall quality of our work, while Kraftwerk are still holding on to the older ways of recording.
We are having problems with the drums and percussion. Because you are staying with one tempo, you have to change how you record that tempo. The technical gadgets we use are alright in principle, but not so much in practice.
We left it for a while until Donna came back to me with an idea for the lyrics. We did it just to see if it worked, and it did.
We take something from everything, then make it our own. There were aspects that we have used from the Philadelphia sound. We internationalised it.
We were very lucky to find Donna, the first really good black girl singer who was living here in Munich.
When Donna toured in Italy, the press was very negative and critical of the luxury of her show, comparing it with the poverty in Italy.
When I went to see Donna in performance in New York, the audience was all black, but there were no remarks about this to me.
Why do I always work with women? Maybe this has something to do with disco.
You have to balance the sound so that it's not too much like an obvious synthesizer. It should be subtle. We spend a lot of time getting that right, adjusting the knobs.
You need an already successful roster of acts to establish yourself before you even begin thinking of something new.
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