1)People interested in music will one day meet your name on a record. So could you tell us how you came to music? And why choosing to do it with a distro and a label?

yes, this question is very "fuzzy"... how do people come to music in general? EACH person in this world is confronted with music on one way or the other - and what it means to everyone depends on the experiences and developments going thru'... to me, growing up in a tiny little village in the black forest, music has been always a way to relate to the outside world and finding orientation, guidance and help by other people who think and feel the same way as i did - since there was no one in my little world that did so as i did! a big change happened to me with the so-called "punk-explosion", finding out that you can do your OWN thing, live up to your own standards, and you don't have to be part of a peer-group! as a teenager, i had always tried to be like the "big guys" in school, belong to their group and trying to like what they liked... but i could never fully relate to that, it always gave some sort of a bewildered feeling (since that was all "hippie-crap" back then). the punk was a liberation to me - and bands like POP GROUP, WIRE, KLEENEX, later on MINOR THREAT, FLIPPER and the BIG BOYS (to name just a few) had a huge influence and general impact on the way i see life in general! so back then i started doing my own thing. true to the motive "everybody" can do it!" home-recordings on cassettes. trading cassettes with other people. out of this, a little mailorder came into existence... i never had the intention of making it a big business - it just came to what it is now, by some sort of "natural growth"! for sure, during a period of almost two decades now, i have made lotsa mistakes and quite a few compromises - but i think i can honestly say that i was always re-thinking and re-evaluating things, trying to look back at what motivated me in the first place, and never lost it out of sight! considering this, i always (or in most cases...) saw the label as some sort of artistic and cultural expression of myself - not as a pure business, and not as a record-manufacturing-marketing vehicle! to me, a record released on X-Mist should quite possibly be more than just a "record released on my label", but a record that reflects my own personal outlook on what is musically and culturally a relevant expression of my own viewpoints! since the history of X-Mist is quite a long one, i could go on, and write about tons of more details (and failures) - but i think this sums it up quite well?

2)You're a child of the "punk-explosion" movement! And as a privileged observer over the two lasts decades (meeting people at gigs, dealing with labels/bands...), did you noticed an evolution in the motivation of people assimilated to the "punk-scene"? Don't you think that "Do It Yourself" has turned to "Do Your Own Business"?

this is a really tough question! in general, looking back at it and how it all developed, i would tend to say, that it all changed for the negative and became worse, especially in the last 2 years... BUT: this DIY-based scene has had it ups and down before! and what currently looks like the final crash and breakdown, could lead to another uprising again... who knows? what i think is safe to say: "punk" or "hardcore" has ABSOLUTELY(!) nothing in common with its origins anymore!!! i have seen the coming of punk and the uprising of hardcore in the early 80ies - and i guess then i am allowed to say, that what is today considered as punk or hardcore is completely different from what it was back then in its beginnings. FACT! this is not only referring to people running "businesses" (as opposed to "doing something yourself"), but also referring to the motivations of bands, concert-bookers, and the music-scene in general. it used to be about "expressing yourself", about offering an alternative - while today everybody talks about "getting signed", releasing a record, getting to tour and all that shit... it seems like it's all more about feeding your ego, and in the worst cases for making money with it! don't get me wrong: it's perfectly okay getting a record-contract or making money. but if this is your motivation and intention in the first place, then you're not an "artist", but a PRODUCT! my intention never was to be another cattle on the product-line, and i don't give a shit about it (and most probably that's why X-Mist never was "suckcessful" in a strictly economical sense...) and if you want me to give you names, then go ahead, ask for specific parts of this fucked-up bizniz (bands, labels, distros, bookers), and i will not be afraid to name them!

3) Yes, yes, name a few! They'll have a special area on www.stnt.org to justify themselves....

well, Thierry, name who or what? stupid and dumb bands? or labels run by assholes? or fucked-up mailorders and distros? or booking-agents who are only out there to make their share with profits? if you have a specific question of what you are looking for (based on my previous answer...), then i will be able to badmouth them all..

4) I think the best will be that I send directly my questions to this kind of people!

uh, which people are you thinking of...?

5)Let's talk about your mailorder ! It's one of the oldest I know in Europe ! Could you tell us how many people are involved in it today and how is it structured?

the mailorder has seen its ups and downs as well. it was started by myself as some sort of hobby. then my partner-in-life Ute joined in... and for quite some time, she was the only one responsible for taking care of the mailorder, while i was doing the label and distribution-job. and at it's highpoint (in the early 90ies), there was even one or two more guys working for the mailorder. but from that point on, it went all downhill - at least for X-Mist, and for whatever reasons...? maybe due to the development of the music in general, and the decreasing interest by the following generations? maybe also due to my own personal decisions, not compromising to the ever-growing commerciality of this music - at some point i decided to refuse records by bands like NO FX, BAD RELIGION, etc... since i did not see any point anymore in selling music that had made its way into supermarkets and chain-stores then! or for sure it's also due to the technological development, with music being now available via internet, so why buying a CD when you can download it? during the last few years, Ute started taking some other jobs as well (working for a veterinarian, or working for the german mailservice...) and currently it's once again almost only me doing this job again - just like back in the good old days... and who knows for how long i can still do this?

6) You're alone doing this job now and Ute (your partner) has her own job. Does this means, you can't make out your living from the mailorder activity? Does X-Mist has an official status (Gmbh ?!) and is subventionated or are you totally independent?

well, we have to pay rent for our flat and for the office-space here, plus the usual other costs, and we need some food and drink from time to time... and we cover all these costs with Ute's jobs and with X-Mist. until now it still works this way... X-Mist is completely and totally independent! there are absolutely no obligations or commitments to any other party (like distributors) involved with it! but i wish there was something like a funding or subvention - since every theatre, opera or concerthouse gets money from the state, even though they are more commercially oriented than X-Mist is... and don't we do some sort of culturally educational service as well?

7) Who is your public/customers? Are they mainly german? How many orders do you receive each month?

our customers are mostly germans, kind a like 70%. the remaining orders come from all over Europe, and very few from overseas! i think France is the country on place no.2 after Germany... the funny exception is that we have almost no customers at all from Belgium - seems like Belgians have a real bad taste in music? roughly i would estimate that X-Mist has about 200 orders per month... sometimes more, sometimes less - it depends on how many interesting records we are able to offer each month. what kind of people all these are who order from X-Mist, is hard to tell for me... and it's also varying from year to year. there are a few people that have been following X-Mist (and ordering from us) for lots of years now - but there's also always kids coming in new, ordering a few times, and then disappearing again... in general i think it's people who are interested in good music outside of the typical standards and clichés! and i always like to say it's people who like to buy the music we offer, because most other music (and mailorders) are an insult to their intelligence!

8) Over the lasts few years, have you noticed a evolution or a change in the people habits because of internet? Do you think, it's possible nowadays to start your kind of mailorder without the help of internet and new technologies. In fact, the question is : What is your feeling about internet?

personally i see the internet as a helpful mechanical tool! it's just like with cars: i'm not at all an automobile-freak, but the car is the best way to get around... and the same for the internet: i'm not at all into endless "surfing" and checking out stupid websites, but if i need to get information it's the best way! and no doubt about changes: right now orders and communication via internet make like 90% for X-Mist, while only 10% remain to be letters or phone-calls! makes sense, since it's quick and effective. and for sure the internet is changing peoples habits as well. sometimes to an extreme extend, when asking completely stupid questions without a second thought... while writing a letter or having to talk to people means more effort and thought in using your words... but that's not much of a problem - answers can be placed easily and quick as well without any effort. the only real annoying thing about the internet, is people not being able to read clearly and think before acting. it happens almost every day that someone asks me "do you have this or that record already, i saw it on this or that website..." - and when i check myself, reading closely all of the details, i find out that the record is about to be recorded and due out in about half a year or something like that... anyway, due to people relying more and more getting their informations via internet, i can not see any way anymore how to do a mailorder without it!

9) And about downloading music via internet. Did you noticed a decrease of the sales? Or do you think, on the contrary, that people can discover more music and then buy the record, 'coz anyway there are music fans?

this is the big discussion lately in the music-industry! how much harm does downloading to sales...? it's kinda like the "hometaping is killing the music industry" shit in the 80ies - and in this sense: if downloading really will harm the music-industry, then everybody go ahead and do it! why pay ridiculous high prices for CD's, when you can get it for free via internet! one of the arguments used by the industry, is that they can not support newcomers anymore when their sales are all going down the drain... but this is complete bullshit! the major-labels NEVER EVER discovered a new band! maybe back in the 60ies... but from then on, they only grabbed what independent labels had built up, and suck the shit of it! (just like what happens now with bands like LIARS, RADIO 4, MARS VOLTA, BLOOD BROTHERS, etc. - fresh fruit for the rotting industry!) most probably downloading has also lead to lower sales here with X-Mist... but since we are mostly and mainly dealing with vinyl-releases, we are mostly dealing with people who are not only consuming music, but who are really interested in more than just the product and wanting to get the full thing. i wish i could at one point completely refuse to take CD's for our mailorder, since i think that the CD is a worthless product! contrary to vinyl-releases, CD's can be fully COPIED in every aspect - so the CD is nowadays nothing more than what the cassette used to be in previous decades, and sooner or later bands and labels should realize that a CD should be also prized like a cassette!

10) To finish discussing of the mailorder (before asking 2 or 3 questions on the label), do you see something in the next future that would help or improve your distro?

oh sure, yes! people getting sick of the same old bullshit, stop buying all that lame crap like the hundredth copy of the same so called "emo-rock" (aka mainstream-music), or the thousandth version of "we-try-to-sound-exactly-like-mid-80ies-hardcore" nerds... or any other stupid retro-sounding shit! don't get me wrong: there is absolutely nothing wrong with citing influences from those eras, and "rebuilding/reworking" it into your own expression! but there's too many who just takeover the clichés, without filling it up with their own ideas and spirits! people should be getting adventurous again, taking a chance on new interesting music! music that reflects the current state of culture and society, and not trying to re-hash long gone eras... if punk or hardcore only means looking back at the 70s and 80s - then: fuck punk and hardcore!!! and fuck nostalgia! it's making me sick!

11) Is that what you're trying to do with your label? How do you choose the bands on it? Are they all friends you wanna help or bands that impressed you so much with their previous release that they had to be on X-Mist records?

well yes, in a certain way this is the ultimate goal of the label. naturally then again the label reflects, what i find to be important, relevant and interesting... but of course no one is free from mistakes - and i have to admit that looking back at it, there are a few records on the label, that i'd better have not released - since some of them do not fulfill my own criterias. but i always try to see this as a learning-process. originally it started as a label that only released records by bands i'm friends with, since the intention was always more than just manufacturing records for other people, but also having a good relationship to them. but in the time of years, this has changed - now X-Mist is also releasing records by bands that in some way have impressed me, even without knowing them personally. but i have never released a record with a band solely based on a demo-tape or by having had a listen to their music... i'm trying to get in contact with the bands to find out more what they're all about - as i said, sometimes i do get a "false" impression... but in most cases i can be happy having had to work with these people.

12) What are the bands you're trying to contact these days? Is there a band (which one?) you wanted to put out a record on X-Mist, but it couldn't work for any reason?

oh sure, there are TONS of bands, that i would loved to have contacted in the first place, having released their records... just way too many to name them all! starting from LILIPUT and GANG OF FOUR, over the BIG BOYS and FUGAZI, to the LIARS or CHICKS ON SPEED or hundreds of others... but actually i can't remember any band or record, that we had plans of releasing it on X-Mist and then it did not work out? most bands are funnily enough happy to release a record on our little label (don't know why?). lately there may have been a few ideas which did not come into existence - like having had the idea of releasing PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES "Good Health" CD as an LP-version for Europe... but this did not happen - and after all, i'm not too sorry about it...

13) What means the name "XMist"? What means XMist for you now?

the origin of the name is kinda hard to explain for non-german speakers. the first thing i ever did, was a tape-compilation. that was in the early 80s when homerecording was a popular thing, and compilations were coming out of each town... so as some sort of joke, my brother and me recorded various stuff at home, gave each song a different band- or project-name, and entitled it "ExtremMist 81" as the tape-compilation coming from our town - and the title was a pun: "extremist" as well as "extreme mist", which means in german extreme shit. but obviously not too many people realized the pun, and i did get tons of letters addressed to Extremist instead of ExtremMist... so when i started doing records, i had the idea of simply abbreviating the name to X-Mist, to avoid any further confusion... and what means X-Mist for me now? in the best sense, it should reflect my personality and ideas - my personal way of expression. Armin = X-Mist.

14) Is there other stuff you're listening to, which are not in the X-Mist mailorder? Tango or musette or the new springsteen?

hmh, the last Springsteen album i had bought, was "Nebraska" and i still think it's his masterpiece - so there's probably no need to buy any further albums from him? and of course, i surely listen to other music as well, which is not available in our mailorder. i like this romanian gypsy-band called FANFARE CIOCARLA, or the austrian band ATTWENGER - which is some kind of a modern interpretation of alpine folk-music... actually i like ATTWENGER's newest album so much, that i think about adding it to the mailorder, since i think their approach is closer to the original spirit of punk than 99% of hardcore-bands today... even though nobody else may understand this & agree with me... and the last non-mailorder album i had bought for myself, was the new CD by I MUVRINI from Corsica.

15) A list of final questions : do you prefer the fall or the ex?

stupid question! i don't feel like comparing the 2 bands! both are brilliant in their own ways! but o.k.: while THE EX remain to be an innovative band over decades, THE FALL aren't as thrilling anymore as they used to be in their early days...

16) SPD, CDU ?

even a more stupid question! what do i prefer more? it's all a pile of shit!

17) Your receipt for Knödel?

maaaan!!! i am NOT a bavarian!!! i am living in the southwest-part of Germany, historically and traditionally a land that had been always closely connected with Alsace and Suisse. and even more back in time, influenced by the roman culture! so do NOT ask me about knödel! i'm a PASTA-fanatic!!! or SPÄTZLE as we call it here!

18) Something else to add?

hmh, don't think so... unless you got something more to ask?

Another link in STNT : interview KURT