Wolfgang Flür KRAFTWERK’S MUSIC SOLDIER

What music are you currently grooving to? Songs produced by Peter Duggal. I met Peter at The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge. We became friendly and started collaborating on music.

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? (Kraftwerk’s) Trans-Europe Express. For me, this album is the perfect symbiosis of romance and technique which no other band could have delivered. I myself am a romantic, and the music of Kraftwerk carries these special sort of melodies. It was one of the reasons for me to join the band.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it?

I was 10 and ill. I lay in bed with high fever and sent my father to a record store in Koblenz to buy me Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance, a mono single. I listened to it on our turntable, loud, until I got a gooseskin on my neck and arms.

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? Ringo Starr! He was a kind of hero to me. What do you sing in the shower? Birmingham. This song is fresh and just finished by Peter Duggal and me.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? Sex Shooter by Apollonia 6. I was a Prince fan, but Apollonia was sexier than Prince, she was my absolute girl fantasy. We Kraftwerkers loved to visit clubs and discotheques in Düsseldorf and Cologne. And during tours in every foreign city. We loved music on the dancefloor, especially funk. George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Earth, Wind And Fire, Funkadelic… we were jealous of their funk rhythm which we were not able to produce. However, sex was a major theme in our private lives.

And your Sunday morning record?

Time Of Silence by Innesi [AKA Isabelle Erkendal]. She has this Scandinavian melancholia. Wolfgang Flür’s memoir, Kraftwerk – I Was A Robot, is out now.