Our album is like a time capsule in space. It’s transmitting like a satellite. Music doesn’t die if it still resonates
33 years after the release of Propaganda’s seminal A Secret Wish, the band’s Claudia Brucken talks to JOE NERSSESSIAN about the album’s power and lasting influence
ONCE described by a reviewer as “Abba from hell”, synthpop foursome Propaganda endured a brief yet tumultuous period of success in the mid-80s.
Always in the shadow of label mates Frankie Goes To Hollywood, there were line-up changes, rows, delays, an out-of-court settlement and an eventual split.
But before, and during, there was art.
They became the second act signed to Trevor Horn’s label ZTT (the first was Frankie) and offered another dimension to an already emphatic roster with their debut A Secret Wish.
Propaganda was formed by industrialist keyboardist Ralf Dorper, artist Andreas Thein and vocalist Susanne Freytag in Dusseldorf in 1982 and Horn snapped them up less than a year later. In came Claudia Brucken – a close friend of Susanne’s – and classically-trained percussionist Michael Mertens, with Andreas ousted, to create a two-boy, two-girl quartet.
With Horn distracted by Frankie, it took two years for Propaganda to get A Secret Wish recorded and released, supervised by production maestro Stephen Lipson. But when it arrived it was worth the wait, with its seductive, grandiose and crackling opener, Dream Within a Dream, upon which an epic backdrop of trumpet and synthesisers flirt with lyrics from an Edgar Allan Poe poem.
What follows is an alluring torture chamber. Harsh, satanic beats, howls from Susanne and Claudia, a crescending grind and a futuristic sound which still lingers hopefully today.
Aged just 18 when she joined Propaganda, Claudia was in the middle of her studies as recording on A Secret Wish began.
“I really loved the early ZTT sound and to be working with Trevor on my first single was quite special”, she says on the phone from her Swiss Cottage home in north west London.
“At that time it was every musician’s dream to work with him so to be given that opportunity while I was still at school was extraordinary.
“I knew I had a very, very special opportunity at hand but obviously I wasn’t thinking about people listening to it in 30 years time, it never occurred to me.”
While the legacy of A Secret Wish lives on in the form of a new reissue by BMG, Propaganda lasted just six months after its initial release.
Tensions were strained as Claudia appeared to be given more sway after marrying the label’s marketing chief Paul Morley. A contract row ensued and Propaganda ditched ZTT while, in turn, Claudia ditched Propaganda.
But the album is still the pinnacle of Claudia’s career and she has been trying to organise a live performance of A Secret Wish for a number of years. First for the record’s 25th anniversary in 2010 and then again three years ago in a bid to mark its three decades.
Both attempts fell flat but, finally, Claudia will see her dream come to fruition in March when she and Susanne perform the record in full at London’s The Garage.
“I’ve had so many messages over the years from people saying they regret never seeing the album live. The enthusiasm from these really, really loyal followers has infected me and I decided I wanted to do it.”
She and Susanne were in “tears of joy” after the first show sold out towards the end of last year (they promptly added a second date).
“I don’t want people to forget this record exists,” she says. “It delights me to hear people discover it, super-young people. It’s about keeping it out there for people to discover.”
Claudia describes the album as a sound-photograph, offering a glimpse of the young woman she was in the mid-80s.
“It’s like a time capsule out in space,” she continues. “It’s transmitting like a satellite, music doesn’t die if it still resonates. You throw it out and it’s an echo still repeating 30 years later.
“That’s why I’m so excited about performing it because I see it as a very dark electro-musical, there’s a real story, a narrative.”
The motivation to re-release the cult classic fits Claudia’s vision. It’s part of BMG’s Art of The Album series, celebrating the concept of a long record in the age of streaming and immediate satisfaction.
New sleevenotes recall the album’s conception, the wider time it was created in and its seminal impact on musicians and electronic pop.
For the young Claudia, the record opened a lot of doors. A solo career on ZTT followed before she embarked on a collaboration project with OMD’s Paul Humphreys. She’s written with Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, himself a public admirer of A Secret Wish.
But although she still basks in the record’s glory, the 54-year-old reveals a slight frustration at failing to ever match the brief heights of Propaganda.
“It’s strange, my career should have been the other way around,” she ponders. “For my first album to be my most successful... there was no progress or build up it was just bang.”
As for being ‘Abba from Hell’ she breaks into laughter.
“We were very punky and had a real rebellious attitude,” she continues.
“People were quite scared of us, fans were so intimidated because of the way we looked, the way we portrayed ourselves, it was a fun time.”
PROPAGANDA featuring Claudia Brucken and Susanne Freytag perform in London on March 23 and 24. The reissue of A Secret Wish is released via ZTT/BMG on January 26.