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Born and based in Germany, Thomas Thielen (SCYTHE) is the person behind the three albums so far released under the project name t. His background is from the band Scytche and some other bands.
I got in touch with him through Shawn and ProgRock Records for his story so far. ############################### Your biography has been covered in your ProgArchives profile so let's bypass the
biography details. But why did you choose the
initial of both your names as your artist name
and which bands were you influenced by ?
The cryptic "t" just came up because I was too
lazy to sign my emails correctly; thus, before I
really knew what had happened, everyone around
in German progrock referred to me as "t". It
would have been weird to change that for the
solo albums which were released a few years after that.
My influences are rather conceptual than
musical. I like anglophile poetry a lot, such as
TS Eliot or Ted Hughes. On the other hand,
angst-ridden postmodernism like Paul Auster
haunts me a lot. Musically, I rather like
atmospheres, such as present on Bjork's
"Vespertine" or Bowie's "Outside" - or
Radiohead's "Kid A". I have also always digged
Robert Smith's talent for minimalism on the
early Cure-records and for melancholy on the later ones.
You were previosly a member of Scytche. How was
the process of being a member of a band to
suddenly stepping into the spotlight on your own ?
To be honest: I'm not a teamworker. I like to be
grumpy and introvert while working on music.
This is not terribly compatible with band life.
Stepping into the spotlight... well, I don't
think I'm in some kind of spotlight. Actually, I
am sitting in my cellar with a broken lamp and
the monitor and a lot of coloured lights from my
synths and amps to light the room at least a
bit. So I cannot really answer that question. To
me, music has always been the most personal
things being spilled out before strangers. A
frightening catharsis. That goes with Scythe as well as with t.
 
Please tell us more about your first album naïve from 2002
Please tell us more about your second album Voices from 2006
Naive was a collection of ideas I couldn't get
into Scythe because the band was limited a bit
by the members it had: Obviously, you couldn't
tell the bass player that on the next album
there would only be bass pedals or synth basses
- which is the case on Naive and was an
important part of the sound concept. So, over a
few years, these fragments and ideas came up
again and again, and when I had the equipment to do so, I just recorded them.
Voices is a bit more ambitious in its approach.
I still hate the mix that was given to the
pieces, which is part of why I mixed A-M P
myself. I think the production does not do the
pieces a big enough favour - that also applies
to my arrangements which are far too "crowded" sometimes.
On the other hand, Voices has such intense
parts! I love the lyrics, still, and some of the
melodies still echo in my head. Most people
don't even recognize the extremely weird rhythms and signatures on the album... 
Please tell us more about your third album
Anti-Matter Poetry from earlier this year
The thought from which all this started was that
poetry - in the Hollywood clichee romance
meaning, not the kitchen sink-new
realism-Brendan Kenelly-stuff - was anti-matter
for what really "matters" in the so-called real
lives as I stated above. An example: We are
continuously informed (especially by German
women's magazines, I am tempted to think) that
romantic feelings are only present when there
are at least several of these criteria
fulfilled: You need a good deal of sundowns,
dawns, candlelight, moon, stars, shores, picnic
baskets. But how could anyone with two kids and
a full-time job ever meet these requests
continuously? Should we imprison the kids in the
attic to go fishing with our ladies in the
loneliness of pre-civilized worlds? Or rather
quit our jobs to have the time to sip champagne
in front of fireplaces all night? And while
we're at it, why not drown the dog because of
his ever-present refusal to understand that our
romantic atmosphere is more important than his call of nature?
What I mean is that this kind of thinking is
childish. It is incredibly trivial, and we are
taught to become of Peter Pans. Isn't it a lot
more significant for the status of our
relationships when we send our partner to sleep
when the baby screams and do the work on our own
than to have wild sex in cold sweat? Everyone
can do that because everyone wants that (I
assume). The real test of love is when it comes
to self-abandonment; when your priorities change
from what you want to what your partner needs.
I know that this is not really a revolutionary
thought. But it is incredible how little credit
these everyday heroes get in our media today.
And if they ever occur in movies, this central
part of loving each other is displayed as a
plight that you have to be delivered from. Come on, people, get a grip.
I myself suffer from an extreme case of a
romantically deranged mental state. To me, these
doctrines are light a needle to an ex-junkie.
Oh, the old days: I would always be one for
Tolkien escapism, for Auster angst and for the
curiouser and curiouser world on the other side
of the looking-glass. I'd love to be sailed to the moon.
Thus I got angrier and angrier with every lie
that was presented to me in these typical
romantic comedy scenes. I had fought so hard to
understand that, as Nick Hornby once put it, my
stomach had only sh*t in his head. So this album
is, in some parts, a cry of rage against a view
of love that makes us unhappy and uncomfortable
with our lives - and in some parts a wail of
mourning that I cannot go back to my fantasy
world of heroism and delivery. It is, so to
speak, a psychodrama with a rather banal, but still unresolved topic.
The cover art work on Anti-Matter Poetry is a
bit special..... ehh...... Please explain what that is all about.
As stated above, A-M P is anti-romantic, but all
too hungry for romance at once. The cover
expresses the conflict this leads to, the bleak,
listless resignment it brings along. It is
aggression and revulsion, dirt and sweat. It
refers to poetry in its motives, but it is meant
to connotate the kitchen-sink poetry of the
70ies and after, it is rather Pinter than
Shakespeare, Barthelme, not Homer. Postmodern
thinking is awfully ugly, so aestheticism is not an option.
What is your creative process from coming up
with a theme/riff/idea to you get it down onto an album ?
It is not like that. I start with an atmosphere
in my head, with a concept. For instance, the
song "I saved the world" was about fanatism,
about the feeling of possession and being
chosen. This is part of the Hollywood trauma we
are suffering: All the protagonists seem to be
so special! All their environments only function
as sidekicks for their private love epic, the
Gods seem to form a conspiracy only to come up
with enough silly chance meetings to give them their happy endings.
And this is what we unconsciousy all take home
from these romantic comedies. Don't get me
wrong: I love them! But I hate me for loving
them. I know that it is plain stupidity. They
manipulate us into thinking that everyone can be
the romantic hero. In fact, everyday proves this
wrong, at least in this sugarcane-way.
So, the atmosphere for the song would have to be
bleak at the beginning, then aggressively
self-confident, then withdrawn and melancholy to
follow the process of this tragedy. The chords
only invited themselves into that line of
thought. The melody came last. First there was a
feeling triphopping intimacy, then of
Joy-Division-esque aggression, then of sleepless-in-Seattle-ness.
Just to give those of us who are unknown with
your music a bit of a reference point or two:
How would you describe your music ?
It is the best movie you can hear.
You went from Galileo to ProgRock on
Anti-Matter Poetry......... Yes, this question
have a double meaning, but let's stick to the
record labels of the same name here. Was this a
natural development in your career or was this more than meets the eye ?
Galileo simply did not like the album, and so I
went about looking for something new. I had only
heard the best things about Shawn Gordon, and so
he was my first address. The rest, they say, is
history, albeit by now a rather short one.
Sorry about my ignorance, but is "t" a pure
studio project or do you also play gigs ? Which
other musicians is involved in "t" on a studio/band basis ?
There are no other musicians whatsoever, and
there is no band basis. When I play live, it is
me and my piano. The songs are very different
then, but strangely enough: They work.
Are you involved in any other bands or projects ?
Apart from raising my daughter: No.I would very
much like to play in some kind of band again,
but I guess my wife would either kill me or my
guitars then... Seriously: No chance, no time.
"t" is a matter of perfectionism, all the sounds
are so handmade, all the soundscapes so full of
details. It takes an incredible amount of time
to create this stuff. Remember: I do EVERYTHING
on my own. Every sound. Every mixing. Every
recording. Every part of writing. And all the coffee making!
What is your plans for the rest of this year and next year ?
I am in the middle of writing and recording the
next part of the trilogy that started with
Voices. It might be called "Psychanorexia", but
this might only be a working title.
The music is a good deal more guitar-oriented
than A-M P, but I think the new material is also
more experimental and progressive than the last
albums. 25 minutes have already been recorded
and roughly mixed. I am writing the next part atm.
To wrap up this interview, is there anything
you want to add to this interview ?
Just a little quote from Jack Kerouac that fits
into my concept very well... People never read
the lyrics... Well, this is how A-M P is sent out:
Don't use your telephone
People are never ready to answer it
Use poetry
Thank you to Thomas for this interview
His PA profile is http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=887 - and his homepage http://www.naiveland.de/ -
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