Cool! 
My old friend Olaf Lux recently interviewed legendary ex- Santana drummer Michael Shrieve and especially asked him about his collaborations with Klaus Schulze...
(...published on the official KS page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Offic…__tn__=K-R)
* * *
Hi everybody,
Two weeks ago our friend Olaf Lux from the German Klaus Schulze Forum had the opportunity to talk to musical legend Michael Shrieve, former Santana drummer, who worked together with Klaus for quite a while during the 70s and 80s.
Olaf was so kind to transcribe his interview with Michael, so we can present it here exclusively. Thanks Olaf!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
OLAF: Hello Michael, greetings from Germany to Seattle, and thank you for your time to talk about your memories about Klaus Schulze.
MICHAEL: You’re welcome. So, do you want to ask me questions, or do you want me to just…go?
OLAF: Well, if you say you can just go about Klaus it would be awesome…
MICHAEL: Okay…so…the way that I met Klaus was through Stomu Yamashta. I heard a record of Stomu in a record store in California in the Seventies, and I couldn’t believe the sounds I was hearing. And then I found an album cover of him with percussion all around him and a tympani stick in his mouth, and I decided that I had to find this guy. So I searched for Stomu for a year and finally met him on the last day of a huge yearlong tour with Santana in Rome in 1973 or 74, something like that. We talked and he told me about…well I said I wanted to do something more avant-garde percussion like he was doing, and he said that he was already putting together a project that was combining elements of pop and some other interesting things. He already had Steve Winwood, and he already had Klaus Schulze - and I was not familiar with Klaus Schulze.
When I went to London in…I believe 1976…to work on GO, Klaus was there in the studio with all of his gear…and…well…number one I had never seen anything like it, and him sitting on the floor on a rug with all this modular gear, Moog gear, and that was interesting enough, but the sounds that were coming out of him, like the sequencers, were like nothing I had ever heard of before. I just fell in love with that. It was so rhythmic as well as the chords that were spacey and cinematic.
While I was there working on GO I started getting some of Klaus’s albums – I lived in London at the time, because I also was there with Automatic Man – so I was doing both these projects at once in London, and so I heard some of his records like “X.†and just fell in love with them.
The GO record was unbelievable, and we did two dates…The London Royal Albert Hall and the Palais des Sports in Paris, which was a really amazing show. Coincidentally, I just saw Al Di Meola last night and he brought up that concert in Paris as well and the band in general…how great it was.
After GO was finished I was still completely enthralled with Klaus Schulze. I got all his records and I would listen to them…I loved those sequencers and the power of the groove. The only problem I had was when he had a drummer and the drums came in. Nothing against the drummer personally [note: mostly Harald Grosskopf], but I didn’t like the way the feel was. I so much wanted to participate in something with Klaus where I felt like the drums would be different and tighter and more kind of rigid with the rhythm of the sequencers. So I called him and proposed we could do something together just because of that. Klaus thought it was very funny that I felt that way but said okay. So we made an appoint to myself and my brother Kevin to fly over to his place, and we ended up going there 2 or 3 times working with him in his studio, which ended up on a number of different things, different records including AUDENTITY and…what was the others…aahm..
OLAF: Like TRANCEFER, and TONWELLE and TIME ACTOR…
MICHAEL: Yes, he had this project that used different people…
OLAF: You mean his Wahnfried project…
MICHAEL: Exactly…anyway, I just completely enjoyed being in his presence, and Klaus was as well, I mean…what I admired so much about it is - this man created his own world of his own making, with his own music. I was so impressed by how delighted Klaus was with his own work. How much joy he got from just turning on the sequencers, that he been tweaking on whole day and just getting excited like a little child saying ‘Listen to my babies’.
OLAF: Klaus is a completely positive person, isn’t he?
MICHAEL: Completely committed and into his own musical world. I learned a lot from that, because it’s truly what you have to do – you have to create your own space in the world, something that you completely and purely enjoy. Klaus clearly did that all day, constantly smoking, tweaking those Moogs and the delays…he was very methodical and detailed, and approached everything without being rushed. With a maximum of joy in what he was doing and that impressed me so much.
I learned things from people like Stomu Yamashta and Klaus Schulze moving forward, because…what I learned from them: make your own world and then the other things will follow.
OLAF: So you pretty much learned not about new techniques or how to play something, but more about the circumstances and the mindset, and how to approach this thing ‘music’…
MICHAEL: How to approach your life, actually. I loved it, the sounds that he was making…just being around him. I would have loved to do more things; I tried to get in touch with Klaus when I was touring in the area some years later but never heard from him so we lost contact. Not sure why, sorry that that happened, but the time I did spend with him was a complete joy, and his and Stomu’s influence has had a big impact on me.
OLAF: Is it right you lived in Klaus’s neighborhood for some time?
MICHAEL: Well, probably over a month at a time I was staying somewhere near him, what they arranged. I mean, we never went into town or anything like that. [laughs]
OLAF: I just read somewhere the story about you coming over to Klaus’s place hanging around gardening in his backyard…
MICHAEL: Haha, you know, when I visit somebody into their world I try not to impose my world upon theirs. I just add me to their world and learn from them. Like the way that they would market and sold their products…they would make a record, they would fly with a suitcase to the airports around Europe, they would give the masters to a record label and then would fill the suitcase up with cash and fly back home. [laughs]
OLAF: That’s the way it’s done…
MICHAEL: It was independence before people would be independent.
OLAF: And Klaus even made up his own label INNOVATIVE COMMUNICATION during that time…
MICHAEL: Yes, I was so impressed by their self sufficiency.
OLAF: So, how did TRANSFER STATION BLUE with Klaus and your brother come about?
MICHAEL: It was just one of those times where I said I’ll come over, and let’s make some music. You know…I was with my brother, and we just sat around making music.
OLAF: So, was it planned as a Michael Shrieve album, or just like let’s see what comes out?
MICHAEL: No, it was going to be my record. So that’s why I paid for everything and I did it independently…that was the idea. I am going to re-release TRANSFER STATION BLUE with different artwork soon…possibly a remix or something. I still love the record; I think it holds up, it’s kind of timeless.
OLAF: Oh, that would be great, please keep us informed.
MICHAEL: Yeah, I will. So, my experiences with Klaus – I have nothing but good things to say about it. He’s been a highlight of my journey.
So, that’s what I got, Olaf.
OLAF: That’s more than I bargained for; nevertheless I have one or two further questions, if your time allows it…
MICHAEL: [laughs] Sure, get cracking…
OLAF: Thanks Michael…so, scanning your immense discography I found a number of albums with electronic musicians – like THE LEAVING TIME (1988) with Steve Roach. Can you tell us a bit about your collaboration with other electronic artists?
MICHAEL: Absolutely. You know, after my time with Klaus I became fan of electronic music and looked for somebody who was in that area. Steve Roach was doing beautiful music and uses sequencers as well, so I reached out to him for us to do something. What we did was very different than what Klaus did…you know, it was more music in song form rather than long form.
Then there is a guy in Seattle named Jeff Greinke that I started a record with quite a while ago. He’s a very ambient synthesist, and that has turned into something else…not so much sequencer type but very ambient. That album DRUMS OF COMPASSION is coming out probably early next year, and I’m playing like 16 drums in a semi-circle standing up. It’s almost like a meditation record with lots of known drummers all around the world contributing like Zakir Hussein or Pete Lockett, Olatunji gives the invocation before he passed away, Trey Gunn…so, that is coming out soon.
I also did a piece with a guy named Amon Tobin…you’ve got to check him out. Look for ISAM - that was a live show he gave, just unbelievable…the graphics and everything, one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.
And I’ve also been recently working again with my old friend Patrick Gleeson, who was one of the early synthesizer guys, like he was the guy who played them in Herbie Hancock’s band; that was before there were polyphonic synthesizers. Patrick is in his 80s now but still making beautiful music, and we did a show last year…in fact I just talked to him on the phone right before you called me, because we had a show booked for next month and recording, but I can’t do it because of my thumb being broken.
OLAF: Oh…
MICHAEL: Yes… [laughs]…so…I continue to really appreciate people that are moving in the electronic way. I kind of had to laugh at the whole researching on modular synthesists that’s going on right now among young people…it’s like vinyl records, you know, made a comeback. [laughs]
OLAF: Michael…thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure talking to you.
MICHAEL: You’re very welcome, and keep me posted about news about Klaus…
My old friend Olaf Lux recently interviewed legendary ex- Santana drummer Michael Shrieve and especially asked him about his collaborations with Klaus Schulze...
(...published on the official KS page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Offic…__tn__=K-R)
* * *
Hi everybody,
Two weeks ago our friend Olaf Lux from the German Klaus Schulze Forum had the opportunity to talk to musical legend Michael Shrieve, former Santana drummer, who worked together with Klaus for quite a while during the 70s and 80s.
Olaf was so kind to transcribe his interview with Michael, so we can present it here exclusively. Thanks Olaf!
--------------------------------------------------------------------
OLAF: Hello Michael, greetings from Germany to Seattle, and thank you for your time to talk about your memories about Klaus Schulze.
MICHAEL: You’re welcome. So, do you want to ask me questions, or do you want me to just…go?
OLAF: Well, if you say you can just go about Klaus it would be awesome…
MICHAEL: Okay…so…the way that I met Klaus was through Stomu Yamashta. I heard a record of Stomu in a record store in California in the Seventies, and I couldn’t believe the sounds I was hearing. And then I found an album cover of him with percussion all around him and a tympani stick in his mouth, and I decided that I had to find this guy. So I searched for Stomu for a year and finally met him on the last day of a huge yearlong tour with Santana in Rome in 1973 or 74, something like that. We talked and he told me about…well I said I wanted to do something more avant-garde percussion like he was doing, and he said that he was already putting together a project that was combining elements of pop and some other interesting things. He already had Steve Winwood, and he already had Klaus Schulze - and I was not familiar with Klaus Schulze.
When I went to London in…I believe 1976…to work on GO, Klaus was there in the studio with all of his gear…and…well…number one I had never seen anything like it, and him sitting on the floor on a rug with all this modular gear, Moog gear, and that was interesting enough, but the sounds that were coming out of him, like the sequencers, were like nothing I had ever heard of before. I just fell in love with that. It was so rhythmic as well as the chords that were spacey and cinematic.
While I was there working on GO I started getting some of Klaus’s albums – I lived in London at the time, because I also was there with Automatic Man – so I was doing both these projects at once in London, and so I heard some of his records like “X.†and just fell in love with them.
The GO record was unbelievable, and we did two dates…The London Royal Albert Hall and the Palais des Sports in Paris, which was a really amazing show. Coincidentally, I just saw Al Di Meola last night and he brought up that concert in Paris as well and the band in general…how great it was.
After GO was finished I was still completely enthralled with Klaus Schulze. I got all his records and I would listen to them…I loved those sequencers and the power of the groove. The only problem I had was when he had a drummer and the drums came in. Nothing against the drummer personally [note: mostly Harald Grosskopf], but I didn’t like the way the feel was. I so much wanted to participate in something with Klaus where I felt like the drums would be different and tighter and more kind of rigid with the rhythm of the sequencers. So I called him and proposed we could do something together just because of that. Klaus thought it was very funny that I felt that way but said okay. So we made an appoint to myself and my brother Kevin to fly over to his place, and we ended up going there 2 or 3 times working with him in his studio, which ended up on a number of different things, different records including AUDENTITY and…what was the others…aahm..
OLAF: Like TRANCEFER, and TONWELLE and TIME ACTOR…
MICHAEL: Yes, he had this project that used different people…
OLAF: You mean his Wahnfried project…
MICHAEL: Exactly…anyway, I just completely enjoyed being in his presence, and Klaus was as well, I mean…what I admired so much about it is - this man created his own world of his own making, with his own music. I was so impressed by how delighted Klaus was with his own work. How much joy he got from just turning on the sequencers, that he been tweaking on whole day and just getting excited like a little child saying ‘Listen to my babies’.
OLAF: Klaus is a completely positive person, isn’t he?
MICHAEL: Completely committed and into his own musical world. I learned a lot from that, because it’s truly what you have to do – you have to create your own space in the world, something that you completely and purely enjoy. Klaus clearly did that all day, constantly smoking, tweaking those Moogs and the delays…he was very methodical and detailed, and approached everything without being rushed. With a maximum of joy in what he was doing and that impressed me so much.
I learned things from people like Stomu Yamashta and Klaus Schulze moving forward, because…what I learned from them: make your own world and then the other things will follow.
OLAF: So you pretty much learned not about new techniques or how to play something, but more about the circumstances and the mindset, and how to approach this thing ‘music’…
MICHAEL: How to approach your life, actually. I loved it, the sounds that he was making…just being around him. I would have loved to do more things; I tried to get in touch with Klaus when I was touring in the area some years later but never heard from him so we lost contact. Not sure why, sorry that that happened, but the time I did spend with him was a complete joy, and his and Stomu’s influence has had a big impact on me.
OLAF: Is it right you lived in Klaus’s neighborhood for some time?
MICHAEL: Well, probably over a month at a time I was staying somewhere near him, what they arranged. I mean, we never went into town or anything like that. [laughs]
OLAF: I just read somewhere the story about you coming over to Klaus’s place hanging around gardening in his backyard…
MICHAEL: Haha, you know, when I visit somebody into their world I try not to impose my world upon theirs. I just add me to their world and learn from them. Like the way that they would market and sold their products…they would make a record, they would fly with a suitcase to the airports around Europe, they would give the masters to a record label and then would fill the suitcase up with cash and fly back home. [laughs]
OLAF: That’s the way it’s done…
MICHAEL: It was independence before people would be independent.
OLAF: And Klaus even made up his own label INNOVATIVE COMMUNICATION during that time…
MICHAEL: Yes, I was so impressed by their self sufficiency.
OLAF: So, how did TRANSFER STATION BLUE with Klaus and your brother come about?
MICHAEL: It was just one of those times where I said I’ll come over, and let’s make some music. You know…I was with my brother, and we just sat around making music.
OLAF: So, was it planned as a Michael Shrieve album, or just like let’s see what comes out?
MICHAEL: No, it was going to be my record. So that’s why I paid for everything and I did it independently…that was the idea. I am going to re-release TRANSFER STATION BLUE with different artwork soon…possibly a remix or something. I still love the record; I think it holds up, it’s kind of timeless.
OLAF: Oh, that would be great, please keep us informed.
MICHAEL: Yeah, I will. So, my experiences with Klaus – I have nothing but good things to say about it. He’s been a highlight of my journey.
So, that’s what I got, Olaf.
OLAF: That’s more than I bargained for; nevertheless I have one or two further questions, if your time allows it…
MICHAEL: [laughs] Sure, get cracking…
OLAF: Thanks Michael…so, scanning your immense discography I found a number of albums with electronic musicians – like THE LEAVING TIME (1988) with Steve Roach. Can you tell us a bit about your collaboration with other electronic artists?
MICHAEL: Absolutely. You know, after my time with Klaus I became fan of electronic music and looked for somebody who was in that area. Steve Roach was doing beautiful music and uses sequencers as well, so I reached out to him for us to do something. What we did was very different than what Klaus did…you know, it was more music in song form rather than long form.
Then there is a guy in Seattle named Jeff Greinke that I started a record with quite a while ago. He’s a very ambient synthesist, and that has turned into something else…not so much sequencer type but very ambient. That album DRUMS OF COMPASSION is coming out probably early next year, and I’m playing like 16 drums in a semi-circle standing up. It’s almost like a meditation record with lots of known drummers all around the world contributing like Zakir Hussein or Pete Lockett, Olatunji gives the invocation before he passed away, Trey Gunn…so, that is coming out soon.
I also did a piece with a guy named Amon Tobin…you’ve got to check him out. Look for ISAM - that was a live show he gave, just unbelievable…the graphics and everything, one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen.
And I’ve also been recently working again with my old friend Patrick Gleeson, who was one of the early synthesizer guys, like he was the guy who played them in Herbie Hancock’s band; that was before there were polyphonic synthesizers. Patrick is in his 80s now but still making beautiful music, and we did a show last year…in fact I just talked to him on the phone right before you called me, because we had a show booked for next month and recording, but I can’t do it because of my thumb being broken.
OLAF: Oh…
MICHAEL: Yes… [laughs]…so…I continue to really appreciate people that are moving in the electronic way. I kind of had to laugh at the whole researching on modular synthesists that’s going on right now among young people…it’s like vinyl records, you know, made a comeback. [laughs]
OLAF: Michael…thank you so much for your time. It was a pleasure talking to you.
MICHAEL: You’re very welcome, and keep me posted about news about Klaus…
