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1 track album

An atmospheric and philosophical composition from atmospheric pop artist German Error Message (avatar of Nashville based singer songwriter Paul Kintzing). Red Kitchen queries the listener what would they be if they could choose to craft their own existence. Check out Red Kitchen above via Bandcamp. Watch out for Mend the full length from which this track is lifted to be issued later in the year!

#atmosphere #red kitchen #german error message #paul kintzing

An Interview: Paul Kintzing [German Error Message]

I recently spoke over the phone with Paul Kintzing of German Error Message. He was extremely gracious and candid, giving great answers to all of my questions. Topics included his music, his releases (including this year's After the Warmth and In Comforting), his lyrics, and a number of other great things. I encourage you to read the whole thing, as the end of the interview is an especially great bit.

Tyler Hanan: German Error Message started off as just you, right?

Paul Kintzing: Yeah. I started writing songs when I was 14. At that point it was just me, and it was called German Error Message. Some of my friends wanted to do rock music, so there was a little time where it was like a rock band, for a year. Then I kind of just stopped writing songs until 2008.

The first EP was just me playing everything. A friend of mine recorded one of the songs and played clarinet and saxophone and some keyboard. Since then, I’ve been collaborating a lot more with other friends who can do music. My friend Shelly sings with me a lot on the recordings. She lives in Minnesota, so there isn’t really a band, so much. Shelly and I recently played a show in Louisiana, where we’re from, and it was just me and her, and she sang all the songs. It’s pretty… whoever’s around to do most of the recording and play most of the instruments.

TH: How do the shows go, then? Is it kind of the same thing with whoever happens to be around? How does that work out?

PK: We’ve only played two shows, really. Yeah, they both have just been singing, acoustic guitar, and a xylophone part. I’ve been recording with some people here, playing drums and bass, and one of them is a multi-instrumentalist. We’re planning on doing more live shows with more of a full band. That’s in the works. Hopefully we can start playing shows within these next couple months, rather than just the acoustic stuff.

TH: That would be really cool. That sounds awesome, actually.

PK: I really want to do a little tour at some point.

TH: I was going to ask you how your music has evolved over time, but you went over that. How would you describe where you’re at right now? As I was looking around, a lot of people throw out the same two paragraphs, and they say stuff like “bedroom pop,” or “folksy.” How would you describe German Error Message?

PK: Well… I’ve called it experimental folk just to have a name on it, because you need a press release. I don’t really know so much what it is. I don’t have any real classical training. I understand musical theory a little bit. I just have a lot of folk instruments, and I can sort of play most stringed instruments. I really like to arrange stuff, so that’s where that comes from.

As for where it is right now, to be honest, there’s no… I want to focus on playing some shows, but writing is already happening. I kind of want to make it a little louder, maybe. Not necessarily less melodic or anything. You know, no screaming… [laughs] I’m not really sure, it’s kind of whatever’s happening right now. I just want to do something new. But it will probably be pretty recognizable, not a complete departure from anything that’s happened so far.

TH: Sounds good. That ‘no boundaries,’ or anything like that, that’s more or less…

PK: Yeah, pretty much. It’s just whatever’s happening. I play a lot of non-standard guitar tunings, so finding a new tuning, it makes everything new again, with the guitar. You know, standard tuning, you have these chords, and I feel like there’s not anywhere new or really exciting to go. I play stuff in standard tuning still, but usually when I’m writing now I try to find a new, open tuning. I just find something that sounds good and figure out what it is, and go from there. There’s very much an element of chance in the writing. I like it that way. And the recording process, I’m going to college for production and technology in the recording industry field. I’m blending what I’m learning with the things I’ve sort of found out on my own. Hopefully there’s still places to go and new stuff to play around with. I really like experimenting until it sounds right.

TH: I was going to ask about new material, because everybody always wants more, even after they already have some. Are there plans in place for anything new? You’ve released a few things this year, obviously.

PK: Nothing is really in place, I’m not sure what’s happening next. I’ve started writing songs again, little musical parts. Which I guess is going to be the next EP or album, or whatever comes together. Right now I’m in the process of moving into a new home. Nothing’s set, right now, so far as figuring out what’s going to happen with that.

TH: With the last EP, In Comforting, from what I understand from the press release, that was your first recording in a real studio?

PK: Yeah, that’s correct. My friend Cody [Munholland], he’s in the same major. He just graduated, so he has access to these ridiculously nice studios at the school. We’ve been talking about working together. He mastered the last album, After the Warmth. We worked on mastering that together, getting the flow, and editing. Polishing it up a little bit. He had some studio time, so we recorded most of the tracks for In Comforting in the morning, then did some overdubs at home. Then we went back in and mixed it on this really nice equipment. It was really cool.

TH: So it was like knowing the right people, right place, right time?

PK: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people that I know are into music or recording, know something about it. It’s nice to have people to aid in making something.

TH: You mention After the Warmth. It seemed to help get your name out a lot more, and it got really good reception from around the web. Has that changed a lot for you, are you noticing a lot different from fans?

PK: It surprised me a little bit, how receptive people were to that album. I’m really happy about it. You know, I’m aware that more people are finding out about it and listening to it, and I’m really happy about it. These songs and these albums, it hasn’t changed anything as far as me making stuff, as far as writing songs or anything like that. Hasn’t really changed much, is that what you’re asking?

TH: Yeah, I just always wonder about those. Certain albums start a wave, and they get a bunch of hype, and it seemed like in a lot of the circles I frequent, your name was popping up a lot more than before. I was just wondering how that affects everything.

PK: I’m really, really excited about it, I’m really, really happy that it’s out there and people like it. I don’t ever plan to charge money for these songs, at least to download them. I did a couple physical copies of that album, just because I really liked it once it was done. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time, have an actual physical CD. I didn’t get anything printed, I just hand-made them. Knit the covers together, painted them, hand made each one. They’re gone now.

TH: That’s really cool. All the work that goes into that, I think people really appreciate that. I was going to ask about the music too. You give away all your music for free, obviously that helps a lot too. Do you have any plans to do any more physical releases like that. Or is that for future records, we’ll see what comes?

PK: Everything is going to be online, free forever. I’m really interested in having this stuff be available for free in high quality. I love Bandcamp, that’s great, just because they have that high quality option in case someone wants that. I’d really like to continue making stuff. I don’t know if I could do the hand-making everything again, just because it’s really, really time consuming. Maybe if I could find a way where it wouldn’t take so much time, but it would still be just as special, I would definitely want to do that.

But I would also like to do a small run of manufactured cds and just see how that goes. I’m also pretty interested in vinyl, just because I tend to write albums that go together, where the songs transition into one another. I really like it as a whole thing, as well as individual songs. I really want to put out a good piece of vinyl. I like the whole aspect of having these physical artifacts, cds and vinyl and stuff. Exploring what can be made and how people will respond to it.

TH: You did a split EP with The Widowers. How did that come about?

PK: The Widowers is a band fronted by a really old friend. We went to middle school together, his name is Matt Sigur. He’s one of my favorite songwriters, everything he writes is just really great. We’ve played music together for years and years. It was his idea, he was like, “Let’s do a split EP!” We worked it out as we went along. The first two songs of mine on the split are ones that he played drums on. He’s a really, really good drummer. It was stuff we’d recorded around the time the first album, To Carry Alongside, came out, and they didn’t really fit in the context of the record, so it was cool to finish those songs and give them a place where they fit.

TH: Is he one of the people who helps you out normally?

PK: It’s a long distance thing. Matt lived in Baton Rouge for a couple years, in Louisiana, where we’re both from… Louisiana, not Baton Rouge. He moved to Lafayette a little while ago. As far as us working together, I recorded a couple songs from the first album over the summer of 2009 at his house at Baton Rouge. We’ve always been really supportive of each others’ stuff. I do a little bit of mastering and production and mixing, more audio production. But yeah, I’m really glad we got a chance to put that out. We have another project called Arabian Safari, where we recorded an album that same summer that’s rockier stuff. We’ve been working on some electronica, more computer-driven stuff together. Hopefully we’ll put something out as Arabian Safari in the next year. We’re still working together.

TH: I stumble across a quote about In Comforting, where you said, “In Comforting is about the physical difference between you and the people you love, and feeling the weight of the impervious universe.”

PK: I think it was “expanse,” but yeah.

TH: I’ll look it up just to make sure.

PK: That’s a much bigger weight. [laughs] But yeah, I know the quote.

TH: And the lyrics are something I enjoy too. What do you strive for? I guess, not necessarily what stories you’re telling, but what you’re trying to get across with what you create.

PK: Hm…

TH: There’s probably a better way to word that.

PK: No, I get what you’re saying, I’m just trying to think of a good way to word an answer. [pause] Let’s see. In Comforting is really about feeling stretched. I grew up in a small town in Louisiana called West Monroe, which really had no real culture. Sometimes there would be all-ages venues, but they would get shut down pretty quickly. People haven’t been anywhere else. It’s a weird place. When I went to college in Murfreesboro, that’s 500 miles away, and an 8 hour drive. I went from this place that I’d known for years and years to someplace where I knew a couple people. My friend Shelly’s in Minnesota. I have a lot of friends that are kind of everywhere. It really is this feeling of having to remember, “okay, this is where I am in relation to all these things that are really important.” It’s hopefully not letting that physical thing… just dealing with it, I guess. Does that make sense?

TH: Yeah.

PK: That’s for that song. As far as the lyrics… I don’t know if they’re stories, even. They’re certainly inspired by events and people, but all of them are like feelings, and trying to figure those things out.

TH: I’m not trying to be nosy or anything, it’s just something that I can relate people, and people I know can relate to, and to hear you talk about those things, it just gives it more power.

PK: It’s crazy to me when I hear people say stuff about the music or the lyrics. It’s just a crazy, “I can’t believe you’re talking about this thing I made,” sort of feeling. It’s really awesome. I’m just glad that people can appreciate them and that people can find something that they connect with.

I actually put all the lyrics for After the Warmth on Bandcamp the other day. I ran out of physical copies, and they had a lyric sheet. I might do more of those, but for the time being… I noticed that people were searching for them a lot, and with Bandcamp, it shows you how people got there, and a lot of people were searching for parts of lyrics, or lyrics for “Reaching Out,” or for “We Arose,” or little lines of stuff. I really wanted to have people be able to get to that, since it seemed a lot of people were interested in it.

Once again, I would like to thank Paul for taking the time to talk with me. As he mentioned, all of German Error Message's music is available for free [link]. If you would also like to check out Arabian Safari, that is also available on a name-your-price-basis [link]. A number of means to stay up-to-date on all things German Error Message can be found on the facebook page [link].

#interview #German Error Message #Paul Kintzing