SHELLF LIFE: Interview

They are as elusive as evasive and have never coveted the limelight. SHELLF LIFE are a musician's band, if there ever was one. It is a rare occassion to have the opportunity to hear them perform. Now, VU METRICS has managed to engage three of their members in an interview. Actually, it is the only public interview we know of, apart from some unverified appearances on the darknet. To call this interview E X C L U S I V E, therefore, would be an understatement of bluntest kind. Unfortunately, none of the band members stayed long enough to release this interview for print.

VU: You have just covered - or may I say: recreated - Vermillion Syncretism, one of your own compositions. Listening to this stunning production on cassette tape, I have to tell you that I feel transported back to the 80s. Were you influenced by the music of Art of Noise and similar bands?

SL: It might have happened the other way 'round. Chronologically speaking, I remember discussing with John Cale - back in '78 - whether a spaceship peopled with Galapagos Penguins would 'man' or 'penguin' their stations. He later jammed a rather psychedelic version of Deck the Halls with some of the former members of Velvet Underground which was never recorded, unfortunately.

VU: Very little is known about your band. Your history, your members, everything appears to be quite obscure. Would you even know each other, if you met at a traffic light?

SL: No, probabely not. That goes with playing in dimly lit clubs. In the studio, we always kept the lights down to concentrate on the sonic imagery.

VU: Who are SHELLF LIFE, then?

SL: Well, there are the original members, most of them sharing membership with FMT, the Furico Music Team: Alex 'Echo' Schneider, Max 'Prism' Mueller, TM, TI, and Dana 'Nova' Richter who shares a surname with our current collaborator. Not related, though. Tenshi 'Neon' Mouri shows up regularly, of course. Don't ask me, though, who plays which instrument. It was and is dark when we perform and members do not bring and play the same instruments to each session. That also goes with the rest of the band not knowing who's who most of the time. Even back in the early years. Once I could have sworn to have seen David Byrne being illuminated by a stray stroboscope flash. Him or Richard Hell, that is. Only Barbie Glam can be recognized at any given moment .... for obvious reasons.

VU: So how did this recreation come about?

SL: SHELLF LIFE took to Berlin where studios abound. Tenshi had some connections. Tenshi usually does. Then, disaster took its regular course. Tornadoes of brainstorming. The high waters of experimentation. TM and TI in the inspirational, magnetic-extatic, ethereal flow. Technicalities of sound. One day a military expert came by and discussed sonic weaponery. Another day jo sat in and left to wherever he came from in the same night. Next to TM and TI, CC was the only constant.

VU: CC is a very stange name.

SL: CC came to the neoliberal West in the early 70s. Being the son of Gamelan teachers, both of them, one could neither pronounce his name nor get a grip on the music he played. Tenshi met him at some noodle stall in Chinatown, Frisco. By then, CC had forgotten his own name, insisting, however, on keeping the copyright. Apparently there is some secret cult in the town of Sais, Arizona, whose members pray to his very namelessness every midnight at zero hours straight.

VU: Is there a Phil Spector or Boris Blank figure in the background as well?

SL: The final production was overseen by the Furico Music Team. If I may add in my finest promotional accent: They did ensure that each track meets the highest standards of quality and innovation. All the five different versions are of quintuple-A quality.

VU: May I take a picture, then? Hey. Hey. Stay! We aren't fin ......

.... and with that, the interview had finished. As a special service to our readers, you will now be able to read the lyrics (copyright jo richter):

 

first-class wormhole

from boston to berlin

new kids on the old dole

vuitton vermillion

 

where are the tigers

on the swank, sunlit border

sunflower hiker

first drink, second order

 

syncretic synthetics

wormwood for banshees

three musketeer flicks

david bowie four-d

 

galapagos penguins

freezing the stations

inflatable ice rinks

legal hibernation