1. Whatever have "Interactive" done with your song "Forever Young"? The song has been totally distorted in this unsuitable techno version with a tortured synthetic Mickey Mouse chorus. The original message doesn't come across at all and the video to the song is even trashier! Was this cover version released with your permission? If you intended to re-work the song, wouldn't you have remixed it yourselves? Or maybe the copyrights were no longer yours after nearly 10 years (I have no idea what the legal situation is in the field of music). The thing that puzzles me the most, is that this group made it so high in the charts (currently #7). What is your position on this subject, I request an explanation! Thanks!

Marian: Half of this question can't be answered without using some legal jargon, unfortunately, so: In general, ANYONE (e.g. Interactive) can cover songs WITHOUT the permission of the composer (e.g. Alphaville), as long as they don't alter the basics of the lyrics and composition. Usually there are no problems, as long as the person covering the song acknowledges the composer's rights and passes this income on to the composer. The artist covering the song earns his income from the production and sales, the composer from publishing (copyright and performance income) which end up being about 50% for each party. Since Interactive was fairly successful with their "Forever Young" cover version, we - the composers - were quite happy.
And now for the other half of the question: You have to see such things with a sense of humor. Let them enjoy their success. Alright?

2. Could you please comment on the track "The Golden Feeling" from the film "The Cop and the Girl"? It goes back a while, but I'd like to know whether the song was released anywhere and if it's still available. Unfortunately, the song from the film was about the only thing I heard about back then.

Marian: "Golden Feeling" was the B-side of Alphaville's 4th single, "Jet Set", which was released in Feb. 1985, when the film came out.

3. Who is Iron John?

Marian: Read the fairytale 'Eisenhans'.

4. Most of the songs on the "Prostitute" album awaken a positive atmosphere in me. I find this puzzling, because throughout the lyrics there is an emphasis on loss and decay. Can you explain this?

Marian: For me, "Prostitute" is the end of a 10 year musical development. "Euphoria" is a "farewell" to this cycle, "Apollo" announces a new one. Everything on "Prostitute" completes anything even hinted upon on "Forever Young". None of us know what the next Alphaville album is going to sound like, but one thing's for sure, we're sailing to new shores.

5. What does the "holistic movement" in "Paradigm Shift" mean?

Marian: In order to analyze with clarity, the things which we want to understand, we have the tendency of separating these things from everything else. This way of thinking formed, for the most part, the behavior and history of mankind. In the meantime (e.g. by observing chaos research) it has been shown, that everything relates to everything else and that one can't separate the individual things from their context (holistic) in order to understand them. Life is a giant net of connections and feedbacks. Tiny events can be the cause of immense processes. A favorite illustration of this is: a butterfly's beating wings causing a tornado. Nice.

6. You feel like strangers. Does this apply to the music business only, or also in your normal lives? Directly related to this question: "I shall rise from the ashes and return", Does this apply "only" to your musical career?

Marian: "Ain't it Strange" is a list of contradictions. The music industry may not be mentioned, but it's certainly one of them. See #4 for the second question.

7. "Democracy is Just a Lie" - Doesn't this contradict the message of "Beethoven"? I think democracy is the only alternative against racism.

Marian: The only solution to racism is anti-racism.

8. Could you tell me more about "Euphoria" (my favorite song by the way) especially about the lyrics?

Marian: See #4

9. You discovered Shakespeare on your way from "Utopia" to "Prostitute": Why did you choose especially him? Is it because of the way he describes human life and emotions?

Marian: I assume you're referring to the Shakespeare quotation in Apollo, "And if music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it..." THERE IS PROBABLY NOTHING IN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE ABOUT WHICH SHAKESPEARE HAS NOT SPOKEN AN EQUIVALENTLY MEANINGFUL SENTENCE.

10. "The blind leading the blind": Shakespeare says in King Lear, "Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind". Were you thinking about Shakespeare when you wrote this line in "Beethoven"? Is there a difference for you between madmen and blind men, is it worse for you if the blind lead the blind instead of the madmen leading the blind?

Marian: There is nothing worse than madmen leading blind men (see Nazi Germany). In "Beethoven", I meant "blind" in the sense of being blinded (as by light) by the extreme madness of racist, fascist, sick fantasies. In normal language, this kind of madness is also known as the legendary expression, "ignorance".

11. "We gonna live in the dreams that we seek": What does this mean? Does it mean that people like Mercury, Kennedy, etc. continue to live, thanks to their ideas that they've left mankind?

Marian: It means, dreams come true.

12. Marian, can you tell us something about your participation with the Lassie Singers?

Marian: It was the fulfillment of two dreams I've been pursuing. I sang on their CD and in return they gave me one of their FABULOUS T-shirts.

13. Could you tell us something about the MTV version of "Fools"? Was this recorded especially for MTV?

Marian: MTV refused to play our video because of the cockfighting scenes. Therefore, we replaced these images in the MTV version, and then they played it. As a principle, MTV never play any videos with cruelty to animal tendencies, so no bullfights or cockfights. This is a worthy position to have, but in our case it wasn't relevant. Normally, razor-sharp blades are tied to the rooster's claws, which cause deadly wounds when they are in such a fight, as they take place all over Mexico. So, a winning rooster is often killed in such a fight. The roosters weren't armed in our video and the fight lasted, in reality, not even 25 seconds, then both of the angry opponents were separated (Roosters don't happen to particularly like one another). In the video, everything, of coarse, looked very realistic and gloomy, which it should, because it rained that day, which was what we had hoped for. I discussed with Bernd and Ricky whether we should even shoot this scene, because of possible misunderstandings. I was mostly interested in illustrating the lyrics: "Keep on dancing, all you fools..." and the two roosters fighting really summed this sentence up. I suppose I don't need to emphasize that we are against any kind of cruelty to animals. Nevertheless, I'd be interested in hearing your opinion about this (enacted) scene.