"Krone" interview

Jan Delay: 25 years solo in the service of music

A quarter of a century solo career with many highs and manageable lows: Jan Delay takes stock of his career for the first time.

(Bild: Vertigo Berlin, Thomas Leidig, Krone KREATIV)

Time passes relentlessly, and German hip-hop, reggae and dancehall cult musician Jan Delay is well aware of this. With "Forever Jan", he is now releasing a best-of album with two new songs to mark the 25th anniversary of his solo career. He is also coming to Austria for four gigs this summer. A conversation about hits, Heino and homophobia.

"Krone": Jan, this day sees the release of your first best-of album, "Forever Jan", which celebrates 25 years of Jan Delay as a solo artist. A quarter of a century is not nothing. What kind of thoughts, memories and emotions come up?
Jan Delay: I'm not the type to think about it too much and I was kind of called to do it because the project came up. It's nice and great to watch these old videos, but if I hadn't done a best-of, I wouldn't have done it either. I wouldn't have gone back in time - that only came with this record.

Don't you wonder where the time has gone?
Yes, it has. But I did that 20 years ago too. (laughs) It's a phenomenon of the world and of time. But you get the feeling that it goes faster and faster the older you get. When I was 15, I was amazed at how quickly a school year came to an end, but what I considered to be a blatant year when I was 15 has now been reduced from a year to a week.

What highlights or low points do you particularly remember from these 25 years?
It's difficult to choose highlights. Fortunately, there were a lot of great ones and if I were to pick out one, it would mean that all the other things weren't so great. (laughs) I would definitely have to mention the gig at the trotting track in Hamburg in 2011. Back then, I played with my band Disko No. 1 for almost five years without a break. We presented the records "Mercedes-Dance" (2006) and "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Soul" (2009) and there wasn't a Beginner record in between. The gig in Hamburg was the grand finale and it was my biggest concert to date. Thank God we recorded the concert and released it on DVD.

It was also great to sell out the big arena in Hamburg for the first time two years before that. That was the time when German acts were conquering halls and it was always my dream to fill these soulless concrete blocks with music and life. Those are two really big highlights. The low points came within a month in 2014. A few months after the birth of my daughter, my record "Hammer & Michel" came out, which wasn't really celebrated all around. The press in particular was very harsh on it. On top of that came the interview with you in Austria with the Heino-Nazi story, which caused quite a stir. All of that was pretty hard for me.

That was a real shitstorm at a time when shitstorms weren't as common as they are now. Have you learned any lessons from this incident? Have you come out of it stronger?
I still have to be careful what I say, but it's not as if I said afterwards "Oops, oh God! Why did I say that?" - It wasn't like that. It was shit and it happened, but you don't have to talk about it anymore. I came out of it stronger, of course, because that's what you do with every crisis and every setback.

You also can't please everyone. Is one lesson from the case that you are holding back with your direct openness and your opinion?
No, that's not the case. I certainly don't keep my opinion to myself.

You are not only an excellent musician yourself, but also a fan of music in general and countless acts in particular. Has this clear interplay between your own talent and being a fan had a decisive influence on your career?
Being a fan is incredibly important for keeping the fire burning, staying inspired and wanting to try new things. I have to hear things that I think are cool so that I'm pushed to create something great myself. If that didn't exist, it wouldn't light my fire. I'm very grateful that I'm still a fan and I notice the opposite in other people who are my age or older. They stop being interested in new things and you realize that they lack passion and can no longer produce a constant output. In the end, you become like the normal people in your circle of friends who only listen to what they listened to when they were 15 and 20, but otherwise have other priorities in their lives. Music is still very important to me.

Best-ofs always seem a bit like the artist is closing a chapter and just sitting back.
Compiling them wasn't a chore at all and I really enjoyed it. I normally never look back and in this case it was like a cure. I looked inside myself and generated a product from things that I hadn't heard for a long time and often hadn't played for even longer. It would be a nightmare for me if I had to do a best-of every year. (laughs) If I only had to deal with my old stuff and become a kind of archivist - I would find that really awful.

What makes a song by someone else good or cover-compatible for you? I'm thinking of "Siehst du das genauso" by Sportfreunde Stiller, which we hear on "Forever Jan".
It's good that you use that as an example, because it shows that there's no real yardstick. It can really be anything. I've had the chorus in the back of my head for 20 years because I always thought it was beautiful. When I heard the song again a year ago for the first time in a long time, I realized that the music is very slow and ballad-like. There's also a bit of pseudo-Coldplay on top. It's not really my music at all and back then it was even less so, because we were on tour with the Beginners and hip-hop still ruled for me.

That kind of sound was never my thing, but the song hit me in the heart. All kinds of elements in a song can manage to hit me and then it's all over for me. Of course, at the end of the day I'm someone who celebrates a great beat or great percussion, but there are other songs that can override everything. It's nice that it's like that and that there's no formula for it. You can't schematically create a hit and there's also no template for me to consider something a hit.

Does the coolness barrier also fall with age and all your experiences? That you let things through in your own taste control that you would never have let through 20 years ago?
That actually happened with my last studio album "Earth, Wind & Feiern" three years ago. But for me that has nothing to do with coolness, the coolness barrier is something else. I would rather describe it differently. I'm no longer so categorical and totalitarian. Things like no guitar is allowed in this or that music, you can't wear sneakers with this suit or this sound doesn't work in this genre - I've left that nonsense behind me. Maybe some bad experiences led to this, but producing "Earth, Wind & Feiern" was so relaxed because I always did what I felt like doing.

At some point, a common thread crystallizes by itself and you realize where the journey is going. Nevertheless, you remain open to everything. When I wear a cap with a suit, it's an extension of my increased tolerance. Removing the coolness barrier would be terrible for me, though. (laughs) It's more about being more relaxed and less dogmatic. It's about the good and not about complying with any rules or laws. I'm very happy that I've got this looseness.

Are there any songs from your past that make you wonder what the hell got into you?
There are definitely a lot of songs, or rather verses and choruses, that I'm ashamed of today. When it comes to the beats, I'm actually pretty happy with my output. But we're talking more about Beginner and Eißfeldt stuff, which is much older. I think almost everything that happened before "Bambule" was really bad rap-wise and I'm totally ashamed of it. I still think the beats are part of it today. I did that well when I was 15 or 16, even if the quality was of course different. But it was still something special back then. It was only when I started to become cooler, to take out energy, to take a deep breath, to create double rhymes and to think about flows that things started to go uphill. That was around 1997 and from then on it was fun.

You integrated reggae and dancehall into the German scene very early on. Didn't you pave the way for many other acts that are successful today?
I can't say, that's for others to judge. I have no idea.

Let me ask you another question: do you recognize Jan Delay in other acts without having to explicitly name names?
Not really, to be honest. I recognize Udo Lindenberg in some of my songs, for example, but I've been listening to him since I was five. I can't help it, that's just the way it is. But I wouldn't say that I've heard my sound differently in anyone else. I certainly don't hear myself coming through.

Do influences from your childhood, such as Udo Lindenberg, come out of you even more strongly today? Perhaps even unconsciously?
They come out much more strongly with Jan Delay than they used to with Eizi Eiz. Jan Delay makes music. He arranges things, builds things up, uses choruses and sings German lyrics. There's often Udo in it and I can't defend myself against that. He was the first German-language music that I heard, celebrated and absorbed. When you make German-language music yourself, you can't resist it and that's a good thing. It's simply passing on and keeping alive something that had a big influence.

A DJ from Tunisia recently told me that African-American music such as hip-hop or R&B dominates the entire market because people there refer to the past and don't ignore the influences, whereas in Europe artists consciously try to distance themselves from the older generations ...
Yes, that's now also the case with hip-hop - at least in America. It used to be a case of "each one teach one" - that was the basic mantra of hip-hop. It's always been the case that the heroes of the old-school wave evolved, but that waned and stopped about two generations ago, about ten years ago. Those who carry on the music with passion and love still have the influence of the older generations in them. These are people like Kendrick Lamar or J Cole. They have respect for their elders and incorporate their sounds into their music and develop them further.

Others make inflationary plastic music. One insubstantial song every week, the main thing is to cause a stir and stay in the conversation. They shit on everything that came before and distance themselves from the "old bastards". On the one hand, that's a shame, but on the other, it's typical. Kendrick or J Cole make very high quality music. Whether you like them or not is not up for debate. It's like food. Some people who can cook well say where they learned to cook and what the ingredients are. The others go to McDonalds, want their burger and that's it.

Over the years, you have always stood up against xenophobia, racism and sexism. Society in general is becoming increasingly harsh - is it becoming more difficult to take a stand or is it even more important now?
I don't think I've articulated myself so clearly in this direction - I'm surprised by this impression. But a lot has changed, especially when it comes to homophobia. When I look around me in hip-hop, dancehall and reggae, homophobic bullshit has declined significantly in the last 25 years. Everyone is setting a very good example and that's why I don't get the impression that people are tilting at windmills. There are now even self-confessed gay fascists. (laughs) Even among them, things have changed, although I wouldn't use the word tolerance just yet. But you'd have to ask someone who is affected.

The old division between left and right became mixed and intertwined during the coronavirus pandemic at the latest.
There had already been an extreme shift to the right before that, but the pandemic has created very strange mixed amalgams.

Is the best-of "Forever Jan" a starting signal for a new chapter or rather a treatise that marks a clear cut in your career?
For me, it's more of a cut. When the pandemic was over, I played small bus concerts on picnic blankets and in wicker baskets, people didn't quite dare to go to 2022 either, but last year it was really good. This year I'm playing at the Hamburg trotting track again and even more people are coming. So it's going to be really cool again and that makes sense - even with the best-of. That way I can do a huge, awesome tour without having to release a new album. That was an important argument, because everyone wants a best-of. After that, I'll probably do something with the Beginners again.

You're also coming to the beautiful Arena Wien for two open-air concerts this summer, both of which are already well filled. You are a welcome guest here in Austria.
And I always enjoy coming too! The last time I was in the Arena was with the Beginners, but two years ago I played at the Donauinselfest. That was the coolest thing ever. It was the first summer where something really happened again. There were 100,000 people there, just incredible.

Summer concerts in Austria
With his Disko No. 1 and an official best-of show, Jan Delay is also coming to Austria for a few gigs this summer. The two open-air shows in the Vienna Arena on July 8 and 9 are already completely sold out. However, tickets are still available at www.oeticket.com for the concerts on August 16 at Gut Aiderbichl in Henndorf am Wallersee in Salzburg and on August 17 at Karmeliterplatz in Graz.