KMFDM refuses to die. Only three years after industrial superstars KMFDM disbanded by means of the release of Adios, they returned with a vengeance in 2002 with a brand new CD, Attak. In the midst of founding members Sascha Konietzko and Raymond Watts (a.k.a. Pig) reuniting along with former member Tim Skold, Attak (for the most part) harkens back the original KMFDM sound. With a large legion of KMFDM fans the group reformed as a result of public demand, according to Sascha. After finishing up a highly successful tour, they released their first live record, Strum & Drang with an accompanying DVD. With the bands latest release WWIII (World War III) KMFDM have released 15 albums over the past 20 years.

KMFDM (Kein Merhrheit Fur Die Mitleid) formed in February of 1984 in Paris, France by Sascha Konietzko and German painter and multi-media-performer, Udo Sturm. The duo performed for the opening of an exhibition of young European artists at the Grand Palais in Paris. Shortly after the show, back in Hamburg, Sascha began another short-lived project with Peter Missings, an audio-anarchist from New York, called Missing Foundations. While the venture didn’t last, it did introduce Sascha to Frankfurt drummer En Esch, and with friend Raymond “Pig” Watts came the first KMFDM album, Opium. While the newly formed band’s cassette-album was circulating thru the underground clubs and bars of Hamburg, and word of mouth of this new band was spreading, the KMFDM “sound” had yet to be established. “We were drawing from influences from Zappa, T.Rex, Bowie, Punk Rock, Krautrock, and German New Wave,” says Sascha Konietzko.

KMFDM’s first major release, What Do You Know, Deutschland, was unveiled in December of 1986 and featured material recorded from 1983-1986. In early 1987 the band released their follow-up, Kickin’ Ass, and licensed to a Liverpool-based record company called Skysaw Records. Skysaw introduced KMFDM to artist Brute! who redesigned the cover, What Do You Know, Deutschland for UK re-release and has been designing the band’s signature covers ever since.

In 1987 KMFDM released the record that would ultimately take them to the top of the growing industrial revolution. Don’t Blow Your Top was licensed by Skysaw records to the Chicago based WAX TRAX!. Suddenly the group found themselves acquainted with similar acts, such as Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Front 242, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and Frontline Assembly. After the release of UAIOE in 1989, the band was invited to open for Ministry on their Mind is.. tour. Following months of touring KMFDM returned to Europe to record Naïve. With the master tapes in hand, Sascha returned to Chicago and signed directly to WAX TRAX!. Consequently, KMFDM moved headquarters from Hamburg to Chicago in early 1991 as it became apparent that band’s future was in the US and not Europe.

The highly successful Money was released in 1992, but returning to Chicago after two successful tours, KMFDM found WAX TRAX in bankruptcy and founder, James Nash, suffering from a heart attack. With only two bands left on the label’s roster, Sister Machinegun and KMFDM, the label was in trouble. Out of loyalty and commitment to WAX TRAX!, and founders James Nash and Dannie Flesher, Sascha resigned to the failing label with hopes it would bounce back. New York based TVT Records took on the remaining acts. While KMFDM would release the remaining records in conjunction with WAX TRAX!, the label would never recover, and in 1995 James Nash died of Aids.

After KMFDM split in 1999, Sascha and KMFDM member, Tim Skold began working on a project called MDFMK with female vocalist, Lucia Cifarelli. Despite the fact that the new endeavor was a modest success, it did not meet Universal Records expectations, and MDFDK left on agreeable conditions. However, when asked if there will be another MDFDK project, Sascha simply said, “Probably.”

Sascha Konietzko is not only a dynamic performer and gifted writer, but also a well-respected producer who has produced projects not only for KMFDM and MDFMK but Peter Murphy and many remixes for other artists. In the fall of 2000 he was writing material for Lucia Cifarelli’s solo recording, Lucia. He was also in collaboration with Raymond Watts with two member of the Japanese band Buck Tick Under The Monkeys Schwein. So what does he enjoy the most? “A fair balance of all does it for me.” Says Konietzko.

Over the past 20 years, KMFDM has seen over 30 musicians come and go. “KMFDM is all about line-up changes. Keeps it from getting stale,” is what Sascha had to say about the revolving door of talent.

With Tim Skold pro-produced the new Marilyn Manson CD The Golden Age of Grotesque, I was prompted to ask a very obvious question. Does Sascha feel that KMFDM influenced such bands as Manson and Nine Inch Nails? The modest musician said laughing, “Since they say so!” He goes on to say, “SMP and Anstatt are cool, both from the Seattle area I believe.”


Now based in Seattle Washington, WWIII was recorded at KMFDM's Kommandozentrale. Never one to take all the glory, when asked who influenced the sound of the new record, Sascha replied, “I suppose all of us who put into it.”


After all these years, KMFDM are still the premier industrial act despite all the changes. Or as Sascha Konietzko said laughing, “20 years and none the wiser.”





TONY ENGELHART