Words About Music (575): Michael Karoli

It seems to me that in my playing I have always done two things — one that gradually builds up, like a plane running up, and then when it's really moving the other, which is stepping on the distortion pedal and taking off. But when it did take off it wouldn't go into a solo as such — I don't believe in solos! With Can instead of it being collective improvisation it became collective composing, because the composition took place during the playing in all cases, including on stage. Pieces were newly composed each night around the same theme; I never got tired of this because one could do anything. If, for instance, we played 'Paper House', what was fixed was the rhythm and the key and nothing else, and the real happenings like an acceleration or some climax either happened because we felt like that, or they didn't happen.
Michael Karoli