Michael Drummer is the only constant in the ever changing landscape that is Camera. We wanted to know what he has to say.

With the band’s tenth anniversary in their viewfinder, Camera have pushed the button on Prosthuman, their fifth studio album in February 2021. As befits an age in which realities can change in the blink of an eye, from one day to the next, the Berlin band never tire of changing themselves, their music or personnel.

Taking this as their lead, Michael Drummer (the drummer) and Camera surprise us once more on Prosthuman as they reinvent and reformulate their sound.

Over the years, Drummer has spent many hours alone or with a shifting cast of co-musicians in the band’s basement studio, beneath a former factory site in a less than hip southern district of Berlin. Virus-induced social distancing and quarantine measures that came into force during the recording process posed no great challenge.

We’re intrigued and we wanted to know more. To be honest, we’re not sure we’re any the wiser. But, hey! Here we go:

Where are you and what are you doing?
I am in Berlin in my room on the computer. Searching for nonentertainment.

What is your favourite view?
From the cliff to the sea. Or from bed staring to the ceiling.

You’re the only constant member of Camera over the years. You change personnel and you change your sound on a regular basis. Is that an indication of frustration? Or a an ever going search for the new?
In any industry frustration is bliss. I guess its better to fail than any jail.

What was the first record / cd you bought with your own money?
Dog Eat Dog (No Fronts single) / Black Sabbath (Master of Reality) / House of Pain (House of Pain)

How does being based in Berlin affect, or influence, your sound? What do you take from the city?
What we take from cities? Cities take us. And we influence them.

If you could go to a gig right now, anywhere in the world, which band would you see? And in which venue?
Radiohead in the Estadio Nacional de Chile. 60000 People listening to Street Spirit the same time. Magic. Or Nirvana any gig in Seattle. But they are dead.

Who are your musical influences? Which album do you wish you had recorded, rather than the person / band who actually did?
There are a few… Radiohead / Kid A, Wipers / Over the Edge, The Cure / Seventeen Seconds, Joy Division / Closer, Sonic Youth / Goo, Silver Apples / Silver Apples

How do you describe the Camera project? What are you trying to say, or to tell us?
We are free. We are no dynamic system.

Tell us something we don’t know.
Our studio has no daylight and Heinz von Foerster was 90 years when he died.

Which city do you recommend we visit – and why?
Porto, Lisbon, Nicosia and Athens are sweet. Prague too. And Vilnius!!! Hey why not?

What’s your drink of choice?
Tsipouro.

What band or album do you think we should check out right now?
Ariel Pink! Haunted Graffiti. Send it via mail to all your friends.

Do you have anything else to declare?
Dont believe the HYPE and the world is not flat not round its a Möbius strip with holes on the surface.