Prince Pi's actual name is Friedrich Kautz, he is in his mid-30s and is a fairly successful musician. When we meet him on a Tuesday morning in the rooms of his own label, we have the feeling that we are visiting a fellow student's shared apartment. The spacious old Berlin apartment isn't really furnished yet, but it's a bit chaotic. We actually came to ask Prince Pi questions, and at first he bombarded us with them: What do you do? Are you from Berlin? Have you ever been to the literary archive in Marbach? Oh yes, do you mind if I continue soldering here? I'm like an old woman knitting, it calms me down.
UNIGLOBALE: What are you doing there?
Prinz Pi: I'm working on my equalizer because I really want to have that first Beatles-esque sound that's very difficult to achieve any other way.
UNIGLOBALE: Would you describe yourself as a techie?
Prince Pi: Of course I'm a technology freak. But not that I necessarily need the newest and fattest flat screen. I'm just a designer. And I admire anything that is well designed. No matter whether it's a door handle, microphone or car.
UNIGLOBALE: What music influenced you the most?
Prince Pi: There are essentially two blatant phases for me. When I was a child I listened to all the stuff my dad had on vinyl, especially the Beatles. My parents were very restrictive; I was never allowed to listen to loud music. That's why I always listened to music really loud with headphones and I think that's why I sunk even deeper into the music. As a teenager I discovered rap music and from then on it only went downhill... (laughs).
UNIGLOBALE: You started making music during your high school studies, how long did it take until you could make a living from it?
Prince Pi: So definitely at least seven years. But most of the time I only made music as a hobby and not because I wanted to make money with it. I also studied something completely different, so it was never really the plan to make money with music.
UNIGLOBALE: You studied communication design at the art college in Berlin Weißensee. Why not music?
Prinz Pi: Music is just as much a communication medium as, for example, graphic design, or video art, or thinking up slogans. It's just a different discipline.
UNIGLOBALE: Is the reason you make music because you want to communicate with people?
Prince Pi: Absolutely. I see it the same way as Cicero, who said in ancient times that you can do something for society as a poet and not just as a politician. If I wrote books, probably no one would read them. And you can probably reach a lot more people with music anyway.
UNIGLOBALE: And what would you say is the main theme of your music?
Prince Pi: That's definitely, positioning within society. Most people take themselves and their position for granted. And then say, I'm either your friend or your boyfriend. In my life I find myself finding myself more and more between positions.
UNIGLOBALE: If you had to assign yourself to any social position, which would you most likely belong to?
Prince Pi: Preferably among the scholars who advance development. There was a time when these were the most respected members of society. I'm thinking, for example, of Alexander von Humboldt in a very clichéd way. Who went out and discovered things and was showered with fame and medals by people, and places were named after him.
UNIGLOBALE: Is that your plan B if the music stops working?
Prince Pi: I would like to do research. I am very interested in communication between people, especially the precision of communication. I'm currently writing an exposé for a doctoral thesis. When I'm done, I'll look for a doctoral supervisor. And then take a look.
UNIGLOBALE: A few years ago you founded your own label with a friend, why?
Prince Pi: We do it more like lovers here. I've been working on my equalizer for hours now, and any normal label would say: "Hey, that's completely unnecessary for making a record." So stop that!” Now I can implement my own visions exactly the way I want. And even more than that, my motivation is that you can get something going together with friends.
UNIGLOBALE: Back to your studies. What was it like? Did you lead a typical student life during that time?
Prince Pi: In the sense that you never have any money? Yes definitely. But I never lived in a student shared apartment, I always had my own place, but it was an absolute dump. The worst thing I remember was the food in the cafeteria. The cafeteria in Weißensee is supplied by the same catering as old people's homes and that's exactly how it tasted.
UNIGLOBALE: How did you finance your studies?
Prince Pi: I was a tutor for almost my entire university life, which supported me through my studies. At that time I was already making a bit of money from music, but not enough to live on. That was just a good way to somehow justify all the time I put into the music.
UNIGLOBALE: Do you remember when you earned your first money?
Prinz Pi: (laughs) I played a lot of computer games as a child and when I was 13 I sent in the solution for a game to a computer game magazine and received 300 marks for it. I then tried to make it clear to my parents that it was really great that I played computers so much. Of course, I bought more games with the money. (laughs) That’s clear!
UNIGLOBALE: What do you hope for the future?
Prince Pi: I would like to finally see an iPhone whose battery lasts longer than a day. Ten years ago there were cell phones that lasted two weeks. You no longer knew what a charger looked like because you only charged it every now and then.
Wins
3 X the current album from Prinz Pi
We are giving away “Compass without North” as a CD three times to all fans who send us a message on the UNIGLOBALE fan page by April 10, 2014 and ask us the question “Why should you win the new album?” answer.
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Prince Pi's actual name is Friedrich Kautz, he is in his mid-30s and is a fairly successful musician. When we meet him on a Tuesday morning in the rooms of his own label, we have the feeling that we are visiting a fellow student's shared apartment. The spacious Berlin old building apartment is not really furnished yet, but it is already
