Q&A with Nina Hagen

Nina Hagen has been performing in Europe and traveling to India, but she returns to NYC for the first time in four years, so put on your outfit and bow down before the goddess.

First of all I just gotta say I'm amazed at how much love you pour into the world through your music. It just blows me away. Your music is amazing, your range and style, and the message is so powerful. Who would you say were the folks who helped you develop the values you hold close and that play out through what you create as an artist?

Hi! Oh boy! I would say, in my life I have been able to meet and co-work with amazing philosophers, singers, songwriters, actors, musicians... My great great-spirit-initiation [was] when I was 19, back in East Berlin... There is a big, fat book about my life (so far) coming out this October, That's Why the Lady Is a Punk, and it will answer all these questions, going into deep detailed explanations, thousands of photos also. At first the book will be only in German, but it's already in the works for the English-language version.

On your website you have a number of links that have political substance, like PETA. That's really great you are down with all that and speak out. What ways do you encourage people to get involved? Have you got ideas how to get them to care more about what is going on in the world?

I have a homepage guest book , and there I'm able to talk a lot, with people from all over the world! And I do!

What do you think about television in the U.S.? Do you think there exist any redeeming aspects to what's being broadcast these days? What would you say if someone approached you to do a reality tv show based on your day-to-day life? You could preach to the masses because I'm sure folks would tune in, but then I reckon all the political stuff would get cut out. Has anyone talked to you about it?

Oh dear, the culture industry?sometimes I wanna get rid of my tv... Here in Germany it's the same?many shows are so superficial, that's for sure, but I love to see documentaries, even talk shows, good movies. I do enjoy Conan and David and Jay. I am a tv-showmaker/presenter myself!

I have a meeting this week in Berlin with producers...from a very popular German tv station. I am doing a tv show, once a month, for one year already?live, in front of an intergalactic Berlin audience... We made some pilots, and now finally tv is interested in producing it big-scale. My tv show has an entirely different concept than the Ozzy Buzz Show, and I can't wait to show it to the world. It's all work in progress!

You have been influenced by Eastern religion. Can you elaborate on your spirituality or is that too personal?

I share this in my first-ever self-made documentary, Om Gottes Willen?Om namah Shivay. We'll show it at Jonas Mekas' Anthology Film Archives in the Village on Sept. 9 and 10. You can also buy it from my homepage?make sure you order a NTSC American-standard copy.

I know you have had close connections with a number of visual artists. Do you work in other media?

Yes, I did act as a good witch in a German-Russian coproduction three years ago. It's a fairytale for children called Wassilissa. I'm a good actress, I would say. And I have a Los Angeles-based acting agency too (so does my daughter, Cosma Shiva, who is a very popular actress here in Germany), so there's some big surprises coming soon to your theater, I would say.

Are there any particular bands out there now that you are keen on? Any that you think are really cranking it out with passion?

I do believe that the harshness of industrial record companies?money importance?has put a certain hold on the creativity and freedom of artists. But the so-called independent and alternative companies and artists are getting stronger by the minute. It's also part of my mission as an integrator?tv-show-presenter?to feature many great, yet still quite unknown, artists, human rights activists, environmental organizations, etc. And that's very important to me, for it shows that the world is beaming with great unique and absolutely fabulous artists!

How was it for you in the beginning of your career, when the media was less concerned with your music and more with your lifestyle?

Ha ha ha ha! Well, my upbringing in a totally restrained and repressed communist country, East Germany (I was allowed to leave when I was 21), has taught me a lot about honesty, courage, even faith and trust in God. You know, all those bitter-faced so-called commies said that "there is no God," that religion is morphine to the people. I started to quest for God and Truth and Love and Simplicity on my own, and I found it! Still, I'm only human and face the same tasks we all do. But for the reactions of public institutions and other human judgments, I can say: I love being inspired, and if necessary even criticized, but I will always listen to my "inner guru." I belong to Him, All One, great great spirit. Also, the animal-medicine is guiding me very strongly toward Om mani padme hummmmmmmingbirds... freedom and joy in all aspects of Life.

Are you writing new material now? Will there be new material in your show?

Oh yes! We are always working and including new material in the shows! I am working on a new studio album, and I have been found by wonderful people from an All-American record company. How could I be so lucky? I just don't know...wow wo-oh-oh!

Ari-Up of the Slits is gonna be at your show. Have you stayed in touch with members of the Slits or is this a reunion for you after a time apart?

Hey, we are always working together! Ari is one of my closest and dearest sisters?Ari-Up will not "be at my show," she will be there to showtime herself! We are currently working on some amazing tunes and projects together. I don't wanna say too much because we wanna surprise you all!

How about the Toilet Boys? They're getting some good press and I hear they are amazing live. Have you been able to hang with them?

Not hang. I met them in an airplane some years ago?flying through the heavens?and we said, "Oh come on, let's work together!" Can't wait to see them live!

What are your feelings about having your New York show so close to Sept. 11? I wish I could be there when you sing "New York, New York." It's gonna be really powerful and healing for folks.

Oh, when this disaster happened last September I was in tears so bad, like all New Yorkers were, and people all over the world. But, yes it's true: humans are the healing power for humans, and I will give the best I can to make this event now really?they haven't found a word for it yet?om sweet om om namah shivay! Om mani padme hummmmmmmmingbirdmedicine!

We are also starting a new celebrity-charity auction on eBay on Sept. 7, with some funtastic items?some of my old stage clothes, paintings by German and international artists, painted live at my shows. We want to give the money raised from that auction to the people of New York, who are still trying to cope with the loss and the pains from last September... I love my New York sooooo much!

Nina Hagen performs Indian spiritual music with Moti Ma and the Om-Heriakhandi Band on Thu.-Fri., Sept. 5-6, at the Slipper Room, 167 Orchard St. (Stanton St.), 946-1799; 9 p.m., $18. On Sun., Sept. 8, she performs with Ari-Up of the Slits, Theo (Lunachicks) and the Toilet Boys, with Candis Cayne hosting, at Webster Hall, 125 E. 11th St. (betw. 3rd & 4th Aves.), 353-1600; 9 p.m., $30 adv./$35 door, includes afterparty.

Hagen's documentary on her experiences in India, Om Gottes Willen?Om namah Shivay, screens Mon.-Tues., Sept. 9-10, at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave. (2nd St.), 505-5181.