The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Christoph Henning of The Antikaroshi

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

For me, it’s basically an outlet for the things that I personally can’t deal with so easily, through an electrical device. Be it on a small or large scale. Most of the time it’s very rewarding.
How I got into it? Purely by chance. I grew up in a small village and my father was kind of worried that his only son would get lost in the local soccer team. So he allowed me to buy a drum kit when I was 15. From that point on, he couldn’t turn it back.

Describe your first musical memory.

Seeing “village people” on the television. It must have been 1979 and I liked all their costumes and that there were so many people on stage playing instruments or not.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Tough one. There were a few. Hm seeing Shellac on 9/11 in Berlin was intense. No one knew if they were going to play or not, and Steve did an improvised monologue for what felt like 20+ minutes in one song. It had all the tension and desperation of the moment and set an artistic standard for me.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

There have been a few times when you’ve put on a DIY show for one of your “heroes”, whose records you’ve listened to endlessly, and it turns out that the people involved are just “human beings” after all ;-)

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

I don’t get the question but I recently read an interview by a very cool band called all structures align and they said something like “to at least avoid to make the same mistakes again” – totally agree.

How do you define success?

Taking seriously what you do. Condensing honestly into words and sounds what you feel. If in that sense the music adds something to our normal everyday experiences then we have achieved our goal and we have been “successful”. If it resonates with others, that’s cool, but it’s not part of our definition of success.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Murder city devils in 2003(?) supporting At the drive-in in Dublin. I guess it was their final show of the tour and for some reason the singer decided to drink a bottle of Jack Daniels in 1 sip. You can imagine what happened next..

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I wish I could built my own instruments not necessarily a guitar. But it’s either the lack of time or laziness.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

The ability to abstract

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Ornithology.

https://theantikaroshi.de
https://antikaroshi.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/the_antikaroshi

http://www.mainstreamrecords.de
https://www.youtube.com/@exileonmainstream3639

The Antikaroshi, “Gravity” official video