Last February, Anja Huwe took to the stage at the Grauzone Festival in The Hague for a set that included songs from Xmal Deutschland, the post-punk outfit she fronted throughout the 1980s. Huwe hadn’t performed these songs live since the band’s demise some 35 years earlier. In fact, after Xmal Deutschland, Huwe stepped away from the stage to focus on her career as a visual artist. Meanwhile, songs like “Mondlicht,” “Incubus Succubus” and “Qual” have become classics of the era. Out in the crowd were multiple generations of fans.
“I had to go out there and I saw these people, so many people, so I just tried to concentrate,” Huwe says, adding with a laugh, “I’ve got to get it right.”
Formed in Hamburg, initially with an all-female lineup, Xmal Deutschland released a couple singles on the German indie label ZickZack, before they famously opened for Cocteau Twins in the U.K. and signed to 4AD. Their two 4AD albums, Fetisch (1983) and Tocsin (1984), captured a wild, raw energy- all heavy drums, dirgy guitars and slightly unsettling vocals- that would go on to influence multiple waves of dark, alternative rock music to follow.
“We always had this more or less cult audience,” says Huwe. “We disappeared and, over the years, it just grew.”
On May 9, Xmal Deutschland’s 4AD output will once again be available via the new 3 LP/2 CD box set, Gift.It wasn’t until I started working on this story that I learned that gift is also the German word for poison. Huwe laughs when I mention this. The double-meaning was intentional.
“I like that, to play with words and to use words that have two meanings,” says Huwe. “I always did that.”
Gift includes both Fetisch and Tocsin as well as the singles “Incubus Succubus II” and “Qual.”
“Every record has its own story,” says Huwe. Fetisch, which was co-produced by Ivo Watts-Russell was the band’s debut full-length and they did not have a lot of songs to work with. “What we recorded was there and that was it,” says Huwe, “and it took us a while to get that together.”
With Tocsin, the band had a new drummer in the lineup and a new producer, Mick Glossop (Magazine, PIL), in the studio. “He started explaining how you write songs and what a chorus is and a verse and a completely different way of working together,” Huwe recalls of Glossop.
In the five years that followed Tocsin, Xmal Deutschland released several singles and EPs, as well as the full-length albums Viva (1987) and Devils (1989), on various labels.
“In the early days, we were like aliens in a way,” says Huwe. “We had an audience and records, but I think it grew through various magazines and people who work on this kind of music and it’s much bigger than it was in the early days.”
In some ways, Huwe never really left music behind with Xmal Deutschland. Her visual art, filled with color and dots, is related. “I see music in colors, really, I have to say,” she says. “That was always the case. Even the way I work with all of these dots and lines and stuff, to me, it’s like a rhythm and a kind of melody that I bring onto the canvas.”
Still, it wasn’t until recently that Huwe began recording music again. Last year, she released the album,Codes, a collaboration with Mona Mur and former Xmal Deutschland guitarist Manuela Rickers.
“There was no pressure, so I could do what I wanted,” Huwe says of her return to the studio.
“In the early days, it was the band and there was pressure. They recorded first of all and I was the very last to come in and do my vocals,” she explains. “This time, it was completely the other way around. I wrote my lyrics, my words, I said, I wanted a sound that sounds like this or that or trip-hop-ish or something, so we developed things.”
Huwe adds, “Also, the way of singing and performing was completely different because my voice is stronger than it was in the early days for some reason. I think the reason really is because I’m free. There is no pressure on me, so I can do whatever I want and that is a completely different way of working, which I enjoy, I have to say.”
More recently, Huwe released the single “PolarForest,” a mashup of the 1987 Xmal Deutschland song “Polarlicht” and “Living in the Forest,” from Codes. She does plan to go back into the studio, maybe in the winter. There’s also more Xmal Deutschland material that could be re-released.
Right now, though, Huwe is preparing for more shows. She has live dates lined up in Europe over the course of the next few months. As for the U.S., that might have to wait.
“It was planned for autumn and it’s far too early in a way because all the visa stuff takes about eight months and it’s very, very, very expensive for Europeans and there is no guarantee that you can come in,” Huwe explains. “Hopefully, we will come next year, but we’re not sure if we can really make it. So, we don’t know. We would love to.”
Gift: The 4AD Years by Xmal Deutschland is available on May 9 in multiple formats and on multiple platforms.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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