Name: Alex Remzi
Nationality: American-German
Occupation: Founder of several bars in Berlin, founder at Old Well Distillery, music organiser and curator
Current Event: The 8mm Festival, organised by Alex Remzi and his team, will take place at the 8mm Bar, Zionskirche, ACUD macht Neu, Kesselhaus and Maschinenhaus in Berlin October 10th & 11th 2025. The line-up includes A Place To Bury Stangers, Snapped Ankles, Divide And Dissolve, Zahn, Test Plan, Sexverbot and RIP Swirl. For more information and tickets, go here.  

[Read our A Place To Bury Strangers interview]
[Read our Zahn interview]

For a deeper dive, read our earlier interview with Alex Remzi about the 8mm Festival.



Krautrock is a guiding light for the festival but it always seemed like a phenomenon connected to a very specific era in German history. What about this music and its time do you connect with?

Not belonging to anything or anywhere.

How would you describe your personal relationship with Krautrock? When and how did it start?

I don’t have a personal relationship with krautrock. I appreciate it and I relate to several of the bands of that era. I grew up as a German in America and I can see how modern German music is often the butt of jokes outside of Germany, but this tiny window in time in the late 60s and early 70s was and is an era Germany should me more proud of and teach in schools.

It was the juncture of new technology, classical training and pioneering spirit. I love that. Not fitting in, doing your own thing. I was never into prog rock, but I like the idea of storytelling through music, mostly without words. Epically long songs that takes you up and brings you down and around, but structured, more than just a jam. And the hypnotic effects of NEU! and Can guide me through a lot of my adventures to this day. It’s always inspiring to see people create things with no real prospect of financial success but by passion alone.

Funny enough I discovered krautrock in DC not from Germans but through my Latvian friend Kristaps Krēsliņš' band LU, and I dug deeper into it when Radiohead kept talking it up in the late 90s. I found it a pity that more Germans didn’t share an awareness of this scene that has been so influential everywhere else and to me.



So I kind of saw it as my mission to show some appreciation once I moved back here.

Did you visit some of the birthplaces of Kraut – the Kraftwerk or Can studios, etc …? Do you own any paraphernalia from the era?

Michael Rother gave me a NEU! T- shirt once. I’m not a collector and I am not out to copy anything.

Sure the idea of the Zodiac Club was an inspiration for 8MM (but not the only one), but I had no idea how big it was or how it looked or functioned. I just had an idea about it and tried to make that place in my
head a reality to my own liking.

What I find intriguing is that you don't interpret Krautrock as a style or genre but – it would seem to me – as a certain attitude towards music and perhaps even towards life. Can you talk about this a bit and how this feeds into the music played at the bar and at the festival?

Yeah, because I don’t really see the world in those terms. Sure we use genres and identities, nationalities, race, whatever as a shortcut to thinking sometimes, but I really see the difference in the crucible that culture develops.

Like how Bad Brains are considered one of pioneering hardcore bands because they were one of the most important bands from the legendary DC hardcore scene, but they don’t consider their music hardcore. They created incredible music as a result of a combination of their environment, experience and skill.



That motivated me to create a space where people with common interest in music could meet, and when they started meeting and forming bands, it led me to start a label and put on shows to push it a step further. It was never a plan but a natural evolution. The shows got bigger, we knew more bands so I started the festival to bring them together. No one would sponsor us, so I started making my own drinks to finance it. Step by step by step..

Musically I have absolutely no talent but I am fascinated by what brought the artists to the point where they could create good music. And in order for these things musically to exist there need to be public forums for them to be tried out, experimented with.

The connection between the artist and the audience is an essential part of the development. Since I based the bar around music, it was obvious to me if you want it to keep flowing, you need to support live music.

Both in the music and the way it was made, Krautrock was about imagining different worlds. How do you see the political dimension of this festival and its music?

I don’t get involved in politics. Quite the contrary I want to reach people of different perspectives. Intolerance is the result of fear and everything you can do to bring people together and see each other not as boogeymen, is hopefully helping a little bit.

If you are not open to other people and other ways of being you don’t belong at 8MM or one of our fests. Good thing is you probably wont want to be here. Music is the filter, and most of the music we play would depress the shit out of anyone not openminded.

I see my role is to create the forum, bring people together and let the art speak for itself.

What, to you, are the main elements that make something “Kraut?” What are the practises of the musicians from the 70s that inspire your own activities today – up to setting up your own distillery?

Funny, I use a lot of kraut in my recipes. They are usually slightly bitter and have fascinating and unique aromatics. I try not to overdue it with them. Balance is everything, and I am no genius so I require a lot of trial and error to get the balance right.

I like to be on my own to do things, and I don’t take instructions well. I see a lot of parallels in this with my favorite musicians of the 70s you are referring to, as well as my contemporary musician friends.