M. Ward: When I finished my first record back in 2000, the first European companies to support my music were based in Brussels (62TV) and Paris (Le Disque Mange Tout). So I spent a lot of time traveling around western Europe playing music and trying to learn French, but also finding time to play le touriste américain. I feel fortunate that I’ve had the time to see some of the greatest museums and public spaces in the world. They have blown my mind too many times to mention.
Ward: I’ll never forget the feeling I had during my first trip to Berlin; it was a late night in Kreuzberg district and hundreds of young people were in the streets—no signs, protests or upheaval—just thousands of young people in the streets, like a peaceful riot that happens every weekend. I remember the energy teeming, their voices spilling over the Oberbaum Bridge that connects Kreuzberg to Friedrichshain and the cafe lights reflecting off the River Spree that once divided East Berlin from West Berlin and thinking about the kilometer-long graffiti art we had just seen on the East Side Gallery, which is fundamentally an ever-changing kaleidoscopic message from tomorrow’s generation: a new vision projected in full color against the old one, which is fundamentally a grey wall. I remember thinking, “Where am I?”
Video after the jump.
