Cretu - LSD Israel Press Interview - October 2001



LSD Hits LSD Remix

The Enigma Is Me


Published in "Yedioth Aharonot", Israel by Tahel Blumenfeld. Translated from Hebrew by Uri Hartmann)

Ten years ago an idea sparked in his mind to combine church chants with electronic sounds. He named this patent as Enigma. The world bought the gimmick and the albums, and now the brand is celebrating a successful decade for its foundation. Due to the event, the Romanian musician Michael Cretu took his time off to send a hello to the country that does him such a great honor every "calm weekend" (weekend edition of the most popular radio station in Israel - UH).

You can't say the music world didn't go through enormous changes in the last decade. New styles emerged (welcome British pop!), bands didn't always stay around (anyone remember Guns and Roses?), and we woke up to the new millennium as the tone is given by the electronic music. Luckily, at the same time, some formulas survived, just for the stability feeling. Madonna, for example, Michael Jackson, Enigma. At the beginning of the 90s, Michael Cretu woke up, until then a musician, a producer, and the husband of the 80s icon Sandra, with a magical idea on his mind: Wrapping up electronic sounds with spiritual aura of church chants. He named the patent Enigma. The world bought the gimmick and the albums, and the brand Enigma released four albums that recycled the magic formula.

Now this surprising success is celebrating a decade to its foundation in two collections: one includes the greatest hits plus one new single, and the other, based on pure remixes, hosts a variety of club versions to what everybody already familiar with. Due to the event Cretu takes his time off to send "Hello" to the country that does him such a great honor every calm weekend. In spite the fact he hates interviews.

I must admit I'm really suffering from that, I'm doing an advertisement, and there's an advertisement for a toothpaste too. It's terrible, so I'd rather avoid it. When Enigma was founded I was embarrassed by the fact that I'm involved. I told the records company to do me a favor: no advertisements. They agreed and gave a chance to the music by its own. There's a great risk in such tactics. I love this risk. An Indian philosopher said once that if you have a goal, you'll pick the tough way to get to it, otherwise you have no challenge. You simply make yourself an easy life

Michael Cretu (44) was born at Bucharest, Romania, not exactly a site that produced a lot of known musicians. I'm probably one of the few, he laughs, and when you look at the conditions that I've raised in it's even more refuted. My father is an engineer. My mother, who died two years ago, was an economist. Nothing was related to music. Until people started telling my parents that I'm talented. I started playing classic music at age 5.

But Cretu abandoned the classic districts quickly for playing pop. Thanks to that he met his wife, the singer Sandra, whom he started to work with when she was 18. Today the Cretu family is located, with the two 6 year old twins, at the party island Ibiza. The parties are only small part of the island, he's telling, I have nothing to do with it. It's a small island, you don't have to travel too much to get from one place to another. There's also the great weather.

How are your boys handling with two musicians parents?
They got used to it. They know I'm addicted, but it's not like they don't see me much. I have a studio at home so I'm available to everyone. They see my wife and me all the time. The kids know what mom and dad are doing, but we won't pressure them to deal with music. I won't mind if they'll be gardeners. It's true they have a good example at home, but what's important is the skill and not the example.

If we're already talking about family - I heard Sandra is planning a comeback?
It's true. My wife released her first single after seven years, and it's very successful at Europe. The full album will be released soon But with all the respect to his wife's comeback, Cretu prefers to talk about his baby. When he's asked where he derived the idea to combine religious chants and popular beats, he says: I have no idea how it happened. Many things are happening in my mind, and probably some of them combined together and created it. Nobody sits and analyzes what he has on his mind. Either something is coming out of it, or not.

In fact you invented a new musical style. You must be very proud.
Very proud. All my life I dealt with music, I'm addicted to music, and it's every musician's dream to invent something. After Enigma was founded many imitations appeared. It's a little bothering sometimes, but the bottom line is that it shows I really invented something new. Everybody thinks that I'm mad about it, but I'm more flattered.

When you founded Enigma you knew that the business would survive for so long?
Yes. I remember I told my wife that if it worked once it'll work after a decade too. You're full of self-confidence. Without self-confidence you'll reach nothing. I remember I thought that there are two possibilities: Either what I'm doing will be a tremendous failure, or a great hit. I knew it can fail, but I didn't let it affect me for one minute, because I loved what I did and that's what is important.

The two collections are symbolizing for you an end of an era and a beginning of a new era for Enigma? It must be the end of something and the beginning of something else, two phases to go through. The collection looks like a resume, and after that we'll see what will happen. I don't know what will happen yet, but it'll still be Enigma for sure.

Actually why releasing a collection and not something new?
Something inside me told me to. It was simply my own decision. It has nothing to do with marketing and public relations. It's obvious that it's fine with the records company, but after all I'm making music, and I don't mind how much will it sell. It's a statement many artists are stating and it always sounds suspicious. It's probably true, but you can't forget that in order to pass this test, you must be good. If you're doing bad music, you won't be bought in millions. I must say again that you're not exactly showing any sign of modesty. (Laughs) I was never accused of over-modesty.

You called the collection 'Love, Sensuality, Devotion'. These elements accompanied your music all through the way. The question is: are they still relevant today, when it seems like the entire world is sobering up from something.
These are fundamental elements that allows us to survive as humans. The music, combined with these elements, is almost a trip for me. Note that the first letters of these elements are creating the combination LSD. These are elements which always accompanied us, and they're more relevant today than ever.

You're talking about a 'trip'. The music helps you to run away from the world?
Enigma is something beyond the regular world. Something entirely different. But as for myself, I'm living pretty normal life.


Many thanks to Enigma fan Uri Hartmann for translating this interview from Hebrew into English