Markus Kavka in an interview: “We were freaks”

Markus Kavka was born in Ingolstadt in 1967. His career as a journalist began at the magazine “Metal Hammer”, from there he went in front of the cameras at VIVA in the 1990s. Kavka first presented the magazine “Metalla” and later worked for VIVA2. In 2000 he moved again to MTV Germany, where he presented MTV News. He also appears as a novelist and DJ and still moderates music formats on TV and the web. “MTVIVA loves you!”, a montage of almost 70 interviews about German music TV, was recently released together with Elmar Giglinger.

ME author Diana Ringelsiep met Kavka to talk about spoiled TV moments, the dirty Depeche Mode interview and positioning in pop culture.

In the book, the working environment at VIVA Zwei and MTV is described as an anarchistic place where everyone was friends and high. Sounds like a terrible work-life balance…

Markus Kavka: Essentially, our private life was also our professional life and vice versa. In terms of work-life balance, it was of course a complete disaster, but it didn’t feel like that at the time because we met our friends at the station and made music television on the side.

Aren’t total failures in front of the camera inevitable when the drug taxi drives up every day?

Surprisingly not. Of course there was a bit of a botched moderation from me, Charlotte and Niels, but it wasn’t anything that really caused a stir. There was no script, I just always said something. It was part of the station’s principle that we were not smooth presenters – just like our audience. We were freaks.

Which day of your career would you like to relive?

I would like to repeat the interview with Depeche Mode that I completely ruined at Rock am Ring in 2006 because I had a blackout. I was sitting in front of Martin Gore and suddenly couldn’t speak English properly anymore and was asking really stupid questions. I would like to make amends for that.

What was going on, were you excited because you’re a fan of the band?

Also, but the circumstances were difficult overall because the interview took place during a live broadcast. I had to climb two floors of the VIP grandstand in the short time frame of a music video and arrived there panting. I also knew that the band had been forced to broadcast their show live against their will. All of this was associated with a lot of stress and hectic pace for me.

Your book is based on conversations with contemporary witnesses. Were there any anecdotes that you yourself had forgotten?

During the almost 70 interviews that Elmar and I conducted for the book, we came across many stories that we could no longer remember. I also watched the interview that I did with Mariah Carey at the Schlosshotel Grunewald and to my surprise it was very reminiscent of soft porn. I really had no idea how she was sitting opposite me in this ultra-skimpy top and in this lascivious, semi-recumbent position. As I looked, I was just waiting for myself to ask her: “Why is there straw here?”

Were the memories of your former colleagues congruent?

There were a few stories that we ended up with different versions of because everyone involved remembered certain details differently. For example, there is a passage in the book where Sarah Kuttner says that Campino was so shitty to her in an interview that she had to cry afterwards. Nora Tschirner probably noticed this, who then pursued Campino and confronted him in a bar. So we had Sarah’s version and Campino could also remember it in great detail and who didn’t know anything about it? Nora, the main protagonist of the story. At least she admitted that she saw the campaign in a similar way.

Some of your colleagues report being contacted privately by pop stars and invited. Why were you more reserved about this?

I didn’t go to a classic VJ casting because I thought I was a particularly cute boy who absolutely had to be in front of the camera. I had a journalistic background because I previously worked in print and radio. I maintained this journalistic distance as a moderating editor and continued it on music television.

The 1990s were an era in which politics and pop culture had few points of contact. Do you sometimes miss this carefree feeling?

When I look back, I am glad that I was able to experience this time. But I can’t say I miss her. Back then, I didn’t like how innocently people lived their day in pop music. You could count on one hand the few examples of those who have spoken out publicly against the right. Looking back, I wish we had been more involved. Because even though we were very nerdy at VIVA Zwei, we were comparatively apolitical. When I just think back to all those nu-metal bands, like Limp Bizkit or the Bloodhound Gang – from today’s perspective, I wouldn’t be interested in such sexist stuff being largely uncommented on the airwaves. We were sometimes too uncritical.

Many of the female presenters had to endure numerous sexist comments and gestures in front of the camera when they sat opposite the big rock stars. Was this discussed backstage?

This has already been discussed. I can remember some acrimonious editorial meetings over whether or not to put Band XY’s new video into rotation. There was always a faction that said: “Public demand! We have to play this!” And the other side that said: “We can’t give these misogynistic assholes another platform.” There was a heated discussion and at the end of the day a decision had to be made. Of course, it is always difficult to simply refer to the “other times”. But of course the temporal context played a role. Things would be different today.

On the other hand, VIVA and MTV were more diverse than many of today’s formats in terms of the quota of women and people of color. What was that about?

Back then, music television deliberately sought out people who were edgy and wouldn’t have had a chance on other stations. In this way they wanted to differentiate themselves from the rest of the program. It didn’t matter what skin color, gender or sexual orientation the moderators had. But it wasn’t thought of in terms of ratings, it was diversity in practice, without the term even existing – and that was only possible on music television.

Interview: Diana Ringelsiep