Propaganda (band)

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Propaganda pictures by Anton Corbijn - from the UK A Secret Wish CD booklet

Propaganda was a synthpop musical group formed in Germany in the early 1980s by Ralf Dörper (a member of the German industrial band Die Krupps), Andreas Thein and Susanne Freytag. The trio recorded some demos for future release. With the inclusion of classicaly trained musician and composer Michael Mertens and 19 year old vocalist Claudia Brücken, now a five-member band, journalist Paul Morley signed the band to Trevor Horn's ZTT Records label.

The group relocated to the United Kingdom and released the single "Dr. Mabuse", which, with help from David Sylvian, reached the UK Top 30.

Thein left the band before it began recording its debut album A Secret Wish. ZTT's plan to have Trevor Horn produce Propaganda's debut had to be abandoned because of the huge success Horn was having with Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Stephen Lipson (Horn's engineer) took his place. The release of the album was preceded by the release of the single "Duel" which became a hit. The album received considerable critical acclaim and commercial success, but the group members had lost faith in ZTT. A remix album, Wishful Thinking was compiled by producers Stephen Lipson and Bob Kraushaar and released in 1986 without consulting the group.

Friction between Propaganda and ZTT had arisen when the band realized that their recording contract with ZTT would leave them without any remuneration for their work. A source close to the band confirmed that the group members received their first royalty payment for A Secret Wish from ZTT in 2000. The royalty payment amounted to £182 per band member. ZTT had recouped recording costs of more than £500,000 since 1985, which ZTT claimed they'd spent on Propaganda's behalf in the Sinclair/Horn family owned "Sarm West Studios" on Basing street in London. A very unusual amount of money for a new group, but it was a simple setup between ZTT and Sarm Studios, both owned by Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn. ZTT's cost's were Sarm Studios gain. Basically they were changing money from one pocket into another, then charged Propaganda for it. The receipts Propaganda later received for the use of some of Trevor Horn's private equipment were so high, that some of those items rented could have been bought more than 3 times over, but that wasn't in the interest of Sinclair/Horn. ZTT had absolutely no inclination to keep recording costs low. When, behind the group's back, ZTT initiated the remixes for "Wishful Thinking" at Sarm West Studio, Propaganda was in Italy promoting their singles. After they realized what had happened on their behalf, it appeared to them, that Sarm Studios was in a bit of a draught and needed some bookings. For ZTT it was a win-win situation, the more money they spent in Sarm Studio, the later they had to pay any money out to the band. For the members of Propaganda, all the time they'd spent on writing, recording, traveling and promoting, everything was in vain. A groupmember later declared that the way he was treated by ZTT and Perfect Songs made him feel that the artists were looked at as a "necessary evil".

Under Propaganda's recording contract with ZTT, each of the four band members received a gross royalty of a mere 1.5% of UK sales, less for sales outside the UK, and even less for sales outside of Europe. This royalty was less than the average contract that would divide 10% between the band members (performance royalties) and another 10% between the songwriters (writers royalties). In determining the royalty payment, ZTT also subtracted a large "packaging deduction", even though neither the vinyl LP nor the CD had expensive-to-produce packaging. A fee for the record producer was also deducted. Facing a disastrous loss of image and credibility when these contracts became subject to a court case between the bands (FGTH, Propaganda) and the label (ZTT lost both bands), ZTT Records claimed that these terms were not uncommon for a new group.

The publishing contract with Jill Sinclair's "Perfect Songs Ltd.", which all members of the group had to sign, was a "50/50 non-source publishing" deal. This deal enabled Perfect Songs to contract with multiple subpublishers in order to minimise the composers' royalty to a fraction of what it would have otherwise been. The contract also denied the composer any sync-rights (the rights to earn royalties when a song is used in TV, movies or computer games).

Claudia Brücken left Propaganda to pursue a solo career. She stayed with ZTT, having married the label's publicist Paul Morley. She joined Thomas Leer to form Act, who in 1988 released their only album Laughter, Tears and Rage. She later recorded a solo album for Island Records. Both records failed to meet expectations.

In 1990, Mertens returned with a new Propaganda line-up which included vocalist Betsi Miller, former Simple Minds rhythm section player Derek Forbes and Brian McGee. The result was a new LP 1234 produced by Ian Stanley and Chris Hughes (of Tears for Fears fame), on which Freytag and Dörper made guest appearances. Despite a radio-friendly first single "Heaven Give Me Words", co-written by 1980s 'synthpop king' Howard Jones, and a fine album of intelligent material, the new Propaganda were not a huge success. Perhaps in part due to MTV dropping the video for "Heaven Give Me Words" after only very few plays. Times were changing; melodic synth pop quickly became out of fashion as house was all the rage.

In 1998, Mertens, Brücken and Freytag reunited, signed an options deal with Eastwest Records, and began working on new Propaganda material. Several tracks were completed including one produced by Tim Simenon and featuring Martin Gore on guitar. A video for one song, "No Return", was produced in Morocco and directed by "Keyser Soze" (likely a pseudonym) in December 1998. Two-minute clips of it, along with photos of the shoot, were released via the band's official website in early 2000. However, no album materialized, and in January 2002, Brücken announced, "The reunion was worth a try, but did not work out." Later that year, an untitled nine-track CD was leaked via file-sharing networks on the Internet. Track titles were "Cloud 9", "Ignorance", "Who's The Fool", "Beast Within", "No Return", "To The Future", "Turn To The Sun", "Dream Within A Dream", and "Anonymous".

In early 2005, Propaganda, now Susanne Freytag and Michael Mertens, started to release new material on the German independent label Amontillado-Music. [1]

In November 2005, the original Propaganda line-up with Ralf Dörper but sans Thein performed at the Wembley Arena showcase of Trevor Horn's lifetime celebration. The band played Dr. Mabuse.