On the move - in your head and in everyday life

Sven Borges

When you ask Sven Borges whether he is a doer, he looks a little irritated for a moment. How else could he be? The fact that he simply does the things that interest him is something that runs through his entire life. The story that begins in a small gallery in Hermannstraße ends in one of the most successful companies in the industry: InMove, the largest concert organiser in eastern Germany, comes from Chemnitz. Sven Borges has supported artists such as Unheilig from the very beginning and has organised countless concerts over more than 20 years. Among others - attention, exciting mix - with Marilyn Manson, Seeed, Rammstein, Einstürzende Neubauten, Söhne Mannheims, Sportfreunde Stiller, Silbermond and Peter Gabriel. He likes music when it's loud. And above all handmade. Because the atmosphere is different, genuine. This could also be because he comes from a family of musicians. Sven Borges himself once learnt to play the trumpet, but no longer plays, he says with a grin.

Let's first answer the question that is probably on many people's minds right now: Wouldn't you have to live and work somewhere else? Where the artists are? So why Chemnitz?
Sven Borges: Because I was born here, quite simply. A real Karl-Marx-Städter. I had many offers, including very lucrative ones. But my family is here, my friends are here. And even if that might sound strange: I like knowing where things are, who you meet where, and that distances are short. I like being in other cities, but I personally find it useful to have a clear overview. That's why Chemnitz.

So Chemnitz is one constant in your life. Culture is the other, isn't it?
Yes, that's right. My grandad was a professional musician, a trumpet player at IG Wismut. My father played in bands, my mother was in a singing club before she worked in culture for decades and later became head of the cultural department. So I was involved in events from an early age. And I did things myself right from the start. What's funny is that I used to run a school discotheque together with my current company partner. We found out later. But we only really met up again later, he was at the AJZ and I was at the Kraftwerk. I started with a job at Galerie Hermannstraße, where I ran the bar and organised small cultural events. The working people's clubs were then handed over to the city, and in the early 90s I turned one of them into the Leimtopf theatre in Bernsdorf. With my own resources, lots of friends who joined in and did everything myself. It went really well, but we always wanted to have more than 150 guests, even though the building regulations weren't that strict back then. So we had to rent somewhere else. That's why we moved to the Kraftwerk, a brilliant location. It's crazy what was possible back then.

The family is to blame for your passion for music. Did you want to be in this industry from the start or did you still learn something proper?
(laughs) I'm actually a trained bespoke tailor. It was supposed to be something creative, I wanted to study fashion design in Schneeberg and learn the basics beforehand, cuts and all that. But the apprenticeship put me off school and studying. That's why I looked for a new direction after reunification - and found it in the clubs. Music has always been a part of my life, at all times. We were concert-goers, we went to everything there was to hear. So it somehow made sense to organise the bands I'd seen myself.

Okay, a desire for music, a location - but how do you start the whole thing?
Back then, there was neither the internet nor booking agencies that booked bands for gigs. I had received the FDJ catalogue, which listed all the bands, singer-songwriters and singers in the GDR, and that's where I started. I knew who the crowd wanted to hear and brought exactly those bands to Chemnitz. I worked on some of them for years, such as Laibach, until they came to Chemnitz.

When you look at the list of artists you've worked with, you're speechless for a moment and then impressed. Who fascinated you the most?
It's hard to say, with 200 concerts a year for more than 20 years. But a real highlight for me was Einstürzende Neubauten on 21 May 1993. That was a dream come true, I idolised the band as a teenager, they were the greatest thing for me. It was more than just music, it was art. Then The Cure or Sisters of Mercy, who we basically reunited for a tour. That went through the roof and was the accolade for us as a touring agency. And of course Billy Idol, who influenced me for decades. So much so that my son, who is two, is now also called Billy (laughs).

How do you manage to know what's going to happen for years and decades?
The concert business is always full of risk. The charts don't necessarily reflect what people like. People who buy a CD don't automatically go to a concert. We now know how many people an act moves and how much people will pay to see it. You have to have your ear to the ground and always be up to date. I haven't read any books for years, but I do read 15 music magazines a month. A bit like the stock market: Knowledge, information and intuition. That, together with the internet and the network you've built up, the contacts, that's what it takes. We've been following many bands for years, we've known them forever. Silbermond or Unheilig, the H-Blockx. And sometimes you're much more than an organiser: Skinny Puppy, for example, the pioneers of everything in the field of electro and industrial, they were totally at odds, it took a year and a half to get them back on stage. In the meantime, we've had acts and visitors from more than 70 countries at our concerts. You can't just do it for eight hours a day, you have to do it for 15 hours a day. It's a business where we sometimes don't know at the beginning of the month what it will look like at the end. And we've had it all, extremely good months and miserably bad ones. It hasn't got any easier because conditions and prices matter much more today than they used to. Agencies and events suddenly appear that are cheap but are gone again after a year. We work with people for years.

You're now in your mid-40s. How long can and will you do that?
Ten years ago, I once said I didn't want to do it until I was 50. Now it's still five years away and I can't imagine doing anything else. That answers the question (laughs).

What drives you?
The passion that comes with the job. One important aspect is the independence. I don't have a boss who talks me into it. I never wanted that. And quite clearly, I have to earn money because the company not only feeds my family, but I also have responsibility for my employees. That's why I haven't had a weekend off for 20 years. I don't usually have time on Fridays or Saturdays. So it's rather surprising when I call someone. But that's my choice.
You never go to concerts privately, you always see what other people are doing. Although I can still switch off and enjoy the music. I used to go to ten or twelve festivals every summer to learn.

But no more sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll: Sven Borges orders malt beer during the interview. Because he hasn't drunk alcohol for ages. And because the workload would probably be impossible to keep up otherwise. Hence the meeting in a café in the city centre, not in the office. It looks like any office, says Borges, and all the phones are ringing all the time. They do now too, but the mobile phone is on silent.

Talking about festivals: you might think you have enough to do with concerts. But you organise the With Full Force (WFF), you made the Wave-Gotik-Treffen (WGT) in Leipzig big. How did that come about?
Actually, we've always reacted to the market - what isn't there yet, what do people want? That was the case at the Kraftwerk back then, that's why we developed Dark Storm in the Stadthalle and that's why there's the Christmas pogo. With Full Force basically came about because we were fans of the Dynamo Open Air. A festival in Eindhoven that brought together three music scenes in one place that don't really have anything in common. Metal, punk and hardcore, that was a phenomenon. We wanted something like that too - and now we had the 21st WFF.

Sven Borges is a bit modest about that too: The festival, which began as a one-day event in Werdau, continued as a camping festival in Zwickau in 1996 and moved to Roitzschjora airfield in 1999, now attracts more than 30,000 visitors. Iron Maiden played there, as did Motörhead, Slayer, Rammstein, Slipknot, Volbeat and dozens of others.

Every year at Whitsun, the Wave-Gotik-Treffen transforms the whole of Leipzig into a dark world that has long fascinated people beyond the scene.
Yes, the atmosphere in the city is unique. And it's amazing how everything comes together: there are countless events and locations, bands suddenly play in the Gewandhaus and are incredibly proud of it. It's madness. Nobody could have imagined that the WGT would become so big. We took it over in 2001 after the previous organisers went bankrupt. There were many interested parties, but the people of Leipzig wanted to organise the festival with us from Chemnitz. Years of work paid off because we had a name in the industry. In the meantime, we have shown people that you can deliver quality and still earn money.

Your latest own creation is Rock 'n' Ink, which is taking place in the Arena for the fifth time this weekend. And straight to the cliché: I don't necessarily have a close relationship with tattoos, so why shouldn't I miss it?
Because it's different from the cliché, because there's something to look at and because it's fun. There are more and more families every year, we even have a family day on Sunday, and it's just a good atmosphere. We were fans ourselves and have attended many tattoo conventions. I was always upset about how bad they often were, how people were treated. And that's why we said: if we do this, we'll do it differently and properly in Chemnitz. Relaxed. But with high standards. We have the biggest international tattoo artists here. Roman Abrego, for example, is a superstar in the USA with his own TV programme, others come from Australia, Canada or Japan. Pawel Angel from Russia is here for the first time, a realist who has his own unmistakable style. Looks like a painting. Real body art.

You can also see it on Sven Borges' left arm. On the other, the pictures look more Asian. It doesn't look like a cheap tattoo. But Borges himself doesn't fit the tattoo cliché either - successful, but modest and exceptionally polite.

I don't know if it's my imagination: are there actually more people with tattoos in Chemnitz than anywhere else?
Yes, that's true. Either the people here are a bit more open or in the West it was simply nothing unusual after decades. Just like in music, there are phenomena that nobody can really explain. But the interest in tattoos now cuts across all social classes, you just don't see them on everyone in everyday life. So there's definitely something to look at at the weekend (laughs). We also show American cars, marvellous old chrome cars and custom bikes. We have comedy, a band contest, burlesque shows and, of course, music around the clock. This time with the Firebirds, because rockabilly just fits perfectly. We do music and tattoos at Rock'n'Ink, all in all a broad spectrum without all the embarrassing stuff that is sometimes found at such fairs.

Put it all together: Why do people know so little about you?
There are a lot of people here in Chemnitz who don't have to tell everyone how successful they are at what they do. That also applies to us, even though we've been the biggest concert organiser in East Germany for 20 years. But we don't need advertising for ourselves, what counts for us is what someone does. We try to pass this on and support young bands, for example. But we also support a football club from Chemnitz-Süd.

There is still one question that we ask in every interview: Do you have to encourage the people of Chemnitz?
I would like to say: Chemnitz residents, go to more concerts. Not because of us, there are other organisers and clubs, but for yourselves. Handmade music simply has a different value. It creates an attitude to life, not just in the youth scene. People don't travel to Chemnitz for discos, but for music, for concerts. And sometimes you have to get involved with bands that you might not know, but still go and just listen to them. Rammstein were also the opening act for Project Pitchfork in the beginning. Young bands have a much harder time these days - if you don't have a name yet, you hardly get a chance. That's why we always try to support local bands and give them space at festivals. So: be open. You could also say: InMove. In motion. In your head and in everyday life.