Dero Goi
Still Doors to Open

27.10.2025

Just a year ago we did a major interview with Dero Goi in the run-up to his Russian tour, discussing his debut solo album “1984”, his opinion of the 80s, his discovery of God, and a lot of other topics. Though it’s been just a short while, Dero is already coming back to Russia this autumn with a much bigger tour, and we have figured out that topics to discuss with the former Oomph! singer are far from over. This time we spoke in detail about the making of his videos, the importance of lyrics for the audience and authenticity for an artist, Dero’s touring plans and his opinion about the advances of artificial intelligence. Read on to discover the drastic contrast with the way that the man is often portrayed in the English-speaking media and message boards…

What are your expectations from the upcoming Russian tour? You will be playing in 13 cities – are there any of them that you are especially looking forward to see?

Of course, all the cities that I’ve never played before! This is always a challenge and kind of like an adventure, and of course, wintertime in Russia is always special - you never know what you get. I’ve already visited quite a few cities of this tour, but there’s still a few that I’ve never seen before, so of course, those cities I’ve never been before to, I’m looking forward to visit very much.

How will your upcoming shows differ from the ones you did in Russia last year? We heard that you will present a few new songs – is that correct?

That’s correct! A few new versions, a few new piano ballads, a few brand new songs, of course, new video material in the background, and so on. I’m looking forward to it very much, it’s always a challenge to play new songs with new lyrics, but it creates a special energy to be onstage, especially in Russia, because there’s so much enthusiasm coming back from the audience, and this is now and then very overwhelming. The Russian audience is so full of energy, emotions and enthusiasm.

Who are the musicians that play live with you? Can you say a few words about them?

One of my stage members who plays keyboards is Julia Davydova, she’s also my manager and my booking agency, if you want. She’s all in one, she’s the universal girl for me. (laughs) Then we have another girl on stage, Natalie “Defekt_Kids”, who already played quite a few piano versions of my former band Oomph!, so I’ve known her for a while, she’s a very good piano player, and I’m looking forward very much especially to those ballads that I will perform together with her on the piano. Vlad Kalinkin is another Russian guy, he’s a guitar player and a very nice guy, very talented, a cool person. It’s always good to travel with Russians, because I still don’t know any Russian. People are so nice when I’m in Russia, they speak English to me or even German, so I’m not forced to learn Russian. (everybody laughs) I’ve been visiting Russia regularly for more than 20 years, but so far I know nothing more than “privet”, “dobry vecher, damy i gospoda” - those typical phrases. Of course it’d be better if I finally started to learn the Russian language, even though it’s hard.

Do you really plan to learn it?

Well, you learn it the best if you’re forced. So far I’m not forced, but of course it would be cool to know more Russian words or sentences than just a few. But yeah, why not? It’s a very special and a very hard language to learn, it’s a challenge, but I love challenges.

Do you also plan to do any shows outside Russia – in your home country or elsewhere in Europe maybe? 

Sure! We’re always on the search for possibilities to play. Of course, in Western Europe it’s not that easy at the moment because of the political situations. The woke leftist, rainbow agenda people are very sensitive to critics of their agenda, and I’m a critic of LGBTQ, for example, so it makes it harder for me to play in Western Europe, which is still pretty much focused on all the woke left stuff. But it’s turning at the moment, conservative streams, parties and movements are on the rise, so maybe it will be easier in the future to have more than just a few gigs in Western Europe. I would like to play anywhere in the world, why not? Even in America, Mexicо, South America, it’s always cool to be in contact with different cultures, other different points of view and so on. 

Could you tell us a bit about the “Genesis” project and your involvement in it?

That’s a real cool thing - orchestral music, classical music that describes the creation and the fall of man. That’s really my topic, because I’m a believer in the Bible and in Jesus Christ, and I was very pleased that I had the opportunity to take part in this awesome project. Especially because it’s recorded in Kaliningrad, a beautiful city, and it’s a pleasure and honor - and a challenge again - to be the German speaker in it. I mean, there’s already a Russian version, there’s already an English-speaking version, and now I’m the narrator of the German version. And it’s really cool - I met the composer, Baruch Berliner, in Berlin quite a few months ago, I had a conversation with him, and he was really pleased because he likes my voice, my tone. I said, “It’s really sad that the cause of the fall is not mentioned that deeply in the Russian and the English version. Why don’t you show the people that there also was a snake, there was the devil who tempted the human beings?” He said, “Yeah, I’m gonna think about it, that’s a good idea!” And he wrote music for that. I had the pleasure to really add this passage to the Bible to his wonderful piece of music, and I’m looking forward to record this passage, because it’s very dramatic, again in Kaliningrad. Yeah, there are Russian connections! I’m thankful that my manager Julia had this contact and offered me this opportunity. There are still doors to open, cool!

You have released as many as eight videos in support of your first solo album, “1984”, and they are all different from each other. Who comes up with concepts for your video? Who is the main idea bringer as far as videos are concerned?

Well, that’s versatile. There are many people who work for me, and I’m very thankful that it is that way. For example, Agata Nigrovskaya, the wife of the lead singer of KняZz, I’ve worked a lot together with her, I’ve been friends with them for quite a while, and they’re very nice guys. Of course, Julia has her impact, for example, with the latest video, “Archangels”, where she’s the director. I’m the director of my own videos from time to time, and then there’s other people who work for me who have their impact. I really love the fact that all the videos are different, as you already mentioned, and that they show the versatility of the album and, of course, of my personality very properly. There’s still gonna be quite a few, I’m looking forward for the next video, “The First Stone”, it’s already in the making. It’s gonna be different again, and very wonderful. It’s been shot in Bavaria, with mountains in the back, and cliffs and rivers and so on. There’s much nature that you can see in this upcoming video again. And then you have the current video, “Archangels”, which represents quite a lot of Russian nature, the Kaliningrad area, very beautiful too. Then we have videos that are partly AI created. I love the combination of everything - that we use new technology, but combine it with real acting. And then we have videos that are completely about real acting. Yeah, I love the versatility of being an artist, I really like to use all the techniques and possibilities that we have these days.

Where and how did you get all the source footage for the “Clickbait” video? It must have taken hours and hours to go through and compile all that together. Did you get any help from AI?

No, that video was done without AI completely. A good friend of mine, Ulrich Burchard, the director of this video, did a really long time research for this, and he already went nuts doing this. It was like back and forth, he always showed me new stuff, and I would say, “It needs to be more crazy! You need to find more crazy scenes!” (everybody laughs) He was really busy doing that, and he did a great job. He said that was a challenge too, because the net is so packed with these surfacial crazy nut jobs who do this stuff. And they explicitly allow third persons to use their content, so it was easy for me to use their scenes, because they gave their OK for that. I think it was really cool to show how nuts the world went in such a short period of time, no wonder that China forbade their invention. I mean, they invented TikTok, but in China it is almost forbidden to use it, and if it’s used, it’s used in a quite different context, just an educational context. To me TikTok seems to be a psychological warfare operation, like a psyop to destabilize other nations, and obviously it’s working pretty well. 

What is the role of music videos for an artist like you these days? As far as we understand, a video requires a lot of investment, but these investments never pay off directly…

That’s true, and that’s why I’m very thankful to work with people who do much with the help of technology that is very accessible. This makes it easier and more affordable for us as musicians to create proper videos. And of course it’s good to have creative people around you who make their impact, so you profit from a huge source of ideas, intelligence and mind. But you have to be careful, of course, because the overuse of the new technology of AI can make the product pretty soulless. If you use AI, you must never lose your critical point of view on it. You can use it, but please also show the danger of it, or the pros and cons, that’s very important for me. I think for us as human beings it’s very important to be in contact with each other in real life, because we need these social interactions for our souls. We should not forget that we are human beings that were created with a soul, in contrast to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence does not have emotions, and it will never be able to evolve emotions. It can only pretend to be emotional, like a psychopath, and that’s what makes it even more dangerous, if you ask me. We should remain in contact and maybe even intensify our contact in real life, because what’s making us human beings. If we interact in real life, then we have all the aspects that are needed, we can hold our hand, if we are in grief, for example, we can try and understand each other, we can listen to each other, we can grasp our emotions, our chemical aspects, our grimaces, our gestures, everything. That’s impossible via Whatsapp messages, for example. I’ve never experienced more misunderstandings than with Whatsapp communications. (laughs) People try and misunderstand written words so intensely, but if you talk with each other, you can hear the tone, you can see the facial aspects, you can hold your hands, whatever. Then misunderstandings are very rare. That’s a danger, and I think we should take care about coming back to what we need, and that is the interaction of human beings in real life. I think we should intensify it, we should go back to the roots, and the roots are - gather together, make house music, take your guitar and sing together around the fireplace, make your shashlik together. (everybody laughs) That’s your real life, and we should go back to that. I’m absolutely sure it will happen, because people are already so sick of this deception and this fake world that’s coming up with AI and with the internet. If you look at the videos, people are watching cat videos, dog videos, spectacular videos where someone is jumping from a cliff and so on - these are the videos that have the highest click rates. But it’s already packed with bots, people who go, “This is AI, this is AI, do not believe it”. Do you see what it means? It means that people don’t believe what’s going on on the net anymore, and that’s a good thing if you ask me, because then you can go back to real life. When you can see it with your own eyes, if you can touch it, smell it, taste it, grab it, feel it, then you know that it’s real. It’s a good thing that people have already realized that everything on the net is about fake.

Absolutely! Let’s come back to the album “1984”. It’s been a year since it was released. Do you think you have succeeded in getting its message through to the audience? It’s no secret that a lot of people say they don’t care about the lyrics or message at all, they just want to enjoy the melodies or the energy that the music has…

I think I have the great advantage as a musician that’s been around for over 30 years that people have been taking care of the content that I have delivered, even with my former band Oomph! It was mainly about content. I think the people that still follow me are the people that really do take care of the content and messages and lyrics a lot. I’m not a typical artist for people who just love to dance around, scream around, jump around and be surfacial all the time, that’s not me. They have their other musicians, or, let’s say, all these con artists created by artificial intelligence specifically for those people, like this K-pop stuff. I’m not one of those, and that’s a big advantage. People who listen to my music or have been listening to my former band Oomph! were already there for the content, for the messages, for the lyrics. So I think most of the people do get the message of my album “1984” - the dangers that are connected with the globalist world that uses technology to surveil, to suppress, to make people obey the system, to conform, to be just an ant that they can trample on. This is why I chose the title “1984”, because there’s this connection to George Orwell and his dystopian novel. We could see this during the COVID lockdown and the restriction times, and we can still see this development going on so rapidly all over the world - mass surveillance like in China, retinal scan, and you’re just their hand puppets of those elites who decided to implement this system onto mankind. The question is: do we really want to submit come what may, or do we get out of the system sooner or later and have a kind of counterculture to that? I would highly recommend this, because otherwise you’re gonna be a zombie, a manipulated zombie in the system. 

In our previous interview we talked about the importance of physical products for artists and fans, and “1984” is available in a variety of physical configurations via Dependent Records, but these configurations are not gonna be with you on the upcoming tour, as it is very difficult to get them through customs. Have you considered releasing a localized CD edition of the album in addition to the digital version made available by Soyuz Music?

We would have really loved to see physical versions happening in Russia, but what can you do? I cannot bring them over, otherwise they would put me in jail either in Poland or in Russia (laughs) if I try to bring them all across the border. Hopefully in the future Soyuz will release them physically. All we can do is remind them that we would like to, but I don’t know if they would agree on that. Let’s see. 

By the way, are you satisfied working with Dependent Records in Europe and the way they promote the album? 

It’s a very small label, but they have their history and they have their fanbase. They’re electronic- and industrial-oriented, and that suits my music. I think they do a proper job considering the fact that they are not a major label and they do not have that amount of workers in their company. I’m pretty satisfied so far, I cannot say anything negative about them. 

Do you intend to pursue the electronic direction of “1984” further in your future songs? In other words, are you done with guitar-based music, or do we have a chance to hear something – not similar, but maybe more similar to Oomph! at some point in time?

I’m absolutely not against guitars, don’t get me wrong. I was just, let’s say, forced to compose on my own during the lockdown phase, and the vast majority of the songs that are on the album stem from the first lockdown phase in Germany. I was just forced to work on my own, so I sat in front of my computer and wrote the songs with my keyboard, with sequencers, like back in the day when I was a teenager and began with my music - that was really electronic-based too. But I’m not against guitars. Of course, I’ve changed a lot since I’m a believer in Christ, and that means I would never ever sing again against God, so the topic has changed drastically. Of course, I’m not about darkness, nihilism, depression and so on, my state of heart, mind and soul has changed, so of course, I would start a lie if I repeat myself just for commercial reasons, and I’m not allowed to lie as a Christian, so why should I lie? I really believe that the audience does not like to be lied to. If I say, “OK, now I know that it’s better for me for commercial reasons to start a new project that’s rather like what Oomph! was”, I would lie to them, because I don’t feel like that anymore. I’m not about darkness, death, self-hurting, suicidal thoughts, depression anymore, so why should I sing about those aspects? I’m completely renewed as a person, and I’m thankful that I’m not feeling depressed and suicidal anymore. Why should I start and sing about those aspects again? I’m not that aggressive anymore, so why should I sing that aggressively again? It doesn’t make any sense from my perspective right now as a believer. But I’ve got nothing against guitars, so I would really like to use them again, maybe in another context. Guitars are great, awesome, I even like distorted guitars still, so I could absolutely imagine doing collaborations or even doing another side-project with guitars. I love the versatility and the power of guitars even if they’re distorted. But it would definitely not be like I was performing with Oomph! in the past, because, as I said, I don’t feel like that anymore, and I would start and lie if I just pretend to be the old Dero again.

Coming back to the album once again - what is the idea behind the song “Learning Deutsch”?

(laughs) That’s a satirical approach at foreigners who look at Germany and the German language. I’ve collected all the typical words of the German language that also exist in other languages, for example, the English language. Even in the Russian language I’ve come across lots of words that come from German, and that’s very interesting. I just wanted to collect all those internationally known German words and make an ironic song out of it. Of course, German is also a language that is very hard to learn, and people have their problems with it, not just phonetically, but also grammatically. I just wanted to make fun of the typical clichés of Germans and, of course, also the German language that are already implemented in so many other languages. That’s the main approach of the song. It’s just irony, it’s just fun.

Do you have any plans to continue playing DJ sets like you did it the past?

Yeah, why not? It’s different, it’s cool, it’s also fun to reflect your own musical taste and your upbringing maybe – this is what I’m doing mainly when I’m a DJ. I’m showing the people what I’ve experienced musically all over my life, from the beginning in the 80s, synth pop stuff, then alternative stuff, then the grunge era, then the metal era and even rather experimental stuff, world music, even jazz, which I really appreciate as well, that’s why I founded my side project What About Bill. I’m an artist that really loves the versatility of art, and I really like to reflect it. I have never understood why there are so many bands that never change. They really are the same over and over again, for 30, 40 or even 50 years. I mean, there’s just two reasons for that. Either they do not develop at all as human beings, so it’s not necessary to reflect development in their music, which would be sad, because we all develop hopefully as human beings – we gain knowledge, we gain experience, we gain wisdom hopefully, and this should reflect in our music, at least in my humble opinion. Or they have changed, but for commercial reasons they don’t want to experiment, so they start and lie to the audience. Both variants are very sad, in my humble opinion. 

To us it’s even more surprising that they gain a lot of success with that. The more they repeat themselves, the more success they get…

Yeah, it’s as if human beings are grasping for conservatism, right? (everybody laughs) That gives them certain security. Of course, it’s just false security, but if you repeat yourself over and over again, people are becoming used to that, they love this kind of security they gain this way. I think for an artist it is so stupid, it is as if you work at a car manufacturer and do the same stuff over and over again – grrrt, grrrt, grrrt. (everybody laughs) You can do it as an artist too, just repeat yourself over and over again – the same topic, the same riffs, the same chords, the same music. Why should I do it? I decided to be an artist and not a factory worker at Volkswagen.

Maybe artists are afraid of negativity they may get if they change…

Sure! But fear is not good if you’re an artist. You should not be afraid of changes, you should not be afraid of exploring new stuff, you should dare and try something new - that’s what makes you an artist. Otherwise you are not even an artist, if you ask me, if you just repeat yourself over and over again. Or what is it – pop art? Pop art is also about repetition, maybe you are a pop artist, like Andy Warhol, who made all those repetitions of the consumer society. 

What music do you enjoy listening these days? What have been your latest discoveries in music, I mean, anything that really impressed you over the last couple of years?

Wow, that’s hard to say. We’re all overwhelmed by the possibilities of artificial intelligence. You already have so many songs that are completely generated by artificial intelligence. But this doesn’t touch me emotionally, it just overwhelms me, and I ask myself, “Is this the end of creativity? Where should this end?” There’s just a big question mark in my head – do we really want this in the long term? Our music reflects our soul, if you are an artist, and the soul is replaced by soulless repetitive stuff that’s been put together just randomly by artificial intelligence that gains its information from all the stuff that’s been uploaded on the net, and it just analyzes it and repeats it, or puts its “together anew”. I’m overwhelmed by this development, but it doesn’t really touch me. What touches me is authenticity. I can even walk through the streets in Moscow, in New York, in Berlin, in Paris, in London, in Rome, wherever, and when I see someone standing with their guitar and singing from the bottom of their heart, then it touches me. That’s authenticity, and this kind of music can never be replaced by artificial intelligence. As I said before, it’s soulless, and what makes us human beings is our souls. We want to be touched deep within our souls by music that’s created from the bottom of the heart of an artist. And that’s not possible for artificial intelligence. It’s soulless, it’s flat, it’s hollow. It can be done astonishingly perfectly, but it’s a kind of perfection that doesn’t make an impact, that doesn’t touch us, because we’re not perfect anymore. It’s flaws, it’s our edges that makes music authentic, and artificial intelligence cannot do that because it has no edges, it has no flaws, it has no scars inside its soul and heart and mind, because it has no heart and it has no soul. It has a mind, of course, but it’s an artificial mind. I’m just interested in the development, and if I really look in the future, how will it develop, and will we accept it entirely, or is there gonna be a counterculture? I really hope there’s gonna be a kind of backlash, and people will gather together and prefer to listen to imperfect music around a campfire than to listen to soulless crap.

Alright, but let’s imagine there’s a person who is already tired of this soulless crap and wants to listen to something authentic. What would you advise to listen based on your own listening experience?

Well, to me it’s very special, because if you’ve changed your focus on life, and if God has changed your heart, mind and soul, then you’re touched by different stuff. So I really tend to listen to music with Christian content, and that’s what’s been touching me recently. But it’s not well-known stuff, it’s really independent stuff. That’s what really reaches me and touches my heart. I think someone who hasn’t experienced this yet cannot really understand why it’s like that. What I can say is that if I listen to new stuff that’s completely new to me and I really dive deep into the topic, then I realize that I’m so thankful that I don’t think or feel like that anymore. Of course, if people don’t have God, and they realize the world as it is, they can only come to the conclusion that it’s all pretty depressing, right? (laughs) I can understand that because I was feeling like that too, but I don’t feel like that anymore, so I’m not touched by this kind of depressive nihilistic suicidal stuff. And a lot of stuff that’s been released is about that. I can understand them, but I’m very thankful that I don’t feel like that anymore. But there’s lots of good music technically, all this tech metal stuff – I’m so impressed that there are people who can use their instruments so properly! And if they record themselves, they are so fast! That’s what really impresses me, and I like to watch this. There’s much instrumental stuff on the net, many bands who don’t sing or write lyrics anymore, who just let their instruments speak for themselves. I’m really astonished how people are able to play their instruments, that’s what I really appreciate very much. But most of those bands don’t have lyrics or vocals. (laughs) Of course, I like classical music and still jazz very much, as well as movie soundtracks. Imagine… you must do this – imagine a movie without a soundtrack, just put away the sound, and the movie’s completely different! A half of the success of a movie is the soundtrack really. It’s really awesome to see how much impact the composer of good scores makes.

Dero Goi on the Internet: https://www.derogoi.com/ 

Special thanks to Julia Davydova for arranging this interview

Interview by Roman Patrashov, Natalia “Snakeheart” Patrashova
Photos by Agata Nigrovskaya (used courtesy of Dero Goi’s management)
October 20, 2025
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