most notably, in 1976, david bowie came here. jim: have a seat. well, there we go, there we go. anthony: jim rakete is a celebrated photographer known for his intimate portraits. he began his career as a photojournalist, and in 76, captured the first moments of david bowie stepping off the train in west berlin a city he would live and work in for the next three years. bowie was exhausted and burned out and looking for a new way to live and to work. and the music he created during that time was something truly groundbreaking and new. the result was both a professional and personal rebirth, and some of the most powerful and influential recordings of all time.
freedom. like, i was a goth girl at that time, like i started to only wear black and listened to dark music. and when i came to berlin, i was like, yes, here i can be who i want to be. and it almost felt a little bit magical. anthony: do you think that people who came here from other countries, back in weimar era and now, people are looking for a dark side, do you think? brendan: certainly, the people are looking for things that they couldn t do at home. le pustra: exactly. brendan: they re looking for le pustra: they still come here for the forbidden. brendan: things that, you know and you can tell the people who ve come and gone crazy. le pustra: it s captured people s imaginations, so people come here in search of that divine decadence. and it is here. it definitely is. anthony: during the weimar years and later, just before and after the wall came down, berlin became a refuge for artists, writers and musicians at a crossroads in their lives.
lot of people coming up, you know, yearned for. i wonder what thrills you? anton: i like music is a puzzle to me, because i m self- taught. so, i basically have to teach myself every idea that s going through my mind, and they re going really quick. so, it s like a race to accomplish it. anthony: what s your turn around time? because it s legendary. like, between recording, you re smiling, and releasing? anton: well we had been making a song a day. like, in between cooking right here, i was able to record with her. it s no problem. and i constantly want to challenge myself. and right now i want my music to have a certain amount of energy, because i m 50, and i want to prove to people that it s irrelevant how old you are. i just enjoy playing music. that s why i m 50 years old and playing music. you know what i mean? i just want to remind people that they can just do what they want to do. and i m going to go ahead and do
hostile forces, be such a hot house for art, music and free expression? jim: west berlin was always very international. we had people that were flying in from all walks of life. artists from all genres were here, and we were surrounded by east. the wall was a solid resistance, and you need a strong enemy to build a strong muscle. and people who were living here had to improvise a lot. anthony: i mean, what is seen by many as a golden period, the weimar era, was in fact a hotbed of music and culture and art in between two really awful events. jim: yes. anthony: followed by the wartime years, followed by a long period, i mean, post-war berlin was in ruins. when were the good times?
i m assuming that most days, you re working in the studio, do you take days off where you just do nothing? anton: i should be doing that, see. but yeah, i like to create every day, and sometimes i m just too tired. that s why my studio is just always set up as a house. i just go there and lay on the couch, listen to records. because the type of music that i listen to keeps my mindset exactly the same, endlessly. so my month becomes like a day, and my sleep becomes like a nap. i just pick it up where it left off. so i can think on ideas on the back burner of my mind for weeks, you know? it s like what they would call alpha wave generation, it s just like you keep yourself going in a zone, you know? it s weird. oh no, that s him. anthony: that s me. thank you. i love this, this is what i come