DER PLAN (The Plan)
Der Plan is a German electronic music group from Düsseldorf, formed in the earlier months of 1979 by Moritz Reichelt (A.K.A. “Moritz R”), Kai Horn, and Frank Fenstermacher, originally under the name of Weltaufstandsplan (“World Rebellion Plan”). This group is considered the pioneer of Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave). (More from Wikipedia)
After soaking up a lot of musical influences, including the thriving punk/new wave and hip hop scenes in New York in the very early 1980’s, Julie Jigsaw ran into an album by German band Der Plan called Geri Reig. (She was attracted by the cover – as I often am myself – which had a robot Baby Jesus on it). Der Plan was an early synth pop band and one of the innovators of the scene that became known as Neue Deutsche Welle (“German New Wave”). She began a correspondence with Der Plan lead singer Moritz R. and got herself invited to Dusseldorf, where she stayed in the guest room at Ata Tak Records recording studios, downstairs from Der Plan bandmembers Kurt Dahlke (a/k/a Pyrolator) and Frank Fenstermacher.
The name Ja Ja Ja – “ja” of course is German for “yes” – was picked because there were three bandmembers, and they each deserved a “yes”. Apparently Julie Jigsaw had already written a poem based upon her long philosophical discussions with the guys in Der Plan that later became the lyrics to their song “Ja! Ja! Ja!”.
(February 2012)
