Hocico interview

Interview with Hocico
Originally published in Side-Line magazine
2003
by Evan South

1.) Let's begin with the new 4-cd box set celebrating 10
years of Hocico. Tell us all about its contents and what
we can expect to see and hear...

Three of the Cd's contain each one of the three Hocico
demo tapes in their original versions, including the very
first demo "Misuse, Abuse and Accident" that was
never released before plus a bunch of old tracks never
heard before as a special bonus. You´ll hear the real
start of the band, which is what we want to share now
to celebrate. The other CD contains remixes from:
Suicide Commando, Terminal Choice Combichrist,
Kiew, Soman, Aslan Faction, God Module, Solitary
Experiments, Obedience, Haujobb, Dyoxide and two
multimedia live shots.


2.) How would you compare your older material to
what you are doing currently? Any worries that your
re-releases are going to sound too "dated"?

The quality of these old recordings can´t be compared
to our new stuff, but all of them, old and new songs,
keep the same spirit, so in this aspect the old songs
aren´t too dated, they are still full of energy and most
of them can still be played to satisfy the current club
standards.


3.) Your fourth disc of newer, remixed material has
quite a lineup of talent doing the remixing. How do you
feel doing remixes, and also having your material
remixed? Any particular favorite remixes from the cd?

Our favorite remixes are from Combi Christ, Suicide
Commando, Terminal Choice. Musically we prefer to
work with new stuff, rather than remixing someone
else´s music, though it is fun sometimes. Having our
material remixed has been sometimes a very pleasant,
but also a very disgusting experience. This is the first
remix CD we realse and most of the bands included on
it are friends of us.



4.) You have toured extensively in the past (especially
Europe) and have another tour lined up for Nov. 2003.
What are some of your thoughts and expereinces
touring (first USA tour included)?

It´s been very good years, we have known the
underground scenes of many places of the world in a
short period of time and we have been enjoying this to
the maximum. Touring is something very important for
us as a band, It gives us energies to keep on doing
what we do, it is important to get personally the
feedback from the audience. Touring can be hard
sometimes because it could become a routinary
activity in which you lose emotions during it, but we
always try to get the best from the people on every
show and that gives us the life. The USA tour was a
great experience, we hope to get back there to play
live again.



5.) How do you translate the anger and aggression
from your cd's onto the live stage? I have also noticed
on your live recordings you have all new music/intros
as part of the live set...

Recording at studio is a different experience than
playing live, so that´s why the songs meant to play live
need a different treatment, at studio we make
something like dummies that need a special
arrangement to be on stage to please us and get this
special “live“ touch. Recording the live versions of the
songs is like recording another CD, we add new
sounds and atmospheres to them. We need this to play
live otherwise it would be something boring for us.
Compared to the CD recordings anger and agression
take a new face on stage, We have no compassion for
the keys and the mic, so the energy flows without
limits all over the show. The rest is done by the
audience.


6.) How is the electro/indutrial scene in Mexico
currently? Besides yourself, Cenobita is one of the only
other notable projects coming out of Mexico. It
seemed there were more bands earlier (like Deus Ex
Machina, etc) when "La Corporacion" was around.
Your thoughts on this?

There has always been bands, year by year the scene in
Mexico has been growing. At the moment many young
bands are coming out, some of them are: Amduscia,
Acid Trauma, Data, Disfuncion Organica, Epidemia.
And there were many others that deceased. There have
always been people in Mexico doing hard electronic
music, not only for the “corporacion”.


7.) The Dulce Liquido project is doing quite well for
Racso, and the latest cd "Shock Therapy" is much
more song/vocal oriented than the first release. How is
it written and kept a seperate project from Hocico?

Racso has kept doing DL for the same period of time
than Hocico, but he just released an official CD until
2000. DL it is his personal way to make music and and
it isn´t hard to keep this separate project, because he
don´t put limits by being the Racso of Hocico. At the
beginning DL was more electro/vocal orientated and
Hocico was more like electronic punk and black metal
orientated, but as the time passed things changed and
Hocico has become more a band experimenting with
different trends, we call it music recycling, and DL has
become a more extreme thing.


8.) You've come a long way in the last ten years. Early
on you were compared to the likes of Wumpscut and
Yelworc before establishing your own identity. Also,
you signed to a bigger label in Europe and in the last
year finally licensed in the USA through Metropolis.
Do you feel you've accomplished everything you set
out to do, or is there more work to be done?

Definitely there´s still a lot of work to do, this is just
the beginning. So far we are happy with everything we
have acomplished, but it is still too early to say that we
have acomplished everything we wanted. There´s still
many songs in our minds waiting to be released.


9.) Are you already working on new material, and what
else is in the future of Hocico and Dulce Liquido,
releases, tours, etc?

We just finished the small tour over Europe celebrating
our tenth anniversary. We´ll get back home to work on
the new Hocico album, with which we plan to do our
most extensive world tour ever and Dulce Liquido will
play one exclusive show in Mexico city in february.


10.) Final thoughts/comments?

Los hijos del Infierno say: fuck the US government!

hocico.com
myspace.com/hocicoh
http://www.side-line.com/

Absurd Minds interview

Interview with Absurd Minds
Originally published in Side-Line magazine
2003
by Evan South


How would you compare your new album "The
Focus" to your 2 previous albums?


AM- With our third album we want to show that we
have musically moved on, without losing our identity.
"The Focus" will be a close follow-up to our lst album
"Damn the Lie". It's important to us that our songs are
easy to recognize, yet not sounding the same and
without getting bored.


Your material is very theme oriented. Does this
continue with the "The Focus", and do you feel music
needs to say something?

AM- There will be this so call "red line" throughout the
whole album, even more than at our last records. At
"The Focus" we will be constantly questioning the
"human perception". In this context the album title
describes the point where the human perception of
things is concentrated...focused. But before you can
focus on something, you have to be open and able to
perceive. The things someone perceives are an
apparition in the mind and in that they are totally
depending on the person itself-like a dream. "The
Focus" is all about those dreams/perceptions and their
sources. The question, if meaningful words ALWAYS
have to be a part of our songs to give them the right of
existence, we can answer with: "NO!". Music also
works without words-it actually SHOULD work that
way too. The music itself should be able to move
people and bring up emotions, which paint pictures in
their heads. But without words you cannot "transport"
complex thoughts or ideas- even if that might probably
not be the first intention of instrumental music.


Do you still find yourselves compared to a certain
band that shall remain nameless, or do you feel you've
established your own identity?

AM- As long as those comparisons don't want to deny
that we actually HAVE our own identity, we have no
problem to be compared with other bands. There's no
way to escape from influences of all kinds. A vacuum
would definitely be the wrong place, if you want to be
creative. As we said before: We think, we have again
moved on with the upcoming album- concerning this
certain theme as well!


The majority of your songs are in English, do you do
this to appeal to an international audience, or do you
feel it best reflects what you are trying to say?

AM- The main reason why we use English as the main
language in our songs is the fact that the English
language is much more melodious. It just sounds better
than German. Besides that in German you have to
squeeze longer and polysyllabic words into verses and
refrains, which makes songwriting much harder. But
the internationality of the English language is, of
course, a reason as well.


Your singles and EP's have featured many diverse
remixers. What do you think of people remixing your
songs, and is it different when you remix someone
else?

AM- Remixes are an exciting thing to us. It is and has
always been very interesting and revealing to us, how
other artists are making their own thing out of our
songs. In a remix you can "see" your own song from a
totally different direction and sometimes you even ask
yourself: "Why didn't YOU have that idea...?!" If we
remix other bands it is the same thing the other way
around. It is fun to interpret a song in your very own
kind of view.


How does your material come across in a live setting?
Do you try anything different for live shows, i.e. play
remixed versions of songs?

AM- Onstage we are 3 people. Stefan sings, Timo is
behind the E-drums, sings backing vocals and plays
bass guitar for 3 or 4 songs. Tilo plays the synthesizer.
The songs sound pretty much the same as on CD. For
the live sets we usually just arrange a shades, like
changing some sounds and modifying the beginning
of some songs.


You will be playing more festivals through the end of
the year. Do you prefer playing in a large live setting,
or the smaller more intimate clubs?

AM- To us it doesn't matter that much if we play in a
big arena or in a small club, as long as the fans and the
band are having a good time together. At big festivals it
is sometime hard, because everything is very hectic.
But as compensation you get the chance to show your
music to a quite bigger audience. In smaller clubs it
usually is more cosy, things are more laid back and
personal and you get a closer connection to the
audience.


"The Focus" will be released as a single disc and a
special 2cd set. Do you plan any other singles or EP's
to be released from this album, since you previously
released "Masterbuilder"?

AM- There will be another single-CD released from
"The Focus" called "Herzlos" (eng. Heartless). This
one is our very first song that is completely in German.
The song is very powerful and has the potential to be
played in the clubs quite a lot.


Do you know if Scanner has plans to license you to
other labels, so you can be released domestically in
other countries, such as USA?

AM- Unfortunately we have no answer to that question
at this time. We just know that our CD's are available in
the USA and some other countries (if not at the record
stores than at least through mailorder).


Final thoughts/comments?

AM- We hope that the people out there will take and
understand our new album as what it is in our opinion:
A seriously meant piece of long, hard work on musical
and lyrical development and progress. "The Focus"
represents us and it is us- 100%!!!

absurdminds.de
myspace.com/absurdminds
http://www.side-line.com/
 

KIFOTH interview 2001

Interview with KIFOTH
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
2001
by Evan South

1. How would you compare your new album
“Fundamentum Divisionis” to your last album
“Spectaclebreakers”?


mir Colon: I feel the “Fundamentum Divisionis” deeper
than the one before. It’s deeper because of the themes
are expressed deeply and going downward to the core.
I tried to take the faces of all of the betrayal, disgrace,
jealousy up to my face to make myself full of these
feelings. You know, to get me on the edge to show
the ooze pushing the men doing the obscure deeds.

K-head: “Fundamentum Divisionis” is more transparent
as any previous releases of KIFOTH. We have used
only sampling in past. It means samples of noises and
sounds. But now we mainly use synthetisers and
sampling of voices, noises and drums only. These
things make the sound lighter like the
Spectaclebreakers, but more compact too. The
atmosphere, we have achieved with dark distorted
vocals.

mir Colon: Of coarse that the musical performing is
well done caused mainly of the new technology getting
us closer to the top of the electronic scene. We are
more open than ever before. So there is a lot of
opportunities to enclose any elements being outside of
KIFOTH-existence like the female backing vocals.


2. There are many samples from “The Matrix” on this
album. What is the special meaning the movie holds
that you include so many samples?

K-head: “The Matrix” speaks about a false reality. I
think it’s truthful image of our current being. Now, in
the time of corruption and globalization, we see in
medias only the reality projection. The faithful reality
is hidden in the background of politics, leaders and
big corporations.

Everybody says that everything is much clear like
before, each one has full mouth of a better world, but
where is the waste? Where is the dustheap of all the
wrong things?

mir Colon: I take the movie like a very progressive and
cyberpunk set. There is a big message growing up to
you from many sights. The original message, the core,
is still performing the information. The data is a living
very little organism, the cell changing self figure all the
time you are trying to decode it. And I see the
“Fundamentum Divisionis” very similar. So
complicated structure being in the tracks scheme full
of little tempers supporting the base, the speech about
human villainy, the unlimited ugliness.


3. The new album maintains the slow pace that you had
on “Spectaclebreakers”, with only one fast song “The
Query”. Why does KIFOTH prefer slower songs?

mir Colon: That’s the way to force the listeners feel the
power of the sounds, not just to be pressed by the
rhythm. To affect their minds with the messages we
written down.

The reason that KIFOTH does exist is to perform our
thoughts, present the opinions turned to sensations.
We do not understand us as musicians doing just
songs for radios but are a kind of sounds performing
artists having any visions.

K-head: Each track represents my feeling. I’m looking
round myself taking an inspiration. My tracks are a
mirror of the world behind my eyes. I have a feeling,
a story and you can listen the projection of the world
through the filter in my inside. I don’t care about the
tempo. I start composing the song and everything
comes by self, melodies, rhythms, samples, tempo.


4. You sent me advanced artwork of the back of the
new album including an equipment list, but the new cd
does not have any of this. Was the artwork and layout
changed?

mir Colon: Please, understand, we have signed a
contract with Out Of Line Records. We are the music
performers and they do business. The artwork I have
sent to you was constructed by my own design studio,
the “mirCo Laboratory” which represents a graphic
proposal of the group following our agreement with the
Out Of Line. Their graphics studio had have to do the
same and after we both had prepared the artwork the
label have been decided to use one of them.

K-head: This event is in accordance with the agreement.


5. How is it being on the German label Out of line w/
other bands like Hocico and Terminal Choice? Do you
have a good relationship with your label and other bands?

K-head: Out Of Line is the biggest electro label in
Germany of these days. It has many advantages, but
also some disadvantages. We have to live with them.

mir Colon: But however, any good business might be
based on the good relationship between all sides of
the contract and we do it this way too. We want have
very good relationship with each one cooperating with
us. We have very good friendship with all people
supporting us within the Tierra Electrica tour in 1999,
especially the groups members.

KIFOTH: Best regards to you, Erk, Rasco, Frank,
Jashua and Salva. Hope to meet anyone of you soon.
We’re looking forward to the date.

mir Colon: As far as I know the Culture Cultur will also
play on the Wave-Gothic Treffen in Liepzig, so will to
talk to them for sure.


6. Will you be touring this year for your new album or
playing any large festivals?

K-head: The tour is expensive case. Everything
depends on the Out Of Line. If the new CD will have a
good sale and fans will want the concerts, it might be
possible to tour some land.

mir Colon: For now, only the following dates: the
beginning of June, the Wave-Gothic fest, concerts in
Slovakia (we guess to make a video-recording for our
fans haven’t any possibilities go into the concerts),
hope to visit Prague again, other Czech places too.


7. Will any of the original material from your “Ebola”
release ever see the light of day? It has been a very
long time now...

mir Colon: You are right, it is a quite long time. But it
is not just a question of time, also quality of that
production. In point of a retrospect is a good idea to
release the album. We are still in contact with VUZ
Records regarding the CD release, but no concrete
date fixed yet. I think it will be released once (during
two years ...) but it must be taken as the retrospect,
the flashback to the birth of the KIFOTH.



8. What is next for KIFOTH? Are you working on new
material, remixes, etc?

mir Colon: Right now is the time for live performance
preparing. We mix tracks to the live versions, want use
tracks from both CD albums, maybe from the Ebola
too. It is quite hard job because we have to get
together with some our cooperators from the past era
of Spectaclebreakers, The Ebola epoch too, to switch
on all of the equipment together.

K-head: We try to make one body from the music and
the stage image. I join for it cause I think it will be one
of the best KIFOTH performances.

Mir Colon: In point of the KIFOTH’s future steps, we
are testing another software now.


9. Final thoughts/comments?

mir Colon: Please, support us, we have to convince
the world that is profitable to let us presenting our
thoughts. We could have different visions but
necessary point is the positive progress for complex
future.

kifoth.de

Mentallo & The Fixer interview

Interview with Gary Dassing of Mentallo & the Fixer
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
1999
by Evan South


Q: Please describe your new album Algorythum
compared to your previous efforts...

A: Well, it is definitely different from past albums in
that this was going back to basics to some extent. I
was trying to reach for a new sound, altogether
sonically speaking. I think every Mentallo album has
different characteristics from one another and that was
my initial intention with Mentallo, to explore other
avenues, yet still retain the dynamic of what Mentallo is
all about, being creative. I’m not here to follow anyone
else’s lead, I just do what comes natural. The whole
point is not to lose focus on why you initially start
creating music, and the answer to that is simply for the
love of it. I want to work with other instruments such
as live drums and percussion, acoustic and electric
guitar/bass, just to get different timbers of sound. It’s
definitely used in an artistic way. I wasn’t going for the
cliche’ power chord heavy metal crunch riff, that isn’t
there, it’s more along the guitar lines of something like
Slowdive/My Bloody Valentine, just sonic tones and
frequencies. But anyway, about the music, it shouldn’t
have to be about business, although it is, and when it
comes to the point to where you’re doing music mainly
to satisfy other people, then that is the point to where
you are giving in, and I don’t give in when it comes to
my creativity, because when you do, you are usually
just following a fading trend or a dying cause. Things
have become so conformist within this genre of music,
it’s not what it use to be all about. I just think certain
technology has made people lazy or less creative to an
extent.


Q: The Systematik Ruin EP was almost as long as the
album. Was this chosen as the single because it was
one of the only songs with vocals on it? Any more
singles/EP’s from Algorythum or only new material?

A: Well, out of the 13 tracks on Algorythum 9 have
vocals, they may not all be up front but like I
mentioned before, everything was about a sonic
element. I didn’t want the vocals to necessarily
become the song, as with some past material, but I
wanted them to be there to complement the song,
being used more like an instrument, blending with the
music. I just didn’t want to resort to the same old
effects processing and distortion, I’ve already
mastered that. It was time to try something different
for a change. As for the EP being as long as the
album, I simply like to give the buyer their moneys
worth, plus there are exclusive songs and remixes on
the EP. I do have enough material for another EP from
the Algorythum sessions already recorded. Remixes of
Resonant Echo, Stumbled, and Inner Peace, one with
the Dabbler from Fektion Fekler vocaling (using his
own lyrics). We titled that version Mr. Sorrow. There
are a few other exclusive pieces that were recorded
during the sessions, but it’s hard to say whether it will
get released. I am presently working on a new CD, and
it is very near completion and should be released
by late summer 1999.


Q: The EP and album have both been out for a few
months now, what have you received as far as the
general reaction, positives and negatives?

A: Actually, I no longer pay attention to reviews, it’s
unnecessary. I’m pleased with the product and I had a
fun time doing it and that’s all that matters. I know only
what people tell me or e-mail me, and for the most
part the people that write like the album. Some say it
took a few listens to get used to it. I like to surprise
people. I think they are surprised in some respect from
every release. I think it’s an initial shocker though, this
album is very different, but don’t expect me to repeat
it. For the same reason I won’t do another Where
Angels Fear To Tread. That was another time and
place in my life. True music is usually used as the
soundtrack to our lives, why would I want to play a
broken record? I like the material, I do, but it is hard
to re-live some of those experiences over and over,
why would I want to do that? But what is certain is that
other people have different given experiences to my
material and they can look back or reflect on a given
period or moment of time in their individual lives.


Q: Any sort of tour on the horizon, or any one-off
shows?

A: Yes. I just got through playing the Gothic
Convergence Festival at the House of Bluesin New
Orleans. That went great, it was a sold out show. Also,
we have a show slated for May 21st in Dallas. Also, I
plan to do a couple of shows in California, namely Los
Angeles and San Francisco. I’d also like to do some
shows in Florida by the end of the year.


Q: Will any of your old side-projects re-emerge
(Benestrophe, Mainesthai)? Or are you only
concentrating on Mentallo at this point?

A: At this point in my life it is strictly Mentallo. But
Mentallo can turn out to be anything. You never know
who’s going to show up playing or guest vocaling
material, past, present, or future. There is really no
need for other projects. I can just have Rich or Mike
guest vocal on a track with me if I want them to. They
are cool with that, because they have other aspiration
in life other than music, and with me, music is my
priority.


Q: What does the future of Mentallo hold?

A: I am presently working on a new album right now.
Like I said previously, don’t expect another
Algorythum or Angels, this is something completely
different. Yes, it sounds like Mentallo, best way to
describe it is there aren’t any slow songs, it’s all
comprised of in your face beats, heavy percussion,
lots of computer generated noise, freaky stuff. Really
intense and flat out noise, a lot of sample generated
sounds. It gets pretty damn fast in some areas,
something I’ve never really touched on before. The
title is Love Is The Law. Let’s just say the title is a bit
deceiving. This album is sort of what industrial may
have become, I don’t know, maybe that’s just static.


Q: What are your views on the upcoming Millennium?
Some say the true millennium isn’t until 2001,
depending on the calendar.

A: Yes, the actual millennium is 2001, they didn’t
count the year 0 initially. My views? Well, I don’t think
the end of the world will happen in 2001, that is for
sure. My personal perspective is that the earth will be
here until time indefinite, and our creator isn’t going
to give us an exact date when the shit is going to hit
the fan. Even if we did have a date do you really think
that would cause people to change? The whole point is
to catch us off guard when we thin we have all our crap
together. Hell, we could solve many problems of the
world right now, such as world hunger, but is it being
solved? No. Is that logical? No! Are we a logical race?
That is questionable. I do believe there is a higher
purpose, though. To me that is evident, and I also
believe there is going to come a time in the very near
future, when the world change. Everyone is involved in
this.


Q: Is there anything you have seen or heard lately
(book, movie, music) that has sparked your interest?

A: Well, I’m looking forward to The Phantom Menace,
and the Bible is a pretty interesting and intense read.


Q: Final comments?

A: Algorythum = Love Is The Law

mentallo.net

KIFOTH interview 2000

Interview with KIFOTH
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
2000
by Evan South


1. Can you give us a little background on KIFOTH,
its beginnings and its members?

mir Colon > The KIFOTH was born in spring of 1993
as a thought of two persons: mir Colon and K-head.
The persons which have sole responsibilities within all
KIFOTH existence. The first KIFOTH’s gig was
executed in summer 1994. It was a part of some two
days summer festival. We done a record of one of that
live performances and covered it with name of our
unofficial demo tape “First Time Public”. No archived
copy owned by myself. But what I remember, there
were some good stuffs, “Mad Dog” of K-head and my
“Jesus Christ” which is recorded twice on our first
official demo material “Civilizative Collapse”
(beginning of 1995). All the KIFOTH’s early songs, a
period until the second half of 1995, are sung by
Slovak tongue. By the end of 1995 KIFOTH recorded
the second demo tape called “Ebola”. And finally the
year 1999, the year of editing our first CD album,
“Spectaclebreakers”, on Slovak FRONT CD label and
later on under licence of Out Of Line for world wide.
As I already told, during all the time KIFOTH consists
of two mentioned brains, which they have performed
themselves to this time to a function as programmer,
sound performer, sampling and mixing master (K-head)
also as philosophy performer, sampling and
arrangement master (mir Colon).


2. How does Spectaclebreakers compare to your earlier
material, circa the Ebola era?

K-head > Spectaclebreakers is an older brother of
Ebola, he is much sophisticated as the brother, is
complicated and more compact like a final matter.
Ebola is divided to two parts by the atmosphere,
lyrics and structure of songs. There the first part is
faster and more conventional like groups from old EBM
school, but the second one is much deeper in sound
and sense of atmosphere. I think the startpoint of the
Spectaclebreakers is where the Ebola finished. He is full
length atmospheric and rolling like a mass from first
track to the last. It‘s a long wall full of graffity where
you can‘t find a space in between them.

mir Colon > The album Spectaclebreakers is the
best shot we have ever done. There is more adventure
in the album. The sound itself is talking story.
Somebody said that the tempers keep the songs alive
listen after listen. Also the themes and the performance
of them are more deep and more particular then the
Ebola themes.


3. Speaking of Ebola, what happened to all the original
demo material that was to be released on VUZ Records?
Will it ever see the light of day or be re-released on
Out Of Line?

mir Colon > I do not think that Out Of Line wants to
deal with the Ebola. But fact is that we prepared a
remastered version of the Ebola album with two
additions: “Release” and treboR’s mix of “Possessed
By The Right To Modify (Disastrous Desire)”. The last
discussion between us and VUZ says that the CD could
be released on spring 2000. For details, keep visiting
KIFOTH homepage.


4. How was the Tierra Electrica 99 tour experience?
How do you approach the live setting? Can you tell us
about the live cd recording of that tour w/ Hocico and
Culture Kultur?

mir Colon > Definitely great. It was our first tour at all
and after that I hope not the last one. We had the
chance to meet any different people, also visit a lot of
beautiful places where the visitors talked to us about
or music. And theirs expressions to our live
performance where sublime. Some people compared us
to our minions. Just amazing experiences that will keep
in us forever. Many thanks to all the people which took
care of us during the tour.

To compare with the Slovak live setting, in the point of
technics they are better definitely. A powerful audio
systems and especially excellent interior of the rooms.
For example, we played in old workshop of squeezing
machines, or a club which seems to me like an interior
of the tower from movie “Name Of Rose”. I can not
forget the boat, a trawler one. Within weekend we
played on festival stages in big halls which was very
interesting in point of visitors image mainly. Some
stirring creatures over there.

There is the live CD TIERRA ELECTRICA already
pushed up to daylight. It includes 4 tracks of each
group, Hocico, Culture Kulture and KIFOTH. And a
bonus of Hocico as an intro. I am talking about 1000
copies limited DIGIPAK edition. The KIFOTH’s
tracks, which you can find there, are Crucified Thief,
Painspeech, Reconciliation and Gripped Illusion
(Reflected version). We had support on stage, a
drummer. So, especially the first two track sounds very
powerful.


5. How do you see the current state of the electro-
industrial scene today? What would you change and/or
improve?

K-head > I am curious what will come, because I
heard everything of all kinds of music and it looks the
same like with technology. 90‘s were improvements of
invents form the 80‘s. We came to the new era of 21st
century, so we have to be ready for new things and I
think that somebody have to invent something new in
electro-industrial music, but it is not so easy. To invent
means lot of experiments and some people have not
sense for experiments.


6. Will all your songs continue to be in English, or will
you revert back to your mother tongue, like you did
while under the original band name of Kneel In Front
Of The Hangman?

mir Colon > We keep the English language. At the
beginning, the English using was a way how to cover
myself, but at present, it is the way how to
communicate. Because of KIFOTH wants give any
messages, I need to adopt that tongue that I can speak
to anybody on this earth. There is still anything to say.


7. What is next for KIFOTH? Are you working on new
material, re-working old material, remixes, etc? Will
you continue to play live?

K-head > New KIFOTH must smell of development.
Also I want to add some faster songs for a new
material. It will be not so easy because I want conserve
the KIFOTH’s face on the forthcoming CD. The
album has to be compact and all songs must sink
together like a puzzle. It will be hard work.

mir Colon > Our intention is to finalize the album till
this autumn. Finally we have the software that we can
re-mix our early stuff. What else? Who knows?


8. Final thoughts/comments?

mir Colon & K-head > We would like to thank you,
Evan, also all of you, the electro fans that you interest
to our production so much that this interview might be
executed. Thank you very much and stay with us.


kifoth.de
myspace.com/kifoth

Croc Shop interview

Interview with Croc Shop
Originally published on the now defunct newempire.com
2000/2001
by Evan South

CROC SHOP:
vM: v Markus
mH: Mick Hale
L9: Len 9

-----------------------

1.) "Order+Joy" gives us a more back-to-basics
approach with your sound. Comments?

vM: As industrial music has progressed to the point
of encompassing everything from guitars and metal
elements, to dance/techno, and the recent trend for
synth-pop stylings, we thought it was time to
rediscover the sounds which defined this genre near
the beginning - the basic 4-on-the-floor beats and solid
bass lines that hooked many of us in the first place. It's
a tribute to our roots.

mH: Most of what I wrote on "Order+Joy" was more
of a reaction to the dozens of clubs that we hit on our
1999 US tour. I have to say, I was a bit conflicted
about the music the djs played [at each & every club,
it was all the same material!] On one hand, most of the
"new" music they played I disliked, while there was a
certain "quality" in the older tracks that I wanted to try
to both update & pay a tribute to. There is alot of
better new music out there than Covenant, VNV, &
A Pop !


2.) The early material of "Celebrate..." and "Crush..."
and the first Metro release "Beneath" seemed
straightforward EBM - with "Pain" and "Everything..."
a bit more experimental, and again "O+J" stripped
down. How would you describe the overall evolution
of your sound over the years? Where do you see it
going?

vM: We don't consciously create music that's in tune
with what's "in", and we don't really think consciously
about how we are going to progress with our sound
from one album to the next. It's usually us writing music
that we feel sounds good. Sometimes this is influenced
by what we are listening to at the time - and very often
that is not current music! Our sound has progressed in
many ways by increased technology in music. Very
early CrocShop used no computers, then for some time
in the middle we almost only used them. Now, we have
returned to a middle ground, where a lot of the music is
composed using synths, and treated in the computer. In
the future, I see us using an increased combination of
old-style and digital equipment to create more variety
in the sound we can generate. Modern synths are very
much like the old knob-synths of yesterday - the
combinations are endless, and this opens the door to
many great new sounds.


3.) The live show has always been an integral part of
Croc Shop. You've performed fairly regularly over the
years and opened up for a lot of big acts as well. How
has this influenced you or your music? Are different
versions of the songs played live? Will there be any
touring for O+J, and when will we see you in the
West?

vM: I know playing live influences me to think of the
music as interacting with the audience. The music has
to stir something in the listener - whether at home or
at a show - and get them to at least mentally react - if
not physically by dancing - with what we are playing.

mH: We'd like to gig a lot more in 2001, we'll see what
happens. I'd like to work on some new material as well.
Right now I am feeling very put off with where the
"Industrial Scene" seems to be headed, tho - I must
admit.


4.) Being one of the "staple" American all-electro
bands, how do you perceive the scene in the USA, and
how have you seen it change over the years? What
would you change and/or do differently?

vM: I think the scene is alive and well - although
increasingly split between the old school, which is
underground, and the new school, who seem to think
Marylin Manson and NIN are connected with Industrial.
Places you never expect a big scene are some of the
most active and vibrant, like Salt Lake City, Utah, while
some other, large metropolitan areas where you would
expect huge crowds have surprisingly low turnout, or
the people have stopped caring about anything except
the really big names... It is very strange. I'd like to see
American industrial fans to get up and dance more!
This is heavy, rhythmic music, meant to move your
body... I've seen too many people who seem to not
be interested in physical movement... that's kind of
sad. We could learn something from ravers - and I
don't mean the crazy hats and pacifiers... Clubs and
musicare about dancing, not sitting around looking
dark and sad.

mH: Again, I have to say it: the "current crop" of
what's getting club play right now is nowhere near the
QUALITY of the past! I hate to say it, but I'd rather
hear the old stuff [242, Ebb, RevCo, Puppy, ] than sit
thru this bad House/Techno "Synth Pop" [albeit
without screaming Divas] - and I even like [real] house
& techno or drumNbass, but I hate these looping
'vampy' keyboards, a 4 beat 'preset sounding' 909 kick
with a bad & slightly off key male "synth Pop-ish"
vocal just dumped flat on top. . . & THAT is somehow
being classified "Industrial"? I can't think of a time this
genre has hit such a musical slump as it is in now - not
since the Major labels were trying to cram Stabbing
Westward down our throats, anyway!


5.) When was the last time CS was in Europe? Are there
any plans to return or do another tour overseas? At one
point, CS did have an overseas label? Does Metropolis
handle all worldwide distro now?

vM: CS was in Europe in May of 1997, playing
primarily in the former East Germany. It was fantastic,
with some of the best shows. The fans were great and
very enthusiastic and hungry for new music. I would
love to get back to Europe and play more shows - but
all over the place, this time, from Italy all the way to
Finland. I also hope that one day we can play in the
Baltics and Russia - places that American bands
usually don't go.

mH: A small label from Germany [OutLine] licensed 2
of our albums from Metropolis. We were never signed
to them directly, & they started to lie to us about sales
figures & royalties, so Metropolis stopped working
with them. I haven't heard anything good about that
label since [as far as their business practices with other
labels & bands I know]. Now we have a much bigger
distributor [EFA] handling the direct distribution in
Europe from Metro. We can only hope to get back
over someday...


6.) So far there has been a release of the single "Wrong"
w/ remixes of that track and "Order+Joy" plus "New
Ideal". However, this has been an Internet only release.
Any plans for commercial release or release of another
single or EP?

mH: Not as of yet. We wanted to do something to "fill
the gap" of having no live tour in 2000, so we did the
"Wrong" promo/internet cd to get the name out there in
clubs & help push the "Order + Joy" album - which
seems to have helped, as planned.


7.) What are you all working on right now? New
material, remixes, or production for other bands?

vM: I'm working on videos for the band, finishing one
up for the track "Wrong." I'd like to release a video
mix, with visuals going along with some of Croc
Shop's best tracks - but that is still in the planning
stages so fans will have to wait. We are also beginning
the preliminary song writing and studio work on our
next album, to which we don't have a title yet.


8.) A bit off topic. I remember long ago stories of
when you were first looking to be signed you
mentioned the most hilarious and ridiculous offers
and contracts. Do you remember any of the particulars,
especially from the now defunct labels such as
Machinery or Fifth Column?

mH: Machinery wanted to take out Life Insurance
Policies on the 3 band members! That & the fact that
we had to get "permission" from the "Parent Company"
of Machinery [Modern Music, gmbh] to even USE our
own name or logo in anything we did here in the US
was a bit over the top... Fifth Colvmn's "Contract" had
it's own cans of worms, too - 10 years before we could
release "Live" versions of any of the tracks kind of
stuff... not quite as out there as the Germans! COP Int'l.
went as far as sending us a practical "love letter" from
one office & then saying we "sounded too 8t's to sign"
from the other - It was kinda funny to see our name in
their Adverts until the left hand figured out what the
right hand was doing! Let's just put it this way - we're
VERY happy we finally landed on Metro!


9.) Final thoughts/comments?

vM: Miyamoto Musashi writes: "Teach your body
strategy... When you have mastered the Way of
strategy you can suddenly make your body like a
rock, and ten thousand things cannot touch you."

mH: There he goes again, singin Moby songs. ! Body
Rawk Y'all.... WHAT ever happened to HIM ! ? ! . . .
Bahh!

crocshop.com

Xorcist interview

Xorcist interview with Peter Stone
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
1999
by Evan South

Q: Please describe your progression as an artist from
the “early” years of Damned Souls through your new
album Nomad...

A: Well, it’s been almost 10 years since Damned Souls
and naturally a lot has happened. I’ve become a bit
more exposed to various elements of life as is the case
with anyone. I, however, have been more and more
disgusted with the way not so much as our world and
the people in it are shaping up to be, but more how the
world and the people are being controlled , deceived,
and lied to by others. Be it some greedy/prejudice
asshole who robs you or lies to you, or a local
government or government agency yet again pulling the
wool over people’s eyes.


Q: any possibility of another Phantoms-type album,
including some of your older/unreleased
material, possibly re-worked/re-mixed or updated?

A: Probably not-there are a couple of little things here
or there, but these would probably end up as MP3's
on the website.


Q: You have been around the music scene well over a
decade now, yet there has always been a lack of
coverage regarding Xorcist. Do you think this is
because you do not write material geared toward a
club setting?

A: Xorcist at first was just another EBM type album I
believe, yet it may have possessed (no pun intended)
a bit more of a melodic structure to it then other music
of its type-perhaps not so aggressive in places where
as a lot of other releases of the time were very “in your
face”. Over time, Xorcist really was beginning to
develop more of a soundtrack vibe and I think the
“scene” (industrial/gothic) is not really where Xorcist
should have planted its roots. Granted, I was part of
that scene, ran clubs, etc...but more over, Xorcist was
most likely not marketed correctly due to its sound
being honed and defined more within that soundtrack/
atmosphere sound with the next several releases after
Damned Souls. 21st Circuitry is a great label and all,
but at times, the stuff I was doing belonged in ads
targeting a much wider audience. I must have heard
1000 times how someone got turned onto Xorcist by
accident. That they were not even into the gothic/
industrial thing but they heard it from “somewhere”...
I think the next Xorcist release may be the last in the
“genre” per se.


Q: Any old piece of gear you regret not having any
longer or getting rid of?

A: Sure, the PPG 2.3, EVU, and Waveterm A. 
But I was broke at the time. I hope one day to pick up
another combination like that but times were real hard
back then. They still are.


Q: Was there any particular movie, piece of music, or
episode in your life that set you on the path you’re on
now as an artist?

A: Growing up, I had two sisters who listened to guitar
based bands. Synthesizers were brought to my
attention via my love for computers. I still remember
placing an AM radio next to a Radio Shack TRS-80
just to hear the interference. There was, however,
one record my parents had that I used to listen to while
growing up which scared the living shit out of me. It
wascalled Music from Mathematics and it was musical
pieces (if you could call them that) done by an IBM
computer whose size took up a room. The sounds
generated by this thing were not of this earth, and me
being how old...3? 5? I was still pretty much one of
those kids young enough to be completely programmed
and consequently fucked up more than usual by what
was either heard or seen. That record set thing into
motion no doubt. Later on during life while into the
whole Heavy Metal thing, I realized I was more into
New Wave as I got into the keyboard elements much
more than banging my head and trying to bang some
chick (this is the Heavy Metal mentality). Synth bands
could create so much more in atmosphere than any
guitar band ever could. Eventually, I became enthralled
with films and realized that musical scores when done
right could have a dramatic effect on one’s mind.
Films such as Cat People, Scarface(Georgio Moroder),
and of course, The Keep (Tangerine Dream) are a few
that come to mind as scores that will forever be burned
into my mind.


Q: Is it possible to bring Nomad to a live setting? How
would you go about this?

A: I would love to put together a NOMAD tour, but it
would require quite a bit of money, something I don’t
think Pendragon really has. Any touring act with a large
show usually is on a large label that can front royalties
based on sales in the 10,000's if not the 100,000's.
Pendragon is a great label, but they’re just not that big.


Q: Please talk about your current club effort “The
Black Lodge” compared to your previous club “House
of Usher”...

A: The Black Lodge is a club my fiancé and I wanted
to open that concentrated more on the darker side
ambient dancy side of the gothic and industrial scene.
While I was running House of Usher, I would spin
stuff no other strictly “goth/industrial” club would
spin like Future Sound of London, Autechre, Locust,
Scala, SOMA, Uziq, Aphex Twin, etc. The Black
Lodge is a marriage of that scene along with the
electronic side of the gothic/industrial scene.
We hope it exposes both scenes to each others music.


Q: I read in another interview you were working on an
Xorcist video or videos?

A: Well, it’s another one of those time things. I have a
camera, I have a digital video card, I have ideas. Now I
need time and, well, a 15 gig hard drive would help as
well.


Q: Please tell us what is coming up for Xorcist...

A: There are some remixes being done of tracks off
NOMAD by Xorcist. Some music is being used in an
upcoming documentary on Charles Gatewood which
will eventually be on either HBO or Showtime, but I
hope the future holds more music, perhaps film scoring,
perhaps something new altogether. I don’t have any set
plans, it just flows.


Q: With your music much more soundtrack oriented,
have you ever submitted any pieces to a major or
independent movie studio for consideration? Have any
“major” music artists ever heard your work and sent
you comments?

A: Again, it is almost impossible to do such a thing.
You have to know someone in the biz.
It’s very, very nepotistic. I’m trying to find a publisher
or agent who may be able to help me, but so far I
haven’t found anyone worthwhile. As to if any “major”
artists have heard Xorcist? Not to my knowledge.


Q: Final thoughts/comments?

A: The hippies were right about some things... they just
smelled funny.

cyberden.com

Fiction 8 interview

Interview with Fiction 8
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
2000
by Evan South

1.) Mike, can you explain the evolution of Fiction 8 as
a solo project with "DI" to more of a band with
"Chaotica"?

Mike - It wasn't really so much a solo project back
then. It was more that the other two band members at
the time didn't really give a shit about Fiction 8. The
keyboardist was busy going certifiably insane, and the
guitarist was more caught up in his own band. It felt
like a really dysfunctional family where I played
mommy most of the time and just stayed in the kitchen,
cleaning up the vomit (laughs). I always wanted to be
part of a band, rather than go it solo. Even though Mark
Mothersbaugh or Gerald Casale generally wrote most
of the stuff for Devo, their music was much more
interesting because everybody in the band put their
own take on the individual parts. Their albums always
had a wonderful energy because they didn’t sound like
some homogenized crap churned out of someone’s
sequencer. I think the reason I’m most happy with
“Chaotica” is because it really was a band effort. Mardi
and Steve brought a lot to the album and have brought
a lot to the shows and have generally made it a lot of
fun to do music again.

Steve – You know, the best part about being in this
band is the fact that, even if we weren’t in a band
together, I would still spend a lot of time with Mardi
and Mike. They are friends, not just band members.
That makes the band environment something very
enjoyable.

Paisli- Yeah.. what they said! I was actually friends with
Mike when Dissonance was released and met Steve not
long after. I was eventually brought on to help out with
promotion. The transition to playing with Fiction8 was
pretty easy, they needed a third member and I could
play instruments, so that was that. It’s just so much fun
to work with these two. No matter how difficult things
are, or how crazy we all get, we still manage to really
enjoy being around one another. We spend a lot of time
together outside of music too and I think it really makes
a difference now and will help us stick together for a
long time.



2.) Not only is this the third album but also the third
record label for you. Will this release be licensed
overseas to Matrix Cube, your last label?

Mike - No, I don’t think so. We were originally slated
torelease two more discs on Matrix Cube but I think it
was a mutual decision to split. Matrix’s parent company
(Trisol) was hoping we’d continue heading in more of a
goth direction, but Spirits was pretty much ‘it’ for us.
The tone of that disc was really set by our former
guitarist and after he got the boot, we really didn’t feel
like continuing in that direction. We told our
management and the label that we’d be heading back
into the electronic territory. And I think after we
submitted the demos for “Chaotica”, it became pretty
obvious to them that they’d either have to completely
change their marketing strategy or give us our walking
papers. Thankfully, they were pretty understanding
about the whole thing and let us sign with Nilaihah
without too much of a fuss. It was definitely a good
move for us and has given us a chance to release a disc
in the U.S.


3.) How would you compare "Chaotica" with your two
previous efforts "DI" and "Spirits"?

Mike – It’s a bit different than both I think. It probably
has more in common with “DI” just because it is a lot
more EBM and dance-oriented than “Spirits” was. But
I think the songwriting on “Chaotica” is a lot more
evolved than anything we’ve done before. A lot of
people have been saying that this new one is our best,
and I think I’d have to agree with that assessment. With
this new band line-up (Steve joined the band after the
release of “DI” and Mardi after “Spirits”), things have
clicked a lot better in the studio than they ever did in
the past.



4.) How do you translate the studio material into a live
setting? I notice you are much more active live now...

Mike - It’s really not that hard. Particularly with this
new disc, a lot of the material was written while we
were playing out all the time. So I think when you’re in
that “live” frame of mind, you just sort of gravitate
towards writing that way. It’s not even really a
conscious thing. For the most part we don’t have much
trouble picking what to play live.

Steve – Actually it’s very easy to do live shows. The
only thing is difficult is the equipment that we bring to
the shows. The list of equipment that we need to do a
particular song keeps growing. Pretty soon you will
only see Mike and Mardi, and there might or might not
be someone behind those keyboards. (laughs) That
however, only makes live shows more fun for me. The
more things I have to coordinate and control at the
same time to pull off the song in a live setting, just
makes the shows more fun. Is that masochistic?

Mardi – I think the reason we’ve been more active live
lately is not that it’s easier, but that we finally have
options for locations to play. We’ve met a lot of people
that have been willing to help us a lot and work on
booking shows, so that obviously makes it easier. It’s
never been very difficult to pull off a live setting, even
though there are a lot of things we’d like to add or
improve.


5.) As one of the few popular American electro
projects, how do view the US "scene"? What would
you change or improve?

Mike - Hmmm … that’s a tough one. You know, I
don’t know if I’d change a thing. There are a few
bands out there that are just rehashing old Skinny
Puppy discs. But for every one of those deadbeats,
there are a lot of bands that are starting to do some
really interesting stuff. I don’t know if I would have
been so optimistic a couple years ago, but now things
are looking really exciting again. In particular, there are
a lot of interesting bands from Colorado right now.
We’ve got links to a lot of them on our website
(www.fiction8.com).

Steve – One thing that I really dislike about some bands
that tout themselves as industrial is the monotony of
the music. One measure of a bass line, some drums
thrown on top of it, and some samples thrown on top
of that does not make a song. Mike mentioned bands
rehashing old Skinny Puppy material. To me, that is
even worse. It’s usually a poor copy without the feel
of the original. There are some very good industrial
bands out there though, and when I hear something
good, something that very obviously had a lot of effort
put into it, I will listen to the same songs for a really
long time.

Mardi – I don’t think there’s much we could change
or improve really! One of the biggest problems out here
is the audience. There just isn’t the type of audience
out here for the electro music that there is in Europe. I
see that changing a bit though, there seems to be a lot
more outlets, and venues and such for us to get our
music heard, but it’s nothing like the European market.
There are actually a lot of really great bands out here,
but they just don’t get heard! I would love to see the
big electro festivals that they have in Europe start here!


6.) Do you still have the same day job of scoring music
for video games, and does that influence your music, or
the other way around?

Mike – Yeah, I’m still working for VR-1 (http://www.vr1.com/).
I think the influence goes both ways. I think the biggest
thing is that when you’re doing music for hire 40 hours
a week, it really forces you to clean up your songwriting
chops. Sloppiness that I might have tolerated 5 years
ago doesn’t even enter into the picture anymore. If I
need some interesting chord to transition from one part
of a song to the next, I don’t just gloss over it with a
drum fill or sound effect anymore. I sit down and bang
it out until I have something interesting. So, in that
sense the games industry has really influenced the way
I write for F8. On the other hand, whenever I’m asked
to write something particularly dark and sinister for a
game, obviously some F8 influence is going to bleed
into the game … even if it’s an orchestral piece. So,
generally, I’d say it goes both ways.


7.) Speaking of influences, what have you been listening
to lately? Anything that you are looking forward to, such
as movies, music, etc?

Mike - I don’t get a lot of time to watch movies. I
caught David Cronenberg’s Crash a few months ago.
That was really good. But generally I don’t like
American movies because they tend to gorge
themselves on CGI special effects. Len from Implant
and I have had a running argument going for a while.
He says that American movies are better on the whole
than European ones because, at least if an American film
sucks it still has good special effects, while the
European one has nothing going for it if it sucks. But I
disagree. At least the European film still has its quirks
and personality, but the American film is so polished
with effects that it has absolutely nothing interesting to
latch on to. They say you can’t polish a turd, but
Hollywood still tries anyway. But as for music, yeah,
there’s a lot of great stuff out there. I find myself
listening to a lot of ambientstuff anymore. Particularly
bands on mp3.com like the Falling You and Numina …
a lot of Hidden Sanctuary
(http://stations.mp3s.com/stations/2/hidden_sanctuary.
html) type stuff. I think it’s one of those things where,
when you spend all day doing techno-industrial stuff
for games and then write music for F8, the last thing
you want to do is listen to more of the same.

Steve – Movies? I can’t even remember the last time I
went to a movie. I don’t even know what is out or
what is coming out. I don’t even have an antenna for
getting regular television. Music though, I have been
listening to a weird assortment of things lately. I rather
like the new U2 release. I literally just bought the new
Orgy CD, which I am listening to right at the moment.
It’s pretty okay. Other than that, I have been sticking
with some older favorites lately: Sister Machine Gun,
Project Pitchfork, and Die Warzau to name a few.

Mardi – Wheeeee!!! Music and movies are the best! I
recently saw “Best in Show” and loved it! I don’t tend
to ‘go’ to the movies that often, but I rent and buy a
lot. I just bought “Run Lola Run” on DVD. I think that
is my new favorite movie, it’s awesome! Music is so
sporadic to me! I get a lot of discs sent to me to write
reviews and I sometimes have a hard time keeping up.
I really love the new Collide CD and am looking
forward to the new Pitchfork. I’m a sucker for electro
synthpop lately, lots of Fictional, VNV Nation,
Covenant, that sort of stuff.


8.) What is next for Fiction 8? More music, live shows,
etc?

Mike – Yeah, things are definitely busy for us right now.
Since we finished “Chaotica” I’ve been doing remixes
for other artists. I finished up ones for Implant and
Aiboforcen recently and am currently working on one
for the Azoic (label mates on Nilaihah Records). We’ve
 got a “Chaotica” release party in Denver in December
and obviously there’s a lot of planning and footwork we
have to do for that. After that, we’ll probably start
writing material for the next disc. We’re planning a
U.S. tour with the Azoic in the spring. That’s probably
going to happen around May. After that, I expect we’ll
wander back into the studio and record the next disc.
It’s one of those things where, we’re really hitting our
stride now and picking up a lot of momentum and
generally having a lot of fun doing it so I think we want
to keep going as hard as we can right now.


Mardi – Ouch! Too much to think of right now. I think
our main focus right now is to promote, promote,
promote, then tour. I really want everyone to hear this
disc and love it, then we can move on!


9.) Final thoughts/comments?

Mike – Nilaihah rocks! (laughs) We’ve been really
happy with the new label. It’s one of those rare
situations where we finally get the chance to be on a
label that really believes in what we’re doing and
totally supports us. With this album, we didn’t have
to worry about what the marketing guy thought of
our image or what the president thought should be
the single. We justmade the best album we could,
mailed it to the label, and a month later it was in
stores. The whole experience has been really
unbelievable.

fiction8.com
myspace.com/fiction8

Snog interview

Interview with David Thrussell of Snog
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
2000
by Evan South


Q: A lot of your work has been released lately. Your last
album Third Mall from the Sun,a re-release of Lies Inc.
and DVC, and the current remix album Relax into the
Abyss. A comment on the abundance of old and new
material?

A: It seems to make sense to re-release Lies Inc.
and DVC as they are pretty much unavailable
in the USA and it was cool to be able to do some new
artwork. The album Third Mall from the Sun was a big
undertaking for us, a quasi conceptual electro
juggernaut careening wildly on and off the rails pushing
the envelope and dunking the witch. It has been a time
consuming exercise with the album being banned in
Australia due to the artwork and other associated
dramas. Relax into the Abyss is essentially two or three
theoretical singles off Third Mall from the Sun
combined as one album. There are various reasons for
doing this-singles are a pain in the ass and difficult for
the music lovers to find-I feel that an album of remixes
is more permanent and is more conducive to a
convincing structure.


Q: Relax into the Abyss contains 11 remixes from Third
Mall and 4 all new tracks. What is your take on other
artists’ take on YOUR material?

A: Well, gladly I like all the remixes of the album and
we spent some considerable amount of time pondering
the track order and flow. For me perhaps one of the
most noticeable differences between our original
material and the remixes is that the remixes are more
beat oriented and instrumental. It’s good sometimes I
think for the music to get a chance to reveal itself and
breathe a little without my grumbly groany voice
smothering everything. There’s a nice amount of scope
there from the glitch fever of Xingu Hill to the
electro-psyche rock of Shaolin Wood Men.


Q: Do you commission who does your remixes, and do
you have final say of what remixes will see the light of
day?

A: Yes. Yes. We maintain complete artistic control at all
times. It just couldn’t be any other way. I am a control
freak.


Q: Do you have any personal remixes from Relax...or
any of the older singles, such as Human Germ, Hooray,
etc.?

A: Well, it might sound a bit fluffy but I like everything
we release otherwise it wouldn’t see the light of day.


Q: Comments on the four new tracks? Especially “Oil”,
in the wake of the current world fuel crisis?

A: Generally speaking, the new tracks have a sound
scapey vibe. We thought that this provided
a nice respite from the more beat laden material. “Oil”
is our quasi esoteric view on the hypocrisy of
petroleum consumption and the deep dank mysteries
that lie far beneath desert sands and ocean floors.


Q: The artwork on Relax... is again like Third Mall, with
a message perhaps of we are what we eat, or we are
what we buy. Comments?

A: Yes, of course we are, and also I liked the subtle
connection between the suedo zen satire of the artwork
and the albums title.


Q: What is next for Snog? More remixes, new material,
etc.?

A: In about a years time there will be a new Snog
album. It will be quite different and I could tell you
more but that would spoil it.


Q: What is the status of other projects, such as Black
Lung or Soma?

A: New records from all projects will be forthcoming,
also keep an eye out for the Black Lung conceptual /
documentary album “Three weeks in a vegan nudist
colony”.


Q: On a non-musical note, how were the Olympics for
you and Australia?

A: Where do I begin? Whenever anyone says the word
Olympics my nostrils pick up the faint scent of gun
powder. Out here at the compound we erected
jamming stations to stop any Olympic propaganda from
penetrating our wholesome minds. Instead of allowing
ourselves to be bludgeoned by these oafish nationalistic
and corporate propaganda broadcasts we engaged in
our own game of organic mango body painting
competitions and awarding of gold medals for most
carousing sunburnt sexual gymnastics.


Q: Final thoughts/comments?

A: Party hard earthling. May the fruit of your loin be a
graceful offspring and may your harvest be always
bountiful.

myspace.com/snogtheband

System der Dinge interview

Interview with Oliver Jaggi of System der Dinge
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
1999
by Evan South


Q: Please give a little background of the band
and its members.


A: SdD was founded some 14 billion years ago by
someone called “god”. We started making sound at
the beginning of the 90's. At that time we were 4
people, heavily influenced by Depeche Mode,
Front 242, Nitzer Ebb. Leaether Strip, etc. Now we’re
just 2, Oliver, (29, working as a chemist) and
Ken (27, working as a programmer).


Q: Tell us about your new, and first, CD release
“Fear Forms Function”.

A: After the release of our second demo tape 5 years
 ago, we went through some troubled time, musically
speaking. Another member left the band which was
very stressful. We missed the chance to release our first
cd  when we were offered a deal.Then, when we
decided to release a cd, our label at that
time went bankrupt. Besides that, there was a growing
conflict between this dark aggressive stereotype like
EBM sound and our psychological development. We
couldn’t identify ourselves with that sound anymore and
lost quite a bit of our self-confidence. We didn’t know
anymore what our music should sound like. So “Fear
Forms Function” can be regarded as a recapitulation of
this difficult period. But now we are very satisfied with
the result.


Q: Any type of “scene” in Switzerland? Do you have
any connection with other Swiss bands such as ECM,
Skalpell, Sleepwalk, etc?

A: Yes, we have good connections to other swiss bands
because many of the people we know are doing music
themselves. Like Henry and Harry of the great ECM/
Skalpell. But there are other superb bands here like der
Eremit (www.dereremit.com) and SyntheticCyclone.
Der Eremit has already released some cd’s so please
have a listen to it if you like dark, intense, and
experimental music. We’re sure that Synthetic Cyclone
will release their debut cd in the near future and it will
be the bomb, that’s for sure. So watch for this
very talented band if you like a mixture of dark EBM
and goa. We also used to know Sleepwalk but we
haven’t seen them for some time, but we heard that
they have released their new cd recently.


Q: I know you have played live in the past. Any current
plans to do so, or future live plans?

A: Of course, we plan to do some live shows to
celebratethe release of our first cd. For the future we
would also like to play some completely different stuff.
We already have an idea how this will sound like. And
we’re doing it live in the sense that we don’t use some
kind of audio playback device but sequencers and synths.


Q: Most Euro bands are on Euro labels, and in fact many
North American bands also sign overseas, but you have
done the complete opposite by signing with the
American label DSBP. Tell us how this came about.

A: We had some contacts with European labels that
were interested in us, but none of them were really
excited about us. Than Oliver heard Tommy T on
Cyberage Radio and sent him a demo. He was so
enthusiastic about it we didn’t know if he was joking or
not. We had the feeling that they believed in our sound.


Q: Is SdD working on any new material, remixes, etc?
What can we expect in the future from SdD?

A: Right now we’re preparing the cd tracks for playing
live. For live shows we just use a part of our equipment,
a hardware sequencer, a few synths, a sampler, and
effects. That’s why we have to change quite a lot.
With “Fear Forms Function” we concluded a phase
of SdD, we would really like to do some new stuff now.


Q: What kind of music have you been listening to lately?

A: We listen to quite a broad range of musical styles.
Latest record was “Legend II” of Saviour Machine.
Very impressive. And of course the new Flatline sampler
on which there is a remix of one of our songs done by
Henry of ECM/Skalpell.


dsbp.cx

Aghast View interview

Interview with Fabricio Viscardi of Aghast View
Originally published by the now defunct newempire.com
2000/2001
by Evan South



1.) Phaseknox seems to be a complete 180 from your
previous effort Carcinopest. More polished, smoothe,
less harsh, etc. Comments?


Well, basically you´ve said it all... It is really a
more polished release in which we spent more time in
the production... Denis spent a lot of time trimming
the vocal effects and the arrangementes as well, we
began working with Pro computer editing, but we still
need to develop our skills on that...There are many
thing to explore in post production and a lot to learn
from mistakes and experiments... The album is
comprised of 11 tracks that reflect our current sound
and ideas.
We´ve gathered influences from many electronic roots
as trance , industrial , tekno and of course we kept
the main EBM sound, which is whtt we stand for. I
think Phaseknox is an album that can be apprecciated
by a wider variety of electronic music fans, not only the
harsh rivetheadz.


2.) Another difference is Phaseknox contains more
instrumentals. It is almost a 50/50 split between the
songs with words and instrumentals.
Was this planned, or did words just not fit in with
some songs?

Nah...We did it like that...Some of the tracks were
written to be solely instrumental pieces, such as the
anthemic "glass waves" or the ambient like "slider".
These tracks are complete without need of vocals.
They just flow like that.


3.) People may not know that there was almost a
3-4 year gap between the writing of the last two
albums. Although Carcinopest came out in 1998, the
material had been around since 1996. By the time it
came out, did you worry that it may have sounded
dated, and people may think the new material is
similar?

Well, we had a certain worry that it should sound a
little bit dated, yeah, but it came out as a really
well accepted album and it built a strong reputation
for us, though some people thought we are too harsh
EBM by only listening to carcinopest and not the other
works we´ve done... The new material is there to
prove we are not an overly biased band on the aggro
side.


4.) When you look back over the years at your
original material off of  Nitrovisceral, Vapor Eyes,
etc., how do you feel you've changed and
developed as artists? Would you ever re-record and
modernize any of the older material for re-release?

In the beggining we were much more of a group of
"revolted" young guys wanting to make some real pissed
off elctronic music with pissed off lyrics...we had
only harsh indystrial/EBM influences and we didn´t
have that much on equipment, we had a lot of effort
and rage. As time passed we evolved as people and as
musicians, we´ve worked with a lot of bands, remixing
many stuff and we learned to like other types of music
and not only the hardestcore of industrial music.


5.) Are there plans yet for Phaseknox to be
licensed in Europe, like Carcinopest was on Zoth?

Yes, there are, but we prefer not to speculate on
that at this moment.


6.) Will there be remixes off of Phaseknox, like
the Truthhead remix cd, or another limited box set?

Box, nah...people don´t seem to want this kind of
release anymore. We are already working on new tracks
and there will be some remixes too, done either by
us and other great bands out there.


7.) What is next for Aghast View? Remixes, more
original material, compilation appearances, remixes
for other artists?

A little bit of everything I think...We´ve just done
a remix for the new Lights Of Euphoria single "fortune
teller" and we will soon remix the new material from
Diverje, which kixx ass. We are as I said before
writing new stuff as well as we plan on releasing
a EP later this year.


8.) Will we see another Biopsy release in the near
future?

I would prefer to say in the future, not so near. We
really don´t know when we will begin writing the new
Biopsy album, we need to check that out...But we do
have solid plans on continuing with Biopsy!


9.) Final thoughts/comments?

Thanx for the questions and all the best for you and
all people who took the time to read this out...

dsbp.cx

Jared Hamman interview

Jared Hamman: Making a Name the Hard Way


By Evan South
Originally published by Full Contact Fighter
2007
fcfighter.com


There are many ways to make a name for yourself in the sport of MMA. One is to fight in an old school tournament where you fight more than once the same night. The other is to face a big name, preferably a UFC or Pride veteran. Jared Hamman did both in the same event. Recently, the International Fighting Championship held a 4-man Cruiserweight (between light-heavy and heavy) tournament. Hamman made it past his first fight to defeat UFC and Pride veteran Travis Wiuff in the finals.

Even more surprising for this relatively unknown fighter would be his background. “I only did 1 year of wrestling in high school and then played football at University of Redlands” said Hamman. “I’ll have only been training and fighting for 2 years this coming November”.

Hamman recalls his introduction to MMA, “I was coaching football at University of Redlands and I had always joked about fighting. I wanted to do something, so I went to the local gym and started training and I was hooked. I had my first smoker amateur fight 3 months after starting training. I won 5 of those in a row. I had my first pro fight after about 4 months of training.”

Hamman’s pro win streak landed him as an alternate for the International Fight League’s Tokyo Sabres. As the light-heavyweight alternate this gave him the fortuitous opportunity to train with Vladimir Matyushenko.

“We trained together all the time” recalls Hamman. “We became friends and training partners.” In replying to what it is like to train with Matyushenko, Jared responded, “His grappling is unbelievable. I’ve seen him mop up so many people. It’s kind of disheartening to train with him sometimes because he is that good.”

Vladimir was also the one who first told Jared about the IFC tournament. “Vladimir asked me how much I weigh and I told him I walk around about 215lbs. He tells me the IFC has this new weight class of 205-230lbs, and I’m thinking here we go! I knew I would still be underweight and I weighed in at 222lbs with my shorts on and a full belly of food.”

Hamman’s opponents were both bigger fighters who were more than likely cutting to make the 230lb limit. Fighting in a tournament style format is difficult due to not knowing who you may face if you get past the first fight, so developing a game plan can be tough. Hamman explains, “My gameplan for the whole tournament, I predicted I was fighting a bunch of ground guys. I knew my first opponent, Rogent Lloret, had won multiple Abu Dhabi trials, so I knew he was really good on the ground. So I trained the whole time to defend take downs, get off my back, and avoid submissions.”

Jared’s first fight with Lloret, however, didn’t go as planned. “When Rogent came out and he was straight kickboxing, it blew me away,” said Hamman. “We went to the ground one time and just ended right back up. His kickboxing was awesome. He was actually the hardest fight because he was so big. I’m usually taller than most guys I’ve fought, and he was taller than me. His reach was really long, really stiff jab, really good movement. It kind of threw me off because I was expecting a submission expert!”

Complicating matters was the fact Hamman was knocked down in the first round.

“From what I remember, I went down to a knee, but I definitely got knocked down, that’s for sure,” Hamman says. “The ref told me later that it was close, but I got right back up and kept on fighting, that’s why he didn’t stop it. I knew at some point, my head was spinning.”

Surviving the first round, things were not better for Hamman going into the second. “I inside leg kicked him in the first round and broke my foot. It forced me to calm down. In between rounds my corner (Matyushenko and coach Brian Warren) told me to relax and use my footwork. And this with a broken foot” laughed Hamman. “First round was a street brawl. Second round I slowed down, I was setting up my punches more, using my head movement because I knew I couldn’t kick him anymore, my foot was done for! I had been working on my inside left and right hooks with my boxing coach, he told me I had a pretty strong right hook, and that’s what I ended up catching Rogent with.”

With Travis having fought right before, Hamman knew who he would be facing in the finals. As Hamman tells it, “I was waiting in the wings to fight Rogent during Travis’ fight, and he beat his guy in less than 2 minutes. I saw that and thought this is going to be interesting,”

Hamman had a decision to make in between fights as to whether or not to continue due to his broken foot. In addition, both eyes were really swollen. As Hamman tells it, “I told my corner my foot was broken and I don’t know if I can walk on it. Once that adrenaline goes away...I decided to put it on ice and see what happens, because there were several more fights in between. However, I decided I didn’t come out here to quit, I didn’t come out to fight one fight, I came out to do the whole thing.”

With the first fight jitters out of the way, Hamman could now concentrate on his final opponent.

“I had just been in a war with Rogent, so when I went out there and looked across and saw Travis, I was thinking I was not scared of anything now,” Hamman tells FCF. “If I had fought Travis first, I may have been more nervous. But now I was ready to fight and bang.”

Hamman was also surprised that Travis chose to stand and bang with him. “I think he got a takedown in the first round, but we just stood through blows. I don’t know if it was my takedown defense, but we just went toe to toe. In the second round, he got another takedown, I reversed position and we stood up. I did kind of a judo throw, threw him against the fence, pushed my weight against his body to smash him up against the cage. I started pounding away with my right hand; he couldn’t defend because I had one of his arms trapped. After about 7 or 8 unanswered punches the ref stopped the fight.”

One would think the sky would be the limit for the 25 year old undefeated fighter, but as Hamman explains; “Now that I won this belt, I need to learn how to actually fight! I haven’t even been doing this for 2 years. People are telling me I need to go to the UFC. I’ll go to the UFC and get smashed.”

http://www.myspace.com/87681500

Rex Richards Interview

Rex Richards: Next Victim of the Tom Erikson Syndrome?


By Evan South
2007
originally published by full contact fighter
fcfighter.com


Tom Erikson syndrome- Defined as a syndrome where a fighter is consistently ducked or avoided and has trouble finding opponents. The next fighter who may suffer from this could be Rex Richards, a young super-heavyweight who is undefeated and incredibly dangerous.

How dangerous? His last fight at Strikeforce this past June lasted only 34 seconds.

“I sensed that I hurt him (opponent Ray Seraille) early on and that’s why I went straight for the attack” said Rex about the quick bout. “I threw a quick combo and a leg kick and I could see that it hurt him, I got him against the cage, the ref broke us up and I could see that I could maybe charge him with a couple punches and get him down and ended up knocking him out.”

Rex’s previous fight at Strikeforce last December also went quickly. Rex reflected on his last bout stating “I didn’t even throw a standing punch. I took the guy down, did a little ground and pound and went for the submission.” So far Rex’s 4 pro fights have lasted a total of approximately 5 and a half minutes. Does he worry these quick fights are not preparing him for a long drawn out war?

“That’s yet to be seen” replied Rex. “I train like I’m doing 12 rounds so I think I go into every fight prepared as far as cardio, technique, everything for the 5 minute rounds. That’s something we’re going to find out down the road, how I can continue and react to going the full rounds. I’m sure we’ll see that in the future. I think as hard as I train there will be no problem with that.”

Rex is already used to opponents changing regularly and this last fight was no exception. Concerning that situation Rex said “That’s part of the reason I went into that fight a little more pissed off than normal. I’m a creature of habit, I played football a long time, I watch film, I study. I didn’t have much detail on the previous guy I was going to fight, however I was training for a particular style and body type and it changed and that’s kind of the reason I went in there, took care of business, took a shower and went home.”

Rex mentioned playing football and is best known to some as a former lineman for the San Jose Sabercats. What would make someone go from a promising football career to the uncertain world of MMA? Rex answers “My football career was going very well, I was with a team I really enjoyed, but I decided MMA is going to be a bigger thing in my life. I’ve always enjoyed fighting more than football. This last football season I signed a Strikeforce contract and decided to do MMA full time. I see a lot of opportunity in MMA and just want to be involved in it. There is something in me that I always wanted and needed this as a career. If there was a big UFC on and the Superbowl, I would be in the other room watching UFC.”

Regarding the aforementioned Tom Erikson syndrome Rex had the following thoughts: “I think I’m in a really weird place right now, I think I’m in a place where I need to make a big jump up in the fights. I’m also still in a bad position that I don’t know if any of these big name guys want to go out and risk a loss. I’m hungry, I consider myself a very athletic fighter. I think I have a lot to offer the super heavyweight category and maybe down the road the heavyweight division.”

Rex is 6' 5" and walks around 305lbs. Would he be willing and able to cut to heavyweight?

“If I could do it” answers Rex. “I don’t know if my frame will allow it. I haven’t been under 270 lbs since I was a junior in high school. I would make the cut if I knew something in particular was going to happen (as in a specific match up) and I could stop everything I was doing and concentrate on training to get prepared for that. I know I would be very explosive and very strong at heavyweight. That’s something I would like to consider down the road but right now it’s tough. I’ve got a really big, thick frame. It would be a battle to get to heavyweight but I think I could do it and I could be really strong at heavyweight.”

Currently surveying the super heavyweight field, Rex did mention a few names of who he would like to face. “I’d like to fight Brock Lesnar. I know not a whole lot of people want to get on him right now. Ron Waterman has been mentioned as a future fight maybe with another promotion I’m going to do some work with too.”

In relation to pay as part of stepping up in competition Rex had the following to say: “I’m not going to turn down a fight with any of those guys, but I’m not going to fight the #1 guy in the world for what a prelim guy is making. I’ve got to make a smart career choice.”

So what is next for Rex Richards? “Strikeforce will probably be my next fight but I have an open (non-exclusive) contract with them, so I can go fight for other companies as long as they can match what Strikeforce is paying me. I have 4 more fights left with Strikforce. Strikeforce was cool to offer that kind of contract to me. I’m just looking for big fights that will boost the career. I’m thinking about doing the Mundials in August in Los Angeles as a brown belt. I would like to win the brown belt division. I definitely want to get my next fight in by September.”

Rex closed by talking about the type of fighter he wants to be. “I like to finish my fights. I want to be exciting. I want to be that fighter the fans say they want to see again.”

With the birth of his first child (daughter Riley) this past April Rex summarized everything best by saying: “A lot of good things happening right now”. As long as that Erickson syndrome will stay at bay...

myspace.com/rexafl