Interview with M. (Anémic Cinéma)

Transcription

Table of contents
Anémic Cinéma – "(ceci n'est pas) Triste" review
Interview with Chris Pelle (Guitare Noire)
Guitare Noire – ‘The Debut’ review
Interview with MAV
MAV. ‘Enter’. First band’s album review
Interview with ‘Holy Blood’
Biography of Dementia ’99
Interview with Cain (Dementia '99)
Interview with Deadchovsky
Interview with ‘Flowers in Flames’
Flowers in Flames – the debut album review
Vincent Fallacara (A Sordid Poppy, JefH, TORSO)
Interview with Lucas Lanthier
Interview with Andi Sex Gang
Sex Gang Children – Salamun Child EP review
2
3
5
6
8
9
10
11
13
15
17
23
25
26
31
36
41
http://www.myspace.com/cinemanemic
Nattsol: Say a few words about
yourself for a start, please.
M.: I'm a young guy from
Barcelona who has a hyperactive
mind and can't stop creating. The
problem here is I'm very lazy, so most
of the time I simply do nothing until
something comes to my mind and I
feel stimulated to do something useless with it, like a song, or a photo.
discovering more kinds of music related to the goth scene, like batcave,
coldwave, deathrock...
As the musician, this is the first
'goth' project I have. Before AC I had
an experimental black metal project
called Nacht, which I abandoned
when I stopped hearing to that kind
of music -I keep composing and
recording songs for Nacht, although.
Nattsol: How did you come into
the 'goth' (etc) music as the listener
and as the musician?
M.: This is hard to tell, because I
don't really know what the fuck is
"goth". I could say the first deliberately sinister group I heard was Death
in June. I got addicted to their music,
so I started looking for more grups
like Dij on the internet and I became
a habitual listener of all the Neofolk
music and from that point I started
Nattsol: How did you catch the
idea of creation your own project?
How was it born?
M.: It was born after listening lots
and lots of times The Cure's Pornography album. I didn't understand
how they could express so much with
so little. I wanted to do something
like they did, I mean making people
sic, sad, just like I felt after listening
that album.
And then I went to a dadaistic ex3
position with Duchamp's, Man Ray's
and Picabia's works and I knew I had
found the way to communicate what
I wanted: absurd. Maybe that exposition only took outside my addiction
to Kafka and Bukowski's literature,
where I felt identified with the misunderstanding of the world the authors reflected in their books.
Nattsol: You took the name of
Marcel Duchamp film. What's
Duchamp's and the film's influence
on your project?
M.: If you look to the film you'll
see it is absurd. I saw it in the exposition, projected on a wall, and I
stayed there, standing up, hypnotized
by the words that appeared. And even
I knew he didn't want to tell me
something, he was only playing with
the spectator -me-, who would judge
him in a good way because he was a
fucking genius, I saw there what I
wanted to do. So the project could
have been called "Retours a la raison" or "Un chien andalou", or
"Ready Made" too.
The influence, so, is not artistic,
is... ideological. I mean dada was
born from disorientation and the will
of breaking everything that had been
absolute in art, is nihilism in art, and
the message is that everything is relative, irrelevant; everything can be art,
so art is absurd, and doesn't exist itself. That feeling of disorientation
and misunderstanding of the world
around is what I want to reflect in
M.: Well, the dadaistic influences
can't be kept original as they are pure
nihilism, and nihilism only admits
the concept of destruction.
To avoid the dadaistic deadlock
I'm considering incorporating more
themes in AC's new songs, letting behind the nihilism of that movement
and, also, making of that deadlock an
inspiration point. Because that deadlock can be seen as the maximum expression of the dadaistic main line,
which is destruction, defined by the
members of the movement when they
started it. And destruction leads us
to despair and disorientation which
everyday to plough ourselves a future
that may not exist. Contemporary
dada can be our lifes.
Nattsol: Enough about dada for
now. Tell me about your first demo,
please. How was it recorded? What is
its conception? (Etc).
M.: Oh, god, this may be a bit disillusioninc, because "We all dream /
We all die" was created without a
conception behind. I simply thought
"I must do a demo", and started
working on it. Because of that it was
a demo, I wanted to create some
songs who could defend themselves
alone, so I rejected
the idea of creating
something similar
to a conceptual
album -which I
want to create
some day-. It was
recorded at home,
like the new release, and I did
everything, from
the programmed
drums to the bass
guitar -which is not
a bass guitar but a
guitar tuned in a
low tune :D-. And
it was after recording the five songs
and having heard at
least ten times each
that I named the
demo "We all
are some of the feelings I wanted to
transmit when I conceived AC.
To the second question I could
answer only one word: everything. We
Nattsol: Well, then I have to ask have destroyed the tradition and
you, what is dada for you. As we hugged contemporary art, which is
know, the period of the original the abnormal son of the avant-garde
dadaistic activity is 1916 - 1922, and movements of the past century, so we
the movement partly broke up be- have no art, and no past, because the
cause of the repeating of itself. So present has broken with the past ways
how do you reflect your dadaistic in- of living. The world is so complifluences with keeping them original? cated we have to abandon the purHow are you going to avoid the pose to understanding it, so we can't
imagine how the future will be. And
dadaistic deadlock?
Oh, and what is contemporary our present, our life, pass by between
gray buildings and cars, as we work
dada in your opinion?
this project, and that's the influence
of Duchamp -and the dadaistic artin Anémic Cinéma.
4
dream / We all die" -I don't know
why still- and numbered the songs in
the order they are.
Nattsol: So you recorded the second demo recently. Could you represent it and say, what has changed in
comparison with the previous release?
M.: In this demo I tried to incorporate other elements to the songs,
like synths -i.e. in labyrinth- and to
omit others in some songs, like the
bass guitar -i.e. in fading memories-,
which made some songs too dense
and saturated. The point was to try
to fusion ambiental music with the
cold wave, but I discovered shoegaze
-especially the band Trance to the
sun- during the recording of the
songs, so I decided to add some reminiscences of that kind of music in
one or two songs. That's why sometimes the guitars have a bit of echo
added to the reverb I use to put on
them. Also, I programmed some
drums deliberately 'strange' -I'm
sorry I can't find the word to define
what I really wanted to achieve when
I programmed them-.
So the point was to erase some
layers whose objective was to give
'consistence' and to add others whose
objective was to make the songs even
more obsessive. And when I couldn't
add that layers to make the song obsessive until nausea I tried changing
some drum rhythms in the middle of
the song, to make it more slow and
paused -and restart after that its normal rhythm-.
Conceptually, the second demo is
very similar to the first one, but the
purpose here was to make something
even more depressing than what I
made in the first demo, so I thought
on adding samples of rain, cars and
things that could make the listener
think about grey days in big cities. In
the end I put that rain sample in the
first song, as an opening, and that's
all, but what I wanted was to end
with the rain sample in the last song,
as an outro -maybe if I have some
time I'll add that sample one of these
days :D-.
and not just only to compose, record
and release more and more demos that would be very boring- because
that's similar to doing nothing as the
real life of groups are their gigs.
Nattsol: Well, what are the musical plans of AC at the moment? I
mean, what ideas or innovations
you'd love to use in the future?
M.: I'd like to add to AC some
post-industrial reminiscences, like the
ones in Death in June’s 'Nada!' -I'm
in love with that album, jaja-. So, in
the future I'll try to make the songs
a bit more complex, giving the songs
structure and, maybe occasionally, incorporating that elements -I haven't
decided still if I will add them to the
songs or in different songs, as interludes-.
Nattsol: What other artistic experiments would you like to try?
M.: You got me without an answer
here because I haven't even considered trying other artistic experiments
as AC takes me so much free time composing, recording and now working of the artwork of the new
release-, and I don't have to much
free time to spend working on artistic projects or experiments. Although
I'm experimenting with some samples
I downloaded to create some 'music'
for maybe a future noise/industrial
project which has still no name.
Nattsol: Are you going to keep
AC as the one-man project? Is there
any possibility of gigs?
M.: I'm currently talking to some
friends that play bass guitar to meet
some day and play in rehearsals. The
problem is I don't have a portable
PC, so I can't put the drums to play
on them, so maybe I'll have to convince a friend that plays that to come
with us. So as you see nothing is still
concreted. But I'd love to play live
Nattsol: And the final words are
yours.
M.: I'd like to thank you for the
interest in AC and for the time you
take on writing the fanzine, which is
fucking awesome. :D
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’
Zar utskiy
‘Grave Jibes Fanzine’
Anémic Cinéma – "(ceci n'est pas) Triste" review
The significance of these objects and ready-mades
lies in the theory behind them….
(Lee Harwood, ‘Dada/My heart belongs to dada’.)
Internationale’ in ritual manner. Drum machine background has the additions of obscure synths, ‘cold’
guitar and more murmuring rather than singing voice,
so the best way to understand the music of M is to try
to drown into the project’s atmosphere and find the
symbols which the music reflects. But a listener can
also find some unexpected things in the release, such
as ‘Depeche Mode’ish synth backgrounds of ‘(Love
is) As cold as your eyes’ for example, or a touch of
‘Kraftwerk’ in ‘Labyrinth’.
In conclusion it would be lovely to say that
though the works of the project don’t seem enough
completed, they do keep the demo functions and
show what we should wait from Anémic Cinéma.
Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
Anémic Cinéma, the one-man ‘ready-made
coldwave’ project from Barcelona, presents us its second demo. A one who has heard the previous project’s release ‘We All Dream, We All Die’ won’t be
too surprised while listening to this release. The both
releases have related conceptions and sounds, so it
will be quite hard to compare two chapters of one
book with a single plot. The thing is that both these
releases (which seem as the single introduction to
something really interesting) show the project’s perspectives of development and discover to a listener
the world of the project’s founder M.
Anémic Cinéma doesn’t have any post-punk
‘drive’. The project’s music reflects Dadaistic readymade in its minimal sound but has more obscure atmosphere. It can be also characterized as ‘Brigade
5
Interview with Chris Pelle (Guitare Noire)
http://www.myspace.com/guitarenoire
http://www.wilrecords.com/
Nattsol: Introduce yourself,
please.
Chris: Hello my name is Chris
Pelle and I’m living in the north of
France. I started my own solo project Guitare Noire the last year. I’m
into the underground scene since
the middle of 80’s. But the most
important thing is Walked in line
records I run since 1995. At the
same date we created with some
friends the punk band Soup Toxic.
I had my own street shop during 4
years too... So WIL was a records
label, a magazine, a booking tours
agency...etc... But now, it’s only a
webzine with a few releases like the
vinyl of Guitare Noire and the
debut album of Suricates. I still reviews some stuff online at
www.wilrecords.com so feel free to
contact me and check the website,
thank you.
because we met so many problems!!! There were 5 different
drummers for example. My participation was important of course. I
think I was the leader but this word
is extremely unpleasant. I never
Nattsol: As I know, you take a used it before. I found all the conpart in the band, called 'Soup certs dates and more still. Without
Toxic'. Tell me more about this me the group would have died at
band and about your participation the end of the first year! Soup toxic
is 11 years of my life and the split
in it.
Chris: Soup Toxic was a French of the band was a depressingly dark
post punk formed at the beginning experience for the three founding
of the year 1995. I was one of the members and gave birth to Guitare
both guitarists and the lead singer. Noire as for me.
We did not release so many records
6
Nattsol: So why did 'Soup
Toxic' disband?
Chris: Due to adding the problems during all these years. I think
there was not the same motivation
for all the members. And a night
we had that big quarrel that you
can not come back alive.
Nattsol: You started 'Guitare
Noire', which has plenty of differences if compare it with 'Soup
Toxic'. So what did you want to
change in your new project? And
what did you want to express?
Chris: Indeed, it is very different. I wanted to make a dark music
and rather quiet. A come back to
the cold wave music and some folk
songs.. My first love! At the beginning, it was just for a page on MySpace and recording the voice of
my daughter on songs. There were
good words of a couple of persons
on Internet. So I wanted to continue for others songs. I want to express the closest music to my mind
at the moment. I don’t want to
cheat myself even if a few people
are close to my music. I want to
play the music looks like to me.. It’s
like a therapy! The first song I
thought that nobody could like it
but two persons said “it’s really
nice” so I made some other songs.
and said “oh I find the name of my
project”.
Nattsol: Now let's talk about
your new release. Could you say a
few words about it as the author?
Chris: It is a very personal project at first because I wanted only 25
copies for my close friends and to
offer an attractive memory to my
daughter who recorded her voice in
a couple of songs. But the guy to
the factory suggested me making
100 for the price of 50. I just
needed to compose new songs even
if I did not have a band anymore.
Now, Guitare Noire looks like a
long-term artistic project in my
head. The nice columns that I received about “The Debut” gives me
the feeling to keep up with work.
Nattsol: Why did you decide to
make a vinyl release?
Chris: I try not to buy CD...I
prefer vinyl stuff. The only CD you
can find at my home are some promotional CD I receive for a review
in my webzine or CD only available on this support I was obliged
to buy. Also I am a collector of
vinyls... I’m a big fan of The Cure
for example with about 200 vinyls
for the same band.
Nattsol: Did you take some
bands as references for 'Guitare
Noire'?
Chris: The song “Carnaval” is
close to Bauhaus, don’t try to find
another reference... it’s one of my
principal influence. Most of people
talk about Douglas Pearce from the
Death In June acoustic songs but I
don’t know these songs before to
start Guitare Noire. It was rather
Psychic TV in my head. I like this
kind of artist could melt different
Nattsol: Is GN only a studio
project? Would you like to play
shows and/or invite other musicians in the project?
Chris: Some guys already asked
me for shows... But sincerely it’s
impossible for me because I’m
alone and all songs are not really
composed for a show live representation. It’s a music you play at
home! Maybe a day if I found othstyle and find a strange atmosphere. ers musicians want to play this kind
You could find a part of The Cure of music... I need to play with some
and Cocteau Twins too of course... others musicians more and more. I
hope to find nice people for the
Nattsol: Could you explain the next songs.
name of the project?
Nattsol: I already asked about
Chris: Why Black Guitar? When
I run my street shop, I found a flex- references, but now I'd love to ask
idisc 7 inch 50’s in a old jazz music about your colleagues and likemagazine. The word Guitare with minded bands/persons on the
an old font with a couple dancing. French stage or apart from it.
Chris: There is a post punk/cold
I put this picture on a frame. A day,
wave
scene with great bands in
I looked at this picture on the wall
7
achievements and so on?
Chris: Yes, it’s my own label.
You can have all the details visiting
the website. I run Wil records since
1995. At the start Wil Records was
a mailorder but a local event organizer too. I liked to add the interviews of the bands which played
with some reviews too. I always
loved fanzine. My first one it was in
the 80s and it’s called Cocktail
Molotov. And some years later Wil
became a true printed fanzine with
Nattsol: You already mentioned a free CD compilation. Also, Wil
www.wilrecords.com. So could you records is online since 1999. At
say more about details it, like how This time I think we were only
was it created, what were/are the three French independent labels
France. I see you know Excès Nocturne... I’m a fan of this band since
the middle 80’s. I like very much to
record a song with Remy the guitarist. He’s a very nice person. But
it’s difficult to find others artists
could find high interest to work
with Guitare Noire. But you know
that Guitare Noire and The Strange
Walls from New York could release
a split 7inch very soon? That will
be thanks to you!
built a website. About 22 issues
later I stopped the fanzine because
I opened a records shop. No Time
for Both.
Nattsol: And your final words.
Chris: Thank you for your help
and for your interest in Guitare
Noire. I’m still waiting to receive
the CD of your band. Jon from
The Strange Walls just told me it’s
great!
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’
Zarutskiy
“Grave Jibes Fanzine”
Guitare Noire – ‘The Debut’ review
really attracts in this situation. It appears from nowhere
and fades. The voice like from old radio and some
‘trembling’ guitar additions make it seems like a vision
of the past, an old orange photo of a carnival. Very
strong picture. The next composition is the guitar
reprise called ‘Alone’. The name of the song clearly reflects the mood of the song. The theme discovers in
music through repeating guitar piece with some additions like the hand bells. The one basis with different
shades. Then a listener can discover the cover of
‘Kraftwerk’ song, called ‘Les Mannequins’. The melody
is not as mechanical as we can see in the original, and
using female vocals seems the good idea, but it has no
that passion as took its place in the original version. But
‘Les Mannequins’ keeps its ‘lifeless’ spirit. The next
composition ‘Dans Ma Rue Il Y A Un Tigre’ is the variation on an extract of a Daniil Kharms’s poem. Kharms
was one of the greatest representatives of probably the
most weird Russian avant-garde art movement of the
beginning of the XX century, OBERIU (Union of Real
Art). Very often the representatives of this movement
mixed in their works children’s naivety and tragic elements, so child’s voice (Chris’s daughter) and melancholic music probably reflects the soul of OBERIU,
especially if remember that most of it’s representatives
had very tragic destinies. The next song of the release,
titled ‘Carrousel Melodica’ continues the atmosphere
of the previous composition, but in a bit swelling manner. And the last composition of the release is ‘M.’.
Melancholic guitar is combined with very ‘rainy’ keyboards. The best outro for the release with the atmosphere of solitude and distance.
If a one asked me to refer ‘Guitare Noire’ to any
style, I’d call it ‘weird coldwave’. There’s the exact influence of Chris’s native scene, but it’s absolutely impossible to call ‘Guitare Noire’ 100% post-punk/new wave
project. Anyway, let’s watch for the project development and see what kind of music it will present us in
the future.
There are some bands or projects which are ‘not for
everyone’ and won’t be understood after the first listening. ‘The Debut’ of ‘Guitare Niore’, the new project of
Chris Pelle (the found member of the punk band ‘Soup
Toxic’) can be exactly considered as the one of that
kind. Enough to say for a start that Chris chose to make
the limited edition of 100 copies 10 inches vinyl and it
made this work a pearl for collectors. ‘The Debut’ was
released by Chris’s own label ‘Walked in Line’ (I think,
this name will cause some associations to every postpunk fan) with the support of Red Elodia Records.
The vinyl consists of 6 tracks, every of which lasts
for about two minutes. Every song has a difference in
comparison with others, but each of them has acoustic
and quite minimal basis. The first song of the release,
called ‘Carnival’, strongly reminds (or it’s better to say,
seems the child of ) ‘The Three Shadows Part II’ of
‘Bauhaus’ by the music and by the atmosphere. The
song seems more like a piece of a composition, and it
8
Interview with MAV
www.myspace.com/bandmav
mail: [email protected]
Nattsol: Introduce the band members
in few words, please. How did you meet
each other? What references did you take
when you started the band?
Francesco: I'm Francesco (synth
player) and I met Federico 2 years ago by announcements, and 2 years after Federico
met Dene (Tony) by a newspaper and we
put together. There were no references but
a lucky meeting in Modena.
We are all big fans of The Cure, (and you
can understand that looking at Tony's hair..)
except Biagio who likes The Cure too but
he's in love with syntpop of the 80's, Biagio
is even a dj. Me and Francesco have a classical attitude in harmonizing sounds, because I studied classical piano, and I put it in
an electronic way, but I can't exclude nothing for the future. Tony, on the contrary,
came from punk, exactly like someone we
all know..he's in love with Kraftwerk and
Clan of Xymox. Federico likes a lot The Cure,
Joy Division and classical postpunk bands ,
like me. I also like a bit of britpop like no
more existing Catatonia
Nattsol: What music expiriences did
the band members have before MAV?
Francesco: Tony (Deneb), the singer,
played in some punk bands in Naples,
where he lived before 2008, then he moved
to Bologna and MAV has joined.
Francesco (me), the synth player began
to study classical piano when I was 11 yo,
and I got a good skill, playing classical piano
competitions.. then I never played with a
group first of MAV, from the beginning of
Mav era I moved to electronic sounds and
his classical background curiously helped
me a lot..
Federico (guitarist) sometimes played
with Francesco some Cure acoustic covers,
Federico is the youngest of the group, we
never found anyone who likes dark music in
Modena, until May 2008...
Biagio is from Sicily, he studies in
Bologna, he's the drummer, he played with
some metal bands, but never took a real
part. Now, with Mav, he can express himself
more and more.
Nattsol: Well, what does the name of
the band mean?
Francesco: It means a neurological disease, in Italian way to say, it is arterio-venous malformation, a phatology of which
Tony suffered in the past and which has
been very dangerous for his life. Now he's
ok and we all hope that he'll stay good for
the rest of his life. Mav name is like a way to
exorcize the past.
Nattsol: I see. And what does express
this name in the band? I mean, how is it
connected with your music?
Francesco: Because there are references of this problem which Tony has had in
our lyrics.. In Vuoto ( in English - empty) he
remembers what he felt after doctors ,when
he was 20, tell him he will be dead up to 2
months. We’re not focused only on this, but
for this first album we can say it's a substantial part of the work especially because Tony
wrote the lyrics, his past influenced him a
lot. ...for the past history and present it's all..
Nattsol: Ok, did you have any records
9
before 'Enter'?
Francesco: No.. during the ‘Enter's’
mixing we had recorded two Cure covers:
The kiss and A Strange Day (absolutely my
favourite song), you can listen to these covers
at
our
myspace
page
(myspace.com/bandmav). And maybe we'll
play it live, we guess...
Nattsol: Well, now let's talk about your
'Enter'. First of all, why Enter?
Francesco: Enter is a strong and direct
word which remind to put ideas in action,
like press a pc's key, this word reminds also
to entry..to debut, to do something for the
first time in a decisive way, like we want to
do.
Nattsol: Fine. Could you represent this
release to a reader? What he can find in it,
in your opinion?
Francesco: In Enter you can find different kinds of music, like every good first
album we haven't focused on a precise
genre of obscure music..and we are not sure
we'll never do it,maybe..., there is a bit of
cold wave on this album (like diane's
dream,in which I put classical piano, from
my background..), a bit of new wave (insana
insonnia for example) and futurepop like
Vuoto or something stronger like Akynetik...
We are a meltin' pot for now.. or for ever?
who knows..In Enter you can also find feelings on a white page you'll write while you
listen to it.
Nattsol: How did you manage to get
such a good quality in your first record?
Francesco: Because Tony worked
some months in a recording studio,and he
knows mixing very well.. Apart this, we
learned to use digital music equipment in
my basement,we work with logic, vst, especially for battery (which is very difficult to
record) and a cardiod microphone, and
everything is fine..
...in this underground period of Mav
band we use a small basement to
record..we hope to improve spaces very
soon.
Nattsol: Did MAV have live shows? If
yes, - tell me about them.
Francesco: Not yet, we'll play on
Febraury 14 in Padova (Italy), on March,3
near Reggio Emilia and on May, 9 near
Bologna. Follow our myspace, we'll post
every date we book. Unfortunately it’s not
so simple to play dark music in Italy, we'd
like to play outside Italy, book us, you'll be
welcome!
Nattsol: Well, and what do you expect
from your shows? Italy has realy rich history
of post-punk with some wonderful and legendary bands. So which Italian bands would
you like to share the stage with? And what
about the world bands?
Francesco: Regarding to shows, at the
moment we fly down because here in Italy
people want at least indie rock, and we didn't play in goth clubs yet...Our expectation
is to play good, to test ourselvels live, and in
the future to play outside Italy where surely
more people will comprehend us. Naturally
we like Italy, but we're a bit angry with Italian management of clubs, they much more
often call cover bands, we can understand
that cover bands represents a sure gain.. but
we don't like this kind of approach. Anyway,
we'll give our best in these three Italian
dates, but these clubs in which we'll play are
not appropriate for our genre, people there
wants indie rock, so we'll surely play "Insana
insonnia"..they'll like it.
I like apart from the classical 80’s gods
some Italian bands like Spiritual Front and
All My Faith Lost, which we'll see this saturday night in Parma..
Even if its' neofolk and is partly far from
us, I think Italian neofolk is living a good
time. Federico likes some indie bands of the
UK, like Iliketrains, Tony likes Anima Virus (he
will collaborate in anima virus next live
shows) and Biagio likes something more
electronic like vnv nation, e loves electronic
drums..
Our dream is maybe to make a date together with some of these artists, or an
opening act.. who knows..
Nattsol: Are there some musical experiments you'd like to try in MAV or apart
from it?
Francesco: No, there aren't, at least
for me, Federico and Biagio... Tony cooperates with Anima Virus, something ebm-
like... but just for live shows helps with programming I suppose.. I go on playing classical piano at home, but I don't think I'll record
anything. I like playing togheter, alone I get
bored.
Nattsol: What are the interests of the
band members except music?
Francesco: I like poetry, I began to
write in the last years and I obtained a prize
here in Italy.. I think we'll use some of my
writings for the next album. Personal interests of the rest of MAV is a difficult question,
I don't know, it's a presonal question, but we
like going out in Bologna together at night
and drink some beer, it's entertaining, English style! or even "Russian style".
Nattsol: And your final words.
Francesco: It’s just a request which
comes from Italian musical hell, and directed to managers of this musical field:
"Book us for live shows in Italy, Europe or
wherever you want, we’d love to play out in
front of receptive public, give us a chance!
“Enter” will be distribuited on next months
by Danse Macabre Records in cd shops and
online, follow us for some news. Thank
you!". And thank you, Nattsol for the interview.
Questions: Pall ‘Nattsol’ Zarutskiy
MAV. ‘Enter’. First band’s album review
‘Enter’. This simple laconic word declares the young Italian
band’s MAV enter into the music scene.
The album begins with the composition “Akynetik”. Sharply
rhythm beating drums, cold “offscreen” vocals, guitar accords and
synth sounds create anxious and algetic atmosphere. Then the sluggish and wistful song named “Lamento” follows and changes into
more energetic theme of “Il crepuscolo della coscienza”, where keyboards come to the foreground and form the general melody. The
fourth track, “Vuoto” possesses the dynamic sound and lively emotional vocals, which acquires here some kind of ethnic execution’s
manner, as it seems to me. “Insana Insonnia” is a nervous electronic
tune with somewhat hysterical vocals, which apt digital processing
just only increases the impression. In general, this song is a potentially
successful club’s theme. “In My Brain” takes us back into the album’s
beginning depressive rhythm and atmosphere, thereby imparting distinctive cyclical completeness to its composition.
“Diane’s dream” is the album’s closing theme, some kind of
outro, which I want to dwell on. It’s a 164 second track composed of
turning into each other classical and synth piano tunes that can be
reckoned in “new edge” music direction. It isn’t a reason to compare
MAV band and Amethystium, for example, or other bands like, but
for me it is the reason to conjecture that if one day a side “new edge”
project with Francesco’s participation will started, it might come out
very exciting.
“Enter” deserves a lot of compliments. Interesting vocals,
which artistry is skillfully complemented by digital processing, nice
rhythm, and specific post-punk guitar sounds, which are especially
felt in Akynetik and In my brain, exciting keyboards, which add to the
melodies some charismatic components, and general album’s atmosphere, which is wistful, but clear - all of this is worth to make a special
mention. There is no precise genre of music, in this respect album
turned out quite diverse, maybe it will not catch everybody fancy, but
it definitely testify the band’s great creative potential and enthusiasm,
which they put into a peculiar try to please all the obscure music fans
at once.
And I must say that this try doesn’t seem unsuccessful. MAV’s
enter on the dark scene has happened and came out sufficiently interesting to deserve listener’s attention.
10
Nikolai ‘Tacitus’ Polyakov
Interview with ‘Holy Blood’
http://www.myspace.com/hbproject
Nattsol: First of all, tell me how
the musicians met each other.
What interests and influences did
you share?
Dezbut: We live in the same
small town. Héloïse and I met
Acta in 2003 during a party organized by his brother. We had
the same tastes for music and
movies. I'm a guitarist, him a
bassist thus we decided to try to
play together.
Currently, our musical influences come especially from Rock.
We like rock from 80's, post punk,
punk, batcave, deathrock... but
we can listen to modern rock
sometimes.
Moreover, we watch often horror movies together including Bmovies and Z-movies.
Nattsol: What things did the
project get from each of you personally?
Acta: We are complementary.
Dezbut brings unquestionably the
rigor in the band and the technical knowledge we need for
recording, etc. Héloïse and me
don’t know it well. Dezbut is a perfectionist.
Héloïse brings us the joy we
need to progress in our music.
She’s our inner voice and our
melody: she’s the core of our
music..
In my case, I think I’m the moderator between Dezbut’s perfectionism
and
Héloïse’s
enthusiasm. I bring maybe some
serenity and simplicity to our
music while having a look into the
11
originality of our music. All without excess.
Nattsol: Tell me the history of
the band's name.
Dezbut: We played several
times together, only existing
songs. I believe that we chose to
have one when we decided to
play our own songs. We wanted to
use a religion term in our name.
We aren't religious, it's ironic. The
second part comes from our
affinity with horror movies.
When we chose this name, we
didn't know that a Ukrainian
metal band had the same.
Nattsol: What were the first
steps of the band?
Dezbut: Holy Blood is born in
2003. I believe that our first song
is born in 2003 too, it's The
Dreadful Cycle". At the end of
2004 we released our first
record. The demo-cd is called
"Genese". After a long pause due
to my studies, we came back. In
2006, we released a new song
called "Food Story" after I met
Zorch from Camp Z on MySpace
and on a French batcave forum.
He helped us a lot. This song appeared on the compilation " The
Sexy Zombies". In 2007, I met Dj
Alien S Pagan and discovered the
Cemetary Girlz. During 2008, Divarre from Deadchovsky helps us
and encouraged us. Finally, in
2009 we played our first gig
thanks to Dj Alien S Pagan. It was
January 10.
Nattsol: Well, so you played the
first gig. Does it mean that ‘the
ice has moved’ and the band's
development will go faster now?
Dezbut: I think our first gig is a
first step in order to move the ice.
The band's development may be
faster now because we worked a
lot for this show. We are now used
to regularly work our music and
we really want to go further.
Acta: Go further by recording
our first CD for example...
Nattsol: What persons and
which bands except already mentioned you can call your friends
and colleagues? What is their
participation in the life of ‘Holy
Blood’?
Dezbut: In my mind, we mentioned before the main persons
and bands that we know. We are
too in touch with Blood Orange.
Recently, Droserae and Crimson
Muddle have contacted us for our
second gig. Generally, we share
our point of view on music and we
support ourselves.
Nattsol: And which bands
apart from the local stage you’d
like to play with?
Dezbut: I would like to play with
Bloody Dead and Sexy, Cinema
Strange, Strange Dolls Cult and
Miguel and the Living Dead.
Héloïse: I agree for Bloody
Dead and Sexy and I want to add
New Days Delay.
Acta: My dream would be to
play with Cinema Strange and if
we could go in the past, I would our point of view on this subject.
play with Joy Division.
Concerning me, clothes are not
my priority. However I like thinking
Nattsol: As I know, your music to our visuals for our MySpace
style has changed from the begin- page or for a video clip. I prefer
ning. How can you describe this working on music, pictures or
evolution?
video.
Dezbut: When we began to
Acta: I agree with Dezbut, our
write our songs around 2003, we priority is music and it must not
played music between rock, metal change. In fact, before our first
and gothic music. Acta discovered gig we haven’t really thought to
in first Batcave, Post Punk, etc our visual. However in the future,
through a compilation called "Ob- we should think about it in order
scur" around 2005, I believe. He to propose a coherent musical
lent to Héloïse and Me the CD concept. We will certainly work on
and we fast liked it. My favorite a horror style, that what I like.
bands on this CD were Joy Division, Bauhaus, Jad Wio and CorNattsol: So tell me about your
pus Delicti. After the pause due to recorded songs. What are they?
my studies, we decided to play
Dezbut: We don’t have a lot of
music
between
Batcave, recorded songs, not enough for a
Deathrock, Punk and New Wave. CD, maybe the half. On our MyAppart from our style’s Space page, there are three of
change, I think our music has them: Bewitch Jitter and Botox
more maturity than before. It's Lover. The other songs aren’t yet
more structured and less monot- mixed. After our second gig, we
onous. It’s a little bit like in our want to record some songs again.
own lifes.
Generally, that's not very fast, because we record the new songs in
Nattsol: What is music for you? my house and I'm not a profesDezbut: Music is many things sional. That's very fun in my mind
for me. When I listen to a CD, to resume the recording. I like it
that's often for being concentrate because each time we work in
or for not getting bored. And be- order to have the best version of
cause I like it, of course! When the songs. Moreover, it's during
I’m a music player, it helps me to recording that we decide how the
forget my problems and to relax. song will be. It's a technical and
Without music, I’m less dynamic, artistical step and I like it.
I cannot relax and I’m more
stressed.
Nattsol: You mentioned your
Acta: Music is a way to tem- future album. What will it be? And
porarily escape reality, an incite- when should we expect it?
ment of travel. It is also an
Dezbut: We want to record a
invitation to share emotions.
complete CD this time, not a
Héloïse: Music is for me a way demo. I cannot say more on this
to share feelings.
now. We still have to discuss on
several points. As I said before,
Nattsol: And what are you we are very slow. Thus we cannot
apart from the music?
schedule the release. I want to
Acta: Beside music, I'm pas- say before 2010. That would be
sionate by horror, black humor better, but I’m not sure to be able
and zombies movies! Sex, zom- to keep this date.
bies and UFO!
Dezbut: Acta has all said beNattsol: And your final words....
fore. That's what we appreciate.
Holy Blood: Thanks a lot to you
That's why we are still together: for this interview and thank you to
we really have the same interests. all the people who support us and
help us.
Nattsol: Many batcave bands
concentrate not only on the
music, but on visual effects too.
What about you? Is an image important for you?
Dezbut: I think we have each
12
Biography of Dementia’99
Dementia'99 emerged from the
ashes of the band with a primitive
sound, but funny called "The Alien
Fried Eggs," a sarcastic imitation of
"Alien Sex Fiend".
When the band dissolved, Virus
(Guitar) and Cain (Vocals) had decided to make something more serious.
Virus hadn’t been involved in
any projects before playing with
Cain, and Cain, have made only two
demos called "Llora Hermana"
which proved to be some experiments in Gothic music without any
clear preference of any style.
They wanted to make the sound
closer to Death rock.
The band have chosen that musical style to make something similar Christian Death albums that
has fallen into their hands in that
period for the first time.
Those early records were “The
Only Theater Of Pain” and “Atrocities”. That way, not by any confrontation between the style and
Valor and Rozz, although in principle, subject of the necessary distance, Dementia’99 made a style
closer to the pure Deathrock style
of Shadow Project.
Since that, first two discs “enlightened” concept as a "copy" in
the composition.
The band didn’t want to renounce influence of post-punk and
its peculiar way of music understanding. They had a psychedelic
way of understanding of the music
and that promised some results.
Born in February 1996 that
way, Dementia'99 appeared with:
Cain Uriel (Vocalist), Virus (Guitar), Tavi (Drums), Nada (Bass).
The band name was selected
among many other variants, to hint
direction at the psychedelic way, so
the theme was taken from the Marrionettes "Ave Dementia" which the
band considered classic, and add
99 for two reasons: years-long existing paranoia, and a small tribute
to the artist Valor Kand, Cain &
Virus were his big fans.
After this initial training, the
changes were very serious, especially in the rhythm section. In fact,
There was the drummer from
the band "Winchesters” in the 1st
concert of Dementia in February'96.
And it was not until November
96, when Tavi ("Lacrima Christi"
band of Barcelona) could participate in a live show.
In 1997 changes continued.
One of the dreams of the two
13
band founders, Virus and Cain, was
undertaking a Gothic Festival in
Mallorca. That was possible thanks
to the invaluable help of a band
called "Sepulcrum Mentis", which
reached a deep friendship, support was indispensable during the
two festivals which were held in
Gothic island in 98 years and in 99
years.
It was in 1998 when the first
"Mallorca Gothic Festival" took
place and consolidated as a band
to take into account in Mallorca.
The fame they happened to get
dew to the famous concert in the
emblematic club of the island,
"Fraguel Rock" where the most savage Dementia'99 concert took
place, in which Cain was a blood
sacrifice including milk bottles and
a mass of sick friends and mad
fans.
As a novelty the band commented the new member, "Sombra", as a second bassist, giving the
band a very unique and powerful
sound.
These two events were very important for the band.
The first bassist left the band. In
his absence, Cain picks up the
bass and sings at the same time.
That has defined some loss of
strength as Cain had to deal with
two instruments and has brought
difficulties.
In 1998 the band made
Shadow Project cover-version, without thinking it would be a tribute to
Rozz Williams. In April, two days
after the unexpected death of Rozz,
Dementia'99 has played probably
more as a tribute to Rozz Williams.
Coming 1999 became sufficient
explaination of the record what
would be their first album "Smile
Befote Die." The recording of this
release has generated changes:
the female voice, Morphine, and
the new bassist Manuel Sastre
(Brother of Virus), giving Cain more
freedom, but in the recording, bass
patterns were made by Cain.
Other plans were made for the
second Gothic Festival with "Sepulcrum Mentis" and "Madre".
The album of seven songs and
two versions of the Shadow Project
(Death plays his role / Penny in the
bucket) was produced by the singer
Madre del Vizio, Fulvio Tori, whom
the band had the pleasure to meet
at that Second Gothic Festival.
The album was recorded in a
week in marathon sessions. The
band decided to refuse addition of
keyboards, to perform as much
death rock as it’s possible. Despite
this, they did not have much time
for post-production, and left to get
more female voices from morphine,
and the necessary live recording of
the theme "Jesus Christ" and versions of Shadow Project, for lack of
time recording, will also participate
in the second bassist Sombra, with
their distorted Under.
The recording released despite
these setbacks.
The Second Gothic Festival was
the last chance to see this band, already mature in the matter sound,
& probably its best concert. Unfortunately it hasn’t been recorded.
The last concert of Dementia’99
was in May 1999, three days before Virus commit suicide three
days before his 21st birthday...
Cain has lost his “right hand” &
decided to dissolve the group, seen
no sense to continue without him.
Very depressed and distressed
C a i n
didn’t lift
his head
till the end
of 2000.
Cain
made a
project
called
"Daityas",
which has
n e v e r
been very
successful, des p i t e
victory in
the contest that was made by the
city of Palma de Mallorca.
The problems continued and the
spirit of Cain was not high.
The loss of the recording of
Daityas in 2001 also became disil-
tempt, gets into the study.
Dementia'99, rise from the
ashes following the completion of
the soundtrack for a short film of
called "Cuarentena."
After this realization, Cain decides to record tracks for the tribute
to Valor Kand from whom they hadn’t got news since 2001, despite
recorded album, which has still
been waited anxiously, with a member of Daityas, Venus (Guitar), a
new promise of Death Rock music
in Mallorca.
That was expected; they decided
to call their second album "Waiting
for Valor."
Now, after suffering the theft of
all their music staff in their local,
the band dissolved again and now
Cain is looking for the new members to continue with a new musical
project
called:
"Dark
Phylosophy".
lusionment, as this album included
Thanks to Cain, the author
some new good songs, interesting of the bio, who gave his perversions, such as "Sick of Love" or mission to publish it.
"A Forest" in death-rock version.
Cain decided to refuse participating in music projects, and to devote himself entirely to his new
business, a bar in Majorca of
Gothic music, but the idea of experiment on their island still existed,
since no one ever opened these
local features.
The Gothic Virus Culture, the
name was chosen as tribute to his
friend Virus.
The first CD of Dementia 99 was
issued late 99, edited in the 2004.
Only five hundred copies appeared in 2004. Their distribution
has been very limited and didn’t
plan to be re-edited, making it a rarity.
In 2006, a year after the dissolution of Daityas, Cain in a new at14
Interview with Cain (Dementia ‘99)
three days before
Rozz
Williams's suicide.
I think we
were the first
band
which
made a tribute
to Rozz, very
affected about
his death.
This song
will stay the
part of my
memories forever.
We loved
Shadow Project
and these two
songs were fabulous and it's
very funny to
play them.
GJF: What
can you tell
about
your
project Daityas?
Cain: It
was a trying to
do something
like Dementia,
with
other
friends.
The
band was very
nice, but the
bad
lucky
http:// www.myspace.com/dementia99
GJF: Dementia’99 was formed in 1996.
You decided to play Californian death-rock.
Why did you choose this music style?
Cain: I love that music; don't you think
that is the best music of the world? No
more comments. :)
again... ...threw down our projects
GJF: Tell us please in details, how was
the recording of “Smile Before Die” going?
Cain: It was recorded in Mallorca in
the '99, cause we wanted to record at the
same year our name included.
We had to record the whole album only
in 5 days. It was stressing. In fact, on the last
day, in the last hour, we had to record two
songs yet, and we recorded JESUS
CHRIST and the COVER OF
SHADOW PROJECT live.
We had to record in one shoot, that’s
the reason why there are no females voices,
and those songs are incompletes.
I'd never play so nervous in my life.
GJF: Dementia’99 made soundtrack for
the “Cuarentena” movie. What the film it
was? Describe it in your own words.
Cain: That was the idea of a friend
who makes four short movies a year. It is
the Ed Wodds Recarnation. It's a vampire
story based on the stories of the famous
role-playing game, the masquerade.
GJF: This album contains the cover of
Shadow Project "Death Plays His Role" &
you play this song on stage as well. Why
have you decided to cover this song of Rozz
Williams?
Cain: It was the first shadow project
cover we played. We played it on April' 98
in the First Mallorca Gothic Festival we organized.
GJF: What is this song for you?
Cain: We played it on the Festival,
GJF: As I know, the project’s records
disappeared in a strange way. But can we
find something in network?
Cain: No. Nothing. It’s a shame.
GJF: Your last album is devoted to
Valor. Why him?
Cain: Valor Kand is one of the most
great genious of the goth music. I think he
has been victimized on the net.
The original Christian Death broke up
in 83 and Rozz stayed without the band.
Valor who looked up to Rozz and he still
does, talked to Rozz about joining with
Pompeii 99. Their plans were to make a European tour as "two bands",
Rozz Williams was supposed to sing
Christian Death songs and Valor Kand Pompeii 99 ones.
The manager didn't let them do it and
they had to choose one name and play as a
"one band" and that name was Christian
because Valor Kand enjoyed it.
At the time Rozz was the singer in the
15
Valor Kand’s band. Valor Kand wrote all the
songs. Obviously, the influence of Rozz was
there, but the sound of these records is the
Valor Kand sound, who says "sick of love""
....... are not death rock, he has no fucking
idea what is Death Rock
Misfits had a lot of problems with the
copyright of their songs, between Danzing
and Ciafa brothers, and nobody condemned
those records, it is not the same in the
Christian Death case.
Rozz Williams never felt comfortable
as Rock Gothic singer; he left Christian
Death in 84. His electronic experiments,....
and all that stuff of Spoken music, he came
back because Eva O, and the managers's
promises and audience, the managers
promised to him a lot of money if the first
Christian Death back. That was the reason
of Shadow Project and all the Rozz
Williams's album with the name of Christian Death in the 90's. Making money.
The real history of Christian Death has
not been well explained.
Before Rozz's death, nobody cared
about him. I remember his two concerts in
Barcelona, we were only 30 people.
After his death, Rozz became as a god,
and Valor almost his killer.
I tried to make a tribute to Valor because I wanted to justice for him, for his
quality as a performer.
GJF: And why the whole album for
that theme?
Cain: Valor's work is intense and complex. The tribute has to be something bigger
than only one song.
I wouldn't like if my words were understood as anti-Rozz. It's absurd. Rozz in
heaven was included for this. Because people understand we can love and respect
both.
Rozz is in my heart with all his music,
especially his rocker side of Shadow Project
and Daucus Karota.
Dementia 99 never hated Valor Kand
because we lived these years, records and
news, year by year, and we know what happens with Christian Death history.
We cannot look down on this artist, for
his records. Music is music plus feelings, it’s
not politics, it's not football.
You cannot reject something to be more
radical, more death rocker.
That is bullshit of young people that
never lived the Christian Death history.
GJF: You have placed "Waiting For
Valor" in network. What are the reasons of
this decision?
Cain: The first Dementia 99's record
was rejected for all the record companies. I
was very depressing, five years trying to
publish it. Finally I decided to do for ourselves, 500 copies at the end of 2004. We
sold only 20 copies in all these years, and on
the other
hand there were plenty of people downloading on the net. And I thought it would
be better upload my record for free.
To make it easier to access to the record.
Thanks to this decision we had more
than 3.000 download in a several places on
the net, blogs..... and several countries, from
around the world.
GJF: Dementia 99 plays authentic
Death-Rock, with elements of gothic -rock
and post-punk. Today many groups try to
add some alien elements of electro music
and to vary the sound in general , what
often removes the genre from the initial
idea … How do you treat that and have you
ever wanted to experiment?
Cain: For me Death rock is well-balanced mixture of punk energy with gothic
atmosphere. It's Gothic punk. The mixture
and the experimentations are cool, but I
prefer to play rock'n'roll, of course with no
limits. In fact, Waiting for valor, is less rock
and original than Smile Before Die , and
my idea is to record another Gothic punk
record.
GJF: You are not freshmen on the
scene, you play much more interesting
music than a number of popular nowadays
neo-death-rock groups, but, for example, in
Russia you are not so well-known for our
ful.
I don't know if I record or play live
again, but I am very proud to be "The Spanish Christian Death" all over the world.
I am really grateful.
GJF: Do you consider your band as the
successful one?
Cain: I think so.
GJF: And what is success for you?
Cain: To feel you are an active part of
the music you love. Looking for prestige,
not fame
GJF: What about Spanish underground scene nowadays?
Cain: The Gothic Scene in Spain is
rather average, there's the movement in
Madrid and Barcelona only. Rock 'n' Roll
is wounded.
But I think Death Rock never dies and
some people of Spain keep this music for
the rest of the times.
GJF: Can you call some bands, which
I want to do an entire album of cover
songs for free downloading
I don't want to die before record the
three albums I have in my head…
GJF: Tell us in details about Gothic
Festivals in Mallorca?
Cain: It was a long time ago.
Was a very ambitious project failed in
his second time.
At least we have friends with Sepulcrum Mentis, and we could hear in live
Madre del Vizio. Unforgettable.
GJF: Tell us in details about «The
Gothic Virus Culture», a bar in Mallorca of
Gothic music. Do you have this business
now?
Cain: No. I left in 2004. Was a Gothic
Club, with all the styles. From primitive
punk to EBM and Electro industrial. It was
very funny. Many parties and very good
people.
GJF: Can you tell us about yourself:
How passes your usual day?
Cain: With the madness of having
many songs in my head that I can not edit.
Looking for life in the best way I can, and
hoping that fate leads me to study again.
GJF: Do you have interests besides
music? What writers do you read?
Cain: I like many stiles of music. But,
with gothic atmosferic preferenly. If the
music goes to my heart is stay forever. I
don’t read fiction writers. I like the philosophy, Religions and books of science, psychology, anthropology, quantum physics,
etc...
My favorites writers are Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Krisnamurty, Emile Cioran, Sufi
pensament of Rumi, Ibn Arabi, Idries
Shah,Fritjof Capra, and many others.
regret among the admirers of neo-deathrock groups. What about «popularity» of
Dementia ' 99 (among the scene) at home
& world-wide?
Cain: Thanks to power of the net, we
are part of Death Rock Scene.
GJF: You’ve been involved in different
projects for a long time. Now, when deathrock/post-punk is on the peak of its popularity and we can see some kind of rebirth
& renaissance of the movement, many new
bands have appeared. But there are some
negative moments in any fashion trend.
What do you feel? Do you prefer scene’s
classic to the modern trends?
Cain: I think that fashions go away,
but the true fans never fall. For me is atemporal the music that I like it, I never worried about my favorite music, ..it is living
eternally in my heart. Obviously, Classic.
Anybody prefer the modern trends? I can’t
understand that, cause the modern trends
is a consequence of the past
About Fans: We have fans all over the
world, it's really exciting and a very success-
are likable for you?
Cain: Spanish Bands: Paralisis Permanente, Paralitikos, Los Carniceros del
Norte, Horror Vacui, Quidam, El Desvan
del Macho...
GJF: Cain, you nave very powerful,
beautiful & sensitive vocal. Do you work &
train your voice?
Cain: Singing Bauhaus song when I
take a shower. :)
GJF: What have you & your musicians
been doing during the last year?
Cain: Dark Cavity y Venus have
formed another band, my best feelings for
them.
Last time we met, it was in Madrid on
the last Valor Kand tour. We gave him our
tribute.
GJF: What should we wait from you in
the next year?
Cain: I wish to record the third album,
it'll be called "Dark Philosophy". Vinyl
Album if it's possible.
16
GJF: The Spanish football team kept
the first place in the 2008. Are you fond of
Spanish football? Are you go in for sport?
Cain: I like football as a sport. But I'm
not going to soccer stadiums. In Spain are
full of skinheads.
Despite this, my favorite team is
Atletico Madrid. It is a team that suffers a
lot, and therefore, for me, is the team most
"gothic" of the Spanish league.
I practice SeiTai. No is a Sport but I like
it.
GJF: And the final words are yours….
Cain: I'm very excited for you interest
about the band and I hope your magazine
stay forever.
I want to give my regards to the Russian
death rocker guys, and I wish all them
wishes be completed.
...and take care with the Skin Nazis!
Sex, Drugs and Death Rock!
Questions:
Afonina”Diegabrial” Irina,
Vadim“Bars-Ursula”Barsov,
Interview with Deadchovsky
http://www.deadchovsky.com/
http://www.myspace.com/deadchovsky
Nattsol: Let's start from the
beginning. Represent yourselves,
please, and tell some words
about your coming into the
music and your musical experiences before Deadchovsky.
Afterglauk: Hello, my name
is Afterglauk. My first musical remembrance is Michael Jackson's
Thriller as I was 4 or five. Before
Deadchovsky, I used to play in
many heavy metal bands, then I
played in cold wave bands as
Trespass or Malaise Rouge. This
was before the first revelation…
Lois: Hello, i'm Lois. I don't
remember when I started music.
I only remember that I was lost
in a desert in the middle of
nowhere, I found a guitar and
heard some chemical sounds (industrial birds, feedbacks, flash
waves), and I tried it. After a
while I met the guy of Trespass
(a French cold wave band) with
who I've played for 2 years with
Afterglauk and Divarre.
Hellebore: Before Deadchovsky, I was already composing my first songs of Crimson
Muddle on my own. Then I met
Zorch (Zorch Factor, Sleeping
Children, Camp Z), and we created with Tom (Sleeping Children, Violet Stigmata) a band
called “The Vertigo Smile”...
We've been really creative during
six months, we recorded some
demo tracks, but nothing official,
and stopped because of the distance (I was living at this moment in the south of France).
And then, I met a good friend to
Afterglauk who told me that
Deadchovsky was searching a
new keyboardist... So I met the
guys at their concert in Marseille,
and few months ago, I joined the
band.
Divarre: I started listening to
rock/metal music when I was
young, mostly because of my
older brother. He was playing the
drums, I wanted to play the
piano, but I played the guitar,
then I gave up and chose the
drums. Logical, isn't it ?
Nattsol: Tell me, how Igor appeared in your lives.
Afterglauk: As Lois John Slut
(guitar) and I were playing in
Trespass and started to get bored
of it, we had a lunch in a forest.
There appeared the voice of the
prophet Igor inside of us: "leave
Trespass, build your own band,
play the most demented batcave
ever, go home and record the
song "Falling Curtain" as a tribute to Eastern Europe, so be it".
Four hours after that, Falling
17
Curtain was recorded.
Lois: In 2003, Afterglauk and
I wanted to play something more
batcave. For personal reasons I
left the band Trespass. I remember having a lunch with Afterglauk where we have a common
“flash” talking about vodka. We
heard the same “voice”. It was
our first met with Igor. This voice
guide us to play the craziest batcave music.
In our lives? Igor is in all of us,
sometimes hidden in a bottle of
vodka, sometimes he took control of our mind. I'm sure you already met him getting high after
a drunk night.
Hellebore: He appeared one
night on my sleep, before to join
Deadchovsky, and told me that
the decadence revolution was on
her way, that it will be a big cataclysm in the actual music, that I
had to join this chemical formation, to stop the invasion of the
craaloïds... So I listened his advice, and joined the team!
Divarre: Igor asked me to
play for him, and before he
wanted me to achieve a kind of
quest. It's been a long and hard
journey, but finally I did manage
to play the drums with vodka
bottles instead of sticks. My story
with Deadchovsky could then
begin.
Nattsol:
Now
about
the
existing bands).
Hellebore: No concessions,
we put whatever we wanted in
our music... We didn't want it to
be planned. Mixing punk, goth,
coldwave, psychedelic, ska,
cabaret, progressive rock ... and
we could have been more far, and
mix folk music, reggae, ethnic
music...
Divarre: The sound of empty
bottles and broken drum kits.
Nattsol: In your opinion,
what did the band get when Le
Bab and Albator were replaced
by Hellebore and Braen X. Divarre?
Afterglauk: I think this was
necessary because Le Bab and
Albator were not really into the
batcave thing, but more into new
romantics and cold wave. Hellebore had the technical level of Le
Bab with more motivation and
Divarre overpassed the Albator's
drumming level. We needed that
change to give Deadchovsky new
dynamics. And Divarre should
have been Deadchovsky's first
drummer but he did not want at
the time!
Divarre: I can play the songs
two times faster!
band's foundation. How did you
catch the idea if doing what you
began to do? What were your references except vodka?
Afterglauk: We caught the
idea by listening to Neva, Cinema Strange, Sex Gang, Virgin
Prunes, Christian Death, Proton
Burst, Sophia, Eros Necropsique,
Iron Maiden, Sopor Aeternus
and many others. We wanted to
build the ultimate batcave tribute
band, with some other influences
to make it even crazier.
Lois: We took different ingredients. 400g of Batcave, 300g of
Punk, 100g of Industrial, 50g of
ColdWave, 50g of Metal, 50g of
non listing music, 4l of vodka, 2
pack of beers, some Igor spices,
and all our craziness. Put it in the
oven for 4 hours.
And then Deadchovsky was
born!! (time to drink one or two
bottle of vodka!!!)
I think we tried to play a mix
of all our influences guided by
the Igor voice. We just tried to be
ourselves. We never wanted to be
the “number one” band. Afterglauk and I had a dream at the
beginning of Deadchovsky, it
was to create a “batcave community” where all the bands / artists
could work together. I'm getting
crazy when I see bands who only
want to be “number one” and
who bring nothing to the batcave
scene (I mean bands who play
EXACTLY the same as already
18
Nattsol: Now Deadchovsky is
one of the most interesting and
important bands on the French
(or even the world's) batcave
scene. It'd be really lovely to
know more details about the
band's first steps. How did you
join this scene? What was the reaction? Etc.
Afterglauk: As the first track
Falling Curtain was recorded, we
sent it to every gothic VIP and so
on around the world. Mick Mercer immediately liked it! Then we
went to see Lionel from Manic
Depression Records and we gave
him that track telling him it was
a new band from Eastern Europe. He listened to it and told us
he wanted to sign the band!! We
had a very naïve ambition but it
worked out.
Lois: At the beginning after
the first time we met Igor in the
forest, we got back home and
started to record our first track
Falling Curtain (written /
recorded / mixed in 4 hours). We
started to make “promo” of this
band but as a joke at the beginning. I remember when we gave
the demo with Falling Curtain to
Lionel of Manic Depression
records, we told him that we had
found a band from Eastern Europe called Deadchovsky. He listened to it and was really
surprised, and wanted to meet
them. Another funny step was
the meeting with Sleeping Children. When we were playing in
Trespass, there was a stupid competition
between
Trespass
(French cold wave) and Sleeping
Children (French deathrock).
When we recorded our first track
(Falling Curtain) Sleeping chil-
to see these guys who knew what the first and the second album?
they wanted. It all happened
Afterglauk: We got more mapretty fast.
ture and started to think that
gothic music was not the only
Nattsol: Well, if a one asked way.
you to represent your music (and
Hellebore: It's question of
your lyrics) in a few words, what persons, and evolution... We
would you answer?
wanted to put all our different inAfterglauk: The lyrics of the fluences in the second album.
first album were about the deca- Maybe the second one is more
dence around the world who mystical and we tried to create a
would lead to a revolution, be- unity with the graphism of the
cause the world needs a change. album too.
The second album was about
Divarre: The second album is
people's false idea about God more the result of an alchemy bewhich leads to war and deca- tween the four of us, playing,
dence. Our music is the mad re- jamming and trying new ideas
flect of all this. If someone asked for songs. We also changed a lot
dren was just looking for a new
singer. So we created a new email
address (Igor Kalaransky hihi)
and sent a mail to Sleeping Children saying “Hi I’m Igor the
singer of Deadchovsky... I love
your band and I would love to
play with you if I manage to get
a Visa”. They answered us that
they were interested!!!! Really
funny. A few days letter we answer him that this was a joke and
Igor was just our Prophet. Six
months later Sleeping Children
asked me to become their new
guitarist. Really funny isn't it?
Divarre: From the time I wasn't part of the band, it was great
what kind of music we play, I’d
answer manic-depressive psychebizarre chemical dadaist
drugdrunken death-rock/batcave.
Divarre: Psychotic, rusty,
groovy, dead.
Nattsol: As I noticed, there
was really long way of the band's
evolution. You changed your
image from deathrocky to more
psychic, your second album is
more obscure and uncompromising in comparison with the first
one. So what the difference do
you see between the first band's
years and the last ones? Between
19
in our musical tastes between the
first and the second album.
Nattsol: There's the track on
your second album, called "I
wanna look like the new dark age
model…". Could you tell a few
words about it? ;-)
Afterglauk: Well it's about
people who want to look like the
guy of the "NDA compilation"
by Strobelight records. We've
been meeting too much of them!
Lois: Because we love him,
and we like the new dark age
model army.
Nattsol: Your albums have
very interesting and original artworks. Could you tell me about
them?
Afterglauk: The first album's
cover was made by a mad punk
guy called Dave Doboin. And
the second one is a painting by
Stel who's Norma Loy singer's
girlfriend. They were perfect with
each title.
Lois: I think the cover of
Decadence Revolution represents
all the icons that we have used to
record it. If you look closely you
can see that the cover is over a
wall, something like old Punk's
graffities of the 80's. And that's it,
the first album is very punk, direct and spontaneous. The cover
of Spritus Sancti Bizarre is more
psychic with a strongest atmosphere. With this strange psychebizarre-bird-prophet.
Nattsol: What are the reasons
of the band's brake-up?
Afterglauk: I’d personally say
that I want to explore new musical horizons. I’m actually not
into rock n’ roll anymore. And a
second reason is that playing in a
band has become difficult for me:
it’s a lot of work and as it’s not
my priority anymore, it’s better to
stop here in my sense.
Lois: A lot of things has
changed in our lives and I think
we all want to explore new kind
of musical experiences. For me,
the main reasons of the band's
brake-up is that we have lost the
“group” spirit. And that makes
me really really sad. Maybe I had
been too laxist for a few months
and that demotivated the others,
I don't know :/ Maybe we should
have gone more in the forest (cf.
the beginning of Deadchovsky)
to keep this “band” spirit.
Hellebore: Many reasons...
but I think the essential reason is
that we are all more involved in
our lives to other personal, musical or professional projects. It's
hard to manage a band, a career,
and other projects in the same
way. Me for example, I'm actually more involved in my professional life, and my other band
Crimson Muddle, and other
plans' growing in my head...
In another part, we didn't all
have the same idea of what we
wanted to do for the next Deadchovsky.
Divarre: It was becoming
harder and harder to get the four
of us available, and in mood for
making music at the same time.
Our lives changed a lot since the
20
beginning of the band, and this is
nothing more than the direct consequence of all the choices we
personally made through the past
five years.
Nattsol: So you played recently your last gig with Jacquy
Bitch,
Castrati
and
The
Cemetary GirlZ. Tell me about
this gig, please.
Afterglauk: I think that people who came this night have
seen 4 of the best actual French
batcave/death-rock bands.
Lois: It was a really nice moment, Le Bab came on scene to
play Der Verfall. And the others
bands were amazing. I think it
will be one of my best memory
of Deadchovsky. Even if the sad
reality of “the end” has come :'(
Hellebore: It was a really
great moment! We had a lot of
fun, and it was fun to play keyboard with Le Bab. Great to play
with Castrati, Cemetary Girlz
and Jacquy Bitch!
Divarre: An unforgettable
night. Castrati were a great surprise for me, I am definitely wait-
ing for their album ! The
Cemetary Girlz and Jacquy Bitch
were perfect as well.
Nattsol: At the moment, the
French scene seems to me very
unified. Is that so? Do you have
friends on the French scene and
apart from it (as I could notice,
you had the gig with Eva O, for
example). Are there some bands
with the style related to yours?
Afterglauk: One can say that
the French scene has never been
that much unified now. This is
true that the fact that members of
different bands know each other,
work together, exchange musicians… But there is a bad competition spirit. It’s just like those
stupid TV games: everyone
wants to be a star. And maybe
there are too many
bands now. Since
our
beginning
we’ve tried with
Deadchovsky
to
unify the scene but
it never really
worked out. We
may have good contacts with bands
from abroad: I
think of Quidam in
Spain,
Abattoir
Rouge
in
the
Netherlands and I
still have a good
contact with Cinema Strange. But
bands like Eva O often ignore the
bands they play with!
Hellebore: I'm not sure that
the French scene is so united, but
Manic Depression, and other associations tried to unite more the
scene. But sure, we have some
friends in the scene,
and apart the scene
too. I would like to
recommend
you
Droserae (a new
French post-punk
band really good)
Divarre: Well,
I'd say quite the opposite. I think we
have an united
scene here. Of
course, there's always a competition
spirit. But that's
human, and may
even be a good
thing. Still, it's
pretty easy to know everyone, because the scene is pretty small
and there's not that many people
involved in it. When a new band
shows up, the rest of scene is
here to listen and give advices.
Speaking of non-French bands, I
don't know many other ones.
Strange Dolls Cult is pretty good,
there are my favourite, along
with Boggart Lebrel who are
from Mexico but I never had the
chance to see them. I was a big ern Europe music. But not refan of The Phantom Limbs too. lated to batcave/gothic scene.
And Cinema Strange's third Who knows...
album is great.
Hellebore: It's hard to say for
the moment. I'm sure there will
Nattsol: Now, when Dead- still have some collaborations bechovsky disbanded, your fans tween each other. In fact there
wait for something new. So what are already some plans, but I
don't want to tell
more for the moment... We'll let you
know. But I'm not
sure that, if there
are some collaborations, we keep on
doing psycho-batcave... We listen too
many things to
focus only on batcave.
Divarre:
I've
started recording
some songs with
Camp Z, an album
should be released
in September 09 or
are the musical plans of the band something like that. I'll probably
members? Is that possible to see play some gigs with them next
your collaboration under another autumn, on drums and synths
name, or you'll separate anyway? maybe, we haven't decided yet.
Will you keep the psycho-batcave It's going to sound like some
spirit, or you want to try your- heavy psychedelic cold post
punk! Besides I am still playing
selves in other kinds of music?
with my other
band, Liturgy Of
Decay, in a gothic
and metal vein, and
we'll be making
some new gigs in
April or May. We
are still working on
our album as well,
which is once again
delayed because of
line-up troubles. At
last, I am working
hard to release the
first songs of my
own project, Alternative.Zero, which
is just me with
Afterglauk: At the moment synths, computers and drums. I
I’m doing totally different things might join another project as well
like composing for dramas and for live drums, but nothing's been
short movies. I continue my decided yet. Anyway, we'll still
learning of sitar. And maybe be using our myspace page to adsome surprises. But definitely not vertise any new projects we're in
into batcave… but who knows… ( w w w. my s p a c e. c o m / d e a d Lois: I don't know yet, I chovsky).
would like to create something
more related to 70's rock / psyNattsol: So that above-menche-rock maybe with some punk tioned gig was your last farewell
influences or influences of East- to your fans. And what about
21
would have LOVED to play in
Russia. Russia as well as the
other countries in Eastern Europe has been a great source of
aesthetic inspiration. No Russia,
no Deadchovsky!
Divarre: Yes we would have
loved to play there. I truly love
life in Russia, and other Eastern
Europe countries as well. It hasn't been corrupted by capitalism,
commercials, consumerism…
yet. I was very lucky to go to Peterhof / Saint Petersburg last
summer. I'd love to go a little
more in the East next time,
maybe near Kazakhstan. Your
country is so huge! Speaking
about music, I love the works of
those ones, who missed the you consider yourselves as deca- Theodor Bastard, and the only
show? You made two unofficial dents? Revolutionaries? :) What few bands I know. Romowe
bootlegs (Live au Klub and Les
Caves), and the audio version of
Les Caves seems to me the best
Deadchovsky record ever. So is
that possible to see an official
band's release in the future? Or
some other plans?
Hellebore: We didn't think
about it for the moment. It's too
early to say, but why not...
Divarre: I am feeling terribly
sorry for all those who would
have liked to see us. It would
have been great to go everywhere
people like us, but we really can't
make it now. The bootlegs you're
talking about were home-made,
and it's great that we were able to
make them sound that good.
There won't be any official release anywhere else than on the
net. If anyone's interested in a
higher quality version of both,
Rikoito, The Guests, Dopelwe'll consider sharing them on are these words for you?
torrents and sharing servers for
Afterglauk: My answer is ganger…
Nattsol: And your final
free.
only my personal opinion: the
first album was more a critic of words….
Afterglauk: Thanks to all of
Nattsol: What would you like decadence that would lead to a
to say about yourselves person- revolution. Things need to you for your support, for appreally?
change around the world. If I ciating what we’ve done and for
Afterglauk: We all keep must choose, I’d prefer revolu- allowing us to exist… simply.
changing in life.
tionary. It makes the things S c p i e d n i troshkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Lois: I miss Deadchovsky.
change. Decadence rots things.
Hellebore: Thanks for your
Divarre: It's been an unbelievDivarre: I agree!
support, too bad we never played
able experience to be part of this
band. And I'll never forget all the
Nattsol: For many your Russ- in Russia, but we'll sure that
wonderful people we've met on ian fans Deadchovsky seems you'll take care of our prophet
tour. Vodka will never taste the quite related to Russia (and not Igor!
Divarre: Paprika!
same.
only because of vodka, hehe). So
is there any truth in it?
Questions:
Nattsol: Hard to ignore the
Afterglauk: Of course! Our
next question. Your first album is Prophet Igor has learned about
called Decadence revolution. Do his prophecies in Russia. We
22
Interview with ‘Flowers in Flames’
http://www.myspace.com/flowersinflames
In Fames. We all shared a similar outlook on what we wanted the music to
be. It's part of the reason why we knew
this band would work because of the
love we shared for certain bands. Plus
our personalities mesh, which is important when creating a band and a
recording project. We have played in
previous bands before here in Cleveland. Some successful and some not
Nattsol: How did you come into successful. We started out with the 10
the music? Did you play in a band be- tunes on our debut disc and basically
rehearsed them to death for year. It is a
fore forming ‘Flowers in Flames’?
Cynthia: The band was formed in very creative way to write music. Some
2006. I'd performed at a David Bowie writers can write a good tune in fifteen
tribute show that Dave had attended minutes then record it the next day. We
and he contacted me afterwards about wanted to incorporate and try out new
forming an original project saying he things for each song and we achieved
thought I'd make a good front person. that.
He had also contacted John and Mary
Nattsol: How and when was the
about the project and they were enthusiastic about it. Since we all knew each band formed? And how did the band
other we were quite familiar with each members meet each other?
David: All of us have been active in
other's personalities and musical capabilities, so we had fewer problems re- the music scene here in Cleveland,
lating to one another as a band than Ohio. We knew each other from meeting in various clubs and seeing each
many music projects do.
David: We had all been in previous other play out from time to time. We
bands before deciding to start Flowers were friends first than bandmates. A
Nattsol: First of all, introduce yourself and ‘Flowers in Flames', please.
David: We are Flowers In Flames a captivating, swirling, spark of energy
that contains elements of Goth, PostPunk, and Psychedelia. We are Cynthia
Dimitroff: Vocals, Synth, Guitar, John
Lee: Drums, Mary Plazo: Bass Guitar,
David Chavez: Guitar, Vocals.
23
few of us had taken a break from the
music scene but then decided to get
back into it. I think the deciding point
was hearing new fresh music like Ladytron, etc. happening. We thought we
could do the same here - bring an exciting change of pace to the music
scene which I think has not been happening much here these last 5 years in
the states, which accounts for the lack
of CD sales that is hurting the music
industry right now. The European
scene seems to be quite exciting at this
time.
Nattsol: What were the guidelines
and the original idea of the band? How
has it been changing (if it has been so)?
Cynthia: The original idea was to
combine mine and Dave's songwriting
talents and come up with a unique
sound. I think we've achieved that well
- Dave's songs are more Goth-oriented,
mine tend towards dark Psychedelia.
It's an interesting mix and makes for a
broader appeal to fans. We've each been
writing our own songs mostly up to
now, Dave writing his and I writing
mine, but in future we'd like to try
some collaboration as well.
David: Attitude, a sense of style,
promoting the band, getting the music
out to people that would enjoy listening and supporting us. We have gotten
great press so far regarding the CD. We
believe the music scene in Europe is really happening in regards to what we're
doing. We have gotten good feedback
in Europe so that is very exciting to us.
We'd love to tour there - hopefully
soon. We want to continue to have a
blend of swirling guitars and synths in
the music plus expand on the vocals
since we have two main singers in the
band. We'd to do more harmonies and
more acoustic piano on the next project.
We wanted to produce a new
sound, exciting music that drew on our
influences and was different from the
norm that is happening now on the
music scene. We are changing of course
but the concept of keeping the music
exciting is always there. Why listen to
music if it's not going to excite you?
Nattsol: Some people find the influence of ‘Christian Death’ on your
music except those influences which
are ‘on the view’. What can you say
about it?
David: We have many influences.
Christian Death is one of them
amongst many. That was an exciting
time when bands such as Christian
Death were happening. The thing I like
about that period was you had a great
blending of fashion with the music.
Fantastic! Plus an attitude to go along
with it. It was easy to spot a "poseur"
too. Thats what I enjoyed about it.
colleagues; we've gotten much assistance
and advice from them,
for which we are quite
thankful.
David: Gothic,
Post Punk, Psychedelia
- we have incorporated
these elements in a
modern representation
for this day and age.
We basically want an
energy to be felt when
someone listens to our
music. We want to exhilirate the listener and
and psychedelic in nature. Not every
song sounds the same on this CD,
which with most bands happens often.
We have a good range when it comes
to the songwriting, which I am grateful
for. I'd hate to release a CD where you
have 10 variations on the same song.
That would be quite boring!
Nattsol: Now about the band’s
debut album. Represent it in your own
words, please.
Cynthia: Some of those songs I had
written years ago, but they have received a fresh interpretation from the
other members of the band. Others I
composed specifically for this project.
wake them up.
But all of the songs, mine and Dave's,
Nattsol: What things other than the gel quite nicely and made for a cohesive
writing of the album became (or are and interesting debut release.
considered to be)
important for the
band?
David: Agreeing on exactly what
we wanted to do.
Our stage performance. Visual effects
to use onstage and
how to make the
"live" show exciting. We use unique
lighting in live
shows and will
eventually expand
upon this. The live presentation of the
David: We wanted to record music
music is very important to us.
that was fresh, exciting, vibrant, danWe try to have a consensus on gerous, dark and different. Unlike what
everything-it helps to keep everyone we hear on the radio, internet or T.V.
happy in the band. Who wants to play We believe it is very relevant to today's
in a band where everyone hates each music scene. I think we stand out as a
other? Not fun
even if you do rock!
Nattsol: What
are the songs of
‘Flowers in Flames’
about?
Cynthia: Personal experiences
interpreted in an
artistic manner.
David: It's difficult to break it
down song by
song. Each song
has a certain relationship to the others
Nattsol: How can you characterize but in a different way. We have two
the band’s music style, and do you have songwriters in the band so there are two
different perspectives but they complicolleagues in it?
Cynthia: We've all been active in the ment each other since we share similar
music scene for years and have many influences. We like the fact that we
have songs that are postpunk, gothic
24
band. You have many elements happening on this CD - a mix of great vocals, great guitar work, keyboards etc.
plus the cover art is pretty cool too.
Nattsol: Now, after the album’s release, what are the plans of the band?
David: To promote the album, play
out live, build a fan base, work on new
music for a second album. We'd love to
tour Europe. Many American bands
dream of playing New York City or
L.A. as do Europeans bands but I think
the dream of every American band is to
tour Europe. We'd love to play in Russia also. That would be a dream come
true for us.
Nattsol: What books/films/music
and other Art aspects are the band
members interested in?
Cynthia: Personally, I like many different types of music, films, and am an
avid reader. Far too many to list indi-
vidually here. I will say that I am a particular fan of Pre-Raphaelite art. Beardsley and Gorey are just two of my
favourite artists.
David: We enjoy any art that breaks
away from the "norm" and is not
cliche. It also has to be entertaining
otherwise why else bother? Too often
people rely on what every else is doing
artistically and that is all well and fine
but the question is, are you really challenging yourself? I think when you try
to do something different instead of
following "the herd" you really break
out and find your true artistic sensibilities. Everyone may not like it but
many may also love it. It's taking a
chance but it's so much fun when you
do.
Nattsol: And some words in conclusion.
David: Thank you for this interview. We appreciate the opportunity
and hope your audience enjoys our
music. Saint Petersburg has a great
music scene developing - one day we
would like to come and play there.
Flowers in Flames – the debut album review.
Ve nu s i n f urs
What can I be w i thout you
(‘Shadows and Dark ness’)
Can you imagine what could have happened if
‘Christian Death’ was formed in the late 60’s? If no,
the debut album of ‘Flowers in Flames’ will probably
help you with it. The album consists of the songs,
written by the band’s two leaders - Cynthia Dimitroff (the songs ‘Introspection’, ‘Third Wave’, ‘Last
Days’ and ‘Golden Town’) and David Chavez (‘Shadows and Darkness’, ‘Terrify Sin’, ‘All the Glitter’,
‘Cursed with a Flame’, ‘Vesper’, ‘Stare at the Stars’).
This collaboration of two authors and lead vocalists
makes wonderful musical additions to each other’s
songs, but keeps the album fluid and monolith as
well. Cynthia’s songs have the ‘Velvet Underground’
thing, and remind us their best works, for example,
‘Third Wave’ can be strongly associated with
‘Heroin’. Dave's songs, in turn, are more ‘Christian
25
Death’ish of ‘Catastrophe Ballet’ and ‘Ashes’ period.
But it doesn’t mean that a listener will find
‘Velvet Underground’ copy in Cynthia’s songs and
‘Christian Death’ copy in Dave’s ones. As it was
said, the songs are strongly connected with each
other and all of them have really different things,
influences and origins. ‘Flowers in Flames’ creates
the new music, which comes from the past. The
band has no any exact style. Maybe, some years
later it will be called ‘post-deathrock’, but at the
moment there’re no any other representatives of
‘Flowers in Flames’ genre. At least, those ones
which are ‘on the view’.
Regarding to the music itself, the single
chapter which would be lovely to notice is the
arrangement of the music. Everything’s done very
professionally and carefully, all the backing vocals,
repetitions and the lines of the instruments are exactly in their places. All the compositions have the
unreflectable beauty of decadence and romanticism, combined with pre- and post-punky energy
at once. Also ‘Flowers in Flames’ songs have the
special thing which is quite hard to notice after
first listening: there’re some pieces where the instruments stop for some time and then ‘run for the
rhythm’, it can be seen in the line of the drum
‘irons’ in ‘Introspection’, string instruments of ‘Vesper’ and in some other songs too. This thing wonderfully fits the compositions and makes quite a
psychedelic effect as ‘the illusion of broken
rhythms’.
It’d be lovely to say in conclusion that this
original combination of influences plus the professionalism and the view of the musicians, which
caused the ‘Flowers in Flames’ phenomenon, will
make this band interesting for fans of very different music styles, such as glam rock, psychedelic
rock, post-punk, deathrock and different ‘goth’
music.
Vincent Fallacara (A Sordid Poppy, JefH, TORSO)
http://www.myspace.com/sordidpoppy
http://www.myspace.com/jefhfactotum
http://www.myspace.com/torsofactotum
http://www.torso-music.com/
The 90’s was really hard
time for the new wave / coldwave music. May be, it can be
called post-coldwave period for
France. Many musical shops had
been closing, labels dropping
and there was the lack of parties as well. New musical movements such as grunge were
taking their places with their
own attraction.
But there still were post
punk fans and new/cold wave
bands still appeared and functioned. Vincent Fallacara was
one of those fans, and, as it
usually happens, he decided to
form his own band. “Before
being in a band, I'm a great
music fan. Everything began
when I was 12, my big brother
brought at home "Pornography"
by the Cure and "Still" by Joy Division. Since that day I knew
that my life will never be the
same and that one day I'll be in
a band”, - recalls Vincent. So
the band, called ‘A Sordid
Poppy’ was founded in 1989.
The name is the combined titles
of the two songs - "Poppy Days"
of Siouxsie and the Banshees
and "A Sordid Waste" of Babel
17. “I wanted a long and mysterious name (like And Also The
Trees, The Jesus and Mary
Chain, The Legendary Pink
Dots)”, - the band’s founder explains. The original ‘A Sordid
Poppy’ line-up was Vincent Fallacara (lyrics, vocals), his
brother Marco (bass) and two
Marco's school friends - Renaud
Bec (keyboards) and Yannick
Cador (guitar), who wrote the
music for the band. A listener
can also notice the name Alexis
Boxmann as the band’s drummer. Vincent explains it so:
“Alexis Boxmann was the name
given to our faithfully drummachine, an Alesis HR16.
26
There’s no drummer on the
recording of the CD. Just our
friend Alexis Boxmann. I still
have it in my recording studio
and sometimes use it…” The
band released its first record,
called ‘Dehiscence’ in 1990. It
was the self-released tape with
the limited edition of 500
copies. The contemporary listener can find Dehiscence in
the anthology of ‘A Sordid
Poppy’, called ‘The Holy Sides’
which was released by the label
Brouillard-Definitif in 2008. The
first song of the release, ‘The
Holy Side’ is traditionally one of
the catchiest. Powerful guitar &
drum start adds with the appearance of the main lines of
the other instruments one by
one and, at last, Vincent’s vocals. This track 100% shows the
whole bands potential and talent. Also this start reflects Vincent’s incredible ability to
phere and finish the release in
the best way they can, reflecting the music in the soul of a
listener. The next part of ‘The
Holy Sides’ is ‘Red Cloud Sessions’. This release never went
out because of the band’s split
and was kept in archives. Vincent tells the release’s history:
“It was recorded in 1992. A
young record label signed us
and so we went in a recording
studio as long as we wanted (3
months of madness, out of the
world). That was a magical
time. But unfortunately the
band broke up and the record
never went out. Some time
later I was contacted by the
label "Brouillard Definitif". They
wanted to re-issue "Dehiscence", and I told them that I
have un-released tapes. I remastered them in my own
recording studio”. So it happened so that we can see ‘The
Holy Sides’ as they are. The
song ‘Dive!’, which opens Red
Cloud Sessions’ combines in itself dynamism and atmosphere
of the first half of ‘Dehiscence’.
Very
‘new-waveish’
intro
changes the song’s musical pattern with the addition of Vincent’s hypnotic vocals and
softly flows into the main quite
‘touching pop’ theme of the
suddenly change his vocal man- previous ones, but in another song with beautiful and atmosner from cold and neutral to way. ‘The square’ partly contin- pheric guitar sound and
sensitively hysteric. The song ues this tradition, but, as it can ‘creaky’ vocals. The second
after, called ‘The old face’, has be seen later, changes the di- song of the release, ‘Eros &
very Cure/Joy Division sound rection of the release. This Agapé’, combines in itself
and well done ‘doubled’ vocals. melancholic song tells musically acoustic guitar sound with
Very coldwave song with and lyrically about levels of rocky keyboards and neutral
touches of melancholy and soli- repetitions which happen in life ‘telling’ voice. This combinatude. Then a listener can notice and about the exhaustion be- tion with some cynic notes
the moodiest song of the re- cause of these repetitions. The makes this song probably the
lease, called ‘Les restes’. Press- words ‘I'll try till the end of most decadent one of A Sordid
ing but not swelling energy of time… / Just one more time’, Poppy. Two next songs of the
the song has a bit ‘The Doors’ where tries happen not because release ’La Chambre’ and ’Depsychedelic keyboard back- of fails but because of running hors il y a...’ can be called the
ground, which is wonderfully in the circle, can be considered contraries of each other. ‘La
reflected in the psychic explo- as the key to this article and all Chambre’ is one of the coldest
sion after fading of the song. Vincent’s artistic activity. The songs of the album. Steel intro,
The next two songs ‘Walking next two songs which close ‘De- as it traditionally is for the reacross’ and ‘Silent Stairs’ con- hiscence’, the ‘deep’ ‘From lease, flows into the deep and
tinue the manner ‘atmosphere asylum with love’ and nervous freezing song with its wonderful
– dynamism’, and seem more and mysterious ‘The older face’ ability of going closer and move
like the interpretations of the develop the drowning atmos- away from a listener. ’Dehors Il
27
closes ‘The Holy Sides’. It was
recorded on ‘Red Cloud Sessions’, but didn’t fit the other
stuff because of its grunge guitar part.
The single chapter of the
band’s activity was their live
shows. Vincent always came
out of control, being filled with
emotions and often drunk. ‘Mad
frontman’, as he describes himself. Truly speaking, this aspect
was the one of those which
made the band popular, but it
made some people hate the
band as well. Yannick didn’t
enjoy that mad atmosphere; he
wanted it to be calmer. So once
Y A...’, as it was said, on the it happened that there was a
contrary is the most ‘living’ fight between Vincent and Yansong of the release. It combines nick, and Yannick had to leave
in itself underground, psychic
and drive aspects with very
sincere
performance. ‘Inside the Line’
has very interesting musical
pattern and also
has
some
echoes of many
other A Sordid
Poppy songs and
echoes of different French
coldwave projects of the second half of the the band after this. But Vincent
80’s, but keeps its unity as well. wanted to keep the band so the
The next song of ‘Red Cloud line-up was renewed and conSessions’ is the one called ‘Un sisted of Marco Fallacara (bass),
Mislin
(guitar),
Peu Trop De Gloire’. If a one Gilles
wanted to promote this song as Christophe Marquet (drums)
the single one he exactly could and Vincent on vocals. The recall it ‘A Sordid Poppy as its newed line up recorded the
best’. This song is also the last demo ‘Eros & Agapé’ and then
traditional coldwave song of the EP "Poussières". Both re‘The Holy Sides’. The last song leases were recorded in 1994.
of ‘Red Cloud Sessions’ Vincent says about the EP:
‘Farewell’ has a touch of east- ‘”Poussières" was recorded in
ern music combined with noisy 1994. In 2 days. But the sound
sound. It has A Sordid Poppy producer didn't care a fuck
musical structure, but on the about us. He just wanted to
other hand the sound and the take the money. The sound is
atmosphere is exactly the sin- pure shit. Release of this CD
gle chapter of the band’s musi- was the biggest mistake in my
cal activity. The bonus track artistic life. But we engaged
‘She falls at the edge of time’ too much money in the project
28
and my brother and I really
wanted to keep ASP alive. We
didn't realize that sometimes
it's better to kill what you love
instead of trying to keep it alive
without the original taste. The
old fans didn't buy it and no
new fans. But on the other hand
I think that the songs of this EP
are not bad songs. Maybe one
day, I’ll re-record one or two of
these song”. However, the
music of "Poussières" is still A
Sordid Poppy music, but on its
other side. So it can be recommended to a listener.
After the release the band
members decided that A Sordid
Poppy is dead and broke up. In
2002 Vincent started his current
project, called TORSO. A listener can be
surprised to see
the space in
Vincent’s artistic activity between 1994 and
2002. So let’s
give a word to
Vincent again to
let him answer
on the question, what was
he doing all
those years.
“I
was
drinking a lot.
Spared all my
time in the pub. Smoked. It was
the saddest period of my life.
Tried to write a novel. But when
you're drunk all day long you
can't do anything good.
In 1996 I met my wife, and
also Gilles the guitarist of the
second A Sordid Poppy line-up
proposed to me and my brother
to create a new project that
mixed indie-rock and French
"chanson" (French singers like
Jacques Brel, Leo Ferré or
Serge Gainsbourg).
That was an interesting
project (called JefH) far from
Cold and New wave but I like
experimentations. Marc Lindemann, the good drummer and
Sam Dedieu, the virtuoso violinist joined us. I sang lyrics about
alcohol, solitude and depressive
feelings. In 1999 we recorded
"le matin, les autres, mes
clopes et moi" (The morning,
the others, my cigarettes and
me) a 10 tracks cd. We met a
little kind of success and play a
lot of gigs in France. People really enjoyed our gigs but at that
time, I used to drink a lot and
was often drunk on stage.
The biggest problem was
that because we played a lot of
gigs we didn't find time to create new songs. So I was bored
with playing the same songs
again and again during 4 years.
I discovered the sampling and
wanted more experimentations, more darkness in music.
So when we felt that JefH wasn't able to progress we decided
to close the case at the end of
2002.
In 2000 I started learning
to play guitar and at the same
time I discovered the incredible
freedom and creative possibilities given by the samplers. I
played guitar as an autodictat
but few years ago I decided to
increase my skill and took guitar lessons with a teacher and,
since the last year I’m studying
the rules of bass playing. I'm
happy to do this way (autodidact first and after lessons) so I
can keep a feeling approach of
the instrument without being
prisoner only by the technical
approach.
So, being able to express
emotions through the creation
of the music on the one hand,
and being fed up with endless
repetitions of the same stuff on
the other, I started developing
the "TORSO" project as a personal side project in 2002”.
Originally “TORSO” was
created as Vincent’s solo studio
project, but a year after the
creation Vincent felt himself
missing the stage, so he asked
his brother Marco and Marc Lindeman (the drummer of JefH)
for their participation and they
didn’t refuse. The only thing
was that Marco was fed up with
playing bass and he chose guitar. So “TORSO” on stage was
Vincent (guitar),
Marco
(guitar)
and
Marc (drums).
They played
on
samples,
sequences
looped
and
drum machine.
Some
time
after Alyss (the
singer of velvet condom)
joined TORSO
29
on bass for several gigs during
six months. The line-up stayed
till 2006 when Marco had to
leave the music due to spending
a lot of time with his family and
for his job. He was replaced by
Alex O., who was found by Vincent after a post on a musician
forum. Few time after Marc left
the band for the same reasons.
So Vincent and Alex decided to
keep up as the duo and they
currently continue running
TORSO.
TORSO has three CDs: 5track self-titled EP (2004),
which is sold out, and two albums – ‘9: Solfatares’ (2005)
and ‘Eloge De La Compression’
(2007). All the TORSO releases
(as well as the JefH CD) were
released by Factotum Records.
It’s absolutely impossible
to refer TORSO to any musical
style. The project doesn’t have
any relations with A Sordid
Poppy, but it’s more ‘wave’
music if compare it with JefH.
A one who would like to find in
the project some styles can find
there almost everything – from
some dark/new wave to even
hip-hop motives (which are
mostly reflected at the end of
every project’s release), but
the music always keeps its
French attraction and romanticism. Vincent’s vocal manner
has absolutely changed too. It
exactly keeps JefH ‘chanting’
references, but got more spo-
happy to see that I’m still in
music with the same will, the
same faith. A lot of my friends,
my brother too, definitively left
music because of their jobs,
their wives or their children.
I've got a wife, I’ve got a child
and a job and I keep on rocking.
I keep on giving concerts,
recording, playing... just because music is an (the most?)
important part of me. I need to
play music like I need to
breathe.
When I was working on the
mastering, I didn't listen to
these tracks for a long long
time. I realized that they still
good and actual. I just regret
the way I used my voice on
some tracks. (too much
forced). I re-discovered the
strength of some songs (like "Un
Peu Trop De Gloire" or "La
ken style, as if it was reading Compression" as well could Chambre" a song that we now
poems. The music of TORSO loose its atmosphere without play in Torso's gigs).
can’t offer to a listener any mu- strict but hysterical ‘Nord’, lyriSo music is my all life and
sical ‘drive’, but it can give in- cal ‘Egon Schiele’ and melan- my life is music, I'm quite sure
credible expression instead.
cholic
‘Eloge
de
la that I'll keep onrocking all my
Though all the TORSO re- compression’.
life long. When I'll be old (may
leases have similar musical
At the moment the proj- be I'am allready old ? :) clearly
structures and don’t have any ect is about to finish the new can see myself making movie's
style differences, the EP and ‘9: album and is going to have a music or as an old alcoholic
Solfatares’ seem much more re- tour in the middle of spring. A loser singer in small and dirty
lated to each other than to listener can find the song from clubs. Who knows? Not me!”
‘Eloge De La Compression’. the future album on TORSO’s
These two releases have more MySpace, called ‘Mona’. This
Pall 'Nattsol' Zarutskiy
sampled backgrounds and more track, dedicated to the birth of
"Grave Jibes Fanzine"
‘fluid’ atmosphere while the Vincent’s daughter, seems one
stuff of ‘Eloge De La Compres- of the best project’s songs, so
sion’ has more fire element. the album can be expected as
The sound there is more ob- strong interesting work.
scure, strict and even a bit
Though A Sordid Poppy
fierce. The second part of the time is over, it’s still important
release ‘La Compression’ even for Vincent. So it would be
has some post-industrial ele- lovely to finish this article with
ments. However, all the re- his words:
leases have their pearls. The EP
“As I wrote it in the CD
stays in memory mostly be- book note, ASP was and still is
cause of ‘Combien D'années Au one of the most important parts
Compteur’, which seems the of my life. It was the beginning
most sincere song of the re- of it all. Like the first love story
lease and has unforgettable you'll never forget. My actual
touching guitar line. "9: Sol- work is strongly influenced by
fatares" couldn’t seem the uni- this period. It was a kind of
fied release without its unreal magical and weird period.
and dreaming ‘Encore de L'air’
At this time, we where
and the catchiest accented very young and full of energy,
‘Bukka White’. And "Eloge De La anger and arrogance. But I’m
30
Interview with Lucas Lanthier
any medium I choose to work with
usually amounts to Storytelling. Per‑
haps that's the passion behind the
other passions.
Nattsol: What can you say about
the foundation of 'Cinema Strange'?
How did the musicians meet each
other, and what things did you share
for that time?
Lanthier: I started Cinema
Strange with Colin O'Donnell, Alex Re‑
strepo and Danny Ribiat in 1994. We
were all just young fellows then, still in
school. Those early days were very
much school days and all sorts of ad‑
ventures were mixed up in the music.
Later, Alex and Colin left and Danny
and I took a break for a year or so be‑
fore continuing on as a two‑man op‑
eration. We had his brother Michael
and James Powell help us on stage a
lot, dressed up as mummies and work‑
ing the fog machine and so forth, and
then Michael joined us as a guitarist in
1998 and proved that he could do
more than just work a fog machine.
James Powell, incidentally, besides
doing his own music project nowa‑
days, plays bass for me in the Deadfly
Ensemble proving that he can do
more than just dress up like a mummy.
http://www.cinemastrange.nightmarezone.de
http://www.thedeadflyensemble.com
http://www.myspace.com/cinemastrange
http://www.myspace.com/thedeadflyensemble
Nattsol: Tell me, please, how and
when did you come into music? Did
you have any other artistic experi‑
ences before you started the band?
Lanthier: Well, it's not very excit‑
ing admitting that music has always
been an influential part of my life,
since I was a baby, even, so I will tell
about my first real band. It was called
Mr. Them and the Granite Slab and the
only members were me and my
brother, Nathaniel, who is a comic
book artist now although he is still a
wonderful singer. I was about 11 and
he was about 10 years old when we
started Mr. Them. We recorded several
songs and I remember that I did so
much screaming during the recording
sessions that I lost my voice for a week.
Our big hit was a song called "Datha‑
Datha‑Datha". So music has always
been important, but my first creative
passion was writing. I still consider my‑
self a writer before a musician, but it's
a close race. And I guess film making
is also running alongside them. But
31
Nattsol: Well, so you said that you
had an artistic element from the be‑
ginning. And what about your musical
influences? As I know you never de‑
nied
some
influences
of
batcave/deathrock music. So what can
you say about these and other musical
references? Were there musical fore‑
runners of Cinema Strange?
Lanthier: There are definitely
some great batcave/deathrock tunes
out there, and also some great cham‑
ber music tunes and also some great
salsa tunes and also some great
Kabuki theater tunes and also some
great delta blues tunes and, and, and...
This list is always too lugubrious to
handle eloquently. For me, at least. In
regard to my own music projects, I
only had a couple before Cinema
Strange. I was a drummer in a punk
band called the Inflatable Dolls when
I was 14 or so. And before that I had
Mr. Them and the Granite Slab with
my brother... But I've been in Cinema
Strange for almost half my life. And the
Deadfly Ensemble for the last several
years. Those are definitely the most
significant musical projects I've ever
been involved in. (Mr. Them may be
the exception, but until I can find that
lost recording session, it's more of a
legend.)
Nattsol: Well, and what about
other peopleʼs music? Was there some
music which 'showed you a way' or
so?
Lanthier: Iʼve had a recurring
nightmare since I was very, very
young. In fact, this nightmare com‑
prises some of my earliest memories.
In it, a terrible Angel appears in the sky,
swirling with the brightest plasma and
the deepest black of the universe, and
opens its mouth, flooding my ears and
mind with a storm of music so terrify‑
ing that I am paralyzed and insensate
with fear and awe. That music, when‑
ever I hear it, reminds me that my own
work should reflect the moon and
bloody battles and at least a few of the
animals of our earth before I join the
jumble of numbers that twist around
and above us, forming everything. I
am only a Lucas Lanthier, servant to
terrible angels.
Nattsol: While watching videos of
your projects it's easy to notice your
artistic play which can seem quite
weird. Like a combination of actor's
and singer's essences. Can you tell me
about your artistic development of
this kind on stage and apart from it?
Lanthier: I don't know very much
about traditional theater, but I know
that my own brand of theater is very
much a part of my musical stage show.
More so in the Deadfly Ensemble, as a
whole, entire presentation, but in Cin‑
ema Strange I do more acting within
the songs because I'm not usually
playing guitar at the same time and
am free to play a character more thor‑
oughly. The Deadfly Ensemble proba‑
bly more resembles a traditional
theatrical situation because we often
have scripts and even other actors as
a part of the productions.
Nattsol: What sort of strangeness
was/is meant in the band's name? Was
it hard to find your audience? And
what were first public's reactions on
your shows?
Lanthier: Well, I have to think
back 15 years and try to remember
why we named the band that. I think
it had a lot to do with my love of silent
cinema, especially the German expres‑
sionist stuff and even some of the an‑
archic silent comedies from America,
oh and we can't forget your Eisenstein,
can we? When I started the project, I
wanted to write and perform music for
silent films. We didn't really get around
to doing that, but the name reflected
some of those desires and also some
of the dramatic themes that we then
pursued.
Nattsol: Now let's talk about
breaking points in the band's life.
Every band's release is different. There
was more deathrock music before the
first album, and your albums reflect
your way to more art rock style. So can
you say that is was/is a straight way, or
it's more a spontaneous reflection? Do
you reject previous stuff in style and
musical aspects when you work on
new songs, or you try to do the music
oriented on it?
Lanthier: Actually, the material on
the various albums is more connected
than it may seem. There are songs
from all three Cinema Strange records,
and from both Deadfly Ensemble
records, that were actually written at
the same time. Some of the songs on
the latest recordings were actually
from the earliest days of Cinema
Strange. The first Cinema Strange
album was very much a collection of
the songs we were playing in the late
nineties or the first six years of the
bandʼs existence, the songs that were
getting us noticed around Los Angeles
and, via the internet, around the
world. The third album was very much
a collection of the songs that we had
been playing in the LAST six years or
so, with a couple exceptions. Really,
the only album that was not exactly a
collection, but a planned album from
start to finish, was “The Astonished
Eyes of Evening”. But even that had
some material on it that had been
around for a while. The two Deadfly al‑
bums were planned pretty thor‑
oughly, but again, some of those
songs had been alive since the
nineties, just never recorded.
Nattsol: Cinema Strange has
plenty of rarities and unreleased stuff.
As I noticed, much more than the re‑
leased one. Is there a chance to see it
(re) released some day? Do you also
have a plan to release a live CD, or the
second DVD?
Lanthier: We actually donʼt have
that many unreleased songs. We do
have some material that has never
been recorded, but I donʼt think we
could make a full album with it. There
are, however, about eight trillion live
recordings, most of which should
probably not see the light of day.
Nattsol: Tell me more details,
please, how did Danny join the band?
And why did you decide to use live
drums?
Lanthier: Danny Walker first
started playing drums with us in 2001,
32
although not regularly. Heʼs a wonder‑
ful percussionist and works with many
projects besides Cinema Strange. He
and Michael went to school together
(along with James Powell, my bassist
for the Deadfly Ensemble). Weʼre lucky
to have him when we can get him, but
he definitely has a busy schedule!
Nattsol: Now a few questions
about your first DVD Pressed Flow‑
ers/Squashed Blossoms'. First of all,
could you describe two your films
there Commandos... Dancing!' and Be‑
ware of Zombie Forest' with your own
words.
Lanthier: I made those super‑8
films with the intention of showing
them in the background during live
concerts. And thatʼs exactly what hap‑
pened. During the shows I would
have the film play forwards, then back‑
wards and then loop until the end of
the concert. I put them on the DVD
because I thought they were some‑
what entertaining as stand‑alone short
films. I love super‑8 film.
Nattsol: The next question about
the DVD stuff. There's the documen‑
tary there, called Miming‑Off in a Lake
of Burning Flame'. How far is that film
from your real life? Can you say that
the things what're going on there
quite usual for your life? And what is
the difference between real' life and
this film?
Lanthier: Unfortunately, this film
seems rather close to real life. At least
at that time, anyway. I donʼt live in Cal‑
ifornia anymore, but thatʼs pretty
much how I remember it. I made that
film with Alex Restrepo (the director,
and the first drummer for Cinema
Strange back in 1994). He and I have
made many films together and for
that documentary, I think we under‑
stood each otherʼs filmmaking in‑
stincts and creative goals enough to
quickly and easily piece together a
slice of Cinema Strange life. Alex and I
still work together from time to time,
although the latest collaboration was
a musical one: he composed the
music that Christian and I arranged
into the Deadfly Ensemble song “The
Adventures of Jonas Mauken”, that
was on the latest album.
Nattsol: Well, you mentioned
some other films. Could you say a few
words about them?
Lanthier: Iʼve made a bunch of
super‑8 films and many, rather ridicu‑
lous, video films, some of which I
made with Alex Restrepo. Iʼve also
made a couple with my brother,
Nathaniel. Iʼve exhibited the super‑8
films a couple times, outside of a con‑
cert setting. Once in California and
once in Montreal. Iʼd like to set up an‑
other exhibition in NYC at some point,
when there isnʼt so much going on.
Nattsol: Another ʻvideo questionʼ.
As I know, none of your projects has a
promo video. Can I ask why itʼs so?
And do you have a plan to improve it?
Lanthier: Making proper music
videos is something that we should
have done long ago, but for some rea‑
son we could never agree on a pro‑
duction for any of the songs. Besides,
Cinema Strange works very slowly. I
can fairly confidently assure you that
there will eventually be a video, or
two, even, before the end of this cen‑
tury.
Nattsol: Cinema Strange keeps si‑
lence for a new studio stuff for several
years. So when should we expect a
new bandʼs stuff? What will it be? Will
there be a ʻBatcavyʼ reference, or
youʼre going to develop the changes
what the band had before?
Lanthier: As Iʼve said, C.S. has a
very sluggish metabolism. Between
the second and third albums, four
years went by. Iʼm not sure when the
33
next album will appear, or what will be
on it, but we do chat about it from
time to time.
Nattsol: Letʼs turn to your other
project, ʻThe Deadfly Ensembleʼ. Could
you tell me the story of its creation,
and represent the band in your own
words?
Lanthier: The Deadfly Ensemble
was me continuing to work when Cin‑
ema Strange was sleeping. I had many
more ideas than what could be ex‑
pressed with Cinema Strange. Some
things just didnʼt fit, or had to be done
a little bit differently. Even then, some
people tell me that they canʼt tell the
difference between the two projects.
I guess itʼs not that important. I love
both my children. When we started,
the D.E. was just James Powell and I.
Now, we are up to five performers and
are thinking about taking a sixth per‑
son on this upcoming USA west coast
tour. Anyhow, itʼs good, theatrical mu‑
sical fun.
Nattsol: What is the lyrics differ‑
ence between ʻCSʼ and ʻDEʼ?
Lanthier: They are both story‑
telling, although the music for the
Deadfly Ensemble is probably a little
bit more like storytelling music, rather
than rock songs with story lyrics. The
range of subjects is quite vast for both
projects. Everything from ghost stories
to comedic escapades to tales of brig‑
ands, lunatics and petty government
officials.
Nattsol: Ok, you made a cover
song for ʻThe Deadfly Ensembleʼ on
ʻKriminaltangoʼ with Andi Sex Gang.
Could you tell me the story of its cre‑
ation?
Lanthier: Oh, well, weʼd been talk‑
ing about recording something to‑
gether for a long, long time and finally
found an opportunity to do so a cou‑
ple years ago. Andi was the one who
suggested “Kriminaltango”, and it was
so fun to work on. And when we were
in London some time later, we met the
grand‑daughter of the songʼs com‑
poser, both of whom are Italian. She
found us online and gave us presents
because she thought we did such a
great job with her grandfatherʼs song.
That was wonderful. A very nice visit.
Nattsol: In ʻThe Deadfly Ensembleʼ
you express yourself not only as the
vocalist, but as the guitar player as
well. When did you start studying gui‑
tar playing, and what is playing the
guitar for you?
Lanthier: I canʼt remember when
I started playing guitar, exactly, but it
was after I had already been playing in
Cinema Strange. Before guitar, I usu‑
ally wrote things on the piano. And
James Powell, my Deadfly bassist,
gave me my first guitar lessons. The
guitar is a lovely instrument, full of
mystery.
Nattsol: In your opinion, whatʼs
the difference between the audience
of ʻCinema Strangeʼ and ʻThe Deadfly
Ensembleʼ?
Lanthier: Thatʼs a good question.
Iʼm not entirely sure, although I some‑
times think that the Deadfly audience
is a little bit more eclectic. Itʼs maybe
more of a broad, alternative following,
where Cinema attracts more of a
deathrocker crowd. But I donʼt know, I
see a lot of Mohawks at Deadfly
shows, too. Good question.
Nattsol: As I could notice, ʻThe
Deadfly Ensembleʼ has faster metabo‑
lism than ʻCinema Strangeʼ. So what
can we expect from this project in the
nearest future?
Lanthier: Weʼre assembling mate‑
rial right now and thinking about a
third album. There are a lot of won‑
derful songs that weʼre working on
and excited about, and after these
west coast shows weʼll probably begin
some recording. Iʼd love to have an‑
other record out by early next year.
Nattsol: Now letʼs mention other
your projects. Letʼs start with the most
unexpected, in my opinion, Shanghai
Triad. Could you tell me its history, first
of all?
Lanthier: I played in Shanghai
Triad for about two years while living
in Montreal. Besides me, playing bass
and guitar (and being the recording
engineer/producer) there was Shien
Lee singing and playing erhu, and
Bethany Orr singing and playing ac‑
cordion. We performed old Chinese
jazz and folk songs, all covers. Our
arrangements were sometimes quite
different from the originals, though.
Nattsol: Shanghai Triad is not too
new band, but it doesnʼt have official
releases. When weʼll be able to see the
situation improved?
Lanthier: Iʼm not sure about that.
We only made a very few recordings
and they arenʼt perfect, by any means.
Perhaps the girls will have to decide
that.
Nattsol: As I understood, you play
guitar and bass guitar for this project.
But itʼs much more traditional to see
contrabass in this kind of music. Why
you didnʼt choose this instrument?
Lanthier: Very simply put, I didnʼt
have a contrabass. Anyway, Iʼm a rock
and roller, arenʼt I? I take those old
songs and give them the post‑punk
treatment.
Nattsol: What are the songs of
Shanghai Triad about?
Lanthier: Well, my understanding
of Mandarin and Cantonese is rather
limited, but from what little I can
gather, they are mostly love songs,
many of them sad. Just like western
music from that era. I only sang on one
song, and it was a new yearʼs song
called “Gong Xi”.
Nattsol: Well, and thereʼs one
more your project which you created
with Frank Vollmann of ʻFrank the Bap‑
tistʼ, ʻThe Dirty Weather Projectʼ. Could
you tell me how you met Frank, how
you decided to create the project?
What is the music of the project?
Lanthier: Frank and I met when
we both lived in California. Weʼve been
friends for a while, and played shows
together with our separate bands all
the time. At some point I suggested a
show format where we are both on
stage and take turns playing our
songs. I thought it would be fun. Well,
we never had a chance to try it until
some years later when he was living in
Berlin and I was living in New York City.
Frank plays Frank the Baptist tunes,
and I play either Deadfly or Cinema
Strange songs and we play some
songs together. Dirty Weather is more
of a concert format than an official
musical project.
Nattsol: What is ʻThe Dirty
Weather Projectʻ on stage?
Lanthier: We have only had one
tour, so far, and a couple, separate
concerts (one at last yearʼs WGT in
Leipzig and one in New York City). For
those shows, we did all sorts of things,
but drinking rum, whiskey, and beer
was a constant factor, as was regaling
the crowd with a cappella sea shanties
in between normal songs. Oh, and
cutlass duels. We had great fun, cer‑
tainly.
Nattsol: Well, ʻThe Dirty Weather
Projectʼ seems to me very whiskey
project (the logo, some songs atmos‑
phere etc). And as I could understand,
youʼre into pipe smoking. I saw some
34
your photos where you smoke meer‑
schaum pipe on the manner of the
XVIII century. Looks great. So what are
these wonderful bad habits for you?
Lanthier: I donʼt think pipe smok‑
ing is a terrible habit. I smoke one of
my pipes several times a week, per‑
haps. I think Iʼve been a pipe‑smoker
for about seven or eight years, now.
Itʼs really a warm and ruddy wrap
around my soul, that wreath of fra‑
grant smoke! MM! (And whiskey is im‑
portant, too, I might add…)
Nattsol: What other kinds musical
experiments would you like to try?
Lanthier: The things that I am
working on now keep me rather satis‑
fied. Between Deadfly and C.S. and
Dirty Weather and the occasional solo
show, I am doing everything Iʼd like to
be doing, musically. There are many,
many more experiments to try within
those projects, however. Lots of work
to be done! But I donʼt need any new
projects to frame that work. Not yet,
anyway.
ting work done and then complain
about it. I love saying things like, “Oh,
god, not ANOTHER tedious party to go
to!” Or, “I would LOVE to finish this
blasted novel, but Iʼve got an entire
weekend full of light entertainments
and engagements with beautiful
women!” I also quite enjoy being dis‑
dainful at everything, scoffing at peo‑
pleʼs fashion (especially if I admire it)
and instigating cat‑fights and royal in‑
trigue. And as a special hobby, I am
supremely satisfied with making new
acquaintances uncomfortable with
awkward and offensive conversation.
And when I have time, I perform sur‑
real stand‑up comedy under the name
Retch Dempsey.
Nattsol: Thereʼs a strange tradition
forming in Russia. Once a year a per‑
son appears and says that he/she is
going to organize a gig of Cinema
Strange in Russia. But the idea usually
Nattsol: And about your other
artistic projects. What should we ex‑
pect from you in the future? May be, a
film or a book? Or something else? ;‑)
Lanthier: Well! I am often making
short films and sometimes acting in
them, and I am often writing. Some of
my stories are available to buy in
ebook format from the official band(s)
website, and some of the stories can
be read online or in different maga‑
zines. I guess the primary thing is that
if there are ever any official releases, it
will be talked about on the various
websites. The official site, the my‑
space pages, the livejournal groups,
the facebook page, and so on.
Nattsol: Ok, you mentioned some
places where you lived. According to
your words, it seems that you donʼt
like to stay in one place for a long time.
Is that so? Why?
Lanthier: The thing is that I very
much like the west coast and I very
much like the east coast. Iʼve spent
about half my life on either coast. I
love Los Angeles, San Francisco, Port‑
land… all great west coast towns. And
I love Montreal, New York City and the
various villages and townships of New
England on the East Coast… I canʼt
spend all my time in just one town, or
one country, for that matter, when
there are so many interesting people
and places to visit.
Nattsol: You seem very eccentric
for many people. Well, thatʼs interest‑
ing to know your attitude to social life.
I mean politic, religion, family may be
and something like that.
And can you say that you live social
live?
Lanthier: I am a very anti‑social
social person. I am constantly visiting
with friends and associates in order to
demonstrate how one can avoid get‑
35
drops. What if once it changes? Would
you like to visit Russia and have a gig
there?
Lanthier: Iʼve noticed this tradi‑
tion, and fully support it. We just need
to incorporate a gift‑giving aspect to
the whole thing and maybe we can
rival Christmas.
Nattsol: Thanks so much for the
interview, Lucas. And your final words
to me, our readers, terrible angels,
giant ants, undrowning fishes and
other figments of our imaginations.
Lanthier: Donʼt forget to call or
write your mothers from time to time.
Theyʼre interested in your welfare be‑
cause you did, after all, come from
their bodies, as ridiculous as that
sounds. Thanks for the chat!
Questions: Pall ʻNattsolʼ Zarutskiy
Interview with Andi Sex Gang
Nattsol: First of all, could you tell
me, how did you come into the music?
And how did you catch the idea of the
creation of the band?
ASG: Music was always important
for me..and I just kind of.. fell into it .
After one life was over for me, it was
time to start another and music became
my new weapon of choice..so to speak.
First..let's get one thing clear..my
strongest drive and inspiration for my
life in music was the love of music itself..how I conducted myself within that
world..no matter how unconventional..
was down to the person I am.. whatever
my intentions and actions..they were
motivated by my love and respect for
music.
I used to go and see many
bands..and learnt more about what not
to do than anything else. I was disgusted
at how so many bands had regressed
back to mundane, cliched rock 'n roll..as
if Punk had never happened! I also
quickly realised how the music industry
had a vice like grip over most of the
bands..and I couldn't understand why
they didn't fight it..they had become no
more than performing monkeys..eager
www.myspace.com/andisexgang
www.myspace.com/sexgangchildren
www.myspace.com/dirtyroseanne
www.andisexgang.com
www.sexgangchildren.com
www.songandlegend.com
to please the major labels with their archaic, bland idea of music. I also saw
first hand how the music industry
boasted about the control they wielded
over bands and the music loving public
alike..how they controlled the whole
market place. So..I was not only motivated to make music for the sake of my
own self expression, I also developed an
incredibly strong desire to teach this
over confident, smug 'Industry' a lesson
in showing respect for the art of Music
itself.
On the plus side, there were a few
lights on the horizon that did inspire
me..early Adam and the Ants..
Siouxsie and the Banshees.. Joy Division..Bauhaus..Death In June..Theatre
Of Hate..all of them pushing the boundaries of music in their own inimitable
36
style.. and this was also a great and truly
inspiring driving force for me..as for
many others at the time. However, by
the time I was starting in music, things
had become bland and stale once more.
I wanted to create a band that would
push music to it's limits.. with a sound
that knew no boundaries..and with a
definite philosophy of non compromise.
Nattsol: There’s a popular theory of
the ‘goth’ origins by Ian Astbury of ‘The
Cult’, who said ‘So he was the little
Gothic Goblin and his followers were
Goths. That's where goth came from.’.
What can you say about it?
ASG: As has been clearly stated in
my biography synopsis on myspace..it is
something I so far have declined to
comment on as I believe in the originality of music..not in the convenience of
it's categorisation.
Nattsol: What can you say in common about that so-called ‘goth’ movement? Was it called ‘goth’ for that time,
or it was marked so later? Was it unified? What ideas and interests did you
share?
ASG: No..in the early days of that
period, Goth was not really used as a
generic term. So far as I was concerned,
as in any period..there are two
camps..those who use music for self
serving reasons..money, celebrity status
etc..and the Artists. Most of the good
album topping the UK Independent
Charts and be playing a headlining
show at London's prestigious Lyceum
Theatre. Everyone said I was mad..it was
impossible to achieve.. I believed where
there was a will, there was a way..and
when you have a cause, you can achieve
what others deem impossible..and with
an unshakable belief in our music and
strict discipline, we achieved that first
goal, despite all the obstacles laid before
us.
The first single..'Beasts' established
a strong grass roots fan base in the UK
to begin with.. Live show..I would say
the first biggest turning point was the
reasons of this suggestion were.
ASG: I'd just had a major line up
change in the band.. the head of Illuminated Records suggestion to release
Blind as an ASG album was.. accordingly.. based upon it's musical content
and my standing in the eyes of the
music community at the time. In retrospect, I think other reasons and influences were at hand..as that CEO had a
strong working and personal relationship with one of my original band members..so..music politics perhaps..but that
guy would never have admitted it to my
face.. and I will never know the whole
truth on that one.
Nattsol: The next few questions will
be about the ‘Dirty Roseanne’ project.
Tell me please, how this project was
born.
ASG: I met Piero Balleggi in
Bologna (Italy) in the mid '80s. One
evening I heard him playing something
beautiful on the piano..we just took it
from there really.
Nattsol: There was released just one
EP, and the demo stayed unreleased. Do
you have a plan to release this demo?
Are there some more unknown recordings?
ASG: Actually..the demo version of
Ghost Of Tomorrow was released on
my collections album..'Perception In
The Heart Of Darkness'. Piero and I
talked recently about getting the 'Ghost
Of Tomorrow' vinyl EP released on
cd..there are one or two other demo
tracks which we would also include.
Nattsol: Why the project was
‘frozen’? Is that possible to see a new
birth of the ‘Dirty Roseanne’?
ASG: We both had other projects to
continue with..however, if you check
the Dirty Roseanne myspace site..then
you'll see that we have already started
recording new material (Death Mask
Mussolini and Boom Boom Boys) in
Morphing Studios, Bologna.. two weeks
ago. As for the rest of the album..well I
am back in London now to re-mix some
of the tracks from the new band
album..then I have to return to Berlin to
finish off the new solo album 'The
Devil's Cabaret' with Ragnar, who
worked with me on Inventing New Destruction.
people all liked similar things..the avant
garde..the left field..as for unity..the true
Artists were united in a bid for
change..shake things up. As for the others..they didn't really have a cause outside of their own self ambition. As for
me ..well, I believed in revolutionising
the whole fucking system.
Futurama Festival in Leeds. It was a
major event and exposed us to a lot of
people and the UK's music press. By the
time the first album..'Song and Legend'
came out, I suppose one could say that
the band had truly arrived. It got heavy
press coverage in the UK..a lot of it outraged and derogatory.. even personally
insulting..they just didn't get it...but I
Nattsol: What were the breaking was smiling!
points of the band’s development in first
years of its existence?
Nattsol: There’s the article by Vince
ASG: When I had finalised a solid Corkadel in the re-release of ‘Blind!’ by
Nattsol: There were done three
line-up for the band and before we had Cherry Red Records, where he wrote
started playing shows....I had a very def- that the director of the label suggested video clips in the period from 1988 to
inite plan for the first 12 months..at the you to release it as ‘A ndi Sex Gang’ 1991. You said in recent interview to
end of which we would have our first album. But he didn’t explain what the Nick Drivas that you didn’t have too
37
ASG: Which 'Mick' do you mean? I
presume
Mick
Ronson..not
Rossi..right? Well, Ronson was one of
the most talented and heart felt musicians I have ever worked with. That
man had such a great feel for music, and
would interpret that complex and multi
dimensional language with such ease
and simplicity. Awesome!
Rossi had also worked with Ronson
in his musical past, and was living in
Nattsol: Now I’d Hollywood as was I. We had been introlove to ask you about duced to each other back in London, so
the spoken word album we decided to do an album together
‘God on a Rope’. The and dedicate it to the great man.
chaotic labyrinth of viNattsol: Now I want to ask you
sions where Genet’s
hero layers on militaris- about your relations with ‘Dressed to
tic delicacy, history Kill’. Could you make clear, what was
mixes with fiction and the history with ‘Medea’ and ‘The
slang words combine Wrath of God’?
ASG: I signed a license deal with
with old fashioned. But
these visions draw that company for several of my older albeautiful, but frighten- bums, which had previously been unreing picture. I’d never ask leased in the UK, and some new ones.
for explanation of Art, Wrath Of God was done as a side projbut I’d love to ask about ect of mine..'Barbarossa', where I basithe destinies of these cally played just about everything
poems. I won’t ask what myself..but the company released it as a
are they about, but I SGC album.. without my knowledge!
want to ask, what they are.
They turned out to be an unscrupulous
ASG: I can't really answer that ques- label..changing the original covers of my
tion! It just came out of my Soul via my re-issued albums without my knowlhead..like everything else in me! The edge or permission..and owing lots of
explanation is not important..that it can monies on royalties..enough said. As for
draw you in to the world it has Medea. that was originally released in
created..is!
the USA..1993.. through Cleopatra
Records, I just licensed it here in the
Nattsol: My next question is about UK to Dressed To Kill. That particular
your and Mick Rossi’s dedication ‘to the album was started in London, and finmemory and spirit of Mick Ronson’, the ished off in Los Angeles.
album ‘Gabriel and Golden Horn’.
What can you tell me about your work
Nattsol: Except your own projects
with Mick and about the history of the which are mentioned in ASG and SGC
album’s creation?
discographies, you collaborated with
1982 or early 83..but
you know I think that
info is out there on the
internet somewhere.
The line-up?.. Nigel
Preston
on
drums..Terry Macleay
on guitar..Dave Roberts
on bass and Ginni
Hewes on violin.
much money for that period. So how
had it happen that those videos were
done in such professional way? And
why these three videos stayed the only
‘official’ video clips during the whole
your musical career?
ASG: Imagination, focus and an eye
for a good shot. I also happened to work
with young artistic film directors who
were sympathetic to my music and
cause and believed in my vision, rather
than 'pop video guns for hire', so they
were absolutely brilliant at making a
small budget go a long way. Peter Webber who directed the '7 Ways To Kill A
Man' video, went on to make 'Girl With
a Pearl Earring' and 'Hannibal
Rising'..these guys were deadly serious
about film making! There were other
videos made before..but the masters for
those went missing a long time ago...and
somewhere out there..is a rather good
video of the first SGC single, Beasts.
Nattsol: One more question about
videos. There’re two rather famous Sex
Gang Children videos of ‘Sebastiane’
and ‘Oh funny man’ by ‘Riverside’. But
they’re not mentioned in any official
sources. Can you tell me their history?
How and when were they shot? What’s
the line-up there? Etc….
ASG: It was a music and culture T.V.
show called Riverside, filmed in late
38
In spite of wonderful sound,
the camera jumps and
mostly we can see only
pieces of bodies. So what is
its worth for you? Tell me
its history.
ASG: Personally I think
it has a good raw and tense
feel to it ..but you should really ask Vince Corkadel any
questions you might have
about that dvd.. it's his baby.
Nattsol: You founded
recently ‘Song&Legend’
web label. You explained
the reasons of its creation.
But what were the reasons
to upload the 128 quality
mp3s? Does the label mean
that there won’t be any
more real pressed CDs of
Andi Sex Gang projects?
many people, and some of your collaborations are not mentioned in your
discography. So could you call some
bands/songs where you took a part?
And what were those collaborations for
you?
ASG: In the early '80s I produced
singles for UK bands Sunglasses After
Dark and Ausgang..and over the years
collaberated with various people.. Tony
James, Marc Almond, Lucas Lanthier
(Cinema Strange/Dead Fly Ensemble)..and guested on various bands cds,
The Cold, My Own Gravity, plus some
film and documentary pieces I was
asked to do music for, my favourite of
those was Dario Argento's 'Phenomena'.
I do what feels right at the time and
in my own way.
ASG: More indepence and an extra
outlet for the many pieces I have..old
and new. I will still release material on
cd..but the online label offers another
choice.
Nattsol: Is ‘Song&Legend’ the label
only for Andi Sex Gang projects, or
Nattsol: One more question about there’s a plan to involve other musivideo then. The ‘Live at Ocean’ DVD cians? And can you tell me what other
has very strange destiny. The stuff was release should be expected from the
shot in 2002, the DVD was done in label?
2005 and was out only in Dec of 2007.
ASG: For now it stays solely for all
things Sex Gang, but in future..who knows. Vince
Corkadel (label manager)
and I have plans to release
further ASG and SGC material, old and new.
Nattsol: You mentioned
in an interview that your
next album ‘Viva Vigilante’
was underway. So when
should we wait for it? And
what will it be in comparison with two previous
works?
ASG: Almost finished
mixing that album. It will be
out a little later this year.
This album has a different
flavour from the last two, as
it has the whole band on
most of it....mind you, I
would say that the last two
albums were also quite different to each other..for
sure.
39
Nattsol: And what will be the name
of your new solo work? 'The Devil's
Cabaret' or Viva Vigilante'? Or these
are two different albums?
ASG: 'The Devil's Cabaret' is the
title of the new album I am presently
working on with Ragnar in Berlin. ‘Viva
Vigilante!’ is the title for the new Band
album.
Nattsol: So correct me if I'm wrong,
but your fans can see now or expect in
the nearest future the new SGC EP, the
new Dirty Roseanne album, two your
new solo albums, the biographical
DVD and the biographical book?
Right?
ASG: Yes, the new SGC ep is available on songandlegend.com
There is a documentary dvd coming
soon..titled ‘Bastard Art’.
Piero and I are working on the new
Dirty Roseanne album..plus I will go
back to Berlin soon to finish recordind
my new solo album 'The Devil's
Cabaret' with Ragnar, who worked on
'Inventing New Destruction'
I am mixing the new band album
here in London..titled..'Viva Vigilante!'..plus am working on new songs
also.
Nattsol: You had a show on the Batcave’s 25th birthday. Was there something that reminded the beginning, or it
was the contemporary show without
any nostalgia? Did you feel Sex Gang
Children a part of Batcave (not only the
club)?
ASG: No..it wasn't really nostalgia as
such..but we wanted to help highlite
and help remind people how important
that club had been for many musicians
ion about church and other institutions.
But what can you say about God(s)
apart from it? You used this word
(God) in many lyrics, but I suppose
that were just different visions designated as God, and they were always different. So is that something real or it
was image?
ASG: God is a colour..a well known
shade that is heavily present in the tapestry of most people's lives..and just as
with my paintings..I use words and
music as colours and highlights, in
order to create light and shade..and let's
face it..whether we like it or not, God is
a dominating colour in most people's
lives.
Nattsol: Well, I can’t ignore the next
question, partly because of being Russian. You mentioned Russia in several
songs, like ‘And now the Russians are
happy, white with happiness, they shall
have photos wherever they go’ (‘Heartless Harvey’), you said ‘Russian test a
stern defence’ (‘Black Widow Trail’).
So what do you think about Russia?
These quotes don’t seem too flattering
for this country.
ASG: ..Then you have misunderstood those words Sir.
who used to frequent it back in the early
80's..when it had fast become an oasis
of good music and interesting people.
We knew the 25th anniversary show
would be a glamourous Arthouse
event..it
always
had
been.
However..SGC had never used the club
as a launch pad. The club kind of took
off a bit later when The Batcave was
picked up on by the media..and quite
Nattsol: Huge thanks for your anrightly so..but bands like SGC..Virgin
Prunes and Southern Death Cult had swers. And the final words are yours.
ASG: Be a warrior..not a slave!
stood on their own..and came from
nowhere..relying only on the strength of
their music, sound and vision.
Nattsol: How can you introduce or
characterize your music in few words?
ASG: Bastard Art! ..but names
alone are not important..the true validity of all Art is how effective it is as a
mirror in reflective the world around it.
Nattsol: What aspects of Art except
music and poetry are you involved in?
And who are you apart from Art?
ASG: I still paint sometimes..especially when I'm in Berlin. I used to paint
when I was a child. It was my first chosen medium of expression. Outside of
my Art .. I'm just a man filled with English charm..Greek resolve..and a terrible
Irish temper.
Nattsol: There're the words in your
last solo album 'Forever happy in the
face of deformity'. So what is beauty
and what is deformity for you?
ASG: Beauty is natural... Deformity
is manipulated.
Nattsol: You mentioned your opin40
Sex Gang Children – Salamun Child EP review
Seven years have passed since the last Sex
Gang Children album, ‘Bastard Art!’. And though
the line between Sex Gang Children and Andi Sex
Gang is quite thin, the release of the new EP Sex
Gang Children ‘Salamun Child’ on songandlegend.com, especially, as the forerunner of the next
band’s album, is very important and singly expected event for the whole world of individual
music.
As usual, the EP is incomparable with any
other SGC release. The headline song ‘Salamun
Child’ has ASG dynamism and SGC temper. The
song’s background is wonderfully combined of
‘crying’ violin by Anna Phoebe and mystical lines
of two acoustic guitars. This song also reflects the
Sex Gang thing of working with the musical motion and alchemy between the elements, where not
even musical lines or words but every letter is pronounced and every note is played in its special
way in order to achieve the effect. The next song
is the dub version of well known cover of ‘Kriminaltango’, which was made by duo of Andi Senx
Gang and Lucas Lanthier (Cinema Strange, Deadfly Ensemble). The previous version of the song
was released on Andi’s solo album ‘The Madman
in the Basket’, and truly speaking, this dub version
could fit this album much better. In comparison
with the previous version, this one is more minimal and tempered, and the Lanthier’s voice part is
cut. So the song got more spoken word thing and
obscure and very tense atmosphere. The original
mix of ‘Joy’ continues the EP. This mix was done
during the ‘Bastard Art!’ sessions, but remixed for
the finished album. This mix is livelier and more
energetic if compare it with the original version.
Partly it was achieved by making thicker the instrument lines and the vocals as well. The mix has
plenty of small changes, and once again, there
should be mentioned the Sex Gang thing – the
preference of accents, which can change the song
almost at all. The next song is the demo version of
‘Religion Free Zone’, composed and played by
Andi only. The guitar sound causes the question
here – is that Andi Sex Gang or Barbarossa, the
author of ‘The Wrath of God’? However, this song
seems to have the ‘Bastard Art!’ references as
well. So the song is a kind of mix of Andi’s experimental works and the Sex Gang Children stuff,
and the absence of any drums underlines this mix
effect quite well. The song which closes the EP is
the first ‘official’ release of well known by ASG
fans ‘Die Traube’. This lyrical and expressive
acoustic song as well has experimental backgrounds, which are not so evident for this time.
Also Andi continues in this song his experiments
with mixing of languages in lyrics, and this thing
reflects the song’s expression in very charming
way.
So this EP once again proves that there’s no
use in any forecasts about the music of Andi’s future releases. It always will sound unexpected,
even if the stuff seems well known. ‘Salamun
Child’ is the 100% pearl for every SGC fan, but it
also will be interesting for everyone who doesn’t
accept any borders in music.
41

Interview with M. (Anémic Cinéma)

Transcription

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