““Fed on a strict bloody diet of horror films and soundtracks, Freudstein concoct an evil update on classic 70’s italian horror music. Influenced by bands such as Dario Argento’s favourite ‘The Goblin’ and Lucio Fulciís regular composer Fabio Frizzi, the Brighton duo are far from your average cliched Marilyn Manson clones. “”
The Band
Freudstein are David Else and Andrew Bridge, from Brighton, UK.
Freudstein are a dark electronic horror band who draw inspiration from music as diverse as Goblin, Depeche Mode, Slayer, Isao Tomita, and the soundtrack work of Fabio Frizzi. Their music has received international recognition in Japan’s national Presenter Magazine, Germany’s Sonic Seducer Magazine, the UK’s Bizarre Magazine, Kerrang Magazine, and The Fly Magazine.
Freudstein released their debut album ‘Mondo Freudo’ in 2001 on Wasp Factory Recordings to wide critical acclaim for its ambitious mix of genres and compositional work.
Their second album, ‘Mass Market Misery’ was released in 2006. This was a harder, darker, more personal affair which combined further live instrumentation to create their finest record to date.
Their third release, ‘Dissected and Resurrected’ was released in 2007. This stunning double remix album featured many fellow artists and collaborators such as Swarf, Ewigkeit, History Of Guns and many more. It also collected released remixes by the band themselves.
History Of The Band
Freudstein are David Else and Andrew Bridge, two school friends who grew up in and around the sleepy commuter town of Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Like most young people, the band yearned to leave their small town behind to avoid dead end jobs, local indie guitar bands, and a lifetime of alcoholism and regret. Instead they planned an escape to somewhere that would tolerate their insane musical aspirations of combining horror soundtrack inspired songs with dance music. That place was Brighton.
“‘We didn’t consciously choose to be different, we just create the music we want to hear. All too often bands like Marilyn Manson and Slipknot take the approach of adopting the horror imagery but never the music. We like to think of our music as being created by horror fans for horror fans.’”
The duo first met at secondary school when Andrew discovered the young entrepeneur, David Else, selling pirated copied of ZX Spectrum games in the school playground, long before the Pirate Bay existed. As the duo became friends, they developed a mutual love of beer, computers, music and horror films. In their school lunch breaks they would often frequent local video rental shops to stare at movie covers for video nasties they were far too young to see; until much later in life.
With a punk attitude and zero money they started recording music using budget PCs with sound cards and basic sampling capabilities. It soon became obvious to the band that you no longer needed a lot of money to rent a studio or make music. You could do it all at home. Once Andrew bought his first analogue synthesiser, a second hand Roland SH101, he recorded at solo four track demo tape under the band name ‘Deviate.’ After entering the Cambridge Band competition on a whim he found himself competing at the Cambridge Junction against a lineup of indie guitar bands, despite having no live experience, or a conventional band. But that didn't matter, because David agreed to help with the performance, and they came up with a plan.
This was the first early incarnation of Freudstein.
Despite not winning the Cambridge Band competition, they continued to write electronic music and improve their musical equipment and production skills together. When David built a home studio, the duo convened once a week to record their first full length Deviate LP on a home analogue tape machine, which was then released on cassette tape in local music shops ruled by indie guitar bands. The cassette featured eight songs : Attention All Shoppers, Chemlab 2, Scream V3.01, Punkid, Saturday, You Three, Shadows, and Church.
“They just don’t make films like that any more. Films like The New York Ripper by Lucio Fulci were as dark as hell. There were no happy endings, and I admire that heavy punishing approach. I want our music to reflect those values. Heavy, psychedelic, over the top and shocking. Mondo translates as ‘life in the raw”. ”
After one dark and drunken night, David discovered the classic horror film, House By The Cemetery, and in honour of it’s undead serial killer and mutual love of horror films, the band renamed themselves Freudstein. The duo were so inspired by this cult cinema classic that they wrote two songs about the movie, namely the tracks Theme To Freudstein and Freudstein’s House, which surfaced on their debut Freudstein E.P some months later.
Once the band sent their new E.P to prospective venues and agents, it somehow found its way into the hands of Mark Eris, founder member of Wasp Factory Recordings - who would one day foolishly agree to be their friend and manager. The next day the band received a telephone call from Mark enquiring if they wanted to perform at Brighton’s Big Bat Boutique. As luck would have it, the band were already planning to move to Brighton the following week, and would love to perform.
And this is where Freudstein’s journey really begins.
DISCOGRAPHY
E.P.’S
Freudstein - Freudstein E.P. – 4 Track E.P. [1998]
ALBUMS
Freudstein - Mondo Freudo [2001]
Freudstein - Mass Market Misery [2006]
Freudstein - Dissected & Resurrected [2007]
REMIXES
Swarf – Fall E.P. - Remix Of Fall
The Chaos Engine – Remix Of Angel Of Ruin
Xykogen – Remix Of The Killing Method
COMPILATIONS
Darkcell Digital Music compilation - Trinity Vol 1
Sonic Seducer - Cold Hands Seduction Vol 62
Wasp-Factory Recordings - Working With Children & Animals - Vol 1 & Vol 2
Unmediated Productions Compilation - Too Much Information [US release]
CND Compilation - Leading The Digital Resistance Vol 1
Arkam Asylum - Learn To Love Your Cancer LP [Co-Produced By Freudstein]
Arkam Asylum - Blistered Thoughts E.P. [Produced by Freudstein]