Full interview transcript. DAte: 10/06/2006
What are your plans for 2006 (live concerts, collaboration with other artists, etc.)?
Andrew: We will be spending much of 2006 promoting our new album 'Mass Market Misery' with live gigs, press and radio interviews. Already this year we've played lots of gigs in and around our home city of Brighton and people seemed to love the new material. Later in the year we'll be releasing a remix album warping our stuff beyond all recognition. It will feature all our past remix work along with brand new remixes of our tracks by other artists. We are also working with a band called Swarf on a new single.
Freudstein belongs to no specific category like rock or pop. Why did you choose a style that is so different from other types of music?
David: We never sat down and decided to write any particular style of music for Freudstein. Having grown up in the same town, watched the same films, and gone to the same school together, myself and Andrew seem to have developed a similar outlook on life. This outlook has found a musical expression in Freudstein. I am glad that our music is seen as 'different', there is no point in creating music that is the same as other people's unless you are only doing it for the money. This is not what we are about.
Andrew: 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. Our new album 'Mass Market Misery' merges the horror soundtrack styles of 1970's bands like the Goblin with modern production techniques and song structures - using dance beats, vocals, guitars and electronics. In one review we were even compared to the Chemical Brothers 'had they taken all the wrong drugs'. So, in some ways we're taking the genre into new areas - coming out of the cellar into pop culture to drag victims down into our lair.
Your music creates a sensation of fear in the listener. How do you achieve this?
David: Different sounds and chords create different emotions in people. For example discord can be unnerving, distortion aggressive and minor chords upsetting. People also associate different sounds with different times and places. A church organ may have strong associations for some. It may be religion, or for others it maybe spooky old horror movies. The fun is in trying to get the correct mix to create the right atmosphere in the song. I have always wanted to shock and unsettle people from an early age. People seem so happy to pretend everything is ok... i want to grab them and rub their face in the horror all around us. If people would face up to the world's problems then maybe we could all begin to solve them.
Andrew: I guess we enjoy conjuring up bleak and foreboding atmospheres with minor chords and have always found mainstream pop music to be like much of society, a facade. We're the underbelly, the dark heart of humanity that people try to hide even from themselves. A lot of our music is influenced by horror film soundtracks such as 'Dawn of the Dead', 'Cannibal Holocaust' and 'Clockwork Orange' but without ever being derivative or going over the top. Each Freudstein song is uniquely evil, painstakingly created and sounds like no one else. You have been warned.
What do you find appealing in horror?
David: The extremity of the situations in horror films are amazing. Just imagine what it is like to be chased by 100 zombies through a shopping mall. You ARE going to be ripped apart and eaten. There is no escape, and you know that. I often dream of these situations, and wake up quite disturbed. Later in the day the dream makes me think 'Hurray! I am still alive!'. This is the therapeutic effect of horror at work. There is also a perverted pleasure in seeing other people suffer, maybe it's partly the subconscious relief that it's not you! I would never wish any harm on any living creature, but i do enjoy sadistic horror films. I think the Japanese 'Guts Of A Virgin' film series are some of the worst for perversion and sadism. I still ask myself why i enjoy these films so much when it is so opposite of my normal character.
Andrew: The enjoyment of fear and the human capacity for destruction and violence. I mean our entire culture is built on the spectacle of violence and horror, albeit as entertainment in films or in the news. Everyday we are bombarded with negative stories and imagery without ever stopping to question why - bad news is endemic and it sells! Peoples' true nature is attracted to the darker side of life. We need to satisfy these primal urges to feel alive, and fear is one of many.
Is your music inspired by images? If yes, what kind of images? (For example, bloodshed, monsters, homicides, etc.)
David: The images I come up with in my mind. I can't draw, so i need to express them in music and lyrics. I need to exorcise them from my brain and get them out into the world, so they can upset other people too. The name Freudstein is a combination of Freud for the mental and Stein for the horror. Your readers will probably have guessed both relate to Sigmund Freud and Frankenstein.
Andrew: Our music is inspired by all sorts of things - anything from dreams to real life, to fact, fiction and imagery. Our 'Filthy Little Whore' trilogy is based on one of David's vivid dreams...
David: I saw her lying in an asylum bed surrounded by flames. She showed me what had happened to her within the flames, within the body of an impaled infant turning on a spit. No joke... the scene was hallucinogenic in the extreme, the flames were burning all colours and the room was rotating. I have always had vivid and horrific dreams... this one was more like a communication from someone, maybe from hell. Her name is Emily and she was around 20 years old in the dream... if you have heard 'Filthy Little Whore Pt 1' on Mondo Freudo you will know the relationship with her parents was not good as a child. Part 1 tries to make you understand where she came from. The song was sung by a friend's daughter for us and we had problems convincing her parents about her performing the dark lyrics, but I don't think there was any lasting damage... In 'Filthy Whore Part 2' you will learn about what happened after the ghastly incident in part one, and where she ended up. I hope you will feel some of the horror of her situation. I decided that I should sing the lyrics myself for part 2, Andrew has always sung the harmonic sections in our songs, but i really needed to try and make people feel this one myself. I hope my first attempt at singing other than my usual deathly style is able to convey the story. The spoken into was recorded by 'the bat' from Poland, I think his voice is beyond belief for this intro. I really hope people see the black humor in the 'Filthy Little Whore' trilogy... All my favorite music borders on over the top... its a fine line to tread. Part 3 will be the most horrific of all...
Andrew: The opening track from our new album, Return To The Old Forest, is the sound of us luring the listener into the forest and the cinematic world of Freudstein. Visually I've always thought of that song as an alternative track to the opening scene from the Dario Argento film Suspira. The forest is a good metaphor for being lost in the wilderness with just the dark and our fears to keep us company.
Could you tell us about the creative process of Mondo Freudo? Please tell us more about this album.
David: That album is pure experimentation. We decided that rather than try achieve some sort of 'sound' that most bands strive for, we would make every song as different as possible. To make it as varied as we could we used different guest singers to compliment our own vocals. We even got in an 8 year old girl to sing. We have styles as diverse as church organ based industrial horror techno and hidden tape recordings of state job center interviews.
Andrew: Our debut album, 'Mondo Freudo', came about as a natural evolution of the band. We'd released a self-titled Freudstein EP which attracted the attention of several record labels, before signing to Wasp Factory. After that we worked really hard to make Mondo Freudo the best we could; developing a creative partnership that allows for free expression of ideas and music. Together we make the sound of Freudstein.
There are very few artists in horror music. In Japan, there are just three or four bands. Because of the lack of competition, this may be easier for horror music artists to attract attention. What is your view on this?
David: I hope we would stand out on musical merit, regardless of how many other bands are in the genre. We are not trying to join any scene or form any musical movement. Our music is what we want to hear. Having said that, any statistic that means we get more listeners is good news for us.
Andrew: I would be very interested in hearing these bands! I think it's hard for this genre to attract attention because it's so new and evolving so quickly that the mainstream hasn't picked up on it yet. Some journalists are just plain lazy and don't actually research music but rely on big record companies to spoon feed them PR information. True music fans get out there and hear by word of mouth or discover things by themselves - going to gigs or via the Internet.
What is your definition of horror?
David: Horror is a child's brain being smashed in with a soldier's rifle butt, horror is a motor way pile up with people's bodies torn to shreds and brains smeared across dash boards. It shouldn't really be a form of entertainment, but people need to deal with these facts of life or they will go insane. We can all cheer as someone's head is blow off in a horror film, but deep down we are just preparing ourselves for the fact that it might just happen to us.
Is there any western music (pop, classic or else) you find frightening?
David: There are loads of great music that has elements of fear contained within. UK's Boards Of Canada have a spooky 70's sound that reminds me of my favorite films that were never made. Other recommended electronic bands that contain these elements are Coil, Aphex Twin and Lustmord. There are also some great metal bands that are horror based, but not so frightening. Classic examples are Carcass for gore and Slayer for satanic evil.
Andrew: I find a lot of western music frightening for all the wrong reasons. Happy songs make me sad and sad songs make me happy. Turning on the radio can be murder sometimes because pop music is so vapid and inhumane. It does nothing but remind us how bland, controlled and undemocratic our culture is and how publicly removed we are from our emotions. Maybe it's an English thing, but I cant remember the last time I heard a genuinely angry or sad song on the radio. Having said that, if you look hard enough beneath the surface you can find some real gems. The work of the Goblin, Coil and Fabio Frizzi come the closest to frightening me in the traditional sense. The band Coil, especially, never fail to freak me out with their music; you just never know what they're going to do next. It might be a telephone answering message with a real life suicide note or the weirdest, most surreal sound imaginable.
One of the aims of our magazine is to support artists. In this sense, could you tell us about the difficulties you encountered in your career and also the good things you experienced. This may help other artists, whose aim is to become professionals, to achieve success.
David: I would say don't copy anyone else and stay true to what you believe in. If you have the talent, and keep on at it, eventually the right people will hear what you are doing. The main difficulty is getting noticed in a vast sea of music. There are now so many people making music that it would be impossible to attempt to hear a fraction of it! You have to really stand out. But I can give the following good advice... if you can't get the music to sound right, hire a producer or mix engineer. If your artwork is not quite good enough, get someone better to do it. There are so many people that want to be famous in music, don't let anything about yours let you down. The Internet and free downloads has been the best thing to happen to music in a long time. Now anyone in the world can hear your music. Everyone is getting to discover new music they never could have dreamed existed without Mp3! If you really love an album, do the decent thing and buy it! Now you can hear the Mp3 's first, you only have to buy what you really think deserves your money.
