unscene magazine INTERVIEW
FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT - DATED 30/03/2006
1. I understand that you are big fans of Italian Horror movies, so I'm guessing that you name comes from Lucio Fulci's 'The House by the Cemetery'. What is it about these movies that hold so much appeal?
Andrew: You're correct, and Italian horror cinema around the 1970's was amazing. Everything about it was highly stylized, from the cinematography to the soundtracks. Even today it puts a lot of films to shame. Lucio Fulci's 'House By the Cemetery' is particularly David's favourite because of the main monster, Dr Freudstein, a mad professor created from a mosaic of children's corpses. Dario Argento's 'Suspira' was also a landmark in horror movie making, full of fear, beautiful visuals and suspense. The soundtrack by the Goblin is one of our favourites.
David: Why I love them so much is probably best commented on by a psychiatrist. Everything from the faded colours of the film stock to the bleeping analogue synths is perfect. I love them as much as I hate mainstream Hollywood movies with their good guy cops, endless shooting and hidden propaganda.
On reflection I think the late 70's must have been like a bad acid comedown. The sixties dream of revolution had been crushed, everyone was on drugs, but the euphoria had left a long time ago. Film makers were trying to push every boundary they could find and horror was in its hey day.
There was a lack of moral restraint that saw the most inspired sleaze and gore. 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”.
2. An air of darkness prevails over most of your music. Do you feel that keeping this edge is an important quality in the Gothic genre, and what do you think of the lighter more 'poppy' side of the scene?
Andrew: We don't really feel like we belong to any genre other than horror; although we're pretty eclectic in what we do. We are really into the art of songwriting and feel like we're breaking new ground marrying realistic horror soundtrack atmospheres with dance beats, vocals, guitars and electronics. We don't sound like anyone else around and I cant think of any other bands doing this.
As for the pop stuff, you cant keep a good song down! I think that bands like Soft Cell proved that you can get away with anything as long as the tune's memorable. Even The Cure's most poppy stuff had dark lyrics with tunes the postman could whistle – well, maybe not Love cats.
David: Again, I don't want our music to be filed away as 'Gothic'. There are plenty of good bands in the genre, but they don't reflect what we are all about.
It depends on what is meant by 'poppy'. Was The Cure poppy? They were the most popular 'Gothic' band by far, and they are still all over the radio. Popular music can be original, I think many people liking a song is a compliment. The bands who are first to cry 'sell out' are usually not able to write a song that has the possibility of being a popular one. Often the best songs on an album are not the 'singles' that are catchy and get the band known. Sometimes it is the deeper more complex tracks that stand up to the most demanding listening.
If when talking about the 'lighter more poppy part of the scene' you are talking about the endless EBM bands that are about at the moment, I can sum up. Commercial dance music with fake sounding German vocals about 'Gothic lifestyle' issues. It is cynically made to sell to a certain market that imagines it is against all that commercial dance music is about. It's all about being a victim of fashion.
3. Your first album 'Mondo Freudo' had some pretty disturbing cover artwork, and your new album cover is also very dark. Can you tell us how the ideas for these images came about?
Andrew: You'd have to ask our dedicated artist, The Grey Constant, it's all his doing. His approach was to listen to the music and be inspired by it, which probably explains a lot! The futuristic twisted imagery in Mondo Freudo of the Siamese babies, I think, represents us at the beginning of our career. The artwork also featured churches, technology, and organs because we use them a lot in our music - we just love the sound! Not many bands could have put a church organ on a 180bpm dance track like 'Mark of the devil' and got away with it!
David: Yeah.
4) Track 6 on ‘Mondo Freudo’ was very interesting. Was the conversation that happened in the job centre for real, and if so, was it intentionally recorded to put on the album?
David: That was for real... I just stuck a mini disk in my pocket with a hidden mic and decided to take the piss. It turned out better than i could have hoped for. If I had taken a mic to every interview I could have found some even worse stuff to put on... there are some very small minded automatons at work in job centres around the country. Having said that, there are some great people too.
I thought it would be fun to ridicule an institution that causes so much trouble for people. Stuff the McJob exploitation... if they had ever once offered me a decent job in music for a decent amount of money I would have maybe written a 'song of praise' instead. People should not be forced into mindless wage slave jobs, there are enough people who seem to want that anyway. Let them get on with it, and let the rest of us live our lives how we see fit.
Andrew: Both of us have spent year's avoiding the monotony of full time work so that we could write music. I'm sure a lot of struggling musicians can relate to that, and our humour at putting it on the album. That interview was just one of millions where we'd have to be particularly inventive to survive on the dole with the government on our back. It was a really testing time. But it was amazing how these great institutions were brought to their knees by the kindness of real people and our ineptitude!
One of the stand-out tracks on ‘Mondo Freudo’ is ‘Filthy Little Whore (Part 1)’, largely due to 8 year old Solera Russell’s haunting vocals. Why did you want to use a child’s vocals in that song!
Andrew: Horror quite subtlety takes the innocence of childhood and turns it on its head into something supernatural, because it's something adults can no longer comprehend. In films like in 'A Tale Of Two Sisters', 'The Shining', 'The Exorcist'', it's the central theme of the story. I think that reflects social indoctrination as a whole and the loss of the individual in this great machine as you grow up. 'Filthy Little Whore' plays on this.
The child who performed the song, Solera, loved playing the role of the Filthy Little Whore and telling all her school friends. Best of all we only had to pay her in Pick 'n' Mix.
David: We wanted the story to be told from the child's point of view, so we decided what better way than to get a child to perform it.
Your new album is called 'Mass Market Misery'. What were your reasons behind this title?
Andrew: I guess because it sums up our world view and the dark times we live in, and that's reflected in the music. Real life is becoming one great last horror film, a swan song for society.
Industrial revolution has brought us to where we are now and it's not a pleasant place to be. Sure we've got an abundance of shiny things and anyone can be a celebrity, but is that what it is really worth? Is everyone in the West happy? Is everyone content? I don't think so. We've raped and squandered this planet and it's species. The price we are going to pay is really only just emerging with dwindling carbon fuel resources and escalating energy needs. Countries are already fighting over the scraps of natural resources. World War is the future as the Project For The New American Century gets under way.
David: The paradox of calling something that is going to be mass marketed a title that is an attack on itself was the first idea. The catchy alliteration was nice too. The idea is that the mass market itself is the main cause of human misery, there is no product that has a cure. The ironic hypocrisy of the album title mirrors the hypocrisy that we all have to live to survive in the present times. It is easy to denounce the system, but at the present time we are forced to survive on and in it.
‘Mass Market Misery’ contains the even darker ‘Filthy Little Whore (Part 2)’. Did you consider bringing Solera back for this track?
David: It was considered, but it seemed a bit of a bore to re-use the idea that made the first part so original. Part Three is in the making and hopefully young Solera will be back, but in totally different context. The third section will be the most horrific and 'Mondo' of all of them!
Have we seen the last of the ‘Filthy Little Whore’?
David: No sir, you have not. The final section, Part Three, is to appear on the next album.
Andrew: Filthy Whore Part Two carries on where the first left off, with Emily in a children's hospital, but she'll be back in Part Three. Something about that girl always survives. She's mentally and physically indestructible!
Your new album, although very varied, is not quite as experimental as ‘Mondo Freudo’. Was it a conscious decision to make it more accessible?
Andrew: More accessible, hmm? I think that's a good sign and a fair comment. There was no point in writing Mondo Freudo all over again. To be honest, I think it's more down to how much we've progressed in our songwriting and performing abilities since then. The first album was very much us finding our sound with guest singers Liz Swarf and Amon Arkam. But this one's all us, and sounds better for it - more like a whole body of work with both of us singing different songs where our singing styles fit. Looking back, Mondo Freudo sounds a bit incohesive in places and we wanted to get away from that. 'Mass Market Misery' is the sound of Freudstein now.
David: We wanted to take all the strengths of Mondo Freudo and expand on them for Mass Market Misery. We wanted an album that would reach more people and was better on every level. We may yet do a totally experimental album that would make Mondo Freudo seem orthodox in comparison, but for now we want people to get into Mass Market Misery. It has a concept, and we wanted to not stray too far from it for this album.
10) Your 'Robots Trilogy' on the new album seems to take a swipe at corporate and media control. Do you really think that most of the population buys into all of this
Andrew: Lyrically, the 'Robots' trilogy is like a broad brush stroke. You can't preach to people, but you can make them aware, make them think about their inaction. A lot of people feel so removed from politics, so disenfranchised and it's not surprising. It's frightening how we've entered an age on one tier party politics with everyone vying to be more right-wing than the other. It's marketing by numbers. It's an illusion of choice. David Cameron is the former head of a marketing firm for god's sake!
Politicians lie. Fact. Voters have learnt since Tony Blair uttered the words 'Education, Education, Education' to get into office, then systematically removed student grants. Politicians are comparable to second-hand car salesmen in Armani suits controlled by the corporate elite and their lobbyists. Democracy and commerce do not go together well.
David: The joke is nobody really buys into it, but just learns to accept it and gives their consent by doing nothing about it. People switch off their brain to avoid dealing with the horrors before them. There is a lot of mindless drivel in the media to keep you occupied and stop you turning your brain back on again. All TV show debates are within a narrow framework to give the illusion of a real debate. Can you imagine discussing getting rid of the government and trying something else on BBC Question Time?
The idea of 'popular opinion' is a classic tool of control. Just keep telling people that everyone else thinks one way, and you end up thinking 'maybe I am wrong'. For example... the newspapers were full of bullshit like '80% of the population are in favour of the Iraq war'. This propaganda is an attack on your mind, and you need to defend yourself. If you hear lies day in day out you become weakened... The messages we get told thousands of times a day are sometimes blatant, and sometimes not.
The propaganda we live under is so advanced we don't even see it is there. There are readers that may laugh and call me a 'conspiracy freak' or some such clique. I would have found it impossible to believe it in my early 20's, but now myself and nearly everyone I know agrees. You owe it to yourself to educate yourself before dismissing anything that seems to go against what you have been told your whole life. Anyone can do it, but be prepared to question everything about your life and expect some pretty depressing answers.
People may come to a different conclusion to me, but anyone with any kind of objective reasoning will at least conclude that the current system is unfair, inhumane and built on lies. Remember we are the lucky ones in the West, the rest of the world is dying thanks to our greed and compliance.
11) Why do you think that the majority of people in alternative clubs only seem to dance to the songs that they know?
Andrew: Good question! Everybody is busy looking to everybody else for what's trendy before they join in. Personally, I dance to anything when I'm drunk. So, logically if people got more drunk then maybe that would solve everything. Free beer at alternative clubs that's the solution.
David: Maybe they are afraid the tempo might change suddenly and they will fall over?
12) I was interested to read about your dancers the Freudettes. How did they come about and do you still plan to use them?
Andrew: The Freudettes are a couple of girls who approached us with an idea for dancing to one of our new songs, 'Sister Sleaze', when we played the Camden Underworld. Who were we to stop these young girls from realising their childhood dreams of dancing on stage? Since then we irregularly procure them from women's prisons and strip clubs. We're always interested in auditioning new Freudettes and it'd be great to have different ones in every town when we tour! Applications are always welcome.
David: Everyone loves a pretty girl, even more so when they gyrate upon a stage. The Freudettes volunteer for their duties, they are also exhibitionists so everyone wins!
13) How did you come to provide the music for the Bizarre Magazine advert?
Andrew: A happy accident. We were emailed by Bizarre magazine's web designer to use our track 'Punkid' on the Bizarre web trailer. They must have liked it because it reportedly ended up on a Bravo TV advert, too. We didn't receive any money, in case you were wondering.
14) Other than writing and performing music, do you have any other creative outlets?
Andrew: Cider making! No, really, I'm very much into graphic and web design and enjoy moving pixels around a screen for hours on end - only to put them back where them started and say 'Eureka!'. David is very much into the musical production side of things and I try and translate a lot of the technical things he says into the Queen's English.
David: Music is my main creative outlet. Doing that along with other forms of money earning and having a life take all my time.
15. It's recently been debated on the radio about people carrying donor cards for their pets. Would you ever consider donating your pet’s organs?
Andrew: Sure, put them into humans. It's sounds like the next logical evolutionary step, you could take your pet for a walk inside you without anyone ever knowing. Organ walking! If there's money in it, someone will find a way. Now, celebrity organs, that could be the next big thing...
David: Andrew, that is very weird! I am sad to say I have no pet at the moment, I would like a dog if I had a big enough house for it to run about in. As for human organ donation, people should carry a card to say if they DON'T want to donate. The current system is ridiculous. As this question is a cue to bring a light hearted close to our interview I will finish with a quote from Clive Barker's Hellraiser: “when you are dead you are fucking dead” ... ha ha ha