 |
 |
 |
The name XE-NONE is
pretty cool and fits well to the music in my opinion.
Who made up that name and why did you guys choose that
name?
Lexy (vocals): It was me who thought up the name
for the band. I wanted to express the main creative
conception in this word. It is a kind of musical ideal
we are looking for, that lays in the basis of our style.
The name consists of two words: a Greek word “XENOS”
that means “alien” and English word “None” that is “nothing”.
This is something absolutely foreign, alien to Metal
culture and at the same time something that has emerged
out of it. It is like the Alien, a monster from my (and
all the band’s) favorite film, and it is still NONE, as
it has not been created yet.
Newman (keyboard): All our creative work is a
search for a musical perfection. We are going to look
for it for a long time.
There are lots of elements from different music
styles in your music. How would you describe your music?
Lexy: First of all I on behalf of my group want
to say that we do not stick to a certain musical style.
Xe-NONE is six people with absolutely different musical
tastes and the basis of our creative work is overcoming
of contradictions between us. We ourselves call our
style as Blood Rave Cyber Metal. This combination of
words reflects a way we are going – Bloody and sweaty
mincer of guitar and electronic music. The list of bands,
which had their influence on us, is too large to write
it here. My keyboard player likes Trance. He listens to
such records as Dark Soho, Armin Van Bureen and other
DJs from Holland, but at the same time he is a great fan
of CRADLE OF FILTH, THE KOVENANT, SUMMONING, KATATONIA.
Max (guitar): I am fan of SLIPKNOT, PANTERA,
SEPULTURA, CANNIBAL CORPSE. The main thing about music
for me is its headbang drive.
Schulz (bass): I like American alternative bands such as
TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE, ILL NINO and so on.
Lady Evilann (vocals): I like NIGHTWISH, COURTNEY
LOVE, ENYA very much. But at the same time I’m trying to
make my manner of singing individual and recognizable.
Lexy: As for me I am the great fan of industrial music
NINE INCH NAILS, FRONTLINE ASSEMBLY, LAIBACH, MARILYN
MANSON. Besides modern extreme bands such as THE
KOVENANT, CRADLE OF FILTH, MESHUGGAH, IMPALED NAZARENE,
FEAR FACTORY appeals to me very much. But I also like
some pop musicians for example.
Your music is a very modern kind of metal, not much
bands play that kind of metal (yet). Where do you get
your inspiration from?
Lexy: As I have already said, our musical tastes
differ greatly, but it is these contradictions we take
as a main principle of our music. Movie ( such films as
Resident Evil, Blade, The Dawn Of The Dead, Aliens, Star
Wars, Dune), literature ( Russian authors on the whole
Michael Bulgakov, Vasily Golovatchev, Nick Perumov) and
even paintings (HR Giger, Salvador Dali, Kazimir
Malevitch, Pavel Filonov) are our source of inspiration.
Sometimes when you listen to music various visions and
images appear in your mind. I’m talking about music of
PINK FLOYD, TOOL, NINE INCH NAILS and LED ZEPPELIN. So
we want to make our music expressive and powerful also.
Your first EP is out now. Are you satisfied with it?
What do you think about it yourself?
Lexy: To tell the truth, our release is not as
perfect as we wanted it to be. One of the main reasons
is the technical equipment which is still on the initial
level. We use inexpensive guitars (Washburn),
inexpensive guitar processors (Zoom 505), and there is a
cheap sound card in my computer (Creative SB Live). That
creates some difficulties for our ideas and projects
high-quality realization. I began studying music soft
(Cubase SX, Wave Lab) recently and I’m not a skilled
sound producer and arranger man yet. My English
pronunciation and skills of writing lyrics are also to
be brought to a better state. We are aware of our
shortcomings and do our best to improve them. Only our
constant development in all mentioned directions will
help us to make a record, which will absolutely satisfy
us.
Newman: It is our next album!! Hahahahaha!!!!
You guys also did a cover of the infamous song ‘EIN,
ZWEI POLIZEI !!!’ on it. What’s the background behind
that cover?
Lexy: In 1994 (It was the last year of my study
at school) this song was number one hit at all school
parties, and this clip was shown on TV very often. At
that time I had records of 2 UNLIMITED, MO-DO, E-ROTHIC
and all albums of EMPEROR, ENSLAVED, PANTERA, MANOWAR
and other various music!!! Perhaps such a mixture of
Eurodance and Metal caused emerging of musical
conception which in ten years brought about forming the
band XE-None. Dance and Metal music have changed greatly
since then (Only MOTORHEAD is eternal forever), but no
other dance music style has surpassed Euro dance yet.
IMHO. This is music of my childhood and youth. We did a
cover of this song as a tribute to the past. Besides, my
ancestors came to Russia from Germany, so it is a Call
of Forefathers *wink*.
When I read the lyrics the first thing I noticed is
that they are pretty aggressive. Is this really the way
you look upon the world?
Lexy: Yes, you are quite right; our lyric is as
aggressive as the world we are living in. There is no
exaggeration in it. Our songs reflect some happenings
and state the fact that too many evil things going on
around us. Perhaps, you have heard of the tragic events
which took place in Beslan on 1 September. 25 bastards
destroyed school and murdered 350 children. What a
terrible tragedy it is! But still I consider writing
songs about such events a speculation and profiteering.
Every day thousand inner conflicts occur deep inside us,
they destroy people’s souls, kills their feelings,
damage their lives. To my mind, the spiritual collapse,
which accompanies technocratic civilization development,
arrived at its climax when there is no way back. All the
sense conceptions of the first album is a story of two
lovers, but computer technologies causes the loss of
mutual understanding between them, their relationship
breaks off and one of them dies. Another one will be a
main character of our next album “CyberSex”.
Any plans for the future?
Lexy: Our plans for the future are to record the
album, release it and make our music heard all over the
world. To record the next album and never stop at what
we have achieved!!! My motto is «Nothing can’t stop me
now, ‘cos i don’t care anymore», as Trent Reznor (NINE
INCH NAILS) once sang. This is our guiding life
principle. We are dreaming about touring around the
world together with THE KOVENANT or T3CHNOPHOB1A (hello
to Snuff and others!!!). If only we could live on the
road!
Thanks a lot man! Some final words?
Lexy: Holland!!! We are really infatuated with
Amsterdam!!! We are looking forward to playing gigs at
your clubs!!! We believe that music can get over the
bounds!!! Listen to us and you will find something to
your taste! From Russia with Love – Xe-NONE.
Interview by: Gerardo (October 2004) |
|
|
|
|
