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You are pretty unknown
in Europe, so first of all: can you give us a short
introduction of your band?
Jon (drums, programming): The band has been
around for a little over two years now. It was formed by
myself and Natasha while we were playing together in a
Los Angeles synth-pop band called "Pseudocipher." We
started working on writing the songs for the "Metamorph"
ep, and we then added Mark on guitar, Jaimie on bass,
and Nathan on keys/live visuals. We have since worked
with a couple of different bass players and are proud to
have Gordon Bash playing with us now.
According to the 'influences' list, one of your
influences is "life in L.A.". What is meant with this?
Jon: L.A. is the music capitol of the U.S. plus a
sizable city. It is very difficult to plant your roots
in a place like this when you are starting out because
everyone around here is hustling to do the same thing
that you are. It is expensive to live here as well and
trying to work on music can be a real challange when you
are trying to pay rent and put food on the table.
Your music sounds very mature and lots of styles are
mixed in it, and different bands are mentioned in the
same 'influences' list. How important is it to have such
different influences in one band?
Jon: I think that it is very important to have a
number of influences because that is what gives you
character. We all listen to an eclectic mix of bands and
never like to pigeonhole our sound. Our influences that
bleed into our sound is what will keep the music
interesting to us and hopefully to others as well.
You have released a debut EP called Metamorph. You
have received some good feedbacks from people all over
the world. What do you think about it yourself?
Jon: I am in love with the cd. I am very proud of
it. It is a snapshot of our lives back when we wrote it.
There are parts of the recording that are a little
grainy at times but we were learning how to record on
our own back then. We had some help from Steven Seibold
of Hate Department with the mixing and mastering. He
helped us as well with tracking some of the vocals and
instruments. I am glad that people are warming up to the
cd and sending back positive feedback. It is cool that
people can relate.
After the release of the EP, you have done two
self-organised mini-tours through parts of America.
Jon: Yes, indeed. I grew up playing in punk bands
in high school and what we did was trade shows with
bands from out of town, so that we would have the
opportunity to tour. We would play just about anywhere
that would let us plug in our gear. I approached MKIO
the same way. We weren't in the position where major
booking companies were hunting us down to do tours, so
we put the tours together ourselves. We keep in good
contact with bands from other cities and we try to help
one another out by giving them a place to sleep and food
to eat when they come to LA and in return we have been
fortunate to have people support us on the road as well.
The tours have been a blast, we really like meeting new
faces and seeing different parts of the country.
Although your band still is pretty young, you already
have opened for KMFDM and you are asked to submit some
songs for movies. This must be a very big compliment to
your band. How was it to perform with a big band like
KMFDM?
Jon: The KMFDM show was great! I really enjoyed
sharing the stage with them. We went from playing house
parties and dive bars to playing a large theater. It was
great to feel the intensity and introduce our music to a
lot of new people. We are happy to have our songs out in
some movies that should come out late 2005/early 2006.
One of them is "The Return of the Living Dead 5." I
really look forward to seeing where the song is placed.
What are the plans in the future?
Jon: Our current plans include: finishing up
mixing/mastering a new cd, preparing for a tour this
summer, and working on a new line of t-shirts.
Thanks a lot for this interview. Like always on
IndustrializedMetal.tk, the final words are yours.
Jon: Thanks for doing the interview Gerardo. We
hope to see you at a show sometime!
Interview by: Gerardo (March 2005) |
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