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First, introduce yourself to the world.
Stel (bass, programming): Hello world. Nice to
meet you. My name is Stel. How are you? We are Unk! and
we are trying to combine the grooves of dance music with
the power of metal guitars in catchy songs that you
cannot sit still to and that you want to sing along with.
Cisse (guitar, programming): Couldn’t have said
it better.
Foob (vocals): Hi. And I'm Foob. I try to
contribute too by providing my two colleagues with proto
songs that are in the vein of Celine Dion. Yet somehow
it always comes out wrong and ends up like this vicious
kind of Dance music.
How was this band (and its ideas) developed?
Stel: Being involved in making music for years
already in different bands, the three of us felt in 2000
that the new millennium couldn’t start without some kind
of new musical style. Events around us lead to the
possibility to allocate time to try to create this music
ourselves.
Foob: One other important aspect about Unk! is
that the band was formed on the basis of a sound
friendship. I think the music is the result of simply
wanting to spend quality time with people I now know for
over 20 years. That together with the fact that we all
share the same urge to experiment and that we all have a
wide taste in music, has led to the logical conclusion
of forming Unk!
Your music is described as ‘dance metal’. What is
dance metal exactly?
Stel: People need a reference point to be able to
talk about music, or to be able to search for their
favourites on the internet. Therefore, even if no
description is ever accurate, ones music will always be
labelled. Hence it is better for the band themselves to
come up with some sort of semi-accurate description.
Like Rammstein did with tanz-metal, which in fact means
no more than dance metal. When we are asked to describe
our own music we say that we combine dance rhythms and
grooves with metal guitars in songs that are mainly
built like rock-songs. We felt that ‘dance metal’ was
the best way to describe this kind of music. ‘Metal
dance’ just doesn’t sound as good and hasn’t got the
same feel to it.
Cisse: That’s for sure.
Stel: We are aware however that dance metal is a
description that you could use (and that is used) to
describe bands that do things that are different from
what we do. You just can’t grasp music in words. For us
dance metal is the short description we chose to
describe our music with, so that people can find out
about music that is powerful and can be danced to. Gone
with the days where a metalhead couldn’t risk being on
the dance floor!
Cisse: We are combining styles like they haven’t
been combined before. Oh, yes there are always
comparisons. People tend to put us in the framework of
what they already know. An electro fan will say we sound
like Apoptygma Berzerk, whereas a nu-metal fan will say
we sound like Linkin Park and a dance lover will mention
bands like The Prodigy. We are aware that the dance
metal lover is in a difficult cross-section of at least
two very opposite populations. We are determined to make
those boundaries disappear.
Foob: In a year's time Dance Metal might even
mean something different to us than it does now. We are
constantly evolving. Trying out new ways to express
ourselves. And as our music evolves, so will our view of
what Dance Metal actually means. I think that having a
combination of danceable drum rhythms with Rock and
Metal guitars will always be at the core of what we
perceive as being Dance Metal. But the feel will
probably change over time. We might even try our hands
at some Industrial Metal, Trance Metal or Metal Trip Hop
or whatever. Who knows!?
What are your main influences?
Stel: A difficult question, this one. The three
of us are coming from very different backgrounds.
Hardcore Punk, Heavy Metal and Alternative Rock. At the
time it became acceptable to combine dance songs with
rock songs at a party the three of us already had
musical lives behind us. We kind of grew with the music;
kept up-to-date. One from a different angle than the
other, but all of us are interested in what is happening
in the music scene(s) today. Right now. Myself e.g., I
have been doing alternative radio for over 13 years, of
which 10 years together with Foob. So the answer to this
question on main influences is going to be different
every time you ask it. We haven’t started Unk! with some
specific influences in mind, if that is your question.
Foob: Athough we like to listen to Industrial
bands like Rammstein and White Zombie or Dance acts like
The Prodigy and Praga Khan, we are not trying to sound
like any of them. No one's waiting for yet another
clone. We could maybe try to be like them, but the
original is nearly always better than the copy. So we
decided to try our hand at something different instead.
We have at a certain point actually looked for bands
like us on the internet, but we have found no other band
that combines different aspect of Dance, Rock and Metal
the way we do. That may sound a bit arrogant, but many
rock critics seem to agree with us on that. In a certain
sense the fact of trying out something a bit different
complicated matters as we had to find out a lot of
things for ourselves. Some things we tried worked fine.
Others didn't. The problem is that you sometimes only
hear that after you haven't touched your songs for a
long while
Stel: Remember that we do everything ourselves.
We have our own studio. We do the recording, mixing,
producing, mastering, promotion, artwork, website,
lyrics, … A real do-it-yourself band. Maybe we should
call ourselves a punk band hahaha!
You decided to place the whole album online. This is
very unique, in this ‘Napster-generation’. What’s the
reason of that?
Stel: I’m glad you asked this. We feel strongly
about this issue. Labels are dropping artists because
revenues are dropping. Finding a label for an unknown
band is becoming almost impossible, because the
financial risk for the label is too big. Pressing CD’s
and printing them is easy (if you have the money) but
then you have to get these CD’s sold. Which means
sending a lot of them out for free as promotion. In
short: making money for an unknown band with selling
your music is utopic. With the advent of the internet
and P2P networks, the classical way of doing things in
the music industry is becoming increasingly difficult
and the industry is going to have to change. Computers
not only allow you to build a studio in your own home,
but the internet also gives small and medium bands the
tools to do promotion themselves; to actually do the
things that a label would do. Having your music
downloadable on a site also takes away the boxes full of
CD’s in your attic that you have to get out there
otherwise. It’s worldwide promotion from your home with
a minimum of financial risk. Band empowerment in fact.
The internet gives the bands the power to not need a
label that dictates them what to do and that eventually
takes most of the revenue anyway (which is their right,
they took the risk).
Cisse: Moreover, for a small band the major part
of the revenue is not at all in the CD sales, but rather
in the concerts they play. So why not give the music
away for free and focus on the real thing - good gigs!
Stel: Now, for an unknown band, how are you going
to reach a broad audience if you are making people pay
for your songs? Or if you just put 128kbps songs on your
site that people can’t play loud on their stereo or at a
party? Or how can you build a fan-base that sings and
dances along at a gig if you only give away one or 2 of
your songs for free and make them pay for the rest? Unk!
decided to give away all our songs for free in high
quality, because we want people to HEAR them. We want to
play live shows where people pick up the groove and
dance along with us and shout the lyrics at the top of
their lungs. We want to create an atmosphere and want to
reach out to as many people as possible with our music.
Free music is the only way to do that.
Foob: In Belgium, where we are located, even the
ten most popular bands admit that they don't really earn
much money by selling CD's. I guess about the only
Belgian artist making money by selling CD's is 'Helmut
Lotti' and that's because he caters for the lowest
denominator of an international audience.
A new virtual album will appear soon. What can we
expect of it?
Stel: The Virtual album is kind of a package of
songs we made in a certain time-period. The new songs
are coming available on the site as they are finished
(we like getting feedback). Once we feel we have a full
album there, we’ll package them in a new virtual album,
make sleeve artwork for it and encourage people to
download the full album and ask zines to review it. We
have learned a lot about production and mastering during
the making of the first album (remember: we have done it
all ourselves!) so the sound is going to be (even)
better. We are also trying to improve the catchiness of
the songs. For the rest… it comes as it comes. Ideas
sometimes evolve to something totally different during
the course of production. It will be danceable, heavy
and ideal party-music!
Foob: For the moment we have the tendency of
creating songs that are more, let's say, accessible. The
latest two songs we made for example have a higher
shout-a-long quality than anything that's present on our
'Braindead Poets' CD. That doesn't mean our next CD will
be commercial. It only means that we have payed more
attention to the melodies of the vocals and to balance.
I guess the next CD will also have one or two tracks at
trip hop speed, that are a bit more atmospheric. A bit
like a Metal version of Massive Attack, maybe. But that
remains to be seen. One song like that only exists in a
proto version, and our songs tend to change a lot along
the way.
Cisse: You’ll surely find some psy-trance
influences on the next album.
Thanks a lot and good luck with the forthcoming
virtual release. Any final words?
Stel: Unk! is out there. We also play live shows,
so organisers: get in touch! And… if you decide to play
our music at a party, please invite us, so that we can
enjoy the atmosphere with you!
Cisse: My guitar is tuned!
Foob: Penguins rule!
Interview by: Gerardo (January 2005) |
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