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First of all, can you give us a short introduction about your band?
We are: Nick- words, samples, programming, visuals; Raye- programming, samples, electronics, keys and Rog- metal percussion, power tools. Rog wasn't available for the interview, so all answers are by Nick and Raye. We write songs in different ways depending on circumstances - Sometimes Nick will come up with a basic structure consiting of a drum loop/ drum machine pattern, voice samples and lyrics, which Raye will then build up into a song; sometimes Raye will have almost finished a track and Nick adds the lyrics and some samples. Once the song has been constructed, it is passed on to Rog to add percussion. We never try to tell Rog what to play,because he always comes up with something better than anything we could have thought up ourselves.
How did things get started?
We found ourselves with adjoining rooms in a South East London flat. Intrigued by the odd sounds penetrating the connecting wall, Nick demanded to know what 'that racket' was. 'That racket' turned out to be Raye's well worn copy of the first Cabaret Voltaire album, 'Mix-Up'. United by our common love of the Stooges and Nick's new found interest in left-field electronics, we became close friends and decided to make a racket of our own. After a time looking for that missing ingredient, we found it in Rog, who Raye had previously worked with in Leech Woman.
You described your music as 'Post-Industrial Punk'. What exactly is Post-Industrial Punk?
Essentially, it means that what we do is punk music in the sense that we were both inspired by the original punk movement,and have stayed true to the best parts of that attitude; - any one can do it - ideas and intelligence are more important than musical ability,etc. But we have applied the methodology of the original industrial bands such as Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire and SPK, which goes back to people like John Cage and Stockhausen. You don't have to be able to write songs in the tradional rock format, you can construct songs from any source that you want. Neither of us are musicians but we know what we like and what things sound interesting to us. We both wanted to make something that was ours, and we used the means that were available to us at the time to do it.
What are your main influences?
Older stuff like the Stooges, MC5, the Clash, the Adverts, but particularly early Banshees..ie first 2 albums.The 1st Suicide album had a major impact, as did Throbbing Gristle, and most importantly Cabaret Voltaire. Lyrically, Nick cites anarcho-punk bands like Crass,Conflict and Flux of Pink Indians, but also the 2nd wave of punk bands like Theatre of Hate, Killing Joke, and especially UK Decay for their method of approaching a subject using metaphor rather than head-on. Other music that is incredibly important to both of us are Ultravox! but only the the 1st three albums (before John Foxx left) and the first two Human league albums (before they went pop). Both these bands were groundbreaking in their original forms, but their early acheivements have been unfairly ignored. John Carpenter's electronic film soundtracks are also a great source of inspiration.
The 'Worship Your Diseases' album got an excellent rating on our zine. But, what do you think of the release yourself?
Overall, we're very happy with it - we had spent a long time trying to get it exactly right,but it wasn't until we decided to scrap all the mixes we had done previously,and set ourselves a deadline of three days in which to finish it that it all came together. We found the "right" time to get the result we wanted, something that you can never predict, but when it comes,you have to grab it. This is why we called the label 'Kairotic Records' - in greek mythology there are two gods of time, the first is Chronos, the god of absolute,"eternal" time,and the second is Kairos, the youngest son of Zeus, and time for him meant the favourable moment, the "right time". There's a famous quote "A painting is never finished, it's just left"; we could have spent another year trying to get the album 'perfect', but it would not have been as good as the result we achieved in three days.
What do you consider to be the best track on the release, and why?
Obviously, we think they're all good, but depending on mood; Ressurection is Nick's favourite for jumping around the room, and Sleep of Reason is his favourite to sit and listen to. Raye loves Mano Blanca for it's simplicity, and Race Apart for it's complexity.
One of the most interesting tracks in my opinion is 'Race Apart', as well because of the lyrics. With lines like "Did they evolve not from apes? Same heart, same soul, same hands, same face." you set a clear statement against racism. How bad are the problems concerning racism in the England of today?
The song is not really about racism, the point of the song is that we are all capable of terrible things and to deny that we all carry that potential means that is much harder to stop it happening. Most of the people who carry out atrocities are not evil monsters, just ordinary people in extreme situations. These things come about because people are selfish and lazy rather than truly evil. Throughout history certain leaders have been able to manipulate people's fear of the outsider and the fear of being an outsider to gain power. These people aren't a race apart, they are us.
In terms of racism in the UK, as we are both white we are not subjected to it in the same way as we woud be if we weren't. In this country, racism has always been more covert than overt. There is an acceptable vocabulary which people hide behind, where terms such as asylum seeker,radical muslim and others are used to disguise the very real racism at their core.
The preachy lyrics on 'Prey' are, on a little sarcastic note, against war and hypocrisy. What are your own political views, and what are your opinion on Tony Blair's support for the Bush administration?
I think you can tell what our politics are by the lyrics;Obviously we are to the left, anti war and anti prejudice. We oppose all forms of totalitarianism, whether left, right or religous, but we have no allegiance to any political organisations.
In terms of his motivation, Blair appears to have deluded himself into the belief that he was acting for the best, however whatever the rhetoric surrounding the war/invasion/occupation it is clear that the Americans have no interest in or ability to deliver "democracy" to the Iraqi people. As has been the case going back to the first contact between Americans and any other culture that stands in their way, they are only interested in the control of resources and strategic borders.
As well something I found funny is the "song" called 'The Sound of Free Speech', which is actually an all silent track. Could you explain the purpose of this track?
The sound of "free speech" is in fact silence, because in this society there is no such thing as free speech. On the vinyl release of 'The Feeding of the 5,000'by Crass the first track was supposed to be 'Reality Asylum', a rant against christianity. The workers at the pressing plant refused to handle the record becuse of the blashemous content of the song, so it was left off the record. The resulting silence was re-named 'The sound of free speech' and our version is the sound of that silence on my copy of the record.
Here's a link to hear Reality Asylum: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_HOYk9ED9Q.
You appeared on several compilations in the past. How important do you consider these appearances to be for spreading your music?
Most got us limited exposure as they were small run compilations, but we do prefer to deal with small labels where we retain control of our music. But we are grateful to the parties involved for the chance to get stuff out there...also for getting us off our arses to record.
What are your views on the local music industry in your native country?
In the UK, unlike some other European countries, the industrial/alternative scene is very much underground and not part of the mainstream. Because even within industrial music we don't really fit neatly into a category, it makes it more difficult for us,but we're not interested in being like other people, and we're not interested in being part of an 'industry'. The reason that so much music is so uninspiring is that most people are only making music to make money. Of course we would like to be heard more, but we won't compromise our sound to do it.
What are, next to music, your other passions in life?
We have no other passions apart from music...oh apart from gardening, ornithology, good food and fine wines, next question...
What can we expect of Hydra in the near future?
We are going to be sending the CD out to various labels,and hopefully someone will want to licence it. Depending on the response,we have enough material for at least another album or two. If no labels respond, but people are interested, we'll release them ourselves. We are possibly even doing a few gigs this year.
Interview by: Gerardo - November 2008
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