First of all, could you give us a brief introduction about your band?
Hello.  We’re MDM from the Niagara Region of Ontario Canada situated right on the border with the United States.  MDM is a four piece band consisting of Daniel X on lead guitars and programming, Viktor on rhythm guitars and backing vocals, SINic on drums and programming, and myself, Nux on lead vocals and programming.

How did things get started, and why did you pick this bandname?
MDM started in the late nineties with our original guitarist, DT and myself.  We were both great friends in high-school and started MDM as a fun project to mess around in on weekends and evenings.  The initials MDM actually came from the device we were using at the time to record and playback our backing tracks, a Modular Digital Multitrack.  We adapted the initials into Martyr Diabolos Martyr as the title suited the darker themes we were exploring at the time.  As time went on and we got involved with more global political activism we wanted to distance ourselves with the darker past and thus the name evolved into the present day Modern Digital Militia.

What are your main influences?
Our influences range from punk rock to metal to EBM to old school industrial.  We’re all into so many different types of music.  As far as lyrics go I will draw from world events, politics, environmentalism, and personal experiences.

How would you describe the music you make?I would probably have to say rocking metal riffs over a bed of groovy danceable beats and synths with really big melodic choruses. 

Like probably many others with me in Europe, I completely missed the 'Unified State of Agression' and 'Dawn of a New Order' releases. Can you give us a little indication of both the releases, to know what we have missed?
Well, Dawn of a New Order was released in the year 2000 and this album was the beginning of the point where we really began to take what we were doing more seriously.  The songs took on a much more groovy and catchy sound than any of the previous work we’d done (we released a couple of cassettes and one CD in the late 90’s which had a more raw metal undertone).  We gained a pretty good following here after that album was released.  Unified State of Aggression was released in 2004 and followed a similar formula but the tone was much more political and focused which ultimately led to the point where we’re at today with Moder Digital Militia.

The new album is called "Modern Digital Militia" and came out April 2008. It had good ratings of our webzine, but what do you think of the album yourself?
Thank you very much for the great ratings and positive review!!  We’re actually very happy with how the album turned out considering some of the snags we hit along the way.  Part way through the initial writing process fort he album, our original guitarist, DT made a decision to move 600km away to Ottawa in order to pursue some other career options.  This made it next to impossible to play live so we decided to seek out another guitarist to fill his shoes and that’s how we found Daniel X.  In the process of bringing Daniel up to speed with our older material, he and I would go over riffs together in my studio and ultimately from those sessions came a majority of the songs on the new album.  Ultimately every song says what we want it to say and feels how we want it to feel, so yes indeed we are happy with it!

What is in your opinion the major difference inbetween the new release and the old ones?
Well Daniel’s style is different than that of DT so it comes thorough in many of the songs even though he tried to tie the sound and feel back to the older albums a bit as well.  There is more of everything on the new album as well.  More synths, more guitars, the vocals are more up front and in your face.

What is in your opinion the best track on "Modern Digital Militia" and why?
I’m kind of torn between three songs.  I like Silence & Pressure because it’s extremely catchy, has a great melody and is really fun to rock out to.  I like Das Ist Krieg because it’s so fast and aggressive with an anti-war message and I like Demander & Thief because it outlines many of the problems with the US Government, specifically the policies of the Bush Administration and the climate of propagandized fear they’ve created in an otherwise great country.

Lyrically, you mention the War on Terrorism more than once. Do you think 9/11 was an inside job?
That’s a tough question to answer because I’d probably end up in Guantanamo Bay if I answered honestly, hahaha!  Just kidding.  My belief is that there were definitely elements of the US Goverment that knew it was going to happen and allowed it to happen to spearhead an agenda to move the American Empire into the Middle East.  There is a ton of evidence that points to an inside job but until a proper investigation is conducted (which will probably never happen) we’ll never really know for sure.  I do know that the Bush Administration used the deaths of 3000 innocent Americans to rally the country behind supporting the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East.

What are your opinions on the Bush administration in general?
I think they are war criminals and should be tried in an international court for their crimes.  In all actuality they are Terrorists on a global scale.

Do you think a new US president will bring major differences to the current war situation?
I really don’t.  The two parties are pretty much identical in that they are both bought and paid for by the same corporations... and the corporations (especially those in the military industry) want war.  They presidential candidates might spew some rhetoric about bringing the troops home but in reality the only thing they might do is reduce the troop numbers a bit. 

As well, some songs are about religion. What are your opinions on religion in general?
I’m an atheist with a Buddhist philosophy.  I don’t believe in a Christian, Jewist, Muslim, whatever God.  I think that all of the organized monotheistic religions are the root cause of a majority of the planet’s problems and conflicts.  The only thing I truly believe in is myself and I try to promote peace and compassion in whatever way I can.

I don't know much about the (industrial) scene in Canada. What are your views on it?
The scene here is actually at the lowest point I’ve ever seen for industrial music.  There aren’t really many bands and the few that are around are one-man computer operations that don’t perform live.  The scene is losing population due to the fact that it’s becoming an older crowd that doesn’t go out as much anymore and there hasn’t been much of an influx of younger kids getting into industrial music.  I have seen some positive sparks while talking to some younger fans at our shows and it seems that the younger generations are becoming more frustrated with popular music so perhaps we’ll see some positive change in the near future.  I encourage everyone to go out and support the scene as much as possible especially the live bands.

The music you make fits with a powerful and very visual live show. What can a stranger expect when he visits a live show of MDM?
Expect a lot of energy.  We get people moving, dancing, singing and screaming along with our set.  We use various lighting effects with a video backdrop featuring political imagery.  We try to keep people entertained because that’s an important component to delivering a positive message.  We hope that those who come to the show can walk away feeling charged up about fixing the wrongs in the world.

What are, next to music, your other passions in life?
I love to cook exotic vegan foods,  mountain biking,  snowboarding and Macintosh Computers.

What can we expect of MDM in the near future?
We’re going to be remixing some of the songs from the last album as well as remixing some other artists.  Daniel and I will probably begin writing more new material in the Fall to put towards our next album.  It will be awesome to work with him right from the beginning of the writing process.

The interview ends here, thanks for your time. If you have some final words to add, you can do it here.
Thanks for the awesome interview, Gerardo!  Those were some excellent questions :) Cheers!

Interview by: Gerardo, answered by Nux (vocals) - May 2008