Ronan Harris of VNV Nation reveals how he sins.
interview by Mike Kieffer & Vanity Kills
Perhaps the most well known modern EBM/futurepop group of today, Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson of VNV Nation continue on their vigilant quest to spread their music to any willing ear. Automatic is their newest weapon, which is powerful enough to please their fans and pull many more onto the VNV bandwagon.
Wrath – VNV Nation is entered in a fight to the death battle of the bands, who would you want to square off against and what weapon would you choose?
Ronan Harris : Not being a fan of violence or displays of testosteronal inspired violence, this is hard to imagine but if this was a scene in some far-fetched, postapocalypse, low-budget sci-fi movie with Christopher Lambert or JCVD as the cyborg leader whose very word means life or death through the medium of bad acting and interpretational dance, and including some obligatory cliché punk looking folk driving around in chopped up Pintos, firing shots into the air, while inexplicable gas explosions shoot up into the sky around an abandoned factory… etc. (see 1980s for more on this)… I guess I’d go up against Belinda Carlise, if nothing for the sheer bizarreness of it all. Was she a band, even if she was a solo act? Who cares. It’s my answer. VNV vs Belinda Carlisle. Weapon of choice; I think grenades or an MP5K should do it. It’d be quick. The after-party would be awesome.
Envy – If you could put one item on your tour rider that you would always get regardless of price what would it be?
RH : When we started out we used to put “One shaved Golden Condor” and some other necessary items on the rider that you really do need on tour but people didn’t seem to have the sense of humor we expected. Hell, it was for our amusement, no one else’s. If I could put an item on the rider now that I could actually have, it would be one of two things… One, a fabric-lined, wooden box containing a bottle of an ultra rare single-malt scotch that I happen to like, and a collection of handrolled Dominican Republic cigars. After load-out, when everyone’s gone home, the whole crew would all sit around and act like kings of the road, enjoying some fine scotch and discussing the day because our crew’s conversations are hilarious and it would be the high point of the day. Two, an inflatable bouncy castle to be erected in the corner of the hall. You can never go wrong with a bouncy castle. It’s the ultimate icebreaker at cocktail parties and promotes fine conversation covering a wide range of topics. That or people would take their shoes off, get on the thing and re-join the 8 year old mosh pit club, remembering what it was like to smash their nose while flying around on one, though without a parent to run to after.
read the full interview in the October/November 2011 Issue
