In 1982 Essex boys Bon Harris and Douglas McCarthy formed Nitzer Ebb with a focus on vocals, bass, and beats. Through simple teenage rage and the influence of punk rock they formed their own sound in the developing EBM scene. After several acclaimed singles, the band signed with Mute Records in 1986. With Mute they released the major body of their work and became friends with label mates, Depeche Mode, with whom they’ve toured and occasionally collaborated. 1995 saw the release of the bands fifth studio album, Big Hit, followed by them splitting up to walk different paths. After time involved in their own projects, they came together for a reunion tour in 2006 which lead to new Nitzer Ebb material. The result is a new album, Industrial Complex, which the band is now on the road promoting with shows both as headliners and as the supporting act for Depeche Mode’s “Tour of the Universe”.
interview by Aaron Andrews
You both went off to do your own things with various projects after 1995’s Big Hit. Why the decision to get back to making music as Nitzer Ebb?
Douglas McCarthy : It came about after we re-united for what was initially just a few festival shows in Europe. That actually turned into a world tour of not just Europe, but North and South America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand! During that time we had a few breaks in LA and we thought it would be interesting to see where we were at creatively with the band. As it turned out we were in great shape and we went on to write over thirty songs!
Bon Harris : There was a demand for it. Doug had been doing shows with FM, and the were a lot of fans asking for a return. So we came back.
What do you think you’ve each brought back to the band that’s new and/or exciting?
DM : I think we actually brought back a lot of what was there in the very start of the band, mixed with our own personal and creative development as individuals.
BH : Years of individual experience. We all went off and learned new things. We grew and developed as individuals. It makes for a much richer experience working in NE now.
NYC-based makeup artist, model, musician, and lifestyle blogger Doe Deere simply couldn’t find makeup bright enough. So she created her own “so bright, it’s illegal!” makeup company, Lime Crime which focuses on creating the most intensely pigmented, dare-to-wear cosmetics for the vivid, quirky, and unique. As Lime Crime prepares to enter the retail market in US, Australia, Canada, and UK and plans for several new product releases we caught up with Doe Deere to talk about the road that got her to this point.Read the interview in the February 10 Issue.
interview : Vanity Kills
photographer : Steve Prue
model : Doe Deere
makeup artist : Doe Deere for Lime Crime Makeup
hair stylist : Kristin Jackson
fashion stylist : Catherine Mudford for Emma Bell
fashions : Emma Bell
What is the most challenging aspect of running a one-woman makeup empire?
I wouldn’t call it an empire just yet; I only have a couple employees and a partner. But the most challenging part is learning how to run a business, on the fly! I started out a girl in my attic, and a year later I’m signing checks and making big, scary decisions. But it’s a learning process which I really enjoy.
How lengthy was the process of turning the vision of that perfect brightly pigmented makeup line in your head into a tangible product?
It took a long time, I won’t lie. I’ve been developing the brand since 2005, when I started posting makeup tutorials on my website, limecrime.net. I always had trouble finding eyeshadows and lipsticks bright enough that went on exactly how they looked. That’s how the idea was born. By 2008 I had a solid following online and began reaching out to labs in NY and LA. The webstore went live two weeks before Halloween.
You’d think with modern technology and all the wonders it brings to our table that making a phone call to Germany would be a fairly simple task. As I found out on the morning when I was scheduled to have an interview with Haujobb’s Daniel Myer this is not the case. At least not for me.
I could chalk it up to the fact that I’m a Luddite, still often bewildered by my DVD player’s remote control. Or I could blame my phone service provider, who continually reminded me at the time of the interview that my call could not be completed. Either scenario seems particularly embarrassing to me considering that this is Daniel Myer I’m trying to reach, the same guy who pioneered industrial/EBM in the early 90s. The same guy who opened the doors of perception with Solutions for a Small Planet, after which the electronic music scene would never be the same. In short, I am having technical problems trying to reach a guru of electronic music.
Currently Myer’s status is a bit up in the air; after announcing the dissolution of Haujobb in numerous scathing interviews geared loosely around the state of the music business, it looked like he was calling it a day. Focusing his attention on his side projects, Architect and Destroid, and his new status as a full-time member of Covenant, it seemed Haujobb would become a forgotten name in the annals of EBM/industrial fame. But with the recent re-release of Homes and Gardens (dubbed version “2.0” because of remastering and remixes), and internet rumors that Myer and co-conspirator Dejan Samardzic were at it again, we felt it was time to contact him and find out what, exactly, is going on.
by Paul Morin
photographs by Britta Hüning
Something I really admire about Haujobb is your ability and drive to reinvent yourself on each new album; you’re not content to just find a formula and stick to it unlike so much of the current EBM field. So how is Haujobb 2010 different from the past?
Daniel Myer : It’s funny, because when I think about it, it might have to do with our living situation. For the last 12 years or so I almost lived like a nomad, always on the run, never in the same place for very long. So every album ever since Solutions for a Small Planet was created with me and Dejan being apart for most of the time. This has changed now. Dejan moved to Leipzig last year. So we are in the same city and I am not traveling like crazy. I mean, I am still touring with other bands and for my production job I go from time to time to a different city. But now we can hang out again, you know. So I guess you can say that Haujobb 2010 is back where it all started, with me and Dejan being friends. We like to hang out, we like the same music, we like the same movies, etc… So it’s like a fresh start.
There seems to be some controversy surrounding the current state of the band. What is the band doing right now and what will you be doing in the near future?
DM : We stopped playing live with Haujobb because it was just not worth it anymore. We couldn’t afford to pay our guest musicians without losing money. So now we just try to get back to our old strength, I guess. We don’t want to push it, we take it slow. Dejan has his day job, and I still do my other projects. We are currently working on a compilation track for EAR [EAR Compilation, Old School Electrology Volume 1].
Listening to Mogwai is a little like standing outside and watching a violent storm develop – from the first few drops of a light rain and wind to a howling fury of thunder and lightning. The music moves from cautious, quiet melodies that remind the listener of The Cure or Cocteau Twins to pounding metallic riffs with three guitarists lost in a downpour of distortion. Their music embodies the aesthetic of the Kantian sublime, in all of its awe and uneasiness.
Paul Morin recently spoke to guitarist/founding member Stuart Braithwaite about the current tour in support of their 7th album, The Hawk is Howling, and about how and where their sublime aesthetic was formed.
How has your sound developed over the years?
Stuart Braithwaite : It’s just trial and error and just circumstance. I mean, after our first album, Barry [Burns] joined us to play piano and we ended up using a little more piano because we had a piano player. For our third or fourth album we started using computers, so we really use whatever’s at hand. I think it’s been pretty organic. We don’t really think too much about what’s going on. We just usually think about the music and what we use in the music tends to come from what we enjoy playing at the time.
Is the electronic influence coming through you or through Barry?
SB : I think we’re all interested in electronic music. It’s mostly Barry and John [Cummings] that use computers when we’re recording.
Are you guys listening to a lot of electronic bands right now?
SB : I think we have been, yeah. I mean, we’ve always been interested in stuff like Kraftwerk, and a lot of dance music, and a lot of Warp records stuff like Boards of Canada, Autechre and that kind of thing. Yeah, we’re definitely interested in electronic
music.
Combichrist is the brain child and creative baby of Andy LaPlegua, first known here in the States for another of his bands, Icon of Coil. Andy took time away from that project to create Combichrist’s Kiss the Blade, first released in 2003. What started out as an exploration of harsh beats and noise has morphed over the course of six years into an aggro/electro industrial project producing four albums and five EPs, as well as a number of remixes.
In the studio, LaPlegua writes and produces the material for Combichrist alone. When he takes the show on the road the whole project not only comes to life but explodes into full being. The project has manifested as an exciting and energetic stage act, winding the audience into a frenzied, throbbing hoard bent on losing themselves in the beat. This kind of high-octane live presentation feeds back into LaPlegua’s studio work for the next Combichrist release, creating a cycle that has an infinitely building momentum.
With live percussion and a commanding stage presence, they pound through each show with fanatical energy, setting this act apart from the sea of contemporary acts that just occupy stage space as their laptops play. Combichrist seems that they would happily stomp those automatons to dust in their quest to deliver a unforgettable show. The experience of their live performance in not to by missed and certainly won’t be forgotten by those who’ve lived through it.
Their most current tour adventure, “Demons On Tour”, started off in North America with Black Light Burns before they split off and engaged a European leg. We caught up with LaPlegua and the current tour line-up, Joe Letz, Z_Marr, and Trevor Friedrich in Toronto just before their show at the Opera House, where they were gracious enough to take the time to meet with us.
photography Jennifer Link interview Aaron Andrews Combichrist Live
Andy LaPlegua
Trevor Friedrich
Joe Letz
z_marr
It looks like you’ve got a long tour ahead, US then Europe; do you enjoy being on tour?
Andy – Yes and no.
What do you specifically enjoy, what don’t you enjoy?
Andy – Nah I mean I enjoy being on tour; it’s rough, but it’s cool. It’s what we do, I guess. It’s rougher to not be on tour.
Z_Marr – Never a dull moment.
Is it the variety that entertains you?
Andy – It is just the life on the road, living in a bus, being on the road all the time; that’s basically what I do. When-ever I am at home it’s really weird.
Joey – It’s really hard to do this, it’s fun, but it’s really hard. And once you get home, you are always like, ‘I needed to be home.’ Then after a couple days you are like ‘what the hell am I doing? I got to get on the road.’
Z_Marr – There is this weird decompression period where I run around trying to find things to do and there is nothing. You wake up and you’re like, ‘fuck I missed sound check.’
Mike, music editor of Auxiliary Magazine, had the chance to chat with Ronan via phone as VNV Nation prepares for the release of a new album and the start of their North American tour.
Where are you right now?
I’m in Hamburg, Germany. I’ve been up since early this morning, coordinating the upload of the master, which has been fun.
Are you almost done?
It’s out of my hands. I just have to get some European side of stuff taken care of. From now on it’s just the interviews, sales sheets, press info, and getting journalists access to all the songs on iPool and all that kind of fun stuff.
How long did it take you to record the album Of Faith Power & Glory?
Well it’s kind of a hard thing to judge because, other then the month before the album is finished, it’s kind of on and off. It’s basically an ever-going process within the same studio. I’ll work on a song up to a certain point and then I’ll leave it and go off and work on something else. I never really have full days to dedicate to the songs; I just build it up and let it build as it goes. When it comes to the last month you say, ‘right, let’s begin now.’ You start to pick out the songs you are going to work on. We pick out 13 in hopes that 10 will live. And basically you start fleshing out the production. There were four intensive weeks and the last two were the most intense of my musical career.
April 21, 2009 in Buffalo, New York marks the The Birthday Massacre’s first stop on the “Show and Tell Tour”. The tour will consists of 22 show dates across North America running through the end of May. Then the band will take a month off and then head over to Europe for the remainder of the summer. This tour is in support of their first ever live CD, Show And Tell. The intensity of their live shows was captured on film in late 2007 in Hamburg, Germany and a DVD version of Show And Tell will be released later this year. Lucky for Auxiliary Magazine, we were at the show and had the opportunity to conduct the following interview. Hope you enjoy.
Interview by Mike of Auxiliary Magazine with Chibi of The Birthday Massacre
Video by Scott Blajszczak
