Yeah, well Todd was supposed to read over this and add an introduction but since that doesn't look likely to happen any time in the near future, I'm putting it up. The Massaker is playing Cat's Cradle Tues, March 14 (with Killdozer and I forget) so maybe this will inspire you. Or not, seeing as this was (for someone not there at the time) brutal to transcribe. It shows.
Anyway, Todd should add words to this...at some point. Give him hell for me: tmorman@email.unc.edu. (Carrie)
How did the tour with Helmet go?
Well, it wasn't the first time. We're friends, we toured Europe together and now were touring America together...(indecipherable)...We played a show in New York and Henry was playing bass, we played with two basses.
Do you usually do that? Or is it usually a trio?
It's usually a trio but I do that to make it more open, you know, play with different people. Also on this tour, I play the last song with Helmet.
Helmet is very big with MTV. It seems like their audiences are pretty young. Are they?
Oh, they're really young, from 14 to 20.
And how do they receive your music?
That's a good question because the young audience was really fixed on Helmet and sometimes I was on stage playing and I was irritated...But in the end, I really liked it because I saw that many people were signing the mailing list.
So the responses were generally good. You know, I was really curious about that because it seems that the audience for your stuff would be the folks that are into, say, the harder free jazz, maybe even some New Zealand bands like Dead C.
I have nothing to do with free jazz.
Ok, that's interesting.
Do you know that we're playing songs?
Yes, definitely.
They have structures.
Do you feel your songs are more structured than not?
Yes, we can play the same songs every night, but not note by note. These are songs, longs songs. It's not improvising; free jazz is improvising. There's a big difference.
There's not any improvisation at all? It's all pretty much structured and then you record it live in the studio?
Yeah.
When you tour in Europe what's the response like? Do you get grouped in with, say, metal bands?
No, most of the time we play alone, headlining.
And do you get many people?
Sometimes we play for 300 people, maybe 700, 800. Sometimes 250. It's a question of where you're playing.
You're based in Berlin. Is there much support there for what you do?
Yeah.
That's good. Do you sell many records over in Europe?
Yeah.
Let me ask you about when you play live. The bio here says you use no effects. You just plug right into the amps.
That's not true...I'm using three effects pedals.
So the bio's wrong! (laughs) On (song #8? indecipherable), the explosions on that song, how did you get that?
I was doing this with a DJ, with records.
So it's sampled?
No no no, it's not samples, we were working with tape loops...like a DJ.
Do you do much of that?
In the future, I want to do more.
Do you do many overdubs?
No, there's not overdubs.
When did you first start getting attention in the United States? Your first CD, The Tribe, came out in 1987. The first two were actually import-only.
Three years ago we played a festival in San Francisco and an agency saw us and brought us over here for a tour in '93. Then we found a record label, Thirsty Ear, here and they brought us on tour this year.
Why, on the new record, did you choose to re-record songs from the first two?
The first reason was you can't buy these songs in America. And then another reason was I was not satisfied with the sound (of the originals).
I don't have Black Access but most of the songs on the new record come from Black Access. "The Tribe" got longer. Did the others get longer?
Yeah, they all got longer.
Is there a reason?
No, it just happened.
What about the value of repetition in your work? Sometimes it seems almost trance inducing. Why are you making those songs longer and longer?
I don't feel the pieces are too long...I dunno...we're playing long songs.
There are many people who find your music difficult and even annoying. Is testing your listeners' patience part of what you want to do? And what would you say to someone who found your music very difficult to listen to? How would you try to explain?
I'd say maybe you have got to listen to other music (laughs). You know, music is music. If you don't like it, you don't have to hear it. I don't think that my music is difficult. So what can I say? If people say that this music is difficult, I don't know what that means.
What about noise? I want to ask you about the difference between noise and song and the difference between noise and music and how much you think about using noise as a piece of your music.
Air craft carriers, war ships, for example, if fifty jets are taking off...this could be music. This is a kind of noise too. I can play a jet fighter if you want. I'm using everything I can do with my guitar, which means I can play rhythm guitar, I can play lead guitar, I can use noise. I dunno, I'm using everything.
What are some of your favorite sounds of the modern world? Airplanes...?
I can't say just one of these, there are a lot of different noises.
You started out playing punk music. In the bio it says you became disenchanted with the rigidity of the genre. Can you talk about that?
I was playing in a punk band but...the audience was sometimes too violent. After two and a half years, I wanted more.
More what?
More music. Because this music in the punk band was really simple.
You're entirely self taught? Who were you influenced by when you were teaching yourself guitar?
Deep Purple and...
I was going to ask you about Led Zepplin actually...What about Einsturzende Neubauten and that kind of industrial?...Is there anything particularly "German" about the sound of the music?
(laughs) The bass player is Spanish. I'm the only German, the drummer is Dutch.
He used to be in Gore, right? Yeah, now he's playing with Dee Dee Ramone.
This bio says you were growing up in an environment without many boundaries -- music, racial, linguistic -- how has that affected the kind of music you do?
I grew up in a music family, we listened to a lot of different music. Most of the time we listened to a lot of jazz music. My mother was a big Beatles fan. Most of the time I was trying to play what I heard in my head. I don't know how to say this. What do you mean "environment"?
Well, when you grew up, what sorts of things...your father is very famous as a jazz musician, is there any influence?...
That's what I was trying to say. I grew up in a musician family which means I grew up between my sister and my mother and there was a whole group sitting around the kitchen table...black and white people talking different languages and whatever...but I have nothing to do with jazz. What inspired me was this kind of life -- to have grown up in this family.
Yeah, I understand what you're saying about having nothing to do with free jazz...but sometimes the song structures that you have degenerate -- and I don't mean that in a bad way, they sort of collapse in on themselves into noise...
But it's a misunderstanding. It's just that we're not playing three minute songs, we're playing ten minute songs, but I can play that song every night.
You play a left-handed guitar and you've strung it upside down. Do you think you can make better sounds?
Not better sounds, more sounds.
How does that work?
You know the (????) in the necks? If you're playing left handed, those strings have a longer, the deep string have a longer way, like the high e string. If you play over the neck, you have another set.
Do you have any theory about what it is that you're trying to do with guitar?
No, I'm just trying to play what I feel. I don't think about other people. I'm just trying to find my own way.
What sorts of emotions, what sorts of feelings...
You can hear it.
I figured you'd say that! (laughs) What's coming up next>
I've got to go back to London, then England and Germany. And after these, I'm going on tour again in America.
Are you making enough to live on with your music?
I can live on my music, yes.
Congratulations!
Well I have no big luxuries but I can pay my flat, my bottle of vodka, my cigarettes and food. That's all I need.
The only thing I wanted to ask is what you're listening to right now.
Jim Thurwell. He's a friend of me and his new stuff is coming out in a month and it's fantastic, the best he's ever done. And on the Judgement Night soundtrack, this song by Faith No More and Booyaa Tribe. I like that a lot.
What do you think of the Melvins?
Oh yeah, I've been asked two times to go on tour with them but both times I was on tour with Helmet. I really would like to go on tour with them because I like this band. Last night I heard a good song. It was a cover song from Kiss.
Have people ever danced to your music?
Yeah, and they stage dive.
Do you like that?
How old are you?
33.
...
The end, I guess.