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07 : SEPT : 08
ZooG: BLOOD DEATH IVORY kicks serious ass. We’re confident that it is different to KRANKHAUS is many ways. The actual songs, the lyrics, the message behind it, the artwork, the detail in the photos and costumes and the sonic detail. We worked on this album constantly whilst in Berlin – we believe it reflects the AWESOME experience we had there! Destroyx: I don’t always think that doing a new CD means you need to reflect on our last release because a CD is always the product of the time period in which it was made. So it reflects what we were going through as people at that time. I’m happy with Krankhaus and equally so with our new album. I don’t need to compare them because we’re exploring different things in our new album.
Your new album is called “Blood Death Ivory”… How about the ivory in the title? Does it stress the noble and hedonistic side of your musical world? At least it seems to be a surprising twist within the title… Destroyx: I came up with the title when I was working on an art book project. I was playing around with the symbolism of the colours red, black and white and I came up with the title “Blood Death Ivory”. I think the ivory is inspired a lot by research into Victoriana when ivory was still used at the time. Also, I went to a fantastic exhibition in Berlin which showcased the use of ivory in religious relics, so I must have been thinking quite a lot about ivory and the connotations behind the word when we were writing the CD. ZooG: I do like the your interpretation of the album title. Our life as musicians could be idealised as being “noble and hedonistic”, but in reality it probably isn’t! It’s just a lot of hard work. The title is also a metaphor for the resurrection in some ways.
"Meat" would have made for a nice title-word, too. Unfortunately I don’t have any lyrics yet, but there seems to be quite a lot of cannibalism going on in your songs. What fascinates you about this issue? The sexual component, the bodily aspect of making another being a part of yourself by actually eating it? Its interesting, that cannibalism is fascinating mankind since it exists, a fact that is mirrored in many folklore fairytales (even in Europe) and stuff like that…
Destroyx: We have written quite a few tracks about cannibalism… Actually I think it’s a main lyrical theme for us. All of the things that you mentioned fascinate us. I think that the historical side is one of the most interesting. What motivates people to become cannibals is interesting, but what is more interesting is that it’s such a social taboo to even talk about. ZooG: We have a track on Blood Death ivory called Devilicious, the vocal hook is “Your body in my mouth, Devilicious”…. it’s about the tender act of cannibalism, you can not intimately know someone unless you eat them…right? Cannibalism doesn’t hurt people, love hurts people!
About the music: I had the impression, that the vocals became a bit more diverse. ZooG seems to contribute more extra vocals, compared to “Krankhaus”. Or is this just a subjective feeling? ZooG: We’re trying to sing more and we’re always trying to push what we do. There’s a track called “Lust Worthy” – and it’s a very creepy lullaby. We’re trying to sing in that gentle tone your parents use to lull you to sleep which fits in with the theme of the song (the song is about the dark alternative community being lulled to sleep). Destroyx: I think that overall we’ve both pushed ourselves to sing a little more and try new things with vocals and their arrangement. It’s fun to try out new ways of using your voice.
One thing that’s really fascinating me about your music is that you almost renounce using melodic instruments. There’s almost nothing like Synth-ambiences or clean guitarchords or sung melodies… Yet, you reach a certain catchyness…based on rhythm. Isn’t it really hard to keep the balance between experimental and non-melodic-elements and music people would like to dance or listen to? ZooG: Well spotted! At the core
of all of our tracks is a pop song (more on that later). We always
lace a simple and effective idea with chaos and poison. There are
mostly riffs that spell out the harmonic shape, but we NEVER use
chords. There is chordal movement used in the vocoders, but it’s
about building tension and atmosphere, not spelling out a chordal
movement. Our music is not diatonic – yet the vocals
and riffs always stick to simple and digestible notes…like
the blues scale or a minor pentatonic scale – it’s all
based on simplicity embellished with complexity. Destroyx: I am pleased that you noticed that in our music. We are experiementing with making noise, interesting sampled sounds and harsh electronics into rhythmic and catchy tunes. It's hard to keep the balance between totally alienating the audience and being too pop, but I think that we're one of the only bands doing this kind of thing at the moment, so I think that the newness of what we're trying to do is refreshing for the audience even if we don't always get it right.
Besides the Goth and Electro-Scene: Are you interested in completely different musical genres like Hiphop for example? On the one hand you are working a lot with the lyrical flow, on the other hand – in my opinion – there’s some stuff by artists like Missy Elliot, that is rhythmically inspiring, even if you are not into Black music in general ZooG: We are not influenced by the goth scene…it bores the shit out of us. Destroyx: We are interested in an extremely wide variety of music. I would say that we believe that every musical style has something to teach us. I think that if you listen closely to the new CD, you will notice that we've incorporated a lot of diverse beats, ones found in hip hop, ones found in Indian Raga music and many more. We're not trying to follow current trends, we're just trying to making engaging music. I like a lot of hip hop music, especially the beats, but generally I find a lot of the lyrics a little alienating. I am most inspired by music from the 90's- bands like Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine etc… although our music may not sound like those bands, it's all about their attitude.
Would you mind, if someone talked about a certain pop-appeal of your music? ZooG: We like music you can yell along too. Destroyx: We love a good pop song. It's a compliment to say that we have a pop appeal, because that means that the tune is catchy and that is the ultimate compliment for us. I think it's much easier to write a deconstructed arty song than it is to write a succinct catchy pop tune.
Besides music, the visual side is very important for Angelspit. Wouldn’t it be perfect to do something like an Angelspit-comicbook or a film? With the surreal and unsettled (unsettling?) imagery, that is part of your work, I guess even Quentin Tarantino could become interested… maybe he’d do “Kill Kitty I + II”;-)… ZooG: I would love to do a film with the Japanese director of the Grudge and Ring movies. I think that the dark unnerving nature of his films would compliment our music. We also love Quentin Tarantino films so who knows? One day maybe we will collaborate on something. We are always looking for talented photographers, film makers and artists to collaborate with, because we believe that working with the best people is important in creating the best work you can create… other artistic people push you into doing things you aren't comfortable with because everyone thinks differently and that's the best thing about collaboration. Destroyx: I would absolutely adore working with film makers. I think that film is the best union between music and visuals and it's probably going to be the next step for Angelspit. We're currently trying to get a team together for a video clip, so who knows… in a few years maybe we'll do a film? Piranha-Magazine (Germany) |
