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27 : OCT : 08 The coolest-meanest-darkest magazine in
Italy interviews Angelspit and gives Blood Death Ivory CD of the
Month.
ZooG: We are delighted to hear that we were voted the Best New Band and Best Debut Album… that is an amazing honour. Thankyou to everyone who voted for us. We are equally honoured to find out that we have many votes in the “worst” category. This means that our music generates a strong reaction, good and bad. We must have pissed off quite a lot of people for them to vote for us as the “worst” band, and that makes us proud too. We’d rather be hated than considered mediocre. We are humbled that we have inspired such an awesome reaction, thanks so much Ritual readers!
I been lucky to hear the promo of your first album and make my mind about you before looking at your pix or checking your website. How do you react when someone describe Angelspit just as a “party band”? Do read reviews about your music and does that have any influence over your creative process? Zoog: We are staying true to ourselves. We are doing what we have always done. We are not slaves to trends. We do not care about what reviewers say. We get a lot of bad reviews, and most of the time people are attacking our look and imagery rather than the music. I think that if those reviewers listened to the music without the imagery they would probably write a different review. We have never tried to impress people and we have never tried to appease market trends. We have always been dedicated to making our art as truthfully as we can. People are going to love us or hate us… and thus is the nature of punk. Destroyx: Honestly, we are half an art group and half a music band. I think that if people say that our imagery negates the truthfulness or sincerity of our music they are ignoring the fact that we use our visual aesthetic to enhance and communicate our message better. I mean.. just because we don’t look like every other industrial band (e.g. army pants, black t-shirt and an undercut hairstyle) doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take us seriously. Bad reviews can only motivate us to say ‘fuck you! louder than ever before.
How much did you like to play the role of an industrial-cyberpunk Marie Antoinette and what are the similarities between this famous character and you ? Destroyx: I wouldn’t say that I’m exactly trying to parallel myself to Marie Antionette, but the aesthetics and decadence of that period are extremely visually appealing to me. I take a lot of inspiration from history when I design my costumes. The Sofia Copella version of Marie Antoinette is an amazing film, and it definitely influenced me while I was creating those costumes for the photoshoot. Personality wise, I would say I’m a pretty extravagant person and I always try to live life beyond my means! This is actually pretty terrible because I collect way too many high heels, boots, corsets, handbags and arts books.
Who's your favourite “skinny little bitch”? Destroyx: Victoria Beckam! (I actually think she’s cool!)
How do you feel listening to your first release now? ZooG: I think Krankhaus kicks arse. I’m extremely happy with Krankhaus and its worldwide reception has been incredible. Compared to our latest release Blood Death Ivory its certainly different, but we tried new things musically and conceptually in the new album, which reflects our growth as artists.
Did you notice any differences about the way of working and producing? ZooG: Krankhaus started with beats, noise and guitar rifts… the lyrics always came later. Blood Death Ivory on the other hand always started with the lyrical idea first. All ideas started on paper and then were fleshed our musically. We were striving for a simplicity in the sound design and music of Blood Death Ivory, where the musical detail is more noticeable. We experimented constantly with noise generation and the intricacies of presenting new and unique sounds. Destroyx: We found it a challenge to write the album because we had to use basic music equipment because we just moved to Berlin but we still managed to record the destruction of a few pieces of furniture in the name of industrial percussion.
How did you come up with the title ? Does it even have a meaning? Destroyx: It’s about power essentially and the cycle of evil that runs through society. The words are loaded with connotations and poetically they symbolize the cycle of greed that has pervades society as well as being a metaphor for birth, death and resurrection. The words “blood death ivory” also have vivid colour associations (red, black, white) which are for me the strongest and most emotive colours.
Could you tell us something about the lyrics of the album, is there a general concept running through every song? Destroyx: The lyrics for this album have definitely become more real and less conceptual. I think they have become incredibly angry and true. ZooG: Some of the recurring concepts are about people that are slaves to work living a mindless daily existence. People don’t seem to question their morals, ethics and personal direction in life, and we are trying to tell them to wake up. We have also tried to question standards of beauty and personal worth in the mainstream and particularly the hypocrisy of some alternative cultures. We have tried to explore what the cost of true “freedom” is in society.
You live in Berlin now. Is because of the vibe of the city of just because in this way you’re closer to your bigger audience? ZooG: Living in Berlin has been an amazing experience because it’s an awesome city. It has certainly given us a lot of opportunities that we wouldn’t have had if we had stayed in Australia because its so far away. However, at the moment we’re touring in Sydney Australia while we are promoting our new CD. We hope to spend some more time in Europe, as well as focusing on the USA and Japan later on in 2008.
From the eyes of a “stranger”: how’s the health of EBM scene in Europe? ZooG: We have played and toured with several renowned EBM bands throughout Europe and it would seem unfortunately that the EBM scene is diminishing. Bands are reporting a severe lack of CD sales as well as low audience attendance. It seems like a lot of labels are moving their focus to electro music. Maybe audiences are bored, or are looking for something new… I don’t know. Destroyx: Well… we’re definitely not an EBM band, we’re industrial cyber punk, so its been hard for us to find acceptance with the die hard EBM crowd. But we’ve realized that they’re not the audience we want. We want to attract a new generation of enthusiastic open minded crazy people who want to rock out and have fun. That’s what we’re all about.
And what about the Crash Collective? Please show us some underground bands that you think deserve attention.. ZooG: The bands we love at the moment are The Mercy Cage, The Tenth Stage and Baal from Japan (who we toured with and are totally awesome! Please check them out!).
What's your relationship with latex ? Do you feel connected to the fetish scene? Destroyx: I absolutely adore latex. Its one of my favorite things to wear and would have to be one of my biggest fetishes. I don’t often have time to attend fetish parties, but I would say that I’m connected to the fetish scene because I follow the fashion. I also have a large collection of fetish heels, latex, corsets and gloves.
Where does the inspiration for graphics and artwork come from this time? Destroyx: Everything from the English artists Gilbert and George, Francis Bacon, Baroque and Victorian imagery to tattoo design and punk graphics. It’s very Marie Antoinette meets the Sex Pistols.
And what about your clothing designs, such as the custom ties, how is this been going? Destroyx: We just designed a whole range of new accessories to sell during our tour and they’ll be available on the website shortly. However, since the band is getting extremely busy I unfortunately have less time for making handmade accessories because it’s very time consuming and everything is painstakingly detailed. I’ve been designing a whole bunch of cool screen printed items though, and I’ll be releasing a range of t-shirt designs soon. ZooG: We’ll be putting up some new free t-shirt stencil designs soon for anyone to download and make their own Angelspit t-shirt. We have a few designs up currently which have proved to be very popular with our fans as many of them turn up with hand made Angelspit shirts to our shows. This is such compliment to us!
There's a black cross upon your image in the cover of the album. Could we consider it as a manifest against censorship? Destroyx: It could be considered a manifest against censorship and I like that interpretation of the image. It is an intentionally strong image and statement that can be read in a variety of ways. It could be read as a statement against perceptions of beauty in alternative culture. Another interpretation is that it’s a big “fuck you” to everyone who says that Angelspit is only successful because of image.
Please tell us a little about the remixes you're working on. ZooG: We’re working on new audio and visual material which is going to compliment Blood Death Ivory as well expand on its concept. Our next release is going to surprise and delight fans and we think it’s a very new and interesting concept. So at the moment we aren’t working on many remixes for other people because we’re so busy on Angelspit projects.
At the end of the day, what does Angelspit hope to accomplish? Destroyx: I think we’re trying to create a new standard in music and visual arts through our output and I hope that we encourage people to push themselves in the same way. ZooG: Fuck writing hits, fuck writing good albums, fuck making pretty pictures… lets start a revolution! We want to build and inspire an artistic community that feels confident to express itself creatively. We have met so many awesomely creative people whose work is dark and beautiful and we want to encourage these people by building a community born of the new generation of alternative creatives that are not tied to preconceived stagnant notions of what is proper “gothic” or “industrial” art. If you like what we do, we hope that it inspires you to create your own art. If you hate what we do, we encourage you to do better.
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