11 : JUNE : 08
ANGELSPIT Interview in Rave Magazine
Interview by Journo Andrew Walsh

Starting with the beginning. How did Angelspit form and why?

ZooG: We started making zines together in 2002. Destroyx ran a zine distro called Vox Populis. It ended up helping her run it – it grew into a monster. We started using the poems in our zines as lyrics, and the music was inspired by Skinny Puppy, Sonic Youth, Marilyn Manson, The Prodigy etc..

Destroyx: We were working on quite a few creative projects together, mainly zines and making music was a natural progression from that. Angelspit was formed more as an art group than a band strictly, and so that’s why we’ve always put a real emphasis on art that accompanies the music too.

Angelspit has a distinctive visual style, how important is this to the band and what are the influences?

ZooG: Visuals inspire music. Music inspires visuals. Some music surrounds you in a swirl of colour and images – I guess that is what we want to do. Artists like J.P. Witkin, Orlan (French performance artist), Mathew Barney, David LaChappelle and Bill Henson are huge influences.

Destroyx: Since I’m a designer and artist I think that Angelspit’s heavy emphasis on visuals wasn’t something that was enforced, rather it just happened. I’m inspired by everything from pop art, Japanese fruits, fetish clothing, historical clothing from the Elizabethan era and everything in between.

Can you explain what Anglespit Blipverts are and what the concept is behind them?

ZooG: We had so many people asking us about music, art and fashion that we decided to start making small online videos about it so that everyone can access the knowledge. Angelspit Blipverts are designed to inform and inspire people to get active and be creative!
We are increasingly seeing music and art fall into a formula of “sameness”…Genre X sounds like “this” and looks like “this”. We are sharing ideas and tips on how to push the envelope of your art. www.angelspit.net/blipvert

Destroyx: I think we just wanted to share our knowledge about things our fans were interested in. It’s had a fantastic response and we’re going to continue making them (when we get more time). So future topics will include everything from how to make fake dreadlocks to how mix a song.

Angelspit seems to be more than a band, you have zines, other art projects and use the internet to interact with fans. Is this sense of community something Angelspit is trying to embrace and foster?

ZooG: Definitely. One of our goals is to inspire and encourage a positive and creative community. Australia’s predisposition to Tall Poppies syndrome is absolute bullshit. Self doubt is a vile disease. There are so many negative influences on people these days. Television numbs us and turns off our creative spark. We want to create a place where people can come together and feel encouraged to make and share art music whatever. Most importantly to voice their feelings about the world.

Destroyx: Most certainly! We think that the underground scene is only going to be as good as we make it, so through all of our projects and output, we try to encourage people to be creative and thus foster that sense of community.

Your new album, Blood Death Ivory, is due out soon, can you tell us a little about it?

ZooG: This album is a reaction against the expectations that Dark Alternative Culture is putting on all of us. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it is a reaction to expectations that we put on ourselves.
The first eSingle was called “Skinny Little Bitch”. The lyrics are about a young person (male or female) who has just entered the “Alternative” scene because they felt alienated from “The Mainstream”. As soon as they enter “the scene”, they feel the need to loose weight and listen to music that they don’t really like. This “Alternative” scene could be goth/ebm, emo, electro or whatever. The clincher is that the young person in the song has felt the “Alternative scene” forced them to conform new standard. They are left with an eating disorder and resentment. But more so, the person lacks the confidence to just be themselves no matter what “scene” they are in. We saw an example of this often is almost every club we played in. We want to encourage people to explore who they are…even if it means moving outside the boundaries of their “scene”.

Destroyx: Well.. I personally think it’s the best thing we’ve ever done musically and visually! We wrote the album while we were in Berlin and it reflects a lot of the experiences that we encountered in our travels. We played at a lot of clubs and festivals and encountered a lot of the same scene politics everywhere…. so we wrote a lot of songs about that! I read quite a few books that influenced the lyrics too, namely Female Chauvinist Pigs, The Beauty Myth and that sort of thing too. Visually we were going for a cyber punk baroque kind of look, which was influenced by a fictional back story that we wrote that kind of underlies the whole album (but we’re going to reveal more about that through our website and subsequent releases).

You relocated to Germany for a year. How is the industrial scene there, did you discover any bands we might not know about?

ZooG: The German Industrial scene is mammoth. They have festivals and touring companies set up specifically for Goth¬/Industrial bands. There is an active Dark scene in every city, and the cities are 2 hours drive from each other. People always asked us about what the scene is like in Australia – and I think we should be proud of our scene here.
Bands you need to know about: Alec Empire (Germany), BAAL (Japan), Ego Likeness (USA), Ayria (Canada) , Servo Hatred (Hungary), The Tenth Stage (Melbourne), DeadBoy (Portugal).

Destroyx: Germany was totally awesome, the scene is a lot larger there but I think the Australian scene is comparable creatively and musically. Living in Berlin totally changed my life. My favourite German band is Alec Empire and the Hellish Vortex (formally from Atari Teenage Riot).

You're playing here on Friday June 20, what can we expect from an Angelspit live show?

ZooG: We press PLAY and go ballistic. We bring a small modular synthesizer live – it makes chaos, distortion and DOOM. Our voices get destroyed with the aid of vocoders and several distortion units.
We are angry at the current state of affairs – we try and show this live.

ROCK!

ZooG

www.angelspit.net
www.myspace.com/krankhaus

Rave Magazine : www.ravemagazine.com.au