Germany’s Sonic Seducer talk to Zoog about Angelspit’s new album “THE BASTARD GODS“
In the promotion around the album it is written everywhere that this is your most brutal work. Why is this description so important to you?
Angelspit always strives create something terrifying and beautiful. “THE BASTARD GODS“ is new for Angelspit because the melodies came from samples of scraping and bashing large springs, metal sculptures and anything I could find. These sounds have intense harmonics which sound terrifying when sampled and distorted. This created something nasty and disturbingly beautiful – resulting in Angelspit’s most brutal album to date.
I have a collection of 80s samplers – EMAX I (I own 4), K2000, Emulator II, Emulator III and Emulator IV. These samplers are the most widely used in Industrial music – as I wanted the sound of 1987-1993, such a wonderful time for Industrial music! I have a big collection of guitar pedals – which were used to distort the samples. The music was created entirely with samplers, distortion pedal, outboard gear, my massive modular synth and analogue synths – no Softsynths or plugin-effects were used. I wanted to stay true to my Industrial roots.
It was my honour to work with Dave Nato from 4th Wall several tracks. With help from his engineer Paul, Dave delivered WAR DRUMS which takes the album to a new terrifying level. Dave is a BEAST on the drums and a Punk Rock legend – he used to drum for Anti-Nowhere League!
I also built an instrument called the Blaster Beam. It’s a 180cm aluminum beam. Its stringed with 11 heavy duty piano wires (taken from a concert Steinway Grand Piano). You can strum it like a guitar, bow it like a cello or bash it like a drum. It’s AWESOME! The wires resonate from subsonic to screaming frequencies. It’s very loud, very aggressive and sounds like the most brutal electric guitar you’ve never heard. It uses six electric guitar/bass pick-ups which are specifically made for Thrash/Grindcore/Metal. Angelspit’s guitarist George Bikos ran this through his wall of guitar amps to make it sound massive.
Content-wise a lot of topics seem to be very American influenced – you mention “the ever-widening class system and the emerging underclass”. There are of course everywhere in the world, but nowhere as blatant as in the USA.
I live in Los Angeles, the homelessness here as greatly increased since Covid. It’s like that globally. I speak with people all over the world and it’s the same story – you need to work more for less money paying higher rent…what the hell is going on?!
This made its way into the lyrics, as did subjects like drug abuse, domestic violence and questioning the increasing influence of algorithms on how we perceive the world, what we call “truth”, “facts”, what we support and shun.
Why did you actually leave Australia? Why then the USA? Why LA of all places? Because the music scene there is so legendary? It is the most expensive area in the whole USA, isn’t it?
I lived in Berlin, New York City, Chicago, and I ended up here in LA.
I went home to Australia in February this year to see my parents. They live in a massive rain forest surrounded by birds and animals. Their community is safe and close, everyone has rainwater, solar panels and free healthcare.
When I came back the LA the cops shot a guy dead in the MacDonalds 200 meters from my house.
yeah…welcome back to LA.
There are a lot of musicians and artists here. It’s a great vibe…as long as you don’t get shot.
One day I hope to move back to the rainforest.
Originally you are from Australia; now L.A. … Are you a friend of sun? A friend of warmth? It doesn’t really fit to the music of Angelspit.
I hate the sun!
I can’t wear sunscreen (Sonnencreme) because I’m allergic to it, so I am always covered head to toe to not let the sun touch me.
For me it is difficult to write down an exact album title …Is the album now called “THE STAR” or “THE BASTARD GODS“??? I think exactly this irritation is also so desired by you.
The album’s title is “THE BASTARD GODS“, but social media sites did not like the title because it went against their “community guidelines” – “Bastard” and “Gods” are unwelcome words. When it came time to do the Crowd Sourcing, Kickstarter didn’t like the title either. I had to redact the title – crossing out certain letters so the title became “THE STAR”.
Whenever I make a post which mentions “THE BASTARD GODS“, the post gets suppressed, as the algorithm sees it as swearing and offensive.
This is ironic because the driving concept behind the album is the increasing influence of algorithms and how they are feeding/censoring content with our “best moral interest” at heart.
Content-wise, the album is very interesting! In fact, algorithms today are something god-like, omniscient. You call them “Bastard Gods”.
Yup, and it’s getting worse. It’s influence on your feed and news is affecting your opinions and how you vote.
Everyone knows that the algorithms wants you engaged, outraged and glued to your social media – because you are exposed to more advertising, which makes more money.
Angelspit’s music has a message of personal empowerment and overcoming all the bullshit in your life, and not letting an algorithm make decisions for you. Don’t accept abuse – from partners, lovers, friends, family or anyone. You are better than this! You are not alone.
>> More on Angelspit’s 2023 album THE BASTARD GODS
>> Purchasing Information
>> Buy Digital
>> Listen on Soundcloud
>> Listen on Spotify
>> Apple Music
