Terrorizer Magazines Interviews Angelspit about Style, Latex and Rock’n’Roll.
“If you close your eyes when you listen to a band, you imagine images. It’s the music that mixes with your imagination and makes vivid images in your head. Music and visuals are inseparable. Bands need to throw them self into creating a visual element and raw as exciting as their music. Bands need to remember that it’s FUN to do this!”
– Zoog Von Rock
[TM]: When did you first start taking an interest in cyber music?
[Z]: I’ve always loved where technology collides with rock – so Industrial has always been a big love. I find the process of sucking a punk band into a computer fascinating, and this idea has always fuelled my interest in “cyber”. I started getting into this in the early 90s.
Probably about the beginning of the 2000’s. I was already listening to a lot of industrial at the time, like Nine Inch Nails for example but it wasn’t until Zoog introduced me to Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly that I got really hooked.
[TM]: Do you think the look of a band plays an important part in their music?
[Z]: If you close your eyes when you listen to a band, you imagine images. It’s the music that mixes with your imagination and makes vivid images in your head. Music and visuals are inseparable. Bands need to throw them self into creating a visual element and raw and exciting as their music. Bands need to remember that it’s FUN to do this!
I think the look of the band plays an important part in the performance, but not actually the music itself. I find it funny when bands look really badass and hard when their music is really soft. For Angelspit, we’ve always been interested in underground fashion and it intrinsically became a part of our visual identity. I think it’s important that the our look matches our music, but overall I think we just like to have fun, experiment and play around with fashion.
[TM]: I know Angelspit also have connections to clothing designers and hair extension specialists (I have a set of your hair falls actually!), you are clearly fans of design and fashion, what extra dimension do you think it brings to your music?
[Z]: I don’t think it actually brings another dimension to our music as such, because I want our music to be able to be appreciated by itself. However, I think that paying attention to design and how we represent ourselves visually through fashion is very much a part of our output as artists in general. Our obsessive attention to design with our CD artwork is something that we take a lot of pride in. We know that a lot of people won’t even get to see what the artwork looks like because many people prefer to buy music digitally. However I feel like it adds to the experience of consuming music. One of my favourite albums is ‘Antichrist Superstar’ by Marilyn Manson and a big part of that is definitely because the artwork is so exquisite.
Don’t start with music. Start with an idea! Let the music come from the idea. Let other things like visuals and fashion flow from it. Art is GOD…and it uses whichever voice it chooses to communicate its ideas.
[TM]: What are the inspirations for your album cover sets and on stage outfits?
[Z]: My inspirations are very wide and varied… from high fashion, to art and history. I am pretty obsessive about staying in touch with current visual culture and trends, so I read as many blogs and magazines as I can. My background as a graphic designer always comes to the fore when we build sets and design costumes. The paper origami world we created for the ‘Larva Pupa Tank Coffin‘ photoshoot was inspired by Russian Constructivism and wanting to bring that graphic design style into 3d environment. The last shoot we did for ‘Carbon Beauty‘ was inspired by the world of Victorian taxidermy.
We try and find lyrical splinters that can be developed into something huge.
[TM]: How do cybergoths differentiate from say trad goths? are there any similarities in your opinion?
[Z]: I guess the influence of electronic music is the main difference. However, I think that in gothic culture they are pretty similar. Replace traditional goth ankhs and crucifixes for medical crosses and radioactive symbols and you have classic cybergoth right there!
They glow in the dark…! Cyber goth has a parentage in the rave scene and industrial. Trad goth has a parentage in punk and new wave. Honestly, i think they are completely different breeds. Cybergoth’s music and fashion flourished when there was a strong drug culture. This drug culture massively influenced the music and the fashion. Why do you think there are so many pretty colours besides black in Cybergoth attire…?
[TM]: Do you have any style and music idols?
[Z]: For music my biggest idol would have to be Kim Gordan from Sonic Youth. I just think she is so rad and such a personal inspiration to me. She’s always remained true to her vision as a female musician in the often male dominated world of music. Style wise at the moment I think Daphne Guinness always looks impeccable. Gareth Pugh is my favourite fashion designer at present, he’s really pushing silhouettes to their extreme and he has such a dark aesthetic. He’s also one of the few designers can creates a strong menswear collection every season.
Henry Rollins is an unstoppable force of AWESOME! Alexander McQueen was a GOD. Synthesizer manufactures (such as DOEPFER) who make new and innovative instruments that challenge me to push the boundaries of music!! There is so much new amazing music being made across many different genres – it’s an inspiring time to be alive!
