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Impulse Control

Fix: Well, Xavier and I used to work in a clothing store together, and we just started talking about music all the time, and we discovered a mutual love for Nitzer Ebb.

Swafford: We're both in Nitzer Ebb Stalkers Anonymous.

Fix: Later, we ran into each other again when we weren't working together anymore at a Nine Inch Nails concert. It was at that point that we were like, 'Man, let's do some music together. Why hasn't that happened?' and we just started doing some music that was kind of Nitzer Ebb-inspired, and we just kept going with it. The rest is history.

Nitzer Ebb does seem to be a very distinct influence, especially when listening to the demo EP, and Impulse Control does have a much more old school EBM feel to it, which is a bit of a departure for you since your previous band, Bajskorv, was more abstract.

Fix: The older project was probably more avant-garde and definitely a reaction to a lot of the modern danceable EBM, and we were trying to be more influenced by Skinny Puppy with it. But I think with Impulse Control, I really started to enjoy just being energetic with it despite the more progressive pounding beats, and I really got into a love for bass lines. I realized how significant they can be to your music.

On that note, what is the songwriting process like for the band? As the front man and vocalist, are you responsible for the lyrics? How is the music written and constructed? Are you all involved at the same time or is it constructed piecemeal?

Swafford: It's been different for almost every song. I'd say about 50 percent of the time, Fix will come over with a book of lyrics and just start going through them, and we'll go through which ones I like, and we'll usually record the lyrics with like a drum beat and a monotone bass line, just to kind of get the lyrics down and the basic arrangement, and then I'll try to write some music around that. Then we'll meet up the next week when we'll have more stuff down, and re-record the lyrics to flow more with the melodies. The other 50 percent of the time, I'll already have some instrumentals, and they will be really basic; Fix will come over and listen to it, and sometimes even just write lyrics to it or pull up some lyrics that he wrote for something else, and start working from that.

Swafford: Also, Chad Collier is responsible for a lot of the monster bass lines in the demo.

Fix: Yes, he came into the band a little bit later, but he's been an excellent addition, and we couldn't have done a lot of these songs without him. Also, I want to say that people have tossed around that we're an old school band, which I don't disagree with, but I do want to mention that we definitely throw in some new school elements. We're not consciously trying to be old school; it's just kind of what we're making it.

That seems especially true with some of the sound textures and the overall production sound, and from your live show, it appears that you're not using completely old school equipment either.

Fix: A lot of it, I feel, is just the structure of the songs that remind people of old school, because it's almost a pop structure with the verse/chorus and sometimes radio-friendly sound. Oftentimes, we'll have a lot of sounds and be using Ableton Live, which certainly nobody had in the '80s, giving it that modern touch.

On some of the songs, Fix has less of a melodic style, and then on the next track, he will start to actually sing and mix it up. Was that a result of the way the songs are written? Is it fair to say that the more melodic songs were more thought out to the music?

Fix: It actually varied, because 'Dirty Machine' and 'Let Go' were both instrumentals first. However, on 'Dirty Machine,' the lyrics were written after I heard the music, and on 'Let Go,' I had the lyrics...actually, that's not true, because I wrote the lyrics as I was hearing the music, as well. Ones where I had the lyrics first include 'Disease' and another one called 'Dissonance.' I had the lyrics first, and then we did a lot of the drums and bass lines around it. It's very varied, and on some of the songs, it's hard to tell which came first. It was just a choice to sing more melodic versus more chanting or screaming.

How did you approach that vocally? With Bajskorv, you did a lot of screaming and used a lot of distortion effects, so what was it like to switch your vocal style?

Fix: I also grew up on a lot of Depeche Mode, and I've always liked Dave Gahan's vocals and the way that he sings. I always wanted to incorporate that into a project. With Bajskorv, it was very much about creating this kind of monster, this creature, or a different persona, but with Impulse Control, I wanted it to be more personal, and you could connect with it a little better, so I wanted the vocals to be a little cleaner and more human. It freed me up and gave me a little more diversity in my approach.

Saying that it's more personal, how much of that extends to the lyrics? With Bajskorv, you and Christian explored a lot of political and societal themes and the music scene and how you were influenced by old punk music, so how much of that comes into play with the more personal style? What are some of the themes you like to explore lyrically in Impulse Control?

Fix: Lyrically, with some of the songs that we've collaborated on, if one of us comes up with a theme and I'm not feeling it as much, I'll kind of readjust. But for the most part, it's somewhat introspective and dealing with more emotions and the kinds of feelings that people experience throughout life when dealing with jobs and relationships and such. It's a lot less political, although there are some references to that here and there, but it's mostly got more punk rock energy, but infused with that Nine Inch Nails introspective kind of intensity. One thing I've incorporated lyrically a lot more in this project is that rock and roll, sex, drugs and noise vibe.

This is a demo EP, but are there any plans to expand on the production and release it more officially? Is this just to shop around to labels or is it what you'd consider your first release? What are your plans for the EP?

Swafford: As far as the label is concerned, Sigsaly Transmissions is going to release our album, and that will include the demo songs, which are about six or seven tracks. As far as the production, those are just demo versions, and we plan on having them professionally mixed and definitely professionally mastered. These are not the versions that are going to be on the album, but as far as the music, those are done, and we're working on four more songs right now that will probably be done by the end of the month.

Fix: We'll probably release a full-length on Sigsaly Transmissions, hopefully, by the fall. That's the tentative timing right now.

Seeing your live show, not only is the music more of an old school style, but the setup was, as well, with the band using hardware synths. Given the advent of home recording, how much does that factor into the way you work, and what are your thoughts on the way people are self-producing these days?

Swafford: What's the point of playing live if we're going to be playing everything on a tape? We definitely had backing tracks, so I'm not trying to discount that, but we spent a good amount of time taking the songs we wrote in the studio and converted them for the live show. That was because they wouldn't be exactly the same as they are on the CD, and there would be another 'live' element, and that probably affected the writing and production of our new songs, because now that we pretty much have a general idea of what each of us is going to do live, we already have that goal in mind. With the songs we did two years ago, we would pretty much do whatever worked at the time, whereas now for a lot of the lead parts, if I can't play it live then I'll make it so I can, because I don't want to have to go back and spend another six months trying to redo the songs.

Fix: I think even Bajskorv was a response to that because Christian Wright would play several keyboards at once, and we wanted to continue that in this band to keep the performance interesting and actually have us doing stuff. I think laptop bands are often not very interesting, so we try to incorporate that 'live' element back into our show.

About the album, what are your plans once the album is released? What are your tentative plans in terms of where you plan to take your music and what the next step is for Impulse Control?

Fix: I sent the demo out to a lot of DJs, radio shows, and magazines, so we're just trying to get more exposure that way. In the fall, when the album is released, we'll probably try to book more East Coast shows and play a lot of shows regionally and play some festivals here and there. It's pretty open-ended right now, so we'll just see after the release comes out what the response is, and we'll go from there.

Speaking of shows, Impulse Control is performing with Funker Vogt in Texas. How did you come to score that gig?

Fix: I was actually just looking for some gigs to see who was playing on the East Coast, and I'd seen that Funker Vogt was coming around, so I had sent a message to one of their booking managers. With the help of our label, he had also sent a message to them around the same time. Between those two things, the booking manager got back to us, and he was very interested and offered us a show to open in Dallas; that was a slot they had open. It's a bit of travel for us, but I knew how great that venue was because I'd played there before with Bajskorv, and of course Funker Vogt we admire dearly, and we definitely wanted to take that chance. The show is in Dallas at The Lizard Lounge on April 24. The venue is called The Church.