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For Greater Good

Iz: For Greater started out as a solo project back in 2004 with me as sole member. I issued the demo Lethargy, and soon after I got asked to play live. Being at a bit of a loss about how to do this on my own, I asked Samdevos, then bass player in my gothic rock band, The Avatar, but really a multi-style musician, to join me on stage. He was also friends with Ed Vanvinckenroye, violin player with Troissoeur, who also joined us on stage. And thus For Greater Good became a three-piece project. After Ed left we joined forces with Niels Larsen, guitarist in the Belgian rock band San Diablo.

Samdevos: I played all kinds of music with all kinds of bands on all kinds of instruments.

What other projects are you currently active in?

Iz: Apart from For Greater Good, the project 'Life,' the band 'Wife and Little Daughter,' and the super-group 'Regular Job.' There's not much time left for me besides all that. There are some projects I would like to start up. I have a million ideas.

Samdevos: I've got my weird electronics-meets-visuals solo project, Dreamwash, which I'm working on at the moment. I'm working on a follow-up album with the Canadian experimental collaboration project DBMG/RAF, and I'm also a live guest musician with pioneering Belgian electro/industrial band Vomito Negro. Plus some more remix work and collaborations in the pipeline.

How is the concept behind For Greater Good thematically and musically distinct from the other projects you are involved in?

Iz: Musically, it is different because this time I'm doing just what I like, trying not to pinpoint myself on this or that style. In the beginning, I tried real hard to make dark ambient with For Greater Good, but soon after Sam joined in, the style became an interesting mix between ambient, classical and electronic sounds – quite refreshing and always different.

The themes we use are just the stuff we find strikingly wrong or odd when watching the news or reading the papers. I find it becomes increasingly easy to pick themes, by the way. Every day I stare incredulously at the TV screen or reread a news article just to see if I read this or that crazy story correctly.

The album is a pretty even mix of instrumentals and songs with vocals. Did you take a different approach to the two types? What was the songwriting process like for the album?

Iz: Not really different, no, as the vocals just function as just another instrument.

Samdevos: Songwriting mostly starts with one member bringing an idea to the table and the others adding their vision to it. Sometimes we have an idea about some other elements – say, guitar or violin – and so we contact people to play them for us.

Would you say there's a distinct theme running through the album?

Iz: As stated before, most of the songs are about things we see going really wrong in the world, be it the past, present or future, but we always try to include a sparkle of hope in there somewhere. We want people to think about the themes we offer, but not to lose heart over them. We live and learn to understand our mistakes and to try again another day.

One of the most interesting songs on the album is 'Le Jugement du Roi en Jaune.' What can you tell us about that song? Was it inspired by the 'King in Yellow' stories by Robert W. Chambers?

Iz: It is indeed inspired by that story, but in an indirect way. I first learned about the story in a Call of Cthulhu role-playing game setting called Delta Green, where the whole Xasthur mythos was linked to the Yellow King. I was really intrigued, and I find the whole concept of an entropic city swallowed by a ghost town wallowing in decadence and weirdness a very interesting one. I think in our real world, should Carcosa really exist, we should have whole continents swallowed up by now.

Instrumentally, the album combines classical instrumentation with textures that seem inspired by early industrial music. Who are your biggest musical influences?

Iz: Always difficult. It might sound cliché, but that's why it is called a cliché: I listen to all kinds of music. Every piece of music can be an influence. Classical, dark ambient, '80s, wave, rock, heavy metal, black, death, jazz, fusion, big band... If there's one common denominator: it is usually weird, unusual, or it has something 'dark and brooding' in it.

Samdevos: Everything is influence.

What are your live shows like?

Iz: You should ask the crowd, really.

Samdevos: Live, we try to immerse people into our world for the duration of the gig, combining electronics, sampled percussion, synths, vocals, weird guitars, etc. with visuals and a massive sound; we try to take over all senses.

What are you currently working on? Do you have any upcoming plans you can tell us about?

Iz: We are currently working on new songs, and a project with Japanese cyberpunk writer/artist Kenji Siratori is almost ready.

Samdevos: We are also working on a remix album, so any artists reading this, have a listen at our Web site or MySpace page. Surf there, and if you like what you hear, get in touch with us.