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Hansel

Fux: Hansel started in 1995, when our 15-year-old past selves started collaborating and hanging out once a week, gluing ourselves in front of a computer for many many hours at a time. We lived in the woods in the middle of nowhere, and although we went to the same high school, we lived an hour away from each other. This was a little tough at first for 15-year-old kids with no licenses. I had been in a number of semi-typical bands at the time, and Mike had noticed some aspects of my song writing that he was really into, so he approached me about starting a band. We spent at least a year doing nothing but experimenting with sampling software before ever writing a song; we always took it really slow, since our expectations were always way beyond what we were capable of. We also both had this real eager interest in music theory and counterpoint, but in a very naive way. For instance, we used to refer to a minor third as a fourth (because it was four notes away from the root) and little things like that that only the two of us understood. Over time, we both learned actual theory, and as far as myself, I intentionally forgot most of it and rely more on deep-seated impressions that knowing the stuff in the past has made on my current subconscious while writing music. We were both really into Nine Inch Nails back then, the newest NIN CD being Downward Spiral, which was very earth-shattering for us, and I still suspect all our songs in some way are trying to be 'The Ruiner' in one aspect or another. Our influences changed a lot over the years, but initially we were real into White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails, The Beatles, Public Enemy, Primus, Faith No More, Lords of Acid, Switchblade Symphony, Neurosis, Portishead, Pantera...

You are currently on the forefront of the digital hardcore movement founded by artists such as Atari Teenage Riot and Alec Empire. How do you feel that things have changed since the digital hardcore movement was first unleashed?

Fux: Just like everything these days, some pioneer will say 'Why not?' and get some recognition for opening the flood gates, then the recognition fades and instead becomes inspiration for others to say 'Why not?' to other things. Alec Empire is a pioneer in the truest sense. Atari Teenage Riot came in the early '90s doing shit unthinkable. It was like someone mocking hip-hop by using it to make noisy punk music, and the result was its own genre. ATR had raw emotion and funky-ass break beats and music as heavy as anything else out there. I loved all the bands that came after them, too: Ec8or and so on. I think nowadays so many artists have mixed and matched elements from so many things that it is hard to define many current bands as digital hardcore. It seems to be used more often as a way to describe an element of a band rather than its genre. This is because ATR were pioneers, saw something easy where everyone else failed to imagine, and as a result made more people imaginative. I think people are over ripping off ATR flat out, and everyone wants to express their own creativity somehow instead, using elements from ATR. Having this effect on music is something better than anything, I think – to inspire others – and it makes me have a lot of respect for Alec Empire, Aaron Funk, Richard James... But it is a shame that it seems like less and less people these days even know ATR, yet listen to bands clearly inspired by them.

Let's talk about your remix album. You collaborated with various underground artists such as Phallus Uber Alles and ISV. What was the experience of assembling this album like? Were your remixers personal friends of yours?

Fux: I love all the bands on that CD, but I only know a few of them personally. It was a project entirely coordinated by Jay Schizoid, and I really didn't have much involvement beyond sending everyone remix packs and then hearing the mixes when they were done. I love the release, though; some of the remixers really took the tracks in their own directions and breathed life into them.

The last time I saw you perform was several years ago in Toronto. How have your live performances changed throughout the years?

Fux: Well, shortly after the Toronto show you mentioned in 2006, Mike (MX Lopex) decided to leave the band, which altered the consistency of all other following Hansel shows very significantly. We had written music and performed together for 10 plus years. Since then, the few shows I have done have been very different and unpredictable from each other. I performed a show in New York later that year and had a few friends perform with me, one of which being J.D. Lindham from Respond_Violence and my friend Ice Puke, a.k.a. PAT. Recent shows I have performed with Nick 'Deady' from Broken Neck Lullaby doing back-up vocals regularly. My current plan now is too move to Germany later this year and to restart the Hansel concept for live shows, depending on what musicians I can find. I've always wanted to incorporate more live instruments for live performances, even if it meant deviating entirely from the recorded version of songs or taking a new direction with a more live instrument approach in writing the tracks. It's just never been easy for me to find committed musicians for this; however, it will be a huge priority for me very very soon.

There is nobody that sounds quite like Hansel. You have a very raw and emotional quality to your music that is a bit hip-hop and a bit breakcore. Is it a challenge to mix these sorts of styles together?

Fux: Not really. I think that how we sound has been the outcome of constantly tinkering a very strong musical vision that we just stuck to, and after years of experimenting, we started to get very comfortable with doing things a certain way. Before we really started to define a sound, our attitudes were always that we would do whatever we considered the least expected thing to do to avoid getting into habits of making anything sound typical and for the amusement of the other guy that hadn't heard the track yet. The irony being that now, after writing so many songs in this way, it itself lead to something typical, since I feel a little conditioned to write songs in the Hansel style. This is sort of the opposite approach that led to its existence. When I write a song now, I don't really ever think about genres or what the elements are being incorporated; I'm just looking for the part that feels like it should happen next. Too much thought or effort for me makes my songs sound forced, and those are usually throw-away tracks.

Your music is very cyberpunk-influenced. What are your favorite cyberpunk books and movies? Do you have any visions for this dystopian future ahead of us?

Fux: Absolutely! I'm a big fan of William Gibson, Kurt Vonnegut and so on. We always had ideas that our music would try and project this idea of a paradoxical genre, with constant conflict both musically and lyrically. This is a pretty abstract thing to explain, because we try to accomplish this same concept differently as time goes by. In Respond_Violence days, we would try to have the music itself be in conflict. For instance, pretty violins clashing with absolutely disgusting beats existing harmoniously. Lyrics would also be a conflict between these immature flashes of pointless violence intertwined with random clever analogies and ironic lines. Even other elements stay true to this: very well-crafted beat edits and sounds, then very amateur noises and screaming. Lorentzian Lineshaper was different, since we put a little more thought into this idea and didn't want to just remake Respond_Violence, although many people would have preferred that, apparently. For this CD, we wanted to depict what a hip-hop band would sound like 300 years from now, if there was no recorded hip-hop in existence from nowadays – just like old newspaper articles describing it, and someone using that information for inspiration. So we tried to be inspired by hip-hop in as much of an indirect and abstract – almost failing – way possible. We wanted the beats to be a little more simplistic and just carry this theme. The lyrics of Lorenztian Lineshaper got a little more in depth, too. A lot of tracks question existence and perception; the track 'Mind Control,' in part, is about an idea that when we die our perception of the world exponentially slows in our minds, so our last millisecond of life lasts infinitely, trapping us in our last moment of death forever.

I believe humans will have many dystopian and utopian futures. History shows that societies' progress hits a boiling point, then gets pushed down several notches, only to rebuild, reinvent themselves and restart. I don't think we will get to a point of collapse and that's it, forever doomed, but I think there will be a lot of different phases humanity will go through before it's all said and done, and things could be a lot worse today than many people seem to realize.

Is there a political message to Hansel?

Fux: Nope, not really. I have political opinions of course, but it just isn't what fuels my creativity now. I think I feel too lucky to be alive, when I think about all the circumstances needed to just be here now. I feel almost grateful for a lot of the shittiness of the world, even at the expense of others' sufferings, since I selfishly appreciate that I get to live. This attitude is absolutely prone to change.

What can we expect to hear from you in the future?

Fux: I am compiling three collections of songs intended for three future releases. A huge collection of alternate mixes made while we wrote Lorentzian Lineshaper: a release of B-sides, unreleased songs, and covers, and I have about 25 solid tracks now that I am narrowing down, reworking for a new release. I haven't really released anything in three years and had just written songs, and only very recently realized what an absurd surplus of unreleased songs has been collected. I like taking my time with stuff, since I like to be certain that what I release is something I am 100 percent behind, and besides, I gave up my rock star dreams ages ago, so I don't have anything forcing me to shit out releases. This is all about creating something that will exceed my self-expectations, very simply. I was confused for a while after Mike quit, since I didn't know if after such a long time I should just start a new band, keep doing Hansel, give up, or whatever. I've given people some mixed information since my mind has changed a bunch, but ultimately it doesn't matter, since whatever I end up releasing would be the same no matter what I chose to call it.