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Cervello Elettronico

Christian: After playing guitar in a goth rock band here in New York, I tried to start my own project by writing electronic music with synth hardware, guitar, and bass. The effort resulted in one live gig at a small club called The Spiral, which was attended by only a few friends. It took a few years to update my gear by using a laptop and finding the right software. Then I came up with the project name and things really started to come together. Back when I was in high school, I tried writing songs on the guitar, but when I studied music theory in college, it helped me understand more ways to paint the whole picture.

You use the free software package Jeskola Buzz software to create your music. How did you discover Buzz? Have you also played with commercial software like Acid Pro? How do they compare?

Christian: My brother worked for Sound Forge. He hooked me up with some sweet discounts on software. I tried using Acid but wasn't too thrilled with creating and arranging music that way, so I searched for something similar to a hardware setup. I searched through the net and found Buzz, which was a modular synth program. It didn't look very fancy, but after learning my way around it, my eyes were open to some new possibilities. I think that commercial software may have less bugs, and sound quality is automatically set up to sound professional through preset equalizing, global effects, and stereo synths. With Buzz, a little extra tweaking is required to make things sound just the way you want them.

Your debut album, Negate the Instigator, came out earlier this year, but you have an online album coming out soon, as well. What can you tell us about it? Will it be a commercial release? Will it eventually be released physically as well as digitally?

Christian: I am planning to make all of the songs from previous demos, self-released CDs, and possibly some remixes available for download online. Along with this material, I plan to have Electrophobia, a full-length album's worth of music, also available for download, but eventually have a limited amount of CD-Rs made with artwork. I'm currently working out a means to either sell this at live shows or have it available though some distribution somehow. I'll release more info in the coming weeks on my Web sites.

While your relationship with artists like Terrorfakt has gotten you labeled as a power noise artist, Negate the Instigator also features a lot of hard acid and techno elements. How would you describe your sound?

Christian: The Negate the Instigator album is EBM and industrial techno-influenced with power noise elements. I wouldn't want to limit the project as a whole to one particular sound or genre. That would be rather boring and pointless. With every release, I set out to make something different or against the grain. I hope people will always find it interesting.

Who are some of your favorite artists in the current scene?

Christian: I like the electronic music scene coming out of France; Twinkle, Flint Glass, Sonic Area, and even Oil 10 are making some very interesting music. Here in the USA, we have a strong scene emerging with artists like Cenotype, Marching Dynamics (a.k.a. The Operative), C/A/T, Tonikom, Edgey, and of course Terrorfakt. I think it's a very exciting time.

What about your favorites of all time?

Christian: I still can't shake my Dirk Ivens and Eric Van Wonterghem fix. I am addicted to anything those two artists are involved with. There are four artists of all time that changed my way of thinking about music. They were sort of my gateway drugs to the genres of music: Black Sabbath, Depeche Mode, Orbital, and Converter.

You've done quite a few remixes. Do you have any favorites?

Christian: I've enjoyed doing the Terrorfakt remixes. It helps that I play with the project live. There's an Autoclav1.1 remix I thought was interesting. I hadn't remixed anything like that before. That will be out shortly on Hive Records. I've also done a Architect and NorthBorne remixes that haven't seen the light of day yet. Those were a challenge.

You were able to do a U.S. tour with Terrorfakt and Manufactura before even having an album out. How did that come about? Did it bring a lot of positive exposure?

Christian: I played the show in New York with Manufactura and impressed the booking agent. I was also a pretty decent van driver. It really was a wonderful experience. It did open up a lot of new people to my music, and I still hear comments about that tour to this day. I had CD-Rs available, which I sold all of and had to burn more on the road. I see some of them occasionally still, up on the file sharing networks.

You've also gotten the chance to play a number of festivals. Tell us about some of your favorite concert experiences (and least favorite experiences, if you've had any).

Christian: My least favorite experience was playing for a promoter here in New York named Lee. His bright idea was to book a bunch of bands in a scene he knew nothing about, just to try and get as many people out without really paying most of the bands or promoting it properly. I never even met the guy, and he was booking me. It really discouraged me from doing anything local again. My favorite concert was playing at a festival in Altenburg, Germany: the Electroanschlag Festival. I performed in front of artists and musicians who had inspired me and a lot of other incredible bands in the scene. The sound was amazing. Lights were incredible. It was a very wonderful experience that had me smiling all the way back home to the USA. Second to that, my last gig at Slimelight in London was really fun. It's great when people can open up and dance to something they've never heard before.

Apart from the Electrophobia release, do you have any other future plans you can tell us about?

Christian: By early or mid-summer of 2008, I'm aiming to have my second official release with Crunch Pod records. There will be more focus and effort on performances, and hopefully a lot more people around the world will be able to catch Cervello Elettronico live. 2008 will also be a great anniversary year for our label and artists, so you can expect many wonderful surprises.