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XUBERX

CheetahDave: I think probably we have our own niche. I don't think that we sound like any other band in that scene. I think that we have enjoyed playing with the other bands in that scene that are different enough from us that we've put on some interesting shows, and I think that gives us a little bit of an edge that we're not like anybody else.

What are some of your influences?

CheetahDave: It's hard to say what our influences are so much as where we've ended up. It's almost going backwards. I think the dual vocalist style was influenced somewhat by Angelspit, because we do have the two of them singing at the same time. I think that musically, we listen to a lot of Stromkern and like what they did, but to say that we succeeded in sounding like Stromkern would suggest that we were trying to sound like Stromkern. They're certainly an influence, though.

Zømßøy: As far as I go, most of mine come from metal bands like At the Gates and Tomas Lundberg, and all the old scream-your-lungs-out and let-the-blood-burst-from-your-head kind of metal.

Tell us about your working process, about how your songs are written. How do you go about writing your songs?

CheetahDave: Typically what happens is that I'll get an idea for a song and I will program the basic rhythm track, and maybe a bass line or maybe one or two synth lines. Some songs pretty much stopped at that. One of the things that you may notice about our music is that it is a little bit simpler from some of the other bands, and that's on purpose. But more recently what's been happening in the process is that Liebchen will come in, and she's got a lot more musical training than I do, and she can add some really interesting lead synth lines, which she then plays live. We don't use programmed lead synths; she plays them when we play live, and that kind of makes it a more interesting collaboration. Then when it gets to the step of writing the lyrics, I step out, except for maybe a line here or a line there, and that becomes Zømßøy's and Liebchen's job.

What are the themes of your lyrics, and since you and Liebchen both work on lyrics, how do you work together on that?

Zømßøy: Well, normally we listen to the song and we think about what we want the song to be about. A lot of ours are about like war-ish themes and death, but also about the self, finding yourself, and being alone. 'Lost Inside' is about someone going crazy.

CheetahDave: There are some pretty apocalyptic stories that go throughout our music, and sort of the sense of impending doom, but it's more of an internal doom. It's not 15 minutes 'til the revolution or 30 minutes before I go insane.

Zømßøy: When we write, basically the way it works is we'll just start throwing out stuff that goes along with how we want the song to sound, and then we just form it into the song. We don't sit down and write a full song. We normally throw in ideas, and then mix and match, and then change stuff, and it's a whole big process. We've changed stuff weeks after we even started playing it, adding a word here and there or subtracting a word here and there.

You've been signed to Radio.Active.Music now for some time, and they're a new label in the DC/Baltimore are. What has that done for you?

CheetahDave: It's given us a lot of distribution that we wouldn't have known how to go out and get. That's the main role that Radio.Active.Music has played for us. It's helped us a lot in that regard, and it's also given us some stable mates with the label, bands that we've gone out and played with like Dharmata 101 and another band on the label that tours quite a lot called Cynergy 67. We haven't had a chance to play with them yet. They're a good band with a good following in the Midwest. And Radio.Active.Music has also given us good digital distribution on iTunes over the Internet, so it's been working out really well.