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Caustic

Wisconsin might seem like an unlikely place to be a hotbed of industrial music, but the Madison, WI music scene has a vibrant community that has produced first-rate industrial and electro acts like Stromkern and Stochastic Theory. The latest addition to Madison’s history of artists is Caustic, whose debut release, Unicorns, Kittens, and Shit was released in June on Crunch Pod and hit number one on the Metropolis charts.

Caustic is Matt Fanale, a DJ and promoter who is a fixture of the Madison music scene and has worked tirelessly to promote and support electro/industrial music throughout the Midwest. Fanale is heavily involved in the annual Reverence Festival in Madison, a two-day blitz of electro/industrial bands that draws crowds from all over the world.

Caustic’s sound is a mix of new power noise and old-school industrial intensity that brings a little more fun and a little less seriousness to the music scene. Even though Caustic has so far only released one album, Matt and several guest musicians have played all over the country at the BlackSun Festival, Reverence, ElectroPhest, and the Providence Industrial Festival. Caustic has also performed with a multitude of well-known artists, such as fellow Madison natives Stromkern, Combichrist, This Morn’ Omina, and industrial music stalwarts Chemlab. With dynamic and relentless live performances and the polished but powerful tracks on Unicorns, Kittens, and Shit, Caustic is a force to be reckoned.

Who, if anyone, helped out with your first release?

Fanale: All the music except for the collaborations were exclusively me, but my main sounding board on most of my stuff was Static Sky's promo guy, Christian Bankes, who to be honest deserves a ton of credit for championing Caustic and helping get me signed and was invaluable in keeping my head on straight with feedback and encouragement. If anyone out there wants to blame someone directly for the monster (albeit a small monster) Caustic has become, Christian's the guy to write hate mail to. Dan Lavalley was the tireless graphic designer, bringing all my dumb ideas to life and making a ridiculous amount of changes as we had to keep moving from pressing plant to pressing plant. And, of course, my wife for simply putting up with me through all the bullshit.

Did the folding of Static Sky have a large impact on the release of the first cd?

Fanale: I actually wrote out an entire time-line of reasons the CD release got screwed up; to be honest, some had to do with Static Sky Records and its extremely unfortunate disintegration, and some didn't. Basically, anything that could have gone wrong went wrong, and that's about it. Mark Stagliano helped get Caustic going, and I'll always be grateful for that, but I really wish the label could have continued, as I think it was going to blow up and really be a force in the scene. Sadly, for a myriad of reasons, it ended up fizzling. Crunch Pod has been incredible to me as well, though, so I truly appreciate that they were able to pick me up.

Do you have any live shows coming up?

Fanale: I've been fortunate to have a great slate of shows that I'm doing. I'll be playing the Providence Industrial Festival again this year and ElectroPhest in Cleveland, then I'll be hitting a few dates with Terrorfakt and Tonikon on their upcoming tour. Nothing else is finalized, but things have been going great, and I've had a blast playing all over the place the past year. Not a bad experience in the bunch.

What were your influences for this release?

Fanale: The list is pretty extensive, but I'd say anything from Pop Will Eat Itself to Ministry to Asche and Manufactura to Big Black and punk in general. I liked the raw aspect of the beats and production and didn't want everything to sound extremely polished. Well put-together, hopefully, but with an old Wax Trax feel. A lot of the ideas and weirdness just came out of things I thought were amusing. For instance, 'Emmanuel Lewis Handjob' was not about Emmanuel Lewis ever giving me a hand-job; I just enjoyed the thought of a 'club track' having a stupid name that people would either ask for or ask about and have to be told that title. With instrumentals, I always enjoy giving something a memorable title rather than something I've seen before. Most of Caustic's ideas are based on me being an idiot. So far, it's been working out nicely.

Madison is known for having a strong music scene, and in the past few years several very solid electro/industrial acts have come out of Madison. Do think Madison fans are more supportive of their bands than in other places?

Fanale: Totally. We all help each other out and really support each other. I've never felt that there's ever been a real competition in the scene here with the bands. We're all fans of each other and come to each other's shows and often incorporate each other or each other's songs (often humorously) into live sets. Luckily, we've got an incredible pool of talent, all coming from different directions stylistically, and the crowds really seem to love it.

The influences of early industrial music can be heard in your music. Do you think that there is a resurgence of the 'old school' vibe in music that's coming out now?

Fanale: I don't know. There's definitely an appreciation for a lot of the older stuff that I think is helping it come back. We've had all the trance-infused EBM being popular for so long that I think some people are looking for something different, and that's why power noise and harder industrial seem to be gaining some ground. I know some people hate the living hell out of power noise, but I really love the energy of it and the aggressiveness it has. Plus the lack of vocals allows for a lower cringe factor, because I truly think most lyrics by bands in this scene are utterly fucking terrible and always sound like an afterthought to how tough and clubby the tracks are. Overall, though, my favorite sets in clubs include a little bit of everything, so I think more diversity and bands embracing the older style is a very cool thing.

What's on the horizon for Caustic?

Fanale: I have a CD-R split disc coming out sometime soon with Justin Mathew Mooney, a very cool dude out of New Jersey, and that'll end up offending a bunch of people. I'll also be putting out an online EP with a bunch of remixes and a few new tracks as well as a double-disc CD-R with what I believe is the first ever CD commentary track, where my pals and I basically listen to Unicorns, Kittens and Shit, get drunk, and talk about the disc, mostly make fun of it and each other. It's a good time.