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An interview with Jules Hodgson of KMFDM
Posted: Monday, March 06, 2006
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Spanning countless releases over two decades of conceptual continuity, KMFDM is still going strong as one of the heaviest acts in industrial rock today. Surviving everything from record label politics to band breakups and reformations, the current lineup of Jules Hodgson, Lucia Cifarelli, Sascha Konietzko, Andy Selway and Steve White is ripping the system and spreading the virus like never before, releasing three DVDs in as many years, and touring on a seemingly nonstop industrial thrill ride that leaves the competition in the dust. Their latest album Hau Ruck has presented some of the most diverse music the band has yet created, solidifying the band's place as leaders in the genre. Lead guitarist Jules Hodgson took some time to speak with ReGen about the current state of the KMFDM union, doing away with the past, and paving the way for a brighter and heavier future in the "New American Century."

Your split from Sanctuary Records was pretty well documented, and KMFDM is now back on Metropolis. Why did you guys come back to Metropolis exactly?

Hodgson: Well, basically Metropolis Records has had a very solid history of releasing our kind of music. It seemed that Sanctuary were in the business of signing up every act they could get their hands on that had a loyal fan base, so they tried to create a bit of profit off of that, whereas we knew what Metropolis had to offer because of the Attak release. But you know, we've always had a good relationship with Dave, and... yeah, we just decided to go back there and have it out with him, and so far so good.

You guys are planning a single release?

Hodgson: Yeah. I mean it's something that we've talked about, but we've not gone further into discussion about it just because we've got so much touring on our schedule at the moment. But, we'll find out when we actually get back from touring around the first or second week of January. There's still a potential for a single release, that's something we haven't talked about for a little while.

For a number of months, the album was under the title of FUBAR, but you changed it to Hau Ruck. What exactly made the band decide to change the title? What's the process of coming up with an album title?

Hodgson: FUBAR rhymes with rhubarb, and we didn't like that. I can't think of anything that really rhymes with Hau Ruck. I don't know. It just didn't really seem to apply to the record. We had a great meeting, and once we got finished with the album, we realized that it wasn't 'fucked up beyond all recognition.' It's very recognizably KMFDM. Hau Ruck just seemed to give the whole idea of ?heave ho' or 'brace yourself,' or something like that, which is the German translation, and that's the record there.

Cool. The KMFDM lineup has been pretty stable since the Sturm & Drang Tour. Of course, Bill Rieflin has moved on, but you still had kind of a revolving door going on up until WWIII. Would it be fair to say that the revolving door days of KMFDM are pretty much over?

Hodgson: Well, I think. I know the idea is to stick with the current lineup, but that's not to say that we won't ever have guests again. Going back and putting up the same three or four guests may be a little stagnant. I'm sure many of the old guard of KMFDM fans would like to see Ogre appear on another record, or Chris Connelly, which I'm not against. But I think if we do get guests involved again, we'll maybe try to find some new people... you know, in the way that Sascha has always orchestrated things. He's always gotten other people interested to sort of pep things up a little bit. We'll never say never again on anything like that.

What is your response to these 'fans' that continue to berate KMFDM for abandoning the old sound before the '99 breakup. I mean, there are a lot of people, like you said, who prefer the old guard of KMFDM. What's your response to there people?

Hodgson: If you don't like it, don't buy it. We don't make music for other people. We make music for ourselves, and if people like it, then they do. And if they don't, then they don't. People are completely entitled to their opinion. If people prefer before En Esch and Günter left the band, then so be it. I say to anyone, whether it's talking about KMFDM or any band, listen to the album for what it is. People have emotional attachments in music, you know? Some of the bands I still know and love, I love because I got into them when I was 14. And I bypassed the music that they play and like it because of the memories that are attached to them. And I think that that may be the case of some people with KMFDM. When they were in high school, it was the first band they heard that was something subversive, so they have an attachment to that particular era of the band. I'm not saying that's the case for all these people, but that's just the way that things go.

You seem to average an album of new material every two or so years, but for three years in a row you released a tour DVD, and each DVD seemed to contain as much, if not more material than the previous one. Obviously a lot of stuff happens on the road, but how does the band manage to amass so much material in such a short amount of time, and how do you decide what goes on the DVD and what stays off?

Hodgson: The last three tours, we took our videographer, who was following us around with a camera 24/7, which of course you can amass a lot of footage that way. And it can get kind of annoying when you've got a camera in your face 24-hours-a-day. Then, it's literally just the process of... the videographer sits down and makes out what would be good to see, sifts through it all, shows us some roughs and some rushes, and then we go, 'that's good,' or 'that's bad,' or 'well add a little bit of this here and there.' That's kind of the way the whole thing is put together. It's a simple process really. And we're not too proud of making ourselves look stupid, so we tend to try and attain all the silly bits and remain aloof. It's a constant barrage of human error.

'The Spoon Incident' still makes me laugh.

Hodgson: Exactly. I'm sure that there will be some bands that are like, 'My God, we can't show that.' I for one thought it was a great piece of video history.

It's definitely one of the finer moments. The last DVD was of the 20 th Anniversary Tour, but a lot of people expressed some kind of disappointment that it was not a retrospective. Of course, it was documenting the tour and not the last 20 years. Twenty years is kind of an accomplishment for any band. Why exactly did the band not release some kind of retrospective? Or was that not interesting?

Hodgson: Well, there are a number of reasons. The first was we set out to release a two-sided documentary of that particular tour, one shot from the fan video, and one shot from a professional cameraman's point of view. So we decided not to change the goalpost halfway through, and that's what we put out. I suppose the other reason for not being able to put out a retrospective is, at the moment, for legal reasons.

Oh, so legally? because of TVT Records. So William Rieflin and Tim Skold were pretty key members of KMFDM, and they've moved on to other things. Are there any hopes or any plans that they will return to the KMFDM fold?

Hodgson: Yeah, Bill still lives in Seattle, and we see Bill pretty regularly. You know he's been very busy with R.E.M. for the last year-and-a-half, but we had dinner with him just last week. Bill's still a good friend. I would never count Bill out of the picture because he's a very bright spark, a bright musician, and very often has ideas that are completely different from anything that any of us can come up with. Bill's always going to be in the background, even though he's not involved right now, but I certainly envision a time when Bill comes in and writes on a couple of songs. As for Tim, I don't know. He seems to be very busy with the Manson camp. I certainly don't feel that we need Tim's input, but he's written some good songs. Again, I'll never say no to that. The door is not closed, but we're very stable in the band where we write well together.

On that note, this was the first album Steve White was actually involved in. Other than the remix of 'WWIII,' he wasn't really involved in the studio process up until now. He is a fulltime member, right?

Hodgson: Yes, absolutely. It's just the fact that he didn't move over to the States at the same time when myself and Andy did. He had obligations to another label and another release. He was doing this thing called Bedrock with another guy, and he was busy promoting and working on that.

I see. Has he moved to the States now?

Hodgson: Yeah, we're... basically, now the whole band lives in Seattle. We're all within spitting distance of each other. Steve got here for maybe the last couple of months of the album, so unfortunately for him, most of the stuff was written by the time he showed up. But I love him, and it's no bad thing, and I think he put out a really strong album. I think Steve is kind of a bit of an unsung hero as far as the fans are concerned. The work that he did inside Pig is never even recognized, when in fact Steve is responsible for the Pig records sounding like they do to a very large degree. So I'm hoping on the next album we can just start from the point where we're all in the same city at the same time because Steve's a remarkably talented chap.

Speaking of Pig, what are the chances of Raymond Watts' return? I understand he had some problems going on since the release of the Watts album, and there's a whole slew of rumors all over the place. I guess for the sake of alleviating a little bit of the fans' curiosity, what are the chances of his return to the KMFDM fold.

Hodgson: The situation with Raymond is this: We're all still good friends, and we all talk all the time. As of now, he wasn't able to record with us, and we kind of didn't ask him to get involved this time actually. We knew he was busy sorting some stuff out, and getting some music together himself, bits and pieces, and he's in a little of a mood. It's just been that things have been a bit topsy-turvy for him. I'm sure that we'll work in some shape or form again, whether it be in KMFDM or whether we work on some more Pig stuff, or whichever way around it goes. The door's not closed to him, that's for sure.

Yeah, I actually read earlier today that Metropolis is supposed to be re-releasing Pigmartyr under the Pig name as Pigmata. Can you give us some more information on that?

Hodgson: Yeah. Grand Recordings completely fucked up the release of Pigmartyr the first time around, and so I guess Raymond's just gone to Metropolis and said, 'Look, I've got this album,' which has been out there, but he put it out with the wrong people. In hindsight, I think he realized he should've gone with KMFDM Records, who made him a very good offer. But I think he basically got some very bad advice from some people who were saying they were friends, and that just kind of put him in the hole. I guess, this is just my speculation, but I'm guessing that Grand Recordings did nothing, he's out of contract with them, and so he might as well get his release through Metropolis and get it to some people who know who Pig is. I understand there are a few bonus tracks on it as well.

Yeah, Metropolis news said there were going to be three bonus tracks.

Hodgson: Yeah, and I think there's going to be a remaster job because the first mastering job was... not good. Well, we'll see.

KMFDM are one of the few bands today that has taken control of its own merchandising, selling CDs, DVDs, and what not, and you have your own online store. A lot of musicians claim to be against the 'business side' of the music industry. How do you see the business and merchandising side in regards to the band? How have you guys managed to take control of it?

Hodgson: It's a crucial element for KMFDM's survival. Because we are kind of under the radar, and you don't see KMFDM shirts in...

Hot Topic or...

Hodgson: Well, actually now you do see KMFDM shirts in Hot Topic, and I'm not opposed to be selling them to them. I think Hot Topic gets kind of a bad rap. It's fine for kids in New York and L.A. and Seattle and the larger cities to make fun of people who shop in Hot Topic, but for kids who live out in the middle of nowhere, they've got nowhere else to go to buy that stuff. So I don't think it's that bad a thing. But more to the point, I think the position of KMFDM is that we're a lot better off, whereas our merchandising is what keeps us alive. Because you know, we've got five mouths to feed, we've got to pay rent, and that's kind of where we make the money to do that, and that allows us to be creative all year round. The whole thing with Brute! and his artwork, it's basically a trademark in itself. The fact that we go with Brute! every time, a) because he does fantastic work and, b) because he makes everything very recognizable.

Very true. These days, audiences seem to be a lot more tech-savvy, and they're always eager to learn about equipment and gear that their favorite bands use. KMFDM started, I noticed the new Web site design, which I think is fabulous and amazing, and you guys have Tech Talk and information on the studios. How do you view the significance of equipment in music? How difficult is it to keep up with technology and keep up with the game?

Hodgson: That's a difficult one to answer. Obviously, within the last five or six years I suppose, technology's advanced to the point where most people can set up a studio of professional quality for very little money in their own home, which is something that we've all done, and that's how we can afford to spend the time we do making a record. Most bands will be in the studio for a month, we spend nine months in the studio. So yeah, the technological side of things is important, and I'd have to say the most important thing in any recording studio is the person's ears. I would prefer to go into a very ill-equipped studio with a great engineer than to go into a fantastic studio with an engineer who doesn't get what you're after. That has been proven time and time again, that the most important thing in the studio is the guy pushing the buttons.

Also part of that question: There's this big issue of software vs. hardware, and there's a lot of software emulators, emulating vintage equipment. You personally, where do you stand, software or hardware?

Hodgson: Both. Both have their advantages and their disadvantages, and both have their uses. I use an awful lot of software and an awful lot of hardware. I have kind of ditched all of my amp modeling stuff, I was using that for awhile. I got rid of all my Line-6 gear and went back to Marshall . I know that Sascha has basically cleared out all the digital equipment from his studio, and he's just running good old ?70s synthesizers.

Yeah, I noticed in the liner notes, he said he got out pretty much all of his old analog gear, which I think is pretty cool.

Hodgson: I myself work with a few softsynths that I'm very happy with. I don't think it really matters what you use, it's the results that you get out of it. And Sascha's got a much more hands-on and experimental way of working; he gets much better use out of stuff with big buttons and stuff you can physically manipulate. But they both have their place and they both have their place inside of KMFDM.

Both Hau Ruck and WWIII were released in September. Is that just a coincidence, or does that month hold any kind of significance?

Hodgson: Yes, we studied star chart after star chart just to see what would give the greatest advantage in record sales, and we came up with September. That's a lie. It had no bearing at all. It just so happened that both records were released in September. We didn't all get into a séance and spell out September or anything like that.

Over the years, KMFDM has evolved in sound and style, and you guys have had pretty much everything from industrial to rock to reggae to dub, and even a little bit of country in the intro to 'WWIII.' What kinds of sounds and styles do you see happening on Hau Ruck? For anyone who hasn't heard the album, how would you describe it?

Hodgson: I think it's probably the most diverse KMFDM album to date. Hopefully for the people who know the band, they'll have a little of everything they ever liked about the band. There are big fat dance elements, there's killer guitar stuff, and Andy's drumming definitely brought something new on WWIII and there's a continuation here with Hau Ruck. I think it's also, and this is my personal opinion of the album, more thought out than WWIII. Because WWIII was the first time we'd all worked together as a band, we kind of threw everything on top of everything else, and then tried to mix it. It worked to some degree, and in another degree we ended up with a bunch of stuff where you couldn't make out what the hell was going on. Whereas, with Hau Ruck, we produced it, we worked with the songs keeping each other's parts in mind, knowing there was always going to be something else added. There's a lot more space on this album. You can hear inside the tracks a lot better, so I think we succeeded in making something very clear, and a good recording that we're all happy with.

Excellent. You also have a cover song, 'Mini Mini Mini,' which is also sung in French. I know the band has done covers in the past, but as far as I can tell, it's the first time since UAIOE that a cover has been on one of the studio albums, not counting singles and EPs. Why exactly did you guys cover this song?

Hodgson: Because Sascha rang me up one day and said, 'I've got this great idea. I want to do this French song.' And I said, 'Okay.' Then he sent it to me, and I thought it was a lot of garbage and really terrible. I sort of bashed around with a couple of things, and came up with something that's sort of recognizable to how it sounds on the record, and all of a sudden he threw a vocal and it started to work, so I thought, 'That was a really good idea.' That's how it came out. I think it's a song Sascha used to listen to when he was a kid. I think they used to tune into the old BBC World Service, he and his brother, and that song is one that just stuck in his head.

Cool. KMFDM recorded music, also in the interim between WWIII and Hau Ruck, music for the Spider-Man 2 video game, and there was something about the music for Prey, although from what I can tell it seems to be pretty open whether or not that will end up in the final product of the game. How does writing music for a video game compare to writing a full KMFDM album?

Hodgson: Well, the starting process is kind of the same, but most stuff you have in games doesn't have a vocal line and no lyrics. So you have to try to keep the melody inside the instrumentation. And the other thing that you have to be aware of is that somebody's going to stay on a level for 'X' amount of time, so the track has to be loop-able, and has to be made in loop-able chunks.

Are video games something the band is interested in pursuing further?

Hodgson: Oh sure. It was really good fun to do. We sat down and just charged headlong into the whole project, and it was quite good to sync up to something that was different. So we'll definitely do it again.

Spider-Man 2 was made for download. There's no chance that that music or the music for Prey will ever be released commercially or on CD?

Hodgson: I don't know anything about that.

Okay. This might be better geared towards Sascha, but En Esch did a song with Pigface that was kind of a stab at KMFDM, called 'KMFPF (Kill Mother-Fucking PigFace),' and there's a lyric in it, 'Give me World War IV.' Does the band have any reaction at all to that? Or do you guys just not give a shit?

Hodgson: We don't give a shit. To have any reaction to that would be to acknowledge it as a sort of valid statement, so... they can do what they think is going to sell them records or get them noticed, but that's it. It doesn't really interest me one way or the other.

Prior to the election, Sascha made a lot of comments that if Bush got reelected President of the USA , he'd end up moving back to Europe, and you guys have been in Seattle for some years. I know he's been around for like 10 years in Seattle, or something like that. What are the chances of the band relocating to Europe right now?

Hodgson: We'll see, you know? To uproot anything that has been as well-grounded in one place as this is not something that you can just do overnight. So we'll see what happens. We haven't talked about it for a little while because we've just been so busy. We literally went straight from finishing the album to starting to work on the logistics of the tour, and there was no time in between to think about anything else really. So we're going to be pretty much caught up with touring until I'm guessing around summer of next year, and then we'll have a bit of time to sit down and think about what we're going to do.

Sounds excellent. That's pretty much all I have, unless there's something you'd like to add? Is there anything you'd like to tell the fans?

Hodgson: Just that if you can, come out and see us on the Hau Ruck tour. We've got a few surprises in the set list for the people, and I'm sure we'll have a good time as always.