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An Interview with Len Lemeire of Implant
Posted: Saturday, August 26, 2006
By: Vlad McNeally

Unlike many electro-industrial acts, Implant could never be accused of stagnation; like a chaotic amoeba, their sound constantly evolves in radical directions. When Implant first came into existence in 1992, the Belgian duo Lem Lemeire and Geert Machtelinch yearned to produce straightforward EBM under the strict influence imprinted upon them by bands like Front 242 and Front Line Assembly. While a string of releases bore this sound, it wasn't until 2000 that Implant began exploring their interest in psy-trance and techno and found that they had their own unique voice. Their subsequent releases, Kmputor and Unidentified Flying Frequencies, were the first steps in their journey toward psychedelic techno tapestries. Soon after the release of UFF, their label imploded, provoking an immediate hunt to find a proper home for their music. The burgeoning Belgian label, Alfa Matrix, quickly swept them up, and soon the duo returned to the music scene with their fourth full-length, Planet Euphoria. For this incarnation, Implant replaced their own voices with the prowess of Jennifer Parkin, the Canadian vocalist known for her contributions to Epsilon Minus and her own project, Ayria; it proved to be a key element that drove Implant into the awareness of fans and journalists across Europe.

While at this point they recognized that breaking genre traditions was proving to be a successful formula, it was the unusually-titled Horseback Riding Through Bassfields that proved to be the true turning point in their career. It not only incorporated their growing interest in trance music, but its rhythms and sequences reflected the highlights from their EBM roots. Len's sense of humor and whimsy was finally freed, spurring on quirky tracks like their cover of Primus' "Too Many Puppies." They introduced unusual contributing artists, ranging from jazz vocalists in their studio to African drumming for their stage shows. As the music sailed further and further away from the conventional expectations of electro into unchartered waters, Implant delivered yet another surprise mutation in 2005. Geert decided to retire from the band, leaving Len to take the project solo. Self-Inflicted was born from this split, an album that channeled Len's truly diverse tastes. Enlisting a wide variety of guest artists and vocalists, Len augmented the project to include unusual facets from searing industrial guitar (courtesy of Razed in Black) to appearances by the acclaimed Belgian chanteuse, Anne Clark.

However, one can never count on Implant to coincide with any sort of definition of the word "routine." This summer, the first taste of their newest work appeared. Fading Away, an EP featuring their most aggressive work to date, also witnessed live drummer Jan D'Hooghe officially joining the Implant roster. Even though this rather caustic entry saw contributions from such heavy EBM artists as Leæther Strip and Unter Null, one can still predict only one thing from Implant's upcoming full-length, Audio Blender: Expect the unexpected.

In a word, I would describe Implant as being 'eclectic.' How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?

Lemeire: It kind of depends on their musical training. A lot of times, I have tried to describe my music to people at work or elsewhere. The problem is always that they have no idea what electronic music has to offer, so we always end up with 'a bit like Front 242,' and that isn't a correct description! Eclectic is nice. Progressive, too, in a way. But in the end, in my opinion, music is not meant to be described, but to be listened to.

Everything from African drumming to trance electronics, from electric guitar to Arabic chanting, has played a role within your music. With such a rich sampling source for your material, how does it translate into the live Implant experience?

Lemeire: Live we have Jan playing electro-drums, and he is very good at that. On top of that, I play an Electribe (so a lot of extra drums are added during a live performance), a synthesizer with a lot of samples, and I sing. The tracks we play that use guest vocals are played as is. That is, we put the guest vocals in the backing tape. No hiding or play-backing from us!

With the arrival of the Fading Away EP, it was announced that Jan D'Hooghe was making the switch from live drummer to becoming a full-time member of Implant. How was that decision made, and how do you think this will impact Implant's overall sound?

Lemeire: It started as an experiment. Jan wanted to try and come into the studio while I was working on the new album. Over the course of the production of the new material, Jan ended up adding stuff to every track, even making some tracks at his place, to be worked out in the Implant plant. In fact, Jan had a really big impact on the album. At first, I was a bit reluctant to start working with somebody new on the project. I remember a time when every sound was discussed for hours and every direction for a track was like a struggle. But with Jan, things worked out very smoothly. It looks like we both have a mutual feeling for where we want Implant to go, and we both have been in bands long enough to know that the other person can have a better idea then you have. I think the result is that this is by far the strongest Implant album ever.

Last time around, Self-Inflicted featured a plethora of guest artists. However, in past interviews, you mentioned that this same album was 'the first that was all Len.' How do you explain the balance between being in control and yet having all these guest performers work with you?

Lemeire: Yes, in a way there was a big contradiction in telling people I had full control over an album while working with tons of guests, but you have to look at the full history of Implant to fully comprehend it. All the predecessors of Self-Inflicted were composed with Geert, who was one of the founding members of Implant, but Geert and I began to have seriously different musical tastes. Geert got more into club trance, while I was starting to listen to some very progressive stuff. Composing at that stage became more about finding compromises. The balance of work was like 90 percent me and 10 percent Geert, while we still tried to have things balanced at 50/50 when making final decisions. So when faced with things like this, you have to sit down and talk things over, and doing Implant solo seemed a good idea at that point. When I needed a guitarist, I asked Romell (of Razed in Black), and when I needed Arabic vocals I asked Hungry Lucy, and then Anne wanted to do something on the album, so I jumped on the occasion. That is really how it all happened. In a way, all these collaborations added to the overall feel of the album.

With your new EP, Fading Away, Implant offers us yet another new vocalist to the mix: Claus Larsen of Leæther Strip. How did this latest arrangement come to exist, and will Claus appear anywhere else on Audio Blender?

Lemeire: Claus is one of those things that just happened. We asked him for a remix, and he returned a version with him singing along with Anne. The version he did has nothing to do with the original, except he used the Anne Clark vocals. The fact that he added his own vocals came as a total surprise to me, but I think the results were very nice. Claus is not featured on Audio Blender; I was toying with the idea for a while to ask Claus for his vocals and add them to the original mix, too, but it would kind of undo the magic of the original. There are a few other guests on Audio Blender that might surprise you, but at this stage, I can't give out too many details.

From what I have heard of Fading Away, it seems like Implant is heading back towards the acerbic nature of electro-industrial body music. For example, Erica from the terror EBM band Unter Null makes an appearance on this new EP, and of course there is Claus as well. Is this EP an indication that Implant has become a little irate since Self-Inflicted?

Lemeire: Fading Away is for sure different from Audio Blender. As you'll see, Audio Blender has kind of a more minimal techno/electroclash feel to it. Some of the tracks that we liked, but didn't fit the overall feel of the album, were released as exclusives on Fading Away, which resulted in a more EBM-sounding EP. Those tracks on the EP also make sense because of the remixers we chose. A track like 'You Push Me,' with vocals by Erica, would not really fit in on the album.

One of the elements in Implant that I find particularly enchanting is your avid use of sampling. From anime to the springs on your chair, it was an aspect that appeared throughout Self-Inflicted. Will this precedent continue within Audio Blender, and if so, what peculiar pieces of furniture are going to be used as instruments on your next album?

Lemeire: There were no spoken samples used for Audio Blender, but as usual, I have been working a lot with other sorts of samples. It's always a bit strange to tell people what kind of samples were used, since that would give away some of the magic of the album. Most of the time, these samples are altered in Wavelab, making them unrecognizable. I think we sampled half of my kitchen and even some of my kids' toys, but I would be very surprised if you recognized any of them. One simple example: a coffee machine can sound like an elephant with a cold, providing you use the proper Wavelab filters!

I was pleasantly surprised to see Anne Clark returning once more to collaborate with you on Fading Away. How has her fan base reacted to these pieces, and will this partnership still continue into the future?

Lemeire: The only time we really get reactions from Anne Clark fans is when we play live with her. Even then, most of the time they talk to us about the Implant versions of Anne Clark tracks, and not that much about her collaborations on the Implant album. Overall, the reactions are very positive, and this time around, it was a very natural thing to happen. Anne was in the studio one day, we played her some of the new material, and before we knew it, she was standing behind the mic!

Luc Van Acker is a musician connected with the Implant camp. While he has performed as part of Implant live, is there any chance he will ever join you two in studio?

Lemeire: I'm not sure if Luc will ever be in the studio with us, but with these things you never know. In a way, Luc is close to Implant. Luc has an incredible schedule, working with Ministry, Revolting Cocks, a project with Bram (of Neon Electronics), as a studio producer, and as a guest musician for almost every band I really like (Junkie XL, NIN, Praga Khan, Lords of Acid, etc). Maybe one day when his schedule allows it, he might just pop up on an album. I know a lot of those collaborations seem like a very well-planned thing, with a promotional or even marketing strategy behind it, but this is never how I saw it. Most of my collaborations are a spontaneous thing that just happened. For me, it's a way to work with people that affected my musical taste, and it's an incredibly satisfying thing to know that somehow you affected them, too.

With your album, Horseback Riding Through Bassfields, Implant went through a rather radical stylistic change. While the change is quite well-known and evident, what exactly precipitated the steep away from EBM and towards your current unique sound?

Lemeire: I think it is something that just happened over the years. I'm kind of sure people will call Audio Blender a drastic change, too, but my music is a reflection of all my influences. When Horseback Riding came out, I was playing psy-trance a lot, and now that a lot of people in this scene start to like the psy-trance approach, I discovered some real interesting minimal techno/electroclash stuff, and it is reflected in Audio Blender. The evolution in my music has always sounded very logical to me, yet fans keep telling me I challenge them with every release. I'm not even sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Speaking of Horseback, I'm awfully curious about the story behind that album's single, an electronic cover of Primus' 'Too Many Puppies.' Why did you choose to cover this particular song, what was the general reaction from people when you revealed that this was going to be your new single, and has Primus ever commented on it?

Lemeire: I'm not sure if Primus has heard it. They never contacted me, but one of Primus' members added me on MySpace without ever dropping me a comment or an email. Taking 'Too Many Puppies' had a reason behind it. The original came out during the first Gulf War, and I was at the university then; this song was a huge hit in Belgium at all the alternative parties I attended. So I thought it was appropriate to cover this one when a second Gulf War was imminent. If I ever tour the states, I'll be sure to cover 'I'm Afraid of Americans' from David Bowie!

Your own lyrics are often minimal, but aside from your cyberpunk moments, there seems to be an underlying personal tone in some them. For example, 'Dirty,' 'Identity Crisis,' 'Victim of the '60s,' or 'Drugs Vs. Violence.' Is there a story behind any of these pieces?

Lemeire: Every Implant track is kind of based on something in my life or something that I saw somewhere, so each track has its personal story to tell. I think it's normal as a composer that you write on things you know. 'Victim of the '60s' is about my parents being hippies, 'Dirty' is about bad sex, 'Identity Crisis' is about a music struggle I had, and 'Drugs Vs. Violence' is about people who are on a straight line to destruction while they are sure that they control their drug use. But I also think you shouldn't explain too much about lyrics. 'In Dreams' is about the birth of my daughter, but I once had a fan telling me this song was about an unaccomplished love and how this track helped him deal with his own situation. So who am I to shatter his interpretation by telling him it's really about my daughter?

While Implant's content is largely either sci-fi or personal, one song, 'Surface Tension,' on Self-Inflicted was set to a poem by Elizabeth Barrette. This piece, about whales and being a 'stranger in a strange land' within the context of our own planet, stands out as rather unusual amongst its siblings. What significance does this poem and its subject matter have for you?

Lemeire: When I talked with Anne about doing guest vocals for Self-Inflicted, we had one night to come up with vocals. So I surfed the Net and looked through some of my material I had lying around and made a selection for Anne of things that might work. Anne picked out this poem for that particular track. I then contacted Elizabeth and asked if I could use it. All was already recorded. If Elizabeth didn't like the idea, I would have had one track less with Anne, but she was very open to the idea.

At times, your music seems to be quite whimsical and playful, with a sense of humor and fun within your compositions. Is this an intentional characteristic, and if so, why?

Lemeire: Yes, it's very intentional. I think humor is a very important factor in all that I do. I think in general people should laugh a little more in this scene, but it's not like I want to make an album like à;GRUMH [a Belgian band], with 12 jokes and four tracks. I just think little subtle elements of humor don't hurt.

From what I understand, you're quite the anime and graphic novel fan. What are your favorites, and has this interest rubbed off on Jan at all?

Lemeire: Ah, that's a delicate topic! I've been trying to get Jan into graphical novels, but somehow I can't convince him, even though I give him my best novels. I think he never really bothered reading them. Anime worked, I got him into Akira and Ghost in the Shell, but the more eclectic work he didn't like. For graphic novels, I would really recommend Lanfeust de Troy and all of its offspring, especially Trolls of Troy. If I'm not mistaken, the same studio that made Shrek is planning to make an anime movie out of this series, so in a few years Lanfeust will be getting a lot of hype, but try and discover it before the movie. I'm also a big Jodorowsky fan (Metabarons, the Incal series, etc.), and anything by Bilal is a sure buy for me.

What do you think is the defining Implant song, and why?

Lemeire: If you want to define Implant using one song, forget it! If I had to define it with a full album, I would pick Audio Blender, because this one holds almost everything that has influenced me, except maybe for a full-frontal guitar piece by someone like Ministry.

What song do you wish you wrote? Conversely, what song do you wish had never been written?

Lemeire: This is probably the hardest question of the interview. I don't envy people writing 'Track X,' and I don't like to condemn 'Track Y.' I do have a clear opinion in music, and this is not hiding or trying to be politically correct or anything like that. Each track, no matter how bad, has its own merit. As for tracks that really stick out for me, Nine Inch Nails has a few tracks that I consider classics, but I enjoy a lot of different types of music. In the right mood, I can even appreciate rap or Madonna! As for my personal worst song ever? 'Der Antone aus Tirol.' If you don't know this one, look for it. It's so bad that it's become a cult classic! The 'Crazy Frog with Axel F' is a good follow-up to that. My five-year-old is into this sort of stuff, so I know what I'm talking about. I swear, my worst nightmare is to have a son that looks and listens to hard rock when he's 16. If I see him jumping around to this 'Crazy Frog' stuff, I'm bound to have my worst nightmares come true.

What do you two do when not recording music?

Lemeire: I teach for a living as a professor at a local university. I also have two kids and a normal family life, and that kind of consumes all of my other time. Jan lives for his music. He plays as a live member in several bands, and has another project called Ringel-S. You might really like this one; it's sort of German electro-punk or something like that.

When Audio Blender becomes a worldwide success, what lasting impact do you hope Implant has on the music scene?

Lemeire: If Audio Blender becomes a success (that would be the day!), it proves that doing what you believe in pays of in the end. That itself should be a significant mark.