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An Interview with Bryan Erickson of Velvet Acid Christ
Posted: Sunday, November 05, 2006
By: David King

Velvet Acid Christ's latest album, Lust for Blood, finds Bryan Erickson taking the gritty industrial trance tones of his earlier albums and slamming them into his old school goth-industrial influences. The result is one of the most diverse albums he has ever released, and at the same time a nod to his earlier work, when there were no boundaries to his creativity. Unrestrained by the quick, crisp dance production values of his most successful albums, with Lust for Blood Bryan throws down the gauntlet to the scene, breaking down artificial barriers, dredging up inspiration from the past and demanding of the scene—as Trent Reznor did less sincerely last year— "Don't you people fucking know who you are?"

Lust for Blood is one of VAC's most daring and diverse albums. At the same time, it sounds like a progressive step backwards. Do you think you have explored all of VAC's potential on the album?

Erickson: In some ways, but not all ways. We kind of just went back to the old CD collection and started trying to figure out what we liked musically again. We listened to a lot of old records, so a lot of old stuff started influencing us again. None of us are really too happy with the way music is changing right now, so we decided to take some of what we liked about the old stuff and just breathe new life into it and try to make it different. We wanted to do something we haven't done before. But again, I started off playing guitar, and I went back to that and wrote a lot of songs on acoustic guitar and then translated them to modern production, using electronics. It was kind of like a step back in that production was done with me sitting on my bed or hunched in a stairwell somewhere, plucking away on guitar.

How was that? Was it more reminiscent of the older days?

Erickson: A little bit. When I first started writing VAC, I would write with a Fender Stratocaster and a small amp in my basement, just coming up with riffs and stuff. That's how the band started. It eventually evolved into more of an electronic project, just because I couldn't handle being in a band, because it's really hard to count on other people. So that's kind of the direction we went with. We kind of went back to the roots a little bit.

Hex Angel and Lust for Blood seem to be moving away from the very clean and crisp tone of both Twisted Thought Generator and Fun with Knives. Is this a reaction in any way to the way things are headed in the scene? It seems to be that everyone suddenly decided to be VNV Nation.

Erickson: We didn't do that. When we did Twisted Thought Generator and Fun with Knives, me and my friends had just got into psy-trance and Goa trance, and it was a huge influence on us at the time. It's kind of a funny story, kind of personal. The only guitar I had at the time was a guitar given to me by this girl I was engaged to. That kind of fell apart. So every time I would take out the guitar it would just remind me of her, and I couldn't deal with it, and this weird relationship break-up thing led me to do these really electronic albums. I didn't want to touch a guitar, because it reminded me of this girl that drove me nuts. It is kind of a lame excuse. We just got a whole bunch of new stuff at the time. Virus QBoard just came out, virtual synths, and Fun with Knives was pretty much all digital synths and a couple of samplers, and we were really into breakbeat stuff. We were adding breakbeats and mixing it with electronics, and really quick.

Those albums were written pretty fast, actually. We didn't spend a lot of time doing those. They just kind of flew off the shelf. We were using Atari, which sequenced really well back then. All the electronic stuff just worked. It wasn't a big pain in the butt like now. They are a lot more difficult. One of the reasons VAC has steered away from the old sound is because the technology has gotten worse. Like sequencing electronic music; these modern tools like Cubase and Logic and samplitude and all these protocols and all this, they don't record MIDI accurately, and I'm really into playing the instruments. So we will sit down and play the riffs and stuff, but these damn new digital audio workstations don't record what you play accurately, so they are always off, and you are sitting there fiddling with them for hours. It just sucks! In the old days you would just play a jam on a riff really quick and it would record it, and bam, it's done, and you wouldn't have to mess with it. It was easy to throw stuff together. In my side project, Toxic Coma, I'm using things called trackers. They record me. They still work pretty good, like the old Ataris and stuff. VAC is a little harder, because you've really got to arm wrestle with it, and it's really uninspiring. Instead of just keeping ideas down and getting grooves really quick, if you are actually a musician who likes to play stuff, you are spending time getting it to work. That's a lot of the reason why we went back with this record, because sequencing electronic synths and stuff became a lot harder to work with. So we started to just write a lot more guitar-based stuff because it was easier to get our ideas out that way.

At the same time you are holding down the old school notion of industrial, you are also moving away from what is expected of current industrial artists with this album. Do you still consider VAC an industrial band?

Erickson: I never really did. I mean, we used that label a little bit, because I would say my vocal style is really strange; I'm kind of old school. I sing like old Ministry stuff and Thrill Kill Kult. That's where I've always seen myself for vocals, and I do a little bit of whiny goth stuff, but I don't sound like Robert Smith. Go listen to The Cure and then listen to me sing like that, and you realize that I don't sound like Robert Smith. It's kind of funny. You can hear the influence in there, definitely. I definitely don't think I sound like that. But I don't know, are we being very experimental? No more than we ever have, really. Even if you listen to the old records, we do many different types of songs. We don't use the same drums. We change the entire sound set for every single song that we write, top to bottom. The biggest thing that makes us different from VNV and any new bands is we really have always tried not to do that. How many times can you go back to trance or industrial kicks or synth lines? So a lot of the reason why we end up being so diverse is we make the sounds different. The sound guides us. We ask, 'What is this sound doing? Should we play this fast, slow? Is this an angry sound?' The sounds kind of dictate the flow of stuff. We try to get new tech and figure out how to use it, but at the same time the influences are still there. A lot of our ideas come from our influences, things like Tool, A Perfect Circle, The Cure and Throbbing Gristle.

Do you expect to work with more live instrumentation on future albums, and will it be incorporated into the live show?

Erickson: It's really hard to say. I'm such a dynamic person. I'm really moody. I change my mind all the time. It annoys everyone I know. I say one thing, then I'll say, 'I'm not doing that anymore.' But that is why VAC sounds the way it does. One minute I'll say I want to do a trip-hop record, the next minute I'm writing stuff like The Cure. I'm way too attention-deficit-disordered. I get bored easily and try to do a lot of different things. I get a kick out watching the forum. Five people say, 'This is how you should go,' five more people say 'This other song is the best.' People are always trying to give me advice and stuff. I don't know what to do with VAC, but what we do seems to work. Even if somehow they won't like the entire record, it makes it a lot more interesting for me than just to be limited to one way or to become typecast.

With your set on the Doomsday Fest you tied yourself in with the resurrection of Skinny Puppy. Did you catch their comeback tour, and what did you think of the direction of the new album?

Erickson: This got me into some trouble before. I could be the PR guy and bullshit you about it, and put a positive spin on it. Skinny Puppy were off for a long time doing the side project without Dwayne, and they don't have the old production staff—David Ogilvie—but the new record didn't sound like the old band. I didn't like Ogre's costume. I really think he's an amazing performer. I was really surprised to see Kevin playing the synth. I thought he was an amazing drummer. Why are they trying to be a band—instead of being like these weirdos with electronics like they used to be—up there with all the metal guys trying to be electronic metal? You know, I had some complaints. That being said, I wasn't really happy with new record. It was too commercial. Ogre actually tried to rap! It's funny as a side project, but they were selling this as Skinny Puppy. That being said, they put on a show that was still pretty dark and heavy. It was sort of confusing. Still, they are the best, and I hate to admit that. They have been the best band in the genre for 10 years; they brought out thousands of people all over the USA and put on great visual performances. I can't really knock them too much. They're still definitely the best thing out there.

I know you were a bit conflicted about the general reaction to Toxic Coma. Is there room for creativity in industrial music these days? And do you expect to ever work under the name Toxic Coma again?

Erickson: I got rid of a lot of samples in VAC and moved them to the side project. I put it out in different places to see what the reaction would be. I think Metropolis was afraid to release it because of all the samples from cartoons that were pretty popular, so I gave it away for free for five months and it got thousands and thousands of downloads. I took it down, said, 'OK I will offer high quality versions and put it up for sale,' and I only sold 10 copies. And I'm thinking either people didn't like it or it's this piracy thing. They want it when they get it for free, but they didn't want to pay for it. It made me think twice about the piracy thing. The new Toxic Coma is a little bit less mainstream and more sample-heavy. It reminded me a lot of old VAC. We're kind of on the fence now, but Metropolis is open to listening to it.

How important is it that fans buy your albums?

Erickson: It's kind of like, if I don't make money doing this, then I have to get a job, and then it will take me even longer to write music. If I have to work eight hours a day, I need to be able to take three or four months off and pound out my ideas. If I don't have time to do that, the creativity of the project suffers. No one actually makes enough money to sit around and do it all the time. They do it part time, and I think you can really tell. They don't put the detail into things. It's important that people buy us. Artists make these big, elaborate books to try to make it a decent package. I used to love sitting there reading the lyrics, and I still do, to this day. I hope there is a new medium introduced and that CDs are not replaced by digital compression. I think that digital compression sounds like crap. It destroys midrange. I'm an audiophile. I like vinyl better than CDs. I've never released any, but I'm thinking about it. If CDs get phased out and everything becomes iPoded, it will be the end of music. It's just not going to sell. It sounds like crap.

Metropolis Records has recently been reaching out towards the mainstream more, with acts like MSI, KMFDM and Electric Six. Pretty Toy hit the dance charts pretty hard. What is it like flirting with the mainstream?

Erickson: I don't like the attention. Honestly, I don't want to be recognized. I'm actually pretty antisocial. I'm not a big fan of talking to people I don't know and don't care about. I get kind of bothered if I'm surprised by a fan. I don't hate everybody, but I don't like being interrupted. It's not the reason I stay heavy and dark, though.

Fun With Knives was called the industrial Pet Sounds for its pristine and beautiful tone. Do you think you have a chart-topping pop album in you somewhere?

Erickson: In order to get the masses to like my music, I would have to sing about girls, cars, money, getting laid, all this crap. I realistically can't see myself being like that. I'm more of a nerd. I talk about strange books, weird movies, real politics and philosophy. I'm much more off the deep end, like the Snog guy is. I'm not a big fan of capitalizing on fame. Neither of us wants to be big, rich moguls. We don't want to make McDonald's commercials. I used to respect the Jackass guys, like Bam Margera; now I just want to smack the guy. He's kind of obnoxious. They used to skateboard, raise hell and be ridiculous. Now they are making a living doing skin-care commercials and movies with Jessica Simpson, and I think, 'Oh my god, what the heck? Why would I want to be mainstream?' I do want to make great songs that are catchy, but that say something, and make you think. I don't want to sing about hamburgers and blow jobs or bling or whatever.

In a genre dominated by performers who operate behind thick facades, you seem to be extremely open and emotionally honest with your fans. Your music seems much more personal and instinctual than other industrial artists. What is it that keeps your work so emotionally fueled?

Erickson: Gosh, it's like my psychology. I don't have a lot of close friends anymore. I had to pull away. There are a lot of things in my life that bug me, and I have to express them somehow. It drives me insane, and VAC is kind of like my psychotherapy. I get paid for it, but everybody's kind of a crybaby. I like honesty. I don't think about it, I just do it. Sometimes I find myself asking, 'Did I really just say that?' Sometimes it's not even intentional. I think it's lame to pretend. I'm not a fictional storyteller. I have to be honest.

How has the industry changed since bands like VAC and :Wumpscut: took over clubs in the late '90s?

Erickson: That was an exciting time, actually. We had Wumpscut, Covenant, a lot of that OffBeat stuff was really cool. We were in an exciting time, right when people were fusing trance with industrial. We took the psy-trance influence and combined it with industrial, whereas VNV took Orbital-style pop trance and mixed it with his sound. I took more of the psy-trance, he took the pop trance, but since all of us kind of did that, even Covenant had a darker weird edge. Those guys were really exciting. But then came a lot of the copycat bands like Assemblage 23, and so on, and so on, and so on. There are some bands like Psyclon Nine I don't mind so much, and I still like :Wumpscut:, but those guys just don't compare to what people were doing with stuff back in the old days. Sorry, but I will always think Front 242 and Neubauten will always be the best industrial music. I don't think VAC is even industrial. We were definitely moving along with the times, adding our own flavor of dance music.

I don't know. We don't have the budget those bands used to have. When all of us started—:Wumpscut:, VAC, Suicide Command and VNV Nation—we didn't have the best equipment. We didn't have David Ogilvie to make us sound great. The Covenant guys were using a Yamaha sampler on a sequencer. They didn't use anything high-fi. If you actually give me or the VNV Nation guys the same budget, the same producers and stuff, as good as Nitzer Ebb and Skinny Puppy, we could do just as well. We didn't have the money they had. A label like Metropolis doesn't give us big budgets like the Puppy guys or even the KMFDM guys had back in the day. If I had to pick a team, I'd pick the guys from Covenant to work with, and get someone like Ogilvie, and we would smoke the Puppy guys. Like I said, you could really tell when they didn't have Ogilvie. They didn't sound as good to me. People don't give other people credit for working with them. But I can say I've produced every record. I was main engineer on every album. It was all me. We were all the producers, the engineers and the performers. We did everything ourselves. No one was holding our jocks for us. The old school kicks the crap out of the new school. But give them a new school budget, and it wouldn't sound as good.

Do you have any musical heroes?

Erickson: A few years ago, I would have said Thom Yorke from Radiohead. As far as new people coming up in the goth industrial scene, there is no one, really. In other types of genres, Astral Projection have been my heroes for the last seven years. Maybe Juno Reactor and Ladytron, but as far as goth industrial stuff, I just haven't really been into it. Nothing has really gotten my attention. I like the old sound with analog boards, guitar pedals and weird stuff. The stupid computers make everything sound flat and one-dimensional. It's not very musical. I'm not liking the new production of most bands. Part of the excitement about the old days was that we were all younger and more worked up about stuff. And then they all fell into that stupid money-making machine, where you've got to put out an album every year. They demand a smashing industrial record every year. Try to do that, and you will fall flat on your face. That's why I had some big hiatuses. I took time to really reflect, to get better and stuff. It's me producing. Skinny Puppy, they had a team helping them out. With all their success, there was a lot of money spent to make it great. The record companies say, 'Give us an album every year,' but you quickly realize how hard it is to write a really kick-butt record, especially when you are doing every bit of production, producing, writing, and all that. I don't think people understand how much work goes into an album. I don't fault bands for getting worse and worse. It's kind of like no one stepped it up and got new producers. You can see the difference when they have a producer and when they don't. The money gets smaller and there are smaller labels, and the budgets have become less and less. For me, it's like pulling teeth to get a budget for music video. It's really hard for me, because it's really a big deal. The music video is coming back, thanks to YouTube. It's going to go back to that again.

Do you expect to tour again? The Twisted Thought Generator tour was fairly legendary.

Erickson: I was insane when I did that tour. I don't know if you would see that same thing. I have to be playing guitar and stuff. I can't just stand there like other people. But I don't think I could behave like that again. I can't stand still with two keyboard guys behind me, so I throw myself around and try to interact with the audience. I was really sick during that tour. It was one of the most horrible experiences for me. I got baited into it. I had just done Europe. I was tired and got screwed over in Europe. I played big festivals in front of thousands of people, and Stephen Hedwig didn't pay us anything. I played festivals that basically paid $7,000 or $8,000 to have us play, and I got $700 in the end. They told me I can make $20,000 easily if I tour in the USA. They thought we would pull in VNV-sized crowds at every show, and it just didn't happen. We had a good turnout in New York, and everywhere else we were lucky if we got 300 people, and we had been expecting 1000. Every city was a big failure. I was basically playing for free, busting my ass. I got back and I quit VAC. I quit the whole thing. That's why it took so long for Hex Angel to come out. I completely destroyed myself, did all these drugs, went crazy just beating the crap out of myself. I went home with $800 bucks in my pocket and it sucked.

There is this bit of wisdom out there that says better metal, industrial and punk is produced when there is a conservative in the White House and a more conservative mindset in the country. Do you find that to be true for yourself?

Erickson: It never affected me. I hate that bourgeois liberals and conservatives put figureheads up there to show us a nicer face and a meaner face. I don't understand it. Clinton didn't have us off in Iraq, but we were bombing Iraq. He bombed Yugoslavia. There was Ruby Ridge and Waco. Were things squeaky clean when Clinton was in office? I see them all being devils. In our political system, they pretend left and they pretend right, but all there is is money. They say the problem is really the gay people and minorities, not the banks, but it's the banks that loan out too much money and basically enslave people forever in credit traps. Banks own the military, banks who wanted to rebuild after the war. It isn't the Republicans, it isn't the Democrats, it's the world market that does it to us. It's not America. It's the world banks that are doing this, using the American political machine to fuel the war. It's every one of the damn bastards. Some happy fascist face in the White House, or a fucking Democrat in the White House. I don't remember being happy when Clinton was in office. It's stupid to get mad at rednecks or gay people! We are all the in the same boat struggling for our lives here, blaming each other for petty differences, while the people with real power are throwing everything to hell.

I don't get too left or too right, but I'm not really for the people either. It's the people who should be held responsible. The men in suits manipulate the media. The people are doing it. People join the military. It's the working class that does that. Why should I have pity for them when they are fueling the agenda? I don't have pity for them. I'm unwilling to do that. It's a crime they are actually committing. Every person that pays taxes is paying for bombing people in Iraq and in Africa. We've been bombing people forever! It never stopped after Vietnam. We've been at war every since then. The war on drugs, the war on communism, the war on terror...all my life, this country has been at war. Here's the thing: I don't want to wake up the masses. The masses don't care about anything. I want to help individuals who care. I just wish I could get out. I wish I could get away from this damn planet. I don't want to save the world or be Jesus. I hate society, but I don't have an answer for it. Don't look at me to lead the human race out of the predicament it is in.

What's next on your plate?

Erickson: I'm working on a Mortiis remix and with Razed in Black. Depending on the reaction this album gets, I may go out on the road. If it doesn't sell well, I won't go out. I will just work on another record. On the next record, I want to get back to tight sequencing, maybe dancier stuff, though I don't really know until I sit down and start writing. It will probably be a mixed bag of stuff.

What would be considered a success for the album?

Erickson: I think 20,000 worldwide is good enough. A bunch of my albums did that, and a couple didn't. 70,000 is really good. 100,000 is amazing. That's where it stands. Fun with Knives sold a lot. It didn't make me rich, but it put us on the map.

What's the new Toxic Coma Like? Will we see it released soon?

Erickson: I think that's a good chance. The new one might come out on Metropolis. The new one is really funny. I've really done some interesting things. I'm having animals sing and dogs going 'Ooh.' There is this pop song, and a dog comes in, 'Whoo whoo whoo,' really funny stuff like that, and it's interesting stuff. It sounds like VAC with way more samples than usual. There are some vocals on there, but I never make traditional songs. Don't count on traditional songs. It's not going to be another pop hit. It's to make people laugh. It might make people run out of the room and be very afraid. I can see people in the college dorm, high, asking, 'What the hell is that?' Because I remember back when I used to do drugs we'd smoke or whatever and sit there five hours listening to records going, 'Oh my god! I can't believe how weird this is. It is wrong and messed up!' That was kind of the origin of it. We used to try and mess with our heads really bad when we were inebriated, and the tradition still continues with this side project. It's not for people who want to be serious, but if you want to get some laughs and have fun, it is probably something you'll like if you have a twisted sense of humor.

How do you feel about Lust for Blood, and what was it like having a writing partner for this one?

Erickson: I like it a lot more than the last one. I worked on it with Todd. He did about 15 to 20 percent of it. He introduced a new dimension that wasn't there before. It's a lot easier for me to listen to, because it is not as personal. I actually think it's pretty cool, because it's not just me anymore. Todd and I are good friends, and we're both music geeks. We are really into audio production, and we keep each other on our toes. We buy gear, and we both help each other get better at our crafts. I push him and he pushes me. We are both kind of good for each other.

What's it like being one of the last true artists in your genre?

Erickson: I'm not looking for any medal. I don't plan on being the next Jesus Christ. That's not what I'm doing this for. I'm not really Mr. Big Head. I'm just really doing it because I do music, and I have things to say that I believe in. What I don't want is to be rich and famous. I don't want to be the next Mohammed or Jesus Christ.