Jester: When we last talked, no label would touch you. Yet 21 months later you have a full length album out and have appeared on at least seven compilations. What happened?
Mike: We got lucky.
Cadoo: I never thought that Pendragon Records would be interested in us. We contacted them late in the label search process and they actually responded to us. A deal was signed and Colin at Pendragon has helped us get on most of these compilations.
However some of the compilation tracks, like for the Cyberden benefit, have been dormant for years and just coincidentally got released recently. Peter Stone of Xorcist and The Cyberden was the first person to give us a real break, but the product didn't get released until after our CD was complete.
Mike: Pendragon has turned out really well for us. Colin has turned out to be the nicest person to work with as far as labels go.
Jester: Do you think the sudden popularity of 'Power Noise'
acts like Dive, Noisex, P*A*L, had anything to do your success?
Cadoo: Yes, but some of those bands focus more on repetitive and noisy rhythms while we just use noise as a single element in our music. It just happens that all of are drums are caustic noise,.
Mike: We have a lot of rhythmic patterns in our music that just happened to be of a dissonant nature, so perhaps we fall into the genre at the far end of the spectrum because of that. It was certainly not a conscious effort on our part to sound like that and it certainly wasn't influenced by the music we listen to.
Jester: Why did you decide to use short 'sutures' to link many of the tracks on the album?
Mike: We intentionally, from the beginning of the writing process, tracked the album as one single piece of music. The two demos were even tracked this way.
Cadoo: We really want people to be able to sit down and listen to the entire album at once. I think that the flowing together of each movement forces the audience to listen to the music throughout it's continuity. I also think that we wouldn't feel right if the music ended between tracks.
Jester: Do you do the same thing live?
Cadoo: Yes, but to a lesser extent. Some of the linking tracks are shorter because some of the tracks on "The Synthetic Form" are several minutes long.
Mike: Each piece is shorter and the volume level used on those tracks try to mark a definite separation between tracks when we play live. Each of the musical links are played at a lower volume when we perform live. The extraneous noise rumbling in the background allows us to retain the continuity we enjoy but allow the audience a moment to recover between tracks.
Jester: Why didn't you use your cover of Berlin's 'Metro' on "The Synthetic Form"?
Cadoo: We actually tried to get it on the album, but we ran into to many legal difficulties to fit the album deadline. The track will be on a Pendragon compilation called "Quadrophonia" which is similar in nature to OffBeat Records' "O-Files" with four bands each contributing several tracks. The artists involved are Gridlock, Neutronic, Individual Totem and Velvet Acid Christ.
Jester: What is the true story of what happened to your former drummer?
Cadoo: Bob was big into the Rave scene when we all first met. He met a girl at a Rave, fell in love with her, procreated, got married and moved away to live with her and raise the child. He now lives about three hours away from San Francisco in Northern California.
Mike: After the marriage we mutually decided that the three hour drive to practice once a week was a bit unreasonable. Bob really still wanted to be involved with the band, but he had other interest in his life that became a little bit more important to him.
Jester: Will you be trying to find another drummer?
Cadoo: Bob is the only person that Mike and I could ever have in the band besides the two of us because we all worked so well together. We did audition several other drummers but no one ever clicked as well as Bob.
Jester: Is this the first time you have performed out of the Bay Area?
Mike: Yes as Gridlock. We have played live all over for
previous projects.
Jester: Are you planning on touring the rest of the country any time soon or are you waiting a bit to gain some name recognition first?
Cadoo: We were asked to open for Individual Totem for the entire US tour. We weighed the options and the East Coast was a bit of an issue from the beginning. To play on the East Coast we would have to fly out, ship our equipment, and rent a vehicle. There is more money to be made performing on the East Coast, but there is more money to lose.
Mike: Since Industrial music is such a small market, dealing with a two band billing, there is less left over in the monetary sense for us to have been able to recoup our expenses. However, the issue wasn't all about money. We did actually spend a great deal of time trying to make the tour happen, but in the end we decided it wasn't the right time.
Cadoo: I definitely think that biding our time until we become better known as a band will certainly help us in any future tours plans.
Jester: Are you currently working on any new material/releases?
Mike: There will be two new songs and two remixes on the "Quadrophonia" collection. One of the remixes will be done by Individual Totem and the other is our own remix of 'Sickness'. We also remixed a track by Neutronic for that CD.
Cadoo: One of those new songs we will be performing on tour as well as another new song that will be on the next album.
Mike: Once we get back from this tour we will be working on
the album again. Before we left, we had to stop working on new music to finish
the remixes before the tour.
Jester: For the remixes of 'Burn' and 'Frantic', did you remix them or did someone else?
Cadoo: We each remixed a track on "The Synthetic Form" Anything with 'mantra' in it would have to be my remix and any track that uses a synonym of the song as the title of the remix would be Mikes.
Jester: How did you meet Ross Amador who provided the cover photo for the album?
Cadoo: I found him on the Internet. A lot of the pictures we used on our first web site were stolen from various places on-line. While looking for more pictures to steal, I found Ross's web site. I tried to contact him several times and failed via e-mail. I ended up calling information and obtaining his phone number and called him up. We worked out a deal so that he would be compensated and ended up using it for the cover art.
Jester: What part of the artwork spoke to you?
Cadoo: Listen to the album. When you are halfway through the album, look at the cover. It just works. I can't quite explain it.
Jester: What is your favorite track from "The Synthetic Form"? Why that track?
Cadoo: My favorite track is 'Done', which is the linking material between 'Halo' and 'Sickness'. I like the way it flowed between the two tracks.
Mike: My favorite is linking music between 'Wound' and 'Burn'. I really like the slow, ebbing noise. I really enjoy the crescendo into the track and the undulation out of it.