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Interview with Necrofix - conducted by e-mail - 9/28/97



Jester: How did Necrofix originally form?

Necrofix: We met at the University of Texas at Austin. We were both in an electronic music composition class and were the only ones who were into the more aggressive side of electronic music. All the other people were classical or jazz composers. We just sort of stuck out like sore thumbs. We would always torture the other classmates with our noise compositions. We both got A's I think because we were doing things radically different than any of the other students. We were friends ever since.

Jester: How did the Metropolis Records deal happen?

Necrofix: We were the last to find out about it actually. All two of our fans knew about it before us, and basically let us know. It was published in Industrial Nation in an interview with Dave Heckman from Metropolis. They asked him what up and coming bands to look out for and he said that he was about to sign this band from Austin called Necrofix. News to us! But we were happy to accept. We had sent Dave a CD a while back because we were getting a bunch of e-mail and letters from people and we were tired of running off tapes.

Jester: How much of the Metropolis Records release was originally on the demo tape you sent around several years ago?

Necrofix: About a third of the songs that appear on the Metropolis release. We just had a bunch more new stuff laying around that we felt was better. When we talked with Metropolis after the contracts were signed we mentioned that they would be getting mostly new material and they seemed a little hesitant, but I think they were pleased with what they got.

Jester: How much of a role did you have in the Zoth Ommog release of your album? I understand they changed the artwork.

Necrofix: None really. We didn't even know about it for a while. Metropolis had mentioned that Zoth wanted to license the album based on the old CD we sent Metropolis. We weren't sure if they were going to license it since it was mostly new stuff, but I guess they still liked it. As far as the artwork goes, Metropolis sent them all the layout and design with the images and asked that they didn't change much. In German I guess that translates into "Change all the design, misspell as much as possible, and put cheesy fonts on everything". They even left off our publishing logo which really doesn't make us happy.

Jester: Who is responsible for your web pages and album artwork?

Necrofix: Bildeaux does all the artwork and design for the pages. Rich is the coder and takes care of the site. We just took parts of the album artwork that Shawn Kavanaugh sent us and tried to make a web page that reflects the album, but is new at the same time. We have gotten great response from the look of the page. Only problem is that it is a little slow because it is so graphic intensive. But we are hooked up with ISDN so we could care less. We should be upgrading soon so it will run faster for people that are a little behind. We're in the middle of putting together a web site that puts bands on the Internet.

The album artwork was all done by Shawn Kavanaugh based on his impressions of the album. We told him to just do whatever he felt like. Then we got together with Scott Crosier to do the final layout and integrate the images into a final design.

Jester: How did you end up in a cameo appearance on MTV's "Austin Stories"?

Necrofix: Well I guess I wouldn't really say cameo, but Bildeaux and Jordan were used as extras in one scene. We have been good friends with one of the main characters in the show (Brad "Chip the Wonderboy" Pope) and he turned us on to it. He also hung up our promotional poster on the wall in his apartment on the set. You should be able to notice it after the sixth episode or so. We had to get clearance from Metropolis to allow MTV to show it over the air. Actually, a couple of songs were done in the apartment that the set was taken from. Bildeaux used to live on the floor in Chip's apartment when he was homeless.

Anyway, the show we are on airs October 15th, and we are in the inside party scenes. Bildeaux is wearing a white Mexican shirt and a brown beret, and Jordan has on a red skirt and a little white shirt. We're just acting silly and drunk, even though when they film, there is no music or anything. It will be interesting to see how much of us actually will be seen.

Jester: I noticed you are working on a handful of remixes (Soak, Scar Tissue, etc) How do you like doing remix work?

Necrofix: We love to do re-mix work. It's just fun to get a song and make something completely new with it. We never know what it will be. It just depends on what strikes us from the particular track. You may get back a noise piece, or a Techno song, or a head-stomping track.

Jester: Why such a diverse selection of music styles of the CD?

Necrofix: Partly because they are songs from a span of about 8 years or so. Another reason is that we don't like to stick with the same thing for very long. We would rather challenge ourselves as artists and work with a wide range of music styles. It's too boring to keep rehashing the same thing over and over like most of our contemporaries do. We also start from a different set of sounds that we create each time. Not just the same old drum set and bass synths.

Jester: What can you tell me about your side projects (Digit & Burn)?

Necrofix: Those are the projects we were working on when we sent the CD to Metropolis. Digit is a combined effort between us and several other musicians in town. It's more rock oriented. Just a fun thing to rock out with live. Burn is a band that is comprised of Clay Campbell (who used to be in Skrew) and Mike Riggs (from Skrew, Prong, and also worked with the Nails guys). We worked on about three or so songs by doing the programming and sequencing. Burn is real in your face and loud. Real fun kind of shit...

Jester: What do you do outside of music that helps to fund Necrofix?

Necrofix: We both work at a computer software company here in town. We have real 9 to 5 jobs that pay well. If we had to do music based on profit from music this would never of happened. It helps also because since we aren't relying on money from music, we can do what ever the fuck we want. Hopefully our fans will stick with us through our experimentation. Honestly though, we're still paying off a huge chunk of it that we put on our credit cards.

Jester: Do you have any obvious musical and lyrical influences?

Necrofix: We don't seem to think so! We used to listen to old waxtrax and puppy way back in the late 80's and early 90's. But we just got bored with the stuff we were hearing and stopped listening to Industrial all together. It also helps keep influences out of what we are doing. As far as our live performance, we've learned a lot from bands like Burn and Terminal 46, as well as Bildeaux's recent tour with 16Volt. All three of these bands are really powerful and know what the audience wants to see and hear.

Jester: Are you sick of the Mentallo & The Fixer comparisons yet?

Necrofix: Yes, even though your magazine is the only place we have seen us compared to them. We don't think we sound like them at all. We don't really listen to them, and have yet to hear anything newer than "Where Angels Fear To Tread". Even though we have known Gary and Dwayne for about 5 years, we never even talk music or share material. They'd probably laugh their asses off if they heard a comparison like that. Comparing us to Mentallo, or anyone for that matter, makes us feel the same way as if someone told you Sonic Boom is a lot like Industrial Nation.

We have been compared to a list of about 10 different bands, and it's just impossible for us to sound unlike so many bands at once. I am sure that there are certain elements in our music that remind people of those bands, but the record doesn't sound like a complete rip-off of anyone. We think that people are just confused because we put out something that is challenging for the listener because it goes in so many different directions and isn't the same old German shit that people keep buying these days.

Jester: Who else besides you two, do you use in a live setting?

Necrofix: We have another keyboardist (Jordan) and then a live drummer (Sugar) and then Rich plays the Nord and Bildeaux sings and plays a sampler with his feet. Sometimes we have special guests with us depending on who's in town at the moment.

Jester: Any plans for a tour in support of the new album?

Necrofix: Probably not right now. We would have to quit our jobs, or line up our vacation time to do it. Even then, it could only be for a week or so. If we could actually not lose money doing it, then yeah sure. We will do one off shows if the money is there. We drove to Cleveland for the CYCON ONE festival on one weekend and it was a lot of fun. If we are wanted then we will try to do a show there.

Jester: What is your favorite Necrofix track?

Necrofix: They all have a special place in our hearts because they were done at different time periods. Bildeaux likes 'Split Apart', 'Tears', and 'Beyond Recognition', Rich likes 'City of Ash' and 'Passion's Folly'. The cool thing is that all the songs are so different we have seen just about every song on the record on different playlists, even that silly Techno song on the end!


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