Meeting of the Month: Midnight Juggernauts

If Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts seemed a bit frazzled when I met them, maybe it was because they had just come from a “really weird” trip to Scotland that involved cars bursting into flames in front of their tour bus and a huge fight with a budget airline over a £2,000 excess baggage charge! The stresses of touring…

JT: You’ve just been playing Rockness and you’ve got a bunch of other festivals lined up this summer: what are your best and worst festival experiences?

Andy: Playing Big Day Out, the biggest festival in Australia. The one in Sydney was the biggest show we’ve ever played – 45,000 people. The main stage was inside a sports stadium - we’re officially stadium rockers now!

Vin: Our worst festival experience would be last year, our first European festival, which was Eurockéennes – worst because we missed our time slot. We were driving from Paris to the festival grounds and we realised our driver was driving in the opposite direction. We got there three hours late or something ridiculous. But we thought we’ve come all this way, we’ll play at 3am: we don’t care. And the only people left were like the drunkards at the end of the night who didn’t know if we were a band or some blurry colours in the distance.

JT: This summer, at the festivals you are going to, what or who are you looking forward to?

Vin: We’re playing a lot of festivals, so we’ve been seeing a lot of bands we’re really into: It was great to see Portishead, both at Coachella and at Primavera. Prince was interesting.

Andy: I think we play a festival with Devo somewhere – is that Japan? Fujirock? That will be cool.

Daniel: All these bands you want to see all playing together over here - it’s so different from the festivals in Australia: it’s crazy.

JT: When I was having a few beers with a mate the other night he, very cleverly – he thought – said to me why don’t you ask Midnight Juggernauts if they run on Midnight Oil? [MJ laugh] What’s the best way to punish him for that appalling pun?

Daniel: Cover him with oil and burn him to death I think.

Vin: Or cover him with oil and give him a nice back massage.

Daniel: One of the two.

Vin: I’m the lover; he’s the fighter.

JT: You’re playing at the Botanique, which is a former botanical gardens, if Midnight Juggernauts was a plant, what plant would you be?

Vin: The Venus Fly-Trap: we mean business, we’re beautiful to look at, but if you get too close…

JT: On your North American tour, you [Vin] kept getting mistaken for Gaspard from Justice. Did you take advantage of this confusion?

Vin: I did at the beginning. It all started one of the very first nights of the tour, in LA - Justice were doing a DJ set and I turned up to the venue with Xavier, so people automatically thought I was in Justice. People were coming up to me with [Justice] records to sign; they took photos with me. I’m not saying I slept with any Justice groupies, but I did well out of it!
JT: You’ve got quite a space age, intergalactic thing going on in your music: when and if they have commercial space flights, would you go on one?

Vin: Oh yeah. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Daniel: Aren’t they doing that soon? Virgin Galactic? We want to be the first band that plays on that.

Andy: We got asked to play at the launch of this robot developed by Honda - Asimov.

Vin: I was excited, but then we went onto Youtube, saw him in action, and our hearts sank: he’s walking up these stairs and as he’s walking he just tips over.

Daniel: And all these Japanese people come running and put sheets over him …At least we’d stand out [if we did the show] – there wouldn’t be much competition.

Vin: I thought it was kind of nice seeing him fall over like that, because it reveals human frailty: he’s just like us, he’s not perfect.
JT: You just mentioned Japan – I was looking on Youtube and I found some footage of you playing in China last year – there were loads of people with weird masks and hats in the crowd: what was going on? What was it like playing there?

Andy: We did two nights at this one venue [in Shanghai] and one of them was a masquerade ball.

Daniel: We didn’t have any costumes, so we went into this mall that was full of illegal DVDs and clothes and we ended up buying this red t-shirt and cutting it and making Rambo headbands. What else did we wear? These animal t-shirts: Andy’s was like a hawk or a falcon; mine was a skeleton of Michael Jackson.

Vin: It was fun getting to play China - it was a good opportunity.

Daniel: It was like a holiday.

Vin: We came back with loads of DVDs.

Meeting(s) of the Month: Trencher

Another from the Vice Belgium stable. Here they are in their mutha tongue...

It’s a sick world indeed where Napalm Death live in harmony with Goblin, but Trencher have not only found that world they have been elected its presidents and are now busy rewriting the constitution to become leaders for life. Before that, the Casio-Grindcore pioneers had the little matter of a gig at infamous London trend-spot, The Macbeth…

JT: I thought you said ‘soundchecks are for weaklings’: Why have you just been soundchecking?

M. Shit: I’m feeling quite weak today: I’ve just got back from holiday.

JT: You’ve got some great song titles: which is your favourite?

M. Shit: ‘Chatter of Slimy Teeth’.

Pox: ‘Wounds Cordon Bleu’.

Lock-Monger: ‘Two semis don’t make a hard-on’.

JT: It’s been a while since the last Trencher album, have you been waiting till you can afford a better keyboard or something?

M. Shit: There’s nothing wrong with my keyboard! I’ve just been buying more pedals to make it sound more sick. No, it just seems to be a slow process this time round, but we’re coming up with the goods as we speak… Right now!

Lock-Monger: Not right now, not literally as we speak.

M. Shit: My mind’s only half here – I’m composing.

JT: You’re a body double.

Lock-Monger: Arse double. Yeah, we’re writing at the moment, just been busy touring.

Pox: We’ve got lots of debts as well. So we have to make money – cash…for the gash.

JT: One of your influences is 1970s Horror soundtracks. What frightens Trencher?

M. Shit: The thought of my keyboard breaking. It’s quite hard to replace.

Pox: Grannies and children, little kids, Nazis…

Lock-Monger: Fear itself.

JT: Do you have a message for the people of Belgium?

Lock-Monger: We love your beer and women.

JT: What about their chips?

M. Shit: I don’t think I’ve had the Belgian chip.

JT: They’re double-dipped.

Lock-Monger: Double-dipped!!

JT: Yeah, they fry them, take them out, and fry them again.

Lock-Monger: What, and then they eat them and throw them back in the fryer?
Fuck. Double-dipped: that’s harsh!

JT: I’ve gone through all my questions. I had a dumb question about Madonna, but I’m going to scrap that.

Lock-Monger: Go on, give us it.

JT: Ok, but it is a shit question – if you were going to cover one of her songs, which one would it be?

M. Shit: It’s obvious, but I think ‘Like a Prayer’.

Lock-Monger: Or ‘Like a Virgin’.

Lock-Monger: Like a Virgin Prayer. Mix ‘em up, push ‘em up together, put a Holiday in there.

M. Shit: Prayer for a Virgin.

Lock-Monger: Prayer for a Holiday Virgin.

M. Shit: Prayer for a Belgian Virgin.

Lock-Monger: Double-Dipped.

M. Shit: With two chips stuck up her arse… easy on the Mayo!

JT: Is there anything else you want to say?

Pox: Bring drugs to all the shows.

M. Shit: It’s hard to get them on the road sometimes.

Lock-Monger: Yeah. What else, our philosophy of life?

JT: Yeah, how do you sum up your band in one line?

Lock-Monger: Life of the party, death of life. C’mon Pox have you got any words? …No popcorn today?

Pox: See you in Valhalla you motherfucking crippled fucking jessies.

Lock-Monger: [laughing] We’re gonna end up getting boycotted!

M. Shit: Vikings will no longer listen to our music.

Meeting(s) of the Month: Ipso Facto

As originally seen in Vice Belgium, here it is in English:

Unlike Goths of yore, Ipso Facto don’t mind a bit of daylight. In fact, Rosalie and Victoria from the band actually volunteered to sit in a sunny beer garden and tell me about their plans for world domination (next step is the Gareth Jones-produced second single, ‘Little Puppet’). Kids today, eh?

JT: A lot of people comment on your image before they talk about your music, does that bother you?

Rosalie: Not really, as long as they listen to the music, coz obviously it grabs people’s attention. It’s a lot better than looking like a load of sweaty indie boys.

JT: Do you dream in black’n’white?

Rosalie: Oh no, I dream in Technicolor.

Victoria: I’m colour blind. So for me, it’s just a natural choice.

JT: Are you really colour blind?

Rosalie: I didn’t even know that. No you’re not!!

Victoria: You don’t know, I could be.

JT: Who’s the funniest member of the group?

Victoria: Sam. It’s got to be.

Rosalie: [to Victoria] You.

Victoria: I’m not funny. I’m funny as in, ‘ahh, she’s a funny one, that girl’. I’m accidentally funny. I don’t mean to be.

Rosalie: Sam’s the comedian.

Victoria: I’m just a bit odd.

JT: Before your band came along, the last time the phrase ipso facto appeared in popular culture was when Jerry Hall said it in a Bovril advert in the 1980s. Jerry chose Mick Jagger over Bryan Ferry, was she right to do that?

Rosalie: Of course she was: Mick Jagger’s really sexy.

Victoria: He is sexy.

JT: And Bryan Ferry? Not as sexy?

Rosalie: No.

JT: How would you sum up Ipso Facto in one line?

Rosalie: Are we gonna say it again? Gothic Spice Girls.

JT: Is this a cliché?

Rosalie: We’re trying to spread this so we’re mentioning it in every interview.

JT: And do people take this bait?

Rosalie: I don’t think anyone has yet.

Victoria: They don’t believe us.

Rosalie: They’ll believe us when we dominate the world! Have a movie out…

JT: You’ll need a black and white tracksuit.

Rosalie [to Victoria]: You can be Sporty.

Victoria: I’m Sporty, Scary and Ginger all in one.

JT: What question have you never been asked in an interview that you wish someone had asked?

Rosalie: Don’t know. Errr….

…[Long pause]…

Victoria: God, we’re so hypocritical.

Rosalie: Yeah, we’re always moaning about how they’re always asking the same old questions, I wish I could write the interview. But now I’m put on the spot, I can’t. I’m sorry.

JT: Ok, what’s the dumbest question you get asked then?

Rosalie: So, you’re very like The Horrors, how does that feel?

JT: Do you have fans that follow you to every gig?

Victoria: We’ve got one: he’s Spanish.

Rosalie: It’s pretty much just one.

JT: One stalker.

Rosalie: And he’s probably going to read this.

JT: [backtracking] He’s not a stalker: he’s just a big fan.

Victoria: He should get recognition, you know.

The Bulgarian: Codeword 'Fidget'

“MEET ME in Room 511,” said The Bulgarian. I checked my watch, had I gone back in time and stumbled into the plot of a bad Cold War thriller? No, this was Brussels 2008, and I was being invited to interview one of the rising stars of the ever-expanding world of Fidget House. A self-confessed 'global citizen', The Bulgarian (aka Dimitre Vassilev) has been tearing up dancefloors from Camden Town to Cape Town with tracks such as ‘Crazy Dog Biscuit’ and ‘Jack it Like a Zombie’, a string of sick remixes, and a mixtape for the super hip No Love Lost Recordings (NLLR).

JT: Hi Dimitre, your background is quite unusual: tell us a bit about yourself.

TB: I was born in Bulgaria, so hence The Bulgarian. I lived in South Africa for the last 16 years, so that’s pretty much home as well. I was living in London last year, but then I decided to check out Bulgaria - I’m living in Sofia now: it’s very nice.

JT: You’ve got a few different aliases - how long have you been calling yourself The Bulgarian?

TB: Just about a year and a half now. With The Bulgarian I try to do the whole Fidget thing and stick to that. Stuff like Mr Elastik is more techno, minimal, electro - whatever takes my fancy. I’ve also got a side project with another friend called Tone Deaf Junkies, where we do just abstract electronica. It’s just to keep things easy for people to follow. If it were up to me I’d do it all under one alias, but it can get a bit tricky trying to market it all.

JT: What do you think of the name Fidget?

TB: It’s cool. I like it. I got into that genre just before it had a name. It’s better than what I was calling it – electro-jack [chuckles]. The thing that put me on to Fidget was a few years back I was in Bulgaria on holiday and popped over to Serbia for the Exit festival. And Switch happened to be playing in the dance arena and after a few too many beers and several thousand watt sound system, it all sounded really good. I’d never heard that before: I was just like, “I have to do this!”

JT: One of the tracks you’ve done as The Bulgarian is ‘Crazy Dog Biscuit’ with Spoek from Sweat. X. How did that [collaboration] come about?

TB: I’ve known Spoek for a while. I used to have a studio with a mate in South Africa. Spoek came in to work on a hip-hop album for another South African MC. And then he worked with Markus in Sweat. X. I knew Markus from before: I mean there’s not very many of us in South Africa doing this. So I knew what Spoek was capable of and one day I just gave him a shout to see if he wanted to do something. The first track we did together was ‘Jack it like a Zombie’. That was really good, so we did ‘Crazy Dog Biscuit’ to follow that.

JT: You say you know a lot of the other people there – do you think of it as being a South African ‘scene’?

TB: It’s hard-pressed to call it a full-on scene, especially with Fidget. Last year I was the only guy doing Fidget House. Sweat. X is a bit different, but it would have been pretty much only them and me doing this more London-y, Euro-style thing.

Before I left I was way more famous overseas than in South Africa. I used to get maybe one gig every two months or so in South Africa. And when I came back [to tour in February and March] everyone and their grandmother wanted to come along. People were asking: “Have you been to South Africa before?” I was like [sarcastic tone] “yeah-eah” [chuckles]. “Where are you from?” [deadpan] “Here”. It’s funny but I suppose that’s the way it is.

JT: I suppose South Africa is quite isolated in a way.

TB: Yeah, there are so many things. We’ve got the worst Internet in the world! You have limits – everyone gets 3 gigs a month [of bandwidth] and that’s it! Downloading anything more than an MP3 is a bit of an issue there.

JT: Would you say you had any specifically African elements in your music?

TB: I don’t think like that, I just make music for myself. I have at times put in African elements. And Spoek’s pretty African [laughs]. I lived there for 16 years, I’m sure it influences me in some way or another. I don’t like that box of ‘African music’ – all tribal-y or whatever. There’s enough of that. I try to do something else.

JT: You’ve been doing quite a few remixes. What’s been your favourite so far?

TB: It’s hard to say, I mean I love all of them. But the most high profile one I’ve done so far is the remix I did for Larry Tee. That was quite something else because they contacted me out of the blue, which was quite a cool surprise.

There’s one that just came out for the Round Table Knights ('Hold me Back'), which is a really cool song. I like that a lot. I’m doing a lot – I’ve got about four on the go at the moment.

JT: If you could remix anybody in the world, who would it be?

TB: Anybody? Ooh, tough choice… Nine Inch Nails would be fun. Trent Reznor’s been a big influence as a producer through the years.

JT: As well as the tracks we’ve already mentioned and all the remixes, what else have you got lined up?

TB: I’ve started a label – it’s called Feta. In Bulgaria we just call [Feta] cheese – it’s something that’s very integral to our culture there. And it sounded cool! I’m doing it with another guy called Vlad Sokolov, who runs Sokolov Sounds. He’s from Serbia originally, also Feta country.

JT: He’s more into Breaks, isn’t he?

TB: He was, but he’s come to the conclusion that [whispering] Breaks is finished… Shit…Whoops…[Close to mic] Errr, no, Breaks is cool! So me and him started Feta together. We’re trying to do vinyl releases [as well as downloads] but we’ve just had a problem with the distributors. We’ll see – that’s still in the air now, but definitely that’s the plan. I’ve had quite a few deals with a few labels where, when I’ve signed it was for a vinyl deal, and then a few weeks later they’re like, “we can’t do vinyl any more” – it’s happened to me three times so far.

Downloading, whether it’s legal or illegal, is having such an effect on the music industry – it’s a whole new ball game. I’ve actually been considering going almost ‘open source’ on my music, but it’s a bit tricky to do that. I’ll probably have to get a bit bigger and make a bit more money first!

JT: Would you like to do a full-length album as the Bulgarian?

TB: I don’t know. The Bulgarian is very party music. I don’t know how suited it is to an album. It would be fun to do, but I’d like to make it a bit more varied, which also runs the risk of alienating people: “Where’s my Fidget, man? What’s this melodic stuff, I don’t like it.”

That’s far in the future I think, it’s too early to think about that.

JT: So, how do you sum up your music in one line?

TB: Don’t take it all so seriously: it’s just life.

An alternative version of this interview was published by Vice Belgium, check it out at: http://vice.typepad.com/vice_belgium/2008/04/interview---the.html

Markus of the Month... Or, an African sex ritual gone wrong

SOUTH AFRICA'S Sweat. X – MC Spoek Mathambo and studio boffin Markus Wormstorm – have been making waves with their highly original, highly sexual take on Miami Bass and Booty House (“Go black, go low, go fast/ Go pussy, go titties, go ass!”). I met up with Markus prior to a solo DJ set in Brussels at the end of the duo’s recent European tour.

JT: You’re in Brussels. Belgium seems to have recently discovered Nu Rave: is that a good thing?

MW: Ha ha ha ha. I’m kind of two ways about it – to me, Nu Rave is a fashion concept, what is it, summer 2007? And it kind of went hand-in-hand with a dance music revival, and a lot of things were classified as Nu Rave, whereas to be blunt to me it’s oh-so-passe right now. I’m really into dark colours and leathers at the moment. But, I dig the attitude: the party harder frame of mind.

JT: When Sweat. X play, what do you want the audience to think? What do you want them to come away feeling?

MW: We want our live show to be a very dirty thing. We want to create the feeling of some sort of African sex ritual gone wrong. We love performing at floor level, mixing with the people, getting bumped and punched and kissed. I love getting swarmed. We’ve been performing together for a while now and we’ve reached a point where we’re really confident and we can really just fuck around. We’ll just leave loops running and run around the crowd and slap asses - climb back on stage and do some more shit. It’s a very interactive thing.

JT: Where’s Spoek tonight?

MW: He’s probably got to do some chores around the house! He’s got a really demanding grandmother. He’s Ndebele, he’s royalty – I mean a lot of people claim that in Africa. But because he’s the youngest male in an Ndebele family it’s really not done for him to leave the house. He’s supposed to look after his Grandma and his mum and that’s probably what he’s doing right now.

JT: Does that play havoc with your tour schedule?

MW: No, not really man. But his grandma doesn’t like me and I don’t have much to say to her either! She’s like 90 - we just glare at each other. Her whole thing is she can’t understand why they need him to fly around – she’s sure there are enough singers, you know what I mean [chuckles].

JT: And what does she think of the music?

MW: She doesn’t get it man. I mean we’ve recorded some stuff at his house – she’ll just open the door and just stand there and look at us. Like something out of a Lynch movie - fucking eerie.

JT: People are talking about a bit of a South African scene, with guys like you and The Bulgarian getting known internationally. Do you feel part of a movement?

MW: Definitely. My contemporaries and I, when we started doing stuff back in ’99, we sort of set the cornerstones in a lot of ways for electronic music [in South Africa]. I have a studio in Cape Town called Say Thank You Studios, and we do a lot of production, so it’s like an outlet for a lot of artists… One of my partners owns one of the biggest nightclubs in Cape Town, The Assembly. Also we did a lot of shows – a night called Shadow Works, a night called Bookers – and it’s really something we had to build up, the scene of say 2,000-3,000 people that we have now in Cape Town, that’s all off our work. There weren’t bands coming out [from Europe] – we were left to our own devices.

JT: Who else should people be listening out for from South Africa?

MW: Oh man, Felix Laband. I mean Felix is a genius – he’s got a bit of a [self]-destructive streak, but I think he’s one of the greatest musicians we’ve had in a long time.

JT: Do you feel any affinity with other people who are mixing electronic music with sounds from Africa, say Baraka som Sistema?

MW: I’d have to say no. We do African music because we’re from Africa. I don’t think we’ve at any point set out to sneak in a couple of bongos into a song to give it that ‘ethnic’ feel.

JT: It’s African because you are?

MW: Exactly. And I don’t think we’ve ever thought of designing it to be that.

JT: You’ve said [what Sweat. X is doing] is not IDM, it’s not pushing boundaries, you just want people to have a good time. You’re obviously intelligent guys – some of the photo shoots you’ve done are pretty ironic. Do you want people to see the joke as well?

MW: So much of our stuff is based on private jokes between us. I guess you can’t help sneaking that irony into it. I mean we are indie dudes and we are allowed to do whatever we feel like. But do you mean as far as the history of South Africa goes?

JT: I don’t know…

MW: Spoek’s funny, Spoek says we’re like the Apartheid After Party. And what’s this other shit he says? He says we’re a 20-metre acryclic painting of a black hand holding a white hand… We did this one song – do you know what BE is? Black Empowerment. We did this track called ‘Markus Wormstorm is on some straight BE shit’. I think that’s about as political as we’ve got.

JT: What’s happening next with Sweat. X? Any plans for an album?

MW: We’ve got two new labels – we’re still in the process of getting everything together, but we’re putting some stuff out in the States, something called the Saviour and Messiah EP, and we’re doing the Throwing Shade EP and Throwing Shade album later in the year.

JT: Do you get many requests to remix other people?

MW: Yeah, we do get asked and we do ask other people, but nothing ever seems to materialise. We haven’t done anything yet. I really want to do something with Game Boy/Game Girl, these kids from Melbourne, Australia. It’s like this big guy and these two girls and this producer called Miami Horror. I think they are awesome.

JT: If you were forced to sum up Sweat. X in one sentence, how would you do it?

MW: Chasing the season till our blood runs cold.