Interlock pour l'album "Crisis//Reinvention"

1. First, could you introduce your band to our readers?

[Hal] We’re interlock, a London based cyber metal band.

[John] Yeah, 6 members, 2 guitars, bass, drums, 2 singers – 1 male, 1 female, a lot of programming and a pocket full of dreams… ok, maybe not the last bit.


2. How the "Interlock" style was born? How could you define it?

[Hal] A lot of people have had trouble categorising us, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing because at all times we’ve tried to make sure that we’re creating something new with our music, cyber metal seemed a good term to use.

[John] In a more general sense people seem to grasp onto Industrial Metal too. The main point of the band is to be as wide ranging with our styles as we can. Why be in a million different types of bands when you can be in one great band and make all the different styles of music you like?

[Hal] We wanted to ensure that we brought technology and modern aspects to metal. It happens naturally thanks to the different angles all of us come from, but as a band we meet in the middle in wanting to push things forward. There’s no need for anyone to make metal that sounds like a perfect copy of what’s come before. We all try to like the same types of trousers.

[John] And black… we like black…


3. Were you influenced by any band?

[John] When I started the band way back, I was influenced by a lot of different stuff. I’d say the main bands to get me into using programming and different vocal styles were Misery Loves Co., Nailbomb, Cynic and the first Fear Factory album. I used to play a lot of technical Death metal when I was younger. I can’t even play that shit now, as I never do any lead work anymore… The song is king and the powerchord is its bitch.

[Hal] All six of us are influenced from different sources, most of us share some kind of appreciation of industrial metal. Quite a few of us are influenced by such acts as My Dying Bride, Strapping Young Lad, Slayer, Meshuggah, Fear Factory etc.


4. Interlock exists since 1997 and "Crisis//Reinvention" is your first album. Were the songs composed during the same period? How spent the recording process?

[Hal] There have been a lot of changes in the band since it was first created, not only in its members but its style also. Interlock made quite a number of releases before crisis//reinvention, but this could be classed as our first complete album, these changes and lengths of time have been instrumental in making the sound that we now create. The recording process was spread out over a number of months, a lot of which can be seen on the interactive section that’s contained in the CD for the album.
You could say we used slightly different methods for recording our album, in that we weren’t entering our studio for a set period of time to record it all in one go.

[John] We were looking for a deal at the same time as recording, so there was a lot going on for us. We recorded everything ourselves at our London studio, so we had the time to get things sounding pretty good. I then spent about 5 months post-producing, mixing and mastering the whole thing.


5. Is there a tour planed to promote your new album?

[Hal] We’re currently touring various venues in the UK, then we plan to come over to Europe early next year.

[John] Things are looking really good on the touring front at the moment. We’re desperate to hit Europe in a big way, but it’s kinda scary as we have no idea how people will react to us. Then again, we get that over here still… We either amaze or confuse. But we always try and put on a good show.


6. An EP will be release soon: "The Skinless Remixes". Can you tell us more about it?

[Hal] We decided to release the song ‘Skinless’ from the album because various people had requested it on radio stations like BBC radio 1. Audiences obviously enjoy it when we play it live so it made sense to get it out there separately so that we could combine it with what other artists could do with the song itself. We're all big fans of electronica and how remixes can alter original material, we wanted to make sure that listeners got something that would provide a different angle on the music they’ve heard.

[John] The main aim with all these remixes was to look at the alternative metal and electro scenes and pick some really interesting acts to turn Skinless into something it was never intended to be. I get really bored of the same old remixes people put out; “lets chuck a 4/4 drum beat over the top of these riffs and vocals. How original!” … Not. We were really interested in providing a way for fans to hear some really new and interesting versions of the track without it being “doosh doosh doosh doosh doosh….” all the way through.
Another important factor in this release is it’s a showcase for our new female singer, Christina. She’s only been in the band a matter of months, but she’s already proving to be an amazing asset and a great friend. She’s done an excellent job with the new recordings – a version of Skinless and a new track, Blue. I think we’re all really looking forwards to our next album now.


7. What is the best (and the worst) memory you have from your musician's life?

[Hal] Some of the best are whenever we play the larger venues with crowds that are there to enjoy themselves. Those perfect moments onstage when you and the audience are at the same level and you see it all happening in front of you. We’re seeing people singing along at our shows now, and that’s a great feeling, we’re able to point the microphones at the mosh pits and hear our words coming back… loud.
One of my worst memories was when we were playing an outdoor festival here in England, this summer, there was a large drop from the stage to where the crowd was and a distance before it where the security could stand. Towards the end of our set i had realised that a lot of the people at the front were singing along really hard, so i decided to jump down from the stage to let them have a go on my microphone, we eventually came to the end of our last song and the rest of the band started to leave the stage, i turned round and realised that i couldn’t get back up to go with them, so i had to jump over the barriers into the audience area to try and get backstage, i got completely lost and ended up running through the security area of the other stage where the next band were just starting.


8. What do you do for a living apart from the band?

[Hal] It’s quite difficult to apply yourself to a day job when you have tours or other engagements. We all have to make sure that costs are covered with day to day living, but it’s down to what we can fit in, so most of us do a lot of different things at different times.

I used to work in law, but since the album was released i’ve decided to go back to the arts and am now an associate producer in a theatre production company. It allows me to work remotely whilst on tour.

[John] We’re all poor and destitute… ok… maybe not that bad, but we’re living a day at a time and making sure that we’re able to commit completely whenever and however we can to Interlock. I’m not sure people realise how much time and effort is involved. We totally love it though.


9. What are you listening to these days? Any good metal (or not metal) albums to recommend?

[Hal] occasionally we recommend albums to eachother, and for the most part it works.
Recently i’ve been listening to new material from Unmerciful, Celldweller, Disgorge, Shellshock and Origin.

[John] Celldweller absolutely… I’m so impressed with that guy. Also Meshuggah ‘Catch 33’, My Dying Bride ‘Songs of Darkness Words of Light’ and Miksha ‘Collect Your Hazardous Waste’


10. What is your position about downloading? Do you download music sometimes, to discover new bands for example?

[Hal] The internet provides a new format of distribution for music, we’d be naïve to deny that. There’s a strong parallel to be drawn between the album download culture and when recordable tapes were first released; the music industry at that time just adapted and continued despite the fear and complaint. We all know how easy to it is to sample new music by downloading it, and we’d hope that people are able to have some examples of what we’re like in the same way, but the most important thing to understand is what’s contained in the album package is more than simply the music, we’ll always provide that as we’re all very fond of good artwork and presentation as well as interactive media and exclusive links to online content. There’s a lot you can put on a CD these days, That you can’t necessarily access via the internet.

[John] I don’t think I’ll ever stop buying CDs… I love the packaging and the solid nature of actually ‘connecting’ with the band and their music. I think sites like Myspace of course have a massively important role to play in finding new music now. Before, you were almost at the mercy of the internet and its size, now there’s almost every band you know on there, with tracks and info for anyone who happens to find them.


11. What is your opinion concerning the metal webzines? Are you a reader of them? How do you evaluate the impact of such magazines, compared to "real" magazines?

[Hal] Webzines are already very important to music media and it’s clearly an evolving and spreading scene. It’s obvious that a great many listeners in places like Europe rely on online media to hear about new releases.
However, you’ll have to go a long way to beat the sheer physical aspect of a magazine, and let’s face it: most people don’t have internet connection to let them read in their bathrooms… yet.

[John] Yeah… I always read on the toilet. But if I ever got an internet connection in there, you wouldn’t see me for months!


12. Thank you for your time. The last words are yours!

[John] Thank you! We all hope that we can come and make an impression in France soon (hopefully a good one). Please come check out our sites: www.interlock.org.uk and www.myspace.com/interlock. Remember to come support us when we hit your town too! We like people… they’re nice. Especially the ones that like Interlock and come to our shows. They’re especially nice.