At last i’m leaving London and “fly” to warmer places like Terrassa, a Spanish city with great history, only 28km away from Barcelona. A true mediterranean (see cheerful!) guy is waiting for my questions and he’s none other than Ivan Arnau. Strange enough how this open-hearted catalan for more than a decade keeps transforming himself in the studio to the electro “punisher” Dark Vektor, an artist whose role in the spanish electro scene is no less than pivotal. Let’s find out more!

Chain D.L.K.: To my great surprise I haven’t found an interview of your good self over the internet! I mean you, along with Alek Stark and Boris Divider, are definitely the key persons in the ever growing Spanish electro scene; it’s odd (to say the least) that you have never talked to anybody about your music. So, thank you very much for accepting my call to have this little chat about the great Dark Vektor!
Let me begin by asking you about your musical background: how did you start producing music and why electro and not one of the trends of that era?

Dark Vektor: Thanks goes to you Evan for this interview! Yes it’s true I had no interviews in the past, at least in English. There are some in Spanish only

I started producing music in early 90s. Together with a very good friend of mine, David Farell, we formed Sbles3plex. We were trying to learn how to produce the sounds we used to listen at the time. That’s why my first tracks were jungle style! But, as soon as I learned how to produce this kind of sound, I started to find it boring and finally I lost my interest in it. In 94-95, with the so-called “resurrection of electro”, my friends, who were all djs, started to spin it and that was it: I was hooked! It was then that I discovered my true musical style and my life in music!

As Sbles3plex we did a demo cd and we sent it to several labels. The guys at Djax Up Beats liked it so we signed with them a contract for 3 eps. That was in 2000; we started to release music then and we never stopped!

Dark Vektor: Yes you ‘re right! I have lots of releases on different labels, because for me what is important is to expose my music to the people.

I am not really interested in a career in music. Moreover in the electro scene it’s very difficult to earn money and turn to an “electronic superstar”, that’s why my intention is to express myself, my soul, my feelings, the musical projects I have inside my head. I don’t want to be a music star, I just want to listen to electro very loud, to dance to the sounds, to enjoy!! I am a very simple guy

As far as it concerns a full length release, me and David are currently working on a album, a Sbles3plex album, which will be published probably sometime in the next year.

Dark Vektor: haha, noooooooooooo!!

No! What i’m trying to do is to be myself, an electro enthusiast who shows support to all the people who produce, spin or simply love electro… The way I see things is that if I get more fans or/and another artist(s) become more popular, the whole scene is getting bigger! I don’t feel like an ambassador (lol) but it’s true that I’ve been connected to electro forums for a long time and I always try to meet people (artists and supporters) in my real life (lots of them have become very good friends of mine) and if I can do anything to help somebody, I do it!

Yes I have a job, I also have a little baby so my time is limited, but, as the second important thing for me is the music, when it comes to my spare time, I like to spend it by listening to electro!

You ‘re right, now in Spain there’s a scene with lots of producers and djs who help each other. There’s a forum called ‘Contacto Sintetico’, a site at which we discuss all things electro (and more), laugh, even help people if possible, a kind of our own virtual pub There are also parties such as BAS, 8Z8 or ELECTRO SICKNESS that help us to meet each other, drink some beers and dance to electro! To attend these parties people come from all parts of Spain, usually in a little club just to listen to this music very loud; and this fact makes us feel like a global electro crew!!

Chain D.L.K.: Contacto Sintetico: a weekly web radio show, a forum devoted to electro music. Tell us more… master Criticon!

Dark Vektor: I am  co-founder and a part of Contacto Sintetico but the truth is that Thomas Noel (Awco) is the mastermind. Thanks to him we grew up very much! It is very hard to be a host of a video/radio show every week… And he does it every week, he does special shows, there’s also a chat room and we are chatting during the whole show! CS is about all the new electro releases, classics, dj sets, mixes, interviews etc. I think that a Spanish electro radio show was a need for us to meet all the electro freaks in our country. There are lots of very good radio shows all over the world but this is the only one in our language (you know the english of the Spanish people is not very good, don’t you?-lol)

I’m not coming from the old school electro scene. I was not a b-boy in the 80s, but all of my life I’ve been listening to electronic music. I guess that’s because when I was 8 years old I got as a present a Jean-Michel Jarre tape from a hippy guy who came to my town. That day I discovered electronic music!

In my studio there are many machines. I have lots of hardware and lots of software and I’m trying to combine them to find out the best sounds for me! But… I don’t want to reveal to you my list of the machines-lol!!

I just want to say that machines or software don’t really make any difference, what’s important is the result: music!!

Now I just want to be happy and live the moment!

Dark Vektor: You are welcome Evan, you know you have my respect. I appreciate your work as a producer and a label owner and now as a journalist, and I think that these interviews are very important for the electro scene! I wish you keep on doing them!!

Selected Discography:

as Dark Vektor:

(2006) Net Adikted (Drivecom)

(2006) My Left Side (Dona-Li Records)

(2008) Inteligencia Colectiva (Fundamental Bass Intelligence)

(2009) Wires (Titan´s Halo Records)

(2010) Basscelona, City of Bass (Fdb Recordings)

(2010) Zetan Bio Robots (We trust)

(2010) Esqueix (Subsonic Device)

as Sbles3plex:

(2001) Remember The Future (Djax Up Beats)

(2002) Stop Tv Control (Djax Up Beats)

(2003) Pornobotics (Djax Up Beats)

(2005) The Grid (Fundamental Bass Intelligence)

as ArNau:

(2005) Give Me (Destune Records)

as Seek 2012:

(2011) Hunab Ku (Beathazard Records)

as Criticon:

(2011) CS No Hay Tregua mix_Contacto Sintetico Workshop Vol.1 (CS)

For a complete discography of Dark Vektor please visit http://www.discogs.com/artist/Dark+Vektor

Visit Dark Vektor on the web at:

www.soundcloud.com/dark-vektor

www.myspace.com/darkvektor

www.facebook.com/DarkVektor

[Interview: Evangelos Zacharopoulos]

Next stop in my series of interviews with some of the greatest electronic producers of our time is… London (again!). Edward Upton aka Ed DMX aka DMX Krew aka… numerous other aliases is waiting online to e-mail him my questions. The boss of Breakin’ Records and one of the most prolific electronic artists of the last 15+ years has always interesting things to say about his ‘analogue world’!

CHAIND D.L.K.: What impresses me more about you is the fact that, browsing your discography, i found out that there’s really not a break in releasing music since your first 12inch on DAP Records, 17 years ago! And we’re not talking about a release or 2 throughout a year; your back catalogue is huge, a real… pain in the ass for the DMX Krew/Breakin’ Records collector! Dare i ask if there’s life beyond music?!

DMX Krew: Yes of course but making music is my favourite thing along with friends and loved ones. I’ve got hundreds more unreleased ones and lots of new stuff coming out in 2012. I can easily spend several days making music without seeing anyone apart from my family.

CHAIND D.L.K.: Many new electro producers mention you and your label as a main influence in making music, alongside the likes of Afrika Bambaataa, Newcleus or Egyptian Lover. Truth is that when the “Sound Of The Street” album came out on Rephlex, the interest in electrofunk was almost nonexistent. I mean i can’t recall any artist producing or any dj playing electro at the time, apart from Aux 88 and Dave Clarke (whose X-Mix Electro Boogie was also pivotal to the ‘rebirth’ of the genre). Everybody was into rave, drum n bass etc. So my question is: did you do it on purpose? Did you decide to go electrofunk because nobody else was doing it at the time? Or you were always into this kind of music so there was no question about the musical path you were about to take?

DMX Krew: That’s nice to hear. I had been trying to make more straight techno stuff, but also I’d been listening to lots of Juan Atkins and Drexciya and Shiver (don’t forget Erik Van Den Broek for 90s electro…) and that led me to dig into all the 80s electro funk and so on. I kind of realised at some point that I was never going to be better than Robert Hood or Jeff Mills at straight techno and I should find my own musical space. Like you said, nobody was doing that kind of electro. The few people who were doing electro were a lot darker, like Aux 88 and UR. I was going for the Arthur Baker / Paul Hardcastle vibe but in a very naive and amateurish way.

CHAIND D.L.K.: You have been experimenting with many kinds of electronic music: electro, synth-pop, italo-disco, techno, even dubstep to name but a few. Can you tell us what’s next on your list? And what do you think of the current electronic scene? Do you find it interesting or boring? Do you feel that ‘everything’s said and done’ or is there something new, original lurking in the underground?

DMX Krew: I just do tunes really. Right now working on more “pop” stuff but the next releases to come out will be electro and the kind of weird synth dance music I’ve been doing on recent Breakin’ releases.
Right now there is more stuff getting released than ever which means a lot more shit. Music was always 99% shit, but now there is so much it’s really daunting to look for the good stuff. I’ve been enjoying lots of old stuff like Beach Boys Pet Sounds, loving some of the compilations Honest Jon’s are doing like the Unity Sounds one and the Shangaan electro one, also I like the darker acid house inspired stuff like James T Cotton, D’Marc Cantu etc. I go through waves of being bored with it all and then finding new stuff. Right now I am extremely enthusiastic but more about making tunes than listening to others. I find it really hard to listen to records because if they are good I wanna make a track with the inspiration, and if they are bad then I would rather be making a track…..

CHAIND D.L.K.: You keep releasing vinyl although this market becomes more and more limited and the labels (at least the underground ones) are losing more and more money (i can tell from my own experience ). I wonder why you haven’t completely give up for the convenience of digital. Maybe because vinyl cut is a ‘fetish’ thing for you, something you just can’t live without?!

DMX Krew: I just like it, and I DJ with it. But more and more of the stuff I like isn’t coming out on vinyl and also I get sick of looking at all the records filling up my house so I dunno how much longer it will go on.

CHAIND D.L.K.: Are you still ‘all analogue’? And what’s your current equipment?

DMX Krew: Yeah a load of old analogue & digital synths, a few drum machines, a sampler, a fairly big analogue desk, 80s and 90s effects units, also Ableton on a Mac for recording and editing but no soft synths etc.

CHAIND D.L.K.: Do you own an Oberheim DMX?!

DMX Krew: Sadly not.

CHAIND D.L.K.: If i judge by the number of gigs you play throughout a year, djing must be quite a passion for you. Or is it just because in our times that’s where the real money is?

DMX Krew: I dunno about “real money”, I could earn more working in a supermarket but this way I get lots of free time to make music and I get to play loud music sometimes. I love playing but I am over all the travelling by now.

CHAIND D.L.K.: Is there any particular tune of yours that when you drop it on your set it drives people crazy?

DMX Krew: I wish! Depends on the crowd, I make and play so many different styles. I rarely play my own records but last year at Bloc weekend I did a set of my own records and it was really amazing to see how many people knew the records and were singing along to things like Street Boys.

CHAIND D.L.K.: Could you please name your top-10 electrofunk tunes of all time?

DMX Krew: I dunno. What is electrofunk really? Here are 10 good tunes anyway:
Kraftwerk – Tour De France
Hashim – Al Naafayish
Cybotron – Clear
Art Of Noise – Close To The Edit
Rhythim is Rhythim – It Is What It Is
Herbie Hancock – Rock It
Drexciya – Aquatic Worm Hole
Aphex Twin – Analogue Bubblebath
Prince – Let’s Pretend We’re Married
Egyptian Lover – Egypt Egypt

CHAIND D.L.K.: Your plans for 2012 and maybe a message to your fans.

DMX Krew: Try and make the best music of my life

Visit DMX Krew on the web at:

www.dmxkrew.com

[Interview: Evangelos Zacharopoulos]

To the electro fans the name Mike Ash is synonymous with ultra dope beats, phat basslines and acid, acid, more acid vibes! On the threshold of his 40ties this London based electronic producer has a lot to say about a life full of RAVE!

Chain D.L.K.: Hi Mike! Thank you very much for accepting my call to have a little chat with your good self! I really think that this interview will be one of the most interesting for the Chain D.L.K. readers. I mean people know very well your ‘electro’ side but i feel that most of them aren’t familiar with your 20 years background and the fact that you’re a true… ‘rave survivor’, having released music on the legendary Rising High Records! Let us have a little taste of that early 90s ‘magic’…

Mike Ash: Hi Evan! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me.

Chain D.L.K.: So… I know that you were always into electrofunk, at least since 1983. However you had never produced electro until the fall of 2010. I’m curious to know why and what turned you to the nuskool scene of electro artists.

Mike Ash: Well that’s a long story… I think we should take it from the start, if you don’t mind…

Chain D.L.K.: Be my guest )

Mike Ash: Ok, thanks. See i wasn’t really into music until I heard electro in ’83 at the age of 11. I started buying Street Sounds Electro compilation albums with my pocket money and was into the futuristic  sounds of artists such as Cybotron, Hashim and Egyptian Lover but as the music progressed into a more rap and hip hop vibe I started to lose interest apart from the more instrumental artists such as Mantronix, MARRS, Bomb The Bass, Paul Hardcastle etc.
Then along came house and especially acid house and I was hooked again. I left school in 1988 at the age of 16 and started working in central London. Influenced by some of my slightly older colleagues I started to go out to acid house parties and got involved in the whole warehouse party scene, partying every weekend (and sometimes during the week) and indulging in all kinds of illicit behaviour!
I bought my first synth in 1989 – a Roland Juno 6 and a TR-707 drum machine, coupled with a sampling package on my Atari ST and a Casio home keyboard, I played a couple of live acid gigs at the London club “Labyrinth” at the “Four Aces” club in Dalston Lane – incidentally the same club Liam Howlett played his first gig prior to The Prodigy making it big.
I sort of followed the trends of the music but on a more techy tip with Detroit techno, Belgian new-beat, European techno etc. All the time I was experimenting with making music at home and expanded my little recording setup with a proper sampler and a couple more synths and drum machines.
In 1991 I wasn’t really into the new breakbeat hardcore sound but a lot of my friends were. I decided to make some hardcore tracks as a bit of a laugh to show my friends how easy it was. I loaded up 5 or 6 samples from a few disks I had around and quickly put something together in about an hour. I didn’t intend to release it but played the track from cassette at a few events and it seemed to go down fairly well. I sent a copy of the tape to Moving Shadow and they decided to release it along with a couple of other tracks that I’d knocked together.
I only ever wanted to release one record just to prove to myself that I could do it but I’d got the bug. I decided to try getting a deal with a label that I felt was moving more in the direction I liked. I’d heard tracks by The Hypnotist on Rising High and was completely blown away by the sound I heard from a UK artist & label when most of the music I’d been into before was American or European. I phoned Rising High relentlessly for weeks trying to get to talk with Caspar Pound (RIP). Eventually he spoke with me and agreed to meet. I went to their offices and played him some demos. He agreed to sign me up and I went on to release 6 EPs under two pseudonyms: Interface and Audio Assault which did fairly well within the rave scene.
In 1993 I got a job with a video games company producing music and sound effects. They bought me a studio which was far better than what I could afford at home and it allowed me all the time in the world to experiment with recording and music whilst getting paid.
Due to work commitments and as I had a musical outlet I didn’t really release much music from 1993 to 2001, just a few tracks on some smaller labels experimenting with different styles such as house, techno, trance and drum & bass.
In 2001 I left the video games industry as I didn’t like the corporate direction it was moving in. I released several hard house tracks under the name Digital Science and also played a few live gigs at clubs.
I needed to make some money and got a deal with Zero-G to produce some sample CD’s. I produced hard house, trance and techno CDs for them. Working full time from home programming sounds and patterns, editing, compiling etc for around 18 months. I was pretty burned out with electronic music by the end of it.
Bearing in mind throughout all these years I was still going clubbing at least a few times a week and had developed a rather nasty drug habit (you name it, I took it! whatever, whenever). The drugs had taken over from the music, I was pretty insane and it was just a matter of time before I went over the edge.
Very long story short – The sample CD deal went south and I ended up financially bankrupt. Coupled with my drug addled brain I completely lost the plot and ended up in rehab & counselling.
A year later and I was pretty much ‘fixed’ and had decided that I needed a ‘normal’ career. I decided to apply my technical skills and move into IT support. I got some qualifications and a job at an IT company. I thought my time with music was over. I sold my studio and thought I’d never look back.
However in 2010 something just clicked in me and pretty much over night I decided I wanted to write music again. I had managed to separate the music from drugs and financial business and thought I’d like to poke around with some music at home just for a hobby, strictly no more music biz and started to buy up some gear again.
Whilst looking around on SoundCloud I came across the 808 Electro group and downloaded some mixes and tracks. In one of the mixes I heard R21′s Minimum and was completely blown away. A totally amazing track (which it was a complete honour to remix last year!) and it prompted further investigation into the new skool electro sound, artists, labels, DJs etc. The more I listened, the more hooked I became. It seemed I had found my true musical calling and hadn’t been as excited about a style of electronic music since my early acid house & techno days.
I decided to have a go at writing some tracks and produced two: KSOD (named after a client’s laptop developing the Black Screen Of Death) and Stop The Machines.
Stop The Machines got noticed by the man R21 himself and he brought it to the attention of Chris Spotta who played it on his Spotta Sounds radio show. I got talking with a few people in the scene around this time, including your good self and this resulted in me releasing the Stop The Machines EP on Binalog Productions which included an extended version of the track and two new tracks.
Since then I have released two more EPs on Binalog Productions and EPs on Devine Disorder, Mars Frequency and was very pleased to have a track included on Diamond Back Recordings – The Tournament.

Chain D.L.K.: Wow man, you took me back, way back! Amazing story, i felt like watching an alternate version of “24hour Party People”! Or re-living my years as a party animal-lol Thank you so much for sharing with us these experiences!
Now let’s see… What more can i ask you? Ah yes, acid! I really feel that your love for acid will never fade away. Most of your tracks produced in 2011 still have ‘that’ acid touch

Mike Ash: Yes, i absolutely love acid house. It was a sound that instantly captured me back in ’87 /’88. It inspired me to find out how it was made and to make my own music having previously had no interest in writing music before. I still listen to a lot of the original acid house and it still has a magical vibe for me.

Chain D.L.K.: How do you see the current electro scene? Dope music released in almost daily basis, do you think this fact leads to an over saturation at least as far as it concerns the fans and their ability to listen (and buy) all this stuff?

Mike Ash: There is some amazing music out there. The producers really know their stuff and the level of musicality and technical ability is completely awesome!
I’m part of the problem though, I released 5 EPs in 2011 but didn’t buy that many. As I don’t DJ I don’t buy much music. There have been some brilliant radio shows from all around the world – these are what I listen to on a daily basis.

Chain D.L.K.: Electro remains underground, away from the media spotlights. In your opinion is there any chance for this genre to ‘break’ into a wider audience?

Mike Ash: I can only speak about the UK scene, which I’m far too old and burned out to be a part of now. For something to be really popular it has to be part of the young adult / youth culture. I see electro as being quite an intricate form of music. Unfortunately I can’t see it becoming part of the UK’s youth culture, which I see as being quite brash and about instant gratification.. but I don’t understand dub step, electro-house or other popular forms of modern electronic music!

Chain D.L.K.: Your favourite electro artists and labels, if you can shortlist some of them

Mike Ash: I’ve been lucky enough to become friends with many of my favourite artists and have released with several of my favourite labels. I’m too scared to list them in case I miss anybody!

Chain D.L.K.: Ok then! Let’s talk about your influences in producing music. And what’s your current equipment?

Mike Ash: Life in general influences me to produce music. It’s something that I just have to get out of my system. If I don’t spend time in the studio I get quite agitated and its something I just need to release.
My studio has changed quite a bit over the past year or so. It started out originally in a fairly oldskool style with hardware synths, drum machines, sampler, mixing desk, effects processors computer etc. Over the past year I have embraced some of the more modern things. I got rid of my mixer and effects processors around 6 months ago and now do all of my mixing in the box. I have recently sold my drum machines and sampler choosing to use software for these instead but I still use hardware synths as I prefer them to software.
Currently I have 15 hardware synths:

Access Virus B
Alesis ion
Casio CZ-1000 x2
Clavia Nord Lead 2
Dave Smith Mopho keyboard
Korg MS2000
Moog Little Phatty
Roland Alpha Juno-1
Roland JP-8000
Roland SH-101 (with MIDI)
Novation Ultranova
Waldorf Blofeld keyboard
Yamaha PSS-780
x0xb0x (custom built by The Beast)

These are all connected to A/D converters then by ADAT to an audio interface which connects via Firewire to a PC running Cubase and Sound Forge with various plugins. I’ve tried Ableton Live and Logic but Cubase does everything I need. I’ve also invested in Steinberg hardware – 3 Midex MIDI interfaces and a CC121 controller.
I also use my netbook with an Akai LPK USB keyboard and a pair of earphones with software synths to sketch ideas which I then flesh out in my main studio.

Chain D.L.K.: Your plans for 2012 and maybe a message to your (dedicated) fans

Mike Ash: Currently I’m having a bit of a break from producing music and concentrating on family life. I’m getting married in the summer to my very tolerant girlfriend who’s not interested in electronic music at all! I’m writing a couple of tracks for some compilations at the moment and would like to produce my first album by the end of the year.
A message to my fans.. I’m completely flattered to have any fans. I just write music because it’s something I love. All your support is greatly appreciated!

Chain D.L.K.: Thank you very much Mike!

Mike Ash: You are welcome Evan!

Visit Mike Ash on the web at:

soundcloud.com/mikeash

[Interview: Evangelos Zacharopoulos]

For my first interview on behalf of Chain D.L.K. i chose to travel virtually to one of my favourite cities on earth, London, to have a little chat with one of my favourite electro producers on… galaxy: mr. Pip Williams. The last couple of years Phil Ventre (that’s his real name) took by storm the electro scene with a series of top quality releases on various labels and, of course, on his own brand Shameless Toady, which is celebrating its first year of existence (pretty good timing for a conversation i think ). So let’s not waste time, let’s go find more about this exceptional artist.

CHAIN D.L.K.: Very glad to speak with you my friend, thank you very much for accepting my call to do this little interview! Let me start by asking you to tell us about your musical background.

Pip Williams: Pleasure is all mine Evan! Well, about my background, I’ve played the drums since I was about 9. Set up bands, 3-piece mainly, and gigged around. We did some in Europe supporting Sting on one of his tours. There were some pretty big arenas in Paris and Vienna where we played in front of 20,000+ people. Pretty amazing stuff. I get cold sweats just thinking about it now, but at the time it was so surreal and dream-like, I don’t think any of us really noticed! We were only 16 then… ah, the innocence of youth.

I sold my kit a few years ago to create space in the studio. Weirdly it also coincided with me losing all sense of rhythm on the dancefloor! You’ll only see my cut a rug when i’m proper pissed up, trust me, it’s not a pretty sight
CHAIN D.L.K.: LOL Phil! So you were close to be a… pop star, wow that’s a really amazing experience!

Pip Williams: Yes, but I was never really into rock/indie music. When the band split up it gave me a good excuse to get more into the electronic side of things. That was what I always found more interesting.

I had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with early Oldskool Rave. That developed into Jungle then Drum n Bass. My love of electro came about through Kraftwerk, Cybotron/Model 500, those sorts of dudes. Timeless music. To be honest though, I draw influence from so many areas, there’s so much good stuff out there.

The label that’s been my biggest influence is Warp. I really admire their philosophy. They’ve consistently been at the forefront for so long. They never waver from what they believe in. If it’s quality material, they release it regardless of the style. And they also produce awesome cover art as well. It’s crazy to try and emulate something as big as them that but I’m trying to set up Shameless Toady with a similar mindset.
CHAIN D.L.K.: Tell us how did you start writing and producing music.

Pip Williams: I started off sampling on an Akai with a friend who had an Atari ST with one of the first versions of Logic. We just recreated edits of tracks we liked. Things progressed naturally from there, really. I began to buy my own kit, sound modules, keyboards etc. I sold a chunk of it some years ago and have regretted it ever since!
CHAIN D.L.K.: But i know that you are definitely an analogue guy, so i’m pretty sure you moved on to some other equipment, right? Could you make us a list of the gear you are using now?

Pip Williams: Well my current set up is:

Macbook Pro running Logic & Ableton
Doepfer Modular system
Roland TR-606
Moog Phatty
DSI Tetra
DSI Mopho
NI Maschine
Korg Microkorg
Doepfer Dark Energy
Eventide Space
CHAIN D.L.K.: Wow you definitely got some gear dude! Next i’d like to ask you about how do you see the current electro scene. In your opinion is there any chance for it to “escape” from the underground and become the “next big thing”? And what’s the “next big thing” for you, at least on electronic music?

Pip Williams: The music industry as a whole is messed up, but I think the electro scene is doing pretty well. It has a good, loyal community which helps massively.

More and more producers are pushing boundaries, borrowing from other genres and creating new styles. Personally, I think this is the most exciting stuff coming out. It has the potential to be ‘less’ underground as new markets open up to this, while still retaining the original electro backbone and not feeling contrived. Being authentic is very important. Not just jumping on a bandwagon to make a quick buck. People can smell that shit a mile off!
As for the next big thing, I don’t know what it’ll be. Doubtful it will be electro, at least, electro as we know it! I guess you need to ask the music press, they seem to decide what bollocks to drip feed the public.
CHAIN D.L.K.: Your favourite artists at the moment?

Pip Williams: Hmmm… let me think… Ok obviously they are too many to mention, but outside electro Sbtrkt, Instra:mental, Breakage, Nightslugs spring to mind.
CHAIN D.L.K.: To close this little interview i’d like to ask you to tell people about your future plans both as an artist & label owner.

Pip Williams: Carry on pushing Shameless Toady and try and actually run it properly next year! Keep my head down to make the odd tune and maybe do some live bits where I can. Oh, and try not to lust after too much music gear
CHAIN D.L.K.: Thank you very much Phil!

Pip Williams: You’re welcome Evan!

Visit Pip Williams on the web at:

www.shamelesstoady.com

[Interview: Evangelos Zacharopoulos]

Chain D.L.K.: Hello, Wire Vein! Welcome to ChainDLK. Please introduce yourself! How did you meet? Tell us about your band.

Wire Vein:  Hi, my name is Rick Sandoval of Wire Vein and I’m the music composer of this terror/ebm/industrial project. I started this music project back in the middle of August, 2006,  as a studio music project. I went through different musical phases before Wire Vein which was Industrial/Metal and EBM/Industrial electronic music with other partners. It took me a long time to find Gregory (of Fatal Rupture) whom I am pleased to have as vocalist for Wire Vein. We’ll be releasing a track called ‘We Burn’ on the Synthetic Rage CD compilation by Engrave Ritual Records which will be released in October.   We have a couple of shows lined up for Tijuana in October and November. It will be great.

Chain D.L.K.: You live close to the border between USA and Mexico. Tell us about the area, does it affect how your music comes about? Are you influenced by both cultures? Which culture do you feel closer to?

Wire Vein: Yes, I live about 45 minutes away from Tijuana in Logan Heights, California.  Logan Heights is a peaceful area where a lot of Mexican-Americans reside. It’s different from where I used to live in San Francisco. My neighborhood there was more multicultural with Central Americans, Italians, etc. My early musical influences date back from the metal genre to the 90′s Industrial/Gothic music. Skinny Puppy and FLA are my main influences but also I’m influenced by Mexican Industrial bands like Hocico, Amduscian, and Cenobita.  I identify myself more of the Mexican Industrial-scene since I am half Mexican and Salvadorean. There’s a lot of Spanish vocals that are sung harshly by my favorite Industrial artists from Mexico. But I also like the North American Industrial-scene as well.

Chain D.L.K.: What pushed you to start making music in the first place (as individuals and as a band)?

Wire Vein: I started out as a guitarist at age 11.  KISS got me into rock guitar.  I would listen to their albums at my school on a record player.  Later on, as I started progressing in metal-guitar music, I got into metal bands like The Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica, and Exodus.  I started playing in various bands that got me into composing more of the music.

Chain D.L.K.: What do your songs talk about? How do you compose, do you have a particular method?

Wire Vein: Some of our songs talk about transformation from human to cyborg based on my interests in Cyber-Punk literature. I compose on keyboards and use sequences from the computer. I do a lot of sound design on the synths so I can create electronic music on my DAW system.

Chain D.L.K.: What are your favorite instruments and/or computer programs you use to compose music?

Wire Vein: My favorite instruments are Novation, Access, Waldorf and various vst-instruments. I use Steinberg Cubase 5.0, Reason 5.0, Sound Forge 10 and other various audio plug-ins and vst-instruments.

Chain D.L.K.: Where can we get your music? Do you have a new release and/or video coming out?

Wire Vein: We’re only going to release a two-track demo but we’ll be coming out with the Synthetic Rage compilation. For those who are interested in checking out our songs, our music can be heard on Wire Vein’s Facebook page. I posted a few videos clips on youtube.com like ‘We Burn’, which is a home-made video using the Arkaos VJ visual-program. Also, we have some live footage clips from Tijuana at Club Respekt.

Chain D.L.K.: Is Wire Vein your only music project? Are you working on other projects and/or remixes?

Wire Vein: For now Wire Vein, with Gregory as vocalist and lyricist, is the only music project that I am focusing on.  Darks of Heaven (from Chula Vista) may do a remix of a Wire Vein song.  But it’s just Wire Vein that I am focusing on presently.

Chain D.L.K.: Where do you perform? Do you have a venue that you prefer?

Wire Vein: So far, Wire Vein has performed in Tijuana but we have done one show for Collapse in San Diego. I really liked that venue, The Office (in San Diego) and I would like perform there again in the near future.

Chain D.L.K.: What do you love doing when you are not doing music? How do you spend your free time?

Wire Vein: Well sometimes I like to go the clubs in Tijuana where my friends Djay. I have been to some clubs in San Diego like Sabbat which I found cool. I’m also enrolled in school studying to get my A+ certificate in computer repair. And I spend some time chatting with friends on Facebook as well.

Chain D.L.K.:  Who inspires you most? Any bands or composers?

Wire Vein: Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai are my rock-guitar inspirations. And for Industrial music it’s Cevin Key of Skinny Puppy and Michel Jean Jarre.

Chain D.L.K.: What would you like to tell our readers? Suggestions? Do you have suggestions for children and people who would like to start playing music?

Wire Vein: I would say to try out different instruments when making music. There’s no limit to learning an instrument whether it’s guitar, keyboards, drums, vocals, etc. Also, it’s always good to learn music theory and harmony because it helps a lot when it comes to composing music. I studied a lot of music theory in high school and community college. It helped me a lot.

Chain D.L.K.: Ask yourself a question and answer it!

Wire Vein: Where do I want to travel next for a show with Wire Vein?
Los Angeles!

Chain D.L.K.: Do you have a website? Facebook?

Wire Vein: Yes, we have a Facebook page. You can check our music and photos there.  We’ll be posting more mp3s of our songs soon.
Thank you very much for the interview and see ya at the next Wire Vein show.

Peace!

Visit Wire Vein at:

http://www.facebook.com/wireveinmusic

[Interview: Ant Dakini   Proofreading: Sergio Ordonez]

Nadine: Oh Hey, welcome in my dream!

CHAIN D.L.K.: Well…first of all compliments for your debut! I particularly enjoyed your way of “giving a soul” to your lyrics, which could have drawn some delighted and faraway expressions and placid smiling of my ears…let’s introduce yourself…let’s introduce your music…I’ve read you use to dream your song before writing…it’s astonishing how you remember dreams..i’ve still so many problems to do it!

Nadine: The more I grow the more I can’t remember my dreams, so sad! Thank you for all the compliments, I’m glad you liked Magic Box! Actually, yes, not all but a good part of the songs in the album are coming from my dreams (not only during the night) and it’s like magic, you’re just doing something in your dream and maybe just whistling something never heard before, here, this is my song! But I won’t tell you more, because I’m afraid it won’t happen anymore..!

CHAIN D.L.K.: I’m so curious about this aspect that I’ll ask details about any song you wrote, but I let you pick three of your choice!

Nadine: Well okay, so… “Running People” was actually a song I was singing in a dream where I was working on my parents’ restaurant, just clearing tables and stuff, fun thing to do…!

“You and Me” was written and arranged in a fun and weird night, as I was half insomniac and half sleepwalking.

And another magic song like that, was as I heard my lovely friend playing guitar and humming in my dream, she sang so beautifully I couldn’t forget, and it became “Not my turn yet”. It’s an old recording and you can only listen to it in my first EP from 2008.

CHAIN D.L.K.: One of my most frequent dream: I quietly walk over sunny streets of some big city full of glassy skyscraper when a running elephant abruptly crosses over my walking path and as I try to reach it in order to make a shot, he runs faster than a crazy hare under the effect of cocaine…could such a dream deserve artistic interest?!?!?

Nadine: Man! This is the best song I’ve ever heard!

CHAIN D.L.K.: Well, it’s very nice to notice influences of the places you lived to study music in your songs…when I listened to Some Chocolate & Cigarettes and its roly-poly stepping, I thought your secret plan could be turning Swiss cows into fans of Liverpool shoegazing bands!

Nadine: Ha Ha! You got the message then!

Nadine: I can just say one word: inspiring. Really inspiring people, surroundings and places. It was a great experience to be at LIPA! As I got my diploma at the end of the year I had the opportunity to shake hands with Sir Paul Mc Cartney… it’s a moment I’ll never forget!

CHAIN D.L.K.: In Running People you sing about our money-addicted society and its influence on personal growth…well, after crisis, have you noticed if they run so fast yet?

Nadine: Nice point! But I still can see them running faster and faster, even more now that I’m living in a big city.

CHAIN D.L.K.: In that song, you mention your family and speaking generally familiar fireplace seems to be constantly lively in your music even when you explore that bitterness related to the distance from your home in songs such as Long Way Home or the ungluing from your dreams (Going My Way)…your first videoclip, Like Her, broadcasted on the Swiss Italian TV channel, had your father’s kitchen as a set…what’s the role of family amidst your sources for inspiration?

Nadine: I’m lucky to have a really united family and they’re the subject of many of my songs. For example if someone between us doesn’t feel good, we can feel it, as we’re really sensible and near to each other. Also, I’ll never stop to say thanks to my parents, for believing in me and in my music!

CHAIN D.L.K.: Why have you decided to entitle your debut Magic Box?

Nadine: Because I saw it as a collection of songs, all written in special and magic moments. So I like to imagine the album as a box that you can open and discover.

CHAIN D.L.K.: Do you identify yourself in that girl lulled by the moon on Magic Box’s cover artwork?

Nadine: Yes, I like when I can free my mind and just be in peace with myself… She’s a little part hidden in me.

CHAIN D.L.K.: What about forthcoming gigs?

Nadine: For the end of this year I’ll be playing some live shows in Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds. In the future I would like to play in London too! I will do a video on balcony.tv in Brighton on Sunday 23^rd, and in January 2012, when I’ll be back home in Switzerland, I’ll play at Graubashalle in St. Gallen and Portier in Winterthur. I’m looking forward to play in Germany again, hopefully that will be soon

CHAIN D.L.K.: If you could pick up a male singer for a duet….?

Nadine: Someone that I would love to collaborate with is Johnny Flynn! Or Davey Graham too, if only I could bring him back…

CHAIN D.L.K.: Thanks for answering…anything to add before clicking on “Send” button?

Nadine: Thank you, that was fun! You can add me on facebook.com/nadinecarinamusic and write to me, leave many cheerful comments, and virtual hugs! J xx

Visit Nadine on the web at:

www.myspace.com/pinkenxy

[Interview by: Vito Camarretta] 

New output of the Harsh-EBM camp, the Swedish duo of Project Rotten provides a new pummelling onslaught with their new album “Cinema Bizarre”. Released physically by the Hungarian Advoxya-label, the members behind Project Rotten can already look back on various contributions and guest appearances in their career. This interview with front-man Fredrik Croona reveals some insight behind this up and coming project out of this specific music genre…

Chain D.L.K.: Hi guys, starting as usual and offering you the slot to fill in some introduction content about Project Rotten. How, when and where did you guys meet and decided to unite for this project?

Project Rotten: We met around August 09 on the (back then great page) MySpace, I (Fredrik) was looking around for another band mate to help make better music and move the project forward (I suck at making music myself and the first two tracks I did were terrible). Anyway, I found Kettil’s band Syndrome X/209 and loved it, so I asked if he was interested in starting something and here we are in 2011 with a second full-length album.

Chain D.L.K.: You both have made yourself a name through different projects asides Project Rotten. Kettil, you are Syndrome X/209 and you could release a full-length album via Hellektro Holocaust Records, while you, Fredrik, have been active under the highly anticipated project Menschdefekt. How is the current status of both projects and your involvements?

Project Rotten: As we speak Kettil is working hard on finishing up his second album under Syndrome X/209, so you should most likely expect a new release not that far away. As for Menschdefekt, I am not really sure what will happen and when, since I am no longer part of the band. But I am guessing a second album will see the light of day , but that is not for me to decide and to know.

Chain D.L.K.: Please fill in some internal content about the production/composing process of Project Rotten. I guess you both are working separately on your tracks, since you seem to be both based in different towns, Gothenburg and Stockholm, right? So how do you come together for the mutual being of a band-/music-project?

Project Rotten: It’s pretty simple actually. Kettil creates the music and drops me a wav to check out and then he sends me separate tracks for the music and I put it all together and mix it and of course, I add vocals and create lyrics for it.

Chain D.L.K.: Fredrik, you gave up all activities with your very own label Twisted Flesh Recordings just a few weeks before the release of “Cinema Bizarre”. Please give us some insight about your feelings regarding the end of TFR. Why didn’t it work out at all?

Project Rotten: From the start you always have a plan and a goal and of course an idea that starts it all. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but in the long run it never worked out.
The lack of money and time are two very important factors that have been a problem. It just took me a little longer than I thought and maybe I started out with signing too many bands from the start too. In the end it was the best to close the doors and to focus on what I like to do, creating music.

Chain D.L.K.: Your new album “Cinema Bizarre” is out since a few weeks released by the Hungarian label Advoxya Records. What has forced your decision to continue via Advoxya? Have there been actually plans to release “Cinema Bizarre” completely under your own flag via TFR?

Project Rotten: We were never forced to go with Advoxya, we just talked to them and made a deal and that was for them to release the physical version of the CD. TFR was about going to do the digital version, but now, since TFR is dead, we have some other plans for a digital version, but I won’t reveal anything yet.

Chain D.L.K.: “Cinema Bizarre” as well as all of your earlier, self-released demo recordings feature the stunning artwork of Alexander Fröbel, alias Pixelbreed. That has seemingly become a trademark for Project Rotten. Please describe a bit your dedication to Alexander’s works. How did you get in contact with him?

Project Rotten: I actually talked to Alex when I joined Menschdefekt in early 2009 and after that we have been in contact and became good friends. He is a very talented guy and his
expertise is horror-related stuff as you can see on our covers etc. We are both horror freaks, so it’s a perfect match.

Chain D.L.K.: According to some information sheets of your latest releases, there have been plans to integrate a guitar player to the music of Project Rotten. Any updates on this? Will that be your appearance “back to the roots” to your Black Metal past? What are the reasons, that you’ve become a Harsh-EBM junkie, who has given up the guitar-driven headbanging-attitude?

Project Rotten: Haha, no, no there won’t be a guitar player, we just had a try-out for it once on stage and it worked pretty well. But the guy dropped off, so we decided to skip the whole EBM-/ Metal-thing. We included his guitar play on “Fuel My Hatered”, which is a pretty special track but I can’t really see PR as a Metal band. I was never a Black Metal fan, I’m more of an old- school Death Metal guy. I got more or less bored of Metal for a few years and found Electro/EBM could be as equally aggressive and raw, but more funny too.

Chain D.L.K.: Young and inexperienced music-projects out of the Harsh-EBM genre would like to get a “how-to-contact-a-prominent-contributor” guide-line from you. How did you get in contact with Johan van Roy to persuade him for a guest appearance on your track “Club Death”?

Project Rotten: It wasn’t that much work, I sent Johan a mail and told him about the bands I was in and that it would be cool, to have his voice on one of our tracks. I sent him the track and he loved it. I think if you approach a person the right way nothing is impossible. And I mean you can always ask, worst case scenario is that you get a “no”.

Chain D.L.K.: Your bio regarding live actions reports of a festival in Portugal, where you guys have taken part. I guess that such a trip from Sweden to Portugal to take part on a festival has a lot of adventurous content to talk about. How has it been? How does a live performance of Project Rotten generally look like? Any plans for more live actions in the pipeline?

Project Rotten: In about a month we’ll visit Portugal for the first time and like with all new places we play at it’s always fun with new adventures and countries. Generally we just go up on stage and have fun and if the crowd likes us and we get along then you get a real energy kick. Let’s face it, a boring crowd that doesn’t respond, doesn’t give any energy to the band. So far we’ve got only two gigs left this year and one confirmed for next year in Russia.

Chain D.L.K.: Talking about another project episode from you, Fredrik. Under the pseudonym “Talyrik” you have teamed up with Maik Grohs (“Zypex”) of Electric Breathing to form the project Necroleptic. “A Deep Sleep” is the title of your 8-track-long, self-released debut, which offers a darker and more ominous sound outfit compared to your main projects. Please fill in the current status for this project. Any hopes for a continuation? Why “hiding” behind such pseudonyms?

Project Rotten: Sure we continue to make music, but we don’t rush anything and create whenever we have the inspiration and time for it. From the start we wanted it to be a bit more mysterious and see how far we could go without people knowing who we were.

Chain D.L.K.: Any projects else you guys are involved, which we haven’t discussed here so far? Any plans for a new release already able to confirm here? Any news in the pipeline of remix works, collaborations etc.?

Project Rotten: Not at the moment, but I have been doing guest vocals for a few bands, but more info about that will come later .

Chain D.L.K.: Finally some words about the private persons Fredrik Croona and Kettil Sundberg. Please give us some insight about hobbies, relations, scandals, and other things of interest…

Project Rotten: Fredrik is kinda laid back and boring in person and prefers the comforts of his home along with playing video games and watching horror movies. Tends to become a little too drunken sometimes and throws up like a fountain.
Kettil is kinda like the opposite of Fredrik, even thought he also likes to watch movies and play games. He likes to party a bit more and goes out to have fun. He also falls asleep everywhere specially when he’s drunken.

Chain D.L.K.: Any final words you feel important to say to the world outside…?

Project Rotten: Have fun, buy our album and love us!

Visit Project Rotten at:

www.projectrotten.se

[Interviewed by: Marc Tater    Proofread by: Jean Mason]

Run by Victor and Coco Lenis, the label Romance Moderne born from their mutual feelings and their love for synth sounds. Their website has been launched at the end of September and presented to all the minimal wave sounds lovers (but they are opened to every form of synth music, from synthpop to italo disco) their first three releases. At the moment they started with digital releases but in the future they planned to press vinyl. Let’s discover what they reserved for us…

Hailing from Croatia and active also with Florence Foster Fan Club, Le Chocolat Noir inaugurate with the two tracks single “Irreversible” the Romance Moderne catalog. This single is the third Le Chocolat Noir release since 2007, the first two have been released in 2007 and 2011 by the Home Made Electronica label. The title track is a upbeat track based on a monophonic distorted bass line enriched by minimal lead leads and a nice vocal that recalled me of Daniel Ash of the Tones On Tail period. The second track “Never Let Go”, features Anshie on vocals and sounds more bumping and obsessive with minimal bass lines and hard beats. The sound is tweaked thanks to filter adjustments and rhythm changes.

A bit e.b.m. and catchy. Florence Foster Fan Club is a duo formed by Le Chocolat Noir and Zarkoff that previously released a CD album titled “Everyday Theatre” on the Brazilian Wave Records. This new single “Methadone addiction” is a great synth wave tune with a fat bass line, a spacey pad and minimal drum beats which all create a icey background for a now melodic and then detached vocal performance. Very inspired and a bit 80s. “Running Out Of Time” is a bit more distorted and obsessive with dissonant arpeggios, in levare bass line and clean nice vocals.

Frank Kartell is the third to release a single for Romance Moderne and his “Angoisse” is the newest of a list of releases that the French producer has on his shoulders since mid 2000s. The single contains two instrumentals which mix hypnotic atmospheres, analog sounds, drum reverbs and mysterious melodies. “Melancholie” is a bit more nostalgic and has a drum sound that recalls a bit the retro video games. The track is focused on nice arpeggios, clock like rhythms and hard beats with melodic lead stabs here and there.

These are only the first three releases but if this will be the standard of the label, Romance Moderne is setting itself like a must for the lovers of synth wave sounds! [Editor: meanwhile I was preparing this article, Romance Moderne released an E.P. by A New Life. Read the review that Evangelos did, here!]

Let’s discover a little more about the label with a chat with Victor and Coco.

CHAIN D.L.K.: What convinced you that it was time to give birth to a new label since you already run Black Leather?

Victor: Romance Moderne is like a different breath for me. Talking about music and Concept, it’s far from the Black Leather proposal. RM is closer to what my influences and personal tastes are, even if I love techno and electronics on the dance floor. It’s a common project with my wife, we know the direction to take and what we expect.

CHAIN D.L.K.: You and Coco started this adventure together. How do you feel about this? As far as I understood, Romance Moderne was born thanks to your mutual love, am I right?

Coco: Since we met because of music, it seemed evident that we should create and work on a common project. We wanted to create something that would be more personal, where we are free to share/produce artists and musics we love, without thinking about what would be the actual mass demand.

Victor: It’s a Romance Moderne!

CHAIN D.L.K.: At the moment you only release digital singles but I read that you plan to have vinyl also, right? What will you release on that format?

Victor: We are vinyl lovers. But the media distribution developed the digital technology and in this modern world its imperative to distribute our music that way, its easier and faster even if it doesn’t have that “special” touch of a vinyl. We are not going to have a long conversation or controversy about which format is better. The most important thing is to support the music and the artists you like by buying 12″,10″ or 7″ etc. The point is to continue to create and to contribute (and that’s music and arts in general)!

Coco: At first, only a compilation of our productions will be pressed on vinyl. This compilation will make Romance Moderne followers happy and their feedback will be important in the tracks selection! As two vinyl lovers, we could not see it in a different way! Of course in the future, when the label will grow, our wish is to press a vinyl for each album released on the label.

CHAIN D.L.K.: The first three releases I reviewed in some way have a minimal wave electronic sound but you told me that you want to cover a wider range of genres. Can you tell me something more about that?

Coco: Yes, it’s true for the moment the present releases are more minimal, and wave. But the point is we don’t want to have a closed style, most importantly our desire is to produce and search for artists with a strong artistic personality, with something different. But always with that “old school” touch. I personally would say this point is maybe what could define Romance Moderne: an open minded label with an “old school touch”!

Victor: Yes clearly you feel the cold and minimal shade in these first releases. To add to what Coco said, I like the idea that we are open to a world of possibilities and new proposals.

In regards to technical ways of production, we aim to find artists with new and/or old concepts. The fact that the current sounds and composers are really connected with the old and retro sound maybe means that for some reason nothing really new has been created at all, it is just the need to feel and hear some forgotten details in this modern world all over again.

If we like the material, we can release something with new beat or Chicago house shades, even a hot high energy or italo disco track or a new dance floor track with eclectic elements. We know what we like and we hope the public will be seduced by this concept.

CHAIN D.L.K.: Can you tell me something more about how you got in contact with your label’s artists?

Victor: When I receive demos I just choose what could be great for BLR or RM and talk about it with all parties involved. Like I told you before, both labels have different directions.

Coco: Usually by contacting us, especially Victor who has Black Leather. When Victor thinks that one of the demos would be great for RM, he brings the songs to me and we talk about it. Other than that, I search a lot throughout the several sound sources, most of all Soundcloud but also through our friends’ suggestions.

CHAIN D.L.K.: What do you appreaciate mostly about each of them?

Coco: That it is only about music, the one you do with your emotions, no specific image our style to please the masses. I really like the fact they are coming from different countries but the music language is the same. They have a kind of a secret universe in complete simplicity.

Victor: Each one has something to share and to show trough different ways of expression. It’s really interesting when you have things created for your label and the connection with the artists starts to turn into friendship. It makes the ideas grow and take on interesting shapes. The communication with the artist must be friendly and clear as that is the best way to build something honest and cool.

CHAIN D.L.K.: What are your next releases?

Victor: Cool stuff is coming but we prefer to keep the surprise!

Visit Romance Moderne on the web at: www.romancemoderne.com

Before the summer ended, Nilaihah Records offered me the opportunity to interview three bands on their roster. Since there was no big pile of CDs that needed to be reviewed waiting me I said “Sure, why not?” I decided to start with Silent Auction, a light/dark synthpop/futurepop duo out of Rochester, NY (not far from where I live) partly because I was curious about the Rochester scene for this type of music, partly because I had seen the band perform live once, and partly because their ‘H on Earth’ album is very, very good. Although I could have done the interview live of via phone, I chose email because it’s easier, and questions can be more thoughtfully asked and answered than in pressure setting. Well, I was wrong about the “easier”, but right about everything else. The questions were put to the band in the beginning of September, but as you will see, Jason Barbero (Vocals, Programming, Keyboards, etc.) and Terri Snyder (Vocals, Programming/Mixing, Sequence & Arrangement, etc.) had a LOT to say in answer to my questions, so it took some time to formulate and edit it all. (Very little has been edited.) So get set to explore the world of Silent Auction, a band that seems like they are poised to garner some major attention.

Chain D.L.K.:  So how has your summer been and what have you been up to of late?

Terri: This summer has been great. We’ve been working hard in our studio writing and recording our new CD. We decided to take the past year off from performing so that we could really put our full focus and attention on our newest work, and it’s definitely paying off. Silent Auction has come a long, long way in the 15+ years it’s been around. And we’re very excited about the direction we’ve taken, as musicians and artists. We like to keep challenging ourselves, pushing ourselves and reforming what’s considered popular. Our new artillery of songs shows our growth in songwriting and singing abilities, and it also illustrates our efforts to bridge the gap between underground synthpop and modern pop/electro pop.

We’re also in the process of buying a place where we can set up our permanent studio. Aside from writing and recording, we do all our own mixing and production so having a solid studio is very important to us. We’re also working with a few other artists in collaborations and production assistance. Our work is constant, although sometimes under the radar, but we love keeping ourselves active. Silent Auction is heading up a strong and straight path and we’re trying to keep up with all the momentum. We’re totally enjoying the ride.

Chain D.L.K.: How did you come up with the name Silent Auction?

Jason: Honestly it pretty much “is” as it sounds. A long time ago I was obsessed with purity through silence, simply meaning to step back and just listening to the world. I wanted to use the words that at that time in my life meant so much to me. I also had a strong interest in design and at the time I had never heard of an event called a Silent Auction and I thought hmm…Silent, because nobody knows the band exists and Auction, because we would love for people to hear about what we were doing. Hence, the name Silent (mysterious? pure? not known?) Auction (up for grabs? here for the highest bidder?) And once I saw it in print in a simple Times New Roman font (nothing fancy) I thought it just looked right. From a designer’s point a view it just fit.

I still enjoy that purity through silence. There are things we often forget to do now in our adult life, like walking into the woods on a cool, late summer night and just quietly listen to the leaves of the trees mate with the wind. Or to just sit near the expressway early in the morning and listen to the city buzz as everyone rushes into work. And even something as simple as walking through Home Depot as soon as they open at 6am just to know you’re the only one thats been up all night long and still wide awake. You get to observe and enjoy a part of life that most people struggle through – adjusting to the early morning. It’s the kind of “silence” that I love.

Chain D.L.K.: You guys are from Rochester, NY (a hop, skip and jump from me) – tell me about the Rochester Goth-Industrial scene, clubs, bands, music stores etc.

Terri: Where do we start?! We are so proud to say we’re Rochesterians. This city has so much to offer. No matter where you live there will always be those residents that say “There’s nothing to do!”. I laugh at them. Seriously, our city is dripping with culture in the subculture. We have galleries that exhibit the weird and the wild, we have tattoo and piercing places down almost every avenue, we have a great variety of venues for live music acts from metal to indie rock to electronic and punk. We have numerous buildings that are rented almost solely for the purpose of band practice space (and many of those bands will offer underground performances any night of the week, if you know who to ask).

We still have local owned and operated music stores that sell vinyl and cassettes (for example Lakeshore Records, Record Archive and House of Guitars) along with current popular and local music on CDs. We are lucky to have a wide range of local bands and DJs, most of which encourage and support one another. We are members of the Rochester Music Coalition, which offers local artists and bands a community of like minded individuals involved in the music scene (all genres) to discuss ideas, promotions, events and even collaborations.

As for the specific Goth/Industrial scene here in Rochester, I hesitate to say it’s small, so instead I’ll say it’s a growing community. Because of our local Goth/Industrial/Electronic club, Vertex, we see a lot of Syracuse and Buffalo people head our way for weekend fun. It’s really great to have a place that so many people love. Vertex has been an active club for over 20 years. The employees and patrons there have become an extension of family to Silent Auction. The club supports us and our endeavors, and we in turn support it. It even opens its doors to live performances from time to time, even though there is no defined stage. It has survived numerous location changes, even a massive fire, and a few DJ turnarounds. But no matter what it faces, that club stands strong. It proves that music is important, dancing is important, and providing a place for everyone (no matter who you are or what you believe) to gather and enjoy each other’s company is important.

Aside from the Goth/Industrial scene, Rochester also has a great electronic scene busting out from the seams. Clubs like Tilt and Decibel feature headling pro DJs from all across the country (and sometimes overseas) on a regular basis. And it’s great to have a variety of music venues to catch live shows. Places that we’ve performed at here in Rochester, like Waterstreet Music Hall, the Montage, and California Brew Haus to name just a few, offer Rochester stages to catch any style of music any night of the week. We’ve had a handful of awesome show promoters that have gotten incredible acts here, like KMFDM, VNV Nation, Iris, Seabound, Assemblage 23, Informatik, Freezepop, the Azoic, Plushgun, Shiny Toy Guns, Juno Reactor and Moby (just to name a few). Rochester’s a buzzing city – you just to need to keep your eyes and ears open to all its possibilities.

Chain D.L.K.: I’ve noticed that most of your live performances seem to be local (I believe I caught you on a bill with the Azoic at The Haunt in Ithaca), do you have plans for any further national, international or regional touring, and if so, when and where?

Terri: Yeah, that show was so much fun! The Azoic is such a great group to perform with. I loved having the opportunity to share the stage with Kristy at the end of their set for a duo performance of “Obsession” – she’s great!

We certainly have tour plans cooking. Like I mentioned before, we’ve been busy writing a ton of new work, so we’re itching to get back on stage and showcase our hard work. We’ve started planning for a small overseas tour next summer – we’ve already made connections with clubs in London and Paris and we’re looking to fit in a few more around the UK if possible. It won’t be a long tour, maybe 2 weeks. But we know how to pack it in. Plus, we’re planning on hitting up the East Coast once the new album is done. That one’s a bit easier to tackle. We’ve been talking about doing some weekend “mini tours” throughout next spring and summer, hitting 2 to 3 cities in each weekend. We’ll start to plan that out when the snow starts falling here in Rochester… which I guess could be any day. First step before performing out again is to move in and build our new studio, and with that our new practice space. We are REALLY looking forward to next summer and getting back to it!

Chain D.L.K.:  What bands would you like to see Silent Auction playing on the same bill with?

Terri: Oh man, I’d love to get on a stage with Fischerspooner. I’d be swimming in their creativity! Their live shows have inspired at least 2 of the songs I’ve written for Silent Auction. I’d also like to share a gig with Hank and Cupcakes, Robyn, IAMX… If you were to ask me who’d I’d like to share a STUDIO with, well that list would be totally different, and pretty long. I admire a lot of electronic musicians and would (almost) give my left leg to spend a week with them in the production studio. Let’s say, BT for starters. His production work is constantly at top notch, always testing new ideas and pushing the acceptable boundary. And yet his work still sounds like it “belongs” wherever and whenever it’s played. And how about Feed Me (their production/mixing is incredible). And then there’s Robyn again – I want to soak in her songwriting creativity. Others like Delta-S, The Presets, Pendulum, Royksopp, even Ke$ha – I would love to sit in a recording or production session with them all and see how they make their magic.

Jason: I second that answer. I’m a bit old school here in some respect, but I would still love the chance to perform with Juno Reactor, Apoptygma, Mind.In.A.Box, Ogre, Velvet Acid, etc. And as for our “contemporaries” I’d say Cosmicity, Veluxe, Sisters of Murphy, Third Realm, Marlowe, Level 2.0 ( Mike Hoffman is seriously the most entertaining and interactive vocalist I have ever seen live). I’d love to perform with Iris again and Seabound. There are so many great bands and this list could keep going. My top 3 right now would be De/vision, Mind.In.A.Box and Iris.

And I appreciate Iris for other reasons, too. Reagan Jones has such an amazing voice and a stage presence that demands your attention in a beautiful way, and the music they do is so well thought-out. And Andrew Sega has even given me guidance with how to improve our performance. He was an instrumental part in helping me choose what gear I tested out to bring with me in concert. We went through a long period of time when we were constantly changing out gear and hardware and trying to learn how everything worked (and work out any bugs) right before shows. It was tough on all three of us until I finally got the nerve to start asking questions. Now I’m happy to say our performance is rock solid. Our current setup has the same gear we used last year and I don’t have any plans to upgrade or update any of it since right now everything works perfectly.

With Andrew’s suggestions and my own ideas, I have even gotten us to the point where I have what I call custom tailored pre eqs for each type of venue. I began using RTA and VST parametric eqs live in order to filter out squealing and unwanted feedback from our mics and now I have 3 setups that seem to work anywhere I take them, depending on the venue (and a few others specifically designed for certain venues in Rochester and Albany). I have found that I can mix my custom made preset eqs to further combat ugly sounds and help create a more enjoyable overall sound for the stage. Over the years I’ve learned how to work with the FOH and BOH sound techs at any venue, which is why I have created this system of a so called pre-sound check. Now our drums thump, our keys have body, our backing is rock solid, and our vocals are clear and full.

And for me, I had to have all that before I could loosen up and enjoy the stage. It took years but now I’m finally there and I really do have fun performing!

Chain D.L.K.: Most interviewers ask bands about musical influences, but that seems self-evident to me. I’d like to know what books, movies, TV show, art, whatever has had an influence on your creativity.

Terri: This is such an awesome question. Jason and I are also both visual artists. We’re completely influenced by what we see and by our environment that we change up the “scenery” at least once a year to keep us creative. We rotate furniture around when things get too “stale” and start visiting new scenes in our city when we need inspiration. I like the contrast of being around energetic live-off-the-land friends one day and fast track professionals the next. I appreciate their differences and always take something with me from the personal interactions. And those experiences tend to show up in our lyrics in one way or another. I’m an observer – it happens.

I’m most influenced by spur-of-the-moment, unexpected reactions to things – I typically don’t go searching them out. I read the book “Room” recently by Emma Donohue and wrote a song called “Break Out” (on the upcoming CD) less than a month later. The song isn’t about the story in the book, but reading it helped me figure out a more creative way of telling my own story. I watched “This Is It”, the behind the scenes documentary of Michael Jackson’s final unseen tour, and some weird emotion hit me unexpectedly at the end. I wrote full lyrics to a new song the next day. I was watching some movie awards ceremony once where they were giving Steve Martin a lifetime achievement award. I was inspired by the theatrics of the stage and all the colors in the auditorium and by the orchestral piece they played as he walked on stage. I turned off the TV before he even gave his acceptance speech and went into the studio. Six hours later I took my headphones off and realized I had just created one of my favorite instrumental tracks. It’s called “March of the Wild” and will hopefully be released with the new album.

I love children’s books. It may sound strange, and that’s fine. I can enjoy a good novel like the rest of ‘em, but I’m an illustrator by trade and have always loved the challenge of telling a story as simply as possible, using clever visuals and clear writing. There’s almost always a moral to be learned in children’s stories, and I tend to include a similar thread through the songs I write.

My biggest influence, though, will always be the art of living. The day to day grind, the struggles in doing what’s right, the pain and joy of standing on solid ground. All those things, every day, give me fuel to write. I will be at a stop light and suddenly the drive home from work has inspired a melody, or a lyric, and I’ll have to write whatever it is down on a napkin or gas station receipt – just so I don’t lose the idea. I’ve finally learned to carry a small notebook with me wherever I go for those moments.

 Jason: I’m actually a huge fan of Law and Order SVU, Fringe, The Big C, Supernatural, Modern Family, Southpark, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, just to name a few entertainment influences. As for art, HR Giger’s work truly inspires me. And I was HUGELY influenced by Aslan and his design for The Birthday Massacre’s website, www.NothingAndNowhere.com, for our official band colors and the artwork on “H on Earth.” Now, whenever I design anything I pull up that website and listen to the beautifully inspiring background loop and then play with the easter eggs on their site. I was moved by the sound and design of that site and will remain so for a long time to come.

Another band whose artwork influences me is Mind.In.A.Box (www.mindinabox.com). And of course I can’t leave out Stefan DeBatselier and Chris Cunningham for their amazing videos.    I have also been hugely influenced by New Order’s “True Faith” video and more recently everything Fischerspooner does in music, video, live performance…all of it. Wow, they are so imaginative. To me, they totally bring what I always assumed the underground scene was like in NYC in the 1980′s to life. There was a documentary called “Better Living through Circuitry” a friend of mine turned me onto a while back that was all about electronic music and that was also really cool.

Lastly I would have to add “Party Monster”. It’s just an awesome movie full of color and reckless abandon, and the sound track is just plain awesome.

Chain D.L.K.:  I see your song “Good Girl” has been enlisted for use in several American TV shows – MTV’s Married To Rock, E!TV’s Khole & Lamar and Kim & Kourtney Take NYC, OXYGEN’s Bad Girls Club, etc., how do you anticipate this exposure widening your fanbase and will you be doing more songs in this sardonic pop vein?

Terri: We’re so excited about the interest “Good Girl” has received recently. We can’t predict what a TV placement might do for us or for that song, but we hope it at least brings a few more people to listen to the rest of our work. “Good Girl” started off as a joke; a game between Jason and I. A late night studio session of who could write the most commercial sounding instrumental in 30 minutes HAHA! Seriously, that’s how it started. It would be great if that one song, a product of goofing off and truly enjoying the collaboration process between the two of us turned TV viewers onto our more thought-out, inspired work. With the way cue sheets and music licensing work, as we’re finding out, it may take 6 months after the air date for us to find out when the song was used. And it is not guaranteed that all the shows listed will actually use the song, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for sure.

Our newest work certainly has the potential to attract a broader audience. We’ve been challenging ourselves in the last 2 years to create music that we love that’s infused with our favorite aspects of multiple genres: like the underground (EBM, industrial, electro), the avant- garde and current pop. We are attempting to create a bridge between those worlds with our music. If “Good Girl” brings more listeners our way, that’s great! We write our music for others to enjoy. I’ve yet to see a full episode of any of the shows listed for licensing, but I know they have high viewer ratings. Apparently Kim Kardashian has something like 9 million people following her on twitter. If our song is used in her show and 1% of those viewers looked for more of our music after the airing, that’s 90,000 new listeners. It’s mind boggling.

Chain D.L.K.: “H On Earth” is your latest full album release, what does the “H” stand for – Heaven? Hell? Hydrogen? Halloween? There seems to be a dichotomy of styles- darkness and light on the album. What was the writing process for it like? Is one of you more inclined to be upbeat and the other gloomy or is it an interplay of moods that just happen?

Terri: Thanks! We’re proud of “H on Earth”. It was a long time coming (4 years to finish, with a few hiccups along the way), but we’re glad it’s finally out in the world. And you’re absolutely right – it’s a CD full of contrasts. Light vs. Dark. Good vs. Bad. Clear vs. Cloudy. New Love vs. Lost Love. The “H” stands for many things: Heaven, Hell, Hope, Hardship, Happiness – the things in life that guide our actions and shape humanity as we’ve seen it. The CD as a whole is sort of like a road trip through all these things.

“H on Earth” is a great example of where we’re both coming from in our writing styles. That CD showcases our individual styles as most songs were almost fully written by one or the other. Jason was writing heavier, “landscaped” pieces, with more sweeping pads and layered synths (“Reverie”, “NB Sadness”). He was spending a lot of time on song layout and testing theories on how to get a “full” sound while I spent a great deal of time tweaking my instruments and creating interesting “ear candy” additives. His vocals and melody ideas had more of a deep, moody, expressive quality about them while writing “H on Earth”.  What I wrote was a bit more pop influenced while I was experimenting with harmonies and instruments. My work (“Beautiful Mess”, “Heart Attack”) generally seemed to have a lighter quality mostly because I was teaching myself the art of mixing while writing. It allowed me to save the “space” I wanted to let my instruments breathe.

A lot has changed since then, and now we are collaborating more on new music AND our styles have clearly begun merging together. There are times now when we browse through folders of works in progress and can’t quite remember who wrote what. Our “archive” of unfinished work is enormous – literally thousands of ideas, some just seconds long, others almost completely finished instrumentals. The more recent the idea, the more collaborative it is. It’s awesome to know that we’re finally getting to this point of synchrony. It’s almost like getting a prize for hard work together. And having been a working partnership for so long now lends us to having similar story lines and lyric ideas. We’re able to really bounce ideas off one another and spend an entire night together in the studio (sometimes 4pm- 8am, w/out sleep) working on one song.

Jason: We are really happy with our last album, “H on Earth”. But even since then we’ve come a long way in our writing and production skills. Our songs now tend to be just a little shorter to keep the attention and excitement and re-listen potential alive. We’ve been adding more color and thought into our work and spending more time into concept. All of these factors lead us into a more universal listener-friendly direction. We are working hard to make sure we do NOT lose our edge while doing this, so that we keep our style as consistent as possible but still allow ourselves to grow as artists and producers.

Chain D.L.K.: As a musician myself, I never pass up the opportunity to ask a band about its gear. What kind of equipment are you using – synths, samplers, software, recording etc., for live and studio?

Jason: For sequencing we use FL Studio7, which is great because it allows us to implement the use of VST and RTA synths, effects, and eqs. We also utilize the TC Electronics PowerCore platform for its additional performance and for Sonnox Oxford bundles which we use for fast mastering and it allows us access to the virtual Access Virus and it has some great mastering tools. However, the tools we use the most for eqs would be the FL ParaEq2 and the Wavs Mercury Bundle. We have found these to be the most useful and clean out of all the tools we have.

As far as synths and effects, well that’s a whole other story which I’ll provide at the end of this. Most of the eqs and effects we use are homemade presets that we have created over time and through troubleshooting. Every musician has their own preferred sound, and we know what we like when we hear something good. But then once we hear something good, we tweak it even further for our own mixing purposes. We are currently working on a library of presets that we use in our songs that we would like to hopefully one day offer to other musicians, and we hope other artists will someday do the same.

For recording we are also mostly software based. We use Adobe Audition (previously Cool Edit Pro). There are many programs that are great to use for recording and editing, however we have gotten very comfortable with the programs we started off with years ago. We work with the motto: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… too much”. We tap into every possibility our software programs allow. We push them to their limits.

We have custom built the machines we use. We have been very happy with the EMU 0404 soundcards and the TC Electronic PowerCore for processing power and sound quality. We try to emulate our recorded sound as best we can for live performance therefore we have quite a bit of hardware we use that can be integrated back and forth with our studio software. For example, we had a lot of problems with our live drum set-up for the first few years. We had tried a lot of different setups to get the drums we use in our recordings ALSO in our live performances. We have tried everything from desktop computers on stage with a variety of Presonus, RME, M-Audio and EMU soundcards utilizing Battery and other similar programs to try to achieve this feat. Long story short, after a year of troubleshooting we finally found a solution that works for us. The Roland SPDS Sampling Pads linked from midi through the Alesis Midi I/O trigger hooked up to our Yamaha and Roland drum pads. This is great because we can simply take the sound we use in our mixes, pre-eq them, and them load them right onto our SPDS Drum Sampler. Most people would use loop samples for this, but we use one-hitters (a single kick, snare, hi hat, etc. NOT LOOPS). We like to set ourselves apart from the norm in that way and show that everything we do really is original.

I could keep going on and on, but to REALLY show you everything we use, here is a list of all our gear. Our list is very comprehensive because we really do all our own production and mixing, and some mastering. It’s important to use to have a variety of platforms to test our recordings with and we find the more options the better. We have everything we need for mixing from club speakers to professional grade reference monitors to pro series monitoring headphones all the way down to the cheapo 5 dollar headphones. We are constantly looking to improve our sounds quality, and our productions.

Here is the full kit-and-caboodle (which can also be found on our website under the Studio tab):

Hardware

• 2 Custom built Intel Core 2 Duo 1.79mhz – 4gb – 1tb D.A.W’s
• Sony VAIO Laptop with Intel Core2 Duo Processor
• Microsoft Windows XP Pro
• Emu – 0404 pci sound cards
• TC Electronics Powercore Element
• TC Electronics Powercore MKII
• TC Electronics Voiceworks vocal processors x 2
• TC Electronics Voice Tone Double pedals x 2
• Roland SH-201
• Micro Korg Vocoder
• Roland SPD-S Drum Sampling pa
• Alesis I/O Midi Trigger
• Roland TD3 – TD6 – TD7 Pads and Stand
• Akai MPC 2000
• M-Audio Fast Track Ultra
• Sabine FBX 900 Mono Feedback suppressors x 3
• Sabine FBX 901 Mono Feedback suppressor
• Lexicon MPX 100 FX processor
• Behringer Feedback Destroyer Pro
• Marshall MXL 990 Condenser Microphone
• Shure SM 58 Dynamic Vocal Mic’s x 2
• Behringer ECM8000 Room Measurement Microphone
• Yamaha – MG16/6FX 16 channel mixer
• Yahama – MG 10/2 10 channel mixer
• Yamaha – 8/2FX 10 channel mixer
• Nady DKW DUO wireless mic system
• Korg Nano Kontrol MIDI Controller
• M-Audio Axiom 49 Key MIDI Controller
• M-Audio Oxygen 61 Key MIDI Controller
• Behringer MON800 – Compact Stereo Monitor Matrix Mixer with Talkback x 2

Speakers

• M-Audio BX8A first generation – Studio Monitors
• Krk Rocket 6 Limited Glossy White Edition – Studio Monitors
• Krk Rocket 8 2nd Generation – Studio Monitors
• KRK RP10S 10-Inch Powered Studio Subwoofer
• 4ft x 4ft x 3ft Peavey 18″ Dual Bass Cab Club Series Monitors x 4 – Donated by Vertex
• 4ft x 4ft x 2ft Community 18″ Dual mains Club Series Monitors x 4 – Donated by Vertex
• 2ft x 1ft x 3ft Peavey Practice Monitors x 2

Headphones

• Beyer dynamic DT 770 Pro-80 Closed Studio Headphones
• Sennheiser HD212Pro Dynamic HiFi Stereo Headphones
• RCA WHP141 900MHZ Wireless Stereo Headphones
• RCA WHP140 900MHZ Wireless Stereo Headphones
• A few various pair of headphones in poor quality for cross referencing.

Software

• Image Line FL Studio Producer Edition 7-8 and 9
• SONAR Producer 7
• Reason 3.0
• Adobe Audition 1.5
• Waves – Mercury Bundle
• Waves – Renaissance Bundle
• Waves – Native 360
• Waves – SSL bundle
• Waves – Mophoder
• TC Electronic Powercore Virus
• TC Electronic Powercore – Chorus·Delay
• TC Electronic Powercore – MasterX3
• TC Electronic Powercore – MegaReverb
• TC Electronic Powercore – PowerCore CL
• IK Multimedia Classik Studio Reverb
• Ik Multimedia ARC Advanced Room Correction System
• TC Electronic Powercore – VoiceStrip
• TC Electronic Powercore – 24/7-C
• Sonnox Oxford – Limiter
• Sonnox Oxford – Expander
• Sonnox Oxford – Inflator
• Sonnox Oxford – Transmod
• Refx – Nexus 2 – All Expansion Packs to date
• Refx – Vanguard
• Cakewalk – Z3TA
• Cakewalk – Rapture
• Native Instruments – Battery 2 and 3
• Native Instruments – Konakt 4
• Native Instruments – FM7 and FM8
• Native Instruments – Massive
• Native Instruments – Komplete 5
• Native Instruments – Reaktor 5
• Native Instruments – Mouth
• Native Instruments – The Finger
• Native Instruments – Spark
• Native Instruments – Pro 52 and Pro 53
• LinPlug Rob Papen – Albino 2 and 3
• LinPlug Rob Papen – Preditor
• LinPlug Rob Papen – Blue
• Classics Delay
• Nomad Factory – Blue Tubes Bundle
• Nomad Factory – Blue Tubes Equalizers
• Nomad Factory – Liquid Bundle II
• Nomad Factory – Analog Signature Pack
• Nomad Factory – Essential Studio Suite
• Izotope – Ozone
• Izotope – Nectar
• Izotope – RX
• Prosonic Orange vocoder
• Bionic delay
• Toontrack Superior Drummer
• Toontrack EZ mix
• T-RackS 3 Deluxe
• Har-Bal
• A.A.M.S
• Adobe Photoshop 7 – CS3
• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
• Sony Vegas Video 8
• Image Line PoiZone
• Image Line Toxic Biohazard
• Image Line Para EQ 2
• GForce Minimonsta
• Spectrasonics Atmosphere
• Spectrasonics Stylus RMX
• Arturia Analog factory
• Crysonic.SINDOV3
• PSP Audioware
• PSP Audioware Lexicon PSP42
• PSP Audioware Mixpack v2.0.3
• PSP Audioware MasterComp
• PSP Audioware VintageWarmer v2.3.1
• Native Instruments Absynth 1.3 – 4
• Antares Autotune
• Vengeance Sylenth Trilogy
• Tons of ONE Hitters from – www.vengeance-sound.com/

Chain D.L.K.: Wow! That’s quite a list (be careful what you ask for)…  Has you label Nilaihah been helpful in promoting the new album and in what ways?

Terri & Jason: Nilaihah has been a great label to be on and to be represented by. One of the things we appreciate about this label is that it encourages us to do a lot of our own footwork in respect to marketing and promotion. In our case, this open door has proven to be very helpful.

Our current music style tends to cross between the underground synthpop into the more mainstream electronic pop. This can be difficult for a label that caters strictly to the underground to know how to promote effectively. We have a strong fanbase and following in the Goth and Synthpop crowd, however our music also lends itself to a more mainstream listener base (case in point, our “Good Girl” song being licensed by MTV and VH1). We can’t isolate our marketing efforts in only one area or culture. We have to find ways to spread the promotion across all boards. Nilaihah has been great in promoting our work in the underground scene, which allows us to focus our own time and efforts into modern pop culture.

Chain D.L.K.: You’re married to each other as I understand, has your relationship been a boon to the music, or is it one of those “double-edged swords” ?

Terri: Great question! I really feel our relationship has become the motivation behind our music, and not in any kind of cheesy, corny way. Some musicians need a love, an interest, a muse, or something they know they can’t have to push them into their most creative selves. To me, the relationship we’ve nurtured together for almost 9 years has been one of the strongest pushes behind our music.

Being together as a couple allows us to encourage and push each other in ways that friends or bandmates sometimes simply can’t do. There is a cement-strong trust underneath it all, which also allows us to be downright honest with each other in our writing, recording and production ideas. If it’s not good, we’ll tell each other, and there really aren’t too many hurt feelings. If feelings are hurt, then we revisit the offending idea and see what we can do to it to make it interesting to both people. Or, we simply decide to put that idea or song aside for a later date or maybe it ends up into our side-projects (Chapter 2 and Rocket 6). At the end of the day, we know we’re still going to be in love with each other no matter what happened in the studio or on stage.

All in all, being married to each other just solidifies the idea that we really are a team, inside the studio and out. Aside from studio work and being 50/50 equal writing partners, we each have our other responsibilities. I am the band “office manager” – I handle the band’s finances, taxes and filing and most business related communication. Jason is our “tech support” – he is the tech brains behind the project, the one building and maintaining our machines, and the one that troubleshoots when things go haywire. He is also our webmaster and primary designer. I sometimes get involved with the CD designs in small ways, but we always cross ideas with each other before the final “OK.”

Jason: Yeah, what she said. (Hey, we’re married. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to say? Lol!)
But seriously, I would have to say almost the exact same thing. I have been working on electronic music for about 17 years, and in that time I have had my fair share of ups and downs. I have health issues that can leave me tired, unmotivated, and exhausted. Knowing that Terri is always excited and eager to work on new music gives me a sense of relief. I trust her work and her ideas. When she creates something that I think is a little lack luster or too soft, I’ll sit down with her idea and kind of touch it up a bit. And when she has a chance to hear it back it’s almost as if I’ve opened a doorway for her, giving her even more freedom with her piece of music and inspiring new ideas. And she does the same for me, too.

Mostly though, knowing that one of your favorite producers (I see Terri that way) will always be working on something for Silent Auction gives me the freedom to allow myself the time to look into my health and hopefully regain my energy and motivation. Her equal involvement in the band allows me the time and space to look into bigger and better ways to perform, mix, master, produce, dj, etc. I can’t tell you how lucky I know I am to have someone in my life that doesn’t just support my passions but shares them on an equal ground. Most times that’s not the case at all, and even in some relationships there’s a total lack of support. It’s sad to know that there are girlfriends/boyfriends, wives/husbands that not only disregards but hates what the musician in the relationship is doing. Sometimes people see it as immature, selfish, or simply not worth while. Whether or not you earn income from your passion shouldn’t matter, and I feel that if you believe in something, then DO IT! A lot of people feel the opposite. The general thought is if you can’t make a living on it than why are you doing it? I say, IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY! It’s about believing in something bigger than you.

Silent Auction is bigger than me, and always will be. I haven’t traveled the world and touched a stranger’s life, but Silent Auction has – and in that sense it is much bigger than I’ll ever be. Even if it has only helped a few people, well, then alone is pretty amazing. For years it helped me, too. I grew up very rough and music was my refuge, it kept me alive. Even when I got to a point where I went numb, it re-taught me how to feel (I wrote about it in an older song called “Headphones” on Pulling Forward). So if nothing else, music is my necessary medication. I feel so fortunate to know that Terri understands this, and allows me to use the music in such a way. My partner in music is also my partner in life. What an awesome feeling.

Chain D.L.K.: What do you see in store for Silent Auction in 3 years?

Terri & Jason: First, we see our first “official” tour, through the East Coast and the UK (even if it’s a short one). Second, we see more full and colorful sound with edge and catchy melodies, stronger hooks and cleaner production. We see ourselves having even more colorful and interactive performances. We now keep performing in mind when we write. Third, we see ourselves writing in our own, permanent professional, self-built studio. No more temporary setups and temporary solutions that tend to slow us down for months at a time. Fourth, we’d like to see Silent Auction makes its way into more TV shows, movie spots, maybe even games. Fifth, we’d really like to see our band have more involvement in the community and helping those in need. We’ve been working with FoodLink for the last couple of years, collecting food donations for the hungry at every show and public event Silent Auction is involved with. We’re working now to set up a connection with another local organization that help victims of domestic violence. Sixth, we are looking forward to wrapping up the album that we are producing for another act, Insatiable Freaks, which is turned into a side project/collaboration with artist Eric Lees. Lastly, in three years we hope to have 2 more albums released, one of which is mostly finished. We also look forward to creating 2 more band members that we can train from birth That’s the plan, anyway.

Chain D.L.K.:  Thanks for taking your time to share so much with Chain D.L.K. readers, good luck with your endeavors and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more good things from Silent Auction soon!

visit artist on the web at:
http://www.silentpro.com/