[Interview - Side-Line, Belgium, USA, May 2007]

You are a professional DJ, how has djing influenced the way you compose your songs?

I do write a lot of Modulate tracks for the dancefloor, to fit into my DJ sets, so from that point of view the DJ'ing has influenced the sound. It also means I have a ready made audience to test new tracks out on, if they react first time without knowing what a track is or who it is by then I know it's good. I think as well, knowing intimately which tracks work and why they do and don't is something that you can apply to your own music.

Skullfuck features a very prominent and memorable sample from the film Full Metal Jacket. An obvious question would be why did you choose that specific sample?

Simply because I was tired of playing My Rifle by Combichrist and Soilbleed by Grendel, both of which were big tracks that sampled Full Metal Jacket that were absolutely huge on my dancefloors but were getting overplayed because so many people were asking for them. I wanted something along those lines that I could play instead. I think it is an amazing film with some amazing lines, many of which have been used as samples, but I had never heard that line used before. That sample gave the song a great hook and worked so well in the context of the track.

You are collaborating with XP8 on a track for their forthcoming album; tell us about that, what’s your involvement?

I've known Marco for a while and met Marko and Paul more recently. Marco heard the Modulate demo ages ago and asked would I like to collaborate on a new version of Still Lives, so I think it will mostly be me providing loops and layers for Marco to arrange and Krischan from Rotersand to mix, or that is the plan at least. We are all on tour with VNV Nation at the moment so it's something that will have to wait till we are back home.

You’ve just released the Skullfuck EP, and you are currently writing tracks for your debut full-length album. How is that progressing, when can we expect it’s release?

So far so good. I think the success of the EP has raised the bar somewhat so with that comes a certain level of expectation. There are a few tracks at demo level, a few that are pretty much finished but need mixing properly. As for a release, due to the amount of touring I am doing this year I'm not certain yet. I'd like to finish it by the end of the year for a release either around Xmas or early 2008.

All of your tracks to date are sample and/or beat driven. Will we see the addition of vocals?

Possibly. There are a couple of tracks that I'm working on that I think could do with vocals. Though Modulate is, and I think will remain, primarily instrumental. Having vocals gives your live show more of a presence but there are lots of vocal led bands out there, not having vocals gives us something different. There are masses of techno music, trance, classical etc that have no vocals.

Your first tour was somewhat of a baptism of fire, supporting VNV Nation on their very recent European tour. How was that experience?

I'm still on tour with VNV Nation at the moment, I'm sat backstage at the gig in Krefeld. It has been an amazing experience. The kind you dream of as a musician but so few actually get to do. It's interesting seeing the reaction from people from city to city and country to country. Some places are particularly responsive, others are more reserved. Most of these people are seeing you for the first time and from a support band point of view they are there to see VNV Nation, not you, so if you can win over a few new friends in each city then that is great. People told me after our recent show in Edinburgh (after seeing our early gigs) that the live show has progressed to another level and I think it is true, I have learned so much from doing this tour.

Prior to going on tour with VNV Nation, you had only done a handful of live performances. How did you prepare for such a high profile tour?

I'm not sure there is much you can really do to prepare for something like that other than make sure you are well rehearsed and that everything works technically. It's the kind of opportunity that you can only dream about, so to be offered that was amazing. Sure, Modulate did grow up in public but the only way you can get used to playing live gigs in front of 1500 people is to play in front of 1500 people. We might have been inexperienced in the live arena but things happened very very quickly for us and when opportunities like that are presented to you then you have to take them. I don't think you can plan these things. We could have played 3 gigs or 300. It just happened that the VNV tour happened at the right time for the release of our first EP. Ronan heard our music when he was on tour in the US and he's been amazingly supportive of us ever since, so when he asked it was an offer we couldn't refuse.

Before you were a signed act you already had a following, particularly in Europe and the US. What do you think created that buzz around your project?

I'm not always aware of the buzz. The buzz tends to come from other people, not directly from us, so it's not always obvious. Andy (Combichrist) did say to me recently, “Do you realise how big your track is in the US?” and no, actually, I didn't. We are touring with Imperative Reaction from L.A. and Dan, their keyboard player, said that Skullfuck is getting played in just about every club he goes to at the minute. I guess people always like to discover new bands and music. So buzz seems to be something other people generate, journalists, fans etc. MySpace etc has been great in that respect as a networking tool for introducing our music to a new audience. I also made contacts with a lot of DJ's so I mailed them our demo last year, which a lot of them started playing in their clubs, so things like that always help. I think there comes a point where other people latch on to something and it builds it's own momentum. I guess we were lucky with things...we knew the EP could be big, but it's a different thing for it to actually happen. We ended up getting to #6 in the German DAC chart and #3 in the Greek Alternative Chart which is great for a debut release so we have been really pleased with the reaction.

You first came to the attention of the Alpha Matrix label; when they included the track ‘Das Bunker’ on their Endzeit Bunker tracks act 2 compilation, released in 2006. What’s the story behind getting that track included on that compilation?

I sent Alfa Matrix a demo CD, Seba got back to me saying he was planning a new compilation and could he include Das Bunker on it? It ended up being our first ever release after the New Input Noise compilation (which was scheduled for released in Dec 2005) ended up getting delayed.

When you where writing Skullfuck did you ever think that it would be such a big club hit as it has become?

I wrote it as a club track, so I knew it had all the right elements, but to become as big as it has worldwide, no. I don't think you can ever expect that. I knew it was good, but having a good track is only one part of the whole equation. There are a great many factors that result in a good track becoming a global club hit. You can only create a track and let people know about it, beyond that it is people listening, requesting, dancing and buying the CD and you can't control those things.

You’re next going on tour with CombiChrist in the summer, supporting them on their North American tour. How do you feel about touring out of Europe for the first time?

Six and a half weeks across America with the devil! Andy's already said he wants a kidney from me! Joking aside, from what everyone is telling me I am really looking forward to it. I've heard great things about US audiences and with Skullfuck being released late summer last year on the 'Das Bunker - Fear of a Distorted Planet' compilation, it became an underground club hit even before we released it as an EP. We did a lot of promo and release parties in the US as well, so I guess people will know our stuff by the summer. I don't see touring outside of Europe as any different to touring in it. Almost all of the places I have toured so far are new to me and I actually have a lot of friends in the US, so we already have friends and fans in a lot of cities. But it's the same with any new place...you are going there for the first time and you never know what the reaction will be. You just have to go and put on the best show you can and hope that people enjoy what you do. When we started the VNV tour nobody in Europe really knew who we were, we didn't even have our EP out at that point, so although people were happy to watch us, it wasn't like people were going to shows to see us. With this tour maybe people will know us and our music and come check us out.