[Interview - Vampire Freaks, USA, June 2007]

Tell me about the skull mask and cowboy hat t.

The skull and mask came about because my first demo had a picture on the cover of a skull with a cowboy hat on, I think it was a photo of a keyring and everyone seemed to like it. When we were talking to the labels initially they really liked that image and thought it was kinda cool as a logo/trademark for the band and it fit perfectly with Skullfuck. Then on stage we copied it. I only wear it during Skullfuck but photographers seem to love it so you tend to see a lot of photos of it online! It's just a prop really that gets peoples attention.

How was your recent tour with vnv nation?

It was an absolutely fantastic introduction to touring. Ronan was massively helpful to me after he first heard Skullfuck in a club in the US. We were struggling to get signed at that point and he really helped us out by recommending us to some labels. He said he knew he wanted us to come on tour with them from the first time he heard it and I know Mark is a fan of our stuff as well, so although we weren't maybe the most obvious choice to tour with VNV they took a risk with us because they liked what I was doing. It happened frighteningly quickly to be honest. Modulate had played 3 live gigs before going on tour with VNV so it really was a baptism of fire, but the tour fitted perfectly with the release of the Skullfuck EP and it was an opportunity we couldn't really turn down. It's the kind of thing you dream about as a musician, going on a big European tour that early in your career with one of the biggest bands in the scene. Then playing to what, 1000-1500 each night. We learned so much on tour as well about live performance, it was amazing coming back to the UK afterwards and playing to friends who had seen our early gigs and them commenting on how much we have improved live so quickly. But I think you do, getting thrown in at the deep end like that you either sink or swim. I learned a lot in a very short space of time. Not forgetting to mention, it was a huge amount of fun!

Any particularly memorable moments from the tour?

Almost everything becomes a memorable moment because it is such an intense experience. Every day is a party. It's like, “Hey, the circus has come to town”, only you are the circus. There were so many brilliant moments. Everyone got on really really well and we had a laugh a minute. The crowds in East Germany in particular were awesome, they loved our sound. Paris was great, looking up in Eindhoven and seeing the entire venue dancing to Skullfuck. Having a day off and meeting up with the Combichrist tour in Berlin was fun, catching their show. Hamburg techno clubs. Meeting a silly amount of other bands and musicians. Ronan pulling me and Ted (Imperative Reaction) on stage during their encore on the last night. It was all good. Though I deny all knowledge of The 440 Club.

Tell me about the club "the wendy house", you state that it's the UK's largest goth/industrial club, must be pretty good.

Yeah, the Wendy House is a lot of fun. It's just celebrated it's 9th Birthday party so it's taken it a while to get where it is now. We run parties once a month and we'll get typically between 1000 and 1300 people coming. It's split into two rooms, one with a loose 'goth and music goths like' policy and the other (where I spin) playing industrial and hard dance music. I used to go as a punter first, then played a few guest slots and became resident there 4 years ago. We are lucky that we have a fantastic venue at Leeds University, there aren't many alternative nights that can run a Saturday night in a state of the art venue like we have so it helps a lot. I think it has become so big that people will travel to it from all over the UK and being roughly geographically central it acts as a social hub to some extent.

I would think that the UK's largest goth night would be in London, is the scene just better around Leeds?

London has a big alternative scene and certainly clubs like Slimelight, but they are a weekly night whereas our nights are only monthly, so I think that gives us a special atmosphere where people do really make an effort and turn it into something of a special event. Leeds has always had a very big goth scene, bands like the Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, March Violets, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry etc all came out of Leeds. Leeds geographically is in the middle of the UK and is an hour or less away from other cities like Manchester, Sheffield, York, Middlesbrough etc so a lot of people do travel over. So within an hour of Leeds there is a very big goth/alternative scene. I think there is a very good scene around here with people from various nights supporting each other, cross promoting, trying to arrange nights that don't clash etc so it's very healthy in that respect.

I love the cover artwork on the "skullfuck" ep, where did you get it from?

I designed it myself. I went into complete 'control freak' mode on that EP! I had that idea as a cover from a later demo I made. I wanted something visually very strong and minimal. Skullfuck is a very simple yet very powerful track so I took the same ethos to the cover design, I wanted that really bold statement. Although German, the boss of Sistinas, is a graphic designer I knew exactly what I wanted for that cover so I did it myself. I didn't even want text on the front cover, I wanted it to stand up as a piece of artwork in it's own right, something like the cover of Dark Side of the Moon.

How did you first get into the industrial scene?

Probably through going to goth/rock/industrial nights at university. I was sharing a house with a bunch of goths and we all liked things like Front 242 and NIN. From there I guess, like a lot of people, you hear tracks in clubs, they catch your ear and you start exploring further.

How did you get started as a dj?

University again. I started off giving out flyers and doing the lights at a night my housemate played at. He was borrowing half my records anyway so when he left uni I asked the Ents Manager could I take over. Within 6 weeks we had the biggest midweek night the Uni had ever run. From there other club owners started inviting me to play at their events, so I ended up doing 3-4 nights a week. When I moved back to Manchester I started pestering club owners with demo CD's. I'd phone them up every week until an opening came up and they gave me a chance. Again, that got me noticed so I started doing other nights as well. We'd always throw in some dance music because the indie and dance scenes are very closely linked in Manchester, so that led to playing a trance night. Then eventually to playing a few guest slots at The Wendy House and then a residency there.

Do you guys beatmatch over there?

Some do, though most don't. I certainly can and do, I was DJ'ing trance nights before I was playing industrial nights so when EBM started taking in trance elements in the late 90's it was a natural progression really to start beatmatching that. I think if you do it well you can really ramp the energy levels up during your set. Sometimes people are dancing to a track before they've even realised it's changed which can be a big plus when you have a 'picky' crowd. I also throw in a lot of techno and hard dance into EBM sets so it mixes pretty well.

So you're joining combichrist on their upcoming US tour, sounds like a great fit, how did this opportunity come up?

Andy knows German, our label boss, so for the EP we got Andy to do a Combichrist mix for us. He really liked our stuff. When I saw him in the UK he was like, “Do you realise how big a club hit in the US Skullfuck is?”. So on the back of the EP we wanted to play some gigs in the US this summer, then Andy offered us the tour so that was perfect.

What do you do for a living?

Primarily I'm a DJ. I play other places besides the Wendy House in Manchester. Then I've been moving into video/documentary production, so a mixture of the two really. DJ'ing can be pretty unstable as a profession so having that option is always useful.

Any thoughts to put vocals in your music in the future?

I think Modulate is primarily an instrumental project but I have been playing around with some vocal ideas on a couple of tracks on the upcoming album. You do get people saying, “Don't you think it would be better live to have a singer?”. Well, maybe, we certainly can't do what Ronan does live, but there has been instrumental music for centuries so it's not like we are doing something strange by not having vocals. A lot of techno and trance, which is a big influence on our sound, is instrumental so I'm happy not having vocals. We did a gig on Saturday and one of the things people seemed to be commenting on was the amount of energy coming from on stage and we were the only instrumental band on the lineup. Just look at people like Orbital or The Chemical Brothers live, neither have vocalists yet both are noted for amazing live shows.

What are you listening to lately?

Currently on my mp3 player I have quite a lot of Nitzer Ebb, a lot of techno, I'm really liking people like Northborne, SAM, Kloq & Motor at the moment, Terence Fixmer, people who are mixing techno and industrial. Just listen to Nitzer Ebb's basslines to see the lineage there. Reaper, Grendel, Underworld, The Prodigy, VNV, Chemical Brothers, T. Raumschmiere, C/A/T, Soman, Straftanz, Noisuf-X, Chris Liebing, The Horrorist, Royksopp.

An interesting thing about "skullfuck" is that you repeatedly loop the same sample in rapid succession, similar to what dj's do when sampling or looping tracks. how would you say being a dj has influenced your music?

That sample stuttering effect probably came from Fatboy Slim and a lot of breakbeat records I was listening to in the late 90's. Check out his remix of Wildchild's – Renegade Master and you'll see what I'm talking about. I hadn't heard anybody do that on an industrial track and I'm all for pulling in influences from other genres. As for DJ'ing, sure, I do write a lot of Modulate tracks specifically for my dancefloor. Skullfuck was custom built for the Mutate room @ The Wendy House. There were certain elements I knew they loved so I bolted them all together and Skullfuck was the result. I think the DJ'ing gives you an innate ability to know what will and will not work on the dancefloor so being able to incorporate that into your work is a big plus. And I think being able to test out tracks that are 'work in progress' on the dancefloor is really valuable. I did a remix the other day, finished it off that afternoon, played it in the club that evening, the crowd went nuts, ok, job done. I've done the same thing though and thought, “Hmmm, that section is too long, that isn't doing much for them”, then gone back and altered it.

When playing live do you prefer to play drums or keyboards?

Either. Both are fun! I've tried doing both and currently I've been playing keyboards, esp if I have to do a show solo for any reason...as I have to do with the Combichrist tour for logistical reasons. “Hey there is one bunk free on the bus, do you want to do it?”. I think having all the synth parts on backing and just playing drums along would be taking the piss! So definitely keyboards in that case. It's odd though, I had people on the VNV tour saying, “Oh no, you shouldn't play drums, you should play keyboards because it's your band” so I can see that point of view, as if somehow playing the lead parts is higher up the pecking order than playing the drums. Drummers get a bum deal, they are bottom of the musical heap!

tThanks for your time! anything else you'd like to say?

Thanks and see you all in the summer. :)