Chain D.L.K. presents an interview with:
One of the new signings of the rising German label NoiTekk could release its official debut “Burning Heaven” within the fall of 2K6. But this Winnipeg-based act isn’t at all a bloody newcomer and has had already a notorious past at the days where MP3.com was up and with a self-released and extremely limited EP “Left Alone To Die” in 2K2. There has been some time in between, so here’s an introducing interview with mastermind Jeremy Pillipow...Distorted Memory
interviewed by Marc Tater (proofreaded by Tommy T. Rapisardi)
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Chain D.L.K.: Hello Jeremy, first some words to you. Could you please fill in biographical details of you and your music project Distorted Memory?
Distorted Memory: I am based in Winnipeg, Canada and have been writing electronic music since around 1999. This project was on hiatus until sometime last year when I decided to come back to it and wrote a full length album which was released on NoiTekk and COP International at the end of last year.
Chain D.L.K.: I can remember the days of MP3.com on which you were already active presenting some tunes of your self-released debut “Left Alone To Die”. But this has happened 5 years before, so there’s the question of where have you been?
Distorted Memory: HA! Wow, didn’t think many people remembered Distorted Memory from those days, but I guess I did manage to build up a bit of a following at that time. To be honest the reason for the large time gap between the demo EP and first full length release was due to a loss of interest in Industrial/EBM music. Right around the time I had sent the demo to NoiTekk and was asked by them for a full length I had grown really bored and jaded with the industrial music scene and the never ending flood of clone bands doing the Suicide Commando shuffle, but not as well. I had begun listening to other forms of hard and aggressive electronic music, stuff like Hard House, Gabber, D’n’B, Breakcore, EST and these other music styles really opened my eyes. I decided to start another project called Cake Builder to experiment with a different sound. This project ended up being a mix of very dark Drum and Bass and Breakcore and I have since released a 12” on Ad Noiseam, along with several other releases, remixes and compilation appearances. Although this new project let me express some of the musical ideas I had that didn’t work with Distorted Memory it still did not completely satisfy me and I decided to return to the Distorted Memory project and write that long awaited full length for NoiTekk, but on my own terms, with a new edge, a new style, taking influence from all the new music I had been listening to.
Chain D.L.K.: What, in your opinion, are the reasons that the almost same musically formula works much better in 2K7 with your recently released CD “Burning Heaven” compared to your self-released debut “Left Alone To Die”?
Distorted Memory: To be honest I think there are some very significant differences in the music on each of those releases. Although at the time of my demo EP I was doing things a little differently than most bands out there I was still very much following the EBM formula. The new album is really a finer tuned, matured, version of the stuff I was doing in the past. I think that the style of “Burning Heaven” works at this time because people in this scene are becoming more open minded to different, more techno influenced styles of music.
Chain D.L.K.: How did you get in contact with Marco and NoiTekk that he has signed you? I guess it somehow belongs on the fact that a Canadian label providing this harsh kind of EBM/Electro/Industrial music is rather hard to find...
Distorted Memory: When I wrote the demo EP back in 2002 I very selectively chose labels to send it to. I only sent it to maybe 5 labels or so, labels I very much believed in, labels that I felt were moving in the right direction and would suit my style well. NoiTekk to me was where my music fit the best, not to mention Marco is extremely friendly and treats his artists very well. Needless to say I chose to sign with NoiTekk. The option of signing with a Canadian label would have meant music career suicide as none of the labels based in Canada are large enough to really support me in the way that I was looking for.
Chain D.L.K.: Some of your tracks on “Burning Heaven” are obviously dealing with religion and Christianity. But regarding your “band” photos available on your website, you don’t look too much like a god-fearing man ;-) Please tell us bit about your vision...
Distorted Memory: No…no, definitely not. I am not a god fearing man whatsoever. If you read into the lyrics of the album you will see that they do not express an outward hatred toward god, nor a supportive view of god and religion. The album takes place in a world of fantasy where angels in heaven are fighting a war over the love of god. Everything on the album can be looked at as a metaphor for something important in the listeners life.
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Distorted Memory: I’ll be honest. I strongly believe, and fear, that the end time is near. I however do not think it will be rung in by four horsemen of the apocalypse and all that other Christian dogma. The end time will come soon as a result of mankind’s total lack of respect and care for the earth we live on. It will come with a flood from melting ice caps and rising heat. Wars will be fought, but will have nothing to do with America’s make believe, population brain washing, fear tactic, oil money based “war on terror”… no wars will be fought over what land has not been destroyed by the domino effect of global warming and countries will be forced to either help or fend off waves and waves of environmental refuges. It will be much worse than the New Testament authors could even have imagined.
Chain D.L.K.: Some instrumental interludes can be heard on “Burning Heaven” with the tracks “Hellion’s Fall”, “Sons Of Perdition” and the final piece “Psalm”. All of them seem rather to concentrate to offer ominous melodic layer and string sounds instead of providing more rhythmically treatments. From your side as a musician, how important and meaningful are these tracks for you?
Distorted Memory: The track “Psalm” is actually one of the most important for me personally as a musician on the album. It required the most skill to create and in doing so I was forced to deal with many production and song writing situations which would not normally come up in the club tracks. I also feel these interludes are very important for the listener as it gives them a break from the pounding dance tracks and puts them into perspective. There needs to be balance, without somber interludes there is no frame of reference for the harder tracks.
Chain D.L.K.: Lets talk on the technical side of producing music generally. Which kind of synthesizers do you prefer, hardware or software-based? Where do you see the pro’s and con’s on both kinds? Compared to “Left Alone To Die”, which to my taste was a bit more minimal arranged, what has changed in your equipment list?
Distorted Memory: Personally I prefer hardware synthesizers over software based ones. I am not against softsynths however and use them as well. Hardware synths in my opinion have a much richer warmer sound, but despite what most people think this isn’t from the synthesizers themselves but rather the fact that the sound is sent through physical mixers which add natural warmth and saturation, the same effect and depth can be added to software synthesizers by feeding the audio out from the computer and back in through mixers / compressors etc. Also with the improvement of computers and soundcards as of late softsynths will soon be on par with, if not better in many cases than hardware. The best thing about software based synthesizers over hardware is the fact that so many new ideas and synthesis types can be created and used that would be far to expensive to implement with hardware. In truth the “Burning Heaven” album and everything before was written primarily with software due to the fact that I only had two hardware synths at the time. Since then the studio has changed dramatically and several high end synthesizers (Virus C, V-Synth, JP-8000, K-Station, and others) have been added to the studio. The new material which I am currently writing for the next album is about 90 % hardware based and 10 % software. Anyone interested in what equipment I use can check www.redroomrecordings.org for a full list of my gear.
Chain D.L.K.: How is it with live gigs? The new tracks should work well to animate the masses, so what do you expect? Any touring plans you can already confirm?
Distorted Memory: At the moment I have not performed live with the Distorted Memory material, but if the energy level from practices is any indication the shows will be very intense. For the live show we will be doing something different from other acts. Rather than running all the songs instrumentally off a DAT or laptop while the singer sings and a keyboardist pretends to play we have created extended mixes of each song which my backup member Dryad will mix live on CD decks. This will create a non stop, beat matched, very high energy set. We are taking the rave DJ mentality and performance style and transferring it to EBM. No tours are currently planed as I can not be away from home for long enough to do so due to my schooling, however several individual live dates are planned. There will be a show here in Winnipeg next month and we will be playing the very large COMA 4 festival in Montreal this April along with acts like Hocico, Tactical Sekt, and Decoded Feedback.
Chain D.L.K.: Please let us know about your upcoming plans, some new releases you like to confirm here? Is it thinkable to re-release “Left Alone To Die”, as it was limited on a very few exemplars?
Distorted Memory: The next new material you hear will be on NoiTekk’s “United Vol. 2” due out in the first quarter of 2007. The track on the comp is titled “Seven Voices of Hate” and will give fans a very good idea of what to expect on the next album. The next album is currently in the works, but will not be rushed, you can probably expect it early next year.. At one point I would like to release a bonus CD which includes songs from the demo EP as well as some others written afterwards but were never released.
Chain D.L.K.: Some final words to our readers to conclude this interview…?
Distorted Memory: I’d just like to thank everyone who has shown me their support since the release of the album, especially those who have actually bought the CD and not just downloaded it. Cheers!
Visit Distorted Memory on the web at:
www.distortedmemory.com
www.noitekk.de
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