The US born music artist now residing in Salzburg moves the wheels that turns this electronic beat programme, of energised live performances and spiting music into listeners’ neurons. This blend of honey electronic at typical EBM rates, with the scent of Industrial afterwards biting the ear drum to ooziness, shows Daniel Graves as an added interesting combination to the scene for some years now. With to be three albums under his belt and after the epic failure of my voice recording technology, Daniel joins us in the Combichrist tour wagon. With the crisp smell of alcohol in the surrounding environment as the guys drink and begin packing up again for the next show, he takes a quick break with his partners of stage crime and gives Neuwelt listeners a quick insight into his band.

You started back in the early 2000s and brought your first album out five years after that, were you just doing remixes and singles during this period?  I actually didn’t end up doing my first remix until 2005 I had just started out and was just being really self-conscious, so the first record took five years to write and was a bit of a long process.

What got you into making that version of music?  I think I have always wanted to be a musician since I can remember, just as a kid and watching MTV and seeing people and saying that’s what I want to do with my life; and then a co- worker of my mom actually gave her a ‘Nine Inch Nails’ record for me to listen to, and when she gave me that after listening to it, I was feeling “Wow It’s electronic and Heavy; this is amazing!”. So once it got broken by Nine Inch Nails it was all over.

So if we look at your album ‘Close To human’ how do you see the evolution from that to ‘A Violent Emotion’?  Well I would hope it’s a bit more mature and shows that my experience as a song writer has improved. As a lyricist I hoped to have done the same thing with “All Beauty Destroyed” which is finished and awaiting release. I think with every record I just want to see myself getting better and better.

You do a lot of remixes of artists such as Lady Gaga, Katie Perry, Black Eyed Peas and Depeche Mode is this something just as a part-timer?  It’s something I do on my down time to break the monotony of writing a record, it helps me break away and also act as extra experience in writing. I think I’ll do another Hip Hop song just to piss off everybody.

Do your Co-workers have a big influence on your song composition?  I try not to be influenced by my contemporaries such as Combichrist. They’re an amazing artist but I want to create something that is my own. So I try not to have them make an impact on my music whoever I’m touring with. My inspiration is more drawn from things which are a bit more connected to myself and so it’s a little bit more personal and has my stamp of approval on it.

How have you seen your growth AP getting higher since you started and the sell out of your newest single?  We are not yet sold out! There are still couple left in the back and you should go get one! It’s always cool to see more interest in the band and to see more people enjoy what I do, so hopefully on the next record it will continue. In general I do this as it’s the only thing I can do and the upper trend is cool.

You just did a Blitz US tour how did that go for you?  It was sixteen to seventeen shows with one day off; it was pretty crazy one of those days ended with four litres of vodka being drank in about two hours. It was pretty insane and cool to be a headliner. I didn’t remember a lot of it, though I don’t remember a lot of our tours? We went really hard!

Looking at where you’ve been what’s been the biggest high and crapiest part?  I think there are shows that you have an amazing time just like tonight you just let go, with most concerts it like that. I can’t put a point on it though ‘Wave Gotik Treffen’ back in 2009 where you feel that you must be at least doing something that’s important. I think the worst is playing to people that hate you, it happens, though I guess hate is better than disinterest, I’ll take it all!

What would you do in a Zombie Apocalypse?  I’d get a shotgun and hope for the best.