Hello Gary... Where are you?
I'm in hell of my own creation.. Somewhere in Southern California. Waiting for the next quake, it's been shaking here non-stop. I trek between a suburban house in San Diego and my drummer Jon Siren's rehearsal studio on the edge of Chinatown in Los Angeles in an industrial area that's just a door in a wall. It's dingy and windowless and my keyboardist TZA is convinced that someone committed suicide in the room next to it but I've never felt more comfortable staying there. There's a small fridge, a bed and barely enough room to rehearse, sleep and if I need to piss, there's a bathroom at the end of a narrow hallway hastily painted red. I heard there's rats too but I haven't seen any so far. There's a certain something there that expresses my place in society and that really speaks volumes for the kind of person I feel I am. I want to be in a constant war with the world and this is really the best way to wage it.

How did you get into music?
Dysfunction, probably. My mom wanted me to be a pianist and I on the other hand didn't want to have someone telling me how fast my fingers should be moving on some classical piece and I actually wanted to change a lot of things I played because I thought they sounded better that way. So I was arrogant from the get-go. Finally, someone pointed it out that music could be made on a computer and by morbid curiosity I heard about KMFDM from the Columbine murders as that was the only way I ever heard of industrial music. All the music I listened to on the radio never inspired me to write my own stuff but when I heard Front Line Assembly after searching through similar bands, I was totally convinced I could start a project just like it. So I did. And then I released some albums and realized that my tastes in music kept changing rapidly and I'm definitely not the same person or project that I started out as. So at this point, I have no idea where I've ended up or where I stand. All I know is there's a narrow tunnel vision and at the end of all that is a new album. Getting there is now harder than ever before, for some reason, but I know I'll get there with enough trial and error.

Please tell us something about 'Dismantled'...
It's my reaction to society and my constant awareness about the difference between me and The Swarm. I see things differently and I want others to see how I perceive the world. Channelling all that experience into music and lashing out is how Dismantled always comes to be and as I type this interview, I can feel it filling up in my lungs. I want to say that I have no choice but to grab a mic, write beats, melodies and start making things happen but for some reason it's not that simple right now and everything is kind of a dull blade where nothing cuts through. So I'd say my attempts at expressing myself at this point is a constant struggle and perhaps I am just waiting for the right time. But you can bet there will always be more Dismantled although the taste in my mouth is often times unpredictable and it's all up to me to decide whether to spit or swallow. I'm sure it will all spill out soon as I've been downloading photos of things burning out of control and am working it in as my new album cover. Hands turning into saws, fucking on cocaine, beating the shit out of someone, and having enough rope to hang everyone I know at the edge of a forest while crashing and burning into a fuel truck are all lyric subjects that will be covered with this new record so it's definitely safe to say things are happening in my head at an accelerated rate.


Your album Standard Issue was originally released in 2006. Where are the main differences between Standard Issue and Standard Issue V2.0?
Standard Issue v2.0 is how I intended the record to sound, I think the whole mastering process made things a little.. not how it was supposed to be, tracks like Fields were horribly distorted and the intended sound changed too much after mastering. Which is partly my fault and now I decided to re-release it on the advice of my keyboardist TZA and add a bonus track plus reworked artwork as well as some different versions of songs, like a shorter version of Anthem. I think it sounds and feels a lot better than before and I just wanted to leave it at that, with the accapela version of "Get It Through" as the last statement from that album as well as the bonus track "Social Animal." I'm definitely looking forward to my new album "The War Inside Me" and am trying to push everything out of the way and focus only on that. The more people I care about and listen to, however, the harder it gets for me. Isolation is my only friend and I need to find it again and have it lend me a helping hand.

What do you love about making music?
Expressing what you feel to yourself and then finally to an audience. Pushing yourself in a new direction. And also feeling like this is the only thing you will ever be able to do well and really searching your gut to express that true emotion that's so difficult to get out right away. I feel like my music is the only thing I have to wage war against society and when you get the idea down of how you're going to fight this war and what ideas are your weapons... Well, then that's really what completes you. It's just that keeping your head above water and not succumbing to society's tension is the problem I'm fighting with constantly. It's kill or be killed, everyday.

Where do you get all your inspiration from?
Watching the strong devour the weak is a great past time of mine. Turn on the TV anytime and you'll get a mass of people blaring at you and urging you to do whatever makes them enough money to make a nest from. You can ignore it but you have to admit that people are great at convincing others that what they say is absolute. You can't help but react to that no matter how you convince yourself what it means to you and that is my inspiration. People might think they're complex beings but I think inside they are still be the equivalent of insects looking for blood but doing so within the rigid boundaries of society which requires clothes, patience, talking, moving, eating, fucking, and moving your eyes constantly to see where your next fix is. Some people find this to be an art form but I just find the whole ritual ugly and suffocating.

Are your songs as emotional to perform live as they are to listen to?
Sometimes they are, it helps when the audience responds positively and that gives me fuel for the fire. I like fuel but its even better when sparks fly and that's when my live band, TZA on keyboards and Jon Siren on the drums come in. It's about unmatched intensity at that point and our new set that we're doing on this Combichrist tour is just straight up heavy songs since we want to give all we can in our short 30 minute set time. It's always better playing newer songs than old ones and I'm going to enjoy playing Kill Or Be Killed (a new track off upcoming album The War Inside Me) on this tour because the lyrics warm my heart. I think you're only as good as your latest work but since Dismantled never properly toured, this is the only chance for fans to check out the material they've been waiting to hear.

What's been your most memorable moment before/during and after a concert?
I can think of some choice things that happened a long time ago, like a crazy fan from Hong Kong wearing a gas mask and approaching me and even getting on stage with me. That was in Vancouver Canada during the release of the second album PostNuclear. When we were playing Wave Gothic Treffen in Germany much later in 2007, I could hear the ghostly roar of the crowd singing back The Swarm and I hope there will be more moments like that on this upcoming European tour. As long as fans keep coming up to me after shows asking what a new song was or how they've been waiting over 5 years to hear me play a track they fell in love with, it will all be worth it to me.

What do you normally do the last 30 minutes before a concert and directly after the show?
I lace up my boots, get dirt on me and scramble for the stage trying to make sure everything works Right after we're done, I run off and go straight to the merch. We are the opening act and we don't have someone helping us out so its as DIY as you can get. Fans are all that we have and the more approach us and tell us how much they appreciated the show, the more we will feel right at home. Then we pack up and hope to make it on time and functioning for the next show but sometimes it doesn't go over so smooth as once we managed to leave our keyboardist at a truck stop in Oklahoma at night and she had to call the cops to pull us over after an hour of us being on the freeway unaware that she was calling us. You can't make stuff like this up!

Do you have any other projects?
Yes, I have a project with TZA the keyboardist called No Not Never and an indie rock project called Aerodrone. We got to do some great things with that, like work with producer Mark Needham who did The Killers and strangely enough, Dave the guitarist of The Killers is someone who I've had a jam session with and comes around at times since we both live in San Diego. I'm a huge fan of The Killers, The Faint, and bands like Anberlin so you could say I'm definitely into broadening my horizons and not sticking to one thing. But sometimes, tunnel vision is the only way to get an idea across so, after this next tour Aerodrone is doing with Freezepop, I will have to focus all my energy on solely doing the new Dismantled.

Have you ever said: "Don't you know who I am?"
I don't really talk that way or ever try to portray myself like that but sometimes when you're isolated and uncomfortable in being approached, it comes off that way to some people even though you don't say anything. Once someone ran into me at a grocery store and recognized me and I'm pretty sure that time I was really down to earth and friendly. But then other days are different and people expect something from you that you're not eager to give. On tour I usually just chill out and sit by the merch, always happy to chat with fans and I think those that approach me will be pleasantly surprised even though I always get questions like "Is the track Breed To Death really about me?" I'm happy to answer that as well though and no, it's not exactly what they think it is.

What's the best / worst place you have ever been to?
Best place would be London, I loved seeing Abbey Road and it's a great mix of Europe and US culture. Another great place was playing QuakeCon, the game convention, at a huge hotel in Texas that was enclosed in some sort of dome. But then another time in Texas we followed the promoters instructions and ended up at the scariest hotel known to man. There were people high walking on the ledges outside of the building and the elevators had handwritten notes on them. The room had a hornets nest in the ceiling, which was caving in, and you could pull out the sink completely after using it. I keep forgetting that there's great lyric material on that and finally am ready to apply that on the new album.

5 things you would chose to take with you to a lonely island...
Can I take people? I'd want a few hot girls on there, probably not 5 though because I wouldn't know what to do with all of them afterwards. But I guess then it wouldn't be a lonely island. So I'd take a few books with me like Oryx and Crake as well as The Road and an iPod full of trance music. Once everything stops working and the books are read, I'd probably get rather bored and hope that the apocalypse comes soon so I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I heard that after the oil spill in the Gulf the levels of methane in the water are at extinction levels and the upper atmosphere is getting thinner and that's the best encouragement from the media that I've heard in years! At the same time though, I think the best apocalypse is things never ending and the world going on and on as it is. I've found that to be a much darker thought than an actual literal end.

If I would look through your CDs at home, what can I find?
You would find a lot of cracked, worn and unplayable cds unfortunately. I really don't want to care for the things and hope that's the reason why there's less of them selling these days and not MP3 downloads-- I'm not even going to comment on the controversy with all of that for musicians because it's not going to change anything. The only cd I bought was last year and that was called Brand New - Daisy. That influenced a lot of new music from me even though it's not in the right "genre" if you look at what style Dismantled is fitted into right now. But all I want to say is that the CDR I burned with Deadmau5 - Strobe on it ended up being the song of the year for me and great driving music. Things are definitely happening with electro music right now like never before and all the trance I've listened to in 2000 has merged into the new hip hop sound and is as popular as ever. That's exactly why the way music spreads reminds me of a disease that can never be predicted no matter how many ways you try to write about what it means to someone or obsess over the details of all its trends and currents. But that's what keeps things fresh and exciting and I'm all for that!

What can we expect from 'Dismantled' in the next weeks/month?
New songs, new album, more mystery, less touring, heavier sounds and lyrics, more guitars and more drums but not the way you'd expect. More promotional photos of me with "Manipulator" written on my neck. Everything will change and people will open their mouths in awe once again and say "I didn't expect this." Go to http://www.facebook.com/dismantled and you will see it unfold in front of your eyes. Although I wish technology had already "made it" at this point in time and that instead of a screen, you'd get everything sent directly to your retina. The world still has a lot of catching up to do, in my opinion.