Front Line Assembly - Imploded, Caustic, Artificial...
... Interview by Dominic Lynch ...
... Interview by Dominic Lynch ...
Founded by Bill Leeb, Rhys Fulber and Michael Balch, Front Line Assembly is one of the longest bands in the Electronic Industrial scene still running. The band has had various members and encourages a dynamic shift in contributors. There most recent album Improved Electronic devices has been out for over a year and is a much more danceable front line feel to it, when compared against previous albums. In the back of the ‘Szene’ in Bill’s birthplace of Vienna, Austria, Neuwelt asks the group a few past and future questions...
Could you introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about what you do in the band?
Rhys: Well it’s Bill’s band, he started it and I played with him after he made a couple of tapes and it pains me to say this, but it was around 1987 and Bill had another man Michael Balch. Slowly the band became more professional around 1989 we toured together and started becoming much more serious. We made what people considered to be the top 50 Industrial albums. Around 95/96 I left the band to concentrate with Chris Peterson on making music in ’Left Spine Down’. I’m on this tour with my own project as a support.
Jason: I’ve been playing Drums for FLA for just under two years, and completed four tours with them and this my first European tour.
Jared: I joined up just before ‘Artificial Soldier’ I did guitar and have been here for 5 years now.
Bill: We are here in my birthplace of all places, and it kind of is like a full circle.
Do you see that as a negative?
Well not really, we are supposed to live in the moment as time waits for no one; I’m drinking my favourite childhood drink at the moment. Sitting over from the man who joined up with me to start ‘FLA’ when he was 16 or 17, I think everything happens for a reason, and here we are.
When did the band get up a big gear?
Bill: Well with caustic grip we got a good break in the UK with having 2 singles of the week in ‘NME’ and definitely when there were mostly bands in that area such as the ‘Smiths’ & ‘The Cure’ dominating, so for our electronic sound it was surprising.
Rhys: It was also the first album we produced professionally in a studio, better equipment and production and led to us going up a level I guess. We then tried to keep that standard going and I think our type of production standards we kept have been pretty good.
Was that when FLA became a full time job for you?
Rhys: Yes definitely around that album, in 89 was when it started and 91 was when it definitely kicked in. As that tour really kicked it up a notch, the following tour after that went even better, sold more records, and everything became a professional around that time.
So fast forwarding to your most recent album that has been out over a year, through what FLA has evolved to, what was the purpose of this album? Was it just to release another CD?
Bill: That’s a hard question to ask, in a number of ways when having to look from where we were to now... Like we’ve been touring for over five years, when we were with ‘Road-Runner Records’ that was definitely our metal phase and so I think it has always been a continuous journey. For instance, here we have all these brand new members, and now we’re talking about another album. With FLA I think one of the great things about it is the open-door policy that all the band members have the option of coming back and doing some stuff if they wanted to and try not to burn any bridges. So people can take time out to spend time with their family, or kick their drug habits, so the band keeps moving forward. Chris Peterson was still part of that record and he bowed down to create ‘Unit 187’ and ‘Left Spine down’, he might show up again one day, you never know when the hate simmers down (laughs). Vancouver is a little hole that gets incestuous with trash talk is the bottom line!
Would you say you’re more American established?
Bill: No, we just played ‘Etropolis’ a few days ago in Berlin, the energy that those people had for our set from start to finish was immense and we also played in Prague before this gig. Compared to America there isn’t the same kind of feeling. They have ‘Kinetik’ Festival, but it doesn’t hold a candle to ‘E-Tropolis’, the festivals feel spoon fed compared to the European ones, as over here people like what they like and it’s more of a culture here. America is all about being on the band wagon, all the time.
With the way that studio contribution is going do you feel that technology had helped band members contribute more?
Rhys: Well yes, it’s very rare that we would all be in the studio together, so someone can do a piece and then send it over and they get worked in. A lot of the times it’s better to have a few people together to look at the main bits. I had ‘Chat’ (rapper) in the studio, though he was trouble the whole time, putting his feet up on the expensive coffee table. Though at least having two of the main people is a good way of sorting it, but the other bits and pieces it’s just much easier to send them over the web.
Bill: It’s funny being interviewed now, running through 25 years you’ve done it and you want to prove yourself at the beginning with interviews. It’s kind of sad as it’s all kind of been done.
So do you have stuff already thought out for a new Record?
Bill: I think I would like to do one more record, something simple and next thing you know, your back doing something else.
What would your ‘Enjoy the little things be?’
Bill: Well if you’re talking about Zombie land, I think I would go to galleries and steal all the art!
Rhys: Well it’s Bill’s band, he started it and I played with him after he made a couple of tapes and it pains me to say this, but it was around 1987 and Bill had another man Michael Balch. Slowly the band became more professional around 1989 we toured together and started becoming much more serious. We made what people considered to be the top 50 Industrial albums. Around 95/96 I left the band to concentrate with Chris Peterson on making music in ’Left Spine Down’. I’m on this tour with my own project as a support.
Jason: I’ve been playing Drums for FLA for just under two years, and completed four tours with them and this my first European tour.
Jared: I joined up just before ‘Artificial Soldier’ I did guitar and have been here for 5 years now.
Bill: We are here in my birthplace of all places, and it kind of is like a full circle.
Do you see that as a negative?
Well not really, we are supposed to live in the moment as time waits for no one; I’m drinking my favourite childhood drink at the moment. Sitting over from the man who joined up with me to start ‘FLA’ when he was 16 or 17, I think everything happens for a reason, and here we are.
When did the band get up a big gear?
Bill: Well with caustic grip we got a good break in the UK with having 2 singles of the week in ‘NME’ and definitely when there were mostly bands in that area such as the ‘Smiths’ & ‘The Cure’ dominating, so for our electronic sound it was surprising.
Rhys: It was also the first album we produced professionally in a studio, better equipment and production and led to us going up a level I guess. We then tried to keep that standard going and I think our type of production standards we kept have been pretty good.
Was that when FLA became a full time job for you?
Rhys: Yes definitely around that album, in 89 was when it started and 91 was when it definitely kicked in. As that tour really kicked it up a notch, the following tour after that went even better, sold more records, and everything became a professional around that time.
So fast forwarding to your most recent album that has been out over a year, through what FLA has evolved to, what was the purpose of this album? Was it just to release another CD?
Bill: That’s a hard question to ask, in a number of ways when having to look from where we were to now... Like we’ve been touring for over five years, when we were with ‘Road-Runner Records’ that was definitely our metal phase and so I think it has always been a continuous journey. For instance, here we have all these brand new members, and now we’re talking about another album. With FLA I think one of the great things about it is the open-door policy that all the band members have the option of coming back and doing some stuff if they wanted to and try not to burn any bridges. So people can take time out to spend time with their family, or kick their drug habits, so the band keeps moving forward. Chris Peterson was still part of that record and he bowed down to create ‘Unit 187’ and ‘Left Spine down’, he might show up again one day, you never know when the hate simmers down (laughs). Vancouver is a little hole that gets incestuous with trash talk is the bottom line!
Would you say you’re more American established?
Bill: No, we just played ‘Etropolis’ a few days ago in Berlin, the energy that those people had for our set from start to finish was immense and we also played in Prague before this gig. Compared to America there isn’t the same kind of feeling. They have ‘Kinetik’ Festival, but it doesn’t hold a candle to ‘E-Tropolis’, the festivals feel spoon fed compared to the European ones, as over here people like what they like and it’s more of a culture here. America is all about being on the band wagon, all the time.
With the way that studio contribution is going do you feel that technology had helped band members contribute more?
Rhys: Well yes, it’s very rare that we would all be in the studio together, so someone can do a piece and then send it over and they get worked in. A lot of the times it’s better to have a few people together to look at the main bits. I had ‘Chat’ (rapper) in the studio, though he was trouble the whole time, putting his feet up on the expensive coffee table. Though at least having two of the main people is a good way of sorting it, but the other bits and pieces it’s just much easier to send them over the web.
Bill: It’s funny being interviewed now, running through 25 years you’ve done it and you want to prove yourself at the beginning with interviews. It’s kind of sad as it’s all kind of been done.
So do you have stuff already thought out for a new Record?
Bill: I think I would like to do one more record, something simple and next thing you know, your back doing something else.
What would your ‘Enjoy the little things be?’
Bill: Well if you’re talking about Zombie land, I think I would go to galleries and steal all the art!