Techno Animal Foam At The Mouth
(The following is an excerpt from an interview with Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick - musical collaborators in
the groups Techno Animal, Sidewinder, Ice, and various other side projects - all of which makes it a full-time
job to keep track of them.
As you read, keep in mind that all through the conversation, I could hear my voice echoing. They'd hooked up their
studio to the phone line. Kevin claimed he had the phone's speaker coming out of a Marshall stack, and Justin was
hearing multiple delays of his own voice. Sometime in the not-so-distant future, the full audio of this conversation
will hopefully be made available.)
SAB - Do you manage to scare yourselves?
Kevin - Yeah, often, when I look in the mirror.
Justin - Generally, yeah, by what we're hearing coming out of the speaker. If we're sitting there saying,
'That is sick, that is disturbing' -- we do want that. Whatever music we fuck with, essentially, it has got to
be sick. The bottom line is - is it sounding as sick as we can humanly get it, really? Fucking heavy as (indecipherable)
Kevin - There is an acid test that we follow, which is that Justin mixes every chemical possible and drinks
as much as possible, and I don't do anything, and if it fucks both our heads up, then we know we've hit the money.
SAB - So as you're making the music, when you're using the effects and the computer and stuff like that,
do you feel like you have any control over the music?
Justin - Well, the best times are when you feel like you've relinquished control.
Kevin - And the machines have taken over. Something's been created, and you really don't know how the fuck
it happened. And often, with a lot of the stuff we do, we couldn't even tell you now how it got to where it got.
It would be impossible to reproduce. Which is the point - we don't really want to produce it, as it was. Because
we think music should be a reflection of how you are at that period. It should reflect the emotion, and your environment.
Justin - It's subconscious. What we're working at - we don't want to be in the music. The moment we can
take away us from the music, we're satisfied. The more alien it is, the better.
SAB - But doesn't it challenge your sanity, almost?
Justin - That's day to day, anyways. That's a losing battle. We've lost that one.
Kevin - We've lost the war.
SAB - You guys sound like you've got some serious dread. What are you so worried about?
Justin - Everything.
Kevin - What isn't there to worry about? Everyday can be your last day. I think we both suffer from
uncontrollable quaffs of dread and paranoia.
Justin - Yeah, it just can't be helped. That's another reason we make music.
Kevin - To exorcise.
SAB - Except the dread multiplies the dread.?
Kevin - You start feeding yourself your own fears.
Justin - We become paranoid about being paranoid, which is often worse than being aware of your own affliction.
Kevin - If we wake up happy, we wonder what's wrong? If we haven't got fear lingering in our eyes, we wonder
what's up? 'Someone must have slipped something in my drink today.'
SAB - So do you guys dream about music, too?
Kevin - I actually have to fall asleep to music. It started when I was playing in God. I was suffering such
bad ringing in my ears after shows. It was so disturbing, that I had to put a cassette deck next to the bed to
block out those noises. And now I'm hooked on that - I panic a little if there's no musical sounds going on in
the background.
SAB - So I guess it's got to the point, where the music's the drug, it's an addiction basically?
Justin - Yeah, totally. I mean, we're tedious people to be around, if we haven't got access to the music.
SAB - Do you even watch movies anymore and shit like that?
Kevin - We were big movie obsessives for years, but it's gone beyond that. There isn't enough time. There's
literally not enough minutes in the day anymore, because there's so much you can do with sound and music now, more
than your wildest dreams ever dreamed of, that now you just want to maximize your time with music.
Justin - Exactly. Life's too short anyways. So we're just trying to get everything.
Kevin - And we're both paranoid that we'll never capture what we want to capture.
SAB - I guess you guys have basically left everyday life, haven't you?
Kevin - My girlfriend accuses me of it, all the time.
SAB - How do you guys take care of the bills?
Kevin - Well, that's the problem.
SAB - I think the radio's a normalizing influence in my life. If I was just listening to Techno Animal
records, I'd be crazy.
Kevin - Oh fuck, yeah. We have no balance. We're just in that world permanently.
Justin - Balance for us is just not part of our dialogue. Just take it all as far as you can.
Kevin - We're quite self-destructive. Irresponsible, as well.
Justin - Masochistic.
SAB - What about eating? I can't picture you guys making dinner.
Kevin - Yeah, we eat from a lot of takeaways, and deliveries.
Justin - A lot of hot East Indian food. The food we like is like the music we make. The food has got to
be as (indecipherable) as the music.
SAB - 'The music's got to be steamy'?
Justin - Extreme as the music.
Kevin - The perfect Thai food will finally leave us with smoke coming out of our neck and head. That's what
we're like after we mix a track.
Justin - Hot Indian food, and then a mix afterwards. That effect should be on the mixing desk.
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Techno Animal Foam At The Mouth
An excerpt from an interview with Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick - musical collaborators in the groups Techno Animal, Sidewinder, Ice, and various other side projects - all of which makes it a full-time job to keep track of them.
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