Can you give us a brief introduction to Derma-Tek?

[JC] Derma-Tek is a project that I started quite some time ago as a means of creative expression as well as personal catharsis. It was always easy for me to express myself through music, but I was never really good at conveying my thoughts and ideas through words. So with the self released “Lost Cause mcd” Miranda St. Croix wrote all the lyrics and became a full member of the band. Derma-Tek is not about being the best electro band out there, and is not about making lots of money. Of course all these things are nice, but we aren’t out to impress anyone except ourselves and our supporters.

Who are the members of Derma-Tek?

[JC] Derma-Tek consists of myself, Joe Cains [music and vocals] and Miranda St. Croix [lyrics and live support] but with our next album we hope to be able to work in some additional vocals and perhaps a few other surprises from Miranda.

Your first songs where on compilation cd’s is this the way DSBP got interested in you?

[JC] These days, it’s very hard for a new band to get signed by a label. The compilations were a nice way to get our name out to different countries around the world, and they helped in that sense. We shopped our cd around to quite a few labels, and most either didn’t care for our material or just didn’t feel that they could take a chance with a new band, that is until we got in contact with TommyT of DSBP. Tommy had given our demos lots of airplay on his radio station, and he really seemed to like what we were doing, so when we had the whole album ready we sent it to him and he decided he wanted to take a chance on us and sign us and release it to the public.

How are the responses on the album so far?

[JC] the response has been great so far, of course we’re not re-inventing the wheel with our music, but most people seem to really enjoy our work. Our music isn’t for everyone, but that’s the great thing about music/art, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

You recently got signed to Noitekk for Europe. How did you get in contact in Noitekk and what do you expect from them?

[JC] Well… we signed the North American deal with DSBP, and we were getting ready to start looking for a European label to release the album overseas, and out of the blue I got and e-mail from Marco of Noitekk. We had send him a few demos as we were preparing the final version of Corpus Technological and we’ve met him a few times while he was on tour with Grendel here in the states, and for quite some time he has been interested in Derma-Tek. So we able to work out a worldwide deal with him, and now our European friends will be able to find our album easier and cheaper.

Will the European version of the cd be exactly the same or are there some differences?

[JC] Since the DSBP version of the album has been releases since 10/31/06 it just made sense to make the Noitekk version a little different. So the Noitekk version will have two additional remixed tracks, Mauled [remix by E.S.R] and Less Important [remix by Dawn of Ashes] and it should be released spring 2007.

What’s your personal album top 5?

[JC] hmmm… that’s a tough one. Here’s 5 cds that I’ve been listening to quite a bit recently.

-yelworc - brainstorming

-eco - das album

-x marks the pedwalk - retrospective

-amduscia - from abuse to apostasy

-megadump - polarity

Lyrics are very important for Derma-Tek, what are they about?

[JC] Lyrics are a huge part of what makes Derma-Tek what it is, which is why we made sure to include the lyrics in the artwork inserts. We of course have our own motives for writing about the different subjects that we write about, but we also try to leave a certain vagueness to the lyrics to allow the listener to take what they wish away from the songs.

How does the song writing go for Derma-Tek? Are the both of you sitting together or work separately?

[JC] Generally, we start by having a deep lengthy conversation or some drunken nonsense, discussing and or arguing over ideas that we have for songs, and then share a few stories. After that I go into the studio at my house and more or less become a hermit and come up a preliminary version of the music for a song. Then I upload it for Miranda to hear so she can get some ideas flowing for the lyrics. She’s very good at letting me know when I’m on the right track, or not, so usually at this point I get her blessing to continue working on the music for said song, or we scrap it and start over. Then we move onto fine tuning the music and lyrics, making sure that they work nicely together, and then record the vocals. This then becomes the second version of the song and I usually spend some absurd amount of time mixing the song down, with Miranda telling me that I’m crazy and to leave it alone. Finally once the mixdown is complete and we happy with the song overall, we set it aside until it comes time to send it off for mastering. So the short of it is, for the writing and recording of “Corpus” we spent most of the time in separate places physically, but worked quite closely together via the internet. We hope to be able to work together physically in the same room more often with our next album, especially since we hope to exploit some of Miranda other talents other than writing lyrics

Derma-Tek has been remixed by some great artists like Grendel, is there anybody you would like to rework your songs?

[JC] I’d love to get a remix from Neuroactive and Amduscia for sure. I really love what both these bands are doing.

Any last words for the readers?

[JC] Right now we are in the process of wrapping up an online companion E.P, titled “Defiled”. We’ll be offering it for free on our website, just as a thank you to all the people that support us, and also for people that would like to hear Derma-Tek for the first time. “Defiled” contains remixes of songs from “Corpus Technological” and we’ve also included 3 of the remixes that were originally released on the out of print, “Lost Cause mcd”, and features remixes from: The Panic Lift, Davantage, C-Drone Defect, GASR, Tau Factor, Life Cried, R010R, Tonikom, Severe Illusion, and Selfless.

Websites:
www.noitekk.de
www.dsbp.cx

a diary of the flesh, read through the eyes of technology…