Can you give a brief introduction to Diffuzion and its members?
Diffuzion is a group of three: Fof creates the music and does all the arrangements, Xev is the singer, she also does the lyrics, and Taelih backs the band up during live performances. All the members are also involved in other music projects: Fof has a solo project EFF DST, Xev sings in a metal band Vicious Crusade and Taelih plays bass guitar in a dark metal band Aeon Noctis.
How would you describe your music and how are songs composed, is it a band process or do you each work on ideas at home?
I would say that our music is a combination of ebm, industrial, idm, synth pop. A bit of everything. Speaking about composing, it is Fof who starts this process. He usually creates a piece of music and then we decide weather it “will live”. If the decision is positive we start working at its development.
How do you decide if an idea will live, what are your criteria for that?
No criteria, really. Just whether it appeals to us or not.
There was a long period of standstill with VC, when the leader of the band left the country to work in the Netherlands, at that time Fof was looking for a singer for his new project. So that’s how I joined him. The singing is very different, in VC it’s kind of operatic and in Diffuzion it is what it is.
Who are role models for you?
If you mean some media characters as role models then I don’t really have them. I need to ask Taelih, he’s in Prague at the moment but is getting back in a couple of days, he must have a couple. I’ve telephoned Fof, he said he is always afraid that Freddy Krueger might come to him in his sleep, but I’m afraid it’s not what you’re asking.
Originally Diffuzion was a 2 person band, you and FoF, later on Taelih was added to the line-up, why did you decide to add an extra keyboard player and what is his role?
At first we were just a studio project, but when we started giving live performances we realized we needed a third member. Taelih is our friend, also he was very much interested in what we were doing, so we asked him to join us.
Was the original idea to have Diffuzion as a studio band or did you plan doing live concerts from the beginning?
To tell you the truth, it all began as an experiment. We just wanted to see what would come out of our attempts, we did not see the ‘final product’. We started with recordings. People listened to our music and said it was good. We received some invitations to play in clubs in Minsk, so we started thinking about live performances and what we wanted them to be.
Fof likes horror movies (the more smashed brains and blood the better), I like different genres of films: horror films with zombies, horror films with dead animals, horror films with maniacs… Taelih doesn’t like films. How we transfer a movie into a lyric: we take all the dialogues from a film trailer, change them a bit , so that they rhyme, and here you are – a song is ready.
If to be serious we like thought-provoking films which can touch you emotionally, the lyrics of some songs are sort of thoughts or feelings of some imaginary character not necessarily a film protagonist, but somebody who is in the same situation, but his will be another story, if you understand what I mean.
What kind of thought provoking films are you talking about, what are your favourite movies?
A difficult question, so many films we love starting from science fiction like Pitch Black, Blade Runner, Aliens and finishing with Eastern films like House of Flying Daggers or My Wife is a Gangster.
Your debut album “Wired Tunes” was released on a local label called Machinist Records, how were the responses on that and is it still available?
We received a lot of positive responses from local public and that of Russia and Ukraine. Many were surprised to know that we are a Belarusian band. Wired Tunes was a demo album, that’s why it’s not available.
Shortly after the release of Wired Tunes you joined Alfa Matrix, how did you get in contact with them?
Machinist Records sent Wired Tunes to various labels, web-zines and people in the scene and after that we received an e-mail from AM.
So how things go from an email to a signing, did you have to talk a lot about a contract?
No, not much) The first question was whether we had a contract with any label, the answer was no, so then we were sent an offer to join AM, (it was WOW! Yes! Yes! Yes!) , Seba sent us information about the label, explaining how they see their work with their artists, then the contract, we agreed on everything, and that’s all.
Most of the songs are the same, though we wrote three new songs specially for Body Code: No Passive Isolation, Delicious and Join the Game.
How are the responses on Body Code so far?
So far we received mostly positive responses, though we are sometimes criticized for the lack of originality. We have our own opinion on that.
And what is your opinion on originality?
First of all, being rather poly-stylistic we manage to preserve the integrity of the whole album. Also, being dance-oriented the tracks are rather sophisticated and diverse in terms of arrangements.
Can you explain the album title “Body Code” it makes me think of DNA?
I can’t really explain it. Our music brings out a lot of images in my mind, the same with the title, when I was thinking about what title to give to the whole creation I just came up with Body Code.
The album cover is really beautiful, who made it and is it connected to a special song on the album?
I’m glad you like the cover. When asked by AM if we had any ideas about the cover we said we saw it in blue shades, a female body (half human half machine) in a cube of ice (again, these were the images evoked by our music), some machinery… And Greg Rolfes managed to bring our ideas to life really beautifully. We are very grateful to him for that. He’s a great artist.
You already played some gigs in Eastern Europe and it seems they went really well, how do you prepare for a gig and what can people expect from a Diffuzion show?
Rehearse a lot… We think carefully about our stage image and integrity as a band. We prepare costumes, video. We perform in clubs mostly, usually our performances are energetic and people always dance to our music.
Any chance you will be playing in Western Europe as well?
We are always ready to consider interesting proposals)))
What are the next steps for Diffuzion?
We are working on new material, you will be able to hear our new track She’s Machine on new AM’s compilation
Any last words for the readers?
Helicopters are the souls of dead tanks.
www.diffuzion.org