Who is Rachel Haywire?

This changes daily. Who do you want me to be so I can prove you wrong?

What is a riot grrrl attitude according you and do you have it yourself?

Riot grrrl was a punk rock music movement started in the 90's by young angry females. Their attitude was very independent and confrontational. More musicians are starting to have a riot grrrl attitude and personality in 2008. It's about having a strong and creative way of presenting yourself regardless of the social documents that current music scenes enforce.

Before you started with Experiment Haywire you were part of  “Nuclear Riot Party” what can you tell us about that period and is NRP still active?

The Nuclear Riot Party was the band I started when I moved to NYC. I was really into old school industrial at the time: bands like Throbbing Gristle and Einstruzende Neubauten and Test Dept. and Crash Worship. I decided I wanted to create a bizarre and versatile performance art project with girls banging on scrap metal and screaming into megaphones: using every prop we could find on the streets: almost all of the shows were improvised and we got kicked out of several places for destroying the property of the venue. None of this was actually on purpose. Sometimes it was our fans who got us in trouble but the venues always placed the blame on us because we were the girls who were on stage. Especially me cause I was the lead screamer. We had no sound tech or anything remotely resembling a manager. The shows often continued outside as "breakaway protests" from the original performances. The NRP is no longer active. In the long run working with a group of people limits my creativity. It was a lot of fun while it lasted though!

I started Experiment Haywire when I was a writer and spoken word artist. It was a really difficult time in my life wen I was living on the streets yet thinking I was taking over the world. I decided I needed to get rid of my identity and create a new one. It would be a social experiment. The nation was founded. What was once a creation of sound collages mixed with spoken word rants became a full time dark electronic project. I'd like to reach everyone who is able to understand what I'm creating. I'd like Experiment Haywire to be the soundtrack to my generation. Well, at least certain parts of it.

What bands inspired you in making music?

At first it was women like Lydia Lunch and Wendy O. Williams and Hanin Elias. Lead singers with strong personalities. Then it was the chaos of  the early industrial artists back when it was about spontaneous performance art. EN, TG, SPK, all the acronyms. I couldn't live without the sounds of Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, and yelworC. Political acts like Laibach and Snog. Female fronted projects with a dark and aggressive sound like SINA, Proyecto Mirage, and Ambassador 21. Britney Spears?

You are also about to finish your book, what can we expect from that and what were the hardest things you came across writing it?

You'll learn about what I was doing before I started Experiment Haywire. The hardest part was that I was going through it while I was writing it. It's essentially a maniacal collection of my writings. A lot of it is very disturbing and guaranteed to make you uncomfortable.

You had a life in which many things have happened, good and bad, what are important things that made you the person you are today?

My entire house was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 while I was inside of it. Our entire family almost died. Getting locked up in the mental institution as a teenager over and over again, finding the other lunatics who didn't wanna go back to reality, going through trauma of every sort, (and somehow finding a way to make that a creative adventure) living on the streets, doing drugs, starting cults, traveling, fucked up people, interesting conversations...

This may make me sound like a typical "goth" but  almost all of my dreams are nightmares. Horror movies that take you inside the difficult areas of my mind and expand every little detail.

Your music changed from more noise orientated to a more structured kind of harsh electronic music. Are you growing up or getting better?

People say I 'm getting better and that I'm growing up with my sound but a lot of people still say I'm immature in regards to the style and presentation. The music I'm creating now has an actual purpose and may even be clear in terms of production, but there's always gonna be some condescending asshole who looks at me like he was doing this when he was in high school since my sound is dark and angry. Like that automatically discredits me or something.

To what movie would your music be a great soundtrack?

A combination of everything ever made by Greg Araki, Terry Gilliam, David Lynch and Takashi Miike. A new movie that hasn't been made yet. Any film people wanna get in touch?

What kind of things can set you off in a second, make you really angry?

Every day little things that I'm supposed to "just deal" with. Waiting in line, phone reps, mundane tasks, large groups of stupid people during the holidays, people who follow others without question... I am ready to flip out at any second. Watch out! Volcano!

You have collaborations with quite a few people already. What are your criteria for working together and what’s the fun of it?

If I decide to work with someone they have to be artist whose music I respect. We need to get along with each other and have similar ideas and visions. I love hearing my songs in new ways that I never thought possible. I love adding vocals to collaborations. It's great being connected to a network of like minded musicians and creating new material with them.

Andy Warhol, Valerie Solanas, and Michale Alig. It would be a postmodern version of  the "No Exit" play by Satre. These three people would be stuck in the same room together for eternity and the sadists would  amuse themselves by observing their interactions.

Why do you think there are just a few harsh female bands and do you consider yourself as somekind of rolemodel? If your not a rolemodel, is there anybody else for you?

There are just a few harsh female bands because in the ebm/industrial/powernoise subculture caters to wannabe-boneheads and their brainwashed passive girlfriends. Hello in your platform boots as you shake your ass to a song about beating the shit out of women. And guns! I'm here to change this and inspire others to take action but I think the only rolemodel you can truly have is yourself. So go make some music. :)

What can we expect from Experiment Haywire in the near future?

My first full length album "Annihilation Chic" is coming out in May. It has everything from the XP8 Remix of "Game Called Life" to the original which is featured on Endzeit Bunkertracks III,  to the maniacal explosion of "Sociopathitc" to the previously unreleased dark ambient "Annihilation Day." You can expect a full length album that features various styles of my music yet connects everything together based on underlying themes and concepts.

You also run the label, MachineKUNT Records, what can you tell about the label and it’s first upcoming release?

machineKUNT is new record label for females musicians who create dark electronic, industrial, and noise... females with their own personalities who are not afraid to push the limits. Our first upcoming release: "Extreme Women in the Dark Future" shall be out in May and feature artists ranging from Neikka RPM to Chiasm to Aluminum Voyage to Revolution State to Genocidido 1968.

The best example that comes to mind is when I got arrested for disturbing the peace. Me and my friend Travis went around in suburbia knocking on the doors of random people and telling them to break out of the system. We thought we were going to free them! Instead they just got pissed off and called the police on us. I wish we had the whole thing on video tape. We ran around the lawns of these people as we recited our rants about society collapsing and the total apocalypse.

If you can get away with anything, what would you like to do someday?

Inflict severe torture on every piece of shit who has ever attempted to destroy me. Like that movie "Hostel" but with more intellectual conversation.

How does the ultimate Rachel day looks like?

It depends. I am constantly traveling and doing new things. As a multi-media artist I don't work from 9 to 5 so it's really about whatever project I'm working on at the time. One day I may be doing a documentary and the next day I may be working on a song. During my down time I geek out to obscure movies/books/music and during my active time I'm at whatever show or festival raising hell in the name of performance art. I get in a lot of fights and have a lot of social interactions that have zero basis in reality. I'm told that my lifestyle is "dangerous." Yet sometimes I'll sip fancy drinks with fetish models in the back rooms of members only clubs. I cry inside.