Suicide commando currently exists for 20 years.
What is the reason you started with Suicide Commando 20 years ago?
I guess like any teenager you try to identify yourself with a certain style of music and for me that
originally was the so called new and cold wave scene, but when I discovered bands like Klinik,
Front 242 … in the early eighties I was sold immediately. These bands had such a big impact
on me that I also wanted to start doing this kind of music, and that’s how suicide commando got born.
What do you remember from the first Suicide Commando live shows?
Well, I only started doing live shows in 1993 if I remember correctly, so that is not such a
long time ago. I still remember my very first live show as if it was yesterday, it was as support
act for Plastic Noise Experience who in those days were one of the rising acts in the scene,
in a small club in Belgium. In those days I still was alone on stage, just me and my machines,
but I soon realized that being alone on stage was nothing for me, so after some shows I got
joined by guest musicians, and today we actually became a “real” live band with live drums and all.
What is the most memorable show you ever played?
That’s really difficult to say as we did so many unforgettable shows, so I definitely would say
my very first live show as support for Plasic Noise Experience, but also our very first appearance
at the Zillo festival (now called M’era Luna) in 1997 can be called legendary as we had to play at
10.30 in the morning or something, or yet our shows at M’era Luna, WGT or Eurorock …
just too many to mention.
Throughout the year a lot have changed, what changed for suicide commando? ( like songwriting, instruments/studio technics, concerts)
Indeed a lot has changed in these last 20 years. When I started doing music there was no sign of
CD’s or PC’s yet, so it was a completely different way of working. Making music was really
expensive as synths or drummachines costed a fortune, and we did not have a media like CD’s
or DVD’s yet, so my first recordings were released on tape. The tape scene was still pretty big in
those early days as it was an easy and cheap way to spread your music all over the world,
something like the CD of today …
Due to the high costprice and limited means you only had a few bands doing music, so there was
not so much quantity as today.
But tapes got replaced by CD’s and DVD’s, and expensive synths got replaced by cheap
softsynths on PC’s … so things definitely changed over these last 20 years, and in my opinion
not always for the best.
It became way too easy to make and release music, with as result that you got a real boom of
bands and releases in the last years, but more quantity does not always mean more quality.
But I guess now I start to sound like an old maggot, ain’t I ?
Of course technology also helped us a big deal !
Suicide Commando is a band everybody seems to have an opinion about.
Some like the older tracks better than the new songs while others prefer the new ones.
Does this have any effect on you?
I’m not saying it leaves me un-effected as I do care about everybody’s opinion, but that of
course doesn’t have to mean that I have to agree with it. I always have to think about a quote
someone wrote in a forum saying “opinions are like assholes, everybody has one” !
And in a way that’s f***ing true. Opinions do differ and that’s good, I mean, how boring
would it be if everybody would like the same music or would have the same opinion ?
You are about to release a dvd for this celebration, what can you tell us about it?
Well, in fact it will be an entire anniversary boxset, so the DVD is just being a small part of it !
The boxset will be called “X20” and will include, besides the live DVD, a remix cd with remixes
from bands like Combichrist, Agonoize, SITD, Wumpscut, Spetsnaz … , a best of CD and a
booklet offering unique photomaterial from the band throughout the years. All will be packed in
a special packaging and is supposed to be released around April on NTP/Dependent !
The videowall you used during the Bind, Torture, Kill tour was pretty impressive.
Can you tell us some more about it, like who made it and what’s the idea behind it?
Thanks ! We spent a lot of time, work and money into this videoprojection, but I was really happy
with the result. The videoprojection itself was done by Guido Fricke, he recently also did the Diary
of Dreams DVD …
The idea of the videowall was to visualize the lyrics and themes of the different songs as I think
people too often ignore the lyrics or the meaning behind the lyrics.
About a year ago you started with Noise Terror Productions?
Why did you start it and what can we expect in the near future?
I have been walking around with this idea for many years now and when Stefan Herwig (labelchef
of Dependent) offered me the possibility to run NTP under the protective wings of Dependent,
I obviously grabbed that unique opportunity to start my own label. The idea behind NTP actually
is to present new and unknown bands to a wider audience, but unfortunately it became impossible
these days to run a label with only newcomers, so that’s why we also signed legendary bands like
Insekt and Suicide Commando, to give NTP more power.
Unfortunately the good times are over for many labels due to the decline of the cd market (because
of the illegal downloading, cd piracy …), so not sure what the future will bring for NTP … But we do
have some new releases up our sleeves (the debut album from Controlled Collapse, the boxset
from Suicide Commando, a new EP from Insekt …) so wait and see …
Are there any dreams left, things you would like to see realised?
I guess I have achieved about everything I could achieve in this scene with Suicide Commando,
so I’m a satisfied man ! Suicide Commando became one of the leaders of the hard electro scene,
an example and influence for many young bands, so I guess in a way my music now became immortal.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t have any dreams left … I still would love to release a vinyl some day
as that is something that is definitely missing in my collection, and with each new album I still try to
do better, so I guess my next goal is 25 years of suicide commando !
What’s next for suicide commando?
At the moment I’m working hard on the “X20” anniversary boxset to be released in April,
furthermore we’ll do some special anniversary live shows to celebrate this unique birthday,
perhaps we’ll do a new CD single as well, and you can expect us to play at many festivals this
year … so don’t say we didn’t warn you !
Any last words for the readers?
Well, I’d like to grab this opportunity to thank all our fans for their neverending support throughout
the last 20 years as without you I would be nothing ! So thanks a million for the support !!!
Website:
http://www.suicidecommando.be/