Hi Flo, thanx for doing this interview with us, how are you doing?
Im doing good at the moment, thank you. I am a bit stressed out, but who isn’t nowadays :)
You are the man behind the german industrial band Phosgore, can you give a brief introduction?
Phosgore is a project which tries to combine different styles of today’s music scene: Industrial, Electro, Hardstyle. What sets it apart from other projects of that genre is the general absence of “clean” sounds, every track I create has some gritty, dark, distorted touch to it.
You were a respected dj but in 2008 you decided to start Phosgore, what was the reason to start it? Where you missing something in todays music?
In my opinion, most of today’s releases kinda miss a thing I like to call “club reality”. Granted, not everyone wants to create music for clubs. But, if you take a look at several past years, it’s always the same projects that dominate the dark electronic club scene, and most of the newcomers did not target the club floors with their music (or did not succeed in trying to). I just wanted to try and see if I could get a project into today’s club scene myself. So far, I succeeded, and I’m astonished :)
Does Phosgore benefit from you being a dj, you know what people dance too. How did the band influence your dj work and reverse?
Having been a DJ for about a decade sure did help my music. I think I know what kind of music today’s crowd wants to dance to in clubs – and, as a coincidence, that’s about the only kind of music I want to create myself. My DJ work wasn’t influenced that much by my own project, but Phosgore helped to raise my popularity as a DJ, too :)
What makes an industrial track a great clubtrack, what should be the ingredients?
Hard-hitting Kickdrums, a gritty bassline, fierce synth leads. Plus, every track needs something to make it special, to make it stand out.
What were your original goals, did you intend to release a full length album or would you have been pleased with being on some samplers already?
At the very beginning, being on some samplers was all I ever wanted. But, as time went by, I craved to release an album. I am sure every musician wants to do this at some time.
You got signed to Pronoize, a very well respected label, how did you get in contact with them?
Surprisingly, this was not too hard. When I was playing a very early version of “Hardcore Shit” during one of my DJ sets, the guys of SAM were in the audience. They liked the track, we got to talk, and they told Frank D’Angelo, the boss of Pronoize, to check my tracks out. About a month later, I signed the contract. SAM and us have become close friends since then.
You just released your album “domination”, can you explain the album title, is it about being a dominating album for the clubs?
The title “Domination” just matches what I had in mind when I created the tracks. I did not want to do anything half-hearted - it had to be harsh, hard, pumping, steroid-driven club music – music to dominate the club scene. Of course, that is not possible, as there are lots of good club-oriented projects out there. But, it’s the intention of my album: go for the maximum.
How are the comments on the album so far?
Comments from “normal” people have been very favorable so far. I kinda managed to establish a growing fanbase. Comments from critics are spread out and range from “terrible distorted crap” to “the best club tracks we heard in a long time”. This was to be expected – Phosgore isn’t music tailored to fit everybody’s taste.
How did the recordings go, did they all went according plan or did something strange happens during the recordings?
Everything went pretty smooth.
A first album is often a learning process, was this the same for you, what have you learned from it?
I did learn a lot during the production of “Domination”. Mostly technical things, but I also got a greater knowledge of things which work – and things which don’t. Thanks god I had some help at the beginning, my fellow projects SAM and [X]-RX helped me whenever I was stuck somewhere.
What is the secret of keeping a full length industrial album interesting?
I can only speak for myself, but in “Domination” I tried to get different styles into the tracks. There are TBM-like tracks like “Noise Preacher”, but I also have Power Noise-oriented tracks like “Destruktor” – and even a rather different-sounding song which tells a story, “Smite the Weak”.
It seems you are not really into the cyberstyle look of some bands and want to stay away from it. How do you feel about bands wearing synthetic hair, dressed in neon outfits and so?
You did notice that? :) It’s true, I am not into cyber style myself. If someone else is wearing that, it’s okay with me. Actually, there are some people out there who really fit into that style. I don’t. I like my style as I like my music: dark, dirty, distorted. The world I imagine when creating tracks isn’t glowing in different neon colors. It is dark, relentless, and mankind is on the verge of extinction. It’s all a matter of personal taste.
How important are samples for you, how do you pick them?
For me, samples are the soul of my tracks. I’m watching a lot of movies, and when I hear someone say anything awkward, I sample it. But some of my samples are from other sources as well. TV news, audio books and so on.
The album has some remixes by bands like Sam, FabrikC and X-rx, how did you get them to this, do you like to make remixes yourself?
All of those bands belong to the same label family as I do, some of them have become real friends with me. So, it was no problem getting remixes from them. I really do like remixing other people’s tracks, but it’s very time-consuming, so I cannot do too many mixes.
We heard from several respected names in the music scene that Phosgore is a band to keep our eyes on, how does it feel to be so respected already by the bigger names in electro/industrial?
Don’t make me blush :) As you might be able to imagine, it’s pretty cool if other bands which have been in the scene for quite some time know my project and like some of my tracks…
For live shows Sonja is part of the band, how did you meet and what is her role in live shows?
Sonja is my wife :) It took me a while to get her to get on stage, because she actually is pretty shy. But now, she is a valuable member of Phosgore. On stage, she mixes some parts of the tracks to make it easier for me to get in contact with the audience – so I do not have to stand in front of my rig all the time.
Sometimes industrial shows are really boring to see, a guy behind a laptop, how do you try to keep them interesting?
You should come to a Phosgore show :) There is no “guy behind laptop” thing going on, I really love to “free the beast” when on stage. Coupled with a cool video show and some surprises, I do not think were boring to watch. Besides, my live show actually has some vocal parts in it.
Do you make changes to the songs for a live settings or not?
I do. There are some tracks which are exclusively made for the live setting, others are remixed, or made longer or shorter. Plus, the live versions allow for more interactive sound design on stage.
What will be next for Phosgore?
World Domination. Just kidding. I’m working on the next album at the moment, which will have some surprises for people who think they’ve “seen it all”. Stay tuned :)
Any last words for our readers?
Thanks for supporting Phosgore for the last 18 months, it has been a blast so far. Stay harsh!
www.phosgore.de