Hi Ben and Bonnie, thank you for doing this interview. How are you doing?
Bonnie: Hello! All things considered, we are doing pretty well, and we are very happy to have our new album Viridian Resonance out finally. Thank you for this opportunity to have your readers get to know us.
Ben: Hi. Thanks for having us. ^_^
Bonnie, your nickname is noizekatt, what is the story behind this nickname?
Bonnie: Well, originally is was just a username I used on the internet, mainly because I really like Ant-Zen and Hands Productions style rhythmic noise… and cats! We have two black cat sisters named Emma and Sascha, and I have their silhouettes tattooed on my chest (we also have another cat, and 3 dogs, but that's an entirely different and very long story).
What spurred your interest to start a career in music, was it a special song or occasion?
Bonnie: Ben and I had been considering writing our own music for awhile, but there was a specific occasion that was definitely a catalyst that got us started. We were working at the local club, and promoting shows, and Ben managed to book VNV Nation on October 16th, 1999. We met Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson that evening, as well as Bryan Erickson of Velvet Acid Christ. Somehow that one night completely changed our lives.
Ben: Bonnie has it right! I always felt that there was something more I could be doing when I was a DJ. Bonnie and I did booking, events, DJing, etc. I talked with Mads from Arzt+Pfusch, and Ronan from VNV about various things on getting started, and they both lead us to purchasing our first synth, an Access Virus KB, in 2000. We then got help on how to use the Virus (subtractive synthesis), and all of the other things that were not mentioned, like drum machines, samplers, DAWs, midi, etc. from our friends Todd Wilcox, and Bryan Erickson (and when he was free @ work Ronan would ICQ me).
Did you play in any other bands prior to Revolution State? What is your musical background?
Bonnie: No, I never played in any other bands previous to RevState, unless you count the fact that we originally called ourselves Protocol. Growing up, I was in the choir in elementary and middle school, and I was a percussionist in symphonic band in middle and high school. I bought a drum kit in high school, so really my background was as a drummer previous to RevState. I hadn't really planned on being a musician, though there are many musicians in my family history. I thought I would be a visual artist, actually… a painter and a photographer. I won many art awards in high school, and many of the nation's top art schools wanted me as a student, but somehow I didn't end up pursuing that route in life. I do still paint though, and I painted the keyboard that is the basis for all the album art for Viridian Resonance.
Ben: My father was a radio and club DJ since before I was born. So, naturally I helped as soon as I was old enough to put the needle on the record. At 15 years of age, I was DJing on my own. As far as playing an instrument, unless you count middle school band… nope. I taught myself music theory, subtractive synthesis, and all of the recording techniques that we use today.
The both of you started Revolution State in 2000, can you give a brief introduction to the band?
Bonnie: Let's see… Ben and I are both from Manitou Springs, Colorado, USA, which is a very small town formed in a valley on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, at the foot of the famous mountain, Pike's Peak. So, we are from the mountains, but Manitou is right next to Colorado Springs, which is a city of over 600,000 people, so we have always lived a mixture of city and mountain life. We started going out to gothic/ industrial club nights when we were 15 or so, we started working at a club when we were 19, and that is when we decided we wanted to start making music for ourselves.
Ben: We originally wanted to make a band earlier than 2000, but we had no knowledge, and no one locally knew anything or they were unwilling to help. After we got the synths, and the help, we decided to name our project Protocol, but after talking to Stefan Alt once via email, I found out that there was another project called Protocol. While thinking of a new name for our project, I noticed one of the tracks that I was working on was randomly called Revolution State. It was a eureka moment for me, and I ran to Bonnie to tell her the name.
What were your original ideas about the music and concept of Revolution State, how have they evolved over the years?
Ben: Well… when we started, we didn't know a thing. I didn't want to put anything out until I knew for sure that I liked it, and that it was worthy of peoples ears. We tried making songs that sounded like this band or that band, but it never worked… we always hated it. Then, in the beginning of 2001, we just started writing what flowed out of us. The patches we made on the analogs would be made the same way. From 2001 to today, we just make ourselves write things that come to mind, with sounds that we have created ourselves.
How would you describe your own music?
Bonnie: I think our music is probably an amalgamation of everything we have ever loved about music, except that all the influences we absorb are reinterpreted inside us, so they eventually come out of us slightly different than the way we originally heard them, and those separate influences combine in ways that they weren't combined before.
Ben: I always like to say that we are ElectroNoize… but no one catches on. It's a term that may never come to life, and will never die (at least for me). We write a combination of very electro sounds, with dissonant noisy sounds. We also try to write with an audience in mind, so we try to put catchy things (that we like) in our music. Hooks from Industrial or techie bands that we have liked, twisted to suit our needs. Of course, all of the hundreds of influences have seeped into what we write, but nothing we write sounds like any of them.
You have built a pretty good name over the years with several remixes you made. How did you get all these remix jobs, especially since you haven’t released an album on your own?
Bonnie: Before we released any music of our own, we worked on the VAC album Hexangel: Utopia/ Dystopia. This just came about naturally, because we became very close friends with Bryan after we met him. Ben and I wrote the music to the song "Misery", and Ben wrote all the music for the song "Eva". Then we did two remixes for the "Wound" single, which was the first single on the VAC album "Lust for Blood". This was around the same time we released the Revolution State vs. Noizekatt split EP, which Ben and I both consider to be our first album despite it being two EPs. I guess that is when the remix requests started to come in. Once we signed to Vendetta Music in 2007, we started doing remixes for our label mates rather frequently, which is great. We have a lot of fun doing remixes for other bands.
Ben: The only thing that Bonnie forgot was that we got the Neikka RPM remix because they heard the track that Bernard from Alfalfa-Matrix asked us to contribute to Endzeit Bunkertracks II. I think he actually wanted us to get Bryan on that compilation, and that's why he offered us a spot on that comp. At least Neikka RPM liked us, so we hooked up with them, and remixed a track. We met Rachel Haywire at a Z'EV and Boyd Rice show, and she asked for a remix after that and asked us to be on the first MachineKUNT compilation. We either get requests from bands, or our label owner, Dave Vendetta, finds bands that want remixes from us.
Can you explain why doing these remixes and being featured on compilation albums is important for a band like Revolution State?
Bonnie: I guess in the beginning, it wasn't so much that doing remixes or appearing on compilations was important to us, as much as it just started to happen. Others have always approached us to do these things, rather than us trying to push our music onto others. We are notoriously bad self promoters… especially Ben, who is just far too modest for his own good :) Now, I think remixes are important to us not only because we keep getting requests for them, but because we get to see how others write their music, which is very interesting and is always a learning experience. Also, we never ever know how a remix is going to turn out until it's done, so it's sort of suspenseful… even for us.
Ben: Compilations are not that important, except for the chance that someone buys the compilation because of bands that they like, and they hear us, and like us as well. I used to love compilations, but now with the net taking over, compilations are dying. People used to have to buy the whole disk, or all four disks, etc. and because they spent the money, they would listen to the whole thing. Now, people buy the band's track that they already like from iTunes, and skip the rest. This is another sad thing that the mp3 generation has done to music, because it makes it more difficult for people to experience new music from bands they've never heard before.
Revolution State always builds their music from scratch, why did you make this decision, what is the idea behind it?
Bonnie: The main idea behind making our own sounds is that then they will always be original. In electronic music using sample CDs and even sampled loops is very commonplace. We have never liked that concept. Firstly, it seems a bit like cheating as a musician to use sounds that someone else already created, and secondly it doesn't seem like it would be very fun to use pre-manufactured sounds to crate music. You will never hear the sounds from one of our tracks on another musicians album (unless they stole it from one of our albums!). Some people might recognize certain vintage drum machines in a few of our tracks, but that is it. We don't even use preset patches from any of our synthesizers that have them.
Ben: Our friend James from Necrotek actually looked at us in shock when we told him the we make most of our drum sounds with subtractive synths like the Voyager (kicks, snares, claps, high hats, etc.). Other than one hit (not a loop) vintage drum machine samples, all the drums we use are made from scratch. We don't use synth presets, effects presets, dynamics processing presets, and especially... we don't use shit like
Auto-Tune. Unless you make new, original sounds, what's the point of all of those knobs staring at you?
Unlike many other bands these days you use analogue instruments, why is this and what are the pro’s and con’s of working this way?
Bonnie: I just can't imagine going back to digital synths. There are a select few vintage digital synths that I might be interested in using someday, but for the most part analog is the only way to go for us. We have owned around 40 different synths at this point, and I can count the digital ones on one hand. It is difficult to put into words, but analog is alive in a way that I don't think digital synths, whether they are hardware or software, will ever be able to capture.
Ben: The only con I can think of while working with analog equipment is latency… when recording using midi, and from the DAW (digital audio workstation) itself. You will get this from anything outside of the computer though. Drum kits, guitars, violas… they all have the natural latency of sound waves taking time to reach the mic. Our problem is that of midi being outdated, and it taking time for the midi to be transmitted and received. That, and when multi-tracking in a DAW, the more effects and dynamics processing plugins (like delay, reverb, or a compressor), the more "in the box" (in the computer) latency you have, and the more it needs to be corrected, but that's a problem for anyone working inside the box. Everything else about analog synthesizers, analog effects, analog mixing, analog EQ, analog compression, etc… is a HUGE pro. The sound, the feel, the interaction… you name it, it is more fun, better sounding, and an over all better experience. Although our UAD-2 software gives us tons of stereo LA2As, having an original hardware Teletronix LA2A would be wonderful.
Can you give us an insight look of the creative process within Revolution State? Do you always work the same way?
Ben: The creative process for us is chaos, and the flow. Chaos, because it comes out of nowhere at anytime. The flow, is… something that all artistic types of people can understand. While you are working, everything just comes together and works itself out perfectly, like it was meant to. Your brain becomes in sync with your art, and it just happens. As far was working the same way, chaos ensues, drums are written first, or part of drums, or a bit of synth here, or the whole thing is created around a drone, or one bit of lyrics.
Bonnie: When we write music, it is a new experience every time. We have no idea what to expect, and no idea what the end result will sound like until it is done.
In 2005 you released the split album Revolution State vs. Noizekatt, how were the comments on that one? What did it do for you?
Ben: Everyone that heard it loved it. We had DJs from around the world, from Japan to Brazil, playing RS vs. NK. It was an awesome feeling… every time we sold a CD, every time a DJ emailed us, and especially when the fans emailed us. We just didn't have the marketing ability and distribution that Vendetta Music is going to bring for Viridian Resonance, and we couldn't write any new music because selling the CD was taking up all of our time.
Bonnie: I hope more people will get a chance to hear Revolution State vs. Noizekatt because of Viridian Resonance. RS vs. NK is more raw, because we were less experienced, and that is really our first album. I don't think people will be disappointed when they hear it, if they haven't heard it already.
Shortly after the split album you started working on the debut album of Revolution State called Viridian Resonance, why did it take you 5 years to complete the album? Are both of you perfectionists?
Bonnie: To an extent, I suppose both of us are perfectionists, so that played a part in the amount of time it took us to complete this album. However, I think the main reason the album took as long as it did is because life has a tendency to get in the way of art quite often. In the past 5 years we were in two weddings, four of our friends had two very important sons (we're god parents now), and sadly, around a dozen people we know passed away. We were also in two car accidents. The first accident injured us just badly enough to make it difficult to sit in the studio for any length of time, and unfortunately that was before we completed all the tracks for the album, and we hadn't completed any of the vocals, so that really slowed our progress. The second accident could have prevented Viridian Resonance from ever coming out, despite the fact that we were done recording it, because we very easily could have been killed. We were hit by a semi on the highway that was going at least 60 mph, and it actually hit our vehicle twice. When I think about it, I'm actually still surprised we didn't die. If we weren't in a Volvo, I think we would have literally lost our heads that day.
Ben: Well… I think Bonnie pretty much summed that one up. We are perfectionists, but not to the extent that it should take us five years to put out a CD. Death, depression, and sickness took a lot of that time from us, and so did the happiness of new life. The semi-truck accident has taken a lot out of us. It has also made my depression worse than it has been in my whole life. I am hoping to overcome this, and get back to producing songs with Bonnie… better, harder, and in less than 5 years! ^_^
The album is released on Vendetta Records, how did you get in contact with them and what do you expect of this collaboration?
Bonnie: Oddly enough, the day we met Dave Vendetta was also the day of our second show. That was the Revolution State vs. Noizekatt CD release show. Evidently Dave liked what he heard that night, and on our CD. After that we ended up going to a lot of Vendetta sponsored live shows and events, and at some point Dave asked us if we'd like to join the Vendetta crew. Ben and I are fiercely independent people, so it took us awhile to answer, but we eventually agreed. We became a part of Vendetta Music, and Revolution State vs. Noizekatt became an official Vendetta release.
Ben: We are really looking forward to what being on a real record label will do for us. Dave is a great guy, and I think he has our interests at heart. I think this is going to be great for all three of us.
When listening to the album I have to say you found a perfect balance between harsh and beauty, what is the secret in finding this balance?
Bonnie: I don't know if there is a secret to the balance. Many times when we are writing a song, it almost seems like the song itself takes over, and it just flows out in a way that we do not fully have control over. That is the reason we have two different projects, as well as many unreleased tracks, because the music that comes out of us does not usually fit into one particular genre or category. Often, if Ben starts working on a track, I can actually hear what is supposed to go with the part he already wrote in my head. Then, the trick is to get it out of my head and made into actual sound before it disappears.
Ben: I also think that the beauty and harshness is something that we have always liked in other music. The pretty Emulator choirs on a Depeche Mode CD, or the dissonant destroyed beats of a Winterkälte track. Noise and beautiful ambience have a great connection to each other, almost like spinning magnets of musical harmonies.
The first comments are coming in now, the few I read are really positive. How do you feel about this?
Ben: I was really surprised to hear the first reviews. Things like "From start to finish Viridian Resonance encapsulates the best aspects of every form of industrial music released in the past 10 years.", and "it manages to drag you in it immediately" are fantastic things to hear before the CD even hits the shelves. I am ecstatic to know that people are loving this CD, and having not just industrial fans, or even electronic music fans like it is a wonderful thing.
Bonnie: Really, I don't think we could be happier about the feedback we've been getting about Viridian Resonance so far. The people who love what we do are a huge part of why we write music. I would like as many people as possible to hear our music, and I hope that many people enjoy it.
What do you hope your music conveys? Revolution State is a band that is really aware of social issues, animal welfare and so on? How important are these topics for you?
Ben: Those topics are extremely important for us. For me, it is half of the reason that we started music, and one of the few reasons to even write lyrics. If I can't convey what I think about animal torture, war, or even my own personal feelings about my own pain, then what was the point of saying those words?
Bonnie: There is a very particular reason that we named this album Viridian Resonance, which is only briefly explained in the liner notes of the CD and in the digital booklet. When Bruce Sterling's Viridian Design Movement was still active, we were extremely influenced by the movements ideals of using technology to fix the worlds environmental problems. We like to envision a future where Bright Green Environmentalism and/ or Technogaianism has actually fixed the environment, so we hope that the ideals of the Viridian Design Movement continue to resonate through culture and society. It's an extremely tall order, and very idealistic, but it's much better than the idea of the alternative, which potentially, is the eventual destruction of all life on this planet.
Why is music a good vehicle for you to share your thoughts and beliefs with the rest of the world?
Ben: Because music is the most wonderful thing to hear, and through that music you can give ideas, inspire, and evoke feelings in other people that just can't be conveyed in other forms. Also, music can still be independent, and still NOT be part of the media machine that tells you what to buy, what to eat, and what to watch.
Bonnie: It's not as if everyone will, but we would like it if people took what we have to say to heart, and really think about it. There has been music that influenced us in this way throughout our lives, so I hope our music can do that for other people. Even if our message only gets through to a small number of people, it was still worth our time, because every person counts.
Are you planning to do live shows to promote this album?
Ben: If my body and mind permit, I would love to do a few shows.
Bonnie: Yes. If we can manage it, we would like to do shows to promote this record. I think we would both like to do shows here in the US, and some abroad if possible, since we haven't actually toured yet.
What will be next for Revolution State?
Ben: A new album, with new restrictions on how it is made, with new ideas on how it is produced, and with the same honest feelings that we always give.
Bonnie: That will happen for sure, and I would also like it if we could work on a Noizekatt EP sometime in the interim. Noizekatt is not as serious in nature as Revolution State, so it would be fun to work on that for awhile, too.
Any last words for the readers?
Ben: Please try going vegetarian. Find your own passion, whether it be art or science, and pursue it until you give something to this world that no one can take. You are your own god!
Bonnie: To add to what Ben already said: Do what you love. You only live once, so you should do what you want to do now, instead of waiting for a future that may never happen. If you are doing something you don't enjoy, you are wasting the time you could be using to follow your dreams.
Oh, also, we have a limited edition box set version of Viridian Resonance available exclusively at www.revstate.com, and it has a ton of cool stuff in it, so if you like our music, you should check it out! Sorry, I had to add a little bit of shameless self promotion here at the end. ^_^
www.revstate.com