At what time did you became interested in music, what role did music have for you when you were younger?
I have been involved with writing and performing music all my life. I grew up in a musically talented family with a father who was a professional music director and a mother who played piano and sang alto in the church choir. I learned how to read music, sing and play piano at a very young age. The first play/musical I can recall having a role in was at age five. I then took private piano lessons from age 7 to 17 and was taught how to sing professionally by my father.
Having grown up in a musical family I was exposed to a wide variety of music and performing arts including country, jazz, classical, rock, pop, symphony/orchestra, broadway, gospel, and electronic. There were musicals, plays, choirs, solos, rock bands, ensembles, duets, trios, and quartets that I have sung and played with most of my life. Being a musician is genetic and something I could never live without!
What triggered you to become a musician? Did you have any rolemodels?
It was growing up surrounded by music and performing artists that did it. I was born with a natural talent and ability to sing and play whatever I heard and could learn by obeserving others perform. Once I was taught, I read music independently, and I was also greatly encouraged by my family and friends to continue doing music as a career.
My number one role model was my father. He taught me almost everything I know about singing, music performance and stage production. I also had a marvelous piano teacher who had a very positive impact on me as a teenager. She was a liberal Lutheran Minister and the first woman I knew who had a college education in music theory and who had the opportunity to do what she loved most. I do have a number of female vocal and performance idols. I used to try to mimick them as a teenager to see if I could match their vocals. They were Annie Lennox (whose voice came the closest), Madonna, Debbie Harry, Cyndi Lauper, Tori Amos, Stevie Nicks, Whitney Houston, Karen Carpenter, Pat Benetar, Joan Jet, Siouxsie Sioux, Sarah Mclachlan, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Melissa Etheridge, Shirly Manson, Sheryl Crow, and many more.
You are member of the band Sensuous Enemy, can you give a brief introduction to the band?
Sensuous Enemy is a female fronted darkwave/synthpop/electronic band formed in 2003 from Madison, Wisconsin USA that includes myself as composer/lyricist/vocalist/pianist, John Freriks as the main programmer/guitarist, Chris Wenzel as vdrummer/programer and Ali Phillips as keyboardist.
How would you describe your music, what are the ingredients that make a song a Sensuous Enemy song?
Sensuous Enemy is classified in most musical categories as darkwave/synthpop/electronic/dance. All of our songs have heavy programming, synths, keyboards, electric guitar, Vdrums with harmonizing female vocals. Our sound and lyrics are deeply meaningful and talk about things in our lives. We often use minor keys with a lyrical bent towards anger and sadness. We talk about many forbidden issues, which usually presses us into new song-writing ideas. I mostly write about what’s happening emotionally in my life and that’s not always an easy thing to do. Sometimes the words come easy and sometimes it’s a battle to create musically what’s really going on inside my head. I am grateful to have a wonderful muse and editor, when it comes to expressing thoughts and words well, who eloquently interprets for me what I want to say in the end. As for for the backbone of our music, John Freriks is our primary backing track and lighting programmer.
You have released an ep called “Deadly Sins” and an album called “Fragments” how were the comments on those? What did they bring you?
We’ve had some really wonderful inspiring reviews and comments on both “Deadly Sins” and “Fragments”. We learned a lot during the writing, recording and production of each album. “Deadly Sins” was our first EP and we were pretty green as we did most of it ourselves and it wasn’t produced and recorded in a professional studio like we did with “Fragments”. It is easy to hear the improved production values on the latter. We were fortunate to find a great producer in Chicago—namely Wade Alin (of Christ Analogue and now The Atomica Project)--who really brought out the best in our music and helped us to develop as a band. We definitely gained some new fans when we came out with “Fragments” and found a great family of musicians we have grown to love over the past few years.
Now a new ep “Parity” has been released on Radio Active Music. How did you get in contact with them and what are your expectations of this signing?
We were recommended to Radio Active Music (RAM) by Dan Clark of The Dark Clan from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who did an amazing job recording, mixing and producing “Parity” with us. We contacted RAM (Laura Hofford) to see if she was interested in having us on her label. She was delighted and anxious to help us reach new listeners and so we happily joined her label. RAM gives us full rights to our creative process and ownership of our music as well as promotional and financial support when needed. RAM also helps us with digital online distribution and promotes our music to a variety of organizers, promoters, events and venues. It’s really a DIY label that’s willing to help in any way they can to get our music out to all of the people they come in contact with on a daily basis. The label is physically located in Virginia so they do a lot of promotional work out on the east coast. Our music is represented on RAM compilations and sold at whatever events they are participating in. Our expectations are basically that RAM will support us in our endeavors and and market and promote us whenever or wherever the opportunities arrise. They have been wonderful to work with so far and we look forward to a great 2011 as part of the RAM label of musicians.
When you compare the new ep to the prior releases, what progress have you made?
We have become more fluid in how we write and record music. The longer you work at it and the more you practice, the better you become as musicians. Our music is much fuller and has progressed and evolved quite a bit since “Deadly Sins”. Our newest EP “Parity” has a lot more consistency than previous albums. We are more comfortable with each other as a team and with the creative process we’ve formulated over the past two years.
What made you decide to put 3 original songs on the ep and the rest remixes?
We had three strong solid original songs that we were pleased with and really wanted to get some new music out there for our fans. All three songs represent different aspects of our musical style. Intentions is a dance/club friendly song and was a definite favorite choice for the remixers. Mirrored is a slower song with strong trip hop influences. Finally, Kali is a tribalistic and driven ode to that powerful and dark Hindu Goddess.
As for the remixes, we asked a bunch of our friends if they were up for taking a crack at these new tracks (as well as our popular track “Whispers” from Fragments). It’s a popular thing to do in industrial music and everyone we asked was excited and happy to do it for us. We have some super talented and creative friends and couldn’t have asked for a better selection of remixes.
Can you give us an insight on how the music is created, what does the creative process look like?
We are rather serious when it comes to writing music and take two different approaces to writing. As a pianist, I like to sit down at the piano to write the structure of the song including chord progressions, lyrics and melody lines. Once the song is established then John normally works his magic by creating a beautiful and robust sounding framework around it. He spends a lot of time creating strong rhythmic and melodic tracks that move fluidly throughout all of our music. Sometimes, however, the tracks come first , which makes it a bit harder to write words to, but it really depends on who gets inspiration first and how we want the overall sound and feel of each song to be established. Chris adds programming on some of the songs and Ali has begun to add her touch with piano/keybards. I think our music is the culmination of a lot of different thoughts, ideas and textures that we use to create a wall of sound in order to move the listener on a deeper, and often emotional level. If our music doesn’t move people to think and feel, then we aren’t accomplishing what we set out to do.
What kind of things inspire you in writing lyrics, how do you transfer observations, thoughts into lyrics?
People, events and experiences in my life inspire me to write lyrics. I try to take what happens to me or affects me in some way and turn it into a meaningful song. I write down whatever comes to mind and then look for a pattern to occur. Sometimes it’s just one word or a sentence or a complete idea. Almost always it concerns something that I feel very deeply about. It’s not always easy to turn those feelings or ideas into a complete song, however. Good lyrics take a lot of research, a dictionary, a thesaurus, hitorical information and lots of editing and patience. I often approach writing lyrics as I would a puzzle.
Sensuous Enemy already was voted for “best electronic album of the year” and “best electronic song of the year”. What does this mean for you?
It was an honor to be chosen by our fans and friends and by the music community at large. To be chosen as one of the ten best was an exhilirating feeling. We are so thankful to have a community that supports our music and performances. Madison is quite a musically talented city that we have have had the privilege of being a part of. We will continue to put forth our very best efforts at making really good music!
How come you are still pretty unknown in Europe?
We have not traveled overseas to perform our music as the opportunity to do so has not happened as of yet. We do hope that our sound and style of music will go over really well in Europe. We are working hard to get there soon!
How does a Sensuous Enemy liveshow look like? Do you prefer being on stage or working in a studio (in other words, are you a performer or creator?)
We are darkwave electronc band and like to put on a powerful and encompassing live show. To accomplish this, we utilize a full assortment of surrounding lights, lasers, sounds, and movement. John plays live guitar and runs the on-stage MAC with backging tracks, vocal VFX and light tracks. Chris plays a full custom designed standing Vdrum set. Ali plays keyboard and synths. I sing all vocals and play tambourine for additional percussion. I enjoy both being on stage and working in a studio equally so I am both the performer and the creator. It would be hard for me to choose one over the other. It’s a perfect balance since I enjoy writing, recording and performing all aspects of our music. Currently, John writes the backing and guitar tracks and I write lyrics, melody and piano lines, Chris adds great percussion parts and Ali adds unique sounds and additional piano parts. We really have a wonderful blend of musicians and talent.
Do you have strange rituals before a liveshow, how do you prepare for a live show?
I cannot speak for the rest of the band but I personally have a few rituals I do before a liveshow. I practice yoga and meditation on a daily basis and like to do at least one full hour of deep breathing/calming/cleansing breaths. I also use aromatherapy to open up my chakras and sinuses. I drink lots of lime water and keep packs of lemon/honey cough drops handy to clear out my vocal chords. My Ipod backing track playlist is set on repeat in my headphones so I can warm up by singing with it prior to going on stage. And lastly, a shot of Dr. Jameson is always good to calm my nerves.
What do you hope your music conveys?
That we love to rock! We also hope our music conveys a sense of truth, balance, and meaning. The world is a terribly unjust reality that most people deny or candy coat. We try to uncover the truth in ways that let people relate it to their own lives and problems. In addition, most of the band loves to dance so we tend to create music that will make people move and release what’s inside of them.
What will be next for Sensuous Enemy? Any last words for our readers?
Currently, we are writing new songs for our next full length album. We’re attempting to fashion it as a journey through the darkness for our listeners, a “Dark Passage,” so to speak. We’re also looking to take a tour out to the east coast in July if all goes well. We really love writing and performing music and look forward to traveling, touring and meeting new friends and fans along our travels.
www.sensuousenemy.com
www.radio-active-music.com
www.myspace.com