Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial From: vanilla@estate.wa.com Organization: The Estate - Bellingham, WA Date: Sun, 16 Apr 95 17:32:00 PST Subject: 16 Volt interview December, 1994, Pandemonium 16 Volt interview By Jo-ann Greene "Portland's up-and-coming industrialites 16 VOLT" "I chose Portland because it's not flooded with industry people, so I cou stand out. Besides it's easier to survive up here." That's what 16 Volter Eric Powell thought last May. Volt had yet to play in the northwest, but since then, they've performed a few times in Portland. Seattle still waits. So, has anything changed? "They all hate us here." Guitarist Jeff Taylor jumps in, "no one knows who we are. There's only two or three industrial bands in Oregon, which doesn't help at all. We have to bring up a band from Eugene or Seattle, or the same bands would open every time." "I know we must be more popular in Seattle," drummer Von Vin Hasa insists "Peopletalk about us up there." Indeed they do. And their conversations revolve around three questions: Why haven't 16 Volt played more shows? What' the new album sound like? And how the hell did Eric get Fluffy and Dave Ogilvie to produce Wisdom, Volt's debut album? Inevitably, the naswrs lay in the bands past; so first, a brief history. Eric was still at school when he formed 16 Volt back in 1985. Lake Tahoe, Nevada, was a musical wasteland, so after graduation, Eric headed to LA, but soon discovered that city was "band overkill," and eventually returned home. Eric kept Volt alive throughout this time, although the line-up changed constantly adn they never gigged. However, Volt did record Imitation, a thre song cassette, which ended up in the hands of the the ubiquitious Chase (head of Reconstriction records). It impressed him enough to include one of the songs, "Motorskill," on his own labels (IMM) first CD compilation, Cyberflesh Conspiracy. The press's response was so positive, that in August, 1991, REconstriction signed the band. By then, Eric had moved to Portland, which is where he met Fluffy (who was touring with Thrill Kill Kult). Volt were practicing in a friends basement, when teh studio wiz dropped by the party upstairs. Which explains how Eric mistook him for a "clueless rocker stoked on Volt's sound" when Fluffy came downstairs to check out the music. It wasn't until Fluffy mentioned a loop sample he'd used while recording Ministry's Land Of Rape And Honey, that Eric realized to his horror whom he' been treating like a complete dolt. Thankfully, Fluffy didn't take offense. He agreed to produce Wisdom, but his schedule meant an eight month wait In the interim, Volt didn't perform once. Chase lost patience; the band would make their live debut at the independant Music Seminar, even though recording had begun. Problem was, Volt was vitrually a solo project. Without any real band Eric was forced to quickly scrape together a line up, and Volt finally took the stage. "We played with Pain Emission, Sweat Engine, Diatribe and Babyland; it was a killer show!" Back in the studio, Volt were joking around one day about bringing Dave Ogilvie in to finish the album. They called him, never thinking he'd agree. theirshock, he said yes! And so, Eric had his debut graced by two studio greats. Wisdom's skillful blend of electronics and guitar set against a driving percussive beat garnered high praise upon it's release. Yet Volt continued its revolving door line up. "I've had trouble finding the right people," Eric states, "a lot of them had this guitar mentality, and couldn't deal with tapes." Which partially explains 16 Volt's paucity of live shows. Eric had to refuse gigs, because he didn't ahve a band ready to play. He' cancelled a few shows after Volt was downgraded to opening act, and once because he found the band advertised for a show he knew nothing about. Volt' only Seattle booking was cancelled when Noxious Emotion's ex-manager didnt' bother confirming the show witht he club. It's frustrating for both band and fans, especially as the new album, Skin, is more representative of Volt's live sound. And, as Eric notes, "Skin is a band album." The band then included Eric, Jeff, Von, and departed guitarist Chris Carey. Since this interview, ex-Chem Lab bassist Ned Wahl and live keyboardist jeff cooper (who also directed the "Skin" video) ahve joined the group. For Skin, Eric brought in heatmiser's Tony Lash as producer; the two met working at the tape duplicati outfit Super Dooper. Inevitably, Lash gave the guitars prominence, giving Skin a rawer feel than Wisdom. And even though Volt insists there's more sampling on their new album, it's the guitars that dominate. "You can't just use sound bites," Jeff succinctly states. "The cool thing about industrial was you could get away with doing anything you wanted, without people discrediting you for it." Eric elaborates, "but now that it's getting bigger, people are coming in who aren't that open minded. It's changing, and people are more critical. There's this attitude now that you can't be industrial if you use guitars, and so there's this paranoia about using them. I think that's really ignorant." "It's a lot easier to be expressive on a guitar, than on a smapler. I see it as all different sources of sound, it doesn't matter where it comes from. It's the style of music that people that people categorize, not the instruments. Still, to be industrial, you have to base the song on sampling, and all our songs start from the sampler." "Besides," Von finishes, "we're more concerned with trying to be as origian as possible, and honest about it, than with labels." Volt needn't worry, there's enough sampling on Skin to satisfy most Industrialists. And for now, fans will have to be satisfied with that, as Volt have no tour plans. ======================================================= On the Internet, nobody knows you're running Windows NT The Estate BBS * Bellingham, WA * (360)738-4673 Making Bellingham a better place to baud @estate.wa.com