MM
- Introduce the band members to us and
where do you call home?
You know, normally, you'd start an interview off with an easy question,
but right now I can't answer this one!
Up until the end of the last tour, The Chaos Engine were myself, Lee H,
main singer & shouter.
Huw doing guitar noises and Kelly doing bass.
Kelly recently left to pursue pastures new, and the band are currently
assembling a brand new line-up in a secret location in the heart of
deepest darkest Gloucestershire ...
MM - When was the band formed and how did you all meet?
Chaos Engine was formed back in 1994 and was originally my solo project.
I met Huw whilst very drunk - he was DJing at a punk night and scaring the
assembled masses with a most bizarre and eclectic set ... and I thought,
yeah, that's the man for the job!
He's been the guitarist and 'image manipulator' ever since - whilst others
have come & gone, he's stuck with the program the longest so far.
MM -
Describe your music and who do you
think it would most appeal to?
It's a big horrible lovely mess of industrial, punk, cyber, techno, goth
and anything else that'll fit into the sampler... and it seems to appeal
to anyone with an open mind - our audiences really do seem to be a very
broad cross-section of fabulous freaks!
MM - Where does the name Chaos Engine
come from?
Augusta Ada Byron, who was Lord Byron's daughter and had an affair with
Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first computer. She coined it as a
term to mock his work. So now you know - readers can join the dots from
there to the band...
MM -
What instruments/equipment does the
band use?
Too much to list - but suffice to say if another band has thrown it away,
we've picked it up and hard-wired it into The Chaos Engine - we are a
product of discarded and outlawed technology.
MM - What bands/artists have inspired
you the most over the years?
Again, a very wide spectrum, from the obvious, such as Nine Inch Nails and
Foetus, to the more leftfield and experimental such as the Aphex Twin, Kid
606 and Melt Banana, and back again to more popular acts like Fear
Factory.
I'll find little bits of genius in the most unusual places - some of the
hideous chart fodder around at the moment has the best production and
weird sounds in it, and I keep thinking 'hmm, if only I could get that bit
and turn it up to eleven...'
MM - What one possession could you not
live without right now?
My PC, coz that's where the Chaos Engine album is currently gestating ...
MM - What was the first rock concert
you ever attended?
Foetus Interruptus at the Town & Country Club (now the Forum) in London.
Amazing show - his backing band had most of Swans in it and Raymond Watts
from Pig - I still have never seen anything like it to this day...
MM - What do you feel has been the
bands biggest accomplishment so far?
Our continued existence in the face of adversity.
MM - Who writes the songs that you
perform? Is it a solo effort or more of a band thing?
I write the songs, and then I open them up to whoever's in the band to
destroy them live.
The studio end of things has traditionally been quite a solitary activity,
but I've been doing a lot of production work recently [for Wasp Factory
artists Tarantella Serpentine and Arkam Asylum, and some studio jiggery-pokery
for Goteki] and I'm beginning to prefer working in a team, so maybe I'll
work that way for Chaos Engine album 3.
MM - The band's third album 'Escape
Ferocity' is due out shortly. How does this compare to your earlier
material?
It'll sound bigger and better, it'll be more diverse and generally more
aggressive and darker, but with more of an ear for what makes people jump
up & down on the dancefloor.
Which doesn't make much sense until you actually hear the thing...
MM - The band are quite keen on using subliminal messages both on tour and
on their website. Do you believe it's possible to brain wash people
without them realising it?
Oh,. absolutely. Our messages are faux-subliminal - you can see them
clearly, but they're just part of the sensorial barrage of the live shows.
What concerns me at the moment is the way that television appears to be
having more of a control on people's lives; it's not so much subliminal
messages, but there seems to be a real policy of trying to keep people in
their houses and keep them watching TV instead of looking at the world and
starting a riot... "Sorry, can't protest against the WTO today, gotta see
what happens on Big Brother..."
MM -
What's all this talk about rolling
cheese down a hill? How did this all get started and where can people
find out more about it?
Ahh, a great British (well, Gloucestershire) tradition of chasing after a
big lump of cheese... so mad that we decided to embrace the Chaos, and
each year run a one-day gig festival to coincide with the madness, and
then fling ourselves down the hill!
You can see some pics of it on the BBC website from last year, although
this year's fun was curtailed by Foot & Mouth - but we shall return!
MM - Wasp Factory have confirmed that they
will be having a stage of their own at the EuroRock 2001 in Belgium later
this year. Not only that but we hear that the band will be one of the acts
featured on it! How do you feel about that then?
Obviously thrilled - it'll be a real buzz to have a stage with all of our
bands on it - a gig with all your best mates, what could possibly be
better?!
MM - Has the band had any scary fans
experiences so far?
Not nearly enough, as far as I'm concerned... I wanna see that PO box
brimming with used... stuff.
MM - Have any of the any of the band
members featured in any other bands before Chaos Engine?
Yes, but they never return to useful active service ever again! We're not
secretly harbouring any brothers of famous popstars in the band though -
otherwise I'm sure the press would pay MUCH more attention to us!
MM - When you die would you like to be
buried or cremated? What final words/phrase would you like used for your
epitaph?
I'd like a Viking send-off on a raft full of fireworks... I had a goldfish
once that died, and I wanted to give him a decent send-off.
I thought burying him was just an invite for the local cats to dig him up
and eat him, and there was no way I was flushing him down the toilet.
So I put him in a rocket and sent him into space. I think I'd really like
that done to me, too...
MM - What song would you choose as the soundtrack to your life?
'Come To Daddy' by Aphex Twin, without a doubt.
MM -
Tell us one thing about yourself that
not many people know.
I never drink alcohol or eat before I go onstage, except for 3 packets of
lucozade tablets. And I often have a haircut too.
MM - Lastly, is there anything you
would like to say to all your fans out there?
Aside from the obvious 'buy the album! BUY THE ALBUM GODDAMMIT!', just
thanks for all the support, which never fails to stun me ... some guy
mailed me to tell me he's getting a Chaos Engine tattoo - how can you ever
think of doing anything else when you get THAT level of response from the
fans?!
If I ever see anyone with a tattoo celebrating the joys of quantity
surveying, THEN I'll think of quitting.
Until then, long live Chaos - whether you like it or not!
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