Interview with: Mortiis
By: Sabine van Gameren & Nina Mende
Mortiis is on the road with Combichrist and when they were waiting for the show in Tivoli, Utrecht (Netherlands) when we got a chance to talk with the guys about the new album and whatever else is coming up for the band.
The tour started with an interesting fact to know if you consider yourself to be one of those who want to be in the front row during concerts. Vocalist Mortiis had injured guitarist Levi Gawron at the very first concert. “He fell down and I just jumped on him” says Mortiis when we confront him with it. “Adrenaline” he continues. And knowing this is not the first time it happened might scare you a bit, but he also stated that he is more careful now. “We are support so we are not getting paid that much. If I break shit we have to pay for it”. Nevertheless it is not a nice way to start your tour, but the band has dealt with bad luck before. They did a short tour at the end of 2009 and the Dutch customs had blocked them from taking their merchandise with them, for example.
| At 10-10-2010 the band had released a new album called “Perfectly Defect”. This album was given away as a free download via their website. The only thing you had to do to get it is sign up for the band’s newsletter. When asked what brought them to do it this way, Mortiis tells he had a couple of reasons for it. “We wanted to say thank you to everyone that is still hanging around. Cause it has been so long, last studio release was six years ago”. The band had obviously taken quite some time to work on music. “Perfectly Defect” is what the band considers as their ‘artsy’ album. We started talking more about how the album came to what it is and Mortiis explains “We have been working on a whole bunch of songs. A few of them were so strange, experimental that I just put them aside”. The original plan was to make an EP which could be downloaded after receiving a password when you bought their music, but it turned out different. Mortiis continues: “What actually happened is that I created more strange music and all in a certain it was a whole album”. This only brought them further to the point of releasing the album for free. Of course the release of the album in its digital shape might have raised some questions. Mortiis have released quite some material on vinyl and in the past he had posted a tweet on his twitter account with a link to an article about anti-piracy. Would it be that Mortiis changed his mind or that the love for traditional ways of releasing music had been fading away? When we voiced these suspicions carefully, Mortiis tells that he actually regrets going public with that link as it may seem a bit hypocritical now, but also that a lot of people misunderstood the point he was trying to make with it. “I think that if someone is going to give our music for free, it is going to be me. I own it, it is not for you to give it away for free” he tells about the subject. When it comes to the question if “Perfectly Defect” will be available as physical release he immediately tells that there will be some available in future. “Personally I don’t really enjoy mp3’s” is what he states on it. But nevertheless he realizes that embracing the past and leave out all what is going on right now is not an option either. “As an artist and ‘businessman’ we have to check out what is practical” he tells while pulling an ugly face when pronouncing the word ‘businessman’. |
| About the music self, it is obviously that ‘Perfectly Defect’ stands a bit away from what the earlier albums brought. Not any Mortiis album has sounded like one before and he states that this is exactly what he wants. “I cannot imagine to release the same album twice” he tells and after that he goes straight on with telling us that he does not want to limit his opportunities by sticking up to a certain formula. “I just like to create new stuff. It’s interesting and keeps it more fresh”. About that creation process we like to find out more and it is clear that they are quite impulsive in their way of working. “We record and create at the same time” Mortiis explains. They don’t rehearse for it and just record it straight. “We just record, cut it up, listen it backwards. No really that is how you create fucked up sounds Eventually we turn it into a song. All the sudden we are like… hey we are done. Then we mix it and master it and bring it out”. After that the band has to figure out how to play it live as we comment on his previous words and Mortiis replies with a smile: “Exactly. There is no way that we can perform all that stuff live. In the end I don’t even remember how I created it”. As he already said before that most songs of the next album are done already we are ready to question him about that. The new release will be called “The Great Deceiver” but a release date is not set yet. Also he said that for “Perfectly Defect” they took some songs apart for being a bit strange and experimental, so considering that we were curious to find out about what we can expect for “The Great Deceiver”. Mortiis says: “Next one is a lot of straight industrial/crossover metal stuff”. “Perfectly Defect” was referred to as ‘the art album’. For “The Great Deceiver” Mortiis seem to found a reference as well. He says: “I love it. I refer to it as our flagship record” while he immediately explains that it has a more commercial sound than “Perfectly Defect”. Also he shares that, that album will be the one the band is going to focus on for quite a while. Not strange to imagine as they are all obviously proud on it. All of the band have joined us and some ‘audience’ as well and Mortiis clearly enjoys talking about that release. Even though they have said this will be their focus for quite some time, Mortiis shares that their creativity is flowing wildly. “I have been working out the concepts for the next two albums already” he says. When speaking about the one after “The Great Deceiver” he tells that one will, again, be totally different and will surprise everyone. Then, Mortiis returns to why there has not been much releases in the past years. “We did not release anything for a long time because I am fucking sick of the music industry, honestly. I think it is a terrible place full with fucking sharks and assholes, wannabe rock stars. But there is still a lot of music so you can’t stay away. So there is a lot going on now, we got a lot of ammunition”. So clearly the fire has been re-lighted and they all seemed ready to get it all going. As if it was not clear already that the band has been very active in making new music, they share also that they have been re-recording some of their older material. This contains a lot of “The Grudge” and “The Smell of Rain” material. “The way it should have sounded. Those are good songs, but they could have been done so much better”, according the front man. They are halfway during this process and Mortiis speaks the hope they will be re-released. Whether it will, and how, is depending on labels as the band is talking around and search for the right persons to work with. Someone that matches their open minded view on things but how they will proceed of it seems uncertain for now. “Some labels just live in the past. We have got to find the right place for us, to work with. We will see what happens”. |
| At last we discussed Trashfest. Our readers know that Tempelores Magazine has been reviewing all Trashfest editions so far and that in 2011 we, again, will be there. Mortiis is going to play at the festival again, as they did also in 2009. The band may be a bit of a stranger in the family and it is obvious that they feel about this the same way. Mortiis comes with some strong opinions about the festival, but above all he wants to state that he adores the way Jo Sheldon, aka Mama Trash, is working with it. “I really like Jo. She is one of the very few American people that I have met that actually seemed to be truly up to what she does” he tells. About the festival he says: “We don’t belong there. It is all fucking pretty boys that just want to get laid. I fucking hate that. I’m sorry to say it, but those are the shallowest people”. A lot of the bands that play at Trashfest have ‘glam’ all over them and Mortiis seem to be different from this. Apparently it shocked them at the first time they played the festival. “I had to fucking leave the building, I had to fucking puke. It is a fucking meat market. I left in protest, fuck this, I don’t want to be part of this crap”. Right now, they seem to have put it in perspective and be happy to get to play in Finland again as their performance in 2009 showed that a lot of people from Finland are interested in the band. As soon as they entered the stage the venue was more filled than before and so come their show was a success anyway. We could not resist on bringing up the pink furry wall as it shocked us so much to see them posing in front of it. (it was there for photosessions during the festival) “I was so pissed off. They asked, ‘he can you come down and do some photo’s’ and I was like… Yeah of course, I always do that. When I saw the big furry pink wall I was like… shit!!!! This so wrong”, Mortiis tells. Then again, he said that they were (and are) no diva’s so they did it anyway. When we were ending our conversation and Mortiis only proves this point by saying: “So.. there are great things about Trashfest and not so great things about Trashfest, but we still do the fucking festival because we love Jo and we love Finland”. |
Links:
Mortiis Facebook
Mama Trash Promotions
Trashfest 2011
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