THREAD - Abnormal Love (CD 2001)

(Middle Pillar/World Serpent, www.middlepillar.com)

Middle Pillar is at the moment the most interesting US label for mostly ambient and trancy Gothic/Darkwave, and every release was an unforgettable masterpiece by now, especially the CDs of  The Machine In The Garden.

I want to be fucking stunned every time I drop in a CD

An Interview with THREAD !

As your project isn't very well known over here in Europe by now, please tell us a bit about its history, releases and everything else of importance...

Thread has several very important releases, which I would recommend to a  listener not familiar with my work. The earliest material appears in a compilation format on 'The Need for a Sky' (which features some songs I recorded as young as 16 on very primitive analog equipment). The next release chronologically would be the Coil - Obsidian Monarch/Null Tributary 7", which came out on Brainwashed Recordings in a limited format and features two remixes I made of popular Coil songs, which Coil liked and gave me permission to release commercially. Following that is the acclaimed 'In Sweet Sorrow' EP which features beautiful vocals by Jarboe of former Swans fame. There is a duet version of the title track on the new CD Abnormal Love, but the original is a VERY different and more experimental atmospheric feel. After this, someone interested in my work would check out my side project 'The Boy Without Hands - The Automated Hygienist EP' which is available online free at  www.sesoryexpansion.com/boy.html . Finally you have 'Abnormal Love' which is my newest and most personal album. I also have numerous compilation appearances (visit my website for details).

? Before I read, that you worked together with Coil, I thought, while listening the first time to "Abnormal Love", that it has a comparable atmosphere as some of Coil´s works...how big was the influence of Coil for you?

! I love Coil and their uncompromising desire to constantly explore areas where lesser artists would feel uncomfortable. It is a quality I also respect about Jarboe and her body of work. I am interested in artists who are not locked into a groove of what defines them and are willing to take risks. I want to be fucking stunned every time I drop in a CD.

? I sometimes thought of films by director´s like David Lynch or Derek Jarman, when listening to your album...what do you think about these directors and did they influence your work on some way or another?

! It is great that you would mention them! I love both their works, and although I am less familiar with all of Jarman's work, I have seen everything by Lynch. Both have an acute appreciation of sound and the relationship of sound to visual experience. The idea of blurring the relationship of where raw sound ends and music begins would be another element I admire about their work. Another film-maker I love in a similar way would be David Cronenberg. I think that film in general has a profound influence on my work, and I hope to work with the medium one day.

? How did it come to the collaboration with Jarboe? Did she have any influence on the album, except singing on it?

! Jarboe contributed the vocals remotely so it really was limited in influence to the two tracks I asked her to contribute to. I did however restructure the songs to match the intriguing results of her vocal recordings. It was fascinating working with her and in a way, the fact we collaborated remotely created more intriguing results than if we were in the same studio at the same time. You are hearing elements recorded in many different time frames, of many different shapes coming together in a cohesive whole on Abnormal Love.

? Are you playing live concerts? If yes, how can we imagine a live gig of THREAD, if not, do you plan to start performing live some day?

! I have been very limited in my live engagements due to the technical complexity of how I produce my music, but am interested in doing this more frequently. On stage the most intriguing visual element of my show would be the fact that I do not in fact have hands. I wear prosthetic metal hooks on stage and use them in a sense to reinforce my artistic vision which deals with the fusion of the natural and synthetic/human and machine. I am a genuine representation of what my music conveys, and was naturally born without hands (quite literally) due to a unforeseen and unpreventable synthetic interference.

? "THOTUG (2/3) - The Vessel" is the most dancable song on "Abnormal Love"...was it recorded to have a possible "dancefloor hit" or how does it cope with the all in all more calm songs? Can we expect more songs in this vein?

! Track 2 danceable? Maybe you mean track 3/4? (Interviewers comment: no, I really do mean track 2 - track 3 „A cloud without form“ reminds me more on a Soundtrack of a John Carpenter film. „THOTUG (2/3) - The Vessel“ would perfectly fit in most of Germany´s Dark-Wave Clubs) I don't think I deliberately set out to make anything danceable on this record. It was an attempt to explore and purge many conflicting and painful emotions. I think the album tries to be very diverse in an effort to convey the ineffable. As for future songs, I think you can expect something harder and more up-tempo with the next release but simultaneously more complex and melodic song writing. Also, expect my humor to creep into the work of Thread a little more. ;-)

? Anything else I should have asked? Anything you want to tell our readers?

Tell them to take full advantage of the potential gifts they have. Even things which seem initially to be the absolute worst events in ones life can be turned into mechanisms and archetypes of great power.

Thanx to James for this interesting interview answers. I hope, that this short article will help him, getting THREAD a bit more known in Europe.

For further information, visit www.middlepillar.com/thread and http://users.nac.net/thread, where you can also order the releases of THREAD. (A.P.)´