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THE VANISHING - Interview „YOU CAN´T TELL IF THEY’RE ABOUT TO COME OR ABOUT TO PUKE“ An Interview with THE VANISHING in September 2002
As your band is still nearly unknown over here in Europe, please give us a few important details about who, when, what and why... THE VANISHING
IS CURRENTLY WE FORMED ABOUT 2 YEARS AGO..IN SF.. BRIAN AND I WERE IN A BAND PREVIOUSLY CALLED THE KNIVES WHICH WE LEFT TO FORM SOMETHING DANCIER. I KEPT GETTING DRUNK AT SHOWS AND PUSHING THE LEAD SINGER OFF THE STAGE AND STEALING HIS MICROPHONE SO I REALIZED I REALLY WANTED TO SING.. BEFORE THIS AND DURING I PLAYED SAXAPHONE IN AN ALL GIRL DARK WAVISH BAND CALLED SUBTONIX. BRIAN AND BILLY HAVE A DARK ELECTRONIC SCI FI BAND CALLED ZONETECH WHICH DOES SOUNDTRACKS FOR MOVIES.. Your music can easily be described as Death-Rock/Horror Punk in the vein of bands like 45 Grave, The Plague or Voo-Doo Church...can you tell us, how you feel with this comparisons? I LOVE 45 GRAVE, I DONT KNOW THE PLAGUE OR VOO-DOO CHURCH. MAYBE YOU COULD MAKE ME A TAPE!
SINCE I´VE BEEN IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS THERE HAS BEEN A PRETTY STRONG MUSIC SCENE BETWEEN US, THE PHANTOM LIMBS, BLACK ICE, SIXTEENS, MUTILATED MANEQUINS AND OTHER LOCAL BANDS..THERE WAS NOTHING GOING ON AND THEN WE SORT OF DISCOVERED OTHER PEOPLE DOING SIMILAR SHIT AS US AND WE´VE CREATED WHATS HERE. In Europe we sometimes hear, that there is a more or less big Death-Rock movement in the USA (especially in California) at the moment, is it true? IT DOESNT SEEM THAT BIG TO ME BUT I GUESS IT´S GROWING BIGGER ALL THE TIME. Your first record came out as 10“ on Cochon Records...how did you come together with this label and why did you choose the wonderful 10“ format, instead of a CD release? MY FRIEND MANUEL WHO WORKS AT THE SF OPERA RUNS COCHON RECORDS. HE HANDED ME SOME RECORDS ONE DAY THAT HE HAD PUT OUT AND THEY WERE PRETTY STRANGE, I GOT IT IN MY HEAD THAT HE WAS GOING TO PUT OUT OUR FIRST 10“ FOR US. HE LIKES TO PUT OUT 10“. ANYWAY, HE S GOING TO BE PUTTING OUT OUR SPLIT 7“ WITH „LOST SOUNDS“ (FROM MEMPHIS,TN) WHO ARE REALLY COOL. AS WELL AS AN UPCOMING SPLIT 10“ BETWEEN THE VANISHING, SIXTEENS (SF DARK NEUROTIC ELECTRO DANCE) KILL ME TOMORROW (FROM SAN DIEGO) AND BLACK ICE (MEMBERS OF THE PHANTOM LIMBS).. Other reviews compared your music with bands like X Mal Deutschland, Siouxsie and even Blondie and Joan Jett, what do you think about such bands? Which bands would you name personally as your biggest influences? I LOVE ALL OF THE ABOVE AND WAS ESPECIALLY INFLUENCED BY THEM FROM A YOUNG AGE. I STILL LISTEN TO THE CREATURES... AT THE MOMENT MY BIGGEST INFLUENCES ARE CHRIS AND COSEY, TUXEDO MOON, AND GOBLIN..MY FAVORITE SINGERS ARE PETER MURPHY,LENE LOVICH, DIAMANDA GALAS, MARIA CALLAS. Jessie, you are interested in photography beside the band, how did you come to it? What do the other band members do, when not working on THE VANISHING? What are you doing to get the money for food and flat in your daily lifes?
Are you in contact with other bands and how is the communication? Does anybody help anybody else? How important is the World Wide Web to promote your music? THE BANDS HERE ARE EXTREMELY SUPPORTIVE TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER AND WE TRY TO HELP EACH OTHER WHENEVER POSSIBLE. I´M REALLY OBSESSED WITH DOING SPLIT RECORDS WITH THEM AND I WANT TO GET MARRIED TO ALL MY FRIENDS ON VINYL! I´M NOT SURE HOW WELL THE WEB IS PROMOTING SHIT. I ENJOY EMAILING AND IT SEEMS LIKE IT CONNECTED US TO A LOT OF NEW PEOPLE WHICH I´M EXCITED ABOUT! Do you plan any side projects or collabborations with other musicians? AUTO NERVOUS IS THE TWISTED SPLIT PERSONALITY OF THE VANISHING. LIKE AN EVIL NEUROTIC ELECTRONIC TWIN. WE HAVE JUST BEEN BRAINSTORMING IDEAS FOR THIS BUT MEMBERS WILL BE THE SAME AS THE VANISHING WITH ADRIENE EROTIC (FORMER SUBTONIX KEYBOARD PLAYER). IT IS AN OUTLET FOR ME TO PLAY SAXAPHONE IN..AND FOR US TO EXPERIMENT AROUND AND BE DORKS. How can we imagine your live appearances? A big show or pure music? What kind of audience comes to your gigs? THE CROWD IS A LOT OF HOT SLUTTY GIRLS UP FRONT WHO ARE FREAKING OUT AND THROWING THEMSELVES AT US. IN THE BACK I SEE PEOPLE WITH THEIR MOUTHS HANGING OPEN. YOU CAN´T TELL IF THEY’RE ABOUT TO COME OR ABOUT TO PUKE.
WE ARE PLANNING TO TOUR EUROPE NEXT SUMMER.. I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO GERMANY AND CAN´T WAIT. What can we expect for the forthcoming releases of THE VANISHING? WE JUST RECORDED A FULL LENGTH RECORD THAT´S COMING OUT IN FEB ON „GSL“ RECORDS.. WE HAVE A SPLIT RECORD COMING OUT WITH LOST SOUNDS AND A SPLIT WITH THE PHANTOM LIMBS IN THE WORKS AS WELL AS A REMIX RECORD AND THE SPLIT 10“. Anything else, I forgot to ask or anything else, you want to tell our readers??? YOU CAN SEND ANY COMPLAINTS OR LETTERS OR MIX TAPES OR NAKED PHOTOS OF YOUR EX GIRLFRIENDS OR BOYFRIENDS TO: THE VANISHING
thanx to Jessie for the answers to some stupid questions. I am unpatiently waiting for the forthcoming records of this unique band and hope, many other people will do so, too!!! (A.P.) THE VANISHING – In The Bat Haus (10“ 2002) (Cochon Records, www.cochonrecords.com )
Stevenson of The Phantom Limbs organized the contact with the US Death-Rock-Band and I will be grateful the rest of my whole life to him, for doing it! THE VANISHING are one of the greatest bands, I discovered for a long time (beside Audra, of course). They play absolutely MY music, pure Death-Rock or „Sci-Fi Horror Disco“ as their label Cochon Records calls the music on this 10“ release. After a horror-soundtrack-like introduction, we get to hear the forthcoming classic track „Assisting Suicides“. Perfect Horror-Punk with great B-Movie atmosphere, reminding a lot on bands like Voo-Doo Church or The Plague, but even with some Morticia, 45 Grave and minimal Misfits influences. Doesn´t this description sound like a ultimate mixture? Next comes „Parasites“, much more in the vein of 45 Grave and a bit reminding of The Phantom Limbs (but with a female singer). Could have been also on the „Return Of The Living dead“ soundtrack album. „The Disaffectionate“ opens with some keyboard tunes and then develops into a song that could have been on Siouxsie´s „Join Hands“ album. This is the music, I always wanted to make with my old band Awake At The Wall back in the mid 90s, but never really realized. Last track on this 10“ release is „Princess Poison“, again a great song, which comes a bit more calm and with more electronic sounds and makes hungry for more! No excuses, if you are into Death-Rock music, this is a MUST for you. „In The Bat Haus“ will be definetly in my Top 3 of this year´s releases and in my all time Death-Rock Top 10! Get it or don´t call yourself a „Death-Rock/Horror-Punk“-fan any longer!!!!! And listen to it VERY loud! Another Split EP with the band Lost Sounds will come out on Cochon Records and then a full length release on Gold Standard Laboratories. An interview with this fabulous band will be online here very soon (hopefully)! (A.P.) |
What
can I write about the music of a band like THE VANISHING? This is not music
to write about, but music to dance to, music to feel and not to explain. It
is wonderful, powerful, outstanding Death-Rock and I really needed to send
singer Jessie Trashed a couple of questions....
Do
the band members feel as part of this scene and how did you discover it?
I
HAVE BEEN REALLY INTO PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE I WAS LIKE 14. IVE BEEN MOSTLY INTO
DOCUMENTING THE PEOPLE AROUND ME. CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT 
Will
you come to Europe and Germany in the near future?
Can
you think of a fat old Horror-Punk jerk, jumping around through his whole
flat like a complete idiot? If yes, you know, how I reacted to this first
release of THE VANISHING!