:Bahntier// - Interview

Your new album Blindoom is an outstanding record. Tell us about the album's background and it's concept and also the album's artwork concept.

The title of the cd is “Blindoom” and it focuses on blindness. My idea of blindness is representing a background which is common in everyone, when people are unaware of their blindness. The cover shows this by images. A kind of collective blindness which leads us to a wrong direction so that we cannot see things the way they are anymore.

You worked on Blindoom with Justin Bennett, how did you come to first meet him? And how did you decide to make a record together? How was the work in the studio with him?

We met in Bologna as Justin was going to move there and he had just finished his tour with Skinny Puppy. When we met I immediately understood that we had a common feeling and many common things and it was not difficult to involve him in making the new disc. He is a humble person but with a lot of artistic ambitions. After recording the drums he offered to produce our new work in the studio. It was a beautiful experience, which really made us close friends and from now on we only want to play our pieces live.

Will you continue working with this line-up or it was just a one time collaboration?

No, we want to stay together… and we want to start working on other projects, and future collaborations … Now Justin is working on the new album of The Implicate Order with me and a special guest…but now it is a secret...

Blindoom is mastered by Erik Van Wonterghem (Insekt, Sonar, Monolith, Klinik), how did you get him for the job?

Beyond being a friend, Erik is a great artist and composer, who had and still has a costant influence in the European electronic music. We are really surprised and very happy about Erik’s work. He gave us a really big help by his mastering in creating a perfect voilent sound. We are happy about that we can play together with the “Insekt” very soon. We feel them very close to us.

Kenji Siratori cyberpunk writer is a guest on the record. How did that come about?

He is a fan of the band and he left some strange review online. After this I spoke with him about a collaboration on a new album and he gave me some spoken words that we could use in a song. 

Blindoom is released also as a limited edition box with a second bonus CD having a video and four new tracks and with other bonus stuffs. Why is the decision to release it in two different versions?

All of us agreed in that we wanted to give a high-level present to our greatest fans, who have been following us for years. We also wanted to give something more (see attached cd, cards, etc), which could show the big collection of ideas and artworks we had for this cd. 

Your label Rustblade seems to be a small independent label. Tell us a bit about it.

Rustblade is a family of artists…all artists do something for the label…promotion., management etc. We want to stay independent..this is the main reason…I think now it is better to do this in the music bussiness…Rustblade work independently like Industrial record, Ant-zen, etc…We are happy and lucky to be on Rustblade.

You have a videoclip for Worried Words by Extreme Video. Why did you choose this song for video? Do you plan to make another videoclip from Blindoom?

Worried Words was good for us to make a videoclip…there are a lot of rythmics and breaks in it, which is perfect for video editing. The new staff of Extreme Video understood what we needed for this clip …The plot is very easy: there is a person , who is watching lot of Tvs and he has an overflow of images, which kills him at the end. In the various tv channels of our tv world, we play the main role of the stories and violent images as both victims and killers. The new video Panic Flame is out now, in this video there are a lot of clips from our last live shows.

Would you describe Bahntier's music?

It is difficult to categorize the music of Bahntier. It is surely a sum up of influences, basically an experiment with noises with different electronic attitudes. We want each disc to have a characteristic sound. The listener must be surprised by the new sounds and themes, he must feel a development, a growth which is the base of our compositions. In our previous records (Randome, Revulsive), the atmospheres were more introvert and closet, rather a direct violent sound was determining. In Blindoom, I tried to find more ways of expression, using pianos and electric guitars but without leaving out the direct aspect of the songs. What really interests me is the way of the communication between the band and the listener. It is an unaware link as real relationships are. In this aspect we can say that it is hard to abandon this link just like cutting human relationships. It is beautiful to think that when you compose a piece you make it towards an ipothetical listener who does not exist but he is always in your mind. You can attack him, wake him up and shock him but he is always there and he is listening in silence.

Bahntier's live performances are notorious. How does a Bahntier live concert look like?

We played in Rostock and in Berlin in Germany. The Wave Gothic Treffen festival was a great surprise for us, we really did not think we could be such successful at the festival and it has been a beautiful experience which made us to be aware of our possibilities and gave us a lot of energy for the future. We like to bewilder. This is what we absolutely want. People coming to listen us on our concerts must feel the widest range of “strong” and “different” emotions at the same time coming from the sounds and images of my performances. We are looking forward to exploit all the aspects of comunication without having static and monotonous concerts.. It is certainly the base of our work. What we are looking for is to involve the listener by trying to represent with images what the pieces are aiming to mean. All of our projections are mixed in real time with the music so the video console is a musical instrument. The images are projected in a caotic way to give more intensity to the pieces. We are organizing now a little tour for ourselves together with the Insekt, please stay tuned!

What were your main musical influences?

I like the very violent music of the Chrome, the Helios Creed and the Numb as well as the trips of Coil, Brian Eno, Badalamenti. I also listen the psychedelia of the late sixties. I also like the music that can take me away and not only amusing me. Therefore, I do not stop at only one sound or genre. The influences of the band are different because all the three of us listen to different kinds of music from the first Futuristic experimentations of the Italian Russolo to the progressive wave of the Seventies, Goblin and King Crimson, to the industrial school of late Seventies and Eighties, SPK, Throbbing Gristle, Skinny Puppy, Numb...

You made a Dive remix. How did that come about?

I met Dirk long time ago in Italy on a festival… and I gave him my remix. We met again in Berlin and we play together on a Schlagsthorm festival… After the concert we spoke a lot about our influences, music … and drunk a lot…One week later he sent me an e-mail that he gave my old remix for the Audiotrauma compliation…

What is your opinion of the newer electronic music and the scene these days? How is italian electro/industrial scene nowadays?

I am aware that the contents are missing from many bands. I know that many artists and bands do music only to get royalties at the end of the month and I really feel sorry about this. This mood clearly suits in the social ignorance. Moreover, there is a big confusion about the concept of industrial music. I hope that another wave as PUNK will come soon so that it will give a big jolt to everything and we feel a little PUNK inside in this way. The Italian scene is different but the problem is that it is very closed sometimes.

Besides producing music, what else does the daily life hold for you? Any further interests, hobbies?

I like watching films…I woud like to make a film or a short film in the future…

What do you think about politics, the current world-wide situation and our media manipulated life? What can we do to change things?

I have a fear. This way they deny people to get a real and objective look at things. It is a scenario that clearly reminds me to 1984 by Orwell. We can do nothing...only wake up...

Your hopes and plans for the future?

Surely Working!!! We want to make a DVD which will collect the story of our three albums (concerts, clips, short films etc.). We are working on the new issue of our newspaper Amoeba and we are also ready to present a cd with the “Black Sun Productions” but mostly we are interested in making a lot of concerts...you can find everything you may look for at www.bahntier.com ...

Any final words you would like to fill in here...?

WE WERE BORN WITH NOISE AND IN NOISE WE LIVE...

interview: skinnypuppy.hu

thanks to Stefano

thanks to Bianka and Shir-Kahn for the translation

April 11, 2007 Wednesday