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Could you explain a bit about how The Sexbots came about, both musically and conceptually?

“Basically, what had happened, was that I had a number of beatmakers/producers spontaneously approach me and ask me to do vocals for basement projects. They were at a point in their lives where they couldn’t do the band thing- wife, family, mortgage, and no time for band practice- but they couldn’t stop going into their basement and making these tracks that they always had wanted a singer for, that no one was hearing, and they couldn’t really push themselves. It was a way of gathering all of these in a way that could actually be promoted- rather than 10 different bands that never performed, it was all under the umbrella of The Sexbots, with myself providing aesthetic direction and continuity. Another way of putting it is that it’s the Royksopp/Massive Attack formula flipped. Instead of having a different vocalist on each song, I have a different beatmaker. This was really a surprise to me when it happened because I have a history of performing in very experimental indie bands, but a few people took a chance on my voice and it snowballed.”

Do you see video as an integral creative part of the project, or more of a promotional tool?

“Here’s the part where I start to sound like one of those hipster types… I call myself a trans-disciplinary artist because I feel that what I do has more to do with looking at the world with a certain aesthetic sense, than having any skills. And just applying that to what I do. Video isn’t part of a grand marketing scheme – it’s just I love telling stories and making videos is a way to tell a story with several contiguous layers. I have crazy ideas that, at this point, no one else would let me do for their songs. It’s that I happen to have songs and this persona lying around, so I use them. Low-budget video making is like making dinner – you see what’s in the cupboard and you make it happen. If I had a singer-actress friend who would let me do these things to her – like taking a bath in body paint just so that it can be played in reverse, or getting locked in a trunk for a snuff film, I would – but I’m the only person who allows me to do these things. I’m both the sadistic German film director and his blonde actress at once, except I’m not blonde.”

What factors go into determining which songs you do videos for? Have any songs actually started out as video ideas?

“The song comes first, then I’ll be driving somewhere and I start imagining a story. I had a really sheltered childhood- I wasn’t exposed to MTV until I went to college so I am super fascinated by music videos.”

Since you direct your own videos, I’m curious as to what, if any, impact online viewing might have on the creative side of things? (For example – people potentially viewing on small screens, while jumping around youTube, perhaps seeing but having audio low, etc)

2 ways to answer that question -

1)the only way I can function with creative freedom is by assuming that no one is going to hear the songs and no one is going to watch the videos. Then they do and I am shocked when they ask questions!

2) It allows me to use cheaper equipment- I don’t need to have everything super HD if it is mostly going to be viewed on youtube. When I started making videos, people tried to tell me I need thousands of thousands of dollars and I said NO! It’s going to be seen in a 3 inch square on youtube, it doesn’t need to look that good. That’s something I’ve told my cameramen ever since- it needs to look good enough for youtube. I really don’t have much of a budget. I have 2 kids. The most I’ve ever spent on a video shoot was, I think, like $150, and that’s only because I got all the extras to show up by promising free vodka.

Going into this, did you consider what a project named The Sexbots might get lumped in with when people search for you online? (Porn sites, youTube videos about making large breasted Sims characters, etc)

No, I’m pretty naive. If I was a little more sophisticated, I might have seen what this got us linked to, and the assumptions people would make. Honestly, it’s kind of a convoluted Bladerunner reference. They don’t use the term in the novel or the book, but the concept of a highly sexualized replicant, who doesn’t quite get it, seemed awfully relevant to me at the time. My dating life was less than zero at the time.

Could you describe how the various musical collaborations on “Don’t Stop” worked? For example, did the musicians who created beats for it present fairly complete tracks for you to pick from / work with? Or was there a lot of back and forth as songs developed?

A little of both, depending what song and who it was. “Under My Skin” was something Ceez and I did especially for Halloween. We were driving back from Eugene with hangovers and decided to do a spooky beat and just talked about the concept. Ceez and I are like long lost musical brothers- there are times where we will be chatting online and he’ll send me a track and I will email him a demo 5 minutes later. Other people, there’s more back and forth. Spit Stix and I took a little time to work out what we wanted to do as we come from very different backgrounds.

What made you want to cover “Running Up That Hill” and “Take On Me”? Have there been any songs other you’d wanted to cover, that didn’t work out?

I’m a child of the 80′s, and they are both songs from when I was growing up. I chose them because they are songs that seem happy-go-lucky until you start to pay attention to the lyrics. “Running Up That Hill” is totally chilling and heartbroken. “Take on Me” is telling someone that they don’t know it yet, but you’re going to be lovers. I was trying to re-inject the the lyrical intent into the song.

Is “Don’t Stop” self-released? If so, do you think you’d want to work with a label in the future, or do you prefer to stay completely independent?

It’s self-released. I would like to work with a label- but it has to be a situation where we are both very clear what we want from each other. I’m never going to change my artistic output to be on a label, but I do want help with the logistical side. There’s a huge amount of, basically, office work that goes into doing stuff properly. I will work hard and earn money for a label- but I would rather be shooting a video, playing a show, or writing new songs than doing 100% of the grunt work. There are only so many hours in a day and I’m learning it as I go. There are people who do this full-time and get off on it, and they would be so much better than me. I’m basically running my own label except half the time, I stop what I’m doing to give a 3 year old a bath or something.

Do you have a regular line-up of musicians & dancers for live performances, or does it vary by show?

It varies show by show. There are some recurring regulars. I’ve used circus people, belly dancers, fire artists, drag queens… once an entire modern dance company.

Are you involved in any other musical projects right now?

I do hooks for rappers. I write neoclassical soundtracks for indie films and I’m working on another solo album. I want to start playing instruments with other people in 2012. I badly miss playing with other people, it’s just scheduling is a bear.

What’s in the immediate future for you (with The Sexbots or anything else you’re working on)?

We’re going to be hitting the road hard in 2012. I also want to work with a couple more rappers and put together an entire album that’s all different rappers with me on the hooks. That’s pretty insane! Anyway, if anyone wants me to play a show in their town, or wants to work together, they should e-mail me at ilimaconsidine@gmail.com.

If you’re in the US, you might be asking yourself – what is a Moomin? They are a family of ‘trolls’ who some people say look like hippos, and the central characters in a series of books and comic strips by Finish author / illustrator Tove Jansson. While they are collectively referred to as “Moomins,” the main character is named Moomin, with his father referred to as Moominpappa and his mother Moominmama. The books are available in this country, but the characters have never been as well known as they are in places like Europe and Japan.

“The Moomins and the Comet Chase” is based on the book “Comet in Moominland” and is compiled from episodes of the 1977–1982 Polish stop-motion Moomins TV series. This material was restored, re-voiced, and converted to 3D. The film was released on August 6 in Finland, but so far I have not read anything about it coming to the US. There IS an English language version, though, with Alexander Skarsgård (Eric from “True Blood”) voicing Moomin.

The see the Moomins in action, check out the video below!

1) Are these your first performances in the US?

KH: We actually performed last November in LA, presenting ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’ at The Silent Movie Theatre.
That show gave us the impetus to arrange some more. So this time we are playing at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on 11th May and then ‘A Page of Madness’ at The Silent Movie Theatre in LA [on May 17th]. We are also quite keen to find the right venue in New York to take our Optical Music scores to – a show in NY is long overdue!

2) Can you describe the process of the “Optical Music Series” a bit?

KH: As with all OMS scores we view the film and log cue points for sections of music. Then we start putting together a collection or palette of sounds with which to write the music. It’s often useful to limit ourselves to a specific sound spectrum but the types of sounds, samples and timbres are usually dicatated by the film and what needs to be expressed. For instance, with ‘A Page of Madness’ we used samples of traditional Japanese instruments like the plucked Koto and expressive Shakuhachi flute. We edited and layered these sounds to give them their own identity within the compositions and combined them with other electronic and percussive elements.

Certain sounds obviously didn’t fit with the atmosphere that we were trying to create for film – for example symphonic strings. Instead we used a very thin sounding solo string harmonic.

3) Are these soundtracks generally comprised of completely new compositions, or do you perhaps look to previously unused/unfinished music/musical ideas that you think will fit on?

KH: Most of the latest scores are completely original compositions. I think the only exception was with the first soundtrack we did, ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’ back in 1995. At the time we adapted a couple of tracks from our Les Jumeaux side-project. The score was originally intended as a one-off performance and never intended to be released on CD, or performed again. We have learnt a lot since then – The optical music scores are created and composed to exist on their own.

4) Have the film projects become the focus of In The Nursery? (as opposed to traditional albums)

NH: The film soundtracks add a variety to our work, but not a main focus – we generally alternate between studio album and soundtrack.

5) What else is in the immediate future for you?

KH: During the summer, we are putting aside some ‘quality’ time to record new material.
In August we head over to Hong Kong for a series of Optical Music score events and an ITN masterclass session

For more info on In The Nursery, check out this Chaos Control interview from 1993, as well as their official site.