The following is an email interview with Peter Stone, aka Xorcist. Having just finished the first ever full Xorcist tour, Stone has a new CD/CR Rom out on 21st Circuitry called "Soul Reflection". The release features more vocal work from Evoltwin, who previously sang on the track "Bad Mojo" and performs live with Xorcist. In addition to making aggressive electronic/gothic music as Xorcist, Stone has done quite a bit of video and computer game soundtrack work and founded The Cyberden BBS and web site. To get more information and hear music samples, be sure to click on the "Xorcist web site" button to the left of this article.

How did your recent tour go?

The overall response has been pretty amazing. The response after shows has been much more then we had ever expected and according to almost every venue, more then the promoter was expecting. While it's pretty had to do just a "2 person show", apparently, we've been told that our show with the video and odd controller and constant playing live of drums or keyboards really makes the show quite a visual and technical treat. The tour has also been a lot of fun in meeting the fans and different places. We did have one sour note when over $500 cash, a $500 Nikon camera and all our ID and address book info/contacts was stolen out of our hotel room. That was a blast.

When you do local shows, do you usually have more people on stage? If so, was it difficult adapting to live show so that just the two of you could pull it off?

Xorcist used to be a one man show in the beginning. From there, I had usually 3 people on stage total but actually, it's almost always revolved around a 2 person outfit only because Xorcist was always a 'project' (solo music writing) and so the live shows were based more around imagery and visuals rather then fill the stage with a bunch of 'rockers'.

Why did you choose to put out the "Scorched Blood" EP rather than a full new album?

Well, that was a post-mistake perhaps. Scorched Blood was only called an EP because the label thought that because there were 4 mixes of the same song, that it should be called an "E.P." - Then the last minute addition of the hidden track turned it into almost 60 minutes long and well, let's just say calling it an EP was a mistake. If anything, the fans scored on this as it's priced way cheap and in the long run, I'm happy about that as it makes it much more accessable to people and you really get your money's worth on it.

Can you describe the upcoming album/CD Rom? Is the music all new material? What is the multimedia portion like?

"Soul Reflection" is now out. It is all new material including yet another version of Scorched Blood. The CD-ROM material contains two Quicktime videos. One is the opening of our concert (UNITY) and the other is the X-Rated video for I JUST WANT TO LEARN off of Phantoms. Also on there is the Evoltwin Art Gallery and some other tidbits. It's all laid out in .php format and for an ISO disc which means ANY computer can read it if it has a web browser. PC, Mac, Sun, etc.

Are you currently working on any new video/computer game soundtracks?

Not at the moment however I am working on trying to release the soundtrack for BAD MOJO together with another musician who did some remixes and renditions of the theme as well. It's hoping to be a double CD set but this is all to be seen.

How does your approach to game music compare with your work on Xorcist music? What is the process like? Is the game usually near completion when you do the music, or are you just working from descriptions of what the final game will be like?

A game is usually fed to me in story boards, ideas, computer images or videos. While it would be ideal to get the completed game and be allowed to just have a month scoring it, that's not praticle in the real world. That month is wasted time and most places have you work in tandam with creation itself.

Writing for games also allows me to explore the other areas of my mind that musically are a bit more diverse then some of the Xorcist stuff. Hopefully the Bad Mojo soundtracks will show that when and IF they get released.

7. What type of musical background do you have? Do you have formal training? >Had you been in any other types of bands before starting Xorcist?

I took piano lessons for what seemed a year but was probably 2 months, drum lessons for what seemed 2 months and was for my parents, probably 2 years. Other then that, I pretty much just listened to a lot of different music and noodled on my own.

As for other bands, the first band I was in was called BELIEF which was myself and another guy in Los Angeles. We played quite a few shows, were angry aggro boys. However I went more darker and the other guy wanted to be the next Depeche Mode. Nothing wrong with any of this... I just saw the music writing directions going completely in the opposite ways so we split.

Many of your songs have spoken samples in them - do you get them from movies? If so, is clearance ever a problem?

Clearance? What's that. Actually, at this time, I'm too small potatoes to worry about that. When you sign to a major label, yes, that is a problem. But for now, to even think of being approached by anyone would be ludicrous. The day that happens is the day we must of sold over 10,000 discs of a single release.

What's in the immediate future for you?

Design a new tour. Very elaborate. Find a way to get the support needed to take the tour on the road. We'll definately need major support. Transportation is a big problem. Lots of props, technical aspects, etc...

Other then that - I plan to not miss the next 8 weeks of watching my kitties grow rather then just hearing about it on the road.