In October 1995, Chaos Control conducted an interactive interview with cEVIN KEY. Readers were invited to submit questions which were then forwarded to the musician. At the time, KEY had just launched the project DOWNLOAD.
With Dwayne’s passing what is the status of future Doubting Thomas and Download projects? Will these projects continue on or will new side projects be formed to carry the thread? Also what are the chances of future collaboration with Ogre? (question from Jeff Comtois)
I’m not really sure, but certainly I will give it my best shot to continue on. We had a lot of ideas down, I will probably backtrack a bit and explore. We did have a plan for new Doubting Thomas as well as about 20 hours of Download Improvisations to go through.Future things with Ogre, I haven’t considered.
For your work on “Last Rights” and the current album how much of the work is performed in post production I.e. does the material that enters post-production resemble the final product pretty closely or are they worlds apart. And is the material written around the lyrics or the other way around? (Question from Arne Claassen)
In the case of Skinny Puppy , everything starts with the music and structures and at that point Lyrics written, vocals , overdubs etc.For the most part I’ve seen and heard some big changes going on in the second stage, as we are all able to equally grasp a glimpse of the song in which we’ve now created. At that time it’s just a matter of picking sections for Sonic Improvements.
What are your future plans in music? (Question from Brian O. Bush)
Looking into the future – what do you see? (Question from MagerValp)
What projects are you involved in now? Anything that we might hear soon? (Question from John Callari)
Future plans will include more Download,and in December I’m regrouping with Edward Ka-Spel and LPD for a new Tear Garden. In the spring we undertake a big tour with the bill being Dead voices on Air/ Download/ Legendary Pink Dots and Tear Garden.Mark Spybey and myself are performing some Dead voices shows this month in Eastern Canada and I will be joining L.P.Ds on their tour of Mexico in Nov.
Do you have any other side projects in the works? Are you thinking of doing anything with Ogre in the future? And will there be a Back Forth 3, 4 etc? (Question from The Cap)
I’m now working on Back and forth 3 and 4 now officially called BRAP This is a strange collection of Puppy oddites and live recordings with some very strange video clips on CD Rom.The second CD is really cool , I spent time collecting recordings and compiled a great live set of a new virtual puppy show. Cd 1 is really old stuff from the beggining, and some crazy improvisations.
Hi… There has been some speculation as to the delay of “The Process” and some sources which claim to be close to the band say its holdup is due to American’s dissatisfaction… Could you please compare and contrast the involvement of Nettwerk and American Recordings in the recording process itself? I’m mainly interested in who has final say about what gets released musically and who decides on the artwork, packaging… thanks… (Question from godwalker)
well up to now, we have always had the artistic freedom to express ourselves By taking full responsibility for everything.However when we signed to American we had no idea they wished to “change ” us .
What type of computers and software do you use in “ain’t it dead yet”? D.R.G. was playing with a joystick, was it a point controller, did it have 5 buttons, and can you elaboate on its use. Are you now using holophonic sound in the upcomming release of the download album? peace brother… (Question from Jon LaRose)
Hey Jon, no it was mostly analog stuff at that time, with the exception of the first cool cheap sampler, the Ensoniq Mirage in which we both used one, I’m not sure where you saw a joystick as we didn’t own a vcs3 yet.
What plans do you have for the Back + Forth series? Will another live SP album ever be released (ala Ain’t It Dead Yet?)? Does the Tear Garden still exist? Will Download have any videos? Will a video compilation of SP vids,etc. be released? (Question from Drugg Pico)
Yes yes and yes yes yyes………………..all soon
I would like to ask about Doubting Thomas… I’m really a great fanatic of Your Doubting-sounds… i know well all Doubting-tracks are soundtracks for movies aren’ t they? I’m looking for these films but i know anything about them… Please define some data title publisher useful to look for them for Me and for other Doubting-fans… Another question of mine … Tell something about Your future-plans -projects ALot of Thanks for Your Art… (Question from Joh Strbik)
we pay tribute to certain pieces of dialogue throughout our music’s some of the themes of Doubting Thomas “the Infidel”s words came from Latenite Jamaican Radio, Joseph Campbell playing mother earth (Power of Myths) and some of our favorite old Hitchcock films.
As a fellow musician, I was wondering what your main musical setup – keyboards , drum machines, computer, sequencing software etc. consisted of. (Question from Ross Vitale)
arp 2500 arp 2600 tr808 tr909 serge eml 101 polybox pro one prophet 5 jupiter 6 VCS3 k2000 sy77 sy22 emax 1&2 ms10 doepfer se1 mirage svc350 tr606 tb303 cr78 mc202 s1000 s900 sp1200 syncussion simmons v esq mks80 ams delay h3500 pcm41 piano guitar logic 2.0sound designer vision protools turbosytnh xpander minimoog multi moog ,acoustic and metal percussion radios t.v.s tapedecks turntables drums (ayotte) fender rectifier maestro and I take a size 12.5 shoe.
Has the death of d.r.goettel affected the release of “the process” in any way and what is the tentative realease date for it? since we’ve already bought our shirts, how does the process organization use the swashtika-like symbol and what does the circular symbol on the shirts mean? (Question from James Ashley)
Coming out I believe in January on American.
Recently there have been a large number of industrial bands fronted by Christians emerging amidst claims that the whole idea of “Christian industrial” is an oxymoron. Your thoughts? (Question from Carson)
where was that? Stryper what ? actually no I haven’t heard much myself.
Are you married? (Question from superhoney)
No, except my 2 cats.
Do you happen to like Pop Will Eat Itself? (Question from Trent Wolbe)
Haven’t heard much, but what I did hear a while back sounded good.
Questions from Chaos Control:
What was the reason for starting up the Download project?
Live Improvisation, playing with friends, writing quickly and not pondering on Ideas for weeks. Liberating .
How has the evolution of musical technology over the past decade or so influenced or altered your approach to music?
It always takes a while how to learn something, but to use it to your advantage is another thing. We have started with Analog progressed to Midi on Cleanse Fold and then digital around Too dark. Now we’re dealing with Hard Disk recording and graphic computer displays and we’re all pulling out our old gear again.
Why did Skinny Puppy move from Nettwerk to American in the first place?
When our contract with Nettwerk/Capitol expired after Last Rights,We were resigned with what looked to be a great company.
How did Download come to work with Genesis P-Orridge? Wasn’t he also involved with the Skinny Puppy album? What was it like working with him?
Dwayne and I jammed with Genesis in Malibu, and we were coming up with music that was essentially to become the direction for Download. It was too obscure for Puppy, but to be honest it was purely from the heart, and exactly what we felt. It becomes a challenge to make a certain type of music, when you and your feelings are pulling at you to stroll down more challenging channels.
Have you ever done any film soundtrack work, and if not would you like to?
I just gave Jim Van Bebber from Dayton music for his film Charlies Family and we’ve had alot of music hired out, but ideally I’m still waiting for the right film to come up, something suitable, and with someone who shares a taste for experimental filmmaking.Graeme Revell is a Brilliant artist and I admire the course he’s taken. Though I would prefer to work more with a certain type of film and also continue developing my recording career.
