Rockezine.com interview with Distorted Reality on Aug 12, 2002

with Martha M. Arce and Christian Kobusch on Aug 12, 2002

The release of the beautiful debut album “The Fine Line Between Love And Hate” (see review on our site) was reason enough to ask Martha M. Arce (vocals) and Chrisian Kobusch (music) some questions…
		Can you tell us more about the history of DISTORTED REALITY? Martha: We met at a Project Pitchfork concert in Herford while my other band Deep Red was touring with them as support. After the concert we talked for quite a while and exchanged email addresses. We kept in touch and decided to try working together and the rest is history... :-)
		Is DISTORTED REALITY a band or project? I ask this because Martha Arce is from the USA and sings in Deep Red as well while Christian Kobusch is from Germany. How do you rehearse? Or is one of you living somewhere else right now? Martha: I am in the US and Christian in Germany, that is true. However, we do consider ourselves a band and not just a project. As far as rehearsing goes, we really don’t need to rehearse unless we are going to perform live. We have not done this yet, but when we do we, will meet and rehearse like all bands do. Actually we are hoping to do some shows in Germany next year and also be part of some of the summer music festivals. Regarding song writing, at first it took a long time to get things done but eventually we worked out a system. However, right from the beginning Christian and I clicked musically. We were able to easily express our ideas and understand each other as well. We use email for most of our communication. Christian sends me a piece of a song idea and I give him my thoughts and ideas on it. We go back and forth this way until we are happy with the overall structure and flow of the song. During that process I usually start working on lyrics and the melody that I will sing. Christian would then send me the instrumental tracks. I would go to the studio here in Miami, record the vocals and mix the demo versions of the songs. On many occasions Christian would send me the instrumental tracks relatively mixed already.
		“The Fine Line Between Love And Hate” is an intriguing title; can you tell us more about the choice for this title? And about the lyrics of the songs? Martha: When we were thinking of what to call the album this title just came out. It explains perfectly the theme behind the majority of the songs on the album. It’s the inner struggle between the love you feel for someone and the hate that can develop when that person hurts you. For example, “In My Dream” is a failed relationship where one person was lead to believe that they both felt the same for each other, but realized that all those feelings and what the person thought the relationship was, was just a dream and a lie. And now that person is alone and left to contemplate these feelings of pain, rejection, deceit and rage. Many of these songs talk about how easy it is to go from love to hate. Only the ones you love can hurt you to the point of making you feel hate for them. It’s one of life’s ironies.
		The production came from Bruno Kramm (Das Ich), how did he get involved? Martha: He was actually referred to us by Adrian Hates of Diary Of Dreams and the founder of our record label Accession Records. We sent Bruno our demo, he liked it so we decided to work together. Christian and I went to Bruno’s “Danse Macabre” studio and worked on the album for 2 weeks, which was very nice.
		What are the future plans for DISTORTED REALITY? Like touring, a new CD... Christian: Actually, at the moment we are talking to some booking agencies in Germany, because we are planning to have live appearances in 2003. But nothing is confirmed so far. Also we are planning to record another CD some time next year.
		How are the reactions so far on “The Fine Line Between Love And Hate”? Christian: The reactions are very nice so far, although the CD is not well known yet, because it is a debut album and it has just been released. But people in Europe and also in the US liked the album from the start. Because of the variety of sounds and moods though out the songs, everybody seems to find his/her favourite song on “The Fine Line Between Love And Hate”.
		What is the better market for your music nowadays, Germany/ Europe or is the current scene in the USA blooming? Martha: Probably Germany/Europe. The scene in the US is not as strong and as developed as in Germany and Europe. Christian: In general the scene for dark electronic music is supposed to be bigger in Europe, but from what I have seen so far, the music of Distorted Reality is not only attracting to people from a particular scene. The style of Distorted Reality combines different elements of electronic music to a particular style which cannot be described in one word. Actually I believe that the music of Distorted Reality appeals to people from different scenes which you can find in Europe as well as in the US.
For more information about DISTORTED REALITY check: www.distorted-reality.com. (Beautevil )