Rockezine.com interview with Sulpher on Nov 18, 2002

with Rob Holliday on Nov 18, 2002

After their live show on Eurorock 2001 it became clear that there was something happening in the UK. Finally a band that could compete with the US industrial bands. This is also the critic from many people. The music of Sulpher sounds too much like them and hasn’t got an own sound. Still, their debut “Spray” proved them wrong and their foggy live show in Köln showed that Sulpher is a band you have to reckon with…
		How did you end up with Dependent? Because your album was released earlier in the UK and you’re the first metal industrial band they have signed… Dependent saw us perform at the euro rock festival in Belgium in 2001- we had a really hard time, we drove all night with no sleep to get to the festival-we played a really bad time on a really shitty stage with no soundcheck and a very un co-operative stage monitor engineer -we had a terrible on stage sound that was unbearable - we played as hard and as loud as possible and managed to make the best of a bad situation and I feel we gained a lot of new fans who had never heard us before.
		I think dependent admired us for this and saw great potential - after hearing our single `One Of Us ` we were asked by dependent to support VNV Nation at one of their London shows, after that we were asked to sign to the label. It’s very hard to find the right people/label/managers etc to work with-dependent have great enthusiasm and believe in us and our vision as a band 100 % so it’s working really well. I think it`s a great partnership and also good for Dependent to branch out into different musical areas.
		I read in an interview that you don’t want to be compared to Nine Inch Nails, but your music definitely got the same influences… So couldn’t you see this namedropping as a compliment? Its not that we don`t want to be compared to NIN, they are of course a great band - but there is so much more to Sulpher than just a lazy comparison to the first thing a journalist or individual can think of-we are extremely bored with all comparisons, we get compared to Filter, Ministry, Fear Factory etc-we have a lot of influences which come out in our sound at one point or another.
		We take all of our influences and blend them together until we reach a conclusion that we feel sounds right, a finished product that can get into the listeners mind and cause them to feel emotions that they never get to feel in everyday life, an escape if you like, to release frustration.
Journalists love to compare any new band with something that is already known...		Journalists love to compare any new band with something that is already known, it is the safe option to immediately compare, and we hate anything that is safe. If we were safe we wouldn`t be making this kind of music and living this kind of lifestyle.
		I have to admit that when I got the first CD single with “One Of Us”, “Fear Me” and “Unknown” you sounded closer to NIN (during their “Broken” period) than when I listen to your full length album.
		You definitely got an own face, it’s more that you can put SULPHER between the likes of NIN, Filter, Stabbing Westward and (even?) Marilyn Manson (‘Blasphemy’) than calling you a copy of any of these bands…
		Why do you use industrial metal music to reveal your emotions? Yes the bands you mention all kind of come out in our music at some point, there are influences also like Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, The Prodigy, Aphex Twin -we don’t see ourselves as completely industrial metal - it`s a very limiting term-we see ourselves more as a hard rock band who are not afraid to use the modern technology available these days. The music ends up sounding a certain way and then people put it into some sort of ridiculous musical category. We don`t like labels or categories, we want to be free and not limited to the music we make.
		You sound angry, but also a bit insecure as well… Your lyrics sound all pretty personal. Aren’t you afraid that you give too much of yourself in your lyrics? I am angry about the world -I fear for the children being born into the world these days-what the hell is their life going to be like in 30 years??? I am very worried for them. A lot of the lyrics are personal and it’s quite hard sometimes to talk about things that have happened, especially when they are bad memories you would prefer to forget. But then you end up singing about these things every night on-stage. I guess it has a cathartic type of effect, some kind of therapy for my fucked up mind.
		SULPHER was forced to cancel support slots with Gary Numan. Why? He’s probably one of your influences? Personal commitments forced us to cancel those shows-we are currently in the studio working with Gary on some stuff for his re-mix album due out in early 2003 and we are supporting at his shows in Bristol and London February 8th and 9th so hopefully we wont have any major catastrophe preventing us this time.
		How did the show at M’era Luna (Germany) go for you? It was a perfect test case for you (next to Eurorock last year) to see how the European public outside the UK would react… It was great to play the main stage at M’era Luna-we thought it was a fantastic opportunity, especially since it was our first ever German show. The crowd reaction was amazing and everyone really got into it even though it was raining heavily at first. We hope to return and play M’era Luna 2003.
		You toured with The 69 Eyes in October. How do you feel about that? Their music is different than yours (more heavy rock with Sisters Of Mercy influences), so it should attract some different crowd as well… Yeah, we met at M’era Luna and the band seemed really cool – Scorpio promoter) and the 69 eyes thought it was a good combination to put us as their special guest-the music is different but I think it works well together, people like all different styles, so hopefully the audience will appreciate our music too.
		If I listen to your new album “Spray” it all sounds so professional. How long did it take you to record this album? We recorded our debut album “Spray” over a period of 2 years working on and off. It was only recently released in Germany on October 7th we had no record label financial support so it was quite hard going-we finally managed to finish it and we are very proud of it. We are very flattered that you like it.
England doesn`t have a clue about good music anymore...		You produced your album as well, wasn’t there any producer you wanted to work with? Oh yes we would have loved the luxury of having a producer come in and rip our music to pieces and then meticulously put it back together again. We would have really liked to see the outcome, but we simply couldn’t afford to do that. We would have liked maybe Alan Moulder or Ben Grosse or Sean Beavan. Maybe on the 2nd album this will be possible. Although I think a producer may find us difficult to work with as we have a very strong idea of how our music should be. It would be a battle of wits.
		“Best British Industrial Metal Band” (by Classic Rock Magazine), that’s pretty special if you see the competition… It shows once again that your future appears bright and shining…
		Do you feel that you’re standing for a great breakthrough at the moment? Another flattering comment-its very nice to get these sorts of compliments, but the only thing that matters to us is that real true hard music fans like it. I’m not sure about a breakthrough-we just want to make music to move people, to fuck with their minds-to play with their emotions, to assault their senses.
		How does the industrial scene looks like nowadays in the UK, because we hear the bands (like Pitchshifter, Soundisciples), but never got a real insight in how it is in your country? I don`t really see any kind of scene in the UK for this music - its very limited - England doesn`t have a clue about good music anymore- England used to be a leader in innovative and interesting music-but now it just spawns shit like Robbie Williams and Oasis-this is just both mindless and pointless. It is throw away crap for brainless fools who spend their boring lives sitting in the pub and watching football.
		We don`t want to be a part of this, we want to be as far from this as possible I’m embarrassed to be British sometimes. England has lost its identity. The German music fans seem a lot more open minded and receptive to new hard music, we like that and hope to play in Germany as much as possible.
		It’s strange to ask, but have you been working on new material? Since the material of “Spray” was ready last year… We’ve been really busy, we have a bunch of rough ideas down but nothing completed-we are never satisfied until we have gone down every angle possible with a song-going back over things again and again, trying to perfect it as much as we can-its quite painstaking and time consuming-we are doing a new version of a b-side called `Alone` Rhys Fulber may be producing it, we will have to wait and see-we hope to be able to start working properly on some new tracks after we play the Sonic Seducer Birthquake 2 festival in Duisburg Germany December 20th.we have a lot of ideas and cant wait to get going on them.
		Something you always wanted to say, but never was asked… I’ve never been asked what my sexual preference is …
(Beautevil )