Rockezine.com interview with Assemblage 23 on Dec 07, 2002

with Tom Shear on Dec 07, 2002

The new album “Defiance” shows that ASSEMBLAGE 23 is growing in writing and performing up-tempo electronic music. Reason enough to ask Tom Shear some questions…
		The number of Assemblage 23 followers is growing pretty fast. In only three years the band seems to have become a solid name in the electro/Gothic scene. Isn`t this going too fast for you? I have definitely been really surprised by how things have developed recently, but you have to remember, I`ve been doing Assemblage 23 since the early 90`s, so it actually doesn`t seem very fast to me!
		Your last album "Defiance" sounds more electro-pop-like and got a different approach with your clean vocals. When did you decide to follow this direction? Or did it just happen? Well, the clean vocals is really nothing new for me, but as for the different musical approach, I just don`t want to keep putting out the same album over and over again, so evolving and mutating the A23 sound is important to me. It would be very boring for me to never change things, and I would imagine it would be just as boring for the listener.
		Mr. Shear’s views about world politics and the latest organic food recipes are? Haha... That`s a funny story, actually. The original artist who did the cover for the album was leaving for his wedding, so he didn`t have time to do the text layout. Instead, he typed up some silly sample text to show the layout person where the texts would go.
		Unfortunately, due to some miscommunications, the sample text ended up being printed instead of the proper texts. So suddenly, we had all of these CD booklets with the wrong texts in them! We reprinted the booklets for the commercial release, and put the old misprints in the promotional copies. So you actually have a bit of a collector`s item in your hands!
I just don`t want to keep putting out the same album over and over again...		Have to admit that I was very pleased to hear the two beautiful ballads on "Defiance" ("Cocoon" and "Lullaby"). Can you tell us more about the meaning and lyrics behind these songs? Well... I don`t want to get TOO specific, as I think it`s more interesting for each listener to have their own idea of what a song is about; but very briefly, "Cocoon" is a song about depression, and "Lullaby" is a song about being thankful for what you have.
		Your record label (Accession Records) labels you as an EBM band, but your music seems to be in the same direction as Neuroticfish; and he screams that "EBM is dead" How do you feel about this? I really hate genre names and labelling, but I realize they can be useful to listeners seeking new music. If I had to pigeonhole us, it would probably be EBM, though. I don`t believe it`s dead, although I do think it`s not in very good shape at the moment. There`s a lot of great stuff out there, but unfortunately, there is also a lot of really bland, generic-sounding stuff that is difficult to tell apart from one another.
		Is Assemblage 23 more influenced by the European (German) electro scene? What acts influenced you? I`d say European acts in general had a big influence on me... Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Kraftwerk...
		How important is a label like Accession Records for you? Do you consider it an advantage that Accession Records is owned by a musician (Adrian Hates/ Diary Of Dreams)? I`m very happy with Accession. They`ve really worked very hard to promote A23 and get me where I am today. I definitely think having a musician being the label owner is an advantage. I think he is more sympathetic to things from the point of view of the artist than a label run by someone with no musical background whatsoever.
		What can we expect from Assemblage 23 in the near future? Tour? Remixes? Other important stuff? We`ll be doing a six week tour of Europe with Icon of Coil starting at the beginning of January... the tour dates are listed on my website. And, of course, many remixes... I think I`ve done close to a dozen since finishing "Defiance", so there will be quite a few being released in the coming months!
		If you had one wish for Assemblage 23, you would wish that? I am so surprised and happy by how far A23 has come in the past couple of years; I don`t feel like I could possibly ask for more!
		Something you always wanted to say, but never was asked? Oh I don`t know. I feel like I`ve been asked just about everything by now!
www.assemblage23.com (Beautevil )