SPACE JUNKIES MAGAZINE INTERVIEW: Wednesday Elektra (Wednesday): Greetings! I love your official website. I'm just surfing through it now for the very first time. I love how it's right in your face and has everything at the click of a button. But, before I get too carried away, tell the readers of Space Junkies Magazine a little bit about Phallus Über Alles - how this project came into being, where you're from, what the name means, etc. Diesel: Thank you! We've just recently redesigned the site to make it slicker and more user-friendly. Phallus Über Alles [PÜA] was born of Slave Cylinder [SC], our first band and continuing noise project. All of us involved with SC were friends in college in Indiana, which was such a seminal period for music exploration and discovery for us. We had become huge fans of digital hardcore [DHC] during that time and I found that I preferred to write very angry, feminist lyrics to the DHC songs we wrote. Eventually we spun PÜA off into its own entity. A lot of the Slave Indvstries (the collective that formed from the SC days) members were involved with Slave Cylinder in the late 90s. SC is still going but we keep it purely performance art and noise. The name "Phallus Über Alles" means, literally, "Penis Over All" or, as I like to translate it, "Super Penis." Wednesday: What do you feel Phallus Über Alles represents in the music industry today? Diesel: We hope that it represents female strength and rebellion. There are so few women in the music industry and, specifically, in electronic sub-genres and the prejudice that results are so institutional that it's difficult to pinpoint. I've found that most musicians are very supportive of women in music but occasionally we encounter struggles unique to the gender. Wednesday: What do you stand for and how does that reflect through your music, actions, shows, appearance, etc. Diesel: Outside of the band we each, individually, have our own issues and causes and are involved in activism above and beyond women's issues. As a group, however, our sole concern is with overcoming and addressing the cultural and social perceptions of women and our abilities, our strengths, and our relationships. Quite a bit of our music is tongue-in-cheek, employing over-generalization to address stereotypes and behaviors and, in our performances, we try to turn social conventions on their head. Wednesday: You've labeled yourself - well more your music - as "feminist digital hardcore." Though there are females in the DHC vein of music, not many, but I know they're there! - How do you feel you stand out in a male dominated genre of music? What makes you unique, besides being female! Diesel: Like we mentioned before, the lack of women in digital hardcore creates a kind of institutional prejudice. We find that a lot of men in the genre think it's sexy when women make music but, by that same token, they want those women to act like sex pots as well, to pander to their desires, to essentially behave for them. Of course we like to look at attractive people and there is nothing wrong with being sexy, but that stereotype can be very difficult to overcome if you want to be taken seriously as a musician. Like George Elliot, the Victorian author, or Wendy Carlos, the electronic composer, I would almost rather be accepted as a man among men before revealing my gender, at least when it comes to the anonymity provided in print and the internet. A female band that has found notoriety based on their gender is nothing if their music is mediocre and, in many ways, only reinforces in the minds of would-be detractors that women are lesser musicians than men. I would hope that we stand out musically, and in many ways I think we do. While, for this first album, we've revisited 90s digital hardcore and may therefore be less innovative than we could otherwise be, I still think we do it very well. Wednesday: Do you think there should be more female DHC musicians in the world, why/why not? Diesel: Of course! We think there should be more female musicians, period! Having women in DHC creates such camaraderie. I don't think that DHC is ready to give up yet and we're finding so many people whom, like us, thought that it ended too quickly. There's definitely a place for women in DHC that Hanin carved out. She, in many ways, created a great tradition for it. Wednesday: How'd you initially get involved in this style of music? Diesel: Well, it all started in college. I had gotten really into noise and death rock late in high school; Remy was really into industrial so it seems like a natural progression, in retrospect. As we met people, they inevitably shared their musical interests with us and we were very taken with Atari Teenage Riot, particularly. Wednesday: What types of music did you listen to as a kid and how does it compare to what you listen to now? Diesel: Well, let's just say the first concert I attended (when I was 12) was New Kids on the Block. My second concert was G.G. Allin. Growing up, I loved ABBA and The Lovin' Spoonful and then, in middle school and early high school, I started to get really into old blues and 20s jazz. It wasn't until late in high school that I started to get into noise and industrial and then death rock and goth. Now I listen to a far more eclectic mix of music. Some of my favorite genres at the moment are raggacore/breakcore; cabaret acts like the Tiger Lilies and Dresden Dolls and psychobilly/rockabilly stuff. Wednesday: What messages did you try to get across in your release of "Iron Woman"? Diesel: Simply, a unified message of female strength. Some of the songs are incredibly tongue-in-cheek and silly, others are far more pointed in their message but conceptually the goal was to come off as strong and a little bit angry. Wednesday: In whole, where did you draw your inspirations from for the release and where do you feel you'll draw inspirations from for any upcoming releases - what makes you tick creatively in other words? Diesel: Usually our creativity and song ideas springboard off of exciting things we hear in other people's music. We were listening to a lot of Mad Capsule Markets at one point and that heavily influenced "Brawl at the Boys and Girls Club," for instance. "Cockpit" was influenced by Chris Connely's vocal delivery on one particular song I'd been listening to over and over again. Most likely no one else can hear the specific influences that sparked the songs, but quite often that's how we work. Wednesday: I see you're on a few compilations as well, what are your thoughts on compilations? I know some people are against them, while others see it as a great way to find out about new and interesting bands, or bands they wouldn't have heard other wise. I'm all for compilations. Diesel: We think compilations are great! Quite often, for someone just getting into a certain, unfamiliar genre of music, compilations provide a great way to introduce you to a wide variety of bands without investing too much money. Wednesday: Do you have any live shows coming up? Diesel: We just played a show the other night in Detroit and we have a show lined up on March 26th in Bowling Green, Ohio. We'd like to book three or four more Midwest dates before the Ohio show but we're new to the region, so making those contacts is taking some time. Wednesday: What kind of live performance does PÜA put on? Are you one of those DHC performers that hides behind a laptop playing video games while prerecorded music pours out over the PA system, or do you actually have an interactive stage show (like Schizoid, Ambassador 21, etc.)? Diesel: We do use a laptop and electronic equipment, but we are wholehearted believers in providing a performance at a live show. I try to divorce myself from doing anything live other than singing, though lately I've been taking up guitar. We've added a second vocalist and bassist for our live shows for that exact reason, as well, and ideally we would have a live drummer and a live DJ. I'm the kind of person that is loyal to a phenomenal live act. I may not like the music on the album as much as some other bands, but I will go to every one of their shows and buy their CDs if they provide a powerful, entertaining performance. Wednesday: Where do you draw your fashion and style from? Do you create/design/make your own clothing at all? Diesel: I create clothing and run a company of recycled rubber fashions called Road Rash Rubber. I'll be debuting my first collection (of non-rubber clothing) this spring in Detroit. As for the inspiration, I find inspiration in everything from historical fashion plates to cyber-punk movies to theater costumes to unique materials. Sometimes it's a shape here, a closure there, a detail that grabs my attention and I just run with it. Wednesday: What woman or women (past or present) do you draw your biggest influence from and why? Diesel: One of my biggest heroes is Gertrude Bell who was a British woman in the early 20th century. She was enamored with the Middle East and, uncharacteristically, traversed nearly all of it on her own. She was such a natural diplomat and truly believed herself to be the equal to any man. The tribe leaders she befriended treated her like a man so that she ate at their table and earned their trust. Another hero of mine is Marietta Holley, another early 20th century woman, who wrote a series of satirical books about the place of women in society. Wednesday: What's your local music scene like and what are some of your favorite underground artists/bands? Diesel: Well, we're new to Detroit, but the city has an incredible musical tradition and so far we've met so many fellow musicians. Some of the local bands of note that we enjoy are Wolf Eyes and Blaerg, and though we'd already known Life Toward Twilight and Project 65 before moving here, they both do great work. Wednesday: What has been your single biggest accomplishment so far in the history of Phallus Über Alles? Diesel: Getting picked up by Fatal [Recordings]! I still have to slap myself occasionally just to make sure I'm not dreaming. Wednesday: What do you hope to accomplish in the future? Diesel: No world domination for us, but we would love to grow our fan base and be able to tour regularly. Touring other continents is always at the top of our "wants" list, but playing shows from coast to coast here in US would be excellent as well. Wednesday: Ten years from now when people reflect back on the DHC music scene, what would you like Phallus Über Alles to be remembered as? Diesel: In a nutshell: hard working, fun, unique and innovative. Wednesday: How can people get a hold of your music and where can they go online to find out more information about PÜA? Diesel: Our CDs are available through our website and through Fatal Recordings, as are photos, bios, downloads, and more information: http://www.phallusuberalles.net, http://www.fatal-recordings.net. Our debut album "Iron Woman" is available through Amazon UK/DE/JP, Tower Records Japan, Germany's Infrarot, and many other online stores in Europe and Canada. Wednesday: Before we sign off, tell us a little bit about Slave Indvstries, how did it form, what is it, how can people get involved with it and so on? Diesel: Slave Indvstries is a collective of like-minded artists and activists. It started in Indiana, where our fledgling music and activism projects were inspired by the encroachment of corporations into our small college town. As for getting involved, people can do anything from handing out flyers/propaganda to applying stencils and stickers, trading culture-jamming ideas and techniques via the SI forums, and so on. Underground and college radio stations and club DJs can help by playing SI materials in their sets. As for musicians and labels, we love to trade music, collaborate, remix and we can all help spread the word about each other. Wednesday: Thank-you so much for this interview, I know it was a long time coming! In closing do you have any news, info, advice, comments or shout-outs/props you'd like to leave our readers with? Diesel: Thank you! We'll be doing a European tour July 25th to September 4th. The dates and cities are still being solidified but we hope to hit every nation in Western Europe and maybe a couple in the East. If you want to see us play or organize a show in the US or Europe, please contact us or Fatal. And, if you're in the US, keep an eye out for us, we'll be doing guerrilla shows all summer. Thanks to everyone who has bought the album so far! END Visit spacejunkies.net GO BACK