First of, just want to thank you for participating in this edition of Infidel Interviews. Could you start off by giving a little information about both of you to the audience? Whatever you feel comfortable with, but name, age, what instruments you can play, and where you live would be pretty standard?
Mark Taranto 43 yrs old: I play Bass/Synth/Guitar
Scott Fryoux 44yrs old: I play synth/drum program
We both have lived in New Orleans all our lives
When you first started making music, was there a particular sound or artistic/musical influence that you would say was your biggest inspiration to start pursuing the creative path yourself? What led you to electronic music, particularly the heavier kinds of it?
Mark: My earliest and biggest musical inspiration was Pink Floyd. By the time I got to eighth grade, I made friends with a classmate named Danny and he had a brother named Mike who had a gigantic cd collection and that's where I got exposed to industrial music. In particular, Ministry, and Skinny Puppy. Those two bands made a huge impression on me and I was blown away at what I had heard. I had never heard anything quite like that before.
Scott: The first music I connected to was punk,Ramones ,New York Dolls,dead Kennedys etc.First introduced to New Beat and EBM in 88' MCM ,Front 242, Absolute Body Control ,Pankow then DJ Industrial and EBM. Later I was introduced to more fusion Tekno/Industrial by DJ friends.
What would you say are your favorite themes and topics to write about? What draws you to those themes?
Mark: Since we are an instrumental band, we usually draw themes for songs and topics that interest us and express those themes through samples. Some themes include the paranormal, sci fi, horror, sleep paralysis and so on.
What would you say would be you short term, and long term, goals for your band? What do you see in the future for your creative output?
Mark: Our main goal is to complete a full length album which should be finished relatively soon. As far as future is concerned, we would like to collaborate with likeminded artists here and abroad.
Are live shows an important part of your career? Do you feel the most home in the live performance or in the studio? How come?
We both love playing live and feeling the connection with the audience. We feel equally comfortable at home and at a live show.
Are there any particular instruments, programs, or effects that you would say are vital to you making music? If so, is there a reason in particular that draws you to said creative outlet?
We utilize both hardware and software to create our music. It really just comes down to getting that first spark of creativity from a particular drum beat or synth sound that just makes us take the ball and run with it
Do you spend a lot of time crafting your own sounds? Or do you value song crafting and effects tweaking more? Or do you find it's a balance between the two? What's your relationships with presets?
No we do not spend a lot of time crafting sounds. Not enough time in our lives for that. We value song crafting and effects tweaking more. We have symbiotic relationship with presets. From our standpoint, it's really just how you use the tools that are available to you to craft your songs.
Would you say that your choice to pursue music has changed your life since you started? Would you say that creativity has evolved you spiritually, emotionally, or logically?
No, we would have to say that we really are still the same people that we were before we started doing music. If anything, it has evolved us logically and helped make us better organizers.
Do you have any other musical projects that you are involved with, or do you have any other musicians or artists that you collaborate with in some capacity? If you could collaborate with any musician or artist, dead or alive, who would it be? And what in particular draws you to want to collaborate with them?
Mark: There are two other guys that we have collaborated with recently. Claus Larsen from Leaether Strip and Harry Koninditisiotis from The Switchblade Kid. Both have done vocals on one of our tracks. If I could collaborate with anyone, it would be Oghr or Cevin from Skinny Puppy. Them being gigantic sources of inspiration for me would be the draw.
Scott: I would like to colab with Vince Clarke or Bill Leeb.
Both are big electronic heroes of mine.
Other than what you currently produce, what other sorts of genres, instruments, and sounds would you like to use in the future? Are there any other people you would like to collaborate with in the future artistically, musically, or socially?
Mark: the only instrument I would like to incorporate in the future would be my bass vi. I Got one a few years back and it's been a challenge to find a use for it in this project.
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