First off, just want to thank you for participating in this edition of Infidel Interviews. Could you start off by giving a little information about you to the audience? Whatever you feel comfortable with, but name, age, and where you live would be pretty standard?
HELLo! Pleasure is on my side! My name is Alex(33), i ’m a vocalist and main producer from a Czech cyberpunk (EBM/Crust) band called Plague Called Humanity.
How do you enjoy where you live? Is there a vibrant music community where you are? Would you say you find that your local scene influences your attitude and/or creativity?
I am from Brno, the capital city of the southern part of the Czech Republic. I'm really in love it here, there are many cultural events and a lot of venues and concerts. But I can't say that the scene influences us. We aren’t part of any scene, because its very hard to enlist our music to a specific genre. The Czech industrial scene is very dogmatic and hardly accepts new and different directions in music. Compared to that of the crust/hc /diy scene which is very strong, but not very open to the electronics influences in our music. But over there we have fun from both scenes and we are very proud that our music can connect people together.
What do you feel separates your music from the rest of the music in the Industrial music scene?
As I say before, we aren’t a typical industrial band. Our music have influences from dark hardcore mixed with catchy EBM beats and with a little bit of gothic music. For industrial fans we are to hardcore and for fans of guitar music we are to electronic…this is a price for the originality. What would you say are your favorite themes and topics that inspire you to compose? What draws you to those themes?
Life, freedom, dependence on social sites and the corruption of the word. I just want to say what's wrong with this word and what wrong is on us. Interview continues after this video and all further streaming content...
Industrial and Attitude seem to go hand in hand. With global war, civil unrest, injustice, and political revolution being primary musical themes that dominate your music, how do you feel nowadays about the current state of world affairs?
Especially my lyrics draws from the things that happen around me. Nowadays everything is falling into the darkness and the world is turning us into assholes. We are surrounded by wars, social differences, insularity and abandonment, our feelings and lives are lost in cyber space. This is main themes of our EP „Disconnection“. What do you see in the near, and far, future for your creative output?
We are now in creative progress of creating of a new (still unnamed) album. As the band, we are moving forward and don't want to stay on one place. 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?
Believe or not, I really don't know. At the very young age, I had a great interest in music (but only as a passive listener who has blowning through everything that is interesting and looking for new directions). When I was 16 I started at hardcore/punk band as manager and song writer, but after few months I switched to (though I did not want to) a singer instead. After this first band I had several small local bands. When it comes to your musical self and your real-world self, would you say that there is a separation? Do you find yourself getting into a character or mindset when you create, or do you find your music is a representation of your day to day self?
Those two worlds are completely different, but it affects each others. I could say that it's something like „secret life of superhero“ :D But yes, both worlds are irritating.
Are you musically self-taught? Or have you had mentors along the way to help you develop?
Nope, just self-thoughtfulness. When it comes to composing music, do you approach things with a clear vision in mind, or do you prefer to let songs feel themselves out? Do you have any particular techniques or tricks you use to keep yourself creative and consistent?
At first of all I want to say that we are a band, we make music together. We let our creativity free, everything has to come out of the heart. At the start we have something like a basic idea. Someone puts the first brick, and others put another…and together we made a tower of Babel :D
When it comes to making music it can be difficult to balance atmosphere, song progression, musicality, and excitement. Do you have any tricks, techniques, or methods that you commonly use to help your music sound coherent and engaging?
I have no trick, just listen to my heart. Atmosphere of our music is going head to head with lyrics. Every of our new songs must say something to our listeners not only play. 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' your relationships with presets? When you make music are you primarily a hardware or software oriented musician? Or do you do a fusion of both? Are there any particular instruments, programs, or effects that you would say are vital to you making music?
Every beat, lines or arps are our own kids, presets are for noobs JK, Mostly we making our music by DAW, but regarding new tricks we try to integrate some analog instruments. Do you ever find it difficult to balance the creative and technical aspects of musical creation? How do you strike the balance for the need to craft and tweak your effects and sounds, in contrast to actually just getting the song itself created with structure and melody? What sort of element of creation do you prefer, the sonic shaping or the song creation?
Of course! Sometimes you have catchy melody on your mind, but you can't transform it to music. And the technique sometimes gives us obstacles under our feet.
Do you find that when you are working on projects where you ended up learning new techniques during the process?
Hhehe, yes! Especially during recording :D We made up lyrics and live drums on The Truth song on the day of recording! But that is the spell of spontaneity and authenticity Playing live shows, recording new tracks, attempting to go live the life that gives you the experiences that inspires it all... it can be difficult to balance the time. Do you have any particular methods that you use to keep yourself focused or balanced in your direction?
Our way is the same, for freedom! But our musical way is changing with time. We start as regular Harsh EBM band, but we dragged the elements from another genres. We have influences by hardcore or alternative electronics, so we doesn't stay in the borders of industrial music.
For fans who have not seen you yet, when it comes to your live show, how would you describe yourself thematically and visually? Are you an energy and audience driven band in the live atmosphere? Or would you consider yourself to be more thematic or presentation oriented?
I can describe our live performance, very easily…nihilistic, noisy dark storm! When it comes to performing, what are your favorite sort of venues to play in, and what are your favorite areas to tour? If you could tour with any other band in the world who would it be and why? What are some of your favorite memories of touring?
At our current history we have played at many different places…big venues, small basements and big stages or totally DIY squat places. In case of our „dream tour mats“, we have gigs with some amazing musicians such as Ambassador21, MAC of MAD or H.EXE. Next year we are on tour with big nasty German star (but name of this band is a big secret at this moment). But yes, we have still a dream band…The Prodigy (i think you don't need to describe why)! Touring and live playing give us a lot of great memories…David Gheto, ToiletBrothers, Ja Schwester, ban from one venue…i love this punk bohemian life!
If you could play any anywhere, with anyone, in the world, dead or alive, who and where would it be?
The Prodigy in Tokyo :D Yes, i know…im modest. Have you had any particular moment(s) that you would like to share, that you would consider to be a crowning achievement in your musical career so far, or moments that you would say truly continue to inspire you to pursue your artistic path?
We made original music with it own face and sound…so, I think the achievement was completed…we are modest. What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your musical career?
The hardest thing, was a moment when we kick out our first keyboard player (and at that time main composer) from band, it was difficult times, full of uncertainty.
Outside of Industrial music, what other genres could you see yourself composing music in? Or should I say, do you see yourself inspired by? 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?
I´m drowning in inspiration from different genres. In our band we live industrial, gothic, crust, metal, techno, synthwave or folk music, we are very open minded guys! Besides PCH i have DnB/breakbeat project and our drummer play in blues band. For new album we prepare some interesting collaborations, with some great death metal, darkwave and hip-hop musicians.
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? What sort of new bands have come out in recent years that have caught your attention? Is there any bands out there you see yourself, or would like to, remix or collaborate with in the future?
In the year 2014 not only PCH was born. For me this year is in a sign of the creation of a lot of interesting and innovative bands. For me the most interesting bands from that year are our friends Jerk in The Can from Canada, they are Noise/Pop/Industrial, and our very close friends BloodPact that play innovative modern DarkWave. In case of „dream team“…The Prodigy again, don't forgot, we are modest :D Promotion can be one of the most difficult things in the music industry. Do you have an agent that helps book shows and manage your online presence, or have you decided to trek it out without and mantle the reigns of the social media apparatus yourself? Is it difficult engaging the online world consistently and originally, or do you find it easy?
I made everything by my own, PR, booking and digital promotion. The digital World isn´t easy, especial with competition from other musicians. The internet is full of music, but mostly full of crap music and people that are lost in that shit sea and to lazy to discover more then they have in TV or radio. With your band becoming increasingly popular have you had any insider attention regarding label support? What's your thoughts regarding being independent music scene versus being part of a record label?
We are DIY band and dont need any label, we love our own freedom.
In an industry that is driven by sales, and consumerism, what are your thoughts on digital downloads (legal and illegal)? Do you feel that streaming and digital download stores aid the accessibility of music? How bout music piracy? It obviously hurts sales in some regards, but it also boosts the access and distribution of the release which could lead to potential fans who do come to shows, buy physical copies of music, and get merchandise? Do you feel there would be enough turn around in that sort of system or are you firmly against file sharing?
I don't think that internet kills music. If you like artist, you try his music and if you love his tune you would buy physical record or go to live gig and support you favorite. I think just rednecks from Metallica had diarrhea from illegal downloading of their music. Our records are totally for free and we dont want to change it, we sell only psychical records.
Outside of music, what are some of your favorite past times and emotional engagements?
We love nature, good books and discovering new places and people. Thank you so much for participating in this episode of Infidel Interview. Any parting words for your fans, or my audience?
Stay free and hold your truth.
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