Infidel Interview #110: Ignocide

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 you to the audience? Whatever you feel comfortable with, but name, age, and where you live would be pretty standard?

We are the Ignocists, a collective of individuals who have reached an age where they can fully take conscience of their place in the world and the power within their hybrid hands.

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?

London is the beating heart of rock, art, and multi-culturalism in Europe. Those values are the core force of Ignocide and therefore perfectly suit our lifestyle. Whether it be the Garden in Shoreditch, an DIY anarchist arty place, the great Tate Modern museum, or the Antichrist, a fetish party in Vauxhall, this city includes so many different types of people and places that whoever you are, you will be accepted here. This unique spirit of open-mindedness and tolerance is a primary source of inspiration for our music.

What do you feel separates your music from the rest of the music in the Industrial music scene?

We cut off the electric guitar from our industrial metal skeleton in order to develop a mutant self-evolving bass sound. While we nourish our sound from the noisy roots of Cabaret Voltaire, we also crucified a strong progressive element to our core, exploring poly-rhythms, dissonance and odd structures.

What would you say are your favorite themes and topics that inspire you to compose? What draws you to those themes?

Ignorance creates close-minded people and wrong perception, leading to all humanity’s plagues. In the rust eyes of Ignocists, it is both a widely general and highly personal matter we must all deal with.

Interview continues after this video...

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?

As Edgar Morin says : “The gigantic planetary crisis is humanity’s crisis as it is failing to reach the state of humanity.” [1] While knowledge is everywhere, ignorance persists. But given all the challenges of the future – 4th industrial revolution, global warming, social injustice, the near conflict between transhumanists and bio-conservers, terrorism crisis… – now more than ever, we need to embrace the power of knowledge and tolerance. We must all face our own reflect and murder our ignorance. Only then will humanity reach humanity.

What do you see in the near, and far, future for your creative output?

In the near future, our first eccentric EP is about to land planet Earth. In the slightly further future, Ignocide plans to incorporate more raw city sounds, such as cars, trains and machines, in order to anchor even more deeply our music to the real world and to deepen the distorted link between organic and numeric.

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?

Our unholy trinity includes Nine Inch Nails for the dirty electronic sounds, Meshuggah for the epileptic polyrhythms and Hans Zimmer for the overwhelming atmospheres.

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?

Ignocists may wear an androïd mask to tell the truth, but what matters most is the real flesh underneath.

Are you musically self-taught? Or have you had mentors along the way to help you develop?

We all approached music in different ways but we all met in music university.

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?

Composition is a furious dialogue between muscle spontaneity and brain thinking. We constantly put new ideas to the test while being relentlessly cruel with our own creations. Each song has been deeply explored and tortured through all its possibilities - riffs, harmonies, sounds, lyrics or structure. Then comes the purge phase when we murder all of them until only the best one survives. Nothing is left to random.

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?

Melodies are like characters going through different moods, harmonies, rhythms and contexts. The same way authors use characters to make a story consistent, we use melodies to make our music coherent.

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?

Ignocide is 50% machine, 50% muscle, 100% fury.

The machine lies in our distorted synths and cold pads while the organic element lives in our play. We spent an incredible amount of time replacing the guitar by the fusion of distorted bass and psychotics synths.

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?

There is a constant struggle between ideal and reality in our compositions. We dig very deep until we find that perfect element that will totally fulfil our vision and desire. It can be a groove, a tempo change a distorted synth sound or a dissonant harmony we can work on for hours. We spent almost a year writing, recording and producing before rehearsing. Ignocists are tireless stubborn. The crafting of sounds and the composition are inseparable in Ignocide’s work.

Do you find that when you are working on projects where you ended up learning new techniques during the process?

Pushing limits is the nerve of Ignocide. The vocalist had to learn how to growl and rap on frenetic rhythms, the bass player to play rich chords and the drummer to execute eccentric polyrhythms.

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?

We meticulously follow the T.R.A.N.S.C.E.N.D lifestyle program designed by Ray Kurzweil, the Google head of A.I. In order to “live long enough to live forever” [2], it includes healthy food, meditation, regular medical assessments, intellectual challenges, detoxification and various physical activities.

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?

We bring a furious performance on stage melted with an abyssal atmosphere.

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?

The smaller the stage is, the bigger the fury will be.

The bigger the stage is, the deepest the abyss will be.

If you could play anywhere with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who and where would it be?

We would have loved to play alongside Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie on the “Dissonance tour” and be part of this harmonious chaos on stage.

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?

Once the samples did not work in rehearsal and there was no way for us to solve it for more than an hour. The frustration grew until it reached a point when we realised the solution of the problem was actually very simple. The followed performance was a perfect example of the rage we want to unleash on stage.

What are some of the biggest challenges you have had to overcome in your musical career?

The threat of burn-out.

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?

We have a passion for groove, movie soundtracks, classical music and ironic/violent lyrics with a goal.

We would be keen to do rap, soundtracks, funk etc.

No other project is possible. Ignocide is a full time commitment.

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?

Collaborating with James Brown and adding our noises to his very straight vision of groove would have been an ultimate honour for us. Hopefully Mr Brown will not charge us during rehearsals if we played out of time.

Code Orange is the last storm we saw on stage. It felt like they were challenging us.

Igorrr and The Algorithm are the perfect project for a remix of our songs. These three projects we mentioned influence us constantly in terms of electronic sounds, odd structures and violence on stage.

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?

Ignocide is a vast swarm including promoters.

An original and creative approach even in promotion is necessary to raise our voice above social media’s constant pointless harassment.

We do not take rehearsal selfies. We murder ignorance.

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?

Being part of an independent label or a major one is the same for us as long as our mechanical scream reaches injustices.

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?

Ignocists believe the music industry changed for the best. Henceforth, people can get closer to the artist without the need of a label in between. We are more independent and more in control of our art. You just need to find the right words and raise your voice in order to bring the world together for a noble cause.

Digital Downloading is just the consequence of growing technology. You either adapt and innovate or you die.

Outside of music, what are some of your favorite past times and emotional engagements?

Ignocists also engage in charity work. For example, the Felix Project in London collects food in excess from supermarkets and distribute it to those who need it the most.

Thank you so much for participating in this episode of Infidel Interview. Any parting words for your fans, or my audience?

Dig and find your own way, murder your ignorance today.

Come see the Ignocists play on the 27th of November at The Dublin Castle in Camden‬. ‬‬

We promise you industrial blood and machine screams.

References :

[1] Morin E. (2011) La Voie. Pour L’Avenir De L’Humanité. France : Fayard. « La gigantesque crise planétaire est la crise de l’humanité qui n’arrive pas à atteindre l’humanité. » p. 28

[2] Kurzweil R. Grossman T. (2009) Transcend : Nine Steps to Living Well Forever. New York : Rodale.

Follow their latest activities on their official Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ignocideband/

Check out their official website to get the full lowdown on the artist:

https://ignocideband.wixsite.com/official

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