FRACTURED

Interview

 

 

Can you tell me a story about Fractured?

- Fractured was conceived in 2003 as a way to express myself musically and experiment with electronic music since I was unable to find other members at the time to collaborate with. At the time I was going through a rough relationship, and that reflects in the content of the lyrics and emotions in the songs of the demo "Contami-Nation" as well as some spill over into "Only Human Remains".

Why do you think took so long for you to get signed?

- I think it took a while to get signed to a label because I had never sent out a demo to any labels. After self-releasing "Contami-Nation" I decided to start working on "Only Human Remains" with the idea in mind to self-release it again in case I was not able to shop it to anyone. A good friend of mine in Germany, Andreas Kemerle passed on a compilation cd of his friends to Stefan Herwig and he asked to hear more material. Over the next year I worked with Famine to re-work pretty much the entire disc to get it ready for the October 2005 release.

It must be a nice suprise to be newcomer of the month is Zillo and Orkus?

- It was really a shock to receive these titles! Unfortunately in Canada we do not get these magazines, primarily because it's in German, but I had known about them both prior to this happening. It is really great to see the culture is so alive in Europe that they can put together a magazine and have such great support.

 

Your music is compared with Mentallo & The Fixer or Skinny Puppy. Do you like this?

- I really appreciate both of these bands mentioned, but to be honest I never had listened to Mentallo and the Fixer prior to being compared to them. I am not much of an industrial fan, and my roots are in metal. I am a big fan of Skinny Puppy, but have not been listening to them for that long. It is nice to get the comparison, but I can't really cite them as influences.

 

You won contest for Wumpscut Bone Peeler CD. Do you remember your reaction when you got positive feedback from Rudy R. :W: on your remix?

- I remember receiving the email from Rudy that I had been accepted in the top 5, right before going to sleep that night. I was so excited that I didn't sleep at all! I guess it was quite strange since this was the first remix I had ever tried as well it was the first piece of work that was published as Fractured. This event was what really got me to take things a bit more seriously and work hard to learn and write new music.

 

How music did your sound and production progress since your demo debut Contami-Nation?

- The production and complexity of the demo compared to "Only Human Remains" is quite a night and day difference. I'm really proud of my progress over the last 3 years and I see myself continuing to get better and better at this. Even when I look at OHR I can see things now that I wish I had changed, and my mixing is a million times better now. I have just recently finished a track for Septic VI and I believe its my best work yet. I am finally able to get more complete ideas from my head into the software and pull it off with quality results.

What was your influence in the past?

- Most of my influences come from metal. Growing up I was really into bands like Megadeth, Metallica, Pantera and Iron Maiden. The older I became the heavier the music got and I started moving towards black metal and death metal. I think that the European metal scene is where it's at. Bands like Dark Tranquillity and Children of Bodom really have changed things for me. I love the aggression of the music and the caliber of the musicianship is mind-blowing.

 

What do you listen these days?

- These days I have been listening to a lot of electro, bands like Tipper and Anthony Rother. I've also gone back to a lot of my metal albums. Industrial music for me is getting very boring and I have not heard any decent releases in quite a while unfortunately.

 

How is electronic scene in Toronto today?

- To be honest I really do not participate much in the Toronto scene. When I first moved to Toronto 3-4 years ago I was really excited to find some clubs that played Industrial and at the time the clubs and culture was doing a lot better than it is now. People just stopped going out and the clubs started to decline. I would rather stay home and play my own music and the clubs we have here, have horrible sound systems.

 

Any new bands (from your area) that you can mention that need more attention?

- There actually is one band which has really blown me away from my home town of Ottawa. They are called Encephalon and they will appear on the new Septic VI compilation. This is one band which I think is really going to leave an impression on their listeners. They are super nice guys and have a real talent for writing ultra catchy and complex tracks.

 

What is next for Fractured? Do you work on some new ideas and songs?

- I have been working slowly on the follow-up to OHR, but before that is finished I am going to release an album with Morgana for our side-project called Luminess. Like I mentioned earlier though, you can hear our new track on the new Septic VI compilation. I'm very proud of it!

 

Best wishes and I wish you lot of success with album Only human remains and the future of Fractured?

- Thank you very much for the interview, and my apologies for taking so long to get back to you with my answers.

 

FRACTURED official website

 

Interview made with Nick Gorman in January 2006. by Danijel Levatic for Elektronski Zvuk.

 

2006. Elektronski Zvuk