Isn't it hard to work on so many different projects at once?

After about half a day's work I know where things are heading. If I notice the music is aggressive then it's Skinny Puppy. If it sounds more like late night cruising music, then it's Download. More minimalist stuff is Plateau.

Apart from making music, you're also running the record label Subconscious Communications. What future releases are you planning?

We're going to release an album by DJOTO from Japan, he's really good. He's been sending me discs for years and I've watched him grow. He's ready now. Then there's a guy called Baseck. He creates all his music on a Gameboy, but he's also a turntablist. He fuses those two elements together and it's wicked. Otto von Schirach will also release a record on Subconscious. Apart from this new Download and Plateau records are coming out.

The Back & Forth albums, which contain old and rare material, are in my opinion particularly interesting. Can we expect more such releases?

With the Back & Forth series I think I have covered most of what I consider to be the more cohesive outtakes. If we were going to do a new Back & Forth release the music would be completely psychotic. It would make little sense. We have tons of recordings from Skinny Puppy live shows though... I have digital recordings from the Last Rights tour, the Too Dark Park tour and even earlier tours.

You're also working on new Skinny Puppy material. How will the line up for the new album look like?

The line up is pretty solid in the sense that so far it's me, Mark Walk and Ogre who are involved. But Otto von Schirach has contributed with two ideas for the album and Aaron from Venetian Snares has contributed with one idea.

I guess a lot of people are wondering how the album will sound?

We've actually been using methods and techniques similar to those we used when we made Remission, our first record. The new album will contain a lot of crunch and a lot of rhythms that don't sound so much like those on Mythmaker, our previous album. Everything will be more mechanical and 12-bit sounding. We've been using the Elektron gear a lot for this.

That's nice to hear! How were you introduced to our machines?

I first got in touch with Elektron gear through my friend in Japan, DJOTO, who has a Monomachine. I thought it looked really cool and when I played on it I was completely blown away. Today I have both the Machinedrum and the Monomachine synced up in my studio. When I see the LED's of their sequencers running from left to right it's like the machines are calling out my name. I like their sound quality and how quick they are to use. I often make sounds and loops on the Elektron units, record these to my computer where I further rearrange them using the Renoise tracker.

You mentioned a new Download album is in the pipe line?

I'm working with Phil Western on the new Download and Mark Spybey will probably be involved as well. The music will be rougher, grittier and heavier. More punk. You know what? I'd like to tour with Download again. We had such a great time during the Stanley Pain tour and there was so much free form stuff going on. I've been thinking of putting together a version of those shows, using all of the original equipment to perform both old and new material.

That would be a great idea! I still regret missing Download when you played in Gothenburg. You seem to be full of ideas. Not only do you have tour plans, your record label and your bands, you have also started up Scaremeister. What kind of project is this?

I just released a Scaremeister DVD containing 31 instrumental tracks. These tracks are like mini-scores, two to three minutes long and suitable for commercials, movies and video games. The DVD is unfortunately not for commercial sale, it's for the film industry only. As a matter a fact one of the pieces recently got licensed for the upcoming Transformers 2 movie, so it's already started off in a good way! 

It has been a long way from your first demo cassette to where you are today.
How has the scene changed?

When I started out there was no such thing as house or hip hop. I've witnessed the birth of it all. It's kind of funny; around 1985 we were making a lot of interviews for the single Dig It. When we walked in to a radio station or something people would often be confused as they expected us to be black. To them Skinny Puppy sounded like hip hop. I've seen a lot of genres come and go but I'm convinced musicians will continue to achieve, achieve and achieve. We can't even dream of how things will sound in twenty years from now!

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