Icon Of Coil's electronic music will surely be played alot at the dancefloors from now on, and of course we don't mind at all! With the beer bottles in our hands we'll walk around and worship their new release "One Nation Under Beat" at maximum volume which one sadly can't do at home due to narrow minded neighbours. Hard-hitting Techno/EBM album with a presence of darkness and a catchy feeling to it is always great though, no matter the volume. It's extra nice to see that Andy, my victim for this interview, even has a background in Metal!

Interview by Whodan

Icon Of Coil's second release "One Nation Under Beat" is now out through Tatra Productions. Which changes do you think are the most evident compared to your first release "Shallow Nation"?
Well, it's more complete. In one way it's totally different, due to the concept. It's not just one style, it's developed under the idea of doing something under each of the genres we listen to in electronic music. Well, there is a lot of other styles we could have done too, but this is what we ended up with. Only "Former Self", "Brighter Day" and "Repeat It" are songs that we would normally release as Icon Of Coil.

I think this music has the potential to be played even in "normal" clubs, even if it's very seldom you hear this type of hard-hitting music in such places. Are you promoting this music even among more normal magazines and clubs/DJ's or do you wanna stay a bit more underground and stick to "extreme" sub-cultures?

We'll always stick "extreme" with Icon Of Coil. Even though, the most important thing for us, is not to keep out of the mainstream, but to stay true, even if "normal" people listen to it. I mean, I guess most of the people that buy Satyricon or Dimmu Borgir albums are "normal" people, but you still have to be true to your real fans.

Your vocals are oftenly compared to Marilyn Manson's. Do you think this gives a fair description of your vocals?

Oh man, that's a hard one... I don't know. I mean, it's not like I've ever planned it. I'm not really that big Manson fan either. I saw him live once though... He kicked some serious ass. Seriously, maybe in one way I understand why people would say that, but it's not important to me to be compared to him.

Icon Of Coil's debut fullenght will be out September 15th according to Tatra's info letter. Is this going to be in the style of "One Nation Under Beat"?

Well, I won't reveal too much, but I can say that it will be harder, darker, even more melodic and with more energy. It will be power-pack ...hehe.

You have released two tasters in advance. How long have you actually been working on this album?
We've been working with it for a wile, but we always do other things in between, so I don't really know the right amount of hours. We got our own studio, so we're working 10-14 ours every day.

Electronic music has a very bad aura in, atleast the Metal scene, with people saying that it's so simple making such music and that it's lacking feeling 'cause it's basically "created" by machines. Do you have a response to such comments?
Show me a machine that can do that and I will be rich. I've been playing Metal in 12 years and you meet a lot more challenges when you work with electronic music. It's harder to get the right feeling, cuz you are handling everything yourself. It's not just song-writing, but it's also the programming, finding the right sounds and so on.. As a band, you only have to think about the songs and to play tight.... but I don't say that playing "live" is easy either.

There has been some remixes done by you. What songs have you been remixing and what does it give you?
We've done a remix for Theater Of Tragedy, Apoptygma Berzerk and some other bands. To remix someone, is like, to get a look inside of the other artists, to rip it apart, copy, cut, paste, to steal a part of their soul and make it ours. We always enjoy to remix bands that is so far away from us, musically, as possible. It's much more excitement.

You have some great Black Metal bands in Norway. Can you imagine to remix something in that vein?
Of course, we've already talked to the people at Moonfog, about doing a remix of Dødheimsgard, and any other band would be interesting too.

You don't think this thing with bands doing remixes back and forth could be done too much? As in Metal where almost all bands gets dedicated a tribute album and covers that are appearing on almost all releases!

If remixing shall be interesting at all, we have to do something totally different. The same old, same old... will fade out and die.

Something that seems to be quite typical within the electro scene is using samples quite frequently. Icon Of Coil doesn't seem to be into this though, or are you?
It's like remixing, you have to find new ways to do it, or it will be boring. We will use samples only if it's necessary for the song, not just a shield for our mistakes. Somebody use samples just for covering up for their lack of ideas.

Prior to Icon Of Coil you played together with some Metal bands. What bands were these and is this something you can imagine to start with again?
I played in a band called Fleshfire and a band called LashOut. In some way, we still play with LashOut, we gonna release a new album soon. Everybody that is into Metal, knows that it always will be a part of your soul. I don't think I can escape from it ...hehehe.

You are working merely with electronic equipment. You never consider to use any guitars in Icon Of Coil?

We always consider it, but it's too many electronical bands that just use the guitar, just to use it. If we're gonna use guitar, it have to be a natural part of the song. At least one of the songs on the album will contain moshing guitars.

Is this something you could work with at live performances?

Yeah, that's what I mean, if we gonna use guitars at all, also live, it should have its place in the music, not just for the look of it. Way too many electro bands are using guitars the wrong way. They don't have any feeling at all, they just want to look cool. Anyway, yeah, that's something we could do live.

What kinds of music are you playing in your project Sector9?

It's hard to say, we mix everything, mostly danceable things. I guess it's our excuse to whatever we want, with no strings attached.

Before we say goodbye I just wonder what will keep you busy until the album, which won't be released until September 15th?

I'll be working on the album mainly, but I can't see why I shouldn't have a blast and get drunk on a festival somewhere. Visit some fetish clubs and enjoy the crystal-clear summer nights.