We caught up with musician and producer Rhys Fulber (left,) and asked about new Front Line Assembly album Mechanical Soul.
“In the meantime, we keep working in the studio…”
We find ourselves in interesting times. How are you doing?
Considering the state of many places I am lucky and doing well.
Was the production of new album Mechanical Soul affected by the worldwide lock down?
It was but not to a major degree. The music is sent back and forth via file sharing anyways. It was more planning the vocal recordings that were impacted. I think the lockdown impacted the lyrics more than the music.
With many artists taking to staging live events and streaming them on-line what are some of the ways you’ve adapted, as a musician and a producer, to the current situation?
So far we have not changed anything other than not playing live. In the meantime, we keep working in the studio until things open back up. I think this will end eventually, it is just hard to say when.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind some of the tracks on Mechanical Soul?
There were a variety of starting points. But, here are a couple. The song Glass and Leather was done a year or two ago, pre-plague. It was going to be a track for my solo techno material then I had Bill [Leeb] do, what was at the time, a guest vocal. It seemed too FLA so we hung onto it for the new album. The inspiration behind the lyrics were a JG Ballard Crash type scenario. We were both in Los Angeles at the time so the car scape may have triggered that.
“Remember when Prince wrote Slave on his cheek?”
The song Stifle was originally part of the sessions I did for the Cyberpunk 2077 video game. I contributed tracks for the soundtrack and this was one that did not get used. I played it for Bill and he liked it. [Bill] wrote the lyrics and the song took on new life. He suggested we get some guitar stabs on it so I called Dino from Fear Factory who did his thing and it all fell into place.
The music industry has constantly had to chop and change to new rules with the advent of more accessible technology. What would you like to see as the new normal for the industry outside of the pandemic restrictions?
A good start would be Spotify paying more than .0033$ for a play. Every other aspect of the industry has a more reasonable middle man percentage. Remember when Prince wrote Slave on his cheek? He had a point then that is way more valid now. However Bandcamp is doing it right, it just seems geared more to underground music.
What do the short term plans for Front Line Assembly look like?
We are in our holding pattern until the world can host travel safely.
