REMYL interview - Crevzine #7

As you probably guessed already our first question is about the idea of bringing Remyl into existence. So, when and why this Norwegian technological madness?

REMYL is probably a natural consequence of our existence. It was never planned, it just creeped upon us and now it has a grip on our lives. It's an aural, mental and technological coalition of the three of us. All participants have fiddled around with electronics since the beginning of the eighties. Later on, things have evolved out of friendship and curiosity. Some time in -92, we realized that we was Remyl, after a period of diverse jamming, computing, mind-shaping and recording.
- It, is no madness, it is a result of todays technology and human incompatibility and awareness.

Remyl??? What the hell does it mean?

(Euphorbia) Remyl is the name of an extinct plant. (Ed. This has later proved to be wrong.)

Your sonic attacks are mostly noisy. Is this a result of a spontaneous way of creating or is it a target of your bleeding eyes and ears?

- We never know what will happen when we meet. We will however try to craft our creation carefully. Sometimes things happen by themselves and we will just have to accept or reject it. Long term experience is the father of spontanity.
- It is a kind of mixture of our experimental attitude, our bleeding (aching) ears and forced decisions. Making a new track usually takes a few weeks, themes and sounds have to be reconsidered and tweaked all the time, when we think there is something by a part that annoys us we throw it away, instead of letting it have a negative impact in the evolution of the track. We always try to use sounds that we have made ourselves, the samples we use are from our own music, sounds from our surroundings, datafiles from computers played back as audio and SFX from computergames.
- Songs like The Barrier, Black Visitors and Daue Blomster is what we call free jam, other songs are the results of jamming and computer programming.

As we know this world seems to you to be overloaded with technology and science without human touch. Why do you think so?

- The human touch is lacking only beacause humans fear to touch technology. They also fear to be touched by it. Humans fear all things new and unknown. We (again humans...) are seemingly not mature enough to cope with our own innovation. If they ever met an artificial being, how would they know how to communicate with it or even react to it, if they never had any experiences in how to associate with them.
- Thechnology is God and Nemesis.

What are the reactions on your CD so far? Is it according to your expectations?

- We wouldn't quite know what to expect, as it's the first time we have anything to do with a release. Perhaps this CD will give us a base for future expectations? Anyaway it's what we wanted to do. Are we pleased or not? Yes we're pleased to know that new noises have found their way to many parts of the world. Apart from that we're broke.
- The reactions we have received has been positive (mostly), we receive letters from people telling us they like the CD, some of them surprised by it's experimental state and diversety. It is interesting that people we never thought would like REMYL enjoy our work (if we ever knew who that might like it at all). We are still working with promoting the CD throughout the world, as there still are a lot of people out there who has never heard our music. But the worst thing is no response at all, people who we send promo material that do not bother reply is on the top of the REMYL'ic hatelist. The only thing we expected was that a lot of people would say "What is this?". To release the REMYL CD was quite a stunt. The only people to hear our music before the CD was released happened was only an inner core of friends. We was quite sure that no label in Norway would release it for us, so we did not even bother contacting anyone, neither did we know any suitable distributors or who to contact outside Norway. Now we have gotten to know people all over the world thanks to contact addresses in e.g CREWZINE.
- D RE C ION FROM ZINES,MG,R DIOS IS WERY GOD. YES,BUD D S LES IN,DH D GOD.

Is your trash-pile-machinery loaded with enough data to fire another bullet into listener`s head?

- Yes! Firepower is increasing. Expect aural attack and seduction. Even we live in thrilling anxiety about what might happen.
- Yes it is, we are currently (as always) working on tracks for the second REMYL CD, and there are Bullets to be found on various compilations, for those who really wants to get to know REMYL. And we have lots of DAT's with previously recorded material, kind a electro/industrial/ambient/soundscapes in the vein of posthuman/black visitors.
- SOON ID WLL BLOW YOUR HE D OFF

How Remyl keeps its image on the stage? Do you have enough ideas to overwelm the audience?

- On our first stage performance, in an organic state, an ultratoxic (green-brown-some-shitty-looking) kind of light setting with lots of toxic gasses (from a smokemachine) made sure that the environment was right. Wearing white protective suits and gassmasks with built in microphones, we mostly stood still operating our trash-pile-machinery. It is important for us despite that we are working with machines that our machines actually perform the music, there and then, when playing live.
Our second performance was in a rather more virtual state, 5 weeks of intense REMYL'ic design and programming plus lots of previously rendered material was executed on a theatre screen, at the releaseparty for "the reincarnation of the sun", by the machine, there and then, synced with REMYL'ic audio from a harddisk, like a live computergraphics VIDEO. It all started with one of the more extreme trash-cross-somethingambient REMYL recordings "Fastspent" in the hope that we might make some of the audience leave the room, and then miss the best part, we know at least one person who did so.
We hope to include both graphics/animation/sequencing/livejamming into a whole concept for a tour of somekind/sometime when the second REMYL CD is to be released, but we do not yet know where to go or how to finance it.

Your entire sound, graphix... are developed in your electrolab. How is it equipped and what is allowed to do in it?

- Most things can be done, and if we encounter some that can't be done, we do something else! The graphics and video stuff is made on our Acorn computers. The Acorns are also serving as digital audio tool-boxes, emitting strange noises, and doing sampling, HD-recording etc., with the aid of spontaneously written software. And a good game is also part of life.
- We can do almost anything within the areas of sound-desing, midi-sequencing, sample-editing, harddisk-recording, DAT-mastering, graphic design, computer animations and commercial and REMYL'ic software. It is mostly limited by wether we have somewhere to set it up, our creativity and the quality of the result, since our elektrolab is quite primitive compared to a professional recording studio, we have to use a lot of creativity and quite alternative solutions to accomplish what we want.
- For the synth-freaks who really want to know here's the current electro-lab configuration: Computers: Acorn A540 with AD/DA, A340 with AD/DA, A310 Sequencers/MIDI: ST, STFM, STE, MSTE, 16 bit DA, MIDI merging/splitting Instruments: DX7IID, CS-01, EVS-1, D110, VC-10, D5, JX8P, FB01, MonoPoly, VFX-SD II, Planet-S, JD990, TX-81Z, RX-11, D4, S950, VL1, D-80, Synsonic, and the computers! Processing: Microverb III, 2 x QuadraVerb+, TA-E1000ESD, Micro comps/gates, Various pedals, various mics., 2 x 1622, KM-802, Model 2016 Recording: DT-7, DTC-59ES Various: Anything that makes life at the elektrolab interesting...

Can we expect some future expansions of Bootsector`s activities?

- Hopefully, yes. The next REMYL CD is first in line. Then we will see. We dream about releasing a collection of splendid unknown Norweagian electronic music.
- There will certainly be a second REMYL CD and perhaps if we can afford to we will release some of the old REMYL material, various side and soloprojects and other interesting things that passes our ears from friends. And we hope to release a REMYL sound/graphics video. But it is all a matter of finances and distribution contacts, there is no point in releasing 1000 or 500 CD's if the distribution network are capable of selling perhaps 200 CD's. So if suitable distributors care to contact us or bother answering our mail, then BOOTSECTOR might expand its repertoire.

What about illegal "competition" in killing whales between Norway and Japan?

- This question is quite off the topic, we could talk about this for pages, but we'd rather not.

Did we forget to ask you something you consider to be necessary to complete the image of Remyl? If so, put it down.

- If you want something done (your way) - do it yourself.
- You must get to know REMYL, before REMYL gets to know YOU.
- M CHINS

Thanx very much for your attention!
Good luck and all the best!
Antius, Abortion & Target for Crewzine

- Thank you for YOUR attention. Keep up the good work.
REMYL