SPR (VIMH): Hi guys, congrats on your new EP, The Great Derailer!
SPR (VIMH): What is the significance of the name of the EP?
ATTRITION: The Great Derailer can mean a lot of things… basically a power that there is to tear things down or “Derail” things…. My “anarchist God” if you like… but other people have taken their own meaning… We released the EP on Brexit day as it seemed a very fitting time ;)
Listen to the EP on our official bandcamp site…
And there is also a video just gone up on youtube etc…
SPR (VIMH): What do the lyrics talk about? Which are your major lyrics’ influences?
ATTRITION: A snapshot of personalities and power … I tend to take a lot of my lyrics from my subconscious… dreamlike perhaps… I’ve been influenced by a lot of bands over the years lyrically… going back as far as early Dylan and Lou Reed… through Bowie and the post punk bands like Wire and Magazine… the list goes on…
SPR (VIMH): Which are those elements that separate your new album from your previous albums?
ATTRITION: It’s definitely a progression from the last “regular” album (if there is such a thing! “The Unraveller of Angels” … the new album still has me at the core but has a revolving cast of guest musicians… including Anni Hogan (Marc and the Mambas etc) Emese Arvai-Illes (Black Nail Cabaret), Ian Arkley (My Silent Wake) Vancorvid, Elisa Day, Steve Clarke and others…it was recorded in my studio, The Cage and that has also been expanded in recent years in terms of technology… So yes… old and new….
SPR (VIMH): How would you characterize “The Great Derailer” and what are your expectations from the new album?
ATTRITION: If I need to put it into a box I would say industrial, darkwave…perhaps a little “Gothic”…
It is the first single from the upcoming new album “The Black Maria”, which will be with us later this year… early days for the reactions but I’m pleased with how it’s going…I’m also setting up shows worldwide in support of these new releases…. So far confirmed…
April 3rd- The Tin, Coventry, UK
June 13th- Woodgothic Festival, Sao Thome Das Letras, Brazil
June 17th - Gothic Ba, Buenos Aires, Argentina
June 19th - Producciones Mortem Collections, Santiago de Chile
June 20th - Tumbas Eternas Producciones, Lima, Peru
July - Manchester - tbc
August 20th– Feketa Zaj festival, Hungary
August 30th – Infest festival, UK
November 28th- Winter Ghosts Symposium, Whitby, UK
December 5th – Face Bar, Reading, UK
SPR (VIMH): How did the cooperation with Two Gods Records occur?
ATTRITION: ATTRITION started in late 1980 and have signed to many labels over the years… some better than others but they all had their place in our career…. I started my own label, Two Gods in 2006, mostly for reissues and rarities/live recordings etc…this year I decided to release all the new material through the label… so it’s been a hell of a lot on work and investment… but it’s worth it!
SPR (VIMH): How’s the fans’ reactions been to the new songs on your live shows so far?
ATTRITION: The last shows we did were in Japan in December and so the new album songs have yet to be performed live…. I am looking forward to the next show…our first hometown show in 5 years at The Tin in Coventry, UK
SPR (VIMH): Do you prefer to be on the road or on the studio writing and recording?
ATTRITION: I like both… its wonderful having my own studio with the freedom that gives, but I have travelled the world with ATTRITION and it has been a wonderful ride… met son many people, seen so many places… and learned how to cope with the disasters along the way…. But I do like to get home at the end of the tours…
SPR (VIMH): How did you come up with the name ATTRITION initially?
ATTRITION: The band name was taken from “War of ATTRITION” a description of the First World War…a gradual wearing down of sides… My Granddad was wounded at Ypres on the western front in 1917 and I always had a strange fascination with that war…. I even created an album of War poetry (from all sides) which I released in 2015 – “Millions of The Mouthless Dead”… (with a guest vocal from Wolfgang Flur / Ex-Kraftwerk on one track)
How would you describe your music style to someone that hasn’t heard of you before?
Dar industrial, dark ambient, gothic…. It depends on the albums as there have been a lot of them now… and occasionally I have written soundtracks… almost always for horror films!
SPR (VIMH): Which is the record you wish you had written and why?
ATTRITION: My next one! (I know…. That’s an easy answer!) :)
Were you obliged to give just one album to extraterrestrials that would represent the whole human music, which album would it be and from which band/artist?
“Best of humanity”??…. Oh it’s impossible in one band… I love so much different music from The Sex Pistols to Kraftwerk to Beethoven and a lot of places in between…
SPR (VIMH): If you had the chance to travel in time… where would you choose to go? To the past or the future and why?
ATTRITION: Well I’ve managed a good few years travelling through the time I have… and I have enough to do here in the now… and I’m happy with that…
Thank you for the interview!
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