Exclusive Interviews: Vendetta Music

Interview with Severe Illusion

May 10th, 2005

Q1: Hello Ulf & Fredrik.

You've been hailed as the most talented hard EBM act, and deservedly so! Severe Illusion perfectly blends the purest elements of old school EBM,dark elektro and harsh industrial creating a signature sound and feeling so original it's hard to compare you to other elektro bands. Could you introduce yourselves and give us a little bit of information on your backgrounds in the music scene?

Ulf: We are two chaps from Sweden and we have been making music together for five years or so. Before that I played in some local punk bands that never got popular and Fredrik was involved in several experimental/noise projects. Severe Illusion is our first real attempt to make EBM although we both have listened to that kind of music for the last 15 years or so.

Q2: How did you guys meet and what was the spark that ignited your passion to start Severe Illusion?

Ulf: We met at a pub in Gothenburg, Sweden, where we both lived at the time. We started talking about electronic music in general and how the EBM-scene was growing stale. After a few more beer drenched-discussions, we finally realized that we had to do something about it ourselves if we wanted things to change.

Q3: What are your favorite elektro bands and which styles of music did you listen to growing up?

Ulf: Fad Gadget and Front 242 are my biggest influences and Portion Control to a lesser extent. In my early teen years, I used to listen to trash metal, Slayer, Anthrax and Metallica before they got wimpy.

Fredrik: In the eighties, I used to listen a lot to Skinny Puppy and SPK. Rob Hubbard and Martin Galway were also important to me because their sound pushed the boundaries of music. I have always been more into sound than music. My father's occasional work at the sawmill may have had just as much impact on me as any music at the time. Nowadays, I listen to The Pain Machinery and Diverje. The new Depressive Disorder album is fabulous.

Q4: What do you think of the hellektro/futurepop-infested electro scene and do you see things ever changing to pure harsh elektro instead of 'poppy' bands getting all the attention?

Ulf: I don't think that harsh elektro will get as much attention as futurepop or synthpop.Pop music has always been popular, and harsh electronics will never appeal to the masses. Perhaps that's a good thing. We prefer to play for people who are genuinely interested in our music than to a bunch of kids who are listening to it just because their friends think its "cool". Personally I don't care much about Futurepop and hellektro. They tend to use the same recipe and most bands sound very much alike.

Fredrik: I don't really see why it should matter at all. Our music reflects our personalities and lifestyle. We're not competing with futurepop/hellektro bands or anyone else for that matter.

Q5:Is there any special synthesizer or software program that you consider to be the best to work with?

Ulf: We play around with most stuff we can lay our hands on. We don't have preference for any particular machine but the Alesis D4 drum machine has given us a lot of good kicks throughout the years and Yamaha's different FM synths are amazing for basses. When it comes to softwares, we have to mention ArcDev industries plug-in effects and synthesizers. Truly evil and very unpredictable.

Q6: Your awesome demos "S/T", "Subject" and "Public Opinion" are long out-of-print and almost impossible to find. Tracks such as "Brute Engine"," Solitary", "Lungtish", "New World Attitude" and "Constituted Happiness" are crowds favorites. Would you re-release the demos on CD in the future?

Ulf: No. Those demos are stuff we made a long time ago and it would be a waste of time to re-release them. I think a vast majority of our fans would agree with us that it's better to concentrate on releasing our new material.

Q7: Your sophomore release entitled "Accomplishments of Leopold II" (out now on DSBP!) tackles the atrocities committed by King Leopold II of Belgium in Congo between 1885 and 1908.What can you tell us about the new album?

Ulf: "Accomplishments of Leopold II" is a conceptual album about colonialism. Leopold II rapacious rule of Congo caused death of millions of Africans. The album was recorded in April-May 2004.

Fredrik: We got bored with all the bands making songs about how evil Hitler was. Sure Hitler was a cold-blooded murderer, but so were Stalin and Pol Pot and Leopold II of Belgium. It is important to understand that Nazis were not the first to commit genocide. No matter how hard the truth may seem, genocide is a normal part of human history.

Q8: Are you in contact with the top-notch dark electro bands and would you work with them in the future?

Fredrik: Of course we are in contact with several bands and we swap remixes from time to time. We have plans for a side project with Anders Karlsson from The Pain Machinery & we are working on the details as we speak. It will be our most violent project so far, that's for sure.

Q9: Can you shed light on your upcoming side-projects namely Instans (the debut album "Common Ground" will come out in September on Black Flames Records), Vanvard & Emu-Bomb?

Ulf: We're working on several side-projects at the moment. We're workaholic & our recoding sessions often results in stuff that doesn't fit Severe illusion sound. The projects that you mentioned are all scheduled to be released this year. Instans is a little more dance orientated then Severe Illusion, but otherwise pretty much the same. The first Instans album, "Common ground", is done and we are just waiting for the Black Flames Records to release it. The same goes for old school elektro project, Vanvard. We recorded the album "Liv i vardens slutskede" last summer and it was very much inspired by the surroundings. We recorded the album in a small house on an island in Vattern, Sweden's second biggest lake, so it's all about the nature, birds and other gooie stuff. All the lyrics are in Swedish. The Vanvard album will be released on Deathpropaganda records later this year. Emu-bomb is our newest project and so far we haven't finished recording our demo, but we are working on it right now. Emu-bomb sound can best be described as harsh elektro with hard stomping beats and a bit faster then Severe Illusion.

Fredrik: This fall, we'll start working on the static ambient project Knös.

Q10: Are you planning a tour for North America anytime soon?

Ulf: We haven't gotten an offer yet but if there are people interested in booking us, we'll definitely play in North America.

Photo credit: http://www.severeillusion.com/