- Italy is Virgin Territory for your band right now. Do you want to
deflower us letting us know all about the AntiProduct background and the
current state of affairs?
ALEX: holy shit. that's like saying sum up Star Wars in a sentence. Yes, we
don't look, sound or move anything like any band you've ever seen or heard.
There is only one AntiProduct and we are it. Welcome to the future of
rock 'n' roll where melody and invention, male and female, raw and polished
and good and evil all live together, just like "real" life. It's better to
duck sometimes!
CLARE: We have been going as a band for 1 1/2 years now. It was Alex, Milena and
myself rehearsing accoustically at first, then Simon joined 3 days before
the first tour and Toshi joined 6 months after that. We have been touring
the UK intensly and we have our army of fans who are called APRA
(AntiProduct Peoples Rock Army) Who are the best fans in the world!
- When it came out, I saw Consume and Die as a pet project by Alex, and you
two are the only original members left of that album. Do you think it could
have been better, if the lineup had been steady as it is now?
ALEX: Yes, considering how much I can suck on my own.
CLARE: AntiProduct is what it is. Everything that has hapenned has had to have
happenned for us to be where we are now, which is exactly where we want to
be!
- So what about the upcoming album, I take it that it's a group work,
rather than one person writing all lyrics and music? What will it be like?
ALEX: well, it will be one person writing all the music and words as I'm American,
the loudest and the oldest but everyone contributes on their instrument and
in their head space. It's lookin' to be a gloriously over produced Ramones
meets Queen post modernist ass kicking mosh fest unlike anything you've been
forced to love so far. Some of it you will only listen to once because it's
too painful and disturbing to listen to and some of it you will only listen
to once because it's so catchy that it will feel like fish hooks are digging
into your psyche upon repeated listenings. By the way, Italy, Manowar are
crap!
CLARE: Alex is The Master and the rest of us are just the hired help! The album is
sounding amazing though...really heavy in parts.
- And AntiProduct is not just about music, is it? Your live shows are quite
spectacular too... care to elaborate about what goes on onstage?
ALEX: Uh...blood, nudity, mayhem, questions, answers, freedom, rage, unique, too
much of everything, no brains just power.
CLARE: We all have a really good time and play rock and roll! We love to have
stage invasions, theres usually some blood, spray paint and nudity at some
point in the show and none of us know what is going to happen next. We
give it our all and play every show like it was our last.
- Even offstage, you have an attitude and lifestyle that can't be matched
by anyone in present day's music. For instance, what happened exactly at
the Kerrang Awards, just to name the last extravaganza?
CLARE: The Kerrang! Awards were so much fun. We turned up in a big white stretch
limousine with the logo on the side. We had a dwarf wearing a t-shirt with
TOKEN DWARF printed on it throwing AntiProduct $1000000 bills at our feet,
and a load of APRA turned up and were being suitably rowdy. Simon "The
Gonk" got really drunk and hecked like mad, especially when we didnt win
Britains Best New Band which we were nominated for. Alex headbutted Coby
Dick from Papa Roach (who, since he saw us in April has started doing
Alex's Microphone On Head bashings) in a friendly beadbutting session (the
blood wouldnt come off the white suit though!). We all had a really good
time and got very drunk!
ALEX: Uh shit, well let's see. we showed up fucked up in a limo with a dwarf
wearing a "Token Dwarf" shirt throwing million dollar bills at Marilyn
Manson. this is before Simon heckled the Lostprophets for being nu-metal
and beating us in the category as Britains Best New Band or me headbutting
Coby Dick to prove my love. Simon started vomiting into someone's hat
(booze, huh?) while I was telling Iggy Pop i respected him "for selling out
on his own terms." It ain't easy being like Abba, I'll tell ya. the rest
of the night got real ugly after that.
- Are you like this even in your everyday life by yourself, or is the band
taking out the R'n'R beast in you?
ALEX: well I don't wear as much makeup when I'm grocery shopping but I can tend
to lose my shit just because I think I can get away with it but yea, the
band totally pushes me over the edge. There's just so much power and sex
there that it's hard for me to keep my clothes on around those guys.
CLARE: When we are on tour then the Rock and Roll beast is definately present.
However, when we are at home we spend alot of time rehearsing and Alex
manages the band, so there is always things that need to be done and when
we are in the studio we just work really hard as well.
- And what're your thoughts on current rock'n'roll/metal bands attitudes?
CLARE: I like Slipknot. I do think that alot of bands have had their day though,
especially in the light of the Trade Towers disaster. I think it will be
hard for Casey Chaos or Marylin Manson to sing about how they want the
destruction of America at a time like this. I bet they wish that they were
happy pop bands right now!
ALEX: I just think that too many bands are cheapening rock 'n' roll right now by
telling kids (who are the real managers and bosses of every band in the
world, by the way) how to feel like shit. it's lazy and takes no thought
to say that kinda shit. be different and try to make people strong rather
than just further convinvcing them they are victims and sheep. That's why
they invented TV, not rock 'n' roll!
- Alex is in England as an illegal immigrant from Usa right now, is that
right? And what is Toshi's positions towards the immigration office? How
did you steal him from Japan?
ALEX: we folded him into an oregami shaped giraffe, why?
CLARE: I'm not sure what goes on there. I believe that everyone is actually legal
at the moment though!
- You are said to have the best fans in the world. How did you achieve
that? And why are they the best?
ALEX: they are the best because we owe them every single thing that has happened
to us. they are our best friends, our managers and our bosses and the best
people I've worked for in my life. I'd take bullets for most of 'em and
only the band itself surpasses APRA as far as my love goes. No kids into
music; no more music. Musicians in limos will figure this out one day.
It's ALL about anfd for you who are reading this and if someone EVER
hassles you about giving you his/her autograph, they don't deserve to have
you as a fan. God's honest truth! By the way, the only thing better than
the sex with an Italian girl is the fights!!!
CLARE: I think that because the band is about having a good time, then people who
enjoy having a good time are gravitating towards the band. I have met the
nicest people ever since I have been playing in this band. Life is all
about having a good time, so come and join our parteee!
- Being all your hardcore fans also kinda personal friends of the band, is
it hard to get groupies (both male and female!). Or can you shag a
friend???
ALEX: Are you asking me out again. i don't have sex when we tour because i save
all the energy for the performance. while other guys are out gettin their
dicks sucked and snorting coke offa an elephants back or whatever,
AntiProduct is focused on kicking the living shit outta roomfulls of people
all over the world and nothing else. When I get home though, it's penis
time!
CLARE: I've had a few offers, but never taken anyone up on it. I think it is
proberbly easier for men to do that sort of thing than women. Quick head in
the toilet has never really appealed to me!
- And on this topic, at your shows I noticed that during "The rules we
rock'n'roll by", when the line "never steal your best friend's chick when
you're bored and sick" comes up, Alex and Milena always look in the eyes
and laugh. Can I be nosy and ask what's going on there???
CLARE: No good asking me, I am on the other side of the stage at that point in
time and am just trying to not fall over usually!
ALEX: she is my pretty little sex slave. We all take turns urinating on
her...like in the movie Caligula. that's what AntiProduct is like behind
the scenes. All urine and wine. Truly Roman in a way!
(Interviewer’s note...: since I won Milena’s skirt with the AntiProduct raffle, I hope she never wore it during one of these "truly roman" parties. And I also hope people reading this interview will still like to come to Rome and have a party... not all celebrations end in urine and wine. Er, i think! - The Punisher)
- Does the internet play an important part in your band's life?
ALEX: In as much as it wastes my time every day doing things which on the whole
would be done just as easily over the phone but the internet allows for a
greater degree of non-accountability. "I didn't get that email". It's
basically a way of jerking off and feeling important and fills a void that
never existed but also has become a neccesary evil...plus, how about that
footage of Brittany Spears and Buffy tonguing each other? computers are
good!!!
CLARE: It certainly does. We have an AntiProduct Yahoo Groups which is the
official method of communication for APRA and the www.antiproduct.com is
always being updated to keep everyone aware of whats going on, which is
always something!
- Your fanbase is quite big in England and also "very hardcore". How do you
plan on expanding this with the new album?
ALEX: I'm not sure we "plan" to expand anything except what's expected of a rock
'n' roll band. we just wanna get really good as a band and gather up all
the cool people of various sizes, shapes and colors into heavy, fucked up
yet melodic and poignant music not made for idiots and party like it's
1999...or something. we also give our fans credit for not being morons and
being on the sharp side and digging wherever our twisted imaginations take
us.
CLARE: We'll just carry on doing what we have been doing and with the help of an
ever expanding APRA we will take ove this world!
- This interview is for a very heavy metal magazine. What's the most
metal thing you've done?
CLARE: I fell off my bicycle last year because I was really drunk and trying to
cycle while drinking out of a can of lager. I knocked myself out for about
10 minutes and was found lying in a pool of my blood by a couple of our fans
who called an ambulance for me and spent the night in the hospital with me
while I waited for someone to come and put 4 stitches in my head. Stupid
but Metal!
ALEX: Lived my life from the time I was a teenager listeing to all the coolest
heaviest shit I could get my hands on to learn from it rather than ape it.
as far as hard shit goes, I don't care what anyone thinks and insist I live
my life by my rules for better or worse. If you don't like it, I will kill
for you to have that right, no matter how wrong you are. Also, I've never
given up!
- And why should metalheads buy your album?
CLARE: Because if you want to have a good time despite what is going on around you
then you'll like AntiProduct.
ALEX: goes I'm a metal head with a perverted world view. I was talking to this
guy in a Burzum shirt at our last gig a few days ago. He was into all of
it, Deth, Deicide, Voivod..you name it. And somehow, he found himself in
love with AntiProduct and the album "Consume And Die...The Rest Is All Fun"
without knowing why. this is one of the most beautiful things that's
happened to me. i'm standing naked and covered in my own blood on stage
surrounded by the most different looking and sounding band in modern rock
'n' roll history, trying to con people into thinking we're a "pop band"
like Steps or whatever, singing these REALLY menacingly catchy tunes while
smashing myself in the face with a microphone and some people actually
believe me when I say we're here to kill Hear'Say, which we most certainly
are...but not because pop sucks but becuase the pop we hear NOW sucks. it
sounds like computewrs writing love songs to telephones, for fuck sake.
as a kid, my pop bands were AC/DC, Kiss, the Sex Pistols, Abba. The point
being this, while some folks choose whatever corporate whore sell-out dead
person music to call their "pop", the Burzum fans "pop" band of choice is
AntiProduct and we aren't very "pop" at all beyond not taking anything or
anyone too seriously...and that's what makes us REALLY scary.
Leggi la recensione di Consume and die
Leggi la recensione di Van Ep
