Front Line Assembly Interview in Industrial Nation #1 Throughout history the end of a millennium has always been seen as a time for transition. For Bill Leeb, singer and songwriter of Front Line Assembly, the bands' latest album, Millennium, is the result of transition in his own personal growth as an individual, as well as an artist. "This is the first time we've printed the lyrics on the CD. I've never done that before because I've never really felt quite confident about expressing myself, " Bill says, describing how his new outlook on life has affected him as a musician. "It's just sort of changed the complexity of everything and the way I look at things", he continues, " I mean, its not like I found some new revelation or something. I've just taken a different attitude." Since 1986 Front Line Assembly has been a vital presence in the torture-tech movement, assuming a pivotal role in its founding. Yet it wasn't until the release of Caustic Grip, widely considered to be the band's breakthrough album, that they began to receive recognition as leaders of the scene. The harsh, biting and overtly digital Caustic Grip took electronic aggression music by storm and isolated it into its purest form. Then in 1992 Tactical Neural Implant was released; a conceptually radical and technically innovative piece of work that cultivated the genre even further. After touring and then working on various side-projects outside of FLA, Bill and co-collaborator Rhys Fulber finally, returned to the studio to produce their next record. By the end of the nine months, the endeavor resulted in twelve new songs, which they were dissatisfied with. Back at square one they started anew, recycling little of the old material. "Going through the process of re-writing a while album, I cam to grips with everything," Bill points out. Having taken torture-tech to the edge of creative limits, he felt the need to expand out past the confines of the genre. "We just weren't going to worry anymore whether people were going to call us electro or crossover or what have you. We just did what we wanted." Millennium is an accumulative fusion of everything Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber have done musically for the past five years. Throughout the album, the digital chaos of Caustic Grip and the synthetic perfection of Tactical Neural Implant remains prevalent; yet aspects of the techno/hip-hop beats of Intermix, the electro techniques of Noise Unit, the soundtrack quality of Delerium and gothic darkness of Will all at one time or another weave their way into the highly diverse sound scape. The most noticeable addition to FLA's new sound is the frequent use of guitar. Although incorporating sampled riffs into their music is certainly nothing new for the band, they have never applied it in such abundance until now. "Doing the Fear Factory remixes last year had something to do with it. That was the first time, we'd ever worked with metal guitars straight off a tape," Bill explains, relating back to the Fear is a Mindkiller EP, a series of mixes he and Rhys did for the death metal group, Fear Factory. Unlike recent efforts by NIN and KMFDM, which resort to cutting much of electronic instrumentation to apply guitars effectively, FLA's background in electro is clearly apparent on Millennium. With the music remaining highly synthesized, most of the guitar on the album is looped riffs sampled from bands like Metallica, Pantera, and Sepultura. Rarely does the guitar ever dominate the music, but rather it blends intricately into the complex sequences of synths, sound bites and percussion. Millennium plays like a soundtrack for the collapse of society. Anchored in reality, but spill over into the realm of science-fiction at times, the album acts as a mirror reflection the violent world we live in and the nightmare of what tomorrow could be. "It's like violence is such a big part of our society. We're sort of ruled by violence in a weird way," Bill says commenting about elements of our culture that helped provoke the albums mood and feel. "I mean, the what a crazy society...we should all be able to go out into the street whenever we want and not worry about it, but we can't." Despite the album's bleak portrayal of social decay, its true essence is rooted in Bill's belief in the power of the individual to cause positive change. Repeatedly his lyrics focus on overcoming fear and breaking free from the grips of oppression. One song, "Plasma Spring" tells of positive change occurring through the exploitation of modern technology. Proclaiming, "Communicate now, the knowledge is here/Exterminate fear within this sphere/One by one they will see/New horizons to set them free.;" "Plasma Spring" speaks of a digital revolt set in motion by an electronic counter culture, much like the creative subversion already emerging on the world's expanding computer networks. On another track, "Division of Mind," Bill snarls out brief eight line stanzas about problems facing the world, encouraging us at the ending of stanza to "fight back!" Probably the most powerful statement against tyranny is offered in "Victim of a Criminal," which was done in conjunction with Dave Hansen, from the rap group P.O.W.E.R. The song splices FLA trademark electro sound with guitar loops and Hansen's furious vocals: "Another murder in the name of democracy/Land of free with policies of slavery...Your future home is nothing but a war of the classes/All of the masses versus the fascists." Seeded throughout Millennium are samples from the movie "Falling Down", a story of one man's struggle to come to grips with the world he once know, which is rapidly crumbling under the weight of crime and poverty. The album's opening track, entitled "Vigilante," is directly inspired by the character portrayed by Michael Douglas in the film. "I mean here's a guy that feels like an underdog in his own country," says Bill. "He feels like he's losing his own identity and the only way he can try to regain that is by doing something so radical that he has to break the law. I think that sort of applies, that's kind of the theme of Millennium." When asked if he was concerned about listeners and critics possibly reacting negatively to FLA's shift in creative direction, Bill answers, "Nothing bothers me anymore as far as what's been said or like how well the record will do. I just find now I really do it [write music] because this is the way we want to do it... So far everyone I've talked to has been real positive. We've sort of broadened our own horizons, which is what we really wanted to do." Although triggered by his development as an artist, the recent changes Bill has undergone has influenced more than his music. Bill Leeb feels that he now has a stronger grasp on his own identity and what he wants out of life. "You just have to look at where you are, your position and what you want," he states, reflecting back on the last two years. "Then you can come to terms with where you want to go and how you want to go about it. I think that has a lot to do with your happiness." In a way, Millennium is more than simply the next step in Front Line Assembly's evolution, it also represents a turning point for Bill. "Everybody has to got through a different extreme," he says. For Bill Leeb, dealing with his extreme gave him new confidence and strength. It stimulated an inner-growth which without Millennium would have been inconceivable. While Bill Leeb has come through his extreme intact and it has broadened his perspective on life, Rhys Fulber has been broadening his perspective as well. As the other half of the band, Rhys adds a creative balance to the FLA equation. Although he has spent most of his musical career in a realm dominated by synthesizers, Rhys has recently renewed his interest in guitar fueled music. IN: For you, was there any personal growth involved with the making of Millennium? Rhys: I think there is. I think it's a little more advanced, it covers a little more ground. We didn't want to make Tactical Neural or Caustic Grip part two, that's for sure. We've done that kind of thing for quite awhile now and it just doesn't interest me as much. We wanted to try different elements, which I think we did on Millennium. It's more of the kind of sound I wanted to hear. It's just personal taste really. IN: Explain your choice to use guitars on Millennium. Rhys: Because I like guitar, that's why. I don't care if other people don't like it, they can listen to Caustic Grip. I don't listen to a lot of electronic music anymore. Not that I don't like it or anything, it's just that I've listened to electronic music my whole life. I've always liked other stuff too...I like some ambient techno, just not a lot of it. I mostly listen to metal to tell you the truth. I just like aggressive music, so anything that's really heavy and a lot of electronic music just isn't heavy anymore. It's like all gone the techno way or all gone the metal way, it seems. I listen to heavy guitar based for the most part. I like death metal with keyboards. It has a lot in common with industrial music. It's really similar in more ways than people think. I always thought that, even from 1988 when metal was big. IN: How did the Fear Factory remixes effect your work on Millennium? Rhys: Fear Factory had a huge effect on it. I was into the band and we got to do the remixes and I thought it was really cool. That had a lot to do with Millennium because we thought what we had done with it [the Fear Factory remixes] was create this futuristic sounding metal, like cyber-metal. It didn't sound anything like Ministry or KMFDM which is more rock. It's just rock 'n roll with a drum machine and I'm just not into it. It's good for what it is, it's just not what I want to hear, you know? I like the idea of death because a lot of it isn't very rock, it just discords and stuff like that. And when we did the Fear Factory stuff we really got off on it. It really influenced us, I think. Right now I'm doing keyboards on Fear Factory's new album. You know, those guys don't even listen to metal, they listen to techno. When we did the remixes the guitar player, Dino, he wanted it to sound like the Prodigy. IN: What happened to the 12 songs you wrote previous to Millennium and didn't use? Rhys: Just axed them all. It's just one of those things. We did all these songs and they were pretty mellow compared to our new stuff. We just weren't sure if that is what we wanted to do or not. So we kind of thought we should go back to what we were known for and that's being heavy. We can't try and be like Ultravox or something like that. IN: Will listeners ever get to hear these tracks? Maybe a separate release? Rhys: No, sorry. But some of the songs from the first batch were still used. "This Faith," was from that original batch. A reworked version of "Search and Destroy" and "Plasma Springs" was on the record. We re-worked that one quite a bit. Also the b-side to "Millennium," "Transtime," and "Internal Combustion," the b-side to our next single "Surface Patterns," were old tunes from the first batch. You see our first batch was really goth, like "Search and Destroy" without the guitar. That's kind of what all our other stuff sounded like and we kind o thought it might be a little to light weight. It's not that didn't like it. It's just we didn't know if it was the right thing for us to do. We didn't know if that was the way we wanted Front Line to be represented. IN: And what are you doing now other than working with Fear Factory? Rhys: I just produced an album for a Canadian band that your probably haven't heard of and probably won't hear of for a while. They're called Econoline Crush and they're on EMI. They sound like somewhere in between Alice in Chains and NIN. So I produced all that and did all the keyboards and stuff. I think that's kind of what I'm going to be doing more of. I might be doing a remix of Machine Head, another Roadrunner metal band, but I don't know about that yet. IN: What about Will? Rhys: Well, I wrote a bunch of tunes ages ago, about four years, for a new album and just ended up sitting. They're really cool. We thought we were going to try and get it together, but I don't know. I've just really got a bunch of other stuff going on these days. But we might do something together...If we did, it'd probably be pretty different. It'll probably have guitar all over it. I listen to a lot of that gothic death metal and it all sounds like Will with more guitar in it. So we've thought about reincarnating it, but who knows if we'll get it together or not? I don't see those guys much because I'm in the studio all of the time. IN: You sound buys, but what about Bill? What has he been doing? Rhys: I don't know. Bill's doing something right now, but I don't know what he's doing. I haven't seen Bill a lot lately because I was in the studio for two months with that other band [Econoline Crush] and as soon as I finished I flew out there with Fear Factory. [journalist's note: Later I found out that Bill was involved with producing an ambient-techno compilation including personal works.] IN: In what direction do you see FLA moving in now? Rhys: I don't know, me and Bill usually have pretty different ideas of how we want to make it sound. I'll say one thing and he'll say another, so if I say how I want it to sound, it's probably just my opinion and not Front Line's opinion. My opinion, which Bill's would be totally different if you asked him, I would like to use real drums on the next album and guitar and analog keyboards. That's what I'd like to do, like not use any digital keyboards or anything like that. More human sounding. IN: With Millennium, what has the reaction been from fans? Rhys: I don't know. We've been getting a lot of shit from a lot of our fans about our new record. People just have to chill out. I mean, you can't do the same thing everyday, you know? Our new album sounds so Front Line that to even think that it doesn't is stupid. If you take away the guitar it sounds like Caustic Grip. We think it's the best thing we've ever done by a mile. It's the most diverse. It's got all kinds of shit on there. It's got a fucking rape song for Christ's sake! You know, we did an on-line thing with Delerium on the internet and a lot of people were freaking out about the guitars on Millennium. If you don't like it, you don't have to listen to it Tactical Neural part 2 is exactly what we didn't want to do. It's like, why do it again, it's the and if that's what you want to hear, listen to that record! It gets kind of boring when bands grind out he same style of records every year. I like it when bands try new things. That's what our new record is, it's different, but it's still Front Line. It's got our trademarks all over it and people who can't see that are really just too close minded. People who are that close minded would probably be better off not at our shows. We're not about being narrow minded, we're about being open minded and breaking down barriers, not creating barriers! IN: Has all the feedback been negative? Rhys: It's been about half and half, but we're not too worried about it. We don't do music to be rock music, we do music because we're into it. And we want to do what we want to do. If we wanted to make money then we'd probably just play it safe and keep doing the same old stuff because we know X amount of people are going to buy it. But we're not into that so we'll take a risk and do something different. I'm just a little bummed people are being so negative. IN: It could have something to with the hardcore electro fans that are worried guitars are killing the scene. Rhys: Well they can go buy a Leather Strip album. I mean, I like Leather Strip, Claus is cool guy you know? There are lots of other bands out there that are pretty decent that do that kind of music. But still, it's like you can't expect people to do that same thing every album. I'm just not into it anymore, I listen to other stuff. You know, I love keyboards, but I love other things too. E-mail