Present yourself to the audience
I'm Hal and I'm the male vocalist in Interlock, from the UK. We've been playing cyber metal for a number of years now, the band was formed in the late 90s but has had a few line-up changes since then, we've been signed to Anticulture Records for a year and the album 'crisis//reinvention', together with the new 'skinless remixes' EP, are out now in France.
What music style do you prefer personaly and what are your influences ?
The whole band have really varied tastes, I think that's what makes us write such odd music. Literally, all 6 of us are coming from so many different angles within metal (and other styles of music, too). For instance, I'm really heavily into technical death metal and a lot of breakcore / drum & bass, whereas Christina (vocals) is into mostly black metal, John (guiltars/programming) likes a huge amount of music such as Meshuggah, Garbage & Boom Boom Sattelites, Syan (bass) is heavily into doom metal, Chris (guitars) is into death metal and industrial more recent industrial, Matt (drums) is into the more old school style of industrial like Killing Joke.
What's your opinion about the actual metal scene in U.K. ?
Being honest (especially since seeing how things are in the metal scene in France and other places) I've realised that the UK scene is far more at the mercy of trends and short-term fashions than many people will realise or be willing to acknowledge. For so long, it's all that we've known and has supported us well enough, certainly there are many areas over here that are very open and willing to accept new or strange things, but for the most part the 'new waves' of styles come around so fast.
What is your best live memory ? And why ?
We've had some amazing gigs recently since touring for the album, and playing UK festivals like TMF have provided some brilliant experiences for us, but for me I'd have to say that one of the last gigs we did out in Buckinghamshire (a district just outside London) really took us by storm. We occasionally discover that we have specific areas of England that turn out to have quite considerable Interlock fanbases, and Buckinghamshire has always been really loyal to us for a good few years now. We were booked for a headline date up there the other month and the venue was packed out, the kids were up for anything and were doing everything we told them to when we hit the stage. The violence was incredible.
Every now and again you do a gig that reminds you why you're doing what you're doing, this was one of them, when you have the crowd screaming back the words at you and when they know the music well enough to go insane at eachother at all the right moments. It's a very gratifying thing to hear that someone had a great time with their weekend and that you were part of the main reason for it.
What would be the festival of your dreams ? (with you playing in it of course !)
Of existing festivals, I'd love to play something like Ozzfest, but actually over in America as we've had some really good feedback from the US and our album isn't even out yet officially over there ! Other festivals I'm very keen on are things like Graspop and Hellfest, the latter because it's so central and always has such brilliant line-ups.
If we were to make our own though, which to tell the truth we had actually considered a few years ago, it would be a cyber/industrial metal event with Fear Factory, Strapping Young Lad, Mnemic, Killing Joke, Raunchy, MXD, Sybreed, Hacride, Pitchshifter, Die Krupps, Shellshock, Needleye, Concept and a number of other acts we rate as being fantastic.
What do you expect from the future ?
More time.
The whole band are really very eager to get over to the continent, we want to tour Europe as we've had such a great response so far. Whilst we'll always love the UK for what it's done for us, I do feel that Interlock's place is more in areas like Europe and the US. We're hoping to come out your way around the end of the year maybe, we're also now working on another video (the current one for 'skinless' has been played on MTV France and can be seen on our website) so keep your eyes open...
What is your motto in life ?
Evolve or die. Interlock is very much a forward facing band and I have a difficult time accepting why an act would want to sound like a copy of one that has already come before. There has to be some sort of progression in art and so many things are referential now, it's such a pity. This band is trying to bring on the next stage in music.
Is there something you'd like to say to the audience ?
We're about to launch our new street team which we've developed some great offers for, there's a lot that's going to be happening with live announcements this year, so make sure you keep an eye on our website (www.interlock.org.uk) for updates. See you on the road.
