Modulate - "Fuck the skull"

Modulate is the hard industrial/ebm project of professional DJ, Geoff Lee (aka, DJ Echo, resident DJ at Wendyhouse, Leeds, UK), and his recent rise to fame has been somewhat spectacular. Modulate’s debut release, the “Skullfuck” EP, released in March this year on Sistinas Records (North America) and Infacted Recordings (Europe//R0W), had success in the alternative dance charts, and the track “Skullfuck” being played at virtually every industrial club night in Europe and beyond! This success was to be expected as the track has all the ingredients of a big club hit: a fist pumping bass line, built around a very prominent and attention-grabbing sample from the film Full Metal Jacket. Modulate has very recently been supporting VNV Nation In Europe, and will be supporting CombiChrist on the forthcoming Summer 2007 North American tour. Prior to being invited to perform on two such high profile tours, you could count the total number of live dates Modulate had played on just one hand, including one live date in a railway museum. So what’s the secret of this success? We’re about to find out in this interview.

SL. You are a professional DJ, how has DJing influenced the way you compose your songs?

G. I do write a lot of Modulate tracks for the dancefloor, to fit into my DJ sets, so from that point of view the DJ'ing has influenced the sound. It also means I have a ready made audience to test new tracks out on, if they react first time without knowing what a track is or who it is by then I know it's good. I think as well, knowing intimately which tracks work and why they do and don't is something that you can apply to your own music.

SL. Skullfuck features a very prominent and memorable sample from the film Full Metal Jacket. An obvious question would be why did you choose that specific sample?

G. Simply because I was tired of playing My Rifle by Combichrist and Soilbleed by Grendel, both of which were big tracks that sampled Full Metal Jacket that were absolutely huge on my dancefloors but were getting overplayed because so many people were asking for them. I wanted something along those lines that I could play instead. I think it is an amazing film with some amazing lines, many of which have been used as samples, but I had never heard that line used before. That sample gave the song a great hook and worked so well in the context of the track.

SL. You’ve just released the Skullfuck EP, and you are currently writing tracks for your debut full-length album. How is that progressing, when can we expect it’s release?

G. So far so good. I think the success of the EP has raised the bar somewhat so with that comes a certain level of expectation. There are a few tracks at demo level, a few that are pretty much finished but need mixing properly. As for a release, due to the amount of touring I am doing this year I'm not certain yet. I'd like to finish it by the end of the year for a release either around Xmas or early 2008.

SL. Your first tour was somewhat of a baptism of fire, supporting VNV Nation on their very recent European tour. How was that experience?

G. I'm still on tour with VNV Nation, I'm sat backstage at the gig in Krefeld at the moment. It has been an amazing experience. The kind you dream of as a musician but so few actually get to do. It's interesting seeing the reaction from people from city to city and country to country. Some places are particularly responsive, others are more reserved. Most of these people are seeing you for the first time and from a support band point of view they are there to see VNV Nation, not you, so if you can win over a few new friends in each city then that is great. People told me after our recent show in Edinburgh (after seeing our early gigs) that the live show has progressed to another level and I think it is true, I have learned so much from doing this tour.

SL. Prior to going on tour with VNV Nation, you had only done a handful of live performances. How did you prepare for such a high profile tour?

G. I'm not sure there is much you can really do to prepare for something like that other than make sure you are well rehearsed and that everything works technically. It's the kind of opportunity that you can only dream about, so to be offered that was amazing. Sure, Modulate did grow up in public but the only way you can get used to playing live gigs in front of 1500 people is to play in front of 1500 people. We might have been inexperienced in the live arena but things happened very, very quickly for us and when opportunities like that are presented to you then you have to take them. I don't think you can plan these things. We could have played 3 gigs or 300. It just happened that the VNV tour happened at the right time for the release of our first EP. Ronan heard our music when he was on tour in the US and he's been amazingly supportive of us ever since, so when he asked it was an offer we couldn't refuse.

SL. When you where writing Skullfuck did you ever think that it would be such a big club hit as it has become?

G. I wrote it as a club track, so I knew it had all the right elements, but to become as big as it has worldwide, no. I don't think you can ever expect that. I knew it was good, but having a good track is only one part of the whole equation. There are a great many factors that result in a good track becoming a global club hit. You can only create a track and let people know about it, beyond that it is people listening, requesting, spinning, dancing and buying the CD and you can't control those things.

(...)

To read the complete interview, be sure to buy Side-Line issue 59 !

Side-Line issue 59
Modulate CDs

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