VNA - Have you ever played live?
Do you plan on playing live just the two of you, or add an additional member?
Shawn - Yes. We played at some raves with some techno projects. That was
fun, it was real laid back and outrageous. When it comes to THD we
haven't played out. It's going to take a lot. It isn't just going to be
three guys (we're adding a percussionist) and equipment. You can either
play on stage or create a whole world on stage where other people can come
in and view it. That's what we want to do. Not the way Skinny Puppy
did it with all the gore, that's already been done.
Ed - We don't want to have everything backed up on digital audio tape because
then you could just sit home and listen to the CD. We have to work on some
audio and visual stuff to create that environment. We've been laying some
ground work on it for awhile now. Shawn wants to get out and cause trouble.
He has a lot of punk aggression on reserve.
VNA - Have you thought about doing a video, or putting some pictures of
you two in your CD?
Shawn - There's going to be lots of pictures, it's going to be really fun.
Some people won't know what to think about it. (Are they kidding around,
or what the hell is up with them?) There is going to be a lot of pictures
on our next CD. It will be interesting.
We'd love to do a video, but we don't have the quality that we want to achieve.
We don't have a video production studio, and that's what we would need.
VNA - What about going to a college, posting on a bulletin board and finding
someone who's interested in directing a music video for their final project?
That way the person could help, perhaps put some money into it, as well
as offering their time and knowledge.
Ed - That's a good idea.
Shawn - Yeah it is.
Ed - Shawn still has ties at the college he went to and they do stuff like
that.
Shawn - We started to shoot one on our own, during the end of the summer.
You'll probably see some of the pictures from that, but we're not sure where
it's going to go.
Ed - We think about a lot of this stuff all the time.
VNA - The artwork is different for Mechanical Advantage depending
on whether someone gets it from Hard Records or Cleopatra. I think the art
on Hard Records is a bit better. Did you have any input on the art used
for Cleopatra's release of Mechanical Advantage?
Shawn - None.
VNA - That really makes me sad. You are such a visual band. All bands deserve
to have the final say on their album cover, especially on the artwork.
Shawn - They called us up and said they needed a different version of the
cover art for the American release. They called us back and said it was
done and not to worry about it. I was like, "Oh, thanks".
Ed - It seemed like two weeks and we were suppose to send them some raw
images. Then it was finished, so that's what happened. If you look at the
covers done by Cleopatra at the time, we consider ourselves lucky, like
Underneath The Laughter. Now the Cleopatra cover art is pretty slick.
Shawn - It also depends on the influence you have with those in power at
Cleopatra. We're not one of their big name acts.
VNA - I consider you one of their best big name acts.
Shawn - I hate to disagree but we're kind of at the bottom.
VNA - In my book your right up there with The Electric Hellfire Club,
Spahn Ranch, Die Krupps, Psychopomps, Die Form,
Leæther Strip, Birmingham 6 and X Marks The Pedwalk.
It's all super quality music and that's what makes Cleopatra cool.
Ed - We're really a licensed act. Just a product.
Shawn - We're in limbo.
Ed - We're not sure what's going on between Hard Records and Cleopatra to
be honest. Mechanical Advantage was licensed from Hard and then all
the new Hard stuff is automatically manufactured and distributed by Cleopatra.
So we're not sure if it's just a distribution or if Cleopatra bought out
Hard or something like that. If Cleopatra signed us as their own, we'd probably
have more resources.
VNA - On Outside In you provide the MACOS symbol/logo. The MACOS
name means your allowing other musicians to sample your hard work, expand
and re-create your sound into their own type of music. How often do you
sample from other bands?
Shawn - We sample other bands when we need something quick. Most of the
time you can't tell who we're sampling from.
Ed - That happens really rarely. We sample four people on Outside In.
Shawn - We sampled Prince, The Fixx and Coil- so only
three. We get vocal samples from everywhere, constantly video taping TV.
Sometimes you happen to find some really good things.
VNA - The song, "Master Chemist" is a big favorite of mine.
Where did you get the clip, "Makes you feel wonderful"?
Shawn - That was a mid-80's movie called, "Outland".
VNA - Is your next release in the works yet?
Shawn - Actually your in luck because I can give you the names of the next
release and the full length after it. We're pretty focused with names and
titles. The next release is going to be four new tracks and four remixes
from other people. It's called, "What's Your Program?"
The style is strange. It's electronic, kind of like Outside In, but
smoother. It will be a little more melodic. It's weird because it's in between
Outside In and what the next full length is going to be. There's
definitely a lot of groove to it. Things just groove, like nasty grooves.
Some songs are danceable. One song has that slow 115 bpm, like get down
on the floor and fuck groove. It's hard to describe it. The new full length
is called, "Under A Statik Sky". I'm a horrible pop fan
sometimes. For some reason I have this affliction with whimpy pop.
VNA - It doesn't show, keep up the good work.
I really enjoyed the remix you did for Birmingham 6.
Did they possibly do one for you?
Shawn - Yes they're doing one for us. I called them two weeks ago to
find out what song they were going to do. They were just going into the
studio to do their new album with Jean-Luc De Meyer from Front 242.
They owe us a mix.
VNA - Your remix for Birmingham 6, the Frackville Police Squad
Mix is one of the best ones, by far. I also love the Mature Bite
Mix by STR and DJ Killroy of Swamp Terrorists and they're in
a new band now called, "Hellsau".
Shawn - I like that EP a lot, almost all the tracks are good. In my opinion
it's the best Cleopatra release yet.
VNA - Ed & Shawn, you have an amazing equipment list.
Total Harmonic Distortion's Equipment List
As Of 05/05/96
Computers:
PC 486 DX/33 16Mb RAM
2.5 GIG HD
MTU MICROSOUND DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION
TURTLE BEACH SAMPLE VISION 3.0
TURTLE BEACH WAVE FOR WINDOWS 2.0
TURTLE BEACH SAMPLEVISION FOR WINDOWS
AMIGA A1200 2Mb RAM
BLUE RIBBON BARS & PIPES PRO 2.0
DISSIDENTS SAMPLE WRENCH
OTHER GUYS EZ FM SYNTHESIZER
OTHER GUYS SYNTHIA PRO
Hardware:
AKAI ASQ-10 HARDWARE SEQUENCER
CASIO DZ-1 DRUM TRANSLATOR
CASIO TB-1 MIDI THRU BOX
4 WAY SYNC SPLITTER
GARFIELD MASTERBEAT SYNC
GARFIELD MINI-DOC SYNC
KORG KMS-30 SYNC BOX
PAIA MV8 MIDI/CV CONVERTER
ROLAND CSQ-600 CV/GATE SEQUENCER
ROLAND MC-4B CV/GATE SEQUENCER
TAMA TECHSTAR TSQ-1000 SEQUENCER
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS SPEAK AND SPELL
Percussion:
AKAI XE-8
ALESIS HR-16B
BOSS DR-110
BOSS DR-55
BOSS PC-2 PERCUSSION SYNTH
BOSS HC-2 HAND CLAP
EMU DRUMULATOR
KAWAI XD-5
KORG KPR-77
KORG MR-16
KORG RHYTHM 55
MAESTRO RHYTHM KING
MTI 16R AUTO ORCHESTRA
OBERHEIM DMX
OLSON X-81 RHYTHM INSTRUMENT
ROLAND CR-78 (x2)
ROLAND CR-8000
ROLAND PB-300
ROLAND TR-77
ROLAND TR-606
ROLAND TR-808
ROLAND TR-909
SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS DRUMTRAX
SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS STUDIO 440
SIMMONS SDS 5
SIMMONS SDS 7
SIMMONS SDS 9
SIMMONS SDS 800
SOUNDMASTER SR-88
SYNDRUM
TRONIX RB-1
UNIVOX MICRORHYTHMER-12
UNIVOX SR-95
UNIVOX SR-120
YAMAHA MR-10
YAMAHA RX-5
Recording:
ALESIS MONITOR ONE MONITORS
ART MULTIVERB LTX
ART SGE MACH II
AUDIO-TECHNICA 2500D MICROPHONE
BBE 462 SONIC MAXIMIZER
BEHRINGER MDX-2000 COMPOSER
BOSS DC-3 DIGITAL DIMENSION CHORUS PEDAL (x2)
BOSS SE-50 MULTI-FX
ELECTRO-HARMONIX DELUXE ELECTRIC MISTRESS FLANGER
ELECTRO-HARMONIX MUFF FUZZ PEDAL
ELECTRO-HARMONIX DR. Q PEDAL
SOVTEK/EH BIG MUFF PEDAL
SOVTEK/EH SMALL STONE PEDAL
ELECTRO-VOICE N/D 757B MICROPHONE
EVENTIDE FL-201 INSTANT FLANGER
EVENTIDE H910 HARMONIZER
FOSTEX 3050 DIGITAL DELAY
HEIL TALK BOX
KMX-8 MIDI PATCHBAY
KMX KMX-16 MIDI PATCHBAY
KORG PME-40 MODULAR FX (x2)
KORG STAGE ECHO TAPE DELAY
MACKIE CR-1604 16 CHANNEL MIXER
MARSHALL GUV'NOR PEDAL
MTI ANALOG STRING ENSEMBLE
MU-TRON BI-PHASE w/ CR-100 CONTROL PEDAL
MU-TRON PEDAL FLANGER (x2)
MXR DISTORTION+ PEDAL
PEAVEY LM-8 8 CHANNEL RACK LINE MIXER (x2)
PEAVEY PME-8 PARAMETRIC EQ
ROLAND DEP-5 MULTI-FX
ROLAND M-120 12 CHANNEL RACK LINE MIXER
ROLAND SRE-555 TAPE DELAY (x2)
ROLAND SVC-350 VOCODER
STAGE DE-1 ANALOG ECHO
TEAC DAP-20 PORTABLE DAT
UNIVOX PHASER PEDAL
U.S. ARMY M44A/U DYNAMIC MICROPHONE
VOX WAH PEDAL
Samplers:
AKAI S612
CASIO FZ-20M
CMI FAIRLIGHT IIX
EMU EMULATOR II
EMU EMAX SE RACK
ENSONIQ EPS-16+
ENSONIQ MIRAGE w/ SOUND PROCESS OS
KORG DSS-1
YAMAHA TX-16W w/ TYPHOON OS
Synths:
ARP AVATAR
ARP ODYSSEY
CASIO VZ-10M
CRUMAR PERFORMER
CRUMAR ORCHESTRATOR
KORG MS-20
KORG MAXI-KORG
KORG MONOPOLY
MOOG MG-1
MOOG MINIMOOG
MOOG ROGUE
MULTIVOX FIRSTMAN SYNTH W/SEQ
OBERHEIM MATRIX 6R
OBERHEIM OB-1
OBERHEIM XPANDER
OCTAVE ELECTRONICS CAT
PAIA THERAMAX
ROLAND JUPITER 6
ROLAND MKS-30 w/ PG-200 PROGRAMMER (x2)
ROLAND RS-09
ROLAND RS-101
ROLAND SH-101
YAMAHA B-200
YAMAHA CS-01
YAMAHA CS-70M w/ KENTON MIDI KIT
VNA - So you already received your EMAX SE rack that you recently purchased?
Ed - Yes, I did. It's an older 12 bit sampler with analog processing on
it. It doesn't sound like a new sampler. We're into a lot of old gear.
Shawn - The old stuff offers so much more flexibility. Sometimes it becomes
kind of flaky to use. It will go out of tune and things will go bizerk and
you won't know why. It offers more creativity. You could buy a new drum
kit with 700 sounds, or you could buy a Simmons Kit for $50.00 that has
five sounds with rows of knobs on each end. You could get more sounds than
700, and they'd be original sounds.
Ed - Plus there's a lot of instant gratification with the older equipment.
The inner face is right in front of you, there's no menus or screens to
page through. You just grab a knob and go.
Thanks Ed and Shawn for taking the time to
do the interview!
Send mail to:evargo@mail.microserve.net
THD
c/o Shawn Rudiman & Ed Vargo
234 South Nice
Frackville, PA 17931