Grendel

Tell us more about Grendel itself, the members and what you do besides music.
- "Grendel produces harsh-EBM (or Industrial, for you American readers out there) since '97 and has been signed to NoiTekk since 2000, after the release of a demo and a promo. The current line up consists of VLRK (myself) and 4N1T4. Besides music 4N1T4 is working fulltime as a secretary and I am currently rounding off my audio engineering studies."

The name Grendel is taken from an old mythological tale, how did you come up with the name and is it in some way characteristic with the music you make?
- "I felt it represented the essence of my music and lyrics very well, releasing strong and repressed emotions that lie within a lot of us like such an entity, if you will. Also the ambiguity of the mythological beast is relevant. In the story it is portrayed as both hunter and the hunted. It has its set of values and so do the humans, yet only the ones with steel win the strife. Quite relevant to our world, especially in this day and age."

You use a quit large number of samples in your songs, were do you find the inspiration and what are your favourite source to find samples?
- "My favourite sample sources for Grendel are TV and movies (preferably DVD), although I have sampled from some other sources such as radio & on location. When watching TV or a movie I will spot a sample quite quickly. You just start hearing them after a while."

Since you use many movie samples, what movies can you recommend, which movies are your personal favourites?
- "Tough question. Actually, the movies I like the most probably contain the least amount of samples. I'd say some of my favourites would be Eraserhead, Deathwatch, Don't Look Now, Full Metal Jacket, Seventh Seal, Welcome to Sarajevo, Brazil, Apocalypse Now, Salo and many more. Yes, I'm a movie-buff!"

What is the background to your lyrics and what do you want present with them?
- "My lyrics basically reflect something that dwells in my mind, eating away at my emotions. Could be an opinion, fear, passion, memory or whatever. Other times in can be about someone I care about or something I have seen. The influences are quite diverse."

Your first album 'Inhumane Amusement' is a little bit noisier and trashier, the EP 'End of Ages' seemed to be a not quite as trashy as before. With your new album I find it to be a mix between these two records. What are your personal opinions about this?
- "Yes, I would totally agree with you on that. The 'Prescription:Medicide' album also goes beyond the previous two releases, naturally, showing a matured and an insight into what is to come from Grendel. I am currently working on the new EP, which will again be a big step forward."

Tell us more about your latest album 'Prescription:Medicide'.
- 'The "Prescription:Medicide' album is a criticism towards the new world we live in with it's hypocrisy and underlying madness. This is, of course, quite a broad area to work in and many elements are covered on the album, amongst others: Power struggles, finance and religion heavily mingling with politics, the continuing spread of propaganda and disinformation, and the "war" waged on "terrorism" by governments who have only very recently supported/appointed fascist regimes and performed actual state terrorism. We are definitely heading for a very strange world, if we are not there already. The album's title is a reference to a term created by Doctor Kevorkian in his active period of life. It was to be a very humane & cooperative method of euthanasia for the terminally ill, both physically and mentally. What must be clearly understood about this method is that it was a prescription, thus being of free will for the patient (as soon as this is not the case, it becomes quite something different). Within this practice everything was performed with full cooperation of his patients, so it remains a prescription. One of the points I've tried to get at on this album is misunderstandings and prejudices towards this treatment. There is a strong divide between euthanasia and genocide related issues, which a lot of people fail to notice. And with saying this I must strongly state that we are very much against any form of non-cooperative death, such as genocide or executions."

You guys have played with bands like Suicide Commando, Feindflug, XPQ-21, God Module and some of these bands have requested remix jobs for them, do you have any further collaboration with some of these bands?
- "I am in good contact with most of the bands you mentioned and there will undoubtedly be more collaborations in the near future with them. Musically they are all doing something characteristic and recognisable, so the results of such collaborations are often very interesting."

Describe Grendel as a live act.
- "Ripping it up with high level energy, aggression and interaction! During live performances we always try to expand the tracks, giving that bit more on stage."

What are your tour plans? Just festivals or club gigs as well?
- "In October we will be doing a US east-coast tour and we are planning for a full European tour next year. Besides that we also have the US west-coast and possibly Canada in mind, plus some other interesting performances."

Do you guys know of any bands you would like to highlight and you think deserves more attention?
- "Absolutely. Just to name a few: Proceed (Germany), Skoyz (France), Contrast (Holland), NG-Pro (Holland), Derma-Tek (United States), Xlivid (Holland), Terrorfakt (United States), Punto Omega (Argentina), Kutna Hora (Argentina) and the list goes on. There are a lot of talented people out there who definately deserve a place in the spotlight. Other bands, yet who are well on their way but (in my opinion) still deserve more attention are Spetsnaz (Sweden), Haus Arafna/November Növelet (Germany - Haus Arafna's latest album "Butterfly" is stunning!), Schattenschlag (Germany), C-Drone Defect (Germany) and X-Fusion (Germany)."

What is Grendel up for in the near future?
- "At the moment I'm busy working on the new EP, entitled 'Soilbleed', which is planned for release in December/January. Besides that, planning is being done for the upcoming European tour and there will be some interesting remix collaborations happening in the near future. Check our website at http://www.grendel-base.com for the latest news!"

Any last words to our readers?
- "Stay harsh, stay steadfast and never surrender!"

This interview was made 2004 and initially published on Neurozine.com