Dead When I Found Her

Holloway:  Skinny Puppy has been a major influence on all of my work, and I think every album I’ve released so far shows that mark. Puppy is my all time favorite band, and the band that inspired me to want to make music of my own. Eyes On Backwards is a bit more aggressive than previous releases, with a more distorted approach to the vocals, so perhaps that makes it feel even more ‘puppy-like’ than usual. Regardless, I have no shame in the revealing the influence: the entire purpose of DWIFH from day one was to bring back a style of music that I felt had disappeared – the dark, horror-themed industrial music of the mid to late 80’s and early 90’s. That goal has never really changed, though with each album I try to explore different sides and voices of that genre.
Holloway:  Yes, the intent was absolutely to start the album off with full-throttle intensity. Things quiet down later on, but the originally my plan was to only write short, aggressive, loud songs for this  album. But my melodic instincts eventually got the best of me and after three or four very heavy songs, I started writing slower, more atmospheric pieces again. So the album feels like a mix of both, overall.


Holloway:  Each album has a different focus, so I’m not sure how to assess maturation, that might be more for the audience to decide. What’s important to me, as an artist, is to follow the energy of my inspiration wherever it takes me; for All The Way Down, it led me to a very dark, very specific place, with a focus on slower, longer pieces. For Eyes on Backwards, I wanted to speed things up and make things more immediate and aggressive. I’m sure for the next release, it will be another angle on industrial, we’ll see. What’s important to me is that I’m always working from a place of very visceral excitement about the music, that I’m feeling inexorably driven to write more and more—meaning that if it ever felt like I was just painting by numbers and doing things just to have them done, I would stop and find something else to do. Fortunately, industrial music has proven so far to be a life-long love for me.
Holloway:  Well, a bit like with the last question, I don’t really try to rank my work in any way. On a technical level, like most electronic musicians I’m always trying to learn new production techniques, employ crazy new effects chains, learn new (musical) modes to play with, and so on: there needs to always be something fresh and new in the work. I always want to feel like I’m learning something new when I approach a new project, so usually that’s going to be something very technical, or music theory related. That doesn’t mean newer records will be better, per se, but just coming from new and different places, different motivations.

Holloway:  Tough question! Ironically, 'High Anxiety' is probably my favorite—I say ironically, because the original intent of the album was to be brutal and abrasive, and 'High Anxiety' is by far the least aggro-style song on the whole album. But musically and rhythmically, it just clicked into all the right places for me, and I’m very proud of it.
Holloway:  As a live act, DWIFH isn’t really a standard touring band—we’ve never been on tour, and I’m not sure it will ever happen quite that way. We like to play locally and to do one-off festival shows—festivals are always a blast to play, and don’t have all the baggage of a full tour on the road. Currently, however, there are no gigs planned. We had a busy year already playing Terminus, Infest and Cold Waves throughout the summer.
Holloway:  I’ve actually sworn off remixes, for good. There just isn’t enough time for them! If I was doing DWIFH full-time, I’m sure I could do tons of great remixes and covers. But as someone who works a full-time job, I need my music time to be fully focused on original content. I will do some more cover songs, but remixes are out unless someone presents an offer I can’t refuse.
Holloway:  Lately I’ve been revisiting all my old Project Pitchfork records. They are one of my all time favorite industrial bands, and I think their (very profound for the genre) melodic sensibility has influenced my approach to songwriting greatly. So stuff like 'IO' and 'Daimonion' and 'Eon:Eon' have been getting a lot of play lately, I love everything from that era of the band. As far as newer stuff, I really love the SOLVE album by Brant from ∆AIMON, it’s a great record with some brilliant percussive work and a crazy level of intensity going on.
Holloway:  Thanks for the support!