It has been an incredible Three Years for Canadian Harsh EBM Project Detroit Diesel.Rising from obscurity into the most talked about band of 2010, losing (and gaining) a member along the way, and undergoing an entire makeover.Let's touch base with Jocelyn (Aka deadbilly) from the project, and find out all about Detroit Diesel!

Thank you for taking the time to conduct this Interview. How are things on a personal and musical level?
- "Really good, I'm working on the new album and everything is going really nicely."

Back in 2006, you put out a four track EP entitled 'Dancing With Terror'. This was a very different sound, and aesthetically, it was more similar to A7IE, Grendel, etc than anything you do nowadays. The project back then was you, and a gentleman called Vile. What happened to him?
- "Thierry A.k.a Vile quit the band just after the release of the demo. He was the singer and when he left the band, leaving me alone, I took his place as singer and chose another direction for the band."

'Dancing With Terror' received a good review from Side-Line, citing it as "full of promise", and an absolutely terrible review from Regen (Another e-zine), claiming it was nothing short of generic. I understand this has annoyed you ever since, and with the new fame and success you have elevated to, do you have a message to Regen?
- "Yeah fuck off Regen...no, I'm kidding. I really don't care about reviews, good or bad. Reviewers in this scene are not professional. Reviewers usually don't really know how to do reviews. Example: for Terre Humaine some reviews say we are a new breath in this scene and others say we are just a copycat band without any interest. So I don't pay any attention to reviews anymore."

Going back to your earlier history - "Vile" left the band for reasons discussed, and you have since recruited a much better-looking member. Tell us all about her - I've heard many compliments about her image and voice on 'Terre Humaine'. Well done!
- "Laurence AKA Greta Grey joined the band to write lyrics first off, but when Clutch left the band a few days after we got the record deal and one week before the biggest festival in North America, I chose to take Greta as a full member for the live act and for the visual!"

"When Darkness Falls" is the only track from your debut ep that has been re-issued (On Endzeit Bunker tracks IV). Fans are still unable to hear the excellent "Dancing with Terror", "Infected" and "In My Cage". Additionally, you also have the exclusive "Deadly Sins" out on a Russian comp, and the more common but still lesser known "In The City" (as a b-side to the "Lost Signal" EP.). Do you think these tracks may be resurrected later, or are they resigned to Wartime History?
- "No. Except for "In The City" which is still available Digitally on the 'Lost Signals EP', the other tracks don't represent our sound anymore and I don't see any reason to put them on the market again."

Let's talk about 'Terre Humaine' for a while. I understand this marked the birth of your "War-time" aesthetic, as the album was originally a 10 track demo (released in 2009). The demo was identical to the re-mastered version that we all know and love, with the exception of a very fitting "Intro" track, and an earlier version of "Fields of the Dead" (Previously entitled "To Revive the Raveolution".) - The name change is obvious, when your aesthetic and concepts are considered, but what made you decide to omit the Intro track? I feel it would slot in nicely just before "Normandy".
- "That was the label idea, they thought the Intro was useless and personally I always skip the Intro when I listen to an album so we chose to drop the intro."

You seem to have a lot of focus on "Epic" sounding Intros, with "Lost Signal" being a stand out track, and "All Lost Before Dawn" yielding one of the finest intros to any Electronic track I can recall hearing. The music here certainly was designed to give the feel of war-time - if "All Lost before Dawn" and "Fields of the Dead" don't quite get the concept across in title, the tracks themselves really do sound like they do the job. Exactly how difficult was it to make such intricate and "advanced" sounds for the genre?
- "Oh, I thought it was obvious that "All Lost before Dawn" and "Fields of the Dead" are about war but in fact our songs seem to always be about war, so this is just an excuse to talk about other subjects, without breaking the homogeneity of the album. About the intro, this is really important to show the mood for a song right at the beginning. In our society people don't have time (or simply don't take it) to sit down for an hour and listen to an entire album to get in the mood, so we try to put an intricate sound at the beginning so the listener doesn't skip the song."

Talking about you, I believe you were involved in other projects before Detroit Diesel. What's your background?
- "I was the first bassist in the old school punk band called The Aversions which is a great band that still exists today. Also just before The Aversions, I was in a New wave band called Love in fall. We released an album and the band split just after. I started my own electronic band under the name of Manhattan Love Suicides based on the Richard Kern "short movie". This was a kind of trance future pop band with distortion vocal. I released one demo. Some year after, looking for a singer, I found the first Detroit Diesel singer and I chose to change the name and make more aggressive music. 2006 was the debut of Detroit Diesel."

The album has what you consider to be almost a "Joke" track, in the form of "Not Yet". Despite this, it has mass popularity, and really doesn't stand out too much. Tell us about the conception of this song!
- "This song was made with samples from a porn movie, to rip-off old dance music from the 90's and this was not originally for Detroit Diesel. After the song was finished, we found this song not so bad at all, so we chose to put it on the album. That was a good move because some people like it a lot, but for me, I still find this song really funny."

I have a joke question to ask you, while we are on the subject. This is from Al, in the United States: "Do you have any relation to Vin Diesel?"
- "Yes, but it's only sexual."

Back to seriousness now, I could talk all day about the future and how promising you are, but I'm not here to swell heads. You already know how happy everyone is with you and your recent releases. What do you have in store for the future? I'd personally like to see live shows across Europe, as well as many new albums. Tell us as much as you can!
- "We are working on a new album right now, also we will play in Mexico and in Texas this summer. We are waiting to gain more exposure and release the next album before going to Europe."

Finally, thank you for a wonderful interview. I personally feel the questions asked to you will delight all fans of Detroit Diesel. An interview wouldn't be an interview without a personal insight from the artist, so, deadbilly, it is over to you to sign this off.
- "Never go ass to mouth!"

Interview conducted by Nick Quarm for Brutal Resonance in March 2011. Thanks to Detroit Diesel, Infacted Recordings, and Deathwatch Asia.