Interview - Pogrom

Interview - Pogrom

[PURESTENCH: For the readers who may be unacquainted with your material, give us a brief introduction. When was Pogrom created? How many members, just you? Number of releases, and where are you from? ]

pogrom was created some 7+ years ago i think. at first it was more thinking and recording for my own self than releasing stuff. at first i had to agree with myself what i wanted and why and when i was 100% sure about that - first albums appeared. at the moment there are dozens of tapes gathering dust in the shelves with unreleased material, but perhaps it'll stay like that. it is just me. number of releases - two tapes. split with oorchach and a tape on filth&violence. I am from Lithuania. it's in Eastern Europe and people like to kill their selves in here.

[PURESTENCH: Is there much of a Noise/P.E. scene over in Lithuania besides yourself and Clo Goelach/Body Cargo? ]

there exist almost none. oorchach lately was doing more noisier stuff in live performances, there is Vidine Ramybe project, which is becoming a rather decent and interesting project. he started to care more about his sounds. and that's it. there are some noise projects that goes in obscure/art/academic/etc. direction, but that doesn't interest me much so i cannot say anything good or bad about that.

[PURESTENCH: Pasi told me you have a new album coming out, and I then saw it advertised in the mailing list, but he wasn't sure about the format. Can you tell us anything about that (will it be a tape, CD, wax, etc.)? ]

that will be a tape. at first we were talking about cd, but i think tape is better for pogrom at the moment.

[PURESTENCH: What is the name of this new release and is there a concept to it? Did you aim for a new sound? ]

Multicultural degeneration. it's the concept and the possible title. mixture of people, nations and cultures finally resulting in faceless mess. While seeing streams of imigration/emigration that are unbelievable nowadays, I remember USSR where people were forced to move in "great fatherland" from one part of the union to others in order to form a formal "nation of laborers". it's the same nowadays, just nobody is forcing no one. most people are doing the same in their free will. this was the main idea that led me to this album. as for the sound - no, i didn't aim for something new. the album is different though, it has parts of "acoustic noise", but overall - filthy material.

[PURESTENCH: Which came first, the split with Oorchach or Liberal Cunt? 2 albums in one year is actually a pretty meager amount for a Noise/Power Electronics artist. Do you like to take your time with the material or are there problems that force you to only release when possible? ]

split with oorchach came out before liberal cunt. it was planned for a year or more, but finally happened to appear in daylight. as for meager amount? there is no such goal in my list as to flood the "scene" with various sort of releases and so on. I record quite a lot, but the tapes mostly stays at home. I'm slow with releases for I'm waiting for the right and interesting thought to come about the whole conception of the album i'd like to see. i cannot just go and make an album without knowing what I am aiming at. it takes time. sometimes the ideas come during sleepless nights, sometimes I find some thought written on a piece of paper after some massive drinking or something like that. it will be in the future like that too. yet another thing is that I tend to spend a vast amount of time with the recorded material. Listening while every track seems shitty to me and then rerecording or something like that.

when a guy like Pasi writes "hey, let's see what you have" and i send him and mention the problems i see with the record and he write me back "you are hearing something that does not even exist in there", then I agree that perhaps he's right. Listening too much for the same record while you start to hallucinate about  it and see it in absolutely different light than everyone else.

[PURESTENCH:  There is a very specific sound to it that I can't quite define with words, I guess something like "sunken" or "pale" would be good words to use but they still don't get what I mean across. So what type of gear did you use on Liberal Cunt? What is the recording process like? ]
 
I use very minimal stuff. a pedal or two, noise generator, contact microphone and that's it. if i remember correctly, liberal cunt was recorded with various types of metal sheets and pipes (currently i share the rehearsal place with a ska band. they were rather curious at first why i am bringing all kinds of shit into the place. bricks, glass, pipes, rusty wires, parts of autos and so on, but now they're OK with that. i do have a corner for my "instruments" and no one's touching them), several cheap microphones, connected through pedals and a bass guitar. i'm recording into 4-track. at first when i didn't have it, the recording process was very long. i was recording material into tape, then transferring it to the PC and mp3 player, playing this track and recording to a tape as the "second track" and so on. it took time. now i have a 4 track that i often use during live performances and that i record to. usually the recording process has beer and nicotine involved, since the rehearsal place is further from home, when i go there, i am ready to spend there 5-6 hours or the whole day, so during that time i record material and while re-listening to it and resting, I decide what I can use further and what not. I think that's it.

[PURESTENCH: Unfortunately I don't know Lithuanian, I can't read it nor understand it when someone is talking. Why not English? Do you think you will ever write anything in English (I couldn't tell if you were speaking English on the N&K Compilation)? What are the lyrics on Liberal Cunt about and what does the cassette deal with overall? ]

I could ask you back - why English? I am comfortable with Lithuanian language much more than English. and I think it sounds nice even though you cannot understand that. I doubt that I'll ever write anything in English. I can translate lyrics though sometime in the future. in N&K it was Lithuanian too. English language is overused and boring already.
I'd like to see some Serbian power electronics project shouting their exploding sentences. Perhaps the most brutal language overall. Liberal Cunt lyrics are about liberal cunts. about women who are most annoying creatures when they imagine that they are the smartest ones on the planet. One track is about a Lithuanian cunt who is some anarcho freak and thinks she's famous philosopher and thus can piss on you with the endless rain of "equal rights". She was even proposed as a woman of a year some time ago. I doubt she's a woman at all... Another track is about a cunt who was a governor of a part of Lithuania and at the start of recession she "decided" that politicians won't be able to do anything about it and thus they are transferring the power to rule to Jesus Christ. That sounds like a nice tale, but this was real. Other songs are about similar cunts of democracy.

[PURESTENCH: What is the sample on Side B from? Or is it a "field recording"?]

That's a "field recording". Feedbacks were collected while walking and recording with portable dictophone by the sea at night and then joined with gagging. It sort of shows a romantic side of myself I think.

[PURESTENCH: If you could do a collaboration with another active artist who would that be? How about a split?]

It depends. If i see that the person has an interesting vision of what he does, then why not. I couldn't mention you any names though for if we agree on the main points of the split and the overall release and I see that a person is interested not only in quickly shooting the record, then I'm in. there will be one split in some months.

[PURESTENCH: Your influences, both past and present...]

Literature, movies, high temperature, insomnia, politics, philosophy, alcohol, confrontation of my "inner world" vs "outer world"... If you're asking about the musical influence, I cannot say who is that. There are artists that I like and that I dislike though I doubt they are influential. People reviewing tapes mentioned names like Bizarre Uproar, Slogun and something like that. Perhaps that would be then? But I don't know. The sound might be similar sometimes, but I doubt they're directly influential.

[PURESTENCH: Why did you begin your web-zine Terror? Do you listen to and critique anything and everything that is sent to you/that you buy or do you choose just what you like? I personally do the latter, I see no reason in talking about music I don't enjoy or interviewing artists/units I could care less about. ]

At the time I've started it, either there were little of these or I didn't know about them so I thought why not. I have records and why not spread the thoughts about them. Also there are interesting artists that would be nice to interview. As for reviews, at first I was reviewing only my own stuff, but now I have a rather big queue of "promos" that were sent to me. So I'm dealing with them for the people are waiting feedback. Though I insert one or two reviews of the release that I really like and that are not from the stuff, sent to me. I don't ever interview artists that I don't know or don't care, but as for reviews, I think sometimes when you force yourself to listening to material that you would perhaps otherwise forget about, it is good, you get to know more and so on. Though of course I could reviews the same Brethren or Grunt album every week and enjoy it.

[PURESTENCH: Will there be another print zine and will it, like the first issue, contain material already on the website?]

yes, there will be. I hope soon, but I'm still waiting for answers to interview questions. It will contain the reviews from the website and not published interviews.

[PURESTENCH: What do you think the current state of the P.E. and Noise scenes are like? Can Power Electronics and Noise grow or will it be forever stuck in the same arena due to the limited amount of sounds one can achieve within these genres?]

 
I quite like the current state of the scene. Though I think there are too many artists that simply does not care or does not know why they do this or that. I think at first one must answer the question to oneself - why do I record that and why do I want to release it. Would I listen to such release if it would be from a band X? It would go the same for the labels. But overall it's good. You mean like grow to become a worldwide trend? I doubt so. Well, noise serving as a soundtrack for fashion shows or something like that is already possible, but that must be just "weird funny sound" and nothing more. When PE and noise deals with "overall unacceptable themes", they cannot grow further than it is now I think. Of course if you add enough art value to that and prove that your intentions were truly artistic, some strange people with glasses of wine and various colorful robes can give you a chance.

[PURESTENCH: Thanks for the interview, if you have anything you would like to add you know the drill...]

Thank you for interest. It was an interesting time to answer these. Good luck with your blog!