Bill Leeb - Frontline Assembly

Santa Ana - November 2,1998

*First off, how is the tour going? You're basically still at the beginning, yes?
BL-Well, we're only doing two weeks. We've done Seattle, San Francisco, and LA. We haven't had like a video release or anything, so I'm still surprised at how many people come out. I don't think our profile is that big…

*Is there a reason why you kept this just a "mini" tour?
BL- We just wanted to go out and try it for a few weeks. I have a new partner, Chris Peterson, and I was just curious to see whether it was still worth it for Frontline to go out and do something. It 's like a little test.

*Could you briefly describe how Chris came to be the new member of FLA?
BL- Actually, Chris already came along on the Tactical Neural Implant tour as a percussionist. He's always been involved in mixing and other things. He actually helped mix the first Noise Unit album and a couple Delirium albums, so he was always kind of around. He was working with Download, and other things. He just sort of happened to be there, so when Rhys decided to become a rock producer, Chris was there and just stepped right in.

*Would you say that your approach to the music writing has changed any since you've been working with Chris? At least for the last album, would you say that you've changed your approach?
BL-Well, I guess anytime you change with somebody, things are going to sound a little different. I think for me though, with Hard Wired and Millennium, we felt we had come as far as we could with the industrial/metal, all the experimental things. I think that with "FLAvour" and with "Re-Wind", I was trying to do something, not necessarily dance-oriented, but just more "electronic", almost a low-fi kind of record. I was just trying something different. I knew that you might lose some people, maybe not, but it's definitely more electronic.

*Would you say that it's a progression which you're going to try and steer FLA more towards in the future?
BL- I never know. You never know every time you get into the studio what's going to happen… We'll just take it day by day.

*Whom do you consider your music influences?
BL-I think all the early stuff- Fat Gadget, Killing Joke, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Liaisons. Now there's the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers. I don't think they so much influence me, but I like what they are doing too.

*Are there any particular bands that you are listening to at the moment?
BL- I really still like Dead Can Dance a lot, and for me, I think that the Future Sound of London is like my favorite band. I like what they do. It sounds a lot like Delirium meets Frontline, in between there.

*Would all the new bands popping up, would you that you say that it's becoming more difficult to stay innovative, or would you say that electronic music is only becoming more expansive?
BL- I don't think you can really predict, but it's like the way that rock and roll, r & b, country, all these categories of music have come up through the ranks and survived. I think that industrial, or electronic music, is going to always have a part in the scene. As to how large it will be, it's really anybody's guess. Occasionally a band will come along and become large, but I think this scene will always be here. You go into a store and you have country, rock, pop. You're always going to have electronic, because, it's mostly dance music, and dance music is always going to be here. And as far as technology goes, you just never know what's around the corner. When MIDI came in, when the sampler came in, it revolutionized electronic music, and I'm sure there will be new things. So, I think that it will always be there and have a category, and it will just be for people to decide that they want to be in that scene. I think it's here to stay forever. It just depends on what you want out of it. If there's a band there that you like, great. If not, there's a million other kinds of musical things you can listen to.

*Would you say that you more or less still believe in the term "industrial", in light of all the crossover and blending going on between what used to be considered "techno", and the fusing of the electronic genre?
BL- I think that even in the beginning, there was a lot of electronic parts to [industrial]. It's like this- You've got intelligent techno, ambient, drum & bass, jungle…I think it all comes from the same thing. It's all electronic. Every month they come up with a new label, just so they can keep selling it. At the end of the day, it's all still electronics.

*With the departure of Rhys Fulber, there's been a lot of rumors and discussion. I'm curious to know which of the FLA side projects you plan to continue in the future-
BL- Well, obviously Delirium, which is the best selling thing Rhys and I have ever done. "Karma" is still in Billboard now, and gets played on modern rock, so I'm definitely going to continue that one. With the other ones, we'll see, but I only have time for those two anyway.

*That sort of answered my next question, which was: Are there any new projects on the horizon?
BL- We did a thing called Equinox, which I quite like, and is getting good reviews. We also did a thing called Pro-Tech, so that's it for now.

*Frontline Assembly has pretty much withstood the test of time, and become one of the forefathers of the electro-industrial scene. Is there anything that you would still like to accomplish with FLA? Anything that you feel you haven't done yet?
BL- Well, I think there's a lot of things that I really have achieved, that I set out to. I just think it would be nice to have a "real" industrial band or electronic band, that came from way back there, to actually get a top ten hit. I don't want the money, I would just like to see that happen. I don't really think that Trent or Marilyn Manson really came from that school, so… Yeah, a top ten hit. You might as well shoot for something really high, right? [laughs]

*What would you most like your listeners to take from your music?
BL- I think that Frontline Assembly has always been about being independent, looking at everything from two sides, and not always believing everything you hear at face value. And the people that listen to Frontline, I would hope that they feel like there is an alternative to a lot of the things the media and the record corporations throw at you, and to people just telling you what to listen to. Frontline Assembly is about just thinking for yourself and buying what you like. I hope that the individualism will make people feel like "Yeah, I don't have to listen to the Backstreet Boys", and that there are still people that are doing it just for the sake of doing it, rather than being pop stars, or making large amounts of money.

*Is there a particular reason why the FLA side projects are distributed on so many different labels?
BL- At first, I never wanted to sign with just one guy. Even for me, I would work with one guy, and then work with another. I don't necessarily think that was the best thing to do, but that's what I did. I never wanted to be signed with anybody for a long term contract, because if I couldn't get out of it…so that's probably why. Fear of commitment.

*One final question. What's your favorite piece of gear, and why?
BL- My favorite piece of gear is probably the Mini-Moog. It's old, it's analog, it's withstood the test of time, and it's still probably the most widely used bass synth. That's what I started with, with Skinny Puppy. I took out a loan for four hundred bucks and bought my first Mini-Moog, and sat at home. I didn't even know how to tune it. That's where I had come from, to where I am now. It's like your first car, or your first girlfriend. For me, I'll just always have a bit of a sentimental thing to it, and yet I still think it's the best sounding bass synth. Now, a company from Wales is reissuing it. They made a deal, and now the brand new Mini-Moog is coming out, exactly the same as the old one, except that it's MIDI. So there's still a demand for it. Analog gear is cool, but it's still a pain in the ass. You can't MIDI it, you have to sample it… It's great, but MIDI is the thing. A good Mac program makes life very easy-

*What kind of program do you use for your sequencing?
BL- Before we used to use an Atari. But now we have a couple of different ones. We have Cubase. We have the Creator. Those are the main ones we use. Those work fine. Whatever just gets you there, but I find that with the Mac stuff you can do a lot. You can dump so much data onto those things. You can cut things up and mix them around right on screen, like ProTools for example. That's awesome. You can do anything with that. You can cheat with it: cut songs together piece them around, time-stretch them. But then everybody's probably doing that anyway…

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