We would like to introduce you to [DIGI]Core from York who, for the past few years, have made creating complex and addictive beats built to fuel a new generation of rivetheads, look very easy. We also discuss how the North of England is way better than the South.
S] How much are you influenced by your home City of York in terms of your inspiration to start the band? If so in what ways were you influenced?
Psy: There’s no-one else doing anything like this in York so I guess you could say that has always inspired us.
S] What does Industrial music mean to the band – Its orgins, how it makes the band feel?
Psy: Industrial is a very broad term. There’s a lot of absolute crap that gets labelled Industrial just because it has a synth in it. Write a shitty dance tune and dress in black and you’re suddenly an industrial band and all the Goths will dance to it. To me Industrial should be evil and bleak. It’s the black metal of electronic music! I don’t really consider us an industrial band – it started off just being a convenient label to give people an idea of what to expect from us. Back then we were going for a darker image but now we’ve turned away from that a bit so I’m not sure what genre we fit. I guess we could maybe be Industrial Rock but I’d say we’re heading more towards Digital Hardcore.
S] Your live shows are pretty intense, how important is the visual element?
Psy: Since the beginning we’ve had a strong visual element. There are so many bands who just wander on to the stage and play their set in jeans and t-shirts while mumbling at the floor and we didn’t want to do that. We try to bring an element of theatre to our shows – we’ve got war paint, costumes and a monster light show to help achieve this and it all combines to create the [DIGI]Core experience. I don’t think we could play without all that stuff – it just wouldn’t be us.
Cell (drums): We concentrate on having a massive sound with loads of stuff happening at once – the visual element breaks down the barrier between us and the audience, by creating an atmosphere around all of us. Of lights and sound but also that draws attention to what we feel is the more important part within one of our songs, whether that be a particular rhythm or particular instrument.
S] You are an accomplished band considering you have only been together a few years. You won Fibbers battle of the bands in 06’…did you receive any label attention and if so why did you reject it?
Psy: Winning the Fibbers BOTB was a great achievement. We not only beat hoards of indie bands who all sounded like whatever rubbish was charting at the time but we basically came out of nowhere to do so. The warm up gig for the competition was the first time we’d played together – That caused some temper tantrums… We’ve not had much label attention but nowadays that isn’t as important. It’s easy enough to do your own releases. We’ve got our first album available for free download on the website and we’re currently recording the next one which we will be releasing some time later this year.
Cell: We’ve had various nibbles of interest from the ‘industry’ however up to now we’ve wanted to just do our own releases and our own thing – we hope with the next album to take the next step and get some distribution companies on our side however.
S] The first album you made was self released, thematically it focused a lot on personal issues…is there anything in today’s government or political system in the UK that fuels the bands venomous lyrics?
Cell: Not so much government as such, however it’s definitely fuelled by our opinions and views on the world we live in currently
Psy: The current material still tackles personal issues but we’re also taking on society in general. The new album will be titled ‘Self Armageddon’ and it’s about destroying yourself – not just on a personal level but also as it applies to the whole human race. The people in charge are leading us towards destruction while following their own agenda and this is a terrifying thought.
S] How important is creating an image within a song to the band, you are known for creating songs with a concept behind them, so can you give us an example of one song and describe the meaning behind it?
Psy: ‘Something Wonderful’ is a song about being desensitised by the amount of terrible things that are just a mouse-click away. There are so many things I have seen that I can’t unsee, and the internet is a bottomless sewer that waits in anticipation for the time when it can belch another nugget of horror at me to suckle on. It’s also about people whose whole life revolves around the internet and the strange social interactions that take place when people with no real social skills are brought into contact with each other.
S] Do you believe that the Northern Goth/Industrial scene is better than the South? In what ways is it?
Cell: Definitely different; we love playing down South as there’s something about playing away from home. However we get such a warm reception from Northerners who seem to just click with the music. Saying that, as a scene in general, there is a lot of bitterness and resentment against followers of different genres of music up North which doesn’t seem to be present down South if I’m honest. That makes me a very sad panda.
Psy: Let’s face it – the North is better than the South in all respects, rendering this question obsolete. On a more serious note, there don’t seem to be loads of bands around doing this kind of thing in the North. Maybe we just don’t look hard enough…
S] The musical recipe to [DIGI]core – Which four bands, if you put them into a cake would make the mix?
Cell: NIN meets Rammstein meets KMFDM meets Chimaira.
Psy: Pitchshifter, Alec Empire and Stabbing Westward.
S] What do you think your music inspires in the minds of your audience, what kind of emotions for example?
Psy: People have told me after seeing one of our shows that they feared for their lives… I can’t decide whether that’s good or bad.
Cell: Happiness, fear, hatred, sadness, – I’d like to think throughout our songs we inspire really powerful emotions, however what someone may perceive as anger another may perceive as joy – and that’s fine by us as long as it inspires something.
S] Describe in 3 words a [DIGI]core live event, for people reading from all over the North. Why should they come to a Core show?
Cell: Loud, powerful, fun
Psy: ‘Total fucking carnage’. or maybe ‘Louder than Satan’. In fact I think, I might just stick with ‘Digi Fucking Core’.
S] How will you aim to develop the [DIGI]core sound in the future, any exclusive hints that you can give SPHERE as to the direction that new material is taking?
Psy: The newer stuff is faster and louder than anything we’ve been doing before. We’re also using more breakbeats and experimenting with glitches and other audio fuckery. It’s going to blow your mind.
Cell:The new stuff….it’s more tonal, more powerful, more expressive – bigger highs but by contrast massive bone crunching lows
[DIGI]Core are currently planning a host of live shows to coincide with the release of ‘Self Armageddon’ before the end of the year.
*All pics by DarknightZ Productions.
