Published by Anita Neukirch on June 11, 2016
“You were asleep, dreaming. Eyes closed, pulsing with inverted activity, ears gaping, vulnerable as always. You suddenly spasm up from the darkness – your eyes open, focusing on the fluorescent digits of the wake-up machine. Something has changed, a chain of sounds, muffled, wordless, from deep down in the throat chamber.”
From this introduction arises the identity of TRESPASSER. FLUX Webzine is proud to present this special project with its new album on the way.
Trespasser
Is your music basically about the thrill trespassing a limit? Please give a short idea of what you were thinking when you chose your pseudonym.
So! The idea of shooting a high-adrenaline first-person movie glimpses back and forth in my mind from time to time. But the name also came together with the long incubation of this selftitled album, which has gone through so many transitions in both my private and creative life. I am also realizing that such a name fits pretty well with the guilt-based-only perspective given to most of us humans at the moment, from that miserable lullaby of Adam and Eve to that other miserable, mundane compromise of being forced to use bloody energy sources, just to mention a couple of examples.
Berlin is famous for its various electronic scenes. Although the scenes are constantly changing, do you see yourself as part of one of these scenes? Please give us a peek into which scene you feel part of.
I am not sure I am part of any definite scene: Berlin is so mind-blowingly rich in so many different but high-quality scenes that I enjoy being a part of: Fleisch, Endorcism, Death # Disco, Contort, TIQ, Sabbat, Praxis, Atonal, Herzschlag, the crazy Unreal+Noisekölln+Sameheads parties at Raum (sigh)..I could go on and on. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt, more than once, that I’m witnessing something cool in person rather than wishing I was there xx years ago while consuming ripped VHS documentaries.
TRESPASSER is also about collaborations with other musicians inter alia August Skipper (ASCETIC:) and Roma Fonschechtel (Knigi). What was this collaboration like?
It is mainly for live-shows purposes, at the moment: I bring my home studio material in the rehearsal room and I let the guys go with the flow – it is special to have found such amazing, like-minded mates that can easily tune in with each track, without requiring too many directions.
On June 1st, your new album will be out. Its vibe is pretty dark, strongly bass natured and is built up on a monolithic synth line. What are your most memorable sounds you felt looking back on producing it?
Coming up with the whole Mercs intro was personally a mind-blowing, rare moment where I felt I achieved exactly what I had pictured in my mind. But in general I had a feeling of excitement during the whole discovery of the sounds of the album. It’s kinda miraculous that I still do not totally hate the tunes yet.
The intro track Halos is like a dazed drive through an insane wasteland by having fatamorganas. Haha. Kinda oriental. Can we imagine being guided by a futuristic dark Prince of Persia equipped with guns?
You just mentioned one of my favorite videogames (the first one, the good ol’ 2D glory), gonna take your word to ignite thoughts about some cyberpunk remake. In reality the main reference at this point was Broken English Club while I was testing out some pads on a broken Waldorf Blofeld.
Trespasser
In the song Mercs listeners get introduced to some heavy weapons. There is this nice transition while the shots from the beginning pass over to an electronic rhythm pattern used throughout this song. As stated in your profile, you are a sonic architect. Could you tell us what has inspired you to experiment with the sound of weapons?
Everything began with this really dry, industrial, martial kick & snare pattern I came up with after a friend made me listen to something from the latest Portishead. Then the picture of this huge, heavy machinegun mounted on some Mech from a not so far off in time warzone began to crystalize in my mind. I began to research videogame weaponry samples, downloaded a ton and superimposed a good bunch of them. The coup de grace was adding tribal ritual samples from Samsara.
Striders is a kind of fusion of a human being and a machine. It was the first metaphor that entered my mind. Vocals fused with droning guitars and synth reverb. It is melodically produced and therefore very catchy. What do you think of transhumanism by the way? How do you see the future?
I should google about transhumanism at this point, but maybe Boston Dynamics, Ava and Black Mirror are better answers.
Apart from the 80s-based-sound, your album is peppered with some goth tinges as well. The singing style in Downgrade is somewhat Manson-like. Are you ever inspired by the way he sings?
Do you mean Charles or Marilyn? They are both down there, partying hard with a lot of other shady personalities, in any case.
Hehe. No, I thought of Marilyn Manson.
I like his/ their things up to Mechanical Animals. Actually, this has been in my mixing reference track-list. Not a fan of the now-mainstream character, exploits and choices. Pretty sure he is a cool bar-surfing hang out in real life tho.
Let’s have a closer look at your lyrics. They are blurry and similar to growls – tedious and thrilling in a way. Please explain more about them and about your vocal style.
There are no ‘processable’ lyrics. It is what I call futurist or expressionist English, a language made of sounds similar to English but coming from another dimension. Maybe you can hear some proper words here and there, but it is part of a weird emotional collage. The reasons I adopted this are multiple:
Main one: 90% of the music I used to and currently listen to is in English, and 90% of such music I have never understood and/or cared much about the lyrics – still I got mind-blown and drifted away. So, why bother?
I am not native English, and the tons of other non-native English musicians I have been surrounded with when living in that small province called Italy, trying so hard to spell things properly with such terrible results, just made me give up.
Having to focus on spelling lyrics properly would kill my on-stage-release. Philosophers, concepts and studies that I stumbled on somehow reinforced this choice.
It worked amazingly but when I had my first show in UK, I was so nervous. “Oh my gosh, everyone will spot the fake English, it will start up a riot!” But instead – I never had such a long queue of astonished people come shake hands while I was dismantling gear after a show: experiment successful, thanks Manchester, hope to see you soon again!
Even now that I am pretty confident with the language, I still do not give much of a shit about lyrics, and just enjoy myself 100%. I am also pretty confident that the will come times I will be able to pay greater attention to this other planet, and I will be mind-blown and drift away.
As taken from your profile, your music deals with the tear-down of the banking system and hacktivism. Sorry, banking policy is not my hobbyhorse. Haha. But when it comes to hacktivism as a means of protest and a hacker does it in the interest of the public, it shall be done to teach banksters a lesson. Please explain what you think about this topic? What do you mean by saying « hacked synths » and rewired brains?
Trespasser
The monetary reform activism is big part of my life and purpose, even if I always promise myself to dedicate greater efforts. My hacktivism is more about giving people knowledge about how banks really (dys)function. The most effective and the most powerful reverse is the engineering hijack. We can then altogether dismantle the bankers’ oligarchy: using alternative (not complementary!) currencies would put back in our hands a big part of our own individual value; a basic, decent guaranteed life to everyone. It would help to achieve the real communal needs and better face the upcoming environmental challenges and disasters.
In the big picture the World would gain only benefits and a glimpse of hope, more than we could even imagine. This would be such a rewiring! – Everyone, go get your basics about ‘Positive Money’ or on PRIMIT if you are in the “unenglishized” Italians category.
Perhaps you know, perhaps you do not know. « To play games with someone » is colloquial called in America for « pulling someone’s chain». What was the funniest moment you like to remember back when someone perhaps friends pulled your chain, Yuro Chain?
#lol (russian accent)
You recently came back after playing in various clubs. Are you thinking of starting a tour when your new album is released?
Definitely! Zürich and Paris were such amazing experiences, so full of so much abundance and lovely people! We are in the booking process, do not be shy and drop us an email or a line on any of Trespasser socials (links on www.trespasser.co) if you are interested in having us in your town.