Interview HYBRYDS & ORKUS, Robert Baumans. 1998

1) What does the names Magthea and Yasnaïa mean, and where do they come from ?
M: Magthea comes from Magisch Theater, The Steppenwolf - Hesse, a place where everything is possible.
Y : Yasnaïa was written on the windows of a design shop, I liked the sound of it, but even the people of the shop did not know what it mend. Later I found out it is the female gender of bright, clear in Russian language. Choosing your own name is a ritual, magical act , by giving something a name , it exist, you can learn about it and control it. In our daily lives,we are known under our birth names, we only use the names connected to our music.

2) Yasnaïa, I have heard you call yourselve a priest, which religion or philosophy you follow ?

Y : I have never called me a priest, nor it is mentioned in the press...Ant Zen used the expression : The Mistress of Hybryds. I do not have any religion, I was raised Catholic, just enough to see that religion is a toy to suppress the real feelings of humans.
M : I would call myself a religious atheist. I am interested in religion , to study. I want to know why, I think religion is invented by the human race to give a solution to the immense emptiness surrounding us. Religion also contains the history of the world, the stories , the myths, they all tell an important truth. I am very interested in the so called Golden age, ancient times where the Mothergoddess ruled the world.But I find out that most of the books written about this topic are giving disformed information, written by disappointed woman. I met one day Monica Sjöö, she is considered as one of the leading authorities in these fields. she was angry on me because we used Ein Phallischer gott as title for our new project, I read her book and it turns out to be she was a very dissappointent lady , who hated man and the modern technology which for her was a dangerous item created by males. Just because her son was killed by a car,according to her a male invention, and an example of how we males destroy the world with our inventions... when you study archeologic books you easely discover there were no times the Goddess ruled the world by herself, it were times the Goddess ruled in harmony with her husband : the God with the penis ! So you can see how easely information is disformed. There are always 2 sides on a story and one has to compile all info and try to see the complete side of it.I think we have come on a point where religion will have to get another meaning, something more personnel and more trivial.I feel there is much wisdom in the past and techniques which can help us make a better man. Rituals give meaning to daily life but rituals are not bounded to religious environments. I believe in respect for each other and mother Earth, but again there is no religious aspect in this , for me, I see the world as a natural thing, working according to mathematical rules, which one day we will unfold.

3) Your new live project is called Mistrust Authority, Promote Decentralisation, how you are going to give this message to the audience ?

M : The concept : Mistrust Authority, Promote Decentralisation comes from the books of William Gibson, I do not have any political message, it is just important to keep your eyes open and alert in the upcoming technologic age. The digital world already happened, one day , soon you could wake up, finding a new form of fascisme crawling round. I only can hope that people start to think for themselves.And learn to use the digital information, available on the net. Information is knowledge, knowledge is power. We consider our shows as entertainment. We compiled a cyber video to show on stage, a video dealing with virtual reality, the media...and just we two on stage, and the music. Maybe in a way we are boring for the eye but we feel a bit unconformable on stage, we rather work in our studio.
Y : Mistrust , was in the beginning a solo project from Magthea, it was harsh music he made when he was angry or depressed, it was until we started to do it life that I learned to enjoy it, normally I like more quiet music. But when the sound is good on stage and the mixing man does his job, I get really high and trancy, and than the show is getting realy great, as it was in Leipzig.

4) How much does religion and philosophy and other art expressions , influence your music, where do you find your sounds?

M : Certainly all the Hybryds releases have a kind of religious or spiritual look, reflections of my interests : books, movies, the media ... just bits and pieces of information, to make people curious. There is so much beauty in this ugly world, if more people could see that the world would be better. I try to get the sacredness out of religion, try to destroy the taboos. I do not feel being a guru or leader, everyone has to decide what to do for himself. although I am tempered by the meaningless of life I try to think positive and give positive images and music to people. Influences in our music is just everything in the world surounding us.The books I read the things I see...We sample lots of sounds from documentaries and movies.
Y : When I was 16 a friend let me discover SPK’s : Zamia Lamania, Diamanda Gallas.... it was a shock to discover there was music that could grap me deep inside.I was never interested in the music you could hear on official radio’s, later I met Magthea and he learned me to use the recording studio, to create the music I liked for myself...
M : My first record I bought when I was 14, was the soundtrack of Kubricks 2001.
I also enjoyed Frip and Eno, Tonto Expanding Headband, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep ... Now I hate music with guitars...

5) Why do you use classical instruments together with electronic devices, why don ‘t you make techno like everybody else ?

M ; I have never considered myself as a musician, I work with sounds, and have always used acoustic sounds which I electronically manipulated, it was until I met Yasnaïa, that we used real acoustic instruments in a melodic way in our music, flute, cello, but even she does not feel being an musician, we never studied music and I think one can only calls himself a composer if you know how to read and write music. Acoustic instrument makes sounds, just as digital instruments, their is no difference except in soundcolor, thats why we like to mix them, to create a wide spectrum of sounds. I always considered industrial music as the raw and ritual music of contemporary western society. I prefer this because their is much more tension and power in, we also do not work with a computer, all is done on an analogue 8 track, a bit lo-tek, we use lots of old and second hand gear.

6)Can you tell more about Tectonic Overload, which track you prefer ?

M: in Tectonic overload ( and the Mistrust LP ) almost everything is created live in the studio, there are only two 8 trackpieces on the CD. I record my jamsessions and afterwards I pick out the best pieces, this music is created when I am angry or depressed, it clears my mind . But the track I prefer is the noise2trance, recorded live in Leipzig. This was a magical gig for us, it was the first time we felt the energy of the audience and they drove us over the top.
Y : Normally we always have technical problems with feedback but this time everything went smoothly, and their was such a warm feeling of the people, we both were in trance on stage, It was an unbelievable experience for us both7) Will you tour in Germany, how does the new show look, will you use more SM elements? M : We are not much asked to perform, I guess we are not commercial enough. But I do not mind, I am not so looking to be on stage, we rather give few gigs than touring and be on the road, this is not our cup of thea. This year we have gigs in Germany, Sweden and Belgium but you have to check the dates on our web side as now on this moment nothing is dated yet. Last year we had trouble because we refused to borrow our slide projector to CONDOM / GREY WOLVES, we regret there is so much new fascistic influences in the industrial scene. I think those people playing with these elements are very stupid, narrow minded and dangerous, they make the people ready to accept the power of one above many. All those violent visuals, executions, tortures, fascistic images they use only will accumulate to more negative emotions. It is very cheap to shock people with this...
Y : I remember when we performed in Prague,with our previous Ein Phallischer Gott project, people went out because they found our video brutal and aggressive, the fact was we never use one act of violence in our video’s, we show ethnical and contemporary rituals of people doing an Indian sun dance or piercing, nobody in our videos was using negative aggression, yet people were shocked... so if you want to wake up people you do not have to use negative and fascistic visuals.
M : Our new gig consist out of new music, and a cyberpunk video, we ourselves do not sell much show on stage, too busy with the instruments...we use a basic track which goes in a handmade filter so I can destroy everything or drive it to the edge and than the magic happens, but this is only possible when we have good sound on stage so we can hear what we do. Yasnaïa takes care of the vocals and samples.
I do not think we explicit use SM elements, we are interested in the ritual and fetish elements in SM as I see the leather, rubber , masks as a contemporary reflection of ancient religious fetishm, objects loaded with supernatural powers.
SM is a strange, captivating world, as it deals with power between people fully aware and accepting what they do, in real SM there is no suppression :Top (master) and button (slave) are fully aware of the consequences of the role they play. And it is sometime hard to say if the top or the button dictates the rules. SM is dealing with borderlines and taboos, creating new elements in our understanding of each other.
Y : There will also be some solo gigs from me, I am working on a second CD release on World Serpent, my lifegigs are more ambient and ethnical and they cover aspects of my life, my dreams, my struggle to understand who I am, that’s also an aspect I would like to emphasize for HYBRYDS, we do not have any ambition to tell The Truth, we only walk our path in life and all we learn we transpose to our music.