Basilisc interview -Russian version at http://vxga.wordpress.com/tag/hybryds/

1. How and when you start to make music? Was it industrial music or not?

1. My first musical attempts were in the end of the 70 ties. Some of my friends played guitar in local rockbands, but I never was able to play an instrument. I am not a musician.  And I was not interested in rock music. I always liked electronic music or ethnical music. In the beginning of the 80 ties I bought my first synthesizer, a KORG MS10 and together with a cheap mixing desk, cheap microphones and some cassette desks the first sound pieces were born. Music as I liked, just structured sounds. Under the name: The maniacs I released some stuff on cassette. In this time, industrial music did not exist, it was called avant-garde or experimental music, there was no real scene, and not many live acts, all happened in art galleries.

2. Did you play with Klinik and what was your part in it?

1. In the beginning of the 80 ties, I created an independent tape label, 3RIORECORDINGS. My fascination with tribal music was born when I was 16 and visited my parents who lived in Africa. We were invited by our “boy” to watch a fertility ritual in his small village. The girls who became woman were “sold “and this happened with tribal drumming and for me strange rituals. Those people were in an alternate state, in trance, and even I was of this world on that moment. Western music never could give me this feeling. And as I told in question1, mixing this music together with western influences was not so evident, we had to cross borders, and we created music that in these days not many people accepted as music. In the beginning of the 80 ties I started a radio show on Radio Centraal, an independent Antwerp Radio Station where I met very creative weird people. 3RIOTAPES was first collaboration between Dirk Ivens, Henk Wallays and me. In those times (1983) their was only snail mail and phones, so 3RIOTAPES was run soon solely by myself. It was a low budget, self-made scene. Tape desks and photocopy machines and snail mail were the chosen weapons in the urge of being independent and creating our own way of an uncensored worldwide communication. The first project was the “audio communication “series. A tape (K7) compilation with bands and artists from the world wide underground. Each contributor got one chrome master tape and sleeve cover to copy and distribute to his connections. More than 10 compilations where distributed world wide, an immense collection of tape releases followed, from Merzbow to Attrition…This music scene was connected to the mailart scene and backed up by American college radios and free radio stations, in Belgium and Holland, organizations like EE TAPES ( B) and HAMANDAHA productions ( H) were organizing independent K7 festivals with music gigs and labels selling their independent mostly self made releases. Around 1983, Sandy Nys joined RADIO CENTRAAL, Antwerp with “NETWERK” a radio show dedicated to those independent tape releases. NETWERK lasted until 1997. During those years, 3RIOTAPES collected an immense amount of music on tape and limited vinyl and CD.We are working on a database of this collection and in the future we want to offer this archived collection to the world as free MPG. Radio Centraal and his many crazy people (Bobby Colombo!) resulted in weird audio projects and everlasting friendships. ( Spectre, Ah Cama Sotz, Hypnoscull , Insect/Monolith, Dive….) (Info: http://users.telenet.be/3rioart/pagesweb/intro.html) .By having connections worldwide with my tape label I got an invitation to perform in Norway with my personal music, but I decided to ask Dirk Ivens, Eric van Wontergem and Mark Verhaegen to join me in live project, each of them were already making music since years but were never noticed abroad. So the Klinik was born. We did live shows in Norway and Belgium and I released the first Klinik record, “sabotage” on my label: Later I started my own project: HYBRYDS, in which I could cover more of my personnal idea’s, rituals, religion, etc. Klinik was pure electronic music, I wanted to mix acoustic sounds into the music, and I wanted to tell things with my music, references to my interests, which was not possible with the Klinik.

3. How the conception of Hybryds was born? What sense you want to stand behind his band name?

1. My problem with  religion, I was raised as a Katholic, which gave me lots of negative feelings. My interests in the occult , the esoteric was born out of my problems with the monotheistic releigion. So I wanted to express my personnal view on these things into my art and my music. Hybrids are a mix of different spieces, creating something new. This was my aim with my music, puttting different things together to create something new, looking for inspiration in etnical, trance music and combining this with raw electronic sounds. Giving a trance feeling to Western city people....Beeing a visual artist , I have alway combined this with my art and the videoprojections we used for live gigs. In the beginning Hybryds was an electronic ritual trance project dealing with the esoteric, the Magical. In each release there were clues to books, movies, information that was not easy to find...

4.  What is really meaning of name Magthea (if it's not a secret)?

1.  In the book “The steppenwolf” ( Hermann hesse) there was a place called Magisch Theater ( Theatre of Magic) , in this place was everything possible. So I called my working studio, where I created music and art : Magisch Theater; later when I released the Hybryds music I choose Magthea as name , as on that moment I did not find it important to use my own name for the music.

5. How you can describe differences of Belgian industrial scene of another

1.  The Belgian underground in the 80- ties was more Gothic, lots of guitar bands and a black dressed audience. But the electronic bands were accepted and even we with our strange mix of sound could play in the scene. In Belgium the scene was small and  devoted, and very mixed, Front 242, Neon Judgement, De Brassers, all Belgian bands that could perform in the more commercial Gothic scene, and some of these bands were even broadcasted on the official radiostations; (Hybryds were never played on official radio...) In Germany the scene became very big, so soon we performed more outside Belgium than in Belgium. It is thanks to the German scene that Hybryds started to perform regular live, I always worked with different musicians for my different live projects. The ritual should be kept alive, part 1, 2 and 3 where a collaboration between me Djen Ajakan S and Vidna Obmana. Djen programmed the electronic basic rythmtracks on my demands and Vidna did the vocals. It was a trance-inducing piece; we performed in churches or other sacred or strange places. The video projection was a compilation of ethnical and sacred rituals. Live I did the mixing, and Djen the woodblock percussion, Vidna the vocals, later Ah Cama Sotz joined the live set up. I always like to work with different people to create more than I could do by myself.

6. Why you collaborate with   so many guest musician on your releases? What they brings to your music?

1. We did many live gigs, with different extra guest musicians in which we tried to create a trance feeling for the audience. I always need input from others to create more than I can do by myself, others can give me more inspiration, and with others I can make it more captivating. It’s always been in music, put some people together and they create more than they could do by themselves.

7. How you first time to meet Yasnaia and how you start working together?

1. I met Yasnaia in the beginning of the 90 ties. She played classical cello and was singing in a church choir. Until than I never had a female vocalist, so soon she joined the different live projects and became my partner. We than performed only as a duo. In 1999 she got a mental break down and ended up in a mental hospital. I do not have any contact since then with her.

8. How conception of Hybryds was changed in 2000's? Is it still ritual industrial?

1. The big difference with now and the past is technology. In the beginning of the 80 ties when I started to make music, I only had a cassette recorder an old reel-to-reel Sony stereo tape recorder, a Tandy Realistic microphone and a small Tandy mixer. Sounds were recorded immediately, manipulations I could only do in speed on the reel-to-reel recorder. Later I got a cheap echo device which made more noise from itself than the sound you put it; I used it as my first synthesizer. Later I got the Korg MS20 synth and the Tascam 4 track cassette recorder. Video was analogue, to edit you had to make copies, and each video generation became worse in quality. And all that equipment was so expensive. Now a complete professional recording studio is available as software on any computer for almost no money…. I think Hybryds after 2000 is more about music, not about transferring ideas. I performed solo many times, it was easy and nice to travel by Eurolines in Europe and visit all those countries and nice people. I still like the ritual trance sound but I am influenced by these times, I use hip-hop beats and mix it with my “industrial” feelings. Nowadays all music is actually Hybrid. All music is made on a computer and all styles can be mixed perfect into each other. Anyway, since 2001, I started to work with Madeline Arndt  (www.schattenkinder.de) as new vocalist and all new music is shaped by her vocal input. I also have a new live project with Traumasutra (new cd on Sleepless in Berlin records) and Madeline will join us live on stage.

9. Do you like movies and what kind of movies? Want you to make some movies as an actor or director?

1. I am crazy about Science fiction and fantasy movies, every movie with a rocket or an alien or an UFO or a dragon and a warrior. I am not into horror nor western nor war nor love movies…The movies ( Dreambient video) I make are video experiments, they are born out of my unconscious images, dreams, impressions of life, they do not have dialogues nor action. I do not have the urge to create a movie, other people can do this better than me.

Basilisc interview - Russian version at http://vxga.wordpress.com/tag/hybryds/