Synth & Surf Saloon: Electro-Aggression with Kevin "Von Schnell" Snell (Part 1)
Yeah. Yeah. Yet another new intro theme, but this one is no royalty free mashup. No. It was written specifically for this podcast by the dude who just happens to be the guest on this week's episode of the Synth and Surf Saloon, and that's mister Kevin Snell of the industrial band Chemical Straightjacket, he cofounded with guitarist Mike Caroly.
Speaker 1:Their latest album is coming out on Cleopatra Records this fall. I've known Kevin since childhood. We grew up in the same small New Jersey town of Haledon. He lived in Northern New Jersey up until a handful of years ago when he realized his longtime dream of moving to the Lone Star State. I'm planning to have the full band on the podcast at some point probably next month, September, once the newest member of the band, John Bechtel, returns from a European tour with an obscure little band called Ministry.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to have Kevin on a bit before the full band to talk about his solo alter ego known as Von Chanel, but really, this episode is mostly just two old friends shooting the shit about music. And like the last interview episodes I did with, Par Avion's Bernard Yin, I've split this one into two parts. So here's part one of my conversation with synth man, Kevin Snell, aka Von Snell. I guess I really wanna focus a lot on your side projects. And then, you know, we can talk more about Chemical Straightjacket when I have the whole band on.
Speaker 1:How many side projects do you have? Because I know you got Von Snell and you've got a couple others, don't you?
Speaker 2:Two. Two total. So I have Handsome Abominations. Yeah. We have two albums out and it's all it's very much like if you've never heard it, it's kinda like Lords of Acid.
Speaker 2:It's over the top sexual.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Funny kind of in a lot of ways. And that is me and a friend of mine from Ireland. His name's Tufti, and we're both programmers. I write all the lyrics and do all the vocals, and in that project he does most of the programming and I do a little bit. Misha's background vocals really campy, like really lords of acid style.
Speaker 2:It's fun. It's a lot of fun. Like, we're laughing as we're writing the songs. Yeah. So it's a lot of fun that way.
Speaker 2:And then Monchnell was just I wrote the next straight jacket album shortly after we moved down here, And I sat on those songs just waiting for Mike and JB. And, you know, JB is a busy guy with ministry. They tour constantly. And Mike's a busy guy with his job. So it just took forever, but I don't stop writing and recording because I have no friends down here.
Speaker 2:I have no hobbies other than music. So it's like every two weeks, have a new a new track. And so, you know, Handsome Abominations, our second album, came out while I was down here, wrote that whole thing. And then I just had a bunch of tracks that were just all over the place. Right?
Speaker 2:They wouldn't fit straight jacket. Some of it I mean, one is a a basically a rewrite of the who with the London Philharmonic, rage, rain, and me. It's just a rework of love, rain over me.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So it's really all over the place. Basically, the the idea was I'm just gonna do whatever the fuck I want. I'll do one song a month. Whatever it is, it could be a cover of, you know, self control by Laura Brannigan, or it could be there are some songs that kinda sound like straight jacket because, you know, it's kinda my my go to. So I connected with a guitarist, from Jersey named Ray, Ray Tetro, and, the sound man from what used to be the Nokia Theater in Times Square.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it's called anymore. It's a different name now. But the sound man that works there is a good synth player, and he's like the j b. He, he mixes and masters my stuff because he has a real good ear. So that's Von Chanel.
Speaker 2:Basically, it's me, Misha, and then Ray adding some guitar, Chris Pierce, adding some synths, mixing and mastering, and it's just a no rules project. There are even times where, like, I did a punk song called Scheinerbach, and I actually didn't even want Chris to touch it because he's a synth guy, and I wanted it to sound like it was recorded in a garage. I want to make it pretty. You know? So I basically set the rules for Von Chanel.
Speaker 2:Hence, it's kinda named after me, and I do whatever the fuck I want. And the plan was starting November, I put out one song on the first of the month every month until the straight jacket album comes out because of then I'm gonna switch gears to promote that. It's my side project to keep me sane. But yeah, that that's, you know, how Von Chanel came about because these songs, these demos that I was doing were just piling up. And you know, I'm waiting and waiting and you know, and not that I'm complaining.
Speaker 2:The the wait was well worth it. I think the straight track album is the best thing I've ever done. But, yeah, this was my outlet to keep busy and actually finish the songs and, you know, have them see the light of the day in some form. You know, the two consistent things are obviously my writing and vocals and then Misha as the backing vocalist, and the cast of characters for each project is a little different.
Speaker 1:For the for those in the audience know Misha is your wife, I just wanted to clarify.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Sorry. No. That's alright. I I
Speaker 1:because I I do an in I do an intro at the beginning, but I don't know how much how detailed I'm gonna get about that, so it's just easier to clarify that now. Yeah. Yeah. Now you've had a long and storied history, more or less this same genre on and off for thirty five years ish. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Point one molar was
Speaker 2:Yeah. An early iteration of That was the early version of chemical straightjacket, basically. Same, you know, me, with synths and Mike on guitar. You know, in chemical straightjacket, I took on the role of vocals, by default. Didn't want to.
Speaker 2:But but, yeah, I've been doing this for a long time with, like, a twenty year break in the middle where I didn't touch an instrument. Yep. And then ran into Mike, the guitarist that, you know, we grew up with, and he was doing, like, shoegazer type music. I don't know if you ever heard his other band, Brady Kynan.
Speaker 1:Brady Kynan. Yeah. Yeah. I know they used to play at the what was that bar in in Hoboken? The the Black Bear.
Speaker 1:Is it Brown Bear, Black Bear, one of those places? I can't remember.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm not sure. Well, I I ended up running into him at Dingbats. You know? I stayed for the show, and then we, you know, reconnected afterwards. We haven't seen each other or talked in about twenty years.
Speaker 2:And it was like, no no time had passed. It was instant. Like, we're like, oh my god. I missed you. You know?
Speaker 2:And it was his idea for me to get back into it. You know? He was like, you know, I kinda had enough of this band, a band with you again. And I said, well, the only rule is it has to be the same genre. It has to have the same feel, the same style.
Speaker 2:Of course, much more modernized. I had to learn modern software and stuff like that because I hadn't done anything in twenty years. And I wrote our first demo, which was called Dress to Kill, and I sent it to Mike, he was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Let's do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that was, 02/2017. So it's been a busy, what is that? Eight years. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Been a busy eight years, but fun. A lot of fun. Yeah. From the first demo, we made basically mostly in my laundry room. And, you know, but it got well received.
Speaker 2:You know? We got a lot of good feedback. People liked it, which surprised the heck out of me. You know? So then we just took it from there.
Speaker 1:We've known each other for we went to grade school together. You were in my brother's class. You were two years ahead of me. And you were friends with my brother for a while.
Speaker 2:And Yeah. We were the same age. We were, you know
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then but, like, you and I kinda became friends right around the time I graduated high school. And, you know, we went to the same college, so that helped as well. And
Speaker 2:It turns out I had a lot more in common with you than I did with your brother anyway. So
Speaker 1:Yeah. And to think that you once put an axe to my throat in the woods.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, stupid kid stuff.
Speaker 1:That's When I was I was about 12 at the time. I can't remember. But see, that that was our generation. Like, our our parents just let us run wild in the woods Mhmm. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All day. And you're up there with an axe, and then we treaded on your territory.
Speaker 2:And you had to reclaim it. Throat. My guy, could you imagine if somebody did that now? You would you'd instantly be like, yo. You'd be in counseling and you know?
Speaker 2:I would've been I would've been suspended.
Speaker 1:If not juvie or one of those outward bound programs where they send the bad kids. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a different world back then, man.
Speaker 1:But that other thing, what is that thing where the dudes come into your bedroom in the middle of the night and they kidnap you and take you off to
Speaker 2:Oh, jeez.
Speaker 1:Some reprogramming thing? I've seen that. And I I don't know if that's a real thing, but I've seen I've seen it in TV shows and movies. And I think I may have seen a documentary about it, but that was a thing. That is a thing that people do.
Speaker 1:I mean, the parents are on board. It's not like these and the parents are the ones who set it up. Yeah. It's not like big brother's watching, and it's like, this dude's an asshole. Let's go get him.
Speaker 2:So you're saying that I was an asshole?
Speaker 1:No. I was you knew we weren't gonna get through this without me mentioning the axe incident. I figured
Speaker 2:it might show up. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I just find it it's a fun little anecdote. And then Yes. Fast forward nine or ten years after that, and you would drive around with a meat tenderizer in your glove box. And there was one time you were coming over to my house, which is my parents' house, and I was standing on the sidewalk talking to somebody in a car.
Speaker 1:I can't remember who it was, but it was somebody that I knew. But you you thought some shit was going down, and you were
Speaker 2:about to grab a time. Yeah. They're gonna beat their ass with a meat tenderizer.
Speaker 1:And then you bequeathed the meat tenderizer to me.
Speaker 2:Yes. I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I probably still have it somewhere too. Actually, I because I drove around. I had this old Saturn that I used to drive around, and then I kept it in that glove box for a while.
Speaker 2:And That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But, anyway, so you you knew that story was gonna come up, and I do apologize for that because it's
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Not at all. It's context. It's a classic.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you know that that today, I write songs about hanging from a meathook and all these types of things. Oh, yeah. It right.
Speaker 1:Right. Right. Alright. So you you do a lot of very unorthodox covers in Von Schnell.
Speaker 2:Yes. I mean,
Speaker 1:things you would not expect. Like, you mentioned self control. I mean, that was actually that's a cover of a cover because Laura Brannigan actually covered it, and she was like an old Batello disco song. And then Well,
Speaker 2:it was written by two guys who were Italian disco artists. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Obviously, that's hers is the version we know here. It's kind of iconic and, you know, RIP, Laura Brannigan. So that that's not something that people would immediately think of. Even if, like, if you're going with Laura Brannigan, people are always gonna immediately go to Gloria.
Speaker 1:But but they went you know, you went with self control. So that was, like, sort of the road less traveled there. You've also done Cherry Bomb by the Runaways. Obviously, that's I would say that's probably not as unexpected because it is sort of kind of proto punk, so it's kinda
Speaker 2:I mean I think the Who cover is probably one of the stranger ones.
Speaker 1:Right. Right. Especially since you kinda you changed the the name of the essentially
Speaker 2:reign over me. Yeah. The opposite rage, reign in me. You know? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But, so the way the way that started was so when I lived in New Jersey, I was, like, the only programmer up in Sussex County doing digital music. You know, everybody else was basically in jam bands and southern rock and that type of stuff. So I kinda stood out a little bit in that scene, and there was one guy who's a very good vocalist. He had asked me if I would do up an electronic cover of the Who, Love Rain or Me, which is them with the London Philharmonic, and he was gonna do the vocals, like, for his own release or whatever.
Speaker 2:I said, sure.
Speaker 1:No problem.
Speaker 2:I ended up putting maybe fifty or sixty hours of programming into that song because it it's a massive song. Changes constantly. It's in six eighths time, so it's not even four, you know, four four time. And as I was getting done with it, COVID erupted, and I I don't think I ever saw Mike again. I mean, he's fine.
Speaker 2:He didn't get sick or anything, but it's just, you know, nobody hung out with each other anymore. So I had this music that I've been carrying around for since COVID broke. And when I thought of doing the Von Chanel thing, I was like, well, screw it. I'm gonna throw down the vocal, and it'll be a Von Chanel song rather than waste all that effort that I put into programming, on that track. But, again, I'm not gonna do a love song like that.
Speaker 2:So, I thought about when one of my friends was breaking up with his girlfriend in the state of mind that he was in doornet, and I just rewrote it as rage, rain, and me instead. He actually it it I'm not gonna say who it is, but he he has some backing vocals in that track. It doesn't say it anywhere, but he's in the track. Yeah. Screaming in the background.
Speaker 2:When I pick a cover, whether it's for straight jacket or or whatever, I try to not pick an obvious song. Right? There's so many songs that have been done over and over and over. And, you know, there are and and I have a rule. I won't touch perfect songs.
Speaker 2:Like, I I will not cover Depeche Mode. There are certain things I just won't do because I'm like, it's it's just it was perfect the first time. Leave it alone.
Speaker 1:Point one molar covered Depeche mode, though. Just can't get enough.
Speaker 2:Just live. We never recorded.
Speaker 1:You're right. You never recorded it right before.
Speaker 2:We did it live. And you could say
Speaker 1:that that's that's Vince Clark Depeche mode. That's not Martin Gruepeche mode.
Speaker 2:That's not that right. That's not like, oh my god. I'm not worthy Depeche mode. That's that's, you know, pop early stuff. So that's a good point there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I try to always pick something a little different. You know, I don't pick other industrial songs. You know, that would be boring. Why do an industrial version of an industrial song?
Speaker 2:You know, I'm not gonna cover knits or rub or something like that.
Speaker 1:You're kinda redundant.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly. Pointless. Totally pointless. So I like to take something from a different genre, whether it's like a cheesy pop song.
Speaker 2:There's actually four covers on the next straight jacket album, but we'll save that conversation for next time. Great. They're also very different covers, from, you know, different genres.
Speaker 1:And you've done you've done Christmas songs too. I mean, you did
Speaker 2:I have. Yes. Well, for for Vanschnell, I put out two Christmas songs on, you know, one single. One is the Paul McCartney, the the terrible, terrible Paul McCartney song, wonderful Christmas time. Right.
Speaker 2:I chose that one because I can't stand it.
Speaker 1:I don't think anybody can.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to butcher it, and then, then I wrote one original called dashing, which is the a side, actually. Yeah. So I'll try anything.
Speaker 1:A lot
Speaker 2:of times, somebody will just throw an idea at me like, hey. You wanna try covering whatever? I'm like, okay. Cool. Challenge accepted.
Speaker 1:Do you have a wish list of things that you would cover that you want haven't covered that you'd wanna cover?
Speaker 2:I actually don't. My covers all happen, like, in the moment. You know? Like like, I'll be driving. Oh my god.
Speaker 2:Do you do you know the song Stumbling In?
Speaker 1:Oh, god. Yeah. What's her name? Quatro and yeah.
Speaker 2:Quatro.
Speaker 1:It's I can't remember who the guy was.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's basically yacht rock. And I was listening to it. I was driving the other day, and I was like, oh, I wanna cover this. So I am actually working on a cover of some Great.
Speaker 2:But that's how they happen. Either somebody says usually, we're buzzed. You know? And somebody's like, oh, you should cover whatever. I'm like, oh, great idea.
Speaker 2:Or I'm just driving, and I hear something, and I'm like, oh, I like that like that rhythm, that melody, whatever, and and that that's it. Yeah. Not there's no wish list. There's no plan.
Speaker 1:And it's it's leather Tuscadero. How could you not cover
Speaker 2:her? Oh. Yeah. I knew nothing about her, but I finally watched a documentary about her. Pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean, I I I feel like I don't I didn't know too much of her music, but I I was under the impression that that Tumbling In was kind of not very characteristic of what she did.
Speaker 2:Oh, not at all.
Speaker 1:Prior to that. Yeah. Because she was more of a rocker and, you know She was
Speaker 2:Joan Jett before Joan
Speaker 1:Jett. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. You know, a less successful Joan Jett. But, yeah, that that song is not her style at all, which is kind of what made me, you know, wanna do it.
Speaker 1:She's apparently hugely popular in Europe, though. I mean, even though she's American, she's she's got a huge following in Europe. Lot it happens to a lot of bands. It's it's weird.
Speaker 2:Well, her success was overseas, basically. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And same with the Connells, by the way. They they actually had chart hits over in Europe. Like, '74, '75 was, like, huge in Europe. Really? And
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's always weird how that happens. And then you get the opposite. Right? Like, you get, like, the scorpions who Germany hates.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But they're huge in America. It's so strange.
Speaker 1:Well, because they they came around at the right time when when cock rock was becoming a thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I suppose so. But, yeah, even, like, when Tom Petty first started out, he was huge in England. He came back here and, like, they couldn't sell out a a barroom. You know?
Speaker 1:And for a while, I I only recently learned this, that Depeche Mode had a bigger following here than they did in The UK. I think it's about equal now, but for the longest time, they were more popular here than there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. They did do really well here before.
Speaker 1:Surprising. You know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It is. It's very very strange how that shit happens.
Speaker 1:And then you you just think about so many other things from then that, you know, everybody thinks of soft sell here as a one hit wonder. But over there, I mean, they they just it's hit after hit for them. Yeah. Okay. Some people, like, here, like, people will know that and maybe say hello wave goodbye, but then you look at Right.
Speaker 2:But they're not listening to, like, sex dwarf or anything here. No.
Speaker 1:Right. Right. And, you know, chips on my shoulder and things like that, bangers that really nobody knows.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. Another good example is Spandau Ballet. Huge in England. Nothing here.
Speaker 1:Right. Right. Well, they, you know, they they had one hit. You know? Mean, well, they're not a one hit, but they had, like, True was a big hit here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. True is massive. But beyond that, like, you know, nobody knows their other stuff here.
Speaker 1:I like that tangent, because we're going back to classic synth pop, and this is just the way that I wanted to go. Speaking of which, when you say you won't cover Dipesh Mode, who are your influences on kind of that side of the spectrum? Obviously, Chemical Straightjacket, there there's definitely ministry DNA there. And especially now you got JB and the band, there's definite ministry DNA there.
Speaker 2:There is actually ministry DNA in the band. Right.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah. Obviously, there's a bit of KMFDM there too. But as far as the less metallic stuff. Would you say your influences are there?
Speaker 1:The more synthy, less metallic stuff.
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. Well, I I consider myself very lucky to have been alive during the time that Alan Wilder met Depeche Mode and joined and and worked with Martin Gore. That those two as a songwriting partners and, you know, the like, those Depeche Mode albums, man, starting with black celebration. It's like there's four in a row that are, like, perfect albums.
Speaker 2:What is it? Black celebration, music for the masses, all the way up to violator, really. Songs of faith and devotion. All of those. Hey.
Speaker 2:I would I would go
Speaker 1:back even farther and say, really, some great reward. Yeah. True. For me, Black celebration is their magnum opus, and it always will be. They're never gonna
Speaker 2:match it,
Speaker 1:and they never did anything before that was gonna be. But but I do think the real you can even say construction time again because that's when they started experimenting a bit.
Speaker 2:Industrial sounds
Speaker 1:and stuff. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. So and a lot of that was was Alan Wilder coming in.
Speaker 2:Yes. Absolutely. I think that whole group of records from that group of people, for me, changed the world, really. As a team hearing that, I was just like, I've never heard anything like it. And the songwriting was just incredible.
Speaker 2:Like you had said, now that Vince Clark was gone, they were less poppy. They're much darker. The material's darker. Just it changed my life. So nothing compares to Depeche Mode for me, especially during that time period.
Speaker 1:Right. And I get kind of annoyed because Dave Gong gets kind of annoyed every time someone says, hey. You're gonna bring Alan back into the band, especially after Fletch died. They're like, you're gonna invite Alan back in the band. And he says, people just don't realize that he was in the band for twelve years of our forty five year career.
Speaker 1:But I'm like, you look at those twelve years though and all the shit that they put out. My god. Yes. He had a very outsized influence on what was going on then. Well, massive.
Speaker 2:Massive. You know, he he was the guy who, you know, they would work on their demos. Did you ever hear Martin Gore's demo for, what's the biggest hit? Enjoy the silence from violator. It's just him on a guitar.
Speaker 2:It it's nice. It's pretty, but it's just him strumming a guitar, and it's like an acoustic piece.
Speaker 1:Right. I did hear that they did an acoustic version. Yeah. I heard personal Jesus he did on the guitar too, and that's I did hear that because they released that probably six or eight months before Violator came out. They released that acoustically.
Speaker 1:I remember they played it on WDRE slash LAR.
Speaker 2:And that
Speaker 1:was they played that version forever. It's like, aren't you gonna wait for the actual version of it? I mean, yeah. It's it's good, but that's essentially how he writes. Whatever the other thing the flip side of that too is Alan Wilder's also the one who got them to branch out into traditional instruments too.
Speaker 2:He is a very talented musician.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Because he comes from a classically trained background and he he actually essentially I don't wanna say he had to learn synth, but he had to kinda adapt to synth because he's he was a virtuoso. Right. And gone songs of faith and devotion, which was really a kind of a departure for them because they started start obviously, they started integrating guitars way early on. But in terms of I think that was the only album or at least the first album.
Speaker 1:It might have been the only album where they use an actual real drum a real drummer on it. You can tell that that's actual drums and they use obviously, they use it on tour. They have an actual drummer on tour. But as far as, like, anything they've recorded since then, I don't think there's been a traditional drum on there since then.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and Alan was the one who'd stay in the studio all freaking night working on the songs. His signature is all over them. And it was just the combination of of, you know, Gore's writing and Alan's talent. It's just it it was life changing.
Speaker 2:I think I think it changed music, and I think for me, it's definitely the most influential thing that I've ever experienced. And, of course, as as I get older, you know, as I got older, then you add some of the aggressive elements, You start to get, like, you know, the skinny puppies and and that type of stuff. And then, you know, that was for me, that was it. You know? But, yeah, Depeche Mode was the the be all and end all in the beginning for sure.
Speaker 2:And to this day, I listen to those albums straight through. I could be at work, and I'll be like, oh, faith and devotion today. You're just timeless. Absolutely timeless. To this day, when I put on black celebration and I hear that opening, I get chills, and it's just it's perfect.
Speaker 1:And and I wouldn't sleep on their later stuff either because, I mean, to some of it took a little while to grow on me, but I would say there were albums that I completely dismissed at first that I went back to. And I'm like, wow. This is actually pretty some good really good shit. Like, I was almost done with them back in 2013. I remember I was in London, and I think they were on the Graham Norton show or one of those shows.
Speaker 1:And they were performing and they were performing a song from Delta Machine, which was the new album at that point. And it was a very sort of downbeat, not very catchy, and they performed it. And I was like, oh, I you know, they were these guys were my favorite band at one point. And now I think maybe their best days are behind them. So much so that that was the only tour since violator that I had not seen them on.
Speaker 1:You know, I'd seen them on every tour from Violator on, but I skipped them on the Delta Machine tour. And then I go back and listen to an album, like, this is some really challenging stuff and it's really great stuff. You know, it's like they have some blues in there and they've got some but it's it's synth blues. That's the thing. It's like it's a very synth heavy album and it's not like they're you know, they still got they still have the guitar in there, but I I think they they've gotten Cynthia and Cynthia again, you know, even though Dave Gone tries to bring more of that blues, little bit of gospel, and that kind of stuff in it.
Speaker 1:And but that that's all his influence. Yeah. And he's actually threatened to leave the band if
Speaker 2:he doesn't get to do
Speaker 1:any of that. So it's like Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. He did.
Speaker 1:But but it it is Delta Machine's a great album. And I I was like, wow. I I can't believe I didn't give this a chance. I don't think I actually even bought it at the time it first came out. I was like, I'm done.
Speaker 1:And then their next album, I think after that was Beer It. And that was kinda when I fell back in love with them again. I was like, this is a good album. Like, on
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I actually like this on first listen. Every other album was like that, because I think that possibly their best album of, say, the 2000s, like the first decade of this century, I would say was Playing the Angel. That was a really solid album, but then they followed up with Sounds of the Universe. And at first, I wasn't crazy about that either, but then the first single that came off was wrong. They brought that back into the set on this last tour, and it was like, it's yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a banger. I mean, that's a really
Speaker 2:good song. A great song.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I was so dismissive of that. So I guess I just needed a break from them, and then
Speaker 2:And that's that's not a bad thing. I I do that with a lot of bands. You know? I'll take a break from them and then come back and be like, oh my god. I forgot how much I love this.
Speaker 2:You know?
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I came back hard with them, and and I think this last album, Memento Mori, that was the best album in, like, thirty years. It was just Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's very solid. Yes. Yeah. But thing you know, things change over time just like any band does. A band that I never have to see again, who I love, is KMFDM.
Speaker 2:I've seen him many times over the years, and now Lucia or Lucia, whatever her name is.
Speaker 1:His wife.
Speaker 2:She basically took over the band. And it's just I have no interest in it. You know? So
Speaker 1:Yeah. And we saw them at Sick New World. Yeah. And I remember you saying something similar to me at the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, you know, I can't stand her fucking voice. I'm just like Yeah. I really can't.
Speaker 2:And, you know, it's it's okay if she does, you know, one song per album or whatever, but, you know, she basically took over. So
Speaker 1:I I feel like I've tried to like them more than I actually did like them.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I like them a lot, and I think that's obvious in some of my songwriting. Some of my songs, I'm like, oh, that sounds too much like KMFDM. But, you know, that's that's where you go to sometimes when you're writing. You go to, you know, what you were obsessed with at one point, and, you know, you emulate it.
Speaker 1:We'll pick this up next week when we hear about another of Kevin's big eighties electronic influences and go down the terrifying, unholy rabbit hole known as AI. But until then, remember to keep it analog.
