FABRYKA INDUSTRIAL ROCK & METAL ENCYCLOPEDIA - Cyanotic (Sean Payne)

2005-10-17 |

e-mail interview

Cyanotic means a bluish skin colour due to insufficient oxygen in the blood. Why did you choose such a name?

Sean: For lack of a better reason, because it sounded a hell of alot better than any other names I had ever come up with. I remember coming across the word when I was doing data entry for a hospital in high school.

Unfortunatelly there is another band with the same name. Will you strive for the exclusiveness?

We don't even worry about it much anymore. The other Cyanotic in question, formerly known as Gravel, took the name around the time we were getting ready to release the Mutual Bonding Through Violation demo E.P in early 2003. There wasn't much we could really do at that point, even if we were wanting to change the name, seeing as our CDs had already been sent to the pressing plant by the time we made the discovery. Even though we had the name for years earlier and even had all kinds of proof, there really wasn't anything we could do anything about another band taking the name. We were very poor and barely had enough cash to self-release the Mutual Bonding demo, so you can imagine how much of a financial strain it would have been to deal with lawyers and all that legal business.

What does inspire you due to songwriting?

80s sci-fi, dark drum 'n' bass, pot, John Carpenter movies pre-Village Of The Damned, old catalogues from Wax Trax! and Re-Constriction Records, anit-anxiety pills, movie scores, good sex, glitching drum loops and a good show.

What a rumour would you like to spread about yourselves?

I heard a rumour we sell drugs to make music. I wish we could claim the street cred like N.W.A. and anybody else who's ever paid to make music by slinging eight balls of rock on the corner, but that drug dealing rumour is, sadly, non-legit.

Tell me about the gigs please - how people react for your music and which gig was the most exciting?

People seem to be getting into it the more and more every other band with the industrial tagline starts sounding alike. I think people want something different than Euro trance with scary German vocals. I know there are enough people who want something different because we have fans. Not just fans, but great fans who come to the shows and have a fucking blast, not the kind of kids who think music is an accessory to a fashion statement, like so many club kids. Its no different than Studio 54 in the 70s, with lameass scenesters, just with more latex and vinyl corsets. Back on the subject though, we usually have a floor moving by the time the last few songs come around. Sometimes it takes awhile to warm up an audience to a new sound, but we most usually come away from every show with postive experiences, even the shows where we REALLY didn't belong.

What is your favourite song of Transhuman?

On the album, probably Axiom or Beta Blocker. Onstage at shows, Insurgence or Transhuman.

How long took Transhuman production?

We suffered a number of hard drive crashes during production, so MUCH longer than we were anticipating. I just began to take steps away from my own mini-studio around the time of the 2nd hard drive crash, bringing the tracks to Jason Novak of Acumen Nation and DJ? Acucrack at Cracknation Studios to get some help with matching the right sounds to the right volumes, spending an hour on a single bass drum sample, all that brain-shattering work. Minus all the hard drive crashes and downtime spent rebuilding songs between each crash, I would say the actual production only took about 6 months. Thanks to the crashes though, the final total was something like 22 months.

Did you have any production and releasing problems? What was the most troublemaking?

See above for the production horror stories. Heh. No releasing problems in the least, though. Smooth operating. We were originally intending to release the CD as we had with the demo E.P, by ourselves through our own label, but Digital Brothel came along and gave us some cash to help fund the recording sessions about midway through the project. The help with co-releasing the album through Cracknation came along at the very end of the mixing and mastering sessions, around the time we were getting ready to send the final master files to the pressing plant. Jason Novak, from Cracknation, had already done so much for us at that point, and having his label help with releasing and promoting the album had been so long in the making was a true honor for us.

What band would you like to play live with?

Ministry would be great any era, best in 1988 though. T. Rez and the Nine Inch Nails camp around the 1991/1992 era. Chemlab, Numb, Skinny Puppy, Acumen Nation, DJ? Acucrack, KMFDM, Strapping Young Lad, Cubanate and pretty much any mid 90s industrial rock band. :-)

When do you plan to release some new material?

We took a break after our summer tour with Dismantled and are just now really getting ourselves back in the groove of structuring sounds and building rhythms earlier this week. I was hoping to start up with my co-writers earlier, but I made the move to Chicago and we weren't in touch for the better portion of a month. We are going to be working on material for this companion CD to Transhuman. Its going to have an E.P.'s worth of new material, along with some complete re-interpretations of songs from Transhuman by some great artists, maybe some live video footage. I am hoping to have that out by summer of 2006.

What can you tell us about collaboration with Acumen Nation?

The entire experience of recording and mixing together was one of the best in my life. We hope to be doing more work together in the future. Right now, we are in the midst of heading out on a mini-tour of the U.S. together. Acumen Nation, DJ? Acucrack and Cyanotic. I couldn't think of a better bill unless it were 1996.

What are your plans for the future?

More new material, more tours, more promotions, (hopefully) getting overseas, production work and remixing for other bands, etc.

I noticed, maybe you Sean, in T-Shirt with Quake logo in some picture. What do you think about Quake games and especially part four?

Thats actually our live percussionist, Jan. I know I like the soundtracks to Quake and thats about it. I don't know much of anything about video games, except Contra and Tetris. :-)

What are your favourite bands and records?

Just speaking for myself, basically anything from Wax Trax Records in the late 80s or Re-Constriction Records in the mid 90s. We all like gangsta rap, earlier Nine Inch Nails, some metal, Squarepusher, a li'l punk, Ohgr and lots of compression on drums.

On Myspace.com you mentioned Panic DHH as one of your inspirations. Are they original in some way?

I think those guys have an interesting sound. Its like Nine Inch Nails or Ministry remixing Atari Teenage Riot or something. Its caustic and full of noise. Playing overseas with those guys would be a blast.

I'm disappointed with the newest production of NIN personally. What do you think about Reznor's U-turn? Might it be permanent?

I don't know. All the albums seem right for the era except The Fragile, y'know? Pretty Hate Machine was perfect for its time. It was exceptionally marketable, yet still it was basically an industrial dance record. Broken and The Downward Spiral both come out a few years later and bring industrial rock to the radio. A couple more years go by and alternative radio is a ghost of its former self, what with all the nu metal and boring rock, out comes The Fragile, this pseudo-awkward attempt at trying to be commercially viable AND experimental. I still like that record, though thats the only album where the guy really fell on his ass. Even this new album, which I really didn't care for besides a few songs, it works for the time and era. Inide rock is big. Why not mix industrial rock with indie rock? Listen to the album and find out, save for a couple songs that were completely great.

What would you like to tell your Polish fans?

Thanks for the support and interest in the music.