The electronic music collaboration between the French techno producer Terence Fixmer, and British EBM vocalist Douglas McCarthy (of Nitzer Ebb) has given birth to a new album, "Into The Night". Good timing since Nitzer Ebb itself is also working on a new record for the Mute label. The follow-up to the bands 2004 debut "Between The Devil" has a more melodic sound leaving the classic Nitzer Ebb like tunes in the background. Coïncidence or not? Side Line asked it to Douglas McCarthy. More info at http://www.fixmermccarthy.com/ . (By Bernard Van Isacker)SL. The link with the old school EBM sound has definitely made place for a more melodic approach (for ex. "Banging on your door" which actually reminds me of Psyche). It made me think that it might just well be that you didn't want to mix Nitzer Ebb's sound and that of FM too much in the light of the rebirth of Nitzer Ebb? Tracks that do remind of NE like "Look to me" and "Tonight I sleep" could well have been on "Big hit" the least EBM like CD you guys did...
D. Erm, I guess that perhaps subconsciously we were looking to make more of a distinction between FM and NE, but our real objective was to explore more of the direction hinted at on "Between" with tracks like "Freefall" and "By Any Other Name" which have always gone well live and added a very different and, to us, interesting juxtaposition to the aggression and tension contained in our other material. Not sure about the reference to "Big Hit". I feel that people have misjudged that album, probably because they can hear the guitars (or what they think are guitars, which is not always the case on that album) and close their mind to the songs that I still really like. I don't know, I guess "Tonight I Sleep" and "Look To Me" could have fitted on that album, but to me they have the sound of Terence Fixmer.
In actual fact the FM album has taken a very long while to be released so there definitely were not any compromises. Many of the tracks underwent various versions that were fully recorded and re-recorded, and various different mixes also were done, so although we were aware of the fact that we needed to have enough space between FM and NE release schedules we didn't rush anything.
SL. The new Fixmer/McCarthy album is worldwide released on SPV, except France and Japan on Citizen records, the french label of artist Vitalic... why this move? Is Citizen that much stronger on these territories?
D. Essentially yes. Also, we felt we needed a presence in the dance scene, which is obviously something Citizen can do well.
SL. 4 years in between 2 albums, it could have killed the project, why this long wait?
D. Mostly because the record industry is so fucked up that we wanted to look at other ways to release. As it turned out we went with the 'normal' process of a label.
SL. Did you reach the goal you had set with the project's first album? What obstacles did you see?
D. Yes I think we totally reached where we wanted to be. We set out to produce a much more melodic and reflective sound, and nothing got in the way of that being achieved. It was actually an extremely enjoyable and fulfilling experience from start to finish.
SL. "Into the night" sounds more developed both regarding sound and production, I felt that that was the weak spot on the first album "Between the Devil...".
D. Yes there was a very definite move to growing out of the more rough and ready approach we took when making "Between" not because we don't like that approach but because it worked well with the material on that album. The aggression and explosive nature of most of the tracks just didn't work when we tried to make them 'polished' as they lost some of the energy and power. With "Into The Night" we wanted almost the opposite effect. We want the listener to hear the nuances of what each track has to offer, even the occasional harder tracks. So all in all it's a matter of the fitness to purpose of setting out in your mind an over all approach, and I feel that in each case we got it about right.
Source: Side Line Magazine
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