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AUGUST 2nd 2001 ALEC EMPIRE – LIVE AT FUJI ROCK JAPAN 2001

The first show to kick off the Alec Empire World Tour in a way… The album “Intelligence & Sacrifice” is finished, finally, it was a long ride, yeah, a long ride through hell. I was getting sick of the Atari Teenage Riot situation – to sum it up in a few words: For some members everything else had become more important than the music and the work that goes with it. In 1999 we burnt out or something like that, I don’t know, but I do know that at one point last year I had enough of the bullshit. See you later, maybe. I have a masterplan and I follow it through, always. That’s why I was born. Destiny won’t speak in slogans, baby. So I got together with Nic Endo, working the motherfucking machines. Kingdom of Robots. When I walk down the streets I feel like I’m in The Bodysnatchers: Walking through the jungle of stupid idiots. If you can be manipulated easily, I have nothing but disgust for you.

So I made this record. At some point, while Nic Endo and me were hanging out in Ohio and partying at CBGB’s in New York, I remembered that we had a fucking show booked in Japan. The record company and festival people were starting to hassle me, like “Alec! What the hell are you going to do there??? In front of 20,000 people, even more!” I prefer avoiding nervous industry people, so I called up my friends, and after like two days we had come up with this Line Up: Masami Akita a.k.a. Merzbow on drums, he played death metal bands when he was younger, so perfect for my new shit. I don’t need to mention that he is a true genius. (When I saw him getting note sheets out, where he wrote down the drum rhythms I got kind of scared of that guy.)

Then Gabriel Serbian from The Locust also on drums, yes, you heard me, two drummers, double bass twice, which means more steel more punch. If you don’t know The Locust, check them out! They are one of the best American bands around. You can trust me blindly on that.

And of course Nic Endo on synths, MPC and MAC. She is the best, especially when it comes down to setting up a center of energy, laying out a base, building the fundament of hard rock and stone, that you need if you want to build a castle in a desert. (“Desert” here means “dead music scene”, British guitar loser bands, those Pavement guys who can’t get hard, only when you pee on them. You get the idea. Not to be disrespectful, but that’s how I feel, BECAUSE the balance got a bit out of control, my friends. It’s always a bad sign when men start to sound like whiny little indie fucks. In a democracy I can have my opinion, right? )

And in the last minute Charlie from Nine Inch Nails! We met on the NIN tour, and I heard some of his remix work, so I thought, let’s just go for it, and after the first sounds I heard him getting out of this crazy equipment he uses, when we soundchecked a day before the show in Tokyo, I knew he was totally the right guy! He had stuff going on I haven’t heard like that before! Really fucking cool.

So in Japan I played them the songs of “Intelligence and Sacrifice” that I wanted to perform. At the soundcheck we took like half hour and sorted the set out. I believe in people, and choosing the right people. If the energy is right, there is this force entering your body from the back and it makes your hands play the right shit. At the end of the day there is a bond between the people of higher consciousness. I remember last month in London, I was getting something to eat, this girl comes up to me and tells me that she is convinced that I’m Jesus. I was just laughing, I couldn’t take her seriously, I thought she might be a journalist and whatever I said would be used against me in court of popular culture and the internet communities. So she left angry, I heard her saying that I will regret laughing at her like that. Her silhouette disappeared in the rain. Then the dark clear night in London, wet air, I entered the restaurant.

I don’t like going out that much anymore, because everywhere I go, someone tries to give me a hard time. Depressed guys on absinthe want to fight me and shit like that. So we stand backstage in Japan, and these thoughts come into my mind for like 2 seconds. It has been nearly two years since my last time on stage. The last ATR show and I don’t even remember it properly – it’s like sex, right? Someone in some bad movie said, that you never remember the last time with someone. True. Since “60 Second Wipe Out” and “Miss Black America” it has been a long way for me. A way I had to go alone. And now in summer 2001 everything is new. I got tons of cool music in America, for the US only DHR compilation, a 3 CD set, something like 30 new bands. Berlin? Excuse me, that was five minutes ago, see ya later…

I walk out on stage, and my fans are out there, pushing the band and me. Before I start I think:” You all have been the best – I owe you something. You catch me when I fall. And I was falling a lot in the last years. But the only thing I can do, is to give 100%. You change as much as I do. And I can’t compromise my thing for you. I want you to do the same thing for me…”. In ATR I never felt like that, it was always confrontation with everyone, sometimes without a reason. Now things are different. We started DHR 7 years ago – and some are still busy trying to understand the first two years of it. We can’t care about that. We have moved on. In the beginning it was an underground kindergarten, posing, more attitude than substance. Now it is different, it is more dangerous because we have access to a lot of people out there. When the media and the idiots declare something dead while it’s growing, it’s a very good sign!

The show felt really good. After it we heard that some band had cancelled the next day and we can play again. So we did, and it was even better. Everybody watched it, from Squarepusher to Eminem’s D12 guys. We want to record with this line up of people in the fall in the US. We have big plans for the future. It’s a wave thing, it hits and then it takes a little bit to build and then it hits again, but harder – this is where we stand right now.

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