interview conducted 8/?/94 by Garth Ferrante GODFLESH Interviewing honest, down-to-earth musicians is a thing of beauty. There aren't any "I don't know"s for those crucial queries, dillydallying of pointless facts, or parades of profanity in lieu of useful insight. Not a few days ago, I was granted the priviledge of speaking with Birmingham-based justin broadrick(sic) of Godflesh, for a second time. The avid fan will find everything he or she wants to know-- or could possibly ask for in one session. gf: When in your career did dissonance become a focal point? jb: Definitely before I ever got into rock. When I was 13 I was into all of this sort of electronic music. Really it was just slabs of white noise. I was in this band that I created, Final. That was when I was really into Throbbing Gristle. I was just always fascinated with the sound itself. gf: I've exposed many individuals to your music and the bulk of them feel that it belongs in the Metal, Industrial, and even Gothic genres. jb: I think that's great. I mean I always viewed Godflesh as a crossover band, you know? The music itself touches on all of those areas. That's really interesting about the Gothic category. My first love was science fiction films and the music that went along with it. My next love was horror movies and I became fixated with the brutal, dark, and brooding sounds that went along with that as well. gf: When is Selfless coming out? jb: I think they pushed it back to October 18. gf: Why don't you tell me all about the re-mixes? jb: Well, they[Columbia] told me that the first single/video off of Selfless is going to be Crush My Soul. We did a re-mix of that called Ultra Mix that's 16 minutes long. It's really a much more groove-oriented tune-- almost like dance music. All in all, the re-mixes come to about 60 minutes. We also did two mixes of Xnoybis; there's the Club Dub which is 7 minutes long and the other one is called Psycho Fuck Dub. No joke it's 18 minutes long and the most experimental thing Godflesh has ever done. It's really great. There's also a re-mix of Empyreal that sounds like an acoustic version, but it isn't. We just did some things to screw with the sound. Lastly, there's a mix of Pure and Spite-- those two are together, so it's Pure/Spite. They're also telling me that Body Dome Light might, might be the next single. gf: Tell me about the video for Crush My Soul. jb: We got Andre Serrano to do our video. He's the artist who did this piece called Pisschrist. It's like the cover for Streetcleaner, kind of-- it's Christ on the cross in this huge vat of piss. Very controversial. Not intended to be, but controversial all the same. As soon as I saw his work I knew I wanted him to do our video. Anyway, this is Andre's first attempt at directing a rock video. We're just starting to shoot it now. gf: I recently heard that you're going to tour with Type O Negative. When are you going out on the road? jb: Actually, the bill is Danzig, Type O Negative and Godflesh. gf: That's such a great bill! Well, we know who has to headline that one, but who's going to be in the second slot? jb: We don't know yet. But it will be from November 17 to, I believe, December 17. I'm pretty sure we'll wind up in New York toward the end. Also after that tour we'll be headlining some shows in the New York area. gf: How do you feel your live shows compare with your albums? Is the music anything like what's on the record? jb: Yeah, sure. Well, it's much more bombastic and takes on a totally different energy, but, live, we're very much like the studio effort. For this tour we've got a drummer to play along with the drum machine. His name is Brian Mantia-- some of us call him "Brain." He used to play for Tom Waits. We've also got these mind-blowing visuals which should integrate quite nicely. gf: How much new material can fans expect to hear at your shows? jb: I would say we do about 85% of new stuff, but we throw in old material as well. We usually even throw in a song from Streetcleaner. gf: Are any of your old CD's going to be re-released? jb: I would really like it if Columbia re-released the whole Godflesh back catalog, you know? I would also like to re-master the first album which is called Godflesh[the first, first album!] and, of course, Streetcleaner. gf: Tell me some plans for the future. Is there going to be a home video? jb: Yes, we are going to have a home video, but it probably won't get done until after the new year. We've also got an EP coming out in early '95. It's going to be called Messiah and will have four tracks on it. gf: Do you know what month that'll come out? jb: It will have to be after the tour is over. We still have to mix it and everything, so we'll wait until the end of the tour and then work on that. gf: I know that you guys are in the new Jeff Goldblum movie. jb: Yeah, we were in Hideaway, but it's not being released until March. It's the first movie we were in. It was really great. We play in this club where this man picks up a woman and, afterwards, kills her. gf: Sounds perfect for Godflesh. jb: [laughs] Yeah. They use the song Nihil for about two-and-a-half minutes with clips from the Mothra video. They also use Nihil for a chase scene. The whole thing was shot in Vancouver, Canada. gf: Tell me a little about your former bands Head Of David and Fall Of Because. jb: Well, HOD was hard music with an individual sound, but I left when they wanted to mainstream. That band was between Napalm Death and Godflesh. A sort of interlude, I suppose. I played drums for them and came up with some of the guitar parts. Their most well-known album was Dustbowl. As for FOB, that was really pre-Godflesh. Ben Anderson was in it as well as Paul Neville, who played with Godflesh for a short time. Actually, the song "Merciliess" was an FOB song from a demo we did in '86. I have my own label, Headdirt, and I'm trying to get that demo released in England and in the States. It's hard to get a distributor, though, so it's going to take time. I've also got a couple of bands on it[Headdirt]: Skullflower, Third Gate Keeper, and Sweetooth. gf: justin, could you do me a favor when you see Danzig? jb: Yeah, sure. gf: Tell him to put on a shirt. garth ferrante