Photo: Sandra Sturm
by Stina Isabel Gavrilin
Pioneering Belgian electro-industrial legend Suicide Commando, founded and led by Johan van Roy, is playing in Tallinn for the first time ever on Saturday, March 15! For four decades, Van Roy's music has been characterized by his nasty, ultra-nihilistic worldview and an unflinching exploration of the dark side of human nature, combined with intense, dancefloor-focused sounds. BFTV fans are certainly no strangers to van Roy's immense legacy, and it's our pleasure to present an interview with the man himself!
How does it feel to be pretty much considered the king of electro-industrial, do you wear that crown proudly?
Oh yes I do. Together with my Burger King crown it's my favorite crown, I usually wear it on Sundays when I go to church :-). No seriously, obviously I'm honored and proud to be one of the leading acts in the electro-industrial scene, even though I never considered myself as the king or the inventor of this style. You already had bands like Leæther Strip, Placebo Effect... who were operating in the same direction.
Was electro-industrial always meant to belong on the dancefloor in your opinion? How did you reach the point of deciding to go that route?
It never was a deliberate choice to go that route, but it's true that an album like “Mindstrip” from 2000 changed a lot for Suicide Commando and the electro scene. But I think it's normal that the scene always evolves, in the nineties the scene was much more diverse, you had goth and electronic music played in the same clubs and at the same parties, end of the nineties you had the trend of incorporating guitars into electronic music with bands like Front Line Assembly, Die Krupps… Then came the harsh electro or hellektro as some tend to name it, later came the more poppy sounds from bands like VNV Nation… And so the scene is always on the move, and I think that's not a bad thing.
You’ve done many reworks of your old material. Has the purpose been to revise some original intentions that you couldn’t achieve back then with limited equipment, or have you grown to dislike some of your earlier ideas?
No, I still love my older works, but indeed many of those old recordings were done with very limited equipment and technical possibilities. The reworks should be considered on how those old songs would sound today, with new and more technical possibilities, better sound engineering, better mastering… I don't really consider those reworks as “remixes” as I wanted to keep them as close as possible to the original structures and atmosphere.
It’s tragicomic to think that the dystopia we’re currently living in makes albums like "Mindstrip" or "Axis of Evil" seem like soundtracks for a simpler and happier time, despite the heavy subject matter. Do you find it gets easier with time to find inspiration from the shadows?
I've always been fascinated by the dark side of things, so I don't think you'll ever get to hear a “happy” Suicide Commando album. But it's true that we're currently living in an even more crazy and fucked up world then let's say 25 years ago.
Artists that are successful around the world almost never receive the same kind of love from their compatriots. Are you well appreciated in Belgium?
Sadly the Belgian electro scene became pretty small compared with the glory days of the Belgian EBM scene with bands like Front 242, Klinik, A Split Second, The Neon Judgement…
Most of these bands meanwhile stopped touring and Belgian radio stopped promoting this kind of music already years ago. Back in the eighties, bands like Front 242 or Klinik even got airplay in prime time on Belgian radio, this is unthinkable today. And without any big labels, concert agencies or radio stations behind it, this will not change again.
So to answer your question, my music does get appreciation in Belgium, but only in the underground scene, so for a very small audience. But is that bad? I don't know, at least we can remain truly alternative and underground.
What’s the most absurd situation you’ve ever had to be in, in these four decades as a musician?
Pretty absurd were the covid days when we did a few shows in front of a “seated” audience in open air, the audience was not allowed to move around or dance… It felt like we were playing at a bingo evening in an elderly home or something. That was pretty fucked up.
But also absurd was that time that I got attacked by the local light engineer when we played in Los Angeles for the first time. I probably made some insulting remarks of the guys awful job that night, so he ran on stage and wanted to push and hit me from stage, however he missed and instead he got kicked from stage and later the audience kicked him out of the club.
LA seemed cursed for me for a long time as in 2014 I also torn my ligaments and meniscus on stage during our show, that was pretty absurd and painful… :-)
Excuse me for this jumpscare of a statement, but I’m completely convinced that you have, directly or indirectly, influenced the sound of Lady Gaga at a certain point. Do you ever fear that you and other highly successful names in dark electronic music getting too big might create a situation where electro-industrial gets diluted by the mainstream?
I don't really fear that to be honest. I mean, it already happened before, not with my music, but many styles were already heavily influenced by electro-industrial music. Lots of techno is inspired by electro-industrial and if I'm not mistaken, Lady Gaga recently even announced that her upcoming works will be inspired by bands like Gesaffelstein… So why shouldn't they get inspired by my music… I'm not afraid of that. I think cross pollination is a good thing.
With rapid advancements in technology and everything becoming easily accessible, it can sometimes feel like all has been done at this point. Do you still actively search for fresh and exciting things happening in music and if so, where would you say the spark burns brightest nowadays?
Sure everything has been done before, but that counts for all music around. That's another reason why blending other styles can be interesting even in our underground scene.
I'm not actively searching for new fresh things, but once in a while I still discover interesting bands who are innovating… I think there's a lot of interesting material coming from the north of Europe with bands like Kite, Emmon, Rein… to name just a few.
It seems to be a common thing for musicians and DJs to have constant nightmares about things going wrong at shows. Almost 40 years into your career, does that still happen?
Oh hell yes, I think “the” perfect Suicide Commando show does not exist. There's always something that goes wrong or isn't perfect. But it's not giving me nightmares anymore.
I guess I learned to live with it. In some way I even like this tension during live shows, it gives our live shows still a certain humanity and punk feeling… Controlled chaos I'd say. Yeah I know, I'm weird… :-)
Cannot be left unasked... Do you have any new material currently in the works?
Yes, but I guess it still will take a while before it will get released. Unfortunately 2024 wasn't the best year for me on a personal level (my mom died, my brother was in hospital for months…) so sadly I couldn't work on new material as much as I hoped for, but I'm definitely working on some new stuff.
Your first ever show in Estonia is approaching, finally! Are there any earlier threads connecting you with the country or is this your first acquaintance with it?
This will be my very first experience with Estonia. Last year we did a show in Riga in Latvia, which was really nice. It was our very first show in a Baltic country, so I'm really happy we can now return for some more shows in Estonia but also Lithuania… and Finland. So I'm really looking forward to it!
Find tickets: https://www.piletilevi.ee/est/piletid/muusika/rock-ja-pop/suicide-commando-be-freakangel-est-450667/
Comments