Front 242, Παρασκευή 6 Φεβρουαρίου, Fuzz.

1. The last time you played in Athens it was summer and it was melting hot…Not that ideal for a gig, I guess. What are your expectations for this time and what should we expect from you?

Patrick: Last time we played was Synch festival with very good technical conditions but a distance from the audience due to particular festival‘s presentation. This time we speak about a Club, close to the people, close to what we like ; in a city being at the verge of political explosion… it will be hot but another kind of hot than last time.

 2. 28 years is long time. How do you manage to maintain your interest and faith to your band?

Patrick: There is no ego in the band, we work for a powerful result : Front242. In that matter we are closer to an Art corporation than a band. Also, we often change our “live” music and visual concept; at the moment,  we are presenting a Vintage performance that everyone enjoys very much in the band.

3. As the godfathers of ebm, how do feel about your impact to the scene and the fact that many bands were inspired by you and in some cases even copied you

Patrick: We never look to the past or we would stop thinking we did enough. It is nice to hear that Front242 inspired a lot of bands but for me our role is still in the future; there are so many possibilities in electronic music and the technologies went faster that the ideas. Artists, musicians need to re-consider the use of earlier technologies.

4. How do you see the newer industrial and ebm bands? Are they actually creating something really new?

Patrick: I think it will only happen if those bands go away from that formula of heavy screaming on linear bass lines and drums. This is a recepie that even Front242 does not apply on our albums. People have reproached us to not create 12 “’HeadHunter” songs on our albums but there is no point : electronic music is research and the dark scene, EBM scene needs more experimental approaches – deconstruction, use of external sounds outside machines, collages, new song structures, etc…

5. You use the technology as a medium in order to create your music. The fact that nowadays technological progress has moved to another level, compare to 20 years before, how effects Front 242?

Patrick: We still keep our old reflexes and although we use the new technologies, we are not blinded by it. Analogue synthesizers from the 80’s are still on the market or you might find new analogue synth but the architecture of analogue synthese remains the same. New technology can be a good pretext to try to create a new aesthetics and it forces you to explore new fields but at the end of day, the idea, the concept is what counts and Front242 has a strong untamed musical ideology.