Alright, without any further ado, for your enjoyment, by us, in co-operation with the wonderful Marco and Marko, we bring you... THE INTERVIEW
WF: The Art of Revenge was released a few weeks ago and we love it! The response has been amazing across the board, including topping numerous charts. Have you been surprised by the amount of positive reactions?
Marko: Yes of course we are surprised and delighted by the impact this album has had in its still short life. We’re not really surprised that people like it because we really believed in material we chose for TAOR, but we’re surprised that it won over some people who didn’t really like XP8 in the past.
WF: The sound also seems more gritty and harder than previous releases; was this a conscious choice and does it reflect your own current music choice?
Marco: yes, it was absolutely a conscious choice... we were basically tired of having a mellow sound, since we have been listening to more diverse and more aggressive styles of music over the last years, and that of course influenced us. We stopped, and told ourselves... "yes, we can totally do this as well, and possibly even better!"... so there you have TAOR
WF: The title of the album seems quite negative at first glance; is that intentional and was it inspired by any real events?
Marko: There’s no negativity there.. we’re nice and friendly people.. who will stab you in the back if you cross us! Seriously though there has been no specific event that triggered the concept of the album, we wanted to explore the theme of revenge which we find fascinating, trying to express its mechanics and the feelings revolving around it. I reckon we could also see revenge as a metaphor for those actions and changes you have to undergo in order to express your will against others, to have your voice heard above those trying to silence you.
WF: The "Art of Revenge" theme carries over into quite a few of the tracks in addition to the title track, did you set out to create a "theme album", or did things just click together?
Marko: indeed the title of the album came before the song itself...
Marco: I am responsible for the title... and since, as Marko said already, we wanted to create a theme that could recur all over the album - pretty much like "time" was the theme of the previous release - I tried to find something that could immediately stuck in the minds of those who were going to pick up the cd. It's a sort of slogan, pretty much like the title track is the anthem that sets the mood for the rest of them all.
WF: The new album artwork is quite a departure from previous releases; what was the idea behind it and who designed it?
Marko: again, from the very beginning of the production of this album we realised we needed a departure from our past releases. We really wanted to mark the differences between what XP8 was until Hrs:Min:Sec and now, not because we’re dissatisfied with that album, not at all, but because years have passed and we’re different people now. It would be silly for us to appear all cybery and stuff like that.
For the album cover we went back to one of our trusted friend, Fabio Timpanaro, whose art we’ve always appreciated and respected. We met him, gave him a outline of the effect that we wanted to achieve and he came back with a killer outline!!
WF: The title track includes a sample from ‘V for Vendetta’; were the samples you used picked as tribute to the influences of the album?
Marko: Shhhh!!! Don’t say that!!! They’re going to sue us!!
Using samples in a track has several aspects, it’s obviously not as groundbreaking or experimental as it could have been in the early 80’s, but it still adds a depth to a song, that you can’t achieve with plain music. We use them to add to the atmosphere, to hone in a point we’re trying to make with the lyrics. So, no, they’re not tributes, they are means to an end.
WF: You’ve recently gone from a trio to a duo. How has that affected the band and the album?
Marco: well, it has obviously changed things a lot. We believe for the better, but people will judge for themselves when they’ll listen to the album and see us live. The work on the album has been affected only slightly because of it, because I had to write new lyrics for a couple of songs, but that’s about it.
WF: Marco has again been playing and touring with a number of bands; has that influenced XP8’s sound at all?
Marco: it obviously influenced me personally, and hence my own output with the band. Expecially last year's tour with VNV, and all the time spent between shows in Hamburg, Germany, got me more in touch with techno and the techno scene, and got me more craving for a slight slower but groovier mood. "Eklypse" is a perfect example of this, but the whole album travels of slower bpm than ever before in XP8 history. My work in Grendel, on the other hand, helped me a lot into shaping my stage presence... you surely can expect XP8 shows to be much more energetic than what we used to do before, also thanks to Marko being, basically, a stage-slut. Ops, did I just say that?
WF: You originally started out in your native Italy back in 2001, although more global success didn’t come until later. Do you think that being based in Italy made it more difficult to break into the market, given the German-centric view of the genre within Europe?
Marko: Obviously it didn’t help, but we’re tired of looking for excuses.. “global success” as you call it, didn’t happen overnight for several reasons, and some were due to us being what we were as musicians, not because we were Italians, or because none of us could speak German.
A lot of good things started to happen for us when we finally started networking internationally. But that’s true for everybody.. even for German bands!
WF: You have a few live dates coming up; are there are plans to do a full tour or perhaps some summer festivals? And are there any tracks in particular you look forward to playing live?
Marko: there are plans of a full tour as support band and some festivals, but it’s still early days to confirm anything. I’m really looking forward to bring this album on the road, to test people reaction to these new songs. We’ve already played a few of them in London, Antwerp and Athens, but our sets were still largely based on "Hrs:Min:Sec". One song we haven’t played yet is "Cracked" and I’m really anxious to perform it because it’s got a very “live” feel..
Marco: yeah, totally "Cracked", where I'll play the guitar bits live... something that I've been wanting to do with XP8 forever! But also "Ready2Go", and "Your Nature", since I'm so much emotionally attached to that song.
And we are also toying with the idea of putting a 2-3 songs merged-into-one somewhere, featuring our best instrumentals - "Juggernaut" and "The God Particle" - along with a Wast3 track called "Bad Boys Here I Come", that we tried a couple of times in Bologna and Ljubljana, and that the people really enjoyed. It would also be interesting from the technical side of things, since then we would both go "behind the decks" and turn the show from its common, "rock" feel, to something more like a live dj set, in the same style of what's been done by The Chemical Brothers.
WF: From the technophiles amongst us: Can you tell us about the gear you used on this album and were there any changes from hrs:min:sec? Any favourite pieces of gear you want to share with us?
Marko: we are faithful user of Ableton Live, which we came across in its version 3.0 incarnation and never left since! We love the program for songwriting, remixing and performing live (obviously). It never failed me once and since version 7.0.1 I started mixing on it too.
Looking back at the production of TAOR I can say that for it we’ve used a lot less hardware than in the past and more software gear.. with the advent of quad core technology and the now common enormous hard drives the difference between using a hardware VA synth or a software VA synth has really become secondary. While the price of a true analogue synthesizer will never be secondary!! So, to name three of my current favourite pieces of gear I list: the API 512c mic preamp, Digidesign Smack! compressor and NI Massive software synth.
Marco: I'll just say, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX. I just L-O-V-E it.
WF: Thanks again for taking the time to answer these! And hopefully we’ll get chance to hear the album live soon too.
