Official Hot Rod Girls Save The World Website

Interview by Eric Cooley

In the lexicon of Seattle GOTH-INDUSTRIAL history, Kill Switch...Klick became the Pacific Northwest's leading industrial crossover bands. Formed in 1991 by Devin "D.A." Sebasstian and augmented by percussionist Mike Ditmore (and of course the revolving door of members who served in various live KsK incarnations) KsK forged a live following and put out several self-released tapes soon after. D.A. and other like-minded musicians corralled together Seattle's first Industrial-music based collective:The N.E.C. aka Northwest Elektro-Industrial Coalition. In 1994 KsK signed to
Cleopatra Records; that year, they released their debut album, Beat It To Fit, Paint It To Match, and a year later Oddities & Versions.

KsK recorded their hallmark album deGenerate in 1996 before embarking on their Muzak For The Masses U.S. Tour; they returned and out popped another, Alt., a remix/B-sides compilation. Sebasstian somehow found time
to record yet another full-length "solo" CD, the ambient-experimental One Minute Endless. Shifting gears and in reinvent-oneslf-mode, Sebasstian formed his own label/multimedia company/weekly TV video show/ video
production company - Go-Kustom, on which he released Organica in 1999 (re-issued on Martin Atkins' Invisible Records label a few years ago). Though under the moniker KsK once again, Organica is decidedly different than past efforts: a (gasp) effects-free acoustic approach [compared] to the once driving, "stompy" sound he forged earlier. KsK reunited with Cleopatra Records in 2001 for the Milkin' It For All It's Worth: The Best Of Kill Switch...Klick, a 17 track anthology that also included Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Spahn Ranch remixes. Still licensed to Invisible Records, out came Almost Ambient Collection Vol. 1 in 2003 - a reworking of KsK material with an ambient-electronic downbeat style. Still with me?? During that same year, D.A. donned another persona and recorded and released yet
another full-length album: the "Dick Dale meets The Cramps" flavored self-titled D.A. Sebasstian...technically a follow up to 1995's One Minute Endless, but miles and miles away in approach.

Still hyperactive in running Go-Kustom and the weekly music video show Go-Kustom TV. D.A. is currently producing a full-length independent film, recently finished up a video for D.A. Sebasstian & The Inner Demons, and awaits near completion of the percussive-based project Flathand 5. Since the mid 90's D.A. has been hired to produce, record and re-mix OTHER bands in addition to his self-penned material, among others: GARY NUMAN,
Faith & Disease, Gene Loves Jezebel, PsychoCharger, Vanessa Lowe and recently DragStrip Riot.

I pried D.A. away from his studio for the following interview:

MW: Let's begin with the NEC, the year it formed, the core members, how it grew and why it ended.

D.A.: Actually the N.E.C. (Northwest Elektro-Industrial Coalition) came about in 1993 from a conversation between me and Chris Masey & Robert Riscassi of And Christ Wept. Chris and I, were talking, with Robert throwing in his two cents via Chris every few seconds. They had contacted me about doing shows and knew a few other bands in the area. It was hard for Electronic and Industrial bands (i.e. Non-Grunge) bands to get shows at the time. I mean you can't really book a Nine Inch Nails style band with a Pearl Jam kinda band, especially not back then. So the conversation ended with a "we should get all the bands we know together and have a meeting." That was the inception. The birth was at the defunct Puss Puss Cafe were word spread and all these guys showed up. I was really excited seeing so much initial interest. SMP, Shallowhead, Noisebox, And Christ Wept, Kill Switch...Klick, The Same, Noxious Emotion and Terminal all showed
up at those first few meetings. The thing the N.E.C. did was allow us to book "industrial" nights at different clubs. Suddenly the promoters didn't have to risk throwing an unknown electronic artist in-between rock bands. When you come to the table with a full meal- people get hungry. We also pushed the angle nationally and got write-up in Keyboard Magazine, that also helped. Seems like Seattle always looks outside it's own city limits to form an opinion of itself. Especially when it comes to music. After the first wave of bands became less involved, due mostly to their own musical careers taking off, it kinda fell apart. The N.E.C. had a good run of around three years and definitely gave us all a sense of community, when there wasn't one prior.

MW: Then KsK and NoiseBox linked with Cleopatra Records a few years later?

D.A.: We actually signed to Urge Ltd (formed by a former Virgin Records big wig Russell Zieker) a year before Noise Box and then us, signed to Cleopatra Records. Urge put us in a fancy Portland studio for some very expensive recording sessions, but ultimately the deal went no where. However it did make us more cautious about labels in general. As far as
"pioneers"- there were some other bands around at the time- locally there wasn't much. Everything was so a-buzz with the signing of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, it was hard to even shit in Seattle without the word "grunge being left in your toilet bowl. I initially came to Seattle back in 1989, because it was the biggest U.S. city close to Vancouver, B.C., which was the home of Nettwerk Records. I loved Nettwerk. Moev, Skinny Puppy, Manufacture. Those were the pioneers of industrial music at the time.

MW: Your lineup morphed throughout the years, like many acts with the front person as leader, but it's basically been you and Mike (Ditmore) for the most part?

D.A.: Mike was a total support mechanism to my fucked up way of creating. I have a tendency to push push push, sometimes in many different directions at once. Some people couldn't keep up, but Mike help keep things focused.
When he quit in '97 it was a real crusher. He has a serious day job and couldn't afford to fuck that up to go on another U.S. tour, so he graciously bowed out. We're still friends and he's actually playing an Alien Father character in the movie I'm shooting this summer.

MW: Your released the experimental and quite brilliant "One Minute Endless" in 1995 or so. Why didn't you just call this KSK and add it to the cannon?

D.A.: One Minute Endless was so outta sync with what I was doing with KsK at the time, I thought it would be better to release it as a solo work. Also several of the lyrics were taken directly from my poetry book, so I thought it would make more sense. My wife gave me the money from a law suit she had won in the French Courts, so I figured, "what the hell, lets start a record label." She also hand glued all the slip cases for that release. Now that's love!

MW: Then came a few more solo releases, dithering back and forth between KSK compilations, remix CD's, etc., At about this time you formed iRegular Records, seemingly due to your frustrations and lack of creative control being
signed to Cleo. What have you learned as a label head? have you appreciated being signed and not dealing with the BS? I'm the opposite, F&D were DIY for a spell THEN got signed. I'm interested in your perspective vs. mine regarding this..

D.A.: Actually I was quite happy with Cleopatra Records. We had a good relationship. Brian Perrera is a decent guy. He didn't fuss too much about things and let me do what I wanted. They paid royalties on time and even gave us extra tour money when our van blew up in the middle of our 1997 tour. There was an invisible pressure sometimes, but that is part of exposing your private parts to the world. iRegular was an outgrowth of Indvsta Mvsic, which was the label name I put One Minute Endless out on. At a point I decided I wanted to make my own label viable, not just a vanity
pressing imprint for my side-projects. That's when iRegular Records became my priority, even more so at the time, than Kill Switch...Klick. Owning a label is an insane undertaking. Your trying to at least break even on desperately small investments, releasing music you love. Given my tastes, that's a small market to begin with. The main thing I found is running a label really takes your time away from creating music. You have to really engage in the "business" side of the "music business." Now record labels are becoming extinct thanks to the MP3 format. I clap and cheer. I truly feel that "music" and "business" do not belong in the same sentence with each other.

MW: Yeah, like a bad marriage. I recall before we were friends, the name you made for yourself remixing tracks by GARY NUMAN, and to a lesser extent Faith & Disease, Gene Loves Jezebel. I know you did a few others.
Can you talk about this; how they came about, what it was like , how the artists reacted, etc.,

D.A.: I like remixing...most of the time. The Gary Numan and Gene Loves Jezebel remixes were contracted through Cleopatra Records. When Cleo first asked me to remix the Gary Numan track, I for some reason misunderstood the request. I thought I was remixing a Gary Numan cover band. When the tape arrived in the mail and I plunked it into my machine, out warbles Gary Numans exposed "vocals only" tracks. I nearly shit my pants! This was one of my biggest influences, the guy that almost single handily made synths cool! It was like God calling you on the phone and asking you to rewrite a chapter or two in the bible. "Hey- D.A., you know that Romans 15...could you run with it, make it a little spicier..." Well not that heavy, but I was jumping around my studio for a day or two. My wife was like,
"Gary who?" Most artists have been pretty favorable to my remixes, at least to my face. I don't really solicit the work, so I don't do alot of them. In the last few years I've only done Faith & Disease, Psycho Charger and Vanessa Lowe.

MW: You were originally a bass player in a Punk band, what made you gravitate to Electronic/Industrial to the point of "No Guitars!" and then full-circle, warming up to guitars (a very adept one at that I will add!) and Rockabilly sensibilities.

D.A.: In the early 80's all I could afford was a bass and amp. I had to sell my prized possession a 1970 Dodge Challenger, to get it. Synths were extremely expensive. I started messing with synths in the mid 80's when they came down in price a bit. I had a pre-midi Crumar Stratus. You had to draw grease pencil markings on the knob faces to remember different sound settings. Right after I got the Stratus, I went over to a friends studio. He had a sequencer and drum machine, I got to mess with a few times. It started me dreaming of a time, when I could make music without all the trouble of having a band. That may sound strange, but I'm more of a "composer" than "musician." Band politics always seems like a major distraction. As I got pulled into the synth world of "composer utility," I found myself drifting
away from the rock world of "band politics." Guitarists became kings in those years, especially the late 1980's, guys like Van Halen, Satriani and Malmsteen. It was sickening. This pushed me further into the anti-guitar camp. Guitar is such an over used instrument, I wanted to do things differently. When I moved to Washington D.C. from San Bernardino, California, and got hooked up with the east coast "Industrial Dance" scene (thats where "Industrial" came from- like Industrial Strength Dance Music) I found myself making all my music without any guitars or basses. I had a few synths, a sampler and a drum machine. I was happy, I was composing. A few years later I ended up in Seattle and got sober. D.A.: During my early stages of sobriety, I had massive amounts of anxious energy. I used that to create this thing I called a Slambar. It's like a cross between a lap steel guitar and a bass. I play it with two screw drivers, very, very "Industrial." It became my guitar surrogate, it became a big part of the KsK sound. So fast forward a six years, to 1998. I decide in true Punk Rock fashion to destroy all I have previously built. Synths and samplers are easy to come by at that point. Everybodys got one. I decide to buck the trends and record an acoustic guitar based electronic album of Kill Switch...Klick remakes. It's called Organica (Organic-Electronica). Recording Organica, makes me appreciate the guitar again. I realize that the guitar was not the enemy. It's like that guns kill people bumper sticker only- guitars don't kill creativity, corporations kill creativity. Now I use guitar sometimes, other times I don't. It's all fair game.

MW: That doesn't surprise me; I've found there to be two types of scene shapers, the ones fixated and passionate in a specific genre/scene, and the other type who makes a splash in one scene then expands out to other styles.
At what point did fronting KsK seem "not enough" for you and compel you to branch out, label head, TV music video producer, film maker, etc.

D.A.: I've dreamed of doing more in the "visual arts" fields, ever since I got a taste of co-directing KsK's first music video for "Follow Me," back in '94. I've been playing in bands since 1981, so although I've never grown tired of playing music,I felt I was becoming complacent, or maybe "comfortable" is a better word. Whenever you get "comfortable" in an art form, you run the risk of losing your legitimacy, and starting to sound like a bad copy of yourself. I like challenges and film and video are very challenging to me right now. I started Go-Kustom TV for two reasons- first, to get exposure for Seattle bands, kustom kulture and lo-brow are and second, to teach myself how to shoot video and edit. Nothing like learning by doing. I've used this as a foundation to my music video production and most recently my film making. I have a plan, it just takes time to execute it.

MW: It's amusing when I hear, "oh Kill Switch...Klick, they haven't played live in a while, are they still together?" or to that effect. KsK is a project you can step into and out of unlike most bands with a lineup, complete with fragile ego's to juggle. You have to an extent, fell under the radar a little due to your lack of playing live. You have another KsK CD in the works, set for a 2005 release, can you shed some light on this. Will there be another KsK
live show...ever?

D.A.: About two years ago, Mike Ditmore and I started talking about a new Kill Switch...Klick album and playing shows again. Trouble is I didn't want to revamp the old stuff, you know like some lame assed reunion tour bullshit.
We have been talking about a serious multi-media show. I wrote about 10 new tunes and gave him the CD-R's, but the project kept getting bigger and bigger. I know what I want to do live, and it's definitely not 3 or 4 guys playing music music for 45 minutes. i want stage projection units and full theater sets and actors and...well, thats when I told Mike we should put it on hold, at least until we can prove our film making abilities, then with that under our belts, hit up some investors. So that's why we're making the movie first. 2005 should be when the music is finished. I'm shooting for a 2006 U.S. Tour of this uber show.

MW: One aspect I like about Seattle's Goth/Industrial scene is that it exists and thrives practically in a vacuum; almost wholly ignored by the local media (The Stranger, The Weekly, KEXP, etc.,) yet supported by the people, clubs, and bands who seem oblivious to the lack of media attention. You don't seem to concerned with say, getting airplay on KEXP either, their loss really. Why do you think this is?

D.A.: The internet. People can connect a lot more easily now. Radio, record labels and media are becoming obsolete. You know I used to read The Rocket and The Stranger to find out what's going on in the local music scene. Now if I hear a local band I like, usually by word of mouth, I'll just do a Google search and then download some MP3's of the band. It's like our label and TV Show websites get over 1,000 visitors per day from all over the globe. It's just keeps increasing year after year. Three years ago we had 300 visitors a day. It's growing- especially with the up and coming generation.
I hope they kill commercial radio and the weekly newspapers. Interactive media all the way!

MW: How did you and Martin Atkins of Invisible join forces? How has that been going thus far?

D.A.: Martin asked if he could re-issue the Kill Switch...Klick - Organica album and a Johnny Cash tribute I did on iRegular Records (former name of Go-Kustom Rekords) back in 1998. I agreed. Then he put out the Kill Switch...Klick - Almost Ambient Collection Vol. 1 in 2003. Thats was it. We haven't talked much since.

MW: Talking is overrated. Especially when it comes to making music and art.

D.A.: Art and music is all we got. Everything else is secondary. Creativity is what life is all about.