Wait a damn Cryogen Second... ES2:Chicago Interview with Eric Sochocki

Another ES:2 Interview, this time with the man behind Cryogen Second's - Eric Sochocki

Rusty: I'm going to be completely honest with you here, I haven't listened to anything that Cryogen Second has done. Period. Why, I'm a slacker and I want to hear it live. Give me a little bit of background on the band for the kids out there in internet land.
(I'm going to download and listen to the album WHILE we're doing this)

Eric: So, I started playing live/actually working on this band thing in 2005ish. I had been dicking around with programming for about 5 years beforehand, and never got the right combination of people to work with (I had originally wanted a female lead singer, wanted another person to program with, etc.). In 2005, after much prodding by my wife, I just decided to start doing it myself. I originally started this as a more futurepop type outfit, but the lyrics and music progressively got darker/more screamy/less about personal bullshit.

Also, tell those kids that my lawn is still off limits.

Rusty: Noted. I've been listening to Anthem for the Great Self Destruct while waiting for your answer. I am digging it. So if you did this all yourself, what are we to expect from a live setup? Is there a live band?

Eric: Glad you like it, man! Live is rather different from this record. I like the idea of adding in elements to a live show that aren't present on an album, so I have Kevin Edlin, a Nashville producer and engineer, playing the guitars and Asli (my wife) on live synth. Really, it's all about energy. I came into industrial from the Connecticut punk scene in the mid/late 90's, where kids would never release an album, only knew three chords, but got up on stage, and ruined themselves for thirty minutes, all for the entertainment of a handful of people who really got into it.

Rusty: For me, that's the thing. Energy is huge when you're on stage. Give it your all, or go the fuck home.

So, you said you came from Connecticut, where do you hail from now and has the response in your area been a good one for Cryogen Second?

Eric: Yeah! There was this whole... thing... that happened for a while in our scene where people either didn't realize or didn't care that while there is some importance to image and presentation, but unless you have something substantial live to back yourself up, you're just a dude in a costume, wandering listlessly around on stage, looking like a dickhead. Fortunately, I've seen more and more bands that have been coming up that are amazing performers and incredible musicians as well. It's a really exciting time to be in this scene, for all the jaded "I HATE INDUSTRIAL" shit that seems to be happening now.
To answer your question, I'm in Nashville, and have been, since 2003. It's been interesting. Nashville isn't a big scene, but we have had great response from the local markets around here in the past year or two, and we've been fortunate to have an amazing local promoter who actually cares about the local bands.

Rusty: I just drove through there TWICE over the last couple of weeks for my trip to Florida. The things I should know ahead of time before travelling. It's not too far away, so maybe we can get a show down there with you guys some time.

So, lets get to the reason we're all in Chicago on Saturday. Electronic Saviors 2. You have two tracks on there, one a remix for Inure and the other one of your own. How did you get involved in this project?

Eric: YES. LET US PLAY SHOW TOGETHER. I promise that I will only call you Busty when I introduce you to people.
I'm trying to find a way to answer this question without sounding ENTIRELY TOO serious or overly wordy, might take a minute.

Rusty: Take your time... show's saturday...

Eric: The remix was a no-brainer. I love working with Adam's music, so when he approached me to remix him, I jumped on it. I'm actually in the middle of mixing a track that we did along with another amazing artist that's going on his next single that's gonna be epic.
The other track (thirty eight) was a bit more of a labor of love, I lost a good friend under really shitty circumstances to a ridiculously rare form of blood cancer ten years ago. The people that worked with me on that track (Kevin on guitar and Sarah from Synapse on vocal) were amazing to deal with, and it served as a way to actually get closure about not being able to say proper goodbyes. I guess that was my main motivation for doing this. Watching people fight that shit and lose is horrifying. You hear stories about what people go through, but it's a lot different when you SEE it, you know?

Either way, when I learned about what was going on, we jumped at the ability to contribute and play. Life's too fucking short to be waylaid by the depressing shit, Jim putting out this comp (and by proxy the shows that have been going on around them) are a great way to make something great out of one of the worlds bigger dick moves.

Adam has informed me that I should not use the word "epic" when describing anything relating to him.

So, you know... leave that in, Highlight and bold it, and whenever those kids that were on my lawn ask about him, Make sure to use nothing but that word to describe him.

Rusty: Shit, I don't edit anything, this whole thread is going in there.

I'm trying to get a couple of these done today, so I apologize for making this a short interview. That means we're in for my ever famous "Lightning Round". 5 quick questions that could be word association as well and 5 quick answers. Ready? Alright, let's do this thing.

1) Jim Semonik
2) Beyond Therapy Records
3) Your take on the current state of industrial
4) Dave Shock
5) Beer or the hard stuff? (I gotta know what you drink for Saturday)

Eric: 1. Hopefully not an alien from another planet. I've never met him and only talked in a few short emails. Or maybe hopefully he is. Who knows.
2. Great starting point for smaller artists. Nothing but love for them.
3. Still lots of work to get out of the rut, but getting great again.
4. Probably a Gynecologist.
5. Me: A shot of Jaeger and a Jack and Coke.
Kevin: anything alcohol related
Asli: If you can get her to drink ANYTHING alcoholic you win everything.

Rusty: Fantastic. Alrighty, I'm wrapping things up here. Thank you for your time today. I'll see you on Saturday in Chicago for the awesome!

Eric: yessir! Have a good day, Senor Trombón

...I know the one guy I never want to make angry...EVER (Interview with Chris DeMarcus of Stiff Valentine - WTII Minifest II hype #6)

Stiff Valentine

Stiff Valentine from Vancouver is one of the recently signed bands on WTII Records. Their latest release "America Bleeding" is out now. I had a chance to do some correspondence with Chris DeMarcus and ask him about SV, Deathproof, audio engineering and battles with sea creatures and large mammals. If that doesn't make you want to read this interview, you're dead inside.


Falken: Thanks for agreeing to do this, I know we've met in the past. We had a conversation about this a few months ago. You were doing sound for 16 Volt when they were touring with Left Spine Down and Chemlab.

...It's time to start pimpin' the WTII Records Minifest 2 : Interview with Dave Shock of WTII Records

Falken: I'd like to start off by saying "thank you" for agreeing to do the interview. I had a lot of fun interviewing Matt and hopefully getting him some new people listening and buying his music.

So, I am sure there are people reading this asking themselves "who is this Dave Shock guy?", "what is WTII?", and "That guy runs a record label?"

Give me some background on you, the label and what it takes to run one. Because I'll admit, I've known you for a while and *I* don't even know the whole story.

...I finished the interview with Caustic...THE LIGHTNING ROUND! (Caustic interview : Part III)

This is the final part of my three part series of the interview with Caustic. If you have not read the other parts, click HERE for part one, and HERE for part two. I had a great time doing this with Matt. He's a no bullshit kind of guy and he helps make my day. I've really looked forward to his responses over the last few days and they have made my day a bit better than the last. For those of you who are new to this blog solely because of the interview with Caustic, I urge you to become one of my regular readers. You can subscribe on the right side of the page. This is here mostly for me as an outlet where I can tell people what made my life better today. In a time where so many people put a lot of time and effort bitching about things, I am trying to do the exact opposite and shine a light on things that make me happy.


Now, for the lightning round... I asked Matt seven questions that for some reason I thought would be short answers. I should have known better than to expect a word association type answer to these...

...I whip my questions back and forth. The Caustic Interview (Part 2)

This is Part II of the Caustic interview. Part I can be read here.

The interview continues....

Falken: That's great that you're not limiting yourself though. I've listened to Pre-Golden Vag Caustic for a while now and taking a listen to the new album... I'm blown away. It's a great album start to finish that is probably going to be in my rotation for months to come now. That doesn't happen too easily, and not just because I know you.

What is your take on remixing music in general (yours or others)?

...I'm having a good little interview with Caustic (part 1)

A face you can trust.

Earlier today, Matt put it out there that he's up for doing interviews. Being a very curious person about all things music and what people think when they are making their art, I decided "what the hell, worst thing he'll say is no." 


Background, I've only "known" Matt since early 2010 when Dan Clark and Eric Oehler put together the Fading Belief tour and had am.psych and Caustic on the bill for the Madison/Milwaukee/Chicago shows. I must say, Matt is a riot, I love what he does on stage, and I wish I got to see more of his performances in my younger years. Great stuff. To this day, I get Lady Business in my head out of nowhere and just rattle off "boom boom boom, lady business." It scares people. 


Other than that, I just have good conversation with the guy. We hit each other up on Facebook from time to time, and I've even sparked his interest in possibly doing a cover song of an old 80's tune with me in the future.


So after the jump is part one of my interview with Matt of Caustic: 

...what started as a joke, is now something serious.

A long time ago, a friend of mine thought it would be funny if after every post I made he would put the line "rub one out" somewhere in the thread. Well, 6 months later it got shortened to r1o. Mistypes changed it to R10 and so on. There have been many variations of it. So, with that, I recently started really getting in to prog house. I don't know why. I just really like it. So, I have decided to take a stab at it and take Falken to a different area of music than I have in the past. Normally it's dancy/electro/wtf. But, I'm going to blend my own style of prog house with industrial low end nu-metal guitar goodness that I have become known for in to what is going to be a great project for me. I am actually excited. I've learned quite a bit on my own in what spare time I have managed to get together and I know my synths and drum stations better than ever.

So, now what started as a joke is quickly becoming something I enjoy. No longer will I blush or facepalm when I see R10 anywhere.

...I realized @NightSchoolMKE is this weekend.

That's right, It's Night School this weekend people. I just remembered today.


Skinny Puppy is the music of choice this time around along with all the other goth/industrial classics that Mr. and Mrs. Smith like to spin.