LIT – Alternative Blogzine

Leo and Lucy talked to mastermind César of the Spanish oldschool EBM band Mekanik Disorder. The following interview gives an insight into the extraordinary release and the story of the band.

Hallo César, many thanks to have the opportunity to ask you some questions. Maybe you can describe the project Mekanik Disorder shortly?

César: Hallo, well I could describe Mekanik Disorder as a plattform where to show some things that lay deep inside myself, which go outside with a sound acording to my strongest music influences. This is a very own personal project of Electronic Body Music (without forgetting the synthpop touch or even post-punk spirit, genres I love as well as EBM), but it all in the oldschool way.

How did you discover your passion of creating music and why did you decide to release it now?

César: After years of listening to music and keeping devotion for some bands, I decided that I had something to say. Suddenly one day I realised that I was spending even more time on creating music than listening to it, that was the point. Until now, when Caustic Records has given me the chance to release an album, something that was just a dream for me not much time ago.

Internia, a bandname that is mentioned in your biography. What can you disclose about that project.

César: Internia was basically an electronic solo-project where, from the middle 90`s, my brother José Carlos decided to explain himself musically. More or less the same point I was going to pass through a few years after. No one could guess how was going to sound the next track: Experimental, Techno Pop… the stuff of Internia was unpredictable and that made it brilliant. Definetely he did open the doors for me to, first listening, and then dare to create, this kinds of music. And if I started being fan of styles from Synthpop to Industrial it was thanks to him.

How did your brother and you get together to write music?

César: He had composed some very nice instrumental tracks and then he had the chance of doing a gig in one of the best venues in Granada, „Planta Baja“. On stage he prefered to be something closer to Vince Clarke than a frontman, you know, so he asked me to be the singer and for me that was fantastic. I gave him a little hand in writting some letters, and thanks to the covers we did the setlist was very atractive.

With Internia you did cover songs that you personally like where a lot. Can you name three songs that come to your mind spontanuously?

César: Of course: „Running“ (Information Society), „Photographic“ (Depeche Mode) and „Felines“ (Front 242). Undoubtely I´m talking about some of the songs of my life.

Did you ever get feedback from the bands who had written the original?

César: At that time we didn´t try to get it. It still wasn´t the total internet age, today it would have been easier because I could get that feedback when doing my first cover with Mekanik Disorder, „Melting Away“ from Absolute Body Control. Thanks to myspace I contacted Dirk Ivens and he did like it so much (there´s a curious story about this).

What happened to Internia when you founded „Mekanik Disorder“?

César: Work and family were little by little letting less time for my brother to carry on making music and attending a band. Surely i´m talking about something usual. That was just the moment when I decided to start my own project (from Internia I especially was missing to go on stage). Anyway, of course he still loves the bands of his life and he supports Mekanik Disorder in every way he can.

You write lyrics in four languages: English, German, Spanish and Dutch. Do you speak all those languages fluently?

César: Well, at first I can say i´m able to write and sing in those four languages. Apart from Spanish, my mother tongue, I´ve got a fluently English. I have German studies from years ago, but I couldn´t have continuity and I still have got much left to learn; anyway, I have interiorized the gramatic and reached a correct pronuntiation. Dutch was the last one on calling my attention, and I started aproacching it thanks to my German knowledges.

What did cause the idea to write in multiple languages?

César: Basically the importance I give to the lyrics and, of course, my passion for languages, especially germanic ones: I think they are the most suitable languages for electronics as I understand it. By the way, for me is like a new challenge everytime I try to express feelings in German, and I really enjoy when at last I achieve to build something.

Now, the debut album „Cold & Strong“ will be released. What do you want to express with the album as a unity?

César: I´ll bring you here a short answer from the past. One day, in the times of Internia, they asked me what electronics means to me. I just said: „the coldest way to express the strongest feelings“. Without being a conceptual album, the title reflects more or less what you are going to find inside, what EBM means to me, and it speaks about my personal way of performing it.

Are there any criteria for you to decide what language you use for a particular song? How does inspiration for the lyrics come to you?

César: I use to compose the music and then writte the lyrics. The first idea use to come to me from thoughts, feelings, passions, things i have lived or even dreamed, it all closely linked to my personality. And yes, that idea can even determinate the language I´m going to use, you know: thinking on the voice as another instrument, the language can work out as its first effect, by the way if I want to sound as cold as possible. Then the chorus and the delays make the rest.

„Stigmatized“ – obviously an Old School EBM track and absolutely catchy. What can you tell us about it?

César: I choosed Stigmatized to open the album because I wanted a visceral beggining, without intros or whatever. Something able to show directly what is Mekanik Disorder about, from the first instant, and this was the track. Listening to Stigmatized you can identify much of the elements that define the music style in wich moves Mekanik Disorder. And it seems like the synth melody at the end was a still place to go for the tormented soul the lyric talks about…

„Das Letzte Mal“ and „Ich Kontrolliere“ remind me a lot of DAF. Has this been intentional?

César: Honestly, this has been more intentional with „Ich Kontrolliere“. Since I started composing it I considered this track as a tribute to the DAF sound and attitude, and the result was that. In the case of „Das Letzte Mal“ it all came more unconsciously, maybe because this was my first composition in German and I took out all the DAF spirit that lays inside of me, i supose.

„Hate At First Sight“ – is a nice playing with words. What is the story behind it?

César: I like this play with opposite concepts that may are the two faces of the same thing. Behind this there´s a story of a relationship where the passion of love was grewing so quickly and it turns suddenly to something absolutely immposible to handle. That paradise we seemed to be living in was not real at all, so where did love end and where did hate beggin? Or are we talking about the same? It´s just a reflection, but this is the stuff my songs are made of.

What do you reckon to be „Pieces of Mine“?

César: This is probably my most personal song. Imagine yourself walking alone in your city, after having some beers, late at night: every street reminds you something you have been living there. And there´s anything from you, from the pieces you´ve fallen to, in every corner where you were anytime laughing, crying, kissing or, of course, drinking. So this is myself taking a round in Granada.

My Spanish is not very good…well, what is „Orgullo Minero“ all about?

César: Maybe´s the only track in this album with a strong social inspiration. This song is dedicated to Almadén, a little town in Spain I were living in for a few months, known by its mine of mercury. This place reached prosperity in the past, but now the mine is closed. When visiting the mine they told me stories from the convicted that were forced to work, and how they where taken from the prison to the mine along a corridors under the ground, without seeing the light of the day in years.

And my Dutch is not better that Spanish. So what can you tell us about the message in „Ik Ben God Niet“.

César: The answer is in my passion for cycling. About two years ago I read in the newspapper that the cyclist Frank Vandenbroucke (one of my idols, dead last october) had written his autobiography titled „Ik ben God niet“, sentence I translated instantanously (I am not God) and, believe me, that made me starting pay attention on Dutch language. I have taken this title for dedicating a track, not only to VDB, but to another belgian heroes like Johan Museeuw and to all of who have made this sport great. I´ve tried to inspired myself especially on what cycling means to the flemish people, when filling the roads with their Lion Flags. I really admire them.

You are supported by Fran Rubiño and Gilberto Gámez when it comes to live performances. What can you tell us about your gigs?

César: Since I started this project I was sure that I wanted to show it on stage. Then I needed someone to give me a hand. Fran and Gilberto, both them friends of mine, are very nice bandmates and they really enjoy being part of Mekanik Disorder at the keys, software and synths on stage while I am basically playing the rol of frontman and taking out all I have got inside. We give to our live performances a very special meaning, from the most agressive to the most solemn moments, allways trying to get the deepest connection to the crowd.

Where have you been and where can we look forward to see you soon?

César: Apart from Granada, our city, we have been moving around the South Spain area: Sevilla, Almería.. After passing these last months with all my efforts on working hard to the album I have no new dates for gigs at the moment. Anyway, the surest thing is that we are going to present the album in Granada to all our people and then, my main target is of course to have the chance of touring some places beyond Spain and showing how this projects sounds live in Germany, Belgian, Eastern Europe… and all the places where the music I make still have a considerable support. I wish i could confirm to you a few dates over there!

In your pressinfo, some other band names are mentioned. Maybe you can tell me your first spontanuous thought, feeling or image you associate with them:

Front 242: The Atomium, Brussels.

Calva Y Nada: Someone dressed like a monk, carrying a cross.

à;GRUMH: Jesus jumping across the water.

Nitzer Ebb: Technoclub, Frankfurt – 1989.

DAF: Gaby Delgado, mic in hand, inflamated veins, singing between the crowd.

Absolute Body Control: A farewell. A precious way to say goodbye to anyone or any place.

Depeche Mode: A just – married couple celebrating their honeymoon in a factory.

Information Society: “Running“, the first song i have ever sung on a stage.

Portion Control: Electro-punk. Raise the pulse!!

Force Dimension: One of the most forgotten EBM acts from the old golden age.

The Neon Judgement: Too cold to breathe!

Many thanks for your answers and we wish you much success with „Cold & Strong“. I guess you will have some closing remarks to our readers…

César: Thank you so much, nice to do this interview. Kind regards from Spain!

Mekanik Disorder @ MySpace

http://www.myspace.com/mekanikdisorder

Mekanik Disorder @ www

http://www.mekanikdisorder.com