1. Please give us a brief history of how Testify started:
- In the summer of 1992 the members of that very old electronyc band named The Fair Sex realized that they had developped intoo a sound far from raw aggression. And they still felt raw aggression deep inside. So what to do? They planned to create a new project dedicated to solemny that emotion - and lo! - Testify was born! But nowadays Testify has nothing to do with TFS of which they once were the offspring.
2. The new album seems vastly improved over the debut I heard several years ago. How do you feel about the progression from the first album to the new one?
- The first album was a piece of weird shit created by some guys coming from electronic regions - this The Fair Sex cretins I had mentioned - trying to make somewhat "harder", guitar-orientated sound. The second album was done by a very different crew - only Myk (vox) and Mathias (sound-chief) had survived. Due to the metal-guitarists Moses and Kullf the whole sound developped intoo a kinda new dimension.
3. What is the industrial scene like in your country? Are there a lot of bands you are influenced by?
- The industrial scene in Germany seems to me somewhat smaller than a few years ago, perhaps even of a little less importance. But who may guess what it will be like in a year or so? We hope it will has grown again, of course. Are there a lot of bands that we are influenced by? - Probably yes. But we do not intend to give away names - we try to rob their ideas in secrecy.
4. A lot of people compared your sound to Ministry with the hard hitting guitar work interlaid with the electronics. What certain pieces are most important in the composition of a Testify song?
- The writing of a Testify title in most cases starts with inventing guitar-riffs, seldom with any sequences or noise-patterns. Guitars and drums are the basis we build the rest upon. But by the way: Ministry? Is that a new band from the States, or what? Never heard of them.
5. How did you come to the attention of Ministry who did a bunch of remixes for you, and what do you think of Ministry's change of sound with their last release ˙Filth Pg?
- OK - we admit it: We have heard of Ministry. The co-operation with them however was nothing more than sending tapes to Fluffy Auerbach, one of their engineers who did great work on some Testify tracks. The connection to him was brought about by the Van Richter-label. The ˙Filth Pig album has totally different features as the predecessor-album, as the whole world knows. Sometimes it's hypnotic by its slowness, whereas the other made you dizzy with speed. I think most of the listeners were astonished, at least, and many of them dissapointed. This was not the case with me, I am free to admit. I will go and try to copy some ideas.
6. Are you into other forms of music? I noticed that the vocals sometimes delve into the death metal range, so I thought maybe you had branched out different areas of heavy music for influence.
- The death metal section is definetly not our region. There are other projects some of us are active with as well, but more in the Noise-Industrial area or the electronical scene, or even weirder stuff. But no death, blood and kill-my-chicken-themes, I fear.
7. Have you ever toured the States? Will Van Richter ever set up tour plans for you here, and what is your contract with them? How have they treated you as a label?
- They treat us very good, as any band in the world would define their band- label-relationship. I am very impressed by such Rock-standards, so I use it now. We have not toured the States yet, and only the Seven Endless know if we ever will do that...
8. Industrial purists tell me that there should be no guitars in true industrial music. Have you ever heard people say this, and how do you feel about it?
- Those people obviously prefer the old 80's-definition of Industrial which had less guitars within the sound-construction. But the 90's-version was quite different, and as you perhaps have expected: We prefer this latter version.
9. What's next for Testify, and what tours are you planning to embark on in the near future? (Tell us also about any cool tours you've done in the past)
- The very next steps will be to set foot again here in the Old World where we were not as popular as in former centuries. There is a new co-operation with a new label in Germany which needs being improved throughout the next weeks and months. For the time being we are looking for a new live-agency. You see: more sort of organisation-matters are current activities. Any cool experiences of the past? We never had exciting experinces - and that is the reason for us to continue: to find at least one single of these events!
10. Tell us a little bit about the lyrical influences for these songs, especially Under Queen Whore's Grim Protection. Very interesting lyrical style. Does the English language pose any difficult problems for you?
- Thanks for the compliment. Queen Whore was born out of pure intuition, narrating a silly tale about strange malicious persons who suddenly feel the urge to become something like saints: they all at once wish to dedicate their life to love, compassion, and so on. Torturers that amazingly think they should do something good, or so. It's a sort of weird tale, as I said. Imagine Hitler waking up one morning thinking: "Oh shit! I feel a sudden urge to apologize to all those who I have treated really bad! By the way - how could I behave so heartlessly? I can't recall my motivations!!... I must stand up fast and - yeah, what could I do? To repair the wounds I have aroused? Perhaps cleaning the shoes of some Jews, and later invite them to dinner? Not the shoes, but the whole Jews!?! Good idea!" He would have surprised his attendants I bet! - Ideas like that were the inspiration for the Queen Whore lyrics.
11. Finally, use this last space to mention anything we left out that you want to talk about.
- Perhaps a sort of exclamation?!! Like this: Support Testify in their fight for a better world! Buy their records, even if they seem mentally insane to you (which they are, regrettably)
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