Testify was originally born as side-project of a band of mentally-sick morones called The Fair Sex. Testify always consisted of a studio and a live-crew, which is the only persisting phenomenon concerning the people involved. Both crews are always changing: nowadays the whole bundle consists of Mathias (noise-sound-brillianter), Moses (git/programming), Myk (vox/prog), Kullf (git/beer), Sven Stone (drums), Bull (bass). We had a quick chat with two desperate boys, but also two talented musicians from the dark industrial scene, Moses and frontman Myk to the occasion of the release of their new album "Crack The Mind" on Van Richter Records.
Sideline: Compared to "01", "Crack The Mind" is really different as it sounds much more industrial, more machine-oriented. How do you feel about this evolution of your music?
Moses: Already the very first steps of writing are accompanied by sampling and computer stuff. Concerning the studio work these features are of outstanding importance, not so concerning our live-performance.
Myk: Nevertheless - your impression that the whole album sounds more
machine-orientated is with no doubt due to the four remixes, not due to the
original five Testify titles that seem to us more metal-bound. The remixers
obviously preferred the computerised side of Testify.
Sideline: "Crack The Mind" features some remixed tracks of your previous album "Mmmyaoooo". Remixers are Die Krupps, Die Warzau and Plastic Noise Experience?
Moses: Some of the remixers are somewhat like friends, or at least known to us. And indeed we appreciate their work and their style.
Myk: The most important reason for their doing the remixing however was
probably that they were the only ones in the world that wanted to have
something to do with Testify, harr.....
Sideline: Regarding remixing work once again, are you interested in remixing other bands?
Moses: In matters like these you should ask Mathias who is the only Testifyler being capable of such work, we fear. And he has done numerous remixes for other bands - like Armageddon Dildos or The Fair Sex or Tommie Stumpff, to name just a few.
Sideline: You have now been active with your various projects since some years in the goth-metal-industrial scene, so what is your opinion about it and its evolution the last years? So ,what do you think about this flow of new acts and the negative effects it could have on the scene?
Myk: We have suffered from the negative effects within the Industrial scene for far too long; and we have complained about this too often to repeat it
now...
Moses: No, we will complain, Myk! You should not forget that this is the last fun left to us! So let me complain, please!... (now the complaint:) We have produced such wonderful albums but nobody seems to take notice of them! That is strange and beyond our comprehension! And we do not like it.
Myk: That was a real good complaint! Meine Verehrung!
Sideline: Regarding live performances, how would you describe Testify on stage?
Moses: On stage Testify is much more natural than in studio, and that is
Testify-ideology from the very first beginnings.
Myk: There are additional musicians and they have become so dear to us that they nowadays belong to the line-up as band members that are even granted
one or two beers once in a while: Bull and Sven and all these crazy guys
that fill Testify with living energy...
Sideline: What acts do you feel close to in terms of music, attitude,?
Moses: Please allow us to answer this with a Testify-standard: We are not interested in comparisons. We are tired of being compared to Ministry or so. We do our own thing and try to make it OK, that's all. To testify on both sides of the Atlantic that we are worth listening to is of course quite a good aim.
Sideline: You are signed on a US record label, Van Richter Records. How did this happen?
Myk: We are never satisfied with our labels' work, probably only because we are far from the goals we wanted to reach. And not even in our darkest moments we have the slightest touch of the idea that it might be up to Testify itself that we have not reached our goals... Kind of self-deceit, of course.
Sideline: Any plan to move out to Usa some day... The good old "American Dream"?
Moses: We would like to get to know the US a bit better, for example by being there more often, no doubt. But to finally move out to the States we are
probably too doubtful concerning the American Dream and all its strange
results.
Myk: The world's sucked dry by the American Dream (quotation from
Guevara - big Testify hit)
Sideline: What else can we expect from Testify in the near future?
Myk: You can expect Testify to conquer the Industrial scene or to fail
attempting doing this. Har! this was again a good classic of a Standard
phrase. Sorry. But everytime we have created something like this, and
especially in such brilliant-dumb shortness, we just don't want to take it
back....
Moses: Some people regrettably don't understand this our (trying) to be
humorous - They think that we take ourselves too serious and important, that
we over-estimate ourselves, that we are arrogant or not aware of our silly,
totally exaggerated slogans. There was for example this article in the
Voltage magazine... the guy mentioned that we always lavish ourselves with
self-praise! That we would call our album the best aggro-metal album of
1998! That is indeed regrettable... do those people think that one single of
these ridiculously exaggerated promotion-slogans have been invented by
us?
Sideline: Testify means giving indications, clear signs that something is true, so is there any message to understand or did you chose the bands name just for the word in itself?
Myk: We enjoy declaring that the reason for choosing this band-name is due to our wish to prove before the whole world that we are able to make the sound of the hard, big-balled wrath or whatever... This is a lie, of course. We chose this name just for the word itself, and you have already suspected it.
Sideline: To end all this, the usual question: is there anything you would like to add that wasnt tackled in this interview, any joke to tell or something to say to the readers?
Moses: Please believe us that we don't over-estimate ourselves.
Myk: We're only tiny shizers in the arms of Industrial muse.
TESTIFY PAGE | NEXT INTERVIEW 