Could you give me a bio of Testify?
M.: Testify was founded in late 92; first German releases in 1993; first US-releases in 1994; first visit in the States in 1995; we had several changes of line-up; and we still bear the vision of healing the world with our sound-construction.
How would you best describe Testify's sound to anyone who still doesn't know you?
M.: The Scream Of Wrath. That is one of our favorite definitions.
What is "aggro-industrial metal"?
M.: This is the mixture of heavy fat guitars with atmo-and sample etc-noises, with the innermost philosophy to formulate a statement which turns anger into creativity.
Please, catalog your releases to date...
M.: The Us-releases are:
"Testify 01", 1994
"BallroomKiller", 1995
"MMMMYAOOOO", 1996
"Crack The Mind", 1998
soon: "Triviality Beyond Acceptance"
Describe the process whereby Testify create their music...
M.: We always used to start with working out new guitar riffs: This was mostly the basic idea to start with; the next steps are: creating drum figures and noise-atmosphere-parts; in the very end the vocals and lyrics are being created.
If you could play with any band or artist, who would it be and why?
M.: To this question there is only one answer: We should play together with Ministry, for - I think - we were never compared with another band but with them (interesting phenomenon).
What other bands or projects have the members of Testify participated in?
M.: Testify is the offspring of The Fair Sex, an old German band. Besides there were numerous other projects: Nice Gods Bleed, 1 AM, Warm, T-L; and even some more...
Which are your major influences?
M.: Our biggest influence seems to be that after a short interval of satisfaction we are ever dissatisfied with the results we had created; so we have to write new material.
What are you listening to in this period?
M.: Nowadays, August 2001, I often listen to Apartment 26; and to The Union Underground; and to cEvin Key's newest release; for example.
How do you feel with Van Richter?
M.: VR makes an outstandingly enthusiastic work for us
What do you think about German music scene?
M.: The german Black Underground scene seems to be still growing, which is amazing. We have had numerous interesting meetings with other musicians and fans thru-out the years. But there's one difficulty: the scene still seems to be quite polarized: The natural hand-made music-fraction; and the pure EBM-scene; and we are somewhat in between these two regions...
Testify has been stylistically compared to both Ministry, Skinny Puppy and Skrew. What do you think about such comparisons?
M.: As you might expect we are not too eager on comparisions. We create our own sound and we would wish that our titles per se would be objects of discussions; and not our nearness to other bands of the genre...
Which are your next plans? Are you going to realease a new album?
M.: Indeed we soon will release the next album: "Triviality Beyond Acceptance" which already was completed on July 1st 2000. It is high time to let it see the the light of public life.
What do you see in the future for industrial music?
M.: Well, to us is not given the gift of foresight... We will be curious to watch the next steps of evolution that is in store for our genre of music.
Music apart, which are your main interests? Who are Testify when they don't play?
M.: We work on several projects some of which had already been released, but most of which are still waiting to step into public. Besides musik we adore the beauty of the Fair sex; and we too often drink German beer. For the time being I I am about to finish a slaptick fantasy novel being a persiflage of Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings"
Is there anything you want to tell to Babylon readers?
M.: Don't let yourself get eaten off by gnawing dissasticfaction! Thank your very much. With severe regards, Myk Jung
TESTIFY PAGE | NEXT INTERVIEW 