Interview by djginge

Hello! This is Myk, voice of Testify, doing the interview -
When the predecessor-band of Testify, The Fair Sex, grew somewhat too soft and smooth, the TFS-members Rasc, Lo and Myk decided, on one hot summer day in 1992, lying in the grass of a graveyard in Munich, to found a really nasty/biting/whatsoever aggro-project, and lo! - the idea of Testify was born.

Why did you call the band 'Testify'?

Myk: I think, sorry, in the first flace, we just took it exclusively for the sound of the word. Later we delivered the interpretation: That in the face of the world we wanted to testify something. What exactly? Very likely something like that we were alive and kicking.

Is the band a full time profession or do you have jobs as well to bring more cash in?

Myk: We have several musical projects beside. But still that would scarcely be enough to live from. No, there are other activities which I will not give away now.

Who are your main influences and why?

Myk: In contrast to the common notion that we are influenced by Ministry exclusively, we are influenced by far more bands, at least inspired. As well as by movies, stories, wrechted books etc. We listen and analyse, we rob ideas, which we try to set into our very special sound-constructions.

What is your favourite work to date and why?

Myk: Now I fear I must answer with a standard by which many bands answer questions like this: Our favourite work is "Triviality Beyond Acceptance", our newest work. It contains all the elements we stand for in a highly satisfying minglement.

What was it like touring with Die Krupps and working alongside a member of Ministry?

Myk: It was ever refreshing to work together with people that have a special name and status in the Scene - and Adam Grossman of Skrew should be taken into this list as well. All that was very inspiring.

What is to be expected if you come to a Testify show?

Myk: Hhhmm... The Scream Of Anger, a tiny bit of blood (when Myk scratches his breast during the perfoemance of A.N.G.E.R.), lots of sweat; and one or two tears when we play "Quest Of Nothing", our 1995- Dark Ballad.

What are your favourite venues, countries and tours so far?

Myk: There are several places which we yearn for to be back there... But for some reason, perhaps due to the astonishing liberal-ness of the country, I ever especially enjoyed playing in the Netherlands.

Why are your albums downloadable - does that tend to kill the sales of them or not?

Myk: From the first days of MP-3´s this is one of the great questions; and some people answer it in the way that the promotion-advantage of downloads is immense and should be used. CD´s will be bought anyway - due to their greater worthness. The same question was being asked in the 70´s - when the audio-cassettes came onto the market: Will that new medium not kill the LP´s? It did not. So one should not be too anxious I think.

What would say are your greatest achievements to date so far ?

Myk: The thing that makes me most proud and glad is the creating of stuff that had not been in the world before. "Under The Cold Moon" ( The Dark Ballad of 2000) did not exist in the waking world - before we took it from somewhere and created it. And when it was finished it seemed to me that this Dark Jewel must have been existing before in some dark place in the outer space, or so. For it was so goddamn convincing and indeed super-zwingend.

What is the average Testify audience like with regard to age/sex/image and attitude of fans ?

Myk: OK it was somewhen in our past when we realized that this kind of music that we create - for some reason- does not seem to be the right music for the fair sex, for the female sex, for women. Very seldom we saw girls in front of the stage, and so. We fell into deep brooding and even trouble of the mind, and when we finished considering the theme we realized: "Mistikack! (which means: "shit!"). We´ve chosen the wrong genre!" But -alas! - it would not be convincing, if Testify would change their sound in the vain attempts to sound like Backstreet Boys, or something like this. So, sighing with dissapointment, we took up our instrument and invented another roar-guitar-riff. At once we felt relieved, although not really happy.

Where does the band seem to go down best?

Myk: As far as we can overlook this: In the US we tend to sell more of our albums; in the eastern regions of Germany however we had our greatest live-show-events. But we do not care about this. The warren places of the Australian deserts, in the western parts of that land - these are our final destinations. OK, I´ll try to stay serious. And so I must say: I fear in the most places of this planet we are still totally unknown.

Are there plans to play the UK (maybe in a support slot perhaps)?

Myk: We work on plans to get "Triviality Beyond Acceptance" released there - everything else will come aftermath.

What influences and likings do you have outside the Aggro/Industrial metal ?

Myk: There are numerous wonderful things you can listen to in this world of apparantly countless inventors of music. Oneiroid Psychosis is one of my top-favourite for the time being. You should listen to "Dreams (with pollutions when virile)". Super-great stuff. Also we like EBM and Gothic, or the mixture of it, like The Fair Sex... But sometimes we even spread our wings of interest far out into strange-genre-regions - reaching finally Kim Wilde, about whose comeback I personally am very glad.

What influences you lyrically?

Myk: Ahr! The darkness that is innermost of all, possibly at least. The wrath about ourselves and the whole globe. Frustration about things that won´t work and things unbearable. The dark mysteries beyond the schemes of the waking world - troubling our soul in its dark foundation... All matters like these. Testify of all our projects was appointed to be the most blackest, investigating the dark side of life, so to say.

How do you feel being dubbed the next 'Ministry'?

Myk: Finally! I already started to anxiously ask myself whether the Ministry-comparision will not arise in this interview. So with a sigh of relief I state this answer, for this time: It is a honour for us to get a laudatio like that. But Ministry will return! And in the mean time we hope to conquer the world with "Triviality Beyond Acceptance", so that Al Jourgensen is being asked, when Ministry´s complete comeback has been launched: "Al, how do you feel being dubbed the next `Testify`?" (With Al smiling, of course, answering: "What an honour for us!")

What was it that made you choose to sign with Van Richter ?

Myk: Van Richter found us already in the very early state of our existence, in late 1994 I think; and took us under VR-wings, where we prosper ever since.

Where do you obtain many of your samples from e.g. the children?

Myk: Most of the children-samples of "Triviality Beyond Acceptance" I derived from cassettes on which I use to record the voice of my daughter Allegra. Yeah it is Allegra! The golden haired Princess with the Fat Laughter. Other sample-sources are more konventional: extracts of movies, from Distorted-CD´s; sometimes we even walk thru factories carrying our portable DAT.

What do you guys do when not working on 'Testify' - hobbies etc?

Myk: We drink German beer, and gaze hopelessly into the Gegend; and when the fire is kindled, after several bottles, for a fleeting moment, we talk nonsense and try to smile in false optimism; and then we return to gloom and brooding. OK - that was one of my tales again. By the by: I have written a novel, a persiflage-parody: "Der Herr Der Ohrringe" which is "The Lord Of The Earrings" - a slapstick-Fantasy-book that was released in late 2001 in Germany. Mathias is quite a well-known sound-engineer in these areas of Rheinland, and has much to do. Kullf, guitar-player, is working in the nearness of a graveyard - in order to stay in contact with the right inspirations.

What are the bands future plans?

Myk: To find the relief for which we are struggling since I dontknowwhen

What was it like seeing yourselves on MTV?

Myk: The Testifylers pretty much enjoyed the moment seeing themselves for the first time on MTV! We were drinking beer, on that occasion, sitting on a couch side by side, and it became a classical afternoon for us, because we realized how bad the communications between our musical projects had become. For suddenly Blonder, keyboard-player of The Fair Sex, the sister-project, came in and was astonished. "You have already produced a video for Testify??!!?"

Do you get much radio airplay - if so, who with ?

Myk: Radio-play? Testify? No. I think not. At least I have never made that experience.

What are your main goals in life?

Myk: To find the relief!


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