PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
DAVE BEDLAM: First of all Andy thank you for taking the time to speak toPlanetmosh, my first question may seem a little strange but I’d like to know what the genre term “Aggrotech” means to you?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: Absolutely nothing.
DAVE BEDLAM: Nothing?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: it means absolutely nothing to me, it’s such a loose term, its jus aggressive technological music, I never understood the term “Aggrotech” myself.
DAVE BEDLAM: so it wasn’t a term that you picked up yourself then?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: no, I mean I don’t hate the terms for music that people use, for me I never really cared about labels, I have got so many different inspirations and so much different things that I listen too, so for me I always had the hardest time trying to explain what we are doing. So its like how would you describe Combichrist to someone who has never listen to that kind of music ever…so you kinda go “hmmm do you know Depeche Mode? Well it’s not like that *laughter* ummm ummm of so errr oh so you know Slipknot? Ok well it’s not like that!
*both laugh again*
A.L resumes: so it’s kinda if you like dance music…oh so it’s dance music….no it’s not it’s kinda aggressive Techno…but not, I mean for someone who listens to music like this it’s easy to explain, a little of this but a little bit like that…if you know what I mean.
DAVE BEDLAM: Yeah I know what you mean metal influenced aggressive techno but not.
*both laugh again*
DAVE BEDLAM: so your most recent release is “throat of glass” from your 2010 album, how has it been received by your fans?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: ummm really good, yeah really good I mean you always have the portion of people that hate everything you do and still turn up to your shows and love it, then you have the people that hate everything you do regardless and will never turn up to your shows but the people in-between that actually care about it has been very well received and it has also been a lot of fun playing it well because for some reason…well actually I know the reason it transfers very well live but also because we have been touring so much that when I went back in the studio to record the album I didn’t consciously do it with a live show in mind but you bring so much inspiration back from touring with you and writing a lot of it on the road you know it definitely has to influence it.
DAVE BEDLAM: Yeah that’s cool, so do you have much new material played for 2011?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: Yeah hopefully, I mean we will get there eventually but first of all I need to take time to breathe a little bit and I am gonna do something with my punk rock band “Scandinavian Cock” and finally release the album, then spend some time at home with my puppies and the dogs and the mayhem associated. I got some movie and some video game sports stuff to do but kinda just step back and get some perspective and try to get a little objective to the next step Combichrist.
DAVE BEDLAM: Sounds good, so is it true that you do everything in the studio yourself?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: Yes.
DAVE BEDLAM: how do you find that?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: It’s amazing, you have nobody to complain, nobody complains until you are done!
*both laugh*
DAVE BEDLAM: so it’s your personal control…
ANDY LAPLEGUA: is only one reason I do this and it’s because I need Combichrist to be without compromises and if I have other people in the studio I obviously have second voice’s in the studio it just takes away the whole not compromising thing, I want it to be honest and I don’t care if it’s different from album to album because it has to have evolved naturally, it has to be something that I want to do and if you have other people lead you and they try to push and point you lose that creative process of making it natural, so that’s a big thing.
DAVE BEDLAM: does the band have any involvement in anything you write at all?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: I take a lot of the live experience with me as inspiration for sure, that is even if I want to or not it’s there, you know it’s gonna be there and I learn from them live and I get these ideas of how things should be you know from being such a dialed in live band which plays so many shows with each other so I have them with me like subconsciously in the studio.
DAVE BEDLAM: Ok yeah, so there was an incredible amount of remixes done
for “this is my rifle” do you have a favorite?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: I probably do but it’s so deep down there because we made it public so we got like 200 remixes back, so we were going through them and we were like “oh this one’s good listen to this, or oh this one’s horrible man…
DAVE BEDLAM: so speaking of the ones that were there any so bad that you just wanted veto them?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: well yeah there were ones that were so bad you just wanted put ‘em straight in the trash, specifically the ones that sounded almost the same as the original because that’s the worst thing ever if you do a remix and just re construct the exact same song and I was like that’s not the point …and something had good ideas but erm I am trying to be nice….
*both laugh*
DAVE BEDLAM: you don’t have to be, be as frank as you like…
ANDY LAPLEGUA: well something’s were just horrible, but erm it happens but that’s why we do it, we want to see what people do with it, we want them to put their own finger on it and see what they can do…
DAVE BEDLAM: you toured massively with Rammstein, were there any highs or lows?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: the best memory out of everything is that of the friendship and family that we got out of it for us as people as they played arenas every night so they all looked the same, they had their own stage and their own crew down to security they had the same people…the shows themselves go in a blur, they were all good but it’s a blur as most arenas look the same don’t they but it’s behind the stage, you know the social life of being on tour. It was like being a band on tour, it’s wasn’t like this is for Rammstein and we were dicked off into a little closet somewhere, it was like we were on tour together, just like a band it was cool.
DAVE BEDLAM: what can people who have never seen a Combichrist show expect to see?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: I guess you have to know the music to know what to expect but we always give everything that we have, one it might more than others but if we have something to give we will give it and the better the audience is the better the show gets for us because we just feel their energy and our adrenalin kicks in, one thing I will say is that we never hold back we always give everything we have!
DAVE BEDLAM: ok my next question is what is the shit that will fuck you up?
ANDY LAPLEGUA: That song I think, we quit playing it for a while but at the time it was a lot of things, It was bit personal and meant to be a bit funny but it has lost that meaning now over the time, it was just a fun term except for if we do finally play again it will just be a song, we always used to play it at the end of the set as it was just mayhem, everything was falling apart and it was destruction on stage so it became that song and now we have just got past it now, we might do it again I am not saying we won’t!
DAVE BEDLAM: OK well that was my last question so thank you very much for taking the time to speak to Planetmosh.com.
ANDY LAPLEGUA: thank you!
