Godflesh: ‘Like Rats’ (1989)

Justin K. Broadrick first found renown with Birmingham grindcore godfathers Napalm Death, while also featuring in 1980s cult heroes Head Of David and The Fall Of Because.

However, it was with GC Green that he created Godflesh, who blew the doors off heavy music in 1989 with Streetcleaner, and spent the ’90s refining and developing their sound into dub and drum’n'bass. Throughout that decade, he collaborated in myriad projects, such as God and Techno Animal (with Kevin ‘The Bug’ Martin, and a host of respected MCs), Painkiller (with John Zorn, Mick ‘Scorn’ Harris and Bill Laswell), Curse of the Golden Vampire (with Martin and Alec Empire) and Ice.

The last decade has seen his sound evolve yet further into pop and indie sounds, while maintaining the sonic density his work has become known for. Quickly established as one of the post-metal elite with his current main Jesu project, he has kept busy with the ambient Final, more industrial Council Estate Electronics and remix work. Having recently released the first record from his electronica Pale Sketcher identity, his past is raising its head as the legendary Godflesh prepare to co-headline Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival with similarly reborn New York icons Swans.

In this in-depth interview, Broadrick discussed Jesu, Pale Sketcher and the return of Godflesh, as well as the status of Techno Animal and his other projects.

“I think the established audience, particularly the old school, wish that I was doing something aggressive with electronic music.”

How’s it going?

“Not bad. I just got back from playing a festival with Jesu. I was just in Prague, playing a full-on metal festival where we were the odd ones out, which was quite entertaining!”

Cool, what was the audience reaction like?

“Actually really, really positive. I mean, we had a stock set of fans, but it seemed like it somehow reached some new people as well, which was quite a surprise for a really overtly heavy metal crowd. The headliner for our day was Meshuggah, who I really love anyway; I think they are amazing. But we were the odd ones out. We were the only band who used, like, anything to do with electronics and laptops and stuff! [laughs] We thought we might be singled out quite badly, but to be honest I think we converted a few people. We did play quite an appropriate set. It was a set tailored towards the heavier end of the Jesu sound. All things considered it worked out quite well… I mean the festival was called Brutal Assault, so you can get the idea.”

That reminds me of the press release for this Pale Sketcher record, because it was talking about how controversial you moving way from rock instrumentation might be perceived as. Which may have been an issue back when Cubanate was supporting Carcass in 1994, but I’m always surprised at old Godflesh fans being upset that Jesu don’t sound like Godflesh. Since Jesu have been releasing music since 2004, do you find people are more accepting of more modern approaches to your music?

“I think the comment about it being controversial was purely in the context of how my sound has been established, I think. Me using electronics in my music is barely a surprise to anyone, really. But I think it’s just the context of Pale Sketcher. Because it’s emotional without being emo, because it’s basically sad boy electronica… I think most people would consider that if I’m doing anything electronic, that it would be fairly brutal. Like the stuff I did with Techno Animal and suchlike. And I think the established audience, particularly the old school audience, would wish that I would be doing something aggressive with electronic music.

“So I think the people used to the more brutal side of my music would certainly shy away from Pale Sketcher, and to be honest I’ve already seen it on the internet, so some extent. I think the album has already leaked, and I’ve unfortunately had a glance at a few forums that are more dedicated to the heavier side of my music, and I’ve seen a lot of derision towards this record. Like, people saying I should be embarrassed for making a record like this. To be honest, though, it’s absolutely something I was resigned to. My wish with Pale Sketcher is that it will traverse something of a new audience; people who might share that side of my tastes. Because I do quite frequently find that my somewhat established audience is… a lot of the pop music I listen to, or even some of the electronic stuff that’s poppy as well, a lot of these people generally shy away from. The fact that I use such blatantly auto-tuned vocals, which is totally intentional…”

I love that.

“People hate it, you know.”

Well there’s this concept of ‘real music’, and obviously auto tune isn’t considered real music because it’s messing with the natural sound of the voice, but for me if you’re recording something in the studio, then it’s about how you manipulate sound.

“Exactly, and it’s all sound. Absolutely, you said it really. For me it’s all texture and stuff. It’s not like, just because I use an auto tuned vocal means that the only reference point is some Cher single, do you know what I mean? I don’t get that: to me it’s just another instrument and a set of sounds that’s been synthesised. Jesu has already been daring enough to step outside the expectations that my audience seems to have of my music. But I think there’s a hard core that exist that run around on internet forums and quite blatantly kicking anything I do that’s outside of screaming and shouting and low-tuned guitars.

“In an ideal world, I’d release Pale Sketcher without any idea of my history whatsoever, so it could be an anonymous object. But we all know that it’s impossible to do that; we need to have some reference, so it’s quite hard to just come out of nowhere and do this stuff I guess. To some extent it helps things get around, but I really do expect to get the reactions that I’ve already started to receive, even from a leaked album. On the flip side of the coin, I’m hoping there’ll be a lot of people into the other side of my sound, people who may not even know my sound, who might come to the Pale Sketcher record and not care for any of the heavier music I make.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 18th, 2010 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.