Dismantled 2010 Live Lineup (Jon Siren, Gary Zon, TZA)

Recently Necromag caught up with Gary Zon, the solitary lead man from the industrial outfit Dismantled. We asked him about what shapes and changes Dismantled into what it was, is and will be.

Could you just introduce yourself for us.

I’m Gary Zon from Dismantled. We’re on tour in the UK for the first time in Dismantleds’ Career and we’re very excited to be over here and to give people a taste of our sound here that might have not heard us before.

How would you describe Dismantled in your own words?

Dismantled is something very visceral. Something that’s very personal, that I just feel for it in my lungs every time I’m around society; around people its just something that fills my lungs, it’s like the only way I can get it out is to write music. I could be something ugly, something beautiful, and something that ultimately expresses me and what my ideas are about society and the way I fit into it so ultimately that’s what it is for me.

From what I’ve heard, you seem to have more melodic vocals than your touring partners, ( Combichrist and Rabia Sorda) do you feel like your sound is still compatible?

Yeah. I feel the newer songs I have are much more kind of uglier for me and they’re not as singy as the other songs I have. So I feel it’s a good mix of both styles because we’re playing a few new songs off the new album ‘The War Inside Me’ that are very aggressive, very early Nine Inch Nails influenced but still very beat oriented, very compact, and I feel that’s what describes me right now is a more aggressive compact sound. Something uglier, not as melodic. I really want to just take all of the colour out of the new album and just have it be very blunt.

Initially was it a conscious decision to move away from the sort of rougher vocals and be more melodic?

Yeah, when I did the first album I just was experimenting and I really didn’t know what my style was going to be and so I was very into Front Line Assembly and I mimicked the vocals. That’s what I felt strongly about at the time and then for the second album I thought, ‘whoa! Is he going to do the same shit over and over?’ and what is this going to be and I felt like I had more to offer than that. My influences have changed. I was more into Nine Inch Nails at the time so ‘Post Nuclear’, the second album, has clear vocals and that expressed me more and I feel the best combination of that is like distorted vocals with clearer vocals on top. With ‘Standard Issue’ I feel I went a little over the top with the vocals being a little poppy and melodic. I think that’s partly to do with my other project, Aerodrome where I was doing more poppy music and that kind of went into the Dismantled sound. Now I feel I need to really separate that. Dismantled is something that can still be catchy but I feel like the new album won’t have as much singing. It will have singing but I think the main aggression I want to get out there will be more screaming, guttural kind of sounds

What’s the most important difference between ‘Standard Issue’ and its V2.0 release?

The main difference is that it’s basically remastered. If you want to think of it that way, because ‘Standard Issue’ originally was mastered, but the mastering I think kind of ruined the sound of it. I felt like maybe it was also my fault and there were problems like I was not given the right time for it, maybe rushing it or something and I felt like there’s a few songs; there’s a song called ‘Fields’ that sounded really distorted on the original ‘Standard Issue’. I wanted to improve on that. I just wanted to get the album out there as I had intended it to be and I think if you listened to it now you would hear a lot more detail in the mix and a lot of the songs are actually different versions than you’ve heard before. I also have a bonus track on there, ‘Social Animal’ and also an acapella version of ‘Get It Through’ which I actually intended for remixes but a lot of people just think it’s a fun thing to listen to as its just stripped to vocals because ‘Get It Through’ is a very sarcastic song so when people just hear the vocals I think they understand what the original song is about more. I didn’t really intend it as that but it happened

Do you feel that as releases and re-releases move on there is a growth in sound or are you still, so to speak, trying to find yourself?

I think I did find my sound somewhere around ‘Post Nuclear’ and ‘Standard Issue’ so I feel the new album that I’m doing is going to be a mix of those sounds, those two albums. I feel its going to be very club oriented and at the same time something that’s very raw and hits you in a certain way. That’s maybe more like ‘Post Nuclear’ but heavier and more beat oriented. So, yeah; I feel like I have a good idea of what I want to do on the new album and the sound is definitely something that I’ll have to just go with it and once I get a better feel for it then I’ll say ‘oh, well, it’s turned out like this’. But it’s always different, I tried to get a certain sound on the last album ‘When I’m Dead’ in 2007 and I felt like that was very boring to me saying ‘alright, this is what I’m going to do’ and telling the label ‘right this is exactly how its going to be’ and that came out very boring. I think the best way for me to work is to just get into it, really feel out the sound and see what happens afterwards.

For someone new to Dismantled what tracks would you say best represent the sound and general attitude of the band?

There’s a few songs that I think represent Dismantled; ‘Exit’ is a song that a lot of people love, ‘Breed To Death’ is another one, ‘Get It Through’, ‘Purity’ I think its from another time but I think it represents what Dismantled is a lot. ‘The Swarm’ is another one. I remember we played that song at Wave Gotik in 2007 and I heard the crowd singing it back to me and it had a very eerie, ghostly feeling and I feel like there’s always someone who comes up to me and says ‘I haven’t heard this song, can you play this’ and when we get it right, when we actually play the song live they want to hear, it’s a great experience. ‘Thanks For Everything’ is another song that a lot of people like. Actually, Marshall from Psyclon 9 was always singing to me the lyrics for that song. He really related to it. I feel like there are a lot of things that I put out there that people relate to strongly emotionally and I want to continue doing that.

Dismantled is usually referred to as being your child alone, does anyone else have any input in the band or is it just your own project.

I’ve had another band where I let people have input in it and I felt like it didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped so with Dismantled it is just me in a bedroom just doing the sounds alone. That’s where I work the best. I think when other people come into the mix and say well it should be like this and like that I get confused and it kind of pushes me and I’m just not very good in places like that. At the same time I feel like I can’t do it all alone. I feel like my live band right now really helps me progress in the live show territory and they definitely take care of a lot of things that might not be able to do as well myself in the live department. But in the studio I feel like if I’m alone working on the songs and just fleshing them out, that’s the best way for me to go.

You appear to have worked with a lot of big names in the industrial scene. What would you say is your most important experience to date in the shaping of Dismantled?

I think definitely touring with Combichrist was the most eye opening experience to me, because the first tour we did with them was in 2009 and I always thought industrial music was kind of stale before that. That it was something that only a few people got into. It was just like a niche market and with Combichrist what I saw was that it could have a lot of cross over appeal. I would see a lot of kids that I wouldn’t expect to see at industrial shows come out to their shows and I felt they were really crossing over. I really do like that because I feel like music needs to be experienced by as many people as possible and if you can reach more people than you intend I think that’s the best consequence of that. And so after I did the tour with Combichrist I really saw that, you know, this can reach a wider audience. It’s something that can progress and that’s a thing that a lot of other artists share that I found out stuff on, Like, Apoptygma Bezerk, we toured with them with our other band Aerodrome as well which we were very excited about, reaching out to another audience. We also toured with VNV Nation. I feel like all those bands want to reach a certain level that’s beyond what they have right now. I think that’s the greatest quality they could try to achieve. Not being in one stale place but just branching out.

You’ve mentioned your other projects. Are they particularly active at the moment or are you keeping the focus mainly on Dismantled?

I really want to keep focus on Dismantled right now because it’s just something that as time goes on and you do these other projects and you see the results you kind of realise that you can do really cool things with it; like, I got to work with the producer from The Killers with Aerodrone. I also got to meet Dave, from The Killers, the guitar player and all of that is really awesome but at the same time it’s like ‘What is your main focus? What do you want to focus on most?’ That’s a question I’ve been asking myself for the past few years actually and I thought it was one thing and then I realised that what I feel in my heart is more what Dismantled is. I really want to just express Dismantled. Like I said it’s what I breathe through. I feel like I just need to step away from the other projects and really focus on Dismantled. We’re still doing a tour with Aerodrone after this tour with Combichrist but after that I really just want to lock myself away and just focus on the new Dismantled album and just get that out.

How far along are you with the new material that you’re working on and what can you tell us that represents your aims for the new album?

I have about 3 songs finished that are about demos and I have a few more songs that still progressing. I would say they’re close to being demos at this point and it’s just really me dealing with relationships and people. Before I felt I was more of an outsider looking in and when I kind of got into the social aspects of people and relationships, which I haven’t really done that much. It’s kind of a rare thing for me. I do have an active social life in one regard but in another regard it’s something I see differently than most people. I think because it affects me in a certain way and I think maybe I’m just sensitive to it or something. But I’ll always have a different perspective on it I’ll always think that it’s a very insect like quality. People around you. It’s like insect wings buzzing next to you that could be gone at any second and that’s just dealing with the music and the relationships I’ve seen. I’ve seen musicians come and go and people moving on and all of that kind of left me a bit raw and I just want to kind of express that human element of sucking up whatever you can and moving on. That’s the best way I can really describe what I’m doing on the new album. It’s definitely something that’s emotionally the next step for me and I’m very excited to express that over side of me because it’s much more aggressive and despondent than before. Before I felt like it was much more depressing but this was just very angry material that I haven’t got a chance to explore before. It’ll definitely have some sonic elements like guitars but I don’t want to record it like metal. Anything metal sounding is definitely not what I’m going for. More like Nine Inch Nails. I would say it would still be a lot more electronic than something like that.

Do you find it difficult working through such darkly emotional material?

No. To me it’s always been like a safe place expressing that kind of thing. I don’t know. I’ve always kind of been drawn to a dark and strange world. When I was a kid I remember reading fairy tales and the only ones I remember noticing are ones where the hero dies or where something unusual happens, where something doesn’t go as you would expect. Like the hero dies and things just go on. I think that’s always kind of excited me and actually the only way I found out about industrial music was when Columbine happened. In The States there was a series of school shootings. I was actually in Oregon; there was one school shooting before Columbine and they locked down my school next to the other school. When Columbine happened, I never knew about industrial music before that, I had heard Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson but I never thought that was industrial music but when I heard them mentioning KMFDM on the news I’m like ‘what is that? And they’re like ‘well this is what had inspired these kids to do this’ and I had a morbid sense of curiosity and that’s how I got into it. I searched the internet and I found Front Line Assembly and that’s the band I was really attuned to for a while. It was something I could make on my computer and I didn’t feel like I needed a real band with live instruments to get there. I think I always had like a morbid, dark curiosity about life and I think that it’s very natural what I do with Dismantled. I think me trying to do pop music is something that’s another side of me that I still enjoy but ultimately, me as a person more is kind of dark, like just looking at the other side of things.

What advice would you give to someone trying to start a band in the scene at the moment?

I would say, definitely do what you feel is the right thing for you to do. Bands are just… I don’t know. My experience with bands has been very difficult because my vision has been the one, if I meet with other people and their vision doesn’t quite match with mine it becomes very difficult for me. I mean, I applaud anyone for even trying to start a band after think of it that way. Definitely try. I just focused on a band I liked and took elements from it, but I think if you’re creative and you have something to really show the people take that and it’ll still come out in your own way. I don’t think people should be afraid to copy elements of bands and as long as they’re creative with it and have enough of their own power to make it their own I think it’ll be fine. I think it’s a bit natural to explore that aspect of it but if you’re starting like a five piece band where everybody has their own direction and influence obviously I failed with doing that so I can’t give you any advice for that.

Would you give the same sort of advice for someone wanting to perform solo?

For solo? Yeah. For solo I think you have much more of broader range because you’re not constricted to other people telling you what they want and them dealing with what you want. You just have your own say in things. I would say just exploring other projects that you like and just getting one element from it that you like and then maybe exploring another element. I think it’s always the way. I think always being focused on one type of music is not always the best thing to do. You need to be always open minded to other influences and other music styles out there. I mean, even Britney Spears I think has some sounds in it that sound very industrial in a way. There’s really heavy processing going on with the vocals and everything. I think people don’t realise that right away but there’s a lot out there that you can take and make your own palette with.

You mentioned industrial elements to Britney Spears, Do you yourself have any particularly odd influences?

Yeah, well I did a cover of Paula Abdul for the Breed To Death EP and that was just because I was so drawn to the hook; The Poppy hook of that, that I felt I just needed to expand on that. You know, that’s what I loved about Front Line Assembly too. They have such pop hooks in their songs but they’re industrial obviously. I’m not as attracted to bands like Skinny Puppy because they don’t have that melodic, kind of poppy elements to them. I’m always into a good chord, something catchy and I think that’s kind of what I’m always drawn to. So I have definitely with Dismantled. Actually, I think there’s a lot of indie rock bands, kind of bands based on rock that I’ve been influenced by. One cd that I have been influenced by that people find strange is Brand New. They have a new cd called ‘Daisy’. They’re very like rock, indie kind of Cure sounding. They’re an American band and their album is just very hollow sounding like it didn’t come out from this new era, but it came out from 90, 95 or something. I really find it interesting in bands in this day and age that can come out with something that sounds very old like that. I felt I could take the chords and energy from that and put it into Dismantled and still have Dismantled electronic but just get some of that emotion in there, which is really cool.

Be Sociable, Share!

•