First of all, I want to thank you. I know that interviews are probably not the most exciting thing for you.
 
     Oh, I don't mind doing interviews. I actually quite like them.

I wanted to start with xtort. NIHIL came out about a year ago and you did a big tour after it. Where did you write the songs for xtort and how did you find time to do it?
 
    It doesn't really take too long to write the songs. NIHIL was finished in December of '94 and it came out in April '95. We toured in April and May of '95 and then we toured in September, October and December of '95. In the meantime, whenever I was not on tour, I was recording little bits and pieces of sounds here and there and when I started with xtort in early December '95, I just had a bunch of little ideas: a loop here or a bitsy little sound there. For months I was in seclusion organizing, arranging and recording more stuff. All of a sudden, like always, there were things that were basic songs. Then I brought F.M. Einheit over from Germany and we worked out a few tracks in the percussion department. Then Bill Rieflin came over and finished the percussion stuff on all the rest of the songs. Gunter Schultz came over and we worked on the guitar stuff, and so it took its course.

You have a lot of people on this new album. Nicole Blackman does some spoken word on "Dogma". Do you sit down and figure out what you want to do with each song and then contact different people?

    No, not really. The basic lineup for this album was already talked about a long time ago. I always wanted to work with Chris Connelly. Nicole had been doing her spoken word thing on one of the tours last year, so it was natural to have a slot for her. Everybody was somewhere slotted for some sort of performance. I just give them a track. If they don't like it, then they can pick some other track. Chris came in and he listened to ten tracks and said, "I want to do these two." Later on there was another two he wanted to sing on, and it's totally his thing. Please go ahead and take your time. And then, he's in the studio with his engineer and I'm there or Gunter is there and whoever doesn't want to be there goes and has some coffee and an hour later, you come back and Chris has laid down a track. It's a pretty loose kind of way to work, but it's a way that works for us.

Is "Power" going to be your first single off of xtort?
 
    There's not going to be a first single. "Power" serves to college radio and commercial alternative radio, but there are no commercial singles.

Will you be doing any remixes?

    Well, I don't like the procedure of having a commercial single because an album is a concept kind of work that needs to be listened to in conjunction. Secondly, it's just a rip-off to have commercial singles. Nobody needs a commercial single that just contains album tracks. My idea is much more to make an EP like four or five months after the album comes out that contains maybe one or two remixes as well as a couple of new tracks or whatever unreleased stuff, so there is actually a product that is worth the money that is being spent on it. I'm not really into promoting on this kind of level, having huge mailings and shit like that. KMFDM doesn't really care for commercial success. That's quite obvious at this point.

I see that BRUTE does the cover art once again on this album.
 
    Well, you know that we have a certain type of humor, so we had to throw the wrench into the system and break that expectation of another KMFDM album with another BRUTE cover, and it totally worked. It was the big outcry: "Oh my god, what's happened!" Some guy from Belgium that interviewed me last night on the internet called it "a crazy jive". Give me a break! It was just one time.

The next album will have a six word title then.
 
    Oh yeah.

Are you going to go on tour this summer?

    I don't think so. I think definately not this summer. There are a lot of possibilities at this point but I don't think we're ready to think about anything for the time being. First thing is to come out with the new album and then things will take there course.

I know that you are highly involved in the album layouts and the t-shirt designs and KMFDM has one of the biggest t-shirt collections of 'em all.

    Oh yeah, definately. We're running all of this stuff right here out our offices in Chicago.

So everything that comes out with a KMFDM logo on it is pretty much you.

    Absolutely everything.

Getting into your fan-contact. I know there are KMFDM discussion groups on the internet and there's KMFDM INC. Do you keep in close contact with your fans through these mediums?

    Very much so. I'm answering e-mail everyday and we get snail-mail everyday. We're processing orders for that little mail-order thing and we're sending out newsletters to about 10 000 kids every three months. I think were pretty darn close in touch and that's a really important thing for KMFDM. We're absolutely aware of the fact that we wouldn't be KMFDM without thousands of supporters over the years. On the same hand, it's kind of hard sometimes and also a little bit disappointing to get reactions that are very negative aboutthings that we're trying to do. We're not doing the things that we're doing to sustain an existence. For example, last year after the release of Juke Joint Jezebel, the phone wouldn't stop ringing. It was like movie companies, independent filmmakers and what-not that all wanted to license some KMFDM tracks for movies, commercials and TV stuff. So we're going through this process of pretty much scrutinizing the requests and then grant some things and deny some others. Then you get responses back from people that are like: "Oh you guys are selling out," but at the same time they enjoy the privilege of being able to buy a t-shirt for $16 where other bands charge $23 plus for a simple short sleeve kind of thing. It's very hard to maintain the proximity to the fans and at the same time be exposed to their little problems and needs and stuff like that and when it starts backfiring like that. But, we're in very close touch with most people.

The computerized genre of music is becoming the commercial standard, especially after albums like Pretty Hate Machine. You've been playing the same type of music for twelve years but do you ever hear that you are becoming the commercial type-cast because of it?

    Actually, that's something I hardly ever hear. I guess KMFDM has never really done much to further success. It's more like the things we want to do and we do them the way we want to do them. Other people have record companies on their backs that bust the band's balls and and stuff like that. Nobody can tell us what to do or send us down a certain road. We're masters of our own fate and that's a very comfortable spot to be in. You go on tour when you feel that it is time to and there is no one telling you that you have to perform at this and that. As far as Pretty Hate Machine, it definately opened a lot of doors with audiences who until that point would say, "What's all of that noise?" Now all of a sudden it's like the biggest thing since mashed potatoes. I don't know. I don't think about it that much and I don't take it that seriously. A lot of people tend to read more into this whole business than is actually really in it. We're the circus people and the clowns and gypsies of the 90's.

Do you see yourself being on Wax-Trax for a long time?

    We have definately a lot of commitment with Wax-Trax. It's been six long years now. We came into Wax-Trax just at the peak of Wax-Trax's existence and then it slowly went downhill and bands left and signed with other labels. Finally, Jim Nash died last year. Wax-Trax is a shell, but it is KMFDM's home. It's like living in a ruin, but I like it. We can do pretty much whatever we want and there's nobody there to tell us not to do it.