Census of Hallucinations started up in 1999. All of the members were in different bands who wanted to explore a different avenue for musical ideas and try to fuse together a more spacerock/psychedelic musical style with progressive elements.
What do you like in the use of samples and others sound effects?
It is very easy to go over the top with samples. Using them in a creative way and trying to produce your own sounds from existing source material is an art in itself. They can enhance the ambience you are trying to create and put forward clues for the listening audience as to where you are coming from and what you are trying to get at. Too many and or the wrong type of sampling can destroy the whole message of what you are trying to create, so it's a happy medium really.
Your first record develops a space vibe that could be close to space rock bands?
We truly love a lot of spacerock bands, especially for example the approach taken by people such as The Ozric Tentacles and the like but they encompass so many other styles in their music. We grew up with bands like Gong, Steve Hillage, Jimi Hendrix, Soft Machine, Caravan, Hawkwind, Kraan, Atomic Rooster and so on. The important thing is to absorb the influences of all the things you listen to throughout your life and come up with something unique, so that people wouldn't say that you sound like the bands you listen to exactly but that they can relate to your music because something in it reminds them of other bands they know and love.
I think that one of your goals with Census of hallucinations is to record an album that must be different from the previous one but always with the touch of the band?
This is absolutely correct! It would be very boring and we would not be able to progress if we could not come up with a different concept and style for each of the albums as we record them. The wonderful thing about Census Of Hallucinations is that as you have pointed out in one of your reviews, we can just be ourselves and as "out there" as we like. We don't produce formula compositions. There is not just one way of working. Sometimes things are very structured but they are just as likely to be freeform ideas that come out of jams which we then build upon. It's all about where people's heads are at the time of recording. Miles Davis once said, "it takes a long time to learn to play like yourself" and this is very true. For us, it's a quest for the truly unique and original.
The duo of your voice and Tim's one could be the touch of the band mixed with the freedom of your songwriting?
The two of us have been singing together in various band lineups for about nine years and we have been developing our singing style for that time. The most important aspect of this is harmony. Singing harmonies opens up a whole world of possibilities and it has to be an instinctual thing. The two voices are very different to each other. Of course there is the fact that one is male and the other female but once again, the influences are very different. It's only when you combine the two sounds of the voices and then add more vocal harmonies that things become clear and we can perfect the sound on the vocals that we are looking for.
How do you write a song and where do you catch these melodies?
There are various approaches to our songwriting. Sometimes we come up with the music first and then add the lyrics and sometimes the other way around. Again, it's an instinctual thing. We would stop doing things entirely if it was in any way contrived. We might have a guitar riff or a few chords and sing along with them and quite often it's the first melody that we come up with which is the one that sticks. We then develop the theme and add harmonies or maybe sing different sections and then sing choruses together etc. Most of the music is formulated first on guitar. It's like a difficult question we were asked recently, do you choose music or does music choose you? When Jimi Hendrix or Pete Townsend used to smash up all those guitars, was it really them making a point of saying "I rule you, you don't rule me!". Music is a very powerful force. You have to just pluck musical ideas/songs out of the ether. You have to tune into YOU where all of the answers are and not outside of YOU.
Do you think that world news got an influence on the topics of your lyrics?
Definitely! BUT the question we have to ask ourselves is this: World news or world lies? The world is now run by multinational corporations and the multinational corporations run the mainstream media. Therefore, these entities want us to know only what they deem fit for us to know. It is the official line. We disempower ourselves by handing over our power to politicians who are owned by the financiers. The financiers control the world through the banks and money makes the world go round. As long as they have got us in the position where we are constantly looking outside of ourselves for answers through religion, extraterrestrials or other such things, then we will never look within and find the answers that really matter. This also goes for a lot of the so called New Age religions which are just as bad and misleading as the older, more traditional ones. Jello Biafra says that we should BECOME THE MEDIA and this is the only answer. This is where the underground movement is so important. The underground radio stations, magazines and now television are vital to changing things by giving a voice to people who would otherwise have no outlet for their views and creativity. The core message is EMPOWER YOURSELF and stop handing over your power to greedy, self seeking, warmongering idiots who care nothing for the true potential of the human spirit. We are being misguided and we have to put it right. Otherwise there will be no future for the coming generations of human beings on this planet.
The last Census Of Hallucinations' record "Seeing things" is a collection of out takes or previously unreleased mixes, are there any hidden treasures of the band yet?
We decided to put out "Seeing Things" as we realised that there was a whole albums worth of stuff hanging about which had not been included on the first four CDs. Who knows, as we record more music, there may well be a load of stuff left over which we will release at some point. There are still a few tracks around that we may yet put together at some future time.
Which words will you choose to describe your music?
We would describe our music as first and foremost psychedelic in nature, with a liberal amount of spacerock, sprinkled with a dash of progressive and jazz influences.
What is your musical background?
We all started playing in rock bands in the 1970's which must seem like many moons ago to a lot of your readers Renaud! We went through the usual boring old misguided crap of being signed to various major record companies and management companies and agents, signing standard dodgy record deals with executives who didn't give a shit about the artist and nine times out of ten, we would end up as some kind of tax loss which would suit their purpose. As you might have gathered, we don't have much time for the greedy mainstream record business which is thankfully on the decline. The bands we started out in ranged from punk/prog bands such as Punishment Of Luxury and Neon to avant garde jazz combos such as Jon Stevens Away and our current guitarist did a couple of tours with Jah Wobble and Celtic rock bands playing in Ireland. There was a metal band called Vagrant and a rock band called Stan etc etc etc.
Did you already do any shows?
From the mid seventies onwards, we were all battering around in old transit vans doing endless amounts of both crap and good gigs all over the place, quietly digging a bloody great hole in the ground for ourselves. Round and round the pubs and clubs etc between the North East of England, down to London and up to Scotland playing some agricultural college or whatever. The whole scene has changed now. There aren't as many gigs and many of the venues we used to play are closed or have become carparks or whatever. These days we only play if it is DEFINITELY worthwhile. We've done quite a few radio sessions which is much better and means that you can reach a far wider audience. We intend to keep on doing this. Not long ago we went to Holland and played on Mark Deren's excellent "Mark From Holland" radio show and Free Radio in The Hague with Feddo Renier. We had a wonderful time with these people and would like to do a lot more of that kind of thing. It is a great way of promoting your music.
Which instruments would you like to use on your next records?
To be honest, our real passion is for guitars, bass and drums with a liberal amount of spacey keyboards. We would like to get hold of a few more sound modules and of course there are endless amounts of virtual synths to use on the computer. We've recently been using a POD effects unit for the guitars and we cannot recommend these units highly enough. You can get everything from vintage guitar amp sounds to modern guitar amps and they're very convincing. It saves carrying marshall stacks around in your rucksack! They also do one for bass guitars we believe.
Do you like to record any covers?
We only record covers of songs that we feel we can do justice to and can pull off in an original way. We wouldn't want to do a version which was exactly like the original but there's definitely a lot to choose from.
What are the projects of Census of hallucinations?
We are currently mixing the fifth album for release on Musea Records in France. We have a great respect for the work that Musea do and love such bands as Minimum Vital, Eclat, XII Alphonso, Halloween and the like. We are hoping that this agreement will put us in front of a wider audience. Meantime, we have recently managed to secure distribution for all of the Census Of Hallucinations albums through Hi-Note Music in the UK (www.hinotemusic.com). Also, our very good hard working mentor at The Freak Emporium, Kozmik Ken is helping us out a great deal.
What are the news from Stone premonitions?
As we stated in the previous question, we now have distribution for all of the Stone Premonitions releases through Hi-Note Music. There is the new Census Of hallucinations CD near to completion. We also have an excellent new release from psychedelic rock band Krom Lek coming soon. We've also just released a new sampler featuring everybody on the label and we have a new ambient CD from superb guitarist Paul Rose. We are now producing regular Stone Premonitions radio shows entitled Alchemical Radio, featuring all of the artists and CDs that come our way from outside of Stone Premonitions. We produce these shows for Aural Innovations in the USA (www.aural-innovations.com), Supanova Radio through our very good friend Remi (www.supanovaradio.co.uk) and the excellent Freedom Overflow through the amazing Garry Lee. If any bands reading this would like to submit material for airplay on any of these networks, please feel free to get in touch. We would be very glad to feature music of a psychedelic/spacerock/progressive nature. We are also writing a page for a national magazine in the UK called Get Rhythm. Our page is entitled "Keys To The Underground" where we feature the hard working networkers from the underground scene worldwide and we try to publicise their activities. Once again, if anyone feels that they have any relevent material for the page, please get in touch with us at the Stone Premonitions address.
With which artists would you like to collaborate?
The whole ethos behind Stone Premonitions is to do with exchange of ideas and skills. We are in the very fortunate position of being able to collaborate with many musicians from lots of different bands and solo projects. Most of the Stone Premonitions projects are interactive. It will be very interesting to see which collaborations materialise in the future.
What is for your the first Census Of Hallucinations' records to listen to to enter into the universe of the band?
It would be best to start at the beginning with the first album and then follow through with the rest. The whole series of releases has been designed to follow on from each other like pieces of a jigsaw. Hopefully, people will get the message by the time they have listened through from beginning to end. It is a continuous process. In actual fact, we have been surprised at how many people have listened to all five existing albums in sequence, so we must be doing something right!
How do you see the band in ten years?
Hopefully we will still be recording and living in a world changed for the better where human rights are respected and money is not the be all and end all of everything. We should be up to album number thirty at least or it means we will have been flagging!
Any last words?
Thank you very much indeed for giving us the opportunity to be interviewed in Zoopaloop. We have enjoyed answering your questions and wish you every success in the important work you are doing to publicise alternative underground music. SUPPORT THE INTERNATIONAL UNDERGROUND MUSIC NETWORK!