Hi Al! You started a new label, what can you tell us about it?
It's called
13th planet, and, I already had a record label, in the eighties, called Wax Trax. As a matter of fact we had a band from Israel there, Minimal Compact – they were on our label and we signed them. So anyway, I just figured, in the state of the music industry today, the major label state, they don't know their heads from their assess. Their burning everything to the ground, so I thought it was time to start my own label again, to make sure of quality, that everything that comes out is good, and that it's artist friendly and not just dealing with demographics and product, and, you know, everybody is afraid of signing anything good because everybody is afraid of signing something that would not bring a lot of money, and it's just stupid.
Is there any specific musical direction to the label?
There is a specific direction in that we will only sign good music. It's not going to be oriented, like 4AD or something, the only qualification is going to be whether it's good or not. Because music is either good or shit, and we only want to release the good.
Are there any artists already signed to the label?
The first thing we're doing is this thing called Operation Cease Fire Project which is a get out of Iraq compilation, and other than Ministry, of course, that’s my band, there will be other bands, and after that we'll start to broaden the band raster and expanding the label. The good thing is that I have a lot of side projects. One thing I'm working on is with members of Killing Joke that should come out over the next year. But aside from side projects I want other people and bands to be part of the label.
The logo for the label is the eye in the pyramid, which also appears on the dollar bill – is there a concrete political agenda behind the label?
We are not from this planet to be concerned by the dollar bill; we are far beyond this ninth planet – were on the 13th planet.
Is there any connection to the 13th Floor Elevators (legendary 60's garage-punk band from Texas), who used the same sign and had 13 in their band's name?
Only in our insanity. Rocky Erickson (13th Floor Elevators frontman) is a bit nuts, but that’s O.K.. it's a good thing to be compared to.
Revolting Cocks are back after 12 year – is the new album with the same collaborators as before?
Phil Owens is back with us, but everyone else is new. It wasn't supposed to be an album, that's funny how it came about, we just had, over the last three years, various jam sessions with various people coming round my house and just jamming and pretty soon we had something like six or seven tracks on the shelf, and we just said: wow, this could be a great album, let just put it out as Revolting Cocks – because that's what we are, all my friends and me, we're basically just revolting cocks. It always had this party atmosphere.
Is it going to have the same political references that Ministry had in it's last album?
No, it's completely empty of a political agenda, it's just a bunch of drunken old men getting together and talking about what drunken old men talk about. It's not political, but it's certainly juvenile, it's a party record.
As of about three years ago, Paul Barker isn't part of Ministry, how's it working out without him?
Ministry started four-five years before Barker joined in, and it will continue years after he left, so it's not that big a deal for me. I mean, I wish him well and all that but we started to feel like an old married couple, you know, it's like having sex in the same position all the time, it's boring. It's nice to work with other people, and all of a sudden the sex is not boring anymore.
Ministry started as a more electronic outfit, than moved into noise and then metal – was it a linear development for you?
Yes, it's just progression. The first album under Ministry, for me, was like a kind of abortion. All the stuff I was doing then was on a certain label, which is not the one I moved to for the other Ministry records, and they just said "no, no, no, this is not acceptable, you'll have to do it again" and gave it to a producer, which wasn't my choice, and it came out really gross. My next album was Twitch and from then on is what I consider to be really the beginning of Ministry. And that's my natural progression – from noise to aggression to metal – the people changed, the music changed in a natural progression.
Was the decision to open your own label based on the experience of working with big labels and what is going around in the big label industry nowadays?
Absolutely. And because of my experience with Wax Trax I know what I'm doing, and it's beautiful, because we know what we're doing. And it's internet friendly – I mean, The big labels are horrible, their suing college kids for downloading music, which sucks, while I say – let them download it, that's the whole point of making music. If they like the album, let them buy it.
Do you see the situation created by the big labels as part of a "cultural occupation", as is seen by what the U.S.A is doing in places like Israel?
It's not the people of America. The government takes positions, and their basic driving force is greed, and that is what influences the cultural psyche, you know. How much is too much money? There is nothing like too much money for these people. It's ridiculous, instead of giving the money back into the community. It's the same thing with the big labels – again, how much is too much? They only want to make more, more, more… more profit, and it does sink into the psyche. But you really must differentiate between governmental and industrial policies, driven by interest, and the people, I think there are some great people around the world, that need to get together and tell the government to get fucked.
On their last album GSYBE! Made a map of connections between major record labels and gun manufacturing companies…
Absolutely. Like EMI, for example, are the second biggest arm manufacturer in Europe. If you look in their catalog, it's one that has all their activities on it and showed, in the nineties, all their financial holdings, you could see they have, like, Duran-Duran on one page and a land to land missile on the other side of the page, so it's just sick shit, man.
The next Ministry tour is going to be with Raven (Killing Joke) and Tommy Victor (Prong)…
Yes, they are here right now, we're just finishing the new Ministry record.
There's a new Ministry album?
Ye, were finishing recording it now, and it will be out by April 2006, on 13th planet. The next Revolting Cocks album will be out by February-March, and we're doing this compilation (Operation Cease Fire) for the Million Person March to Washington, a peace rally, and it's going to have a lot of bands on it.
How is it working with two people that also come from a long legacy of creating great music?
Yes, it's like we once were in great competition, but now we're just grumpy old man, so everything's fine. We're also touring together, and acting as a band should – writing together and all the other stuff. And it's working – just kick ass stuff.
The last Ministry album had a lot of specific references to the Bush administration – did you want to affect your listeners come voting day?
Of-course, also all our dates for our American tour were based on the voting registration. And every place we went to, 4 hours before the show, I would go out and sign people and talk to them about registering to vote. In our next tour, we're going to try to get people to vote for the mid-term elections fro the congress, and you know, we're very outspoken in our pursuit changing this shitty situation.
Was there any frustration in the fact that many people (yourself, Michael Moore, the South Park creators) tried to prevent Bush from being elected and the fact that he was?
Just because we didn't get the required votes. But it's just a start, there is so much to do, and we can't stand taking this shit, so now we have to do what we can with the mid-term elections, and trying to get people to see what is going on with the idiots that run this country – although it's not just them – the entire system is corrupt – and that's what we are going after, not the individuals, but the entire system, I mean, bush is symptom.
We can see the corruption here too, Israel is very much Bush influenced…
Of-course, they have a couple of things of interest going on in Israel. We can keep up all day, but the thing is that you have to keep money to make money, and Israel is just a hold in that, which is pathetic.
What about the new Ministry record, how is it going to sound?
The only thing I can say is that it is going to be harder and faster. Yes, definitely harder and faster.
Last question – what are you listening to these days?
Really old stuff, actually:
The first Killing Joke album
Wire – Pink Flag
Collin Newman – Commercial Suicide
Hank Williams – just a greatest hits collection, I can't decide on a favorite album with this guy.
Thanx a lot, Al
See you, and we hope to get to Israel and perform.
Lior Ashkenazy & Sachi Piro
