1) First off, Eddie, why don't you introduce yourself to us, eh?

Eddie:  My name is Eddie Katz; I live in a beautiful small country town in the Dandenong Ranges named Menzies Creek about an hours drive South East of Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia.  It’s an absolutely beautiful location with giant gum trees and ferns everywhere and it’s a great place to write and record music. I currently sing, play bass and keyboards and write Heavy/Progressive/Industrial/Electronic music in band named “Mechanical Organic”.  I’ve been involved in writing and producing music in a number of bands and projects over the past 20 or so years.  My first real success came in 94 when I was in a band named “Vauxdvihl”.  We produced an album by the name of “To Dimension Logic” which was well received by the progressive community world wide.  After “Vauxdvihl" ran it’s course for me I moved on to form a trippy little band named “Where Echoes End”.  We produced 3 full length albums and a single.  “By The Pricking Of My Thumb” was released in 1998, “My Sweet Grotesque” in 2001, the “Hate Someone” single in 2003 and “Pictures from the Attic” in 2004.  I’m also currently working on a guided mediation based project named “Pathway to Perception”.  We’ve released 2 full length CD’s, “Sacred Flame” and “Kingdom of the Sun” and at present we’re working on the third album which should be finished soon.  “Pathway to Perception” is signed to “New World Music” so we’ve been fortunate to be able to reach many people around the world with our material.  

  When I was younger I was forced into taking piano lessons which for some reason I didn’t enjoy.  I gave up on piano and picked up the bass guitar which I was much happier with.  I played bass in “Vauxdvihl” and “Where Echoes End” but around 1994 I began dabbling in keyboards, sequencing and programming.  I guess I haven’t looked back since, because most of my time is now spent sequencing and writing new songs on my computer.  Technology has really allowed me to develop my own musical, vocal and lyrical ideas from start to completion which is something that just wasn’t possible when I first started out in bands.  The only thing I don’t do at home in my own studio is the mastering of each album which we have always left to the professionals.  I also basically handle all digital artwork duties and web design for all the projects I’m involved in.  

2) How did the whole Mechanical Organic thing start off?

Eddie:  I basically started “Mechanical Organic” because I wanted to express myself on an individual musical and lyrically level.  To be brutally honest a lot of the people I have worked with in past bands have been a little slow at producing their own musical parts and it can get rather frustrating waiting.  I’m quite prolific with regards to writing music so I guess I end up spending a lot of time waiting for others to catch up. I’m definitely not a power tripper, I love working with other musicians but at times it can get a little annoying when people can’t produce, mainly due to time constraints or lack of motivation. I like to constantly move forward and break new ground so I began working on new material for “Mechanical Organic” in my spare time. I began developing vocal melodies and song structures to keep myself busy and to force myself to learn new writing techniques.  At that point I began to realize that the songs and music I was writing really did sound original and unique so I decided to continue down the path of doing the whole project myself. Around that time I also became interested in government conspiracy, the Illuminati and The New World Order which soon became the driving force behind much of the lyrical content.  It was a complete joy to be able to work at my own pace without having to wait for others to contribute.  I managed to write an albums worth of material and I was very happy with the results but the whole project lacked something, it lacked the heaviness I thought the project required something extra so I began searching for a guitarist who could do the project justice.   I eventually found a fantastic player named Connie D who fit the bill so perfectly I could believe my ears.  He gave the project everything that was required and then some.  I virtually gave him full artistic license to take the music in whatever direction he wanted and he blew my doors off with what he produced.  The beauty of this band is that Connie and I both have our own studio setups so we can basically record all our parts at home and then send whole completed songs to each other.  I sent my finished songs to Conrad and he wrote all his guitar parts including heavy, lead and synth guitar lines to those tracks.  He then recorded and burnt all his guitar tracks onto CD and sent them to me.  I then imported all those tracks back into my music program and began mixing.  It was an absolute pleasure working this way.

  With regards to the recording and vocal tracking I did update and rerecord certain vocal parts once the guitars were added.  At the stage of mixing the guitars into the track I realize that the vocals really did need a lift to match the fluidity and intensity of the guitar parts so I went back and added extra layers where needed.  Most of the time there are approximately 3 or 4 main vocal layers going on at once, then there could be as many as 2 or 3 vocal harmonies with each one of them layered 2 or 3 time.  So at any give time there could be as many as 9 vocal tracks overlapping each other.  I think this helps to give Mech Org it’s unique sound.

3) There's an occasional Oriental influence in the vocals in some of the songs...was that intentional?

Eddie:  No, it wasn’t intentionally Oriental at all and it has no real meaning with relation to the subject matter of each song. I use those kinds of middle eastern/oriental/indian vocal sound samples just as an interesting sonic texture.  They’re kind of dark and haunting and I really like that sort of thing when it’s in music such as this.  I tend to browse my extensive sample CD library for inspiration whenever I need something out of the ordinary or to fill an otherwise bland musical passage.  I use samples whenever I need something a little bit different.  I also tend to use a lot of really unique industrial sound effects and then treat them socially with processed effect to change them and make them even more interesting.  My aim is to produce sounds that you wouldn’t normally find in a metal song, sounds that make you go “What the fuck was that!”  For example, in the new material that I’m currently writing I have received permission to use samples take from a conspiratorial radio program.  I’m going to use the samples to give meaning to the subject matter I’m writing about and to support the lyrical content of each song.  It’s going to sound bizarre and really unique when it’s done.  I’m also going to use a lot more traditional types of percussion and drums to add more of a live middle eastern type feel to the new music.  I’m hoping to use a friend of mine who is currently into percussion of all types.  I simply want to see where I can take this project and what new territory we can break, I will therefore always use samples, sound effects, new and innovative sound processors, live eastern percussion and anything that will make this band unique and different. 

4) And that guitarist, at first, was one Paul Andrews...but that is not the guy you actually ended up with, is it?

Eddie:  Paul is a good friend of mine and was my first choice as a guitarist. I knew he was a great guitar player and wouldn’t stuff me around so I approached him with my songs. He began working on the Mech Org material but quickly found that his style didn’t quite jell with my material.  He basically had a shot at writing some parts but couldn’t come up with anything substantial.  The music that I write for Mech Org is quite unique and it’s kind of hard to write guitar to if you’re not in the right head space.  I think it’s the mix of genres that I use that makes it difficult for some people to comprehend at a musical level. It’s not overly technical but it has a lot of overlapping layers and these layers fill the sonic spectrum to a point where it can be very difficult to develop new ideas. Paul is an accomplished player but couldn’t really get his head around my material, that was the bottom line.  He was never really in the band so to speak he simply tried but couldn’t really come up with anything that he was happy with so he decided to pass on the offer to join.  I then began looking elsewhere for a guitarist.

5) After that, you took some time getting a replacement in Connie D. Was that because you suddenly had to concentrate on your other musical ventures again?

Eddie: My other musical project don’t really take up much of my time so that never really holds me back. It actually didn’t take that long to find Conrad.  I placed an ad on a local musicians wanted forum here in Melbourne.  I got quite a good response from the ad so it simply came down to selecting the right person.  It basically came down to two guitarists and that’s when the choice became very difficult.  Both guitarist were very good and submitted outstanding demos to me. At that point I had to figure out which one would best suit the style of music I was writing.  At that time I had also spoken to Conrad on the phone and he expressed a real interest and enthusiasm for the project.  He loved the songs I sent him and was very exited about getting involved.  The choice became pretty clear to me that Conrad was the perfect guitarist for Mechanical Organic.  He has all the right skills in terms of his guitar playing, his musical ideas were a perfect match for the music I was writing and he is also a very motivated and reliable person so I couldn’t be happier with everything he has contributed to the band. 

6) Tell us a bit more about Connie, will you?

Eddie:  As I mentioned above Conrad is the ideal player for Mechanical Organic.  He came along just at the right moment and absolutely floored me with his musical input into this project.  Personally I love the fat heaviness he brings to Mech Org and the melodic synth and lead guitar he plays in certain passages of our music.  He has a very keen sense of knowing what a song needs and he doesn’t over play for the sake of ego gratification.  He can however cut loose with ripping solos and guitar harmonies when it’s required so he has all his bases cover so to speak.  Great player and a great person to have in the band!! 

  He also has his own band named Furious George Inc.  They are currently in the studio recording their debut CD which will be an absolute monster when it finished.  I actually went to see them play live locally a while ago and they absolutely blew me away.  Frighteningly heavy, outstanding  stage presents, really aggressive vocals, really tight and fluid band, fantastic solos and they put on a fantastic show.  I was so impressed by the performance, they are a great band that I expect big thing from them in the very near future.  Actually, come to think of it that was the first time I had met Conrad face to face.  We had spoken endlessly on the phone and he was already writing music in Mechanical Organic but we hadn’t actually met face to face yet.  We both have our own studios at home so we were simply sending CD’s to each other and working out ideas for the band, early on, there simply wasn’t a need to meet.  Kind of a weird way to work when I think about it, we both seemed to trust each other and it didn’t really both either of us so it was fine.

7) How did he go about adding the different layers of guitar?

Eddie:  As I mentioned before I gave Conrad full artistic license and control over his parts.  I don’t think we ever really spoke about what I wanted, we may have touched upon it but I pretty much left it up to him to develop his ideas.  The songs were already pretty full sonically at that point, however they really did need a lift. I knew they needed guitar to beef them up but I didn’t know what I wanted to be played. I think it would have been a mistake for me to try to control what Conrad was writing.  I actually love it when musicians come in and write over my pre-existing tunes.  It’s great to hear another persons take on what you’ve already written and a lot of the time the musically ideas that get put forward I personally would never had thought of.  That’s the beauty of working with someone such a Conrad, you never know what you’re going to get.  You know it’s going to be good but you have no concept of which direction he will take it and that’s exiting!  As far as the layering is concerned I’m pretty sure he started with the heavy rhythm guitar, once that was recorded he then moved on to the melodic synth and then the solos and harmonies.  There are quite a few guitar tracks on this recording so his contribution was  extensive.

8) I guess this is as good a time as any to ask what the project name stands for?

Eddie: You know, originally I wanted to call the band “Flat Earth Society”.  I checked out the domain name but it was already taken.  From memory I think a punk band in the US has the domain so that was out of the question.  We ended up calling the CD “Flat Earth Society” so I felt that was a pretty good trade off.  I guess I wanted to call the album “Flat Earth . . .” because I really wanted the title to show that a lot of our personal perceptions and beliefs regarding reality and the world around us have been manipulated and presented to us by others, and that we cling to these archaic ideas and mind sets of the past as if our lives depended on it.   We used to believe that the earth was flat, that doesn’t make it so, we now believe what’s presented to us on the news and we trust our politicians but just maybe there’s a deeper true reality that is hidden from view.  We believe all sorts of misrepresentations without question and ignore realities when they are too hard to believe.  I believe there is a lot more going on in this world that we don’t know about and I would much rather live my life with my eye open, even if that means finding truth that distresses me and makes me question our entire existence.  I encourage everyone to lift the veil  on what is presented to you, look for alternative news sources, read books and discover alternative points of view on the net, you never know what you will find, you could possibly find something  totally mind blowing that will change the way you view history, the present and the future of man kind.  Check out the links section of the Mechanical Organic web site for suggested link reference material www.mechanicalorganic.com

   Anyway, at the time of choosing a name for the band I also had quite a few other names floating around in my head so I wasn’t devastated by “Flat Earth Society” being taken.  I eventually decided on “Mechanical Organic”.  I thought it was a cool name at the time, and still do, and I think it represent the music we write pretty well.  I guess the Mechanical part of the name represent the computer based aspect of our music, the sequencing and programming, samples, sound effect and keyboards and the Organic part of the name represents all the more human aspects of the band such as the vocals, bass and guitar parts.  There is no really underlying hidden conspiratorial link to the name 

9) In your own words, please describe the music of Mechanical Organic!

Eddie:  This is a really hard question to answer and I think a lot of reviewers are having the same problem right now . . . . hahahahah!!  People really like to pigeonhole bands and give them a specific genre type so as to categorize or compartmentalize them and to give the music some sort of reference point and I can understand that.  “Mechanical Organic”, in my opinion simply doesn’t fit into any of the known genres types and that is a blessing and a cures.  It’s great to be unique and original but at the same time if you blend genres such as we have you tend to alienate the very listeners/audience you were trying to capture in the first place.  Some people are really open minded with regards to cross genres types, bless their hearts and others really only get into specific gernes.  Record labels are the same, most label only specialize in specific genres.  If you stray to far from the accepted norms you end up isolating yourself and that can be a real problem for a band.  We are out there so to speak and I think that’s what makes us unique.  I don’t see the point in trying to conform or for that matter copying what has already been done.  I simply want to write music that comes naturally for us no matter where that leads us.  I guess there is a balance between being too unique and being accepted and I think we’re right on than line.  In the future we may need to tip the scale slightly in favor of acceptance and conform a little while maintaining our individuality but we’ll see what happens. . . . . hahahaha

  Now to describe our sound I guess I would call us heavy in nature with an electronic, industrial and progressive twist.  We use lots of layers in our music so the sound is quite dense. I use lots of keyboards, samples and sequences to flesh out my ideas and we then add all the guitar parts to support and heavy up the whole sound pallet. Individually all the different layers are not overly technical however once they are all added together they intertwine and weave in and out of one another to form a complex web of sound.  Vocally I tend to use heaps of layers because my voice in kind of gentle and melodic. I tend to thicken my parts by layering them; I also tend to use extensive vocal harmonies to support my vocal parts and to give them a kind of choir effect.  I also have been know to use some trippy vocal effect from time to time  . . . . . hahahaha  I guess our music is melodic, intellectual, layered, heavy, experimental, kind of progressive and not for the faint of heart.  But it’s not overly technical or experimental in the extreme, it’s more of a fresh way of musical expression without being too pretentious or too sell indulgent. Others might think it’s extremely pretentious and self indulgent so you’ll simply have to judge for yourself.   I guess it really is beyond me to explain what we sound like after all . . .  sorry.

10) I'm sure that some people may wonder how someone knowing all those hidden secrets you talk about, can still function in this society...

Eddie:  It’s actually very difficult to function in your day to day life when your eyes are fully open to the facts.  Everywhere I look I see corruption and conspiracy.  I don’t spend all my time focused on the negative aspects of human existence.  I do however have an interest in political conspiracy so I write a lot about the subject.  You seem to be aware of The Illuminati and what they are capable of, just imagine for one second how hard it must be if you were forced to go to war for your country (knowing what you know) to support an ideal you didn’t believe in, or worse, having to fight for a corrupt cause that is rotten to the core.  How would you justify that or even live with yourself afterwards.  It is my belief that there are people and organizations, shadow governments and the ruling elite that manipulate world events such as 9/11 and all the wars on earth to suit themselves and to make vast amount of profit.     We live in a world of lies, we seem to be heading toward one world government, we are loosing our rights at an alarming rate and the sooner everyone wakes up to these facts the soon something can be done.  If I can wake a few people from their slumber with my music then I will be happy.  I really don’t like to preach this sort of thing, especially to people who can’t comprehend these facts because sometimes you simply come across as being a nut case.  I try to gently point people toward information and then let them decide for themselves whether they want to believe.  There is a growing number of people who realize what is going on and hopefully that number will continue to grow. 

11) At the moment, the album is only available to the public in MP3 format, downloaded from the band's website mechanicalorganic.com?

Eddie:  Yes that’s right.  We did do a short run pressing of promotional CD’s with limited artwork to send out for review and radio airplay.  Those copies are not for sale as they are professional duplication and not a replication pressing, we simply use them for promotional purposes.  We were hoping to get the CD signed and then pressed up we haven’t managed to get that organized as yet.  But fortunately we’ve managed to set up a secure online MP3 store which lets us distribute our music ourselves.  The song are encoded in MP3 format 192kbit/s so the sound quality is high while keeping the files to a reasonable downloadable size.  You can purchase the songs directly from our website www.mechanicalorganic.com using www.paypal.com.  Paypal is a really safe and easy system to use, you can use your credit card or simply transfer money into your Paypal account from another bank account, and then you’re ready to go.   We’re selling the album for $ 7.68 US, that’s 11 tracks for under $10 or $ 00.76 per song.  We’ve tried to keep the prices as low as possible to encourage people to try our music.  You can also download the artwork for a double sided insert if you would like to make a hard copy CD of the files you purchased.  Selling mp3 means we have no manufacturing cost and no postage fees so we can pass on those savings to our fans.  The system seems to be working really well at the moment and we’re happy with the response so far.  As far as pressing the CD for those who would prefer the hard copy is concerned, I can’t promises anything at this stage.  We’re trying our best to find a label willing to take a risk on us but due to our musical originality and uniqueness we may be waiting a while.  I guess my hope for the future would be to eliminate our dependency or the need for record labels altogether and sell our products/songs directly to our fans in downloadable formats.  As internet speed increase allowing downloadable file size to increase MP3 sound quality will eventually match CD quality.  There are already people who have embraced the technology wholeheartedly and switched to purchasing MP3 exclusively.  Hopefully more and more people will adopt this attitude in the future.  I know there are a lot of people out there who still love having the CD and there will always be a place for hard copies but technology has now allowed many more artists to release music directly from their own website and that can only be a good thing in my book.  We will however continue our search for a suitable record label to work  with.

12) Could you tell the readers in short what the songs' lyrics are all about?

Eddie:  The following is a short rundown describing each song and it’s lyrical message.  I wrote it some time ago for use on various MP3 hosting sites but I thought it was worth while having it on our web site.  So here it is:

1. “What have we Become” was inspired by “Howard Bloom”, author of “The Lucifer Principal” and “Global Brain”, and a really good friend of mine. I received  an e-mail from Howard some time ago where he highlighted his concerns regarding the fact that Militant Extremists are now armed with Stealth submarines that are capable of striking New York City and Washington with sea to land missiles. It was such a scary prospect that I had to contribute to his cause by writing this song and making people aware of Howard's apocalyptic prophesy.

 
2. "Stealth” is a catchy little number that examines personal information collection and mass marketing. Everything in life these days seems to revolve around marketing products directly to the individual. I guess this song is a warning to every individual to value your personal information and to keep it locked away from prying eyes.

 
3. “Hacking Humanity” is a song about a series of unsettling dreams each dream being guided by a higher intelligence. A non local consciousness hacking dreams and artificially planting ideas and thoughts to brain wash and manipulate.

 
4. "Nothing is Real" is a song about how we all create our own realities. We move through life busily absorbing information and perceiving events.  Yet we seldom really consider the possibility that we as individuals can influence the way our lives evolve. This dream of consciousness we call life can be manipulated and solidified by the simple act of “belief”.  

 
5. “Username & Password” is a warning to all those who use the internet. I've tried to divulge the truth behind internet fraud and the loss of personal information. Every time we log on to the net we expose ourselves to information loss, corruption and fraud.  In a perfect world the internet should have become a cyber utopia of free speech/expression without control. But it is fast becoming a system of information collection and mass marketing.

 
6. “All According to Plan” was inspired by an article I read that expressed the view that the US military were deliberately going about their duties incompetently in an attempt to maintain a certain level of social disorder in Iraq.  This course of action allows the US government to justify maintaining a military presents in Iraq and allows them to persevere with military action. This song examines the effect of the deliberate incompetence.

 
7. “To Bridge the Void” questions antiquated belief systems and examines how people put there faith in ideas and concepts that are clearly redundant and archaic.  With this song I clearly broke one of my personal social rules and that is never have a discussion/argument with people regarding religion or politics. I've learnt from personal experience that people tend to be very passionate and extremely defensive when faced with religious and political criticism?

 
8. "Weapons of mass Distraction" contains a lyrical theme revolving around hidden information and media leaked disinformation.  I've tried to lift the veil on how we're all kept in the dark and fed lies that control our lives. This is the first song I wrote for this project and pretty much paved the way for the rest of the CD.

 
9. “Nostalgia” is a song that looks back in history to when nations knew who their enemies were.  The central message contained in this song is that warfare has changed to a point where the enemy is virtually invisible.  How can you possibly fight a war when you don't know who to fight.

 
10. “The Bitter Truth” is a song that teaches us to separate fact from fiction and not to blindly accept information that is presented to us. We all need to re-examine everything that we've been told in the past as well as everything that we are being told at present. We need to open our eyes to the truth behind the lie, to separate fact from fiction.

 
11. "This They Must Never Know" is a spoken word industrial sound scape that contains the secret covenant of the ruling elite.  This was a last minute inclusion on the CD; we felt the piece brought the whole CD to a fitting and ominous end.

13) About that last song, "This They Must Never Know" (in my review I compared it to a possible manifest for the "Illuminati"), why was that still added to an album that already was over an hour's length?

Eddie “This They Must Never Know” was definitely a last minute inclusion on the album.  It was written as a podcast I personally publish for a project I’m involved in called “The Lonely Skeptic”.   Conrad liked it and thought it would be a good way to end the CD. We both really liked the way it brought the CD is an ominous conclusion.  It has a very dark electro/industrial vibe with a highly effected spoken word dialogue passage.  You are absolutely correct, the words are taken from what could be described as the manifest for the Illuminati.  The written text is called “The Secret Covenant” and was written by an unknown author, if you are interesting in reading it you can find it at our website under “The Lonely Skeptic” link.  It’s quite interesting and enlightening in it’s dark content.

14) And, talking about conspiracies, what's The Lonely Skeptic all about?

Eddie:  “The Lonely Skeptic” is a little project I work on in my spare time.  It’s a kind of spoken word podcast geared towards exposing conspiracies such as The Illuminati.  I write industrial soundscapes and then record spoken word passages over the top in much the same vein as “This They Must Never Know”.  I try to keep them around the 8 to 10 minute mark in length.  I use editorials written by Patrick Mooney from the Institute of Unlearning website http://www.unlearning.org  Patrick was gracious enough to allow me to use his editorials which I am eternally grateful.  I’ve so far written 3 pieces and I currently have one of them on line for download at www.mp3.com.au/thelonelyskeptic and www.audiostreet.net/thelonelyskeptic  By the way the podcasts are free for download so check them out if you are interested in hear some pretty trippy shit.

15) Meanwhile, with future gigs for the project in mind, Mechanical Organic became a true band with the addition of drummer Laurence Belviso...

Eddie:  Yeah, we’ve been planning the live aspect of the band for some time now but we won’t be rushing into it.  There are a number of technical issues that still need to be sorted out before we can make this happen.  When we do eventually play live we definitely want it to go off with a bang so we need to make sure everything is perfectly set up.  Due to the fact that we are a three piece band we will be using extensive samples and backing tracks to help us reproduce the CD live.  Parts of the backing track will be triggered via midi and a keyboard by me while I sing the main vocal parts.  Our live set up will be quite extensive and we need to put a lot of thought into all the different aspect of the gear.

   I suppose you want to know more about our drummer Laurence and how we hooked up.  Initially I was hoping to use the “Where Echoes End” drummer Dean Vine as I have been friends since high school and I have been playing in bands with him for ages.  He actually turned down the invitation to join the band because he thought the music was a little too complex and progressive.  At the time I think he simply wanted to play straighter music containing simpler beat.  Dean eventually hooked me up with a guy he works with name Laurence Belviso.  We spoke on the phone and I told him what I was working on and he seemed eager and ready to rock and roll.  Unfortunately most of the drum parts for the first album were already written so Laurence didn’t really have any major input into the writing process.  He will however be an integral part of the live set up and future album recordings.  We’re in the process of writing new material at the moment so it will be really interesting to see where Laurence takes the drumming.  The live drumming aspect of the band will definitely take us in a different direction when we’re in the studio so I’m really looking forward to the shift in approach.

16) Anything special to tell about the album artwork?

Eddie:  I basically take control of the artistic duties.  I enjoy this side of making music as well. I like to dabble in amateur photography (really amateur . . hahahah) but only when I see something interesting or when I have a specific idea in mind.  I tend to gather images over a period of time and then work on them in Photoshop to manipulate them or to create something new and bizarre. I love working on digital artwork and I like to combine extremely different images to make surreal dream like illustration and panoramas.  Theirs is meaning behind the artwork if you look closely.   There are hidden Masonic symbols and the Illuminati symbol the Pyramid and The All Seeing Eye.  I used the flies on the front cover to indicate that the whole hidden conspiracy stinks of shit and that there is something really rotten afoot.  The meaning is quite subliminal but so is the conspiracy I guess.  With regards to the distorted band images we just thought that looked completely insane.  I developed this kind of distorting process with my scanner at home  which twisted our face into this kind of grotesque disfigure mask, we all really like the effect.  We definitely didn’t do it to hide our faces or to remain unknown.  You can check out much more standard band images at our website if you like.     

17) How about it? Has the first Mechanical Organic gig been done or organized yet?

Eddie:  As I mention before we are still considering the whole live aspect.  Our initial goal was to focus on writing music then on promoting the album.  If we feel there is a real demand for our music in the near future we will bring all our ideas together and make it happen quickly.  At this stage I think we’re more focused on writing new material and building a catalogue of really strong songs.  The new songs we’re working on are sounding fantastic and I want this material to see the light of day as quickly as possible.  As the band grows in popularity we will give further thought to taking our current material and new material on the road.  You also have to understand that we live in Australia and the appetite for this style of music is marginal at best so we would really need to consider relocating or at least doing small tour overseas.  We are a long way from all the major places in the world and our music scene over here is limited.  So I guess the idea initially is to establish ourselves by recording killer original songs, we’ll then see where it takes us.

18) Say, how does making music fit into your personal lives?

Eddie:  At the moment I’m extremely busy in all the different areas of my life, but isn’t everyone these days. I just got married a year and half ago and we’ve just completed an extension on our house.  One of the new rooms will be for my studio so I’m very happy with that. Building and construction takes time to complete so I’ve been a little preoccupies with organizing the whole process as well as taking on some of the construction myself which has been a real distraction from the music.  Once the new studio is fitted out hopefully things will get back to normal.  I always seem to find time for writing music even if it’s just a few hours a week.  Over the last couple of years I’ve really noticed the pace of life accelerating.  I’ve noticed that people in general have become really impatient and self absorbed, dues to the stresses of everyday life, especially on the roads.  The roads are chaos at the moment.  I try to go about my business without too much fuss and bother, there’s no point stressing over things you can’t control or having a melt down every time something goes wrong.  I have worked very hard over the past 15 years to build my house and studio in a beautiful location, I now have a place to write and record whenever I want and I couldn’t be happier with my life right now. I’m also very lucky to have found the love of my life, my wife Helen supports me and encourages my musical endeavors and I would be absolutely lost without her.  I don’t think I could ask for much more really, I’m very happy.  As far as having to work to support this lifestyle, all the band member in Mechanical Organic have day jobs.  There is simply no way to make a living off writing and distributing music at this stage.  Over the years things have been steadily growing in terms of CD sales and band/project growth but not to the point where we can give up our day jobs and concentrate solely on music.  It would be a dream come true for that to happen but I guess I’m not in it for the money.  I personally just want to be able to put out music without compromise that challenges the listener and hopefully make a few bucks along the way to cover expenses. Of course I will be striving to always grow this band and try to break new musical territory and reach as many people as we can along the way, if it happens I’II be a very happy man.  The first step in any band/project is to get the thing to a level where it is paying for itself, anything after that is a bonus.

19) If I were to ask you to give me a list of your 10 favorite musical artists, which would that be?

This is a really hard question to answer.  For starters I don’t think I classify bands and music in terms of favorites.  I tend to listen to a really broad and eclectic bunch of music so I’II try to list a cross section of what I’m currently listening to give you an idea of what my listening habits are like.  In no particular order

1. Dead Can Dance

2. Tom Waits

3. King Crimson

4. Mike Patton

5. Tool

6. Dead Soul Tribe

7. Pain of Salvation

8. Queensryche:  Mindcrime 1 and 2, I’ve been giving these two albums a spin constantly over the past couple of week because Queensryche are coming to Australian for the first time in July and I’ve got tickets to see them play.  They are playing Mindcrime 1 and 2 back to back, can’t wait!!!

9. King Diamond

10. Voi Vod

  I’ve just recently converted all my CD to MP3 format so I’m currently experiencing a bit of a nostalgia burst.  I’m listen to stuff I haven’t heard in years and I’m really enjoying it.  It’s good fun to revisit past listen experiences to see whether the stuff has dated or whether you can still stomach it . . . hahahaha  Overall it’s been really good fun and kind of eye opening because I still love a lot of the old music I used to listen to!!

20) Here's an even tougher one: which 3 songs on the album have your preference, and why?

Eddie:  My favourite tracks from the album would have to be track 1. What Have We Become, track 3. Hacking Humanity and track 4. Nothing is Real, all for roughly the same reasons.

  I like What Have We Become” because the song just does it for me, I never get sick of it.  I like the mood of the song and how it ebbs and flow through out.  I really enjoyed singing those melodies and harmonies as well.

  I like “Hacking Humanity” for much the same reasons as the last song.  I also really like the twin guitar lead harmonies in this song as well.

  And “Nothing Is Real” same deal as the last two, I just get a really good vibe from this song.  I like all of the parts and the way the song is structured.  I also really love the guitar solos in this song, especially the short little one where the timing is really held back, it gives me chills every time I hear it.

  I actually like most of the songs on the album. There are a couple that the other guys in the band like more than me but that’s just the way it goes.  I personally am pretty hard on myself with regards to vocal performance and melody so if a vocal part doesn’t quite cut it in my eye I will probably have a problem listen to and liking that particular song.  That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the song it just a personal thing and probably something I can only hear because I actually sang the song.  I think artists and perfectionist are generally harsh and critical of their own performance.

21)  Did any of the songs on the album give you more trouble than usual in either the writing or recording process?

Eddie:  The whole recording process went very smoothly from start to finish.  I can’t remember having any really big dramas.  It was a very slow recording process overall.  I think the hardest thing from a recording perspective was to get the album sounding consistent and cohesive throughout the whole disc.   I would always reach a certain point where 3 tracks sounded fantastic and the others needed something to lift them to that same level.  So I would work on the rest of the song by adding extra layers of instrumentation or vocal harmonies and then others songs would sound outstanding while other sounded like they need some work, so it was a constant forward moving progression to get all songs sounding uniform in terms of sound quality and sonic integrity.  Other than that the whole process was a great learning experience.  We have  learnt a lot of tricks while putting this album together, especially in the final mastering stages where the sound engineer gave us some really great ideas to make our next album even better.  We will definitely try to progress as artists and as sound engineers so hopefully the next recording will be another step forward for us.  I think musically our new material will be a giant leap forward for the band and our recording techniques will also improve so hopefully we’ll be able to produce something really extraordinary next time.

22) In our pre-interview contacts, you mentioned that you were already working on new Mechanical Organic songs...mind telling us a little more about that?

Eddie: Yeah, the new stuff is sound pretty cool.  I basically already have an albums worth or rough song ideas already down with basic vocal melodies and harmonies recorded.  I’ve written lyrics for all of them so that part of the process is done.  I’m now going through the songs one by one and work on them to beat them into shape and to basically expand of the ideas I’ve put down.  I’ve just about finished the first song which has turned out to be an absolute head fuck of a song.  It’s about 13 minutes long with lots of tempo changes and morphing moods.  I’m about one week away from sending it off to the other boys in the band to see what they think.  Thye will then add their ideas to the song and we’ll take it from there.  I guess the big changes to the new songs, with regards to song writing, is that things are much more structured.  The songs will evolve more, they ebb and flow and change constantly instead of holding a steady theme throughout the entire song.  I love this new way of writing because it’s so much more interesting from a listening point of view.  I’ve also spent a lot of time mixing and placing sounds specifically within the mix so there will be a lot more separation of sound this time around.  Every sound will have it’s own space within the stereo field.  Form a lyrics perspective this album will be theme based and very heavy on a conspiratorial level.  Each song will deal with a different aspect of the corruption that is taking place in high level politics.  Subject matter such as The Illuminati, Secret Societies, 9/11, Multi Stalking, Mind Control, Media Control and The Hegelian Dialectic will be thoroughly examined.  Each song will have a short introduction taken from a conspiracy theory radio podcast accompanied by an industrial type sound track.  It’s going to be a really big challenge putting this together and I’m really looking forward to it.  

  I have recently spoken to both the other guys about the new song and there will be live drums on this new recording so that will be a huge change for us.  We will still use programmed drums as well but the main drum parts will be performed by Laurence.  Conrad will also be involved in writing fresh guitar riffs for the new song so I will be incorporating those ideas and blending them with what I already have.  It’s going to be a much more collaborative effort this time around and I think the song writing will definitely benefit from that process. 

  With regards to completion dates and releasing the music we have been considering publishing the songs straight to our website once they are finished.  We may write and completely finish one song at a time, master it and then publish it straight to the web site for sale as an MP3.  This is kind of a new way of working for us so it’s going to be interesting to see how things pan out.  These are just ideas at this stage so nothing is set in stone.  We may even wait until we have groups of 3 songs finished and then publish them to the web for sale as MP3’s.  The ideas is to build a really strong and unique catalogue of music for people to purchase and to have this constant stream of fresh new music being released straight to our own music store.   

23) Seen that the current album "Flat Earth Society" took a total of 2 years from the initial stages to being mastered, are we gonna have to wait that long again for the sequel?

Eddie:  Hahahahaha. . . I hope not.  As I just said, we may try something a little bit different with the next batch of songs and release them one at a time or in groups of three directly to our web store for sale as MP3 downloads.  I like the idea of constantly releasing music and keeping the whole Mechanical Organic project ticking over.  It also creates interest in the band and hopefully  keeps fans constantly coming back to our web site looking for more new music.  Because the next album will be theme based we will have no problem releasing it in parts.  For example Part 1 may be the first 13 minute track I’m working on at the moment, Part two might be a group of 3 shorter songs, Part 3 might have 2 medium length tracks Part 4 might contain 1, 20 minute song and so on until we’ve totally finished with this theme.   Each part will have separate artwork and all the artwork will have a running consistency between parts. 

24) Last question: anything to add?

Eddie:  Firstly, big thanks to you to you Tony for taking the time to listen to our CD.  It’s not the easiest music to get your head around and we really appreciate the time and effort you put into the review and this interview.  It’s always a real pleasure to find like minded people in the music industry who take the time to absorb complex works of art, so thank you.

  And secondly, thank you to all the people who are buying our music.  We are so please to see people taking a risk and embracing our music.  For those of you who are a little skeptical and wary of new things take a listen to our free samples at www.myspace.com/mechanicalorganic or www.mp3.com.au/mechanicalorganic and see what we have to offer.

  And finally, please visit our web site at www.mechanicalorganic.com and sign up for our newsletter.  This will keep you up to date with all things band related including new music releases which hopefully will become a constant occurrence. 

  Thanks again everyone, cheers.

Eddie