Interviewed by
Jason X
4/30/99

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Last Edit/Update
05 May, 1999

An Interview
with

Mick Hale from Crocodile Shop

From the studios of WARY-FM, Last Sigh proudly presents an exclusive interview with lead singer Mick Hale!

Last Sigh - Jason X:  Last time I saw you perform, you were the opening act for Front 242. Being a local act with big names like Project Pitchfork and Front 242, how did you guys get that slot?

Mick: Well we were like, as soon as we saw that show listed, we were like, "Can we open? Can we open?" you know. We ended up doing a show down at The Trucadero in Philadelphia too with them. So we got to do two opening slots and you know both are just the biggest crowds and all that.

LS: I enjoyed the New York show very much. You guys did a great performance. Now I'm reading CMJ and it says here that you guys are from Berlin. You guys currently reside in New Jersey, but what exactly are the details to that?

Mick: Well....that's like..we have that in our press kit because we actually did for them the concept of the band in Berlin. We were in a promoters of a tour we did before we were called Crocodile Shop. It was the previous bass player and myself had a group that toured  over there. That band kinda was disintegrating and I had made some demo tapes with a drummer who was also not in the band anymore. And we were talking about starting Crocodile Shop up when we were in Berlin. So we thought that was a good thing to put into the press kit just because of the factuality and the reference point of it all.(laugh)

LS: It wouldn't happen to have been Wire would it?

Mick: No that was actually something I did after I did get back and that was called The Ex-Lion Tamers and that band just toured with Wire. Wire was a seperate thing, but they were a big influence on early Croc Shop stuff cuz of the tour I had just done with them and stuff like that.

LS: Back then, you guys had the more gothy, darker industrial sounds and such?

Mick: Yeah well when we first started. Like I said it was the previous bass player, a drummer, and myself on guitar and vocals. And we were listening to stuff like Joy Division and Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry. And you know, more guitar oriented, darker, and some early-Sister's kind of stuff. So it definitely had that kind of feel to it and then slowly the guitars got weeded out, then we added a drum machine, then we added samples and then it started getting more electronica. Markus, the keyboardist, came into the band and you know. Now we have a guy that plays electronic drums and I dont even have a guitar anymore so.

LS: Yeah you guys have gone electronic because I didn't see a guitar on stage at the show.

Mick: Yeah well at Irving Plaza. Well we also did a show with Numb too that was right before the 242 thing and on those two..i dont know if you want to call the couple of shows with 242 a tour, but on that series of shows, i guess the Numb and the 242 things, we had a guy who was playing live bass stuff on top of it. You know, because we had a few bass parts on the record that we wanted to reproduce live.

LS: So you guys didn't save the bass onto your samplers or whatever?

Mick: Well we could but I guess it was just like...we knew the guy and he kinda offered to play the parts live and stuff to keep that kind of feel. Which, I guess to me, it always kinda added a kind of Gang of Four-ish, funky bass-pops, and stuff like that into it. You know we have tons of synthetic electronic sequence basslines on the backing DATs and all that stuff are on the samplers and stuff. But to add the guitar pops and stuff, you know, gives it more a human element I guess.

LS: Now for Everything Is Dead and Gone, did you guys use older equipment...

Mick: Older equipment?

LS: older equipment from previous albums?

Mick: I think I know what you're trying to get at. There are a lot more analog-type sounds on the new album. Yeah like in some industrial stuff, and a lot of electronica stuff that kind of vintage analog synth sound coming back where we have this big oscillator sweeping around and stuff like that. So we definitely did incorporate some of that stuff into there [EIDAG]. Instead of some of those clean pre-set sounds that were on the earlier records. You know like the Nitzer Ebb kinda, "dugadugadugaduga" where it just keeps repeating. Now there's those analog ones that kind of sweep in with the [makes a swishing sound].

LS: So as to capture the older style of industrial?

Mick: Yeah it's like the earlier stuff like even the analogy, Kraftwerky kind of stuff before it got too pre-set and chained around.

LS: I'm the operator with my pocket calculator!

Mick: Exactly! [both laugh]

LS: haha...I love that song! Now about your side projects, care to tell us what those are all about?

Mick: Well there's Division 9 which has two releases. The first one was on Fifth Colvmn, rest in peace. Second one is on Tinman which is dubBbass:omenII. Then there's a thing I produced called Hand of God. Which is coming out [on Tinman] that is really sick, industrial. It makes Crocodile Shop look like that first Ministry album. It's like that much more deranged sounding then....what I normally do[laugh].

LS: So it's more broken-up noise oriented much in the same vein as the band Sonar?

Mick: Yeah definitely a lot more noisey and just really bizarre samples thrown in there and a lot more edgy I guess. And that, like I said, is Hand of God. Now I did another project with Markus, the keyboardist for Croc Shop, called proGREX.iv, which was also released on Fifth Colvmn when they went under. Then there's another project we're sort-of working on called Genetic that's similar to proGREX.iv. That's with Mark and myself. And Lend our new  drummer has a project called Mortmain that's kinda noisey but I guess less dance oriented than Hand of God. So we all have quite a few projects going on. Markus has another one called Subliminal Gravity or Sub Grav I guess abbreviated. And uh...[laugh]...just tons I guess!

LS: And now what are Crocodile Shop's future plans? Are you guys going to currently go on tour anytime soon?

Mick: We want to get out there in June sometime. And do somewhere..starting in the midwest, ride it out to California, and then come back [East]. It's just a matter if the guy that books us, called Bayridge Talent. And we just have to see if he will work it out for us. You know like the logistics of doing it when we want to do it.

LS: Who would be on tour with you guys if plans do go through? Any special bands in particular?

Mick: Well we want to do it regardless of whoever it is. See he[Bayridge Talent] also books a bunch of other Metropolis bands and he was talking about Funker Vogt. See he's talking about them but because they're German and all, it would all be a matter of whether they can get into the country and all that.

LS: Or speak English perhaps?

Mick: Blah! Who cares if they could speak English[laugh]! If they could get the Visas and all that crap. So that something would have  happened like that Haujobb thing doesn't happen where they book all these shows and it's like, "Oh sorry! They can't get in!"

LS: I've heard about this that some artists can't come to the country because of Visa problem. Does that problem usually happen to you guys when you go over to Europe?

Mick: Actually when we went...as Crocodile Shop, we just went to do those short German tour and we just basically said we were going to play for some private parties the record labels set up over there. Yeah and customs they were all pretty cool about it. They were like, "As long as there's no guns in our cases," they were just cool with it. Well most of the equipment we were carrying looked like it could be surveillence equipment. You know the big road cases with no drums or guitars or stuff like that. So they didn't so we were like "There's a keyboard in there," and they were like "What? Organ?" Yeah we bring our organs in these cases.[laugh]

LS: [laugh] Well Mick, I've run out of questions and all. It was a really great interview. Thank you for having me. Crocodile Shop's Everything Is Dead and Gone in stores now. I really appreciate this and I invite you to come down to WARY anytime.

Mick: I'd love to.

LS: Until then, this is Jason X signing off for 88.1 WARY-FM out in Valhalla, NY and Last Sigh Magazine.