Home to Last Sigh

Patrick Codenys
Of
FRONT 242



(Mike Ramirez with Patrick Codenys and Richard 23)

Mike:   It's been about 4 years of silence for Front 242. What happened to you guys after the Up Evil/Lollapalooza tour in 1993?

Patrick:  Well, I believe that we were very tired of touring, as well as having the same cycle all the time as doing album, touring, album, touring, press. And at the same time we were a little trapped of our own style. It was more and more difficult to be creative sort of, so it was important for us to take a distance to what we were doing, and at the same time there was a lot of new technology coming in so we wanted to spend more time to try to develop something new. So that's why we stopped.

MIke:  Right now, it seems like you guys have a lot of work on your hands. The new live album, ReBoot, and you have done plenty of remixes. Who have you remixed in the past year? 

Patrick:  We've remixed The Orb, Cubante, Juno Reactor, Frontline Assembly.....

Kiran:  Is that for the forth coming Rewind album from FLA?

Patrick:  Yes, it is. We have also remixed one or two more bands that I can't really remember. Oh, Empirion also. I would say there was about ten altogether.

Kiran:  It seems today that you guys are getting along great. A lot of bands have recently split up due to the members not getting along. Do you find it interesting that you guys have stayed together since 1981?

Patrick:  Well, we are all very good friends. We all come from the same area in Brussels, very close, maybe about 2 miles away from each other, so it's more of a friendship. As a matter of fact, today with the new technology, it's easier to work with a small group, like one or two people can produce a whole album on their own. That's why probably some people wanted to develop other types of music or look somewhere else, which was not always ending on a release. Sometimes you do a lot of research and have a big library of new sounds, and you have no use of it. You always will probably, but it's just collecting sounds and discovering new ways of doing music. So, we decided to go back live together because we wanted to test new formulas and have new ideas of how the "Front" music can develop.

Kiran:  To progress even further...

Patrick:  Exactly. You have ways to do that. You can either go back into the studio, and you're totally closed, or for instance, the "healthiest way" is to make it sort of test live in front of a real audience to see what the reaction would be, and take that back to the studio.

Kiran:  So how excited are you guys to be back on the road again? How is the crowd response?

Patrick:  It's great. It's definitely something we were missing. It's like you need to touch base with your fans. You need to see what the peoples' reactions are. That's something very important to live bands, or else you are just a studio band. So it's important to communicate, it's important to see that what you are doing cares for the people, and it's a very healthy relation.

Mike:  Originally, when I contacted Transmission (Front 242's merchandising and info headquarters) about a year ago, I was told that you guys were only supposed to play about 5 dates on the West Coast, and a lot of us on the East Coast as well as up North were shocked about that. Basically, what gave in to doing a more expanded tour?

Patrick:  Well, it was a matter of side projects. Myself and Daniel, were doing a project, and we really wanted to release that project, and it's a matter of time. We thought maybe we should do like 5 main cities or having maybe 3 to 5 gigs on the west coast as well as having 3 to 5 gigs on the East coast, and that's it. But finally we never came up with enough time for really working on a full album so we thought that we may as well do a full world tour.

Mike:  I've noticed that in the playlist for the tour, you play songs all the way back to "Body To Body," which was released in 1981. I mean, most bands don't usually do that, they just try to play most of their recent catalogue with a few old tunes, and that's it. Even though the song is re-worked, there are still elements in there from the 1981 version that are mixed with the remixed one. Why did the band choose to use such a wide range of songs for the tour?

Patrick:  I believe it's more of a choice of.....physionomy of each song, because the way we have treated with most of the songs, we have been working with more basic sounds like a TB-303 or small written box stuff, to have a more easy sound, easy access sounds. There were some songs like "Quite Unusual," and "Tyranny >For You<" which are like good single sounds, but didn't fit in the idea of the new modeling or new listening of the songs. So we basically picked most of the songs based on the form rather than the content or doing a "Best Of..." or whatever. So it was important to see which songs would fit in the new formula.

Mike:  I've seen your concerts live before, on video. I have never actually been to a Front 242 concert, so this will be my first one, and I can tell I'm in for an experience. I have seen on your previous concerts, especially on the Tyranny tour and various concerts back in 1985, that there is a lot of energy on stage, screens, projections, and Richard 23's electronic drum-setup. I also saw some pictures from the European ReBoot tour on your website, and I don't see Richard's drums, I see Tim Kroker of Sabotage Q.C.Q.C. playing live drums, and I am sort of seeing a screen, but not that many visuals as on previous tours. Is there any reason why these were taken off of this tour?

Patrick:  Yeah, the thing is that when you do a full album, what I would call, a normal campaign, you release a new album and there is budgets or pulling a real live show on the road. When you do a live album, like ReBoot, you have a lower profile when you have to go on the road, because you're more tempted to promote the music and the band, and you don't have the whole imagery around it, like on a normal campaign, like with the Tyranny tour when a lot of things had to be put on stage. Here, it's less visual and more musical experimentation.

Mike:  More human contact right...?

Patrick:  Exactly. So it is still energy when it comes to human relation, and the drummer is playing virtual drums, the Roland V-Drums, and they're really cool and it adds something to the show. So this is really more like a sound experience normally, but I don't know about tonight. (Laughs)

(Earlier, Patrick was discussing with us how the venue's sound system wasn't very good)

Kiran:  So far, which has been the best show for you guys, cause I know everyone is hyped about the 2 Chicago's shows, and I am sure everyone is going to go crazy tonight here.

Patrick:  Well, it may be strange to you, but we try to do our best every night, it's very important. We have good crowds every night, and it's always full. I don't know about tonight, but's it's generally full. There are a lot of younger fans that have never seen the band or something, and it's important for us to do the best for those people. We had a very good reaction in Baton Rouge, which was weird, but they were very excited. Seattle was great, L.A. was sold out, and I think any concert, even the smallest one, peaks and really makes it to say that it was worth it to play here.

Mike: Is it just those moments when everyone is going crazy and connection with the band and the crowd are great? 

Patrick:  Yeah. The only thing that really pisses us off is when the technology is not there.

Mike:  Like tonight

Patrick:  Like tonight, yes. That's not fun because we have about 50% of the gear with us. All we ask is for a good amplifier and speakers, that's all. We have all the effects and all the compressors, everything is brought with us for the backline, but when you have no power........it's the medium that's not there, you know.

Kiran:  That's usually the problem with a lot of bands. There is a Club in Orlando, where a bunch of small industrial bands play, and the P.A. is really screwed up and every band usually stops their set short and just leaves.

Patrick:  Do you know The Embassy in Orlando? Is that ok?

Kira:  Yeah. the Embassy is really good. I saw KMFDM and Lords Of Acid there. There is one club called "Club Z," which is in Winterpark, a much smaller industrial/goth club...and...

Mike: It's horrible.

Kiran:  (Laughs) Try to avoid that place.

Patrick:  We will play the Embassy so, I'm sure it will work out.

Kiran:  It's a lot bigger than this place here.

Mike:  Down here, we were surprised because when we heard that it was going to be at the Button South. Usually, we were told the Cameo Theatre, in which you guys have played twice before. But it's more personal here, even though the technical problems are kind of in the way. In addition to the playlist for this tour, I heard that "Quite Unusual" and "Funkadahfi" were added for the North American Tour. Is this true?

Patrick:  No. Actually, "Funkadahfi" is ready and we've played it only once in Dallas, because the P.A. was excellent there. It's a totally different version. It's very instrumental and the theme of the songs comes in at the last 2 minutes and it's like a 5 minute song. So it's very experimenting and it's a very good song, but you need the right condition to play it in. So I guess we are not going to play it tonight. But we rehearse on tour here and there for big cities or when we have a good P.A.

Mike:  Speaking of song styles...I have to say that more of the older fans are more familiar with the old sound, basically the EBM-type stuff off of Official Version and No Comment, and they are shocked when they hear ReBoot because they are so surprised that after the 4 year hiatus, this is what Front 242 is putting out. Did you have any idea what the reaction would be from the fans?

Patrick:  Yes and no, I mean that's why we stopped 4 years ago, because we were trapped with our own stereotypes. I think you have to evolve, and to me, 242 is more of a label than a band. It's like a company where if your product is getting old, just switch you know, try to do something else. It's important, or you'll just do the same thing all of your life. So it's important to create new things. We've surprised a lot of people with Off after Up Evil was released, now ReBoot is less of that...trash-industrial..noisy stuff. It's more upbeat. Some people say it is techno, which I mean, it's kind of heavy for that. It's still got the harsh sounds that fill, it has that energy, it's far from that....what I would call "pussy techno." Whatever it is. So that's important for us to keep that energy, and I think that this formula is a good start if we have to do a new album in 1999.

Mike:  What kind of music does the band listen to today. What bands are you currently into?

Patrick:  We'll listen to all kinds of music. In our genre, bands like The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Fluke, Daniel likes Atari Teenage Riot for instance, I could tell you like a hundred of bands. Massive Attack is excellent in their genre. Garbage for instance, a rock band, but everything sounds very structured like an electro band. There a lot of band that are good references when you want to start music that gives you ideas.

Mike:  Sort of an influence of what you are doing now?

Patrick:  Yeah. I think people don't have to be afraid to say that they are influenced by other bands. Of course, everything is a big movement. Music is just a  big melting pot of things. You have to get to a certain personality at a point, but nobody said it's forbidden to listen to other bands.

Mike:  And also, a lot of bands are influenced by Front 242.

Patrick:  Of course.

Mike:  Are you involved in any side projects? I know Jean Luc De Meyer has the C-Tec project, Richard 23 has Tchack!, and Daniel has been involved producing the Male or Female CD. I was curious, what exactly are you up to?

Patrick:  For the moment I am working on 2 projects. One is with a female singer, and there is no name yet because it is still demos. How would I put it, it's quiet....but it's got a little bit of an electronic wave to it, almost like an electronic Cocteau Twins.

Mike:  Sort of like the song "Crushed" on the Off album?

Patrick:  Yes, but more of the slower tracks. Maybe slow waves and guitars with a female singer. And I am also working on a project with Daniel called Grisha, which is including guest singers, which is very electronic/industrial, very tough beats and the energy is still there.

Kiran:  I want to talk about the label switch from Sony to Metropolis, cause I know it is a big issue among the fans. Why did you decide to leave the Sony label and sign to Metropolis?

Patrick:  Well, I think we didn't decide to it. It kind of came naturally. This is maybe a commercial side to the whole story. When we were on WaxTrax!, it's an excellent label, one of the best labels you can find in the states, but at the time, they were very poor in distribution. It was really hurting giving a lot of problems to records like Front By Front because we felt that with "Headhunter" and "Welcome To Paradise" we could have become much bigger if we had a full distribution. A lot of people couldn't find the record. So one of the main problems why we decided to move to a major. Now, what was positive on one side became negative on another side, because being on a major means less freedom. We did have a very good contract because he had the freedom to do whatever we wanted, but we have had arguments on and off because they kind of saw us as the next Depeche Mode, but a little bit tougher, and that was not the direction that we wanted to go. To give you a perfect example, Up Evil and Off  were supposed to be released as a double album, which would have made sense because one is more guitar sampled/trash-industrial sort of, and the other one is more pure electronic. One would have like Jean singing and the other one would have the female singing, and it would be excepted as being as very nice product. We also wanted to present it at a very good price. So that would have been a very interesting product to us, but marketing, Lollapalooza, all that crap, it just turned out to be a total mistake for us on an artistic level. So we were not very fond of staying with Epic. When our contract was over, we didn't do anything to try to resign it. We really needed to go back to independent labels.

Kiran:  Were any other labels interested in signing the band? I know that Never Records is distributing Mixage Mutage and Live Code in the States.

Patrick:  Well, Never Records was very.......sort of...lame on the ReBoot album. They didn't know what to do. We said we were coming, and they said "What are you guys going to do? We think Live Code is a little bit old, it's 1993, it's not going to please people." ReBoot is very different from Live Code. So are you guys going to put up some money for having us come over? We just asked for them to pay the plane ticket or something like that. It's not really a big advance, it's more like the minimum. They were so slow and it took them like 3 months to answer back to us. So we didn't like their lack on enthusiasm and we did not want to stick with that label. TVT was interested, but TVT is a bigger machine than Metropolis or at least they needed more time to release ReBoot, so they kind of gave up because of time schedule. I think TVT and Metropolis were the 2 candidates for us.

Kiran:  Metropolis seems to be signing a lot of bands throughout the past year.

Patrick:  Yeah.

Mike:  In regards to Mutage Mixage, what are your opinions of the work that was done? Were the remixes satisfying in your sense? Did you like everything that was produced by The Prodigy, Rico Conning, The Orb?

Patrick:  Certainly, because I feel that when we asked those guys to do remixes, except The Orb, they were a little known, but all the others were at their first album. They were at their beginning stage, so I think a lot of those guys have put a lot of work in it, and you can still hear the essence of what they became after. I'm very glad we took that raw feeling.

Kiran:  With the "Trance-U-Down" mix by The Prodigy...it sounds like their old material from their first album.

Patrick:  Yeah, I think it's nice. And at the same time, we had a vision to ask those people to do remixes, where as today, it would have been impossible to pay those people.

Mike:  I heard that "Headhunter 98" is supposed to be a new single for the band, on Metropolis.

Patrick:  Yes. In fact, the ReBoot album doesn't have really a single since it is a live album, but there is a big call from DJ's. We are starting to play a lot of raves in Europe. It's a little strange, but it's great. It's really great. It's a different audience and you are dropped in that techno world with great technology, and it fits because there is that beat now. And also, the industrial underground is more going to electronic music and the electronic music, thanks to The Prodigy and Chemical Brothers, is getting a lot tougher. So those 2 worlds join somewhere and we are somewhere in there. So we fit in raves, and we'll play huge raves in September and October in Europe, and for that reason, a German label wanted to release DJ products, so they asked us to remix some people. But at the same time, we have to be careful to please the American territories too. There is a remix coming out from a guy named Sven Vath, ever hear of him?

Mike and Kiran:  Yeah!

Patrick:  It probably wouldn't fit that well in the states, so at the same time, we are going to have a remix by Haujobb, or Frontline Assembly maybe. We still have to listen to it before we accept. But it's going to be balanced, and I don't know which product is going to be marketed on which territory, but it's supposed to go for clubs. So again, it's not like a main product, it's more like a low-profile product. It's not very substantial, but it can be fun.

Kiran:  It seems like a lot of industrial bands are moving sort of near the techno movement. Frontline Assembly is starting to play raves now.

Patrick:  Yeah, I believe that dance music has been too light for too long. It's time that kick-ass music becomes something tougher.

Mike:  Have you had the chance to look at www.front242.com yet?

Patrick:  Yeah.

Mike:  Cool. The mailing list is rapidly growing. There is about 250 people on the list so far.

Patrick:  Oh! I haven't seen it since we left.

Mike:  It gets updated by Sam and Dimitri (the creators of the website), I'm sure you know who they are. They update it frequently and have all sorts of cool pictures, contests, and lyrics. There is also a message board for every concert date in which people post their thoughts on how the show went and so forth.

Patrick:  I haven't seen it all, because we are linked with e-mail, but our manager didn't have time to install the net stuff so I haven't looked. How is the list of every gig? Is there a lot of comments?

Mike:  Yeah, mostly everything is positive. Some comments are shaky at first, but after the show, people say that you guys were amazing.

Patrick:  Great!

(Richard 23 walks in and waves)

Mike: I'm surprised that after all these years, Front 242 never had an official website. Would you guys every consider signing on the list one day and giving us some information?

Patrick:  Well, I think it's a matter of time. We didn't have time to really build a whole site, because it's a lot of work of collecting information. Actually, I have been in contact with Sam, and we kind of agreed to work together. Like if he needs personnel or technical information, he can email me and I'll help him to feed the fans. We have also asked the designer of ReBoot, the guy who made the cover and also made the video for "Happiness." Have you ever seen that?

MIke: The remix from Underworld? It's always on MTV's Amp show.

Patrick:  It's very synthetic. That guy is going to work on the site to make it look more updated. So we do interact a lot. We have that feeling that if we are not going to do it well, we are not going to do it at all. You know, it's like the same thing with videos. If you don't have the budget to do a cool video, you may as well not do it, because it looks ridiculous.

MIke:  Something that I've noticed with your videos that I've seen such as "Take One" and "Quite Unusual," is that there is some sort of twisted humor quality to them. For example, "Take One" is you Richard and Jean-Luc just jumping around everywhere acting all nutty.

Patrick:  At the time it was fun, it was something that would fit the kind of music we were doing because we needed to kind of de-dramatize the kind of strong serious music that we were doing. (Laughs)

Kiran: Well, we've already covered your views on the new "electronica" movement going on now. If Front 242 didn't take the hiatus they did, do you think the band would have made it bigger in the U.S.? The U.S. music industry is a lot different from the mainstream buying public.

Patrick:  Well, I never think in terms of being bigger in a sense of being more commercial.

Kiran:  How about a bigger fan base?

Patrick:  Yeah, probably. To us, what is more important is the feeling. You feel that what you've done was right and on an artistic and musical level, you think that you've have achieved something, and that's the biggest satisfaction that you can have. If you sold a million records or a hundred-thousand, it doesn't even matter at that point when you have achieved that feeling. Of course, maybe, a lot of people say "Hey, are bands like The Prodigy are taking the parts of the benefits of what you guys initiated?" I mean, of course, but you never stop. I mean we took probably some of other older industrial bands like Cabaret Voltaire or other ones before us, and we have translated it to a certain way also. I mean, at the end of the day, what is important is how you feel in that huge musical landscape and how you're personality still develops itself through this.

Mike:  Well, in the future, where does Front 242 stand as to doing more tours and putting out more albums? Is this the swan song for the band?

Patrick:  No. I cannot tell you if we are going to do a new album or not. Some people in the band feel we should and some feel we shouldn't. But what is sure is that this is probably the last time that we'll do something that is not a new album. I think the next step has to be a new album with new pictures with new everything, or we should drop it, because this live album was worth it, and it was very interesting. But it is about time to make a full stand and have a new album, so it's a new album or nothing.

Mike: It's been great, Thanks a lot Patrick.

Kiran:  Thanks Patrick, good luck.

Patrick:  Thanks, enjoy the show tonight.

Special thanks to 242 tour manager Ben Marts, 242 website managers Sam and Dimitri, Kim Alexander, Michael Mahan, and the entire road staff for the ReBoot tour.

Live Review of
Front 242's concert
on Aug. 4, 1998
in Hallandale, Florida

Front 242
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