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Last Edit/Update
27 September, 1999

An Interview with
Peter Spilles of the German band
Project Pitchfork
Circa 1998 USA
By Karine Semczuk


Ask permission for authorized reproduction. Šopyright.

Karine: This is the band's first time touring in the USA- You must be excited?

Peter Spilles: Yes, very.

Karine: Has it been very different for you over here, as opposed to in Europe?

Peter Spilles:  Yes. First of all, it's kind of strange. We're not very used to being major support, because normally people support us - in Germany, we're kind of famous, but this is okay because we know the guys from Front 242. Also, the audience is kind of different. It's much more mixed up.

Karine: Is it pretty much a small scene in Germany?

Peter Spilles:  No, it's kind of big. It depends on whether you say, for example, goth, or industrial, it's much more divided. It seems to appear to me that people [in the states] who don't look like they listen to the music also listen to it, which I think is good. It's much more open.

Karine: We're only a few days into the tour, but I take it that the audience responses have been good?

Peter Spilles:  Yes. We were very surprised.

Karine: Do you like or dislike touring, and/or performing live?

Peter Spilles: I love performing live, because it's really alot of fun. Staying in a bus and all that, it's a little bit like being a pirate on a ship.

Karine: Is there anything in particular that you're doing differently on this tour?

Peter Spilles:  It's simply not comparable to a Europe tour. It was too expensive to bring all the stuff, so it's really a small version. We playing much more older stuff.

Karine: You have some new material out which is "Steelrose"?

Peter Spilles:  Yes, it's a maxi-single. Is that right? I realize that there is some difference in saying something here. For example, the industrial scene in Europe means something totally different than here. You know the band Dive? It's more like that, really noisy. The music that we do is called "electronic"

Karine: So then Project Pitchfork isn't really considered part of the industrial scene over there?

Peter Spilles:  Absolutely not. But, it's just because of the context, the people.

Karine: On that note, how would you best describe your music?

Peter Spilles:  Oh God.... I think...electronic music! [smiles]

Karine: With all the different terms out there: industrial, electro, darkwave.. do you feel comfortable with those terms?

Peter Spilles:  People always need words to fit something in, categories to describe something, it's human. So, it's okay...whatever....

Karine: Would you say that the gothic and the industrial scene over in Europe is separated?

Peter Spilles:  No, the gothic scene and the industrial scene, which for us means noise-electro, are the same. What is kind of separated is EBM, like people who listen to Front 242, are different. They're mostly more [associated] with the rave scene.

Karine: Musically, what would you say influences you the most?

Peter Spilles: I listen to a lot of totally different stuff, but I try not to be influenced by the 'hypes' or what's "in" at the moment, I just try to do my own stuff. I'm influenced, perhaP. Spilles, by the early eighties music- the new romantic stuff.

Karine: How is everything going with your label, Candyland?

Peter Spilles:  It's working very well, but in Europe we reached everything we could reach with our own label, so now we are with East West Records, which is a major, but we don't have any restrictions. So we are totally free like before, but with much more power behind us. In Europe, the label scene is so strange. Sometimes labels like Offbeat, behave much more like "majors" used to be, than how majors are behaving now. [Major labels] have changed their restrictions on an artist. I mean we can do everything there. We are still totally in control.

Karine: The industrial/electronic scene over in Europe seems to be so much bigger than it is here. Would you say that makes it more competitive and difficult to sign bands, or does it make it easier?

Peter Spilles:  I think that it's hard either way. First of all, you have to be good. In Germany, especially, it's so extreme. All these small indie labels are putting really new bands out, like whatever, so there's so many bands out there, and it's even harder. So they're kinda lucky if they even sell 500 CD's. Then it's already a success for them.

Karine: With so many bands out there, is it hard to find new bands which are really doing innovative material?

Peter Spilles:  At the moment, the Europe scene, especially the German one, [what's going on] is totally corrupted. All this shit is coming up. There's nothing innovative. In fact, many people there are now looking to US bands like Hate Dept., Pygmy Children, Spahn Ranch, and all that. I don't know how you see it, but what they are doing is far better than what the new German bands are making at the moment. They all want to sound like Depeche Mode.

Karine: How is everything going with Metropolis?

Peter Spilles:  Everything is fine so far. We did something with Cleopatra which didn't go so well, so we're with Metropolis. We're releasing a lot of our old stuff [through Metropolis], and our new album [Eon] will be released at the same time here in the states as in Europe. It will be out around the beginning of October.

Karine: Do you yourself believe in extraterrestrials?

Peter Spilles:  I saw one once. It wasn't a UFO, but I saw lights in the sky [and I wasn't drunk!] I wasn't alone, it was together with a friend.

Karine: Looking towards the future, what else would you like to accomplish with the band, and what direction would you like to take the band in?

Peter Spilles:  I'm happy when I am able to release good music for my taste. First of all, when I make music, I don't care at all about any scene, or any people who will criticize it, so there aren't any plans in my head like "I want to go in this direction". I want to reach as many people as possible, because I want to change something. I want to get people to start thinking. For example, yesterday, there was this man in the audience making [sieg heil] gestures. And I was asking him "What's going on here? What's wrong? Do you that just because I'm German I think it's cool when you do this?" Some people didn't follow their lessons in school.

Karine: Do you have any other side projects that you are working on?

Peter Spilles:  Well, there's Janzten-Spilles. It's one other band member and me. We're making classical themes, like film soundtracks. But it's really on the side, so there are no important side projects anymore. I had Aurora, but I didn't want to continue anymore- because I split with Patricia, and the fundament of love which was giving the inspiration wasn't there anymore.

Karine: What, if anything, would you most like for listeners to take from your music?

Peter Spilles:  Don't believe anything you see on television or read in the newspapers. Don't believe it as if what is there is only truth. Try to think about what's going on, try to make your own decisions. and love. It sounds a little bit like a hippy, but it's not in that meaning like "take drugs" and [gives the peace sign] but we mean it more seriously. That's the main point. We could talk for hours about all the other aspects.