Interviewed by
Karine Semczuk

April 1999


Last Edit/Update
31 May, 1999

"Imperative Reaction create the neo-classical Industrial sound.
It's combines elements of  Puppy, Wumpscut and FLA and
adds a nuclear Reaction of their own.
Their fresh classic sound will reaffirm that there is more
to making great Industrial than a sequencer, sampler and vocoder…
it takes originality and immense talent,
two qualities that Imperative Reaction have in abundance.
They can tantalize the dancefloor until your nerve ends tingle and
can challenge your beliefs with their new breed of anthem-like lyrics.
Pummeling electronics, psycho-rhythmic beats -
micro chip grinding Electro-Industrial…"  Pendragon Site.

Karine: How and when did you first form as a band?

Ted- In 1995, myself and another person were in a band called DNA, and we needed a third person onstage with us [we were about to play our first live show] so we asked Dave to be the third person, and decided why not have him in the band? Dave and I started writing more together, and as time went on, we quit the other band and formed Imperative Reaction. We've been working together for 2 ½ years.

Karine: Where did the name Imperative reaction come from?

Dave- It was one of those things where Ted and I were trying to think of a band name. DNA had met its demise. We had some songs we wanted to put on a demo, and we really hadn't thought of a name. We kept on putting it off. I remember telling Ted that it's imperative that we come up with a name. We thought about dropping the name and changing it to something else, but we had already done too much PR work to get the name out there, so we decided to keep it. As time went on, we found that Imperative Reaction really fit the band.

Karine: How would you best describe your sound?

Dave- At times it can be really pretty, and really melodic, but there's still that underlying tone of darkness and dismay, either in the lyrics or some of the sounds we use.

Ted- At times it's been described as 'dark techno'[?] Overall, it's a pretty dancy sound, but that's not at the forefront of what we're trying to do.

                Dave            Ted

Karine: What do you consider to be your biggest influences, musical or otherwise?

Ted- We'll just name them off- Skinny Puppy.

Dave- Soft Cell, because they have a lot of those elements which I think that we have- Some of it sounds happy, but when you listen to the lyrics, it's kind of dark and dismal. I would say that was a big influence of mine.

Ted- Autechre, Aphex Twin.

Dave- A lot of the newer bands out there, who don't stick with the
stock instrument sounds, and actually play with their keyboards and tweak stuff out.

Ted- And of course the typical: 242, Frontline Assembly, Ministry, anything I ever listened to at length for a period of time.

Dave- Growing up in the eighties, I had a lot of SPK, Klinik, Cabaret Voltaire, a lot of old electronic music got under my skin.

Karine: So the finalized new album [Eulogy for the Sick Child ] is out now on Pendragon?

Ted- It was released in January-after Pendragon had put it off for a while due to some recording problems and other stuff...it was originally supposed to be put out late last year but we got more time to work on it and decide what exactly was going to be put on it, so that was good for us.

Dave- We dropped the track "3 ½ Minutes of Pain, and added 2 new tracks. The SavaK remix of "Predicate" isn't on there for obvious reasons. [That was another rush job, which we weren't very happy with].

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

Dave- I guess you can call them "side projects". There are some MIDI files, song files which get put into the "other" folder of the hard drive. Once in a while, we pull them up and dig into them. It's nothing we would want to release as Imperative Reaction. These are songs we like, but don't really fit into that vibe. One of these days, we might put them out onto a disc, but right now there's nothing really on the side. Anything like a side project would just be a bi-product or Imperative Reaction.

Karine: Where would you like to see yourselves in five or ten years?

Dave- A good healthy amount of albums underneath our belt.

Ted- A good amount of exposure..

Dave- Even if I never quit my day job, as long as my music is out there and people enjoy it, [and the record company is happy enough to keep putting our stuff out!] that's fine with me.

Ted- [making music] is priceless. It doesn't matter if there's money or not.

Karine: Is there anything you would like to add in closing?

Ted- Dave is the genius behind Imperative Reaction, and I want you to quote me on that.  I think the LA scene has really benefited from people like Franck from Das Bunker. I'm glad to see them doing so well, and I hope that things continue along the same path. A lot of good talent is out there, and it's only a matter of time before it all explodes onto the scene.

Dave- I think California has a lot of potential, not only in industrial, but in the experimental, "aphex" sound.. There's a lot happening here which the world hasn't heard yet, and that we're enjoying.

Ted- Coldwave is not all that America has to offer [not to offend anyone]

Dave- I just hope that more bands in California get a chance to be exposed, so that the rest of the world can hear them.