Last Sigh: Could you tell us about your music history? What bands have you worked with in the past, for how long, and in what capacity? Where did you tour with them? Did you ever make it to Europe with them?

Michael Balch: I was first introduced to music when I was four, when my mother bought an old clarinet from a co-worker. I learned to play it using books and audio tapes, then later played it in the school band. My teachers thought I was pretty special because I had to leave class to go to rehearsals when the other kids wouldn't be able to take band for a few more years. I switched from clarinet to saxophone, through which I was invited to play in the provincial Honour Band on three separate occasions. I also played instage bands, which gave me an appreciation of jazz and swing. At various times through high school I played the bassoon, the oboe, and orchestral percussion, but the tenor sax was my main instrument. I attended summer music schools for jazz and composition as well.

Outside of school, I learned the piano. I got my Grade VIII through the Royal Conservatory of Toronto program and also obtained a Grade II theory certificate by the time I was 14. Then a friend loaned me his Moog Opus III and I was instantly hooked on synths. Within a couple of years I had amassed a nice pile of gear, including a Minimoog, a Farfisa organ, and a Roland JX-3P. I played with various bands around the Kamloops, BC area, playing for dances, weddings and parties. It was around this time that I became interested in computer programming and the musical applications of computers.

After high school, I joined an 80's cover band called Split Image and 'toured' the cabarets of BC. That lasted a year - I couldn't handle six nights a week, three sets a night of duran duran and simple minds covers. Actually, that was the good part... the rest of our musical repetorie included such bands as ZZ Top, INXS and Van Halen. I left Split Image and settled in Vancouver, where I set about starting my own projects, none of which came to fruition until [Frontline Assembly] FLA.

It was in Vancouver that I met Bill Leeb, who at the time was third-man-in with Skinny Puppy, using the pseudonym "Wilhelm Schroeder". Bill had just put together 'Nerve War' and was working in a clothing store where a friend of mine knew him. He was given my demo tape, and we got together to collaborate on new material. The results became 'Corrosion' and the'Disorder' EP.

I also contributed to a few other projects in Vancouver, including Will's "Pearl of Great Price", Moev's "Yeah Whatever' and various engineering sessions.

Michael Balch circa 1989 on tour with FLA usa
Photo kindly borrowed from www.mindphaser.com

After FLA had finished the first four releases - 'Corrosion', 'Disorder', 'State of Mind', and 'The Initial Command', plus the initial Delerium release 'Faces, Forms & Illusions', Bill and I recorded 'Gashed Senses & Crossfire', which was to be the last album I would make with FLA. After those sessions, I needed a break so I took a vacation to San Francisco to visit some friends. There I hooked up with Dave Ogilvie, who introduced me to Ministry, with whom he was working at the time. Ministry asked me to mix their monitors for a few shows, and I ended up becoming part of the crew on the 'Land of Rape & Honey' tour.

After the LORAH tour, FLA made a tour of Europe and the US in support of GS&C. Shortly after the completion of that GS&C tour, Ministry invited me back to mix monitors for the 'The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste' tour. At the end of that tour, I returned to Vancouver to learn that I was no longer part of FLA. On Al Jourgenson's invitation, I moved to Chicago to start rehearsals with RevCo and work on the upcoming Ministry album 'Psalm 69....". I toured with RevCo as keyboardist on the 'Beers, Steers and Queers' world tour, which included dates in Europe and the US. After the RevCo tour, we settled in the work on 'P69'.

Midway through the 'P69' sessions I was released from Ministry and returned to Vancouver. I had written part of the music for three songs to appear on 'P69', including "Jesus Built My Hotrod", "Just One Fix" and "Scarecrow", and had contributed to the sampling and programming on the album. I also co-wrote "The Fall", which appeared on 'Filth Pig'. "The Fall" was originally written for a project called 'WELT', which included Al Jourgenson, Ogre and myself, but the project was never completed.

Back in Vancouver, I started to write and record with Tom Ferris (Moev) on the Blackland project, from which two tracks were chosen to appear in the soundtrack for the USA networks production of 'Nikita'. After Blackland didn't get picked up by a respectable label, I significantly reduced my musical output, occasionally contributing to projects like Waiting for God and Phaedra. In 1993, Bill Leeb and I compiled and produced the 'Coordinate01' compilation.

As of late, I've been working with various musicians in Vancouver, including Cooldown, for whom I am contributing keyboards and musical direction for an upcoming live performance. We are planning to start production on a new album for Cooldown at some point in the new year. I'm also continuing to experiment with ambient music, and may release some material in the near future.

Last Sigh: Could you tell us a memorable story about your time spent
with Ministry and Frontline Assembly?

Ministry: On the "Mind..." tour, Ministry had this fake chicken wire fence that was erected between the band and the audience. Usually it wasn't a problem and fairly sturdy, and gave the real freaks something to climb. But it was a nightmare in the smaller clubs, like this one in Boston where instead of mounting the fence on its supports, the fence was hung from the lighting rig over the front of the stage. It was already a small stage, and with all the gear and musicians it was already really compact.
The fence was constructed of a metal grid welded to 1" square hollow metal pipes. I remember that the club was packed beyond belief and it was a pretty rowdy crowd. Midway through the set, what with all the psychos climbing and hanging off of it, the chains holding the fence up snapped and it fell onto the crowd. The band kept playing while the crowd tried to shift the big hunk of metal wire... eventually the crowd started to make a tug-o-war with it, which caused the structure to buckle inward and fold. This caused the welded metal support pipes to snap at the joints, freeing these 10 foot sections of piping from the fence itself.

Then some bald-headed shirtless psycho decided that they weren't metal pipes at all, but that they were actually baseball bats so he grabbed one and started to swing it above his head like he was twirling a flag. This caused the 300 or so people that were packed onto the dancefloor to flee in panic towards the already over-crowded main floor of the club, and the chaos spread throughout the club as people rushed the exits. Thank God no one was killed. Within a few moments, the Babe Ruth wannabe couldn't keep his rpm's up, and was rushed by club security who rather ungraciously ejected from the club.

The band never missed a beat.

FLA: I remember the time that Bill almost made Rhys cry because he wouldn't let Rhys use his 220V transformer for his gear because Bill needed it for his hair dryer. The band's manager and I walked all over this small town in Holland looking for another transformer, and almost missed the show completely.

Last Sigh: " What did you listen to while growing up? What do you listen to now in your *own/leisure* time?

Michael Balch: Growing up in Kamloops, there was little choice - you listened to country or AM Gold on the radio. But I liked Deep Purple and Queen, which were in my brother's record collection, and had a few cool records like The Rolling Stones "Goat's Head Soup". I went through a classical stage where all I listened to were the works of Bach, especially his music for church organs. I also liked bands like Yes, Asia and a lot of the new-wave bands like The Fixx, Simple Minds and Thomas Dolby - anything with synths really. Beyond that I was really into The Jam. I also listened to a lot of guitar bands like REM, The Chameleons, The Cure, all that 'alternative' stuff. I developed a real liking for the early 'industrial' and 'techno' bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, Kraftwerk, Lustmord, Neubauten, Test Dept. and the Pink Dots.

Currently I'm enjoying the Gram Parsons tribute album 'Return of the Grievous Angel', and the Groove Armada record... just the mellow stuff please. I'm also listening to various works by Bill Laswell, who I absolutely adore.

Last Sigh: Did you ever see Skinny Puppy play live? If so, where and when was that? What did you think of them then? Did they influence you at all musically or otherwise? Were you friends with Key, Dwayne or Ogre back then or acquaintences?

Michael Balch: Such a shame they couldn't keep it together... they were one-of-a-kind. As far as being an influence, it's hard to say as I worked with Bill Leeb and he was definitely influenced by his time spent with them, so it kind of trickled down. I think you could say that they influenced us when I was in FLA because at first everyone thought we were just trying to rip them off, which I thought was really childish but it really did motivate us to try harder. They were pioneers not only musically but also within the Vancouver scene... they were one of the first bands from here to 'make it big' without being a Bryan Adams or a Loverboy or whatever. I considered myself lucky to have made the acquaintances of Kenny, Ogre and Dwayne, and always enjoyed whenever our paths would cross.

Last Sigh: What else do you do with your talents? Daily job or?

Michah Balch:   uh huh... you said 'job'... huh huh heh huh huh.  I channel my extra energy into a series of meaningless jobs to support my always out of control lifestyle which includes activities like paying rent, eating and sleeping. I have a knack for organization which employers love to underpay me for. Lately I've been working for an internet start-up developing their streaming media applications.

Last Sigh: Do you have any concerns about the Y2K Millennium bug? Would you use a plane on January 1, 2000 if you got a free roundtrip ticket to any destination on the planet? Why/why not?

Michael Balch: Where are we going?
Actually... the major concern I have over Y2K is not the technology, it's all the freaking idiots that are going to be losing their nuts in the hysteria of the big let-down. I wouldn't want to be a cop on New Year's Eve, let's put it that way. And I'd rather fly than be driving on the streets of a major urban centre. The FAA has stated that it will ground all planes that are not considered to be safe to fly around the new year, and that includes the flight control centres as well. I'm sure if a few air traffic control towers get shut down, that will only add to the chaos and frustration of trying to travel during the holiday season. But if someone gave me a ticket to say... Frankfurt, I'd consider it. Just no third world countries with outdated computer equipment please, unless they are totally computer free. Those are the countries that are really going to suffer - the ones that do not have the resources to upgrade to Y2K compliant systems. It'll be a bit of a step backwards for them I think, if anything happens at all, of which I am still skeptical.

Last Sigh: How do you feel about MP3 technology in the music business? Do you see it as a help or a hinder with musicians, labels?

Michael Balch: So far MP3 is proving to be a good promotional tool for artists and labels, but as far as contributing to the business I think the jury's still in deliberation. I do think that while music piracy is getting completely out of hand on the internet, the labels don't seem to be suffering right now for it. Maybe in a few years we'll see some of the majors close up shop due to lack of revenue, but for now I don't think of it any more than I did about home taping, which the industry cried over for years until they had this to bitch about. I think it's unrealistic of the industry to expect to maintain any kind of control over the consumers use of the music once it has been released, although that doesn't mean that they won't try. I wouldn't be surprised with the failure of SDMI and other attempts at copy-protection that the labels and publishers try to attach some kind of levy onto the medium itself, not unlike the tax applied to blank CD's and cassettes. That should be a great debate. Ultimately, the market will decide whether we will continue to hear high-quality music from artists with the support and resources of the industry or tracks recorded completely indepently of corporate influence.

Last Sigh: What is the *scene* like in Vancouver BC? Are  there many places to hear music there or play?

Michael Balch: There's a really healthy DJ scene here, and the fringe is growing ever-stronger... occasionally rock stars like Matthew Good or Econoline Crush pop up just to remind us that Bruce Allen and his machine are still alive, but the variety and quality of the music coming out of here continues to grow as more styles and genres become mainstream like swing, lounge and urban music.

Last Sigh: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview and to work with us. Do you have any closing comments?

Michael Balch: Live long and prosper. Thank you

Visit: Michael Balch on the WWW

e.mail: Michael Balch