James Cooney's Interview (note: this is prior to TMOTD's release & prior to our 97 US Tour)
Could you give me some background on Scar Tissue? How it all started?
When I went to college, I couldn't take my drumset with me, so my parents (realizing that without a musical outlet I'd go nuts) bought me a Casio HT-3000... it was a really simple synth / sequencer thing.. and shortly after that, I was turned on to late 80's industrial by (now ex-member) Dofino. Acquired a sampler in '90... kept getting more stuff... learning more... in '92 songs started appearing that would eventually end up on Separator. With the help of people like Chase (Re-Constriction.. who put us on his first compilation: "Torture tech Overdrive") and some small zines, we started to become somewhat recognized in the scene. 6 compilations later, we got signed to 21st Circuitry.
Why is Dofino no longer a member of the band?
He's a drug addict who uses people selfishly.
How was it to sing after Dofino was the vocalist before-hand?
It was surprisingly easy... except for Cold... no matter how many times I try, I just can't do vocals for that song effectively (in my opinion). The first song I wrote after he left the band was Powerclone... and that's such a powerful song, with MY vocals too, that i thought "well hell, if I can do THAT I can do anything..."
What affect do you think the Mind/Body and If It Moves... compilations had on your career?
I think they got us recognized by the "players" in the scene... club DJs, other bands, radio, and magazines... they didn't really get us known to the common industrial music fan. But those compilations were invaluable in getting a "buzz" started about us.
What's the Scar Tissue music writing process?
Controlled accidents. Like many electronic-based bands, we just start making noise and when an idea clicks we run with it. No formulas, no "process". Sometimes a song writes itself entirely in one setting... sometimes only puzzle pieces come out... for example, one song on the "TMOTD" CD uses as it's "hook" a drum loop that I'd been saving since '93... I knew if I waited long wnough I'd find a place for it.
You've said that you don't actually sequence samples, but randomly throw them onto a tape. How do you pick the samples to randomly throw down? Is the decision into what samples to use likewise random, or is that more planned out?
It's very planned on the new CD. On Separato it was all random... just throw a bunch of samples on tape and mix it in during the recording process. For "TMOTD" Phil did most of the noise/voice samples.. and once the sequences were done we'd both load up the samples and start playing them over the music to see which ones fit.
What does your live show consist of?
It's me doing vocals and stand-up drums, Phil on guitar (he also does vocals on "Recline") and we have a 3rd person play sampler. The 3rd person varies, depending on friends' availability. So far we've used 2 different people from San Francisco (Karen Feder and Adrian Roberts) and we love them both. Awesome stage presence. So, live we like to just run a video on a screen behind us, tell the lighting guy to take a siesta, and bust out in the darkness... you see mostly silhouettes in front of the video screen with occasional stage lighting. Our music is itself very visual, and i don't want peolpe totally focussing on US (the people) when they could be focusing on their own mental images from the music.
What was it like playing with some more established acts at the "Industro-Rave"?
It's silly... I mean it's cool, there's a feeling of "hey we're in this scene together".. but Phil and I feel quite detached from the whole music scene. We enjoy socializing with the other bands, but beyond that we're not there to stargaze or kiss asses.
Any chance we'll get to see you on the East Coast any time soon?
If our work schedules allow us, we'd like to do a brief US tour in the summer ('97). But nothing is planned yet. We get a lot of requests from people on the East Coast to play out there, so if the money situation allows us to we WILL tour there.
I absolutely love the song "Failure," especially with the ambient intro. I've noticed a lot of ambient influences running through the album, sort of deep in the mix. Would you consider ambient an influence? What other influences are behind Scar Tissue (not just musical)?
We are definitely an "ambient" band... I label us "dark ambient." I'm SO glad you can see that element in us. For us we are not the heavy percussion or the noisy samples... our heart is what's happening BEHIND those things... just like you said, "deep in the mix"... that's where the power of Scar Tissue really is to me. And I think we share a lot of musical ground with bands like Medicine, Seefeel, Dive, zoviet france... bands that create songs out of a repeating pattern that changes in some way. That element is almost always present in our stuff. TMOTD is even more in that direction, though it has quite a few "hard" songs as well as "ambient" ones.
How did you come to cover Missing Persons' "Destination Unknown" on Newer Wave? Was that your first cover (for release)? What was your opinion of that?
Hee hee... Scar Tissue's first cover was "Stainless Steel Providers" which we did at our first live show ever, at Kontrol Faktory in LA. But (thankfully) that song never made it into a recording. We covered that song 'cause Don (21st Circuitry President) suggested we cover Missing Persons... I love that song, so that was it.
What was it like releasing "TMOTD" in such a short time after having such a long time before the release of "Separator"?
I now know why bands have that "sophomore slump"... we had 6 years of material to draw from for "Separator"... and less than a year of new material for "TMOTD". In fact, only 5 or 6 songs on "TMOTD" are really "new".. meaning written after Separator. And thank GOD Phil can come up with cool sequences... he only played guitar on a few songs on "Separator". He asked me to show him how to use all my equipment on day and 2 weeks later he had written a bunch of sequences and one whole song... I was like "YES!! He didn't write lame stuff!! It fits with Scar Tissue!!!"
Any word on "TMOTD"'s sound?
I think it's more cohesive, more of an entire piece of work than "Separator", which was like a bunch of fragments. TMOTD is darker, more disturbing I think.
You've said that your "music is very visual: look at the pictures, not the words." Do you plan on or want to take this further with a video, Multimedia performance, or something similar?
I'd love to do sound for films, or have people do films to my sound. But so far the opportunity hasn't presented itself.
You improvised some lyrics on "Separator," like "Cold" and "Choking on Fate." How did you improvise them? Did you have an idea or phrase you liked and expanded from there, or...?
That was Dofino, not me... He would just grab his notebook and start flipping through the pages, finding phrases that worked.
How'd you come to have 16 Volt remix "Our Disease"?
I saw a post on r.m.i. from 16Volt saying they wanted to do remix work. I was almost done with the tracks for "Separator" and thought "hey, what the hell?" So I sent Eric the parts of "Our Disease" and he sent back a Depech Mode song (just kidding... kinda). Turns out 16Volt needed money for their summer tour ('96) and that's why they were asking for remix work... so that's also how I got to drum for them on the first half of that tour.
I noticed how certain songs, like "Stance," had a more danceable drum line than others. Was this merely from being in a different time period, or was that a conscious decision?
That's just because that's the beat that came out of my head. There are a few songs on TMOTD thata are downright "funky"... meaning they have VERY strong/danceable beats.
Do you think the eclectic styles you hear in "Separator" is from it being a sort of collection from Scar Tissue's past, or is that just the music you make?
Right again (man, you are insightful.. seriously.. most reviewers suck).
Do you think there's been a progression from when you started to now?
TMOTD has as wide a variety of styles as "Separator", yet it still sounds like the songs were meant to go together... not as jumled as the mix of songs on "Separator"... so yes, it partly IS just because "that's the music we make", i.e. many different styles.. but because the TMOTD songs were all recorded in a small time period (well, most of them) I think they have a certain commonality that was lacking on the first CD.