Interview with Australian-based “Industrial Synth Crust” outfit Schkeuditzer Kreuz, alias Kieren Hills.
What is the significance of the band’s name?
It is the name of a motorway junction in Germany. It is the intersection between the A14 and the A9 so if you are driving from Berlin to Leipzig that is where you turn off. And that is it – I could try to make some kind of connection between the sounds that I make and that area of the world, and it would kind of work, but the truth of it is that I just liked the sound of the words. Drove past that intersection for the first time about 25 years ago and from the moment I saw the name, the words just rolled round and round in my head Schkeuditzer Kreuz…. very satisfying to say. So, I decide that one day I would call a band that.
You have mentioned that the song "Ratchet" is about throwing everything into life while feeling the weight of time passing. How does this theme resonate with the overall message of your latest album, "No Life Left"?
There is not a lot of light or hope in the album. It continued where the first album ‘Isolated and Alone’ left off – my battles with my mental health, the darkness I see around me, and the constant questioning of my own existence. The only ray of light is ‘Joy’ which is a song about the ecstasy of destruction. Sort of.
‘Ratchet’ is struggle – it is getting things wrong. It is giving everything but still knowing it’s not enough. It is about questioning my worth – as a performer, as a human being. It is me living long enough to become what I hated. And it is about feeling the automation kick in, into life, into everything, not stopping to question why I do what I have always done. And it is the feeling of the ticking clock – every movement forward, every moment of time is sliced off a finite life.
Your music has been praised for its unique blend of crust punk and industrial synth. How do you navigate the balance between these two genres while maintaining your own distinct sound?
I have been playing bass (and occasionally guitar) in punk/crust bands for quite a long time and that makes up a lot of what I listen to.
But it is not everything – I first turned onto synth music with Tubeway Army as a kid and that fascination never stopped. Specifically, it was the song ‘Are Friends Electric?’ – the coldness of it all. The brittle vocals of isolation and despair over those echoey sci-fi synth sounds. It sounded like alienation, and hopelessness, and it grabbed me straight away. From there through War of the Worlds, to Wendy Carlos to Kraftwerk to Suicide – it always got me, the otherworldliness of synth sounds – the variation and often the very unhuman coldness of it just stood out.
So, when I started this thing, I put them together. I took the overblown distortion and noise of the punk music I had been playing; along with the anger, and aggression, and I connected that into my synth sounds, to my samples, and my percussion. Not as a conscious thought – I didn’t think “I want to make synth crust”. Synth crust didn’t exist. I just took the sounds I heard in my head and bashed them together until they fit. I wanted ugly, and harsh, and I wanted that cathartic release of screaming my own inadequacies into the void, but I also wanted melody and rhythm – I chose not to create pure noise and instead to try and pack noise down into a song structure.
And this is what came out.
Can you describe your creative process?
It really varies a lot – some songs come into my head almost fully formed, others take a lot of work. There are songs like ‘Joy’ where I had made recordings of some of the percussion sounds before the song was even there – I had some 44-gallon drums that I had picked up somewhere and painted up for a performance at some point and I took them and some reinforcing steel, and a few other bits and pieces as well as some hammers and screwdrivers and power tools and recorded myself taking one to the other until I had a full catalogue of noise. Then a little while later I came up with a big monstrous synth line with a super simple drum pattern to go behind it and I started to fit those sounds of destruction and mechanical violence in around that and only once that was together did the subject matter and the lyrics come to mind – when I heard what I had made.
Other songs come together more conventionally, I write a synth line, or a percussion pattern and then build on it more organically. With one feeding off the other so I will adjust and modify and eventually come together with something cohesive, something that feels complete.
I think the most important thing is I have my machines set up and connected to record all the time so whenever an idea comes to me, I record it and file it. Sometimes for later use as is, other times just as a concept.
How important is visual storytelling to complement your music, and how involved are you with the band's aesthetic?
As far as performance goes – I would love to add in full visuals to what I do but I just don’t have the time to create it and make it work. I have played shows where someone else has created amazing visuals to go with what I do and one day I will probably have more of that.
But the imagery, the aesthetic: it is the darkness I create aurally made whole. When I work with visual artists, either for album art or for videos – I will give them my music and lyrics as well as some idea of what is going on my head with the song.
I am a solo performer so everything I do reflects ultimately on myself, and it has to feel right. When I first started, I made my videos myself, trying to create what I saw in my head. And they were ok for what they were, and I am happy with them but like most things – quality tends to come from working with people with experience in the art form.
My brief to David from Grim Reflections for the ‘Ratchet’ video was something like “make it ugly, dark, and uncomfortable” and he just ran with it, taking the sound, the ideas, and the record art all into account when creating the video.
Your music is often described as original and heavy. What influences and experiences contribute to shaping the sound and themes of Schkeuditzer Kreuz's music?
Musically there is so much – from the synth music I mentioned before, to punk like Discharge and Crass, to melodic crust like Fall of Efrafa, Ekkaia and Tragedy. From noise punk like Disclose or Enzyme to raw noise like Merzbow. From industrial pioneers like Neubauten and Laibach to current experimental creators like noiseconcrete x 3chi5 or Colostomy Baguette or V and everything in between. From electronic music producers like Her Nosie is Violence, IAmNøt and Julia Bondar to evil, noise infused harsh sludge like Religious Observance. The more I think about music, the more I get worried that I am leaving something out.
I listen to a lot of music, and I listen to it all the time. I go through obsessive phases – of soundtracks, of classical, of dub, of harsh industrial, of d-beat punk of, fuck, anything. It all comes into my head, gets churned up, and I guess, some of it comes back out again in what I do.
As for experiences – it is life. My life. What I see around me but mostly what I hear in my head. It is the ugliness of existence. The terror of being alive. The weight of waking up each day knowing I have to go through it all again.
As a band that pushes the boundaries of extreme genres, what challenges do you face in carving out your own niche in the music industry, and how do you overcome them?
I’m not totally sure that I do. I play my music and people connect or they don’t. Sometimes it is difficult to get people to give it a go because they have a preconceived notion of what I am going to sound like – synth sounds like “this”, or I must be a DJ because I am solo and have a table, or I am harsh noise because…. something. And that is ok. I won’t connect with everyone. But it can be difficult when promoters are like this. When you book shows for (for example) a hardcore band – you contact hardcore promoters and say, “I have this hardcore band and they want to play” and the promoter knows what you’re talking about, and it is a pretty simple conversation.
But with what I do – I have to break through that initial wall before getting anywhere near that. And it doesn’t always work. Once people see me play it is different, but it is that first interaction that can be hard. And it has interesting results – when I am touring, I end up playing with a wide variety of bands from metal to punk, to noise, to goth, to electronic and techno. And weirdly, once I am there, it all works – it fits and often makes people happy. It is just getting through that mental barrier enough to get the show and then it all makes sense.
And this extends past shows as well – from getting airtime on radio shows, or input in magazines or whatever, it can take a bit more insistence than it does for more easily defined bands. But that is ok, it is what it is. And it is changing. People are learning who I am and what I do and will check my output a lot more readily when it happens.
Live performances are a crucial aspect of connecting with your audience. How do you translate the intensity of your recorded music into a live setting, and what can fans expect from a Schkeuditzer Kreuz live show?
Right from the start I wanted my show to be energetic, a raw visceral experience. When I play bass in bands I will jump around and climb on things and throw my bass about and generally be a bit of an idiot on stage. But with the music I play with SK that isn’t really possible. But I put as much energy into my performance as I can while not losing track of the songs. It is aggressive and intense and very in your face, and I think it goes with the music and the themes. It is synth crust, and it takes both those things and creates something new out of the amalgamation.
Collaboration can bring new dimensions to music. Are there any artists or projects you dream of collaborating with in the future?
I released the ‘No Life Left’ album as a double CD recently, with the second disc being remixes, and I really liked that collaborative aspect. Since then, I have been working with some music producers in Italy to see how we can make something together, which will be amazing when it happens.
As for artists I dream of doing something with – Her Noise Is Violence is someone who I would love to do something with. And again, we have discussed it but have not yet made it happen.
I wanted to do a collaboration song on the next album, and without ever mentioning that, I was contacted by the singer of a Swedish punk band asking if I wanted to do something together, and that is already coming together.
And I would love to try things with other performers – maybe a show with live percussion, or a live performance with added noise – I have watched Merzbow perform with other musicians a couple of times, and I would love to do a show like that.
Looking ahead, what's next for Schkeuditzer Kreuz?
I have a bit of Australian touring coming up – playing in Castlemaine and Eaglehawk this weekend. Then Sydney, Adelaide, some regional NSW shows. Just generally getting around and throwing my noise about the place.
Then at the end of August I head to Japan for a few shows which I am ridiculously excited about.
Then when I get back, I do another quick trip to Queensland then I sit down and put together the next album. I am giving myself the best part of 3 months to write and record, then I tour the country again with a similarly minded act from the US.
Then next year – back to Europe, and hopefully the US as well.
So, I have a lot coming up and that is the way I like it.
What would you say to someone who isn’t familiar with your music to entice them to listen?
It is something new – there may be elements in it that you will recognise from music you like, but I have put them together in a way that is not being done by anyone else (as far as I know). Whether you came to industrial from Ministry or Throbbing Gristle – whether your punk is Framtid or From Ashes Rise – and whether you like your electronics dancey and fun or harsh as fuck, all of this and more are flying round in my head and coming out of my machines… it is dark, it is ugly, and it definitely isn’t date music. But if you like the intensity, and somehow celebrating the ugliness of the world: give it a go.
Links :
Webpage : https://www.schkeuditzerkreuz.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/schkeuditzer_kreuz?igsh=MXVnYWc3dzU5dHV0dA==
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/schkeuditzerkreuz
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