Do you have a strong relation to other "scene activists" in Belgium or elsewhere?
I know Comrades
in Art, their front man is Gunther and he's a friend, but that's it. I've
given up the idea to collaborate with other bands from the 'scene', merely
because the result is never what we expected. Sorry to say, but the contribution
Mike Dando (Con-Dom) did to a track we once made together, didn't lift
the thing but brought it down, the result was very disappointing.
Once we received the invitation from an English noise duo to work together
with them. We had proposed we would add percussion layers to their noise
track, but in the end they asked us to work in the opposite way, because
they didn't know how to start. It's a well-known noise duo, but I'd rather
not tell their name, it's too embarrassing. We only collaborate with real
professional artists now if necessary, Lien
Haegeman is one of them (a very fine opera singer) and only this
way one can be sure having an excellent result in the end.
According to discogs.com
there is a five year delay between the year Militia
was founded and your first release. What happened in that time?
We did a few concerts, refined the material we had, stored it 'for later', were looking for a label (at first nobody was interested in such a small and unknown Belgian act), I wrote more music, assembled and fabricated the instruments, made them by hand, and one day we met Mike Dando, asking us to use some of our tapes as backing music and additional sounds for his own work. He made a few tracks based upon Militia music, and after a while he introduced us to Praxis Dr. Bearmann. But then it still took some time to find the right musicians and get started.
All in all, you do not very often release a new album. What reasons do
you can tell us explaining that fact?
The production of a Militia album costs a lot of time and money. We need to book a professional recording studio that's large enough to accommodate our instruments and that has a separate control room, excellent microphones and so on. We need to record at least 2 to 3 weeks and 5 days a week (8 hours a day) before an album is finished. If you realize that the average studio cost is around 40 euro per hour, you're talking about lots of money. So most labels said no when we asked them to finance and produce our albums, fortunately this was not the case with the German Praxis Dr. Bearmann nor Tactical Recordings labels, and now we've found the Belgian label Neuropa Records willing to invest in Militia. That's one thing. The other fact is, that writing the music is something I invest a lot of time in, I want it to be perfect, finished and recorded in the best conditions. Once the music is on CD and on the market you cannot change anything anymore. Because our music is made by mixing separate layers of music to one whole and I want every layer to be perfect, so it takes a lot of time just to create the basic tracks made with electronics. After all tracks are put on a CDR, we can start rehearsing till all six of us play it as it should be. This also takes a few months, we are rehearsing once or twice a week. And then finally, when the financial part of producing a new album is organized, we can book a recording studio. So indeed, it takes quite a long time before a new album is released.
What reaction did you received as Milita over the years? There weren't so much live actions, as far as I know.
We play about
4 to 5 times a year now, so we can not complain. The reactions were and
are always great, people like to hear and see us play. The fact, that
we play on real percussion instruments making our performances very physical
is one of the reasons of our success I guess. And people like the left
wing statements and texts we bring, they are a strong opposition
against the increasing right wing influence
in the underground music scene.
We don't hide in the backstage area after playing a concert but we maintain
contact with the audience, they can always find us and meet us. I believe
that a well maintained contact with your fans is extremely important.
You're obliged to do so, a lot of people have paid for an expensive ticket
and you've got to give something in return: a good show and your personal
attention. This has resulted in a ever growing fan base and contacts,
we received invitations to play at other festivals just by listening and
talking to people that are interested in our music and in our beliefs.
We also maintain contact with them on facebook and through e-mails.
This year you celebrate "20 years of Milita" with a compilation. I was a little sad, that it's only a CD-R and that there is no big booklet with Milita history. Will there be another, more meaty edition of "United We Stand"?
We produced that box for two reasons: first of all there was our anniversary and we thought it would be nice to make a compilation, a sort of "best of" if you like, we added four inlays and released it all by ourselves. The idea was present before we met Kim De Burghraeve from Neuropa Records, otherwise it would have been a label release and perhaps it would have had another outcome and cover design. Secondly we needed to collect some money, we needed extra income for the production of the new Militia album. Neuropa Records are a young firm, so they didn't have the full amount needed to hire the professional recording studio. We didn't expect that the box would sell that well, but it did. In a very short time we've collected enough money to pay our part of the studio costs. The selling of the "Archive Collection 1" CD, also a compilation album with tracks written and played between 1996 and 1997, is going extremely well, resulting in a financial support by the label. The community of Bilzen (town where I live and work) will donate a financial support as well, all three sources combined make it possible to start recording, pressing and packing. It will be released in a beautiful box with an 8 pages booklet containing pictures, images and texts. So it will fulfil your wishes I guess.
Most of your albums seems to be out of stock. Will there be a rerelease
or where can people get them?
Right, as a matter of fact this objective has been started already. The complete Militia back catalogue will be re-issued by Neuropa Records and the first one of a series of 6 CD's is "Archive Collection 1", now on the market, containing the music we made for the former Praxis Dr. Bearmann compilation 3xLP box "War Against Society", containing also "Familiedrama/Pain" which was first released on a 7 inch and "Kingdom Of Our Lord/Maschinenzimmer" which was originally a mini CD release, also by Praxis Dr. Bearmann. So - in all - ten tracks combined on one CD. The second one will be "Archive Collection 2" and it will contain the music from the 3LP set "New European Order", a classic. The rest will follow, so in the end all our previous works will be available on CD.
What plans do you have for the future? When we were talking in Chemnitz,
you told about a new album...
Yes, that was the "Power, Propaganda, Production" album we were talking about. We hope to have it released by the end of this year (2010). As said, everything is ready now, we can start recording.
Are there any more live actions planned yet?
We received an invitation to play in Zofingen (Switzerland), also at the Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig, at a forthcoming festival organized by the Xphonozon people in Erlangen, we hope to be present at the Summer Darkness Festival next year in Utrecht, we're in contact with some people in France and England as well. So I think there will be plenty of opportunities to see Militia at work and witness the new "Power, Propaganda, Production" show.
You have a side project called MekanOrganiK, having released by now one record. Will you expand this project? What does it make "necessary" not to put this in a Militia outfit? For me the sound is a little more complex and not that rhythmic...?
Where Militia has a strong political side, MekanOrganiK fulfils our needs to express the more poetic side of us. So three members of Militia have combined forces and founded a new band. It makes it possible for us to find a release valve for different and alternative musical ideas. It's a bit darker, more melodic, tending to ambient and electronic than Militia and non-political. The music of the first CD is based on the adventures of Liamel Gulliver, the main character in the book "Gullivers'Travels" by Jonathan Swift. The title refers to the experiment conducted by a mad scientist, trying to extract sunlight from cucumbers. In fact, the book was a political and social statement, and there you see, politics keep appearing as a inspiring source for our music, even for the MekanorganiK music. The tricks of an old fox, you know.
And here some additional stuff:
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