Interview- Bizarre Musik Machine

Emerging from San Antonio, Texas.. The Bizzare Musik Machine is a New Musik Project Consisting of 2 members: Yayumi (Vocals/Keyboards) & Gino (Guitar/Sequenceing). The Bizarre Musik Machine is a band the produces just that.. Bizarre Musik.. Why Bizarre? Because the process itself is Pure and Simple. Utilizing TECHNOLOGY.. The Bizarre Musik Machine captures the Very Invalueable Emotions of Human Life: Happiness, Fear, Sorrow, Regret, Love, Hate, Peace.. then compresses them into MP3's that are sold at a lesser value to the consumer who cares to buy.. Thus we are..

GC: How did you two meet?

Gino & Yayumi met in a smokey, stinky club in San Antonio, Tx called The Sanctuary where Gino DJs 80's Retro/New Wave. With the same Love for Musik & The Arts, We fell Deeply in Love and we eventually married.. both in Life and in Musik... forming The Bizarre Musik Machine.

GC: Besides music what is your other occupation?

Gino - In the daytime, Gino disguises himself as a normal, cool & quiet Representative of Time Warner Cable.. Where no one is to suspect his other Bizarre side and plans for World Destruction.. have to pay the bills somehow..

Yayumi - Since I prefer not to be discriminated and ridiculed for My Bizarreness in clothing and hair at a fully corporate job, I alter clothes and accessories to their Full Bizarreness, and sell them on Ebay. I also make my own jewelry under my "jewerly line", 'Bizarre Handcrafts by Yayumi' which I hope in the near future to be selling at future Bizarre Musik Machine shows.

GC: Did you both played in a different band in the past?

Gino - Before Yayumi & I formed Bizarre Musik Machine I was in two other bands: Vespertine Garden and The Musik Box .. both were shortly lived early attempts at starting a band. You can hear The Musik Box @ https://www.geocities.com/musikboxsite

Yayumi - I have always loved musik and the arts my whole life, I grew up always singing and playing my tiny 10 dollar casio keyboard, and strumming my acoustic guitar. I had always talked to various people about starting an electronic band but nobody I knew at the time was interested. I tried a band about one year ago with two guys I met in high school but the tastes were just a little too different and we clashed. They didnt support my views on corporate america and didnt want my performance art to pull through so I left. I am so glad to have finally found someone (Gino) whom actually can accept and follow my viewpoints and artistic views on musik and life.

GC: What's the real band musical influence behind Bizarre Musik Machine?

Gino - I am influenced by ALL Musik in general.. Musik would be defined as those Sounds which come from The Heart & Soul.. Musik That makes you Feel and opens your Mind & Imagination.. NOT the OVERproduced, Heartless, Soulless, Commercial, Tedious, American Idol rubbish which is currently being force fed the General Public by the EVIL Corporations such as CLEAR CHANNEL who no longer understands the IMPORTANCE of supporting Creativity & Expression. You should ALWAYS listen to MusiK and NEVER listen to Music.. Examples of Musik are: Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Abecedarians, Fad Gadget, Severed Heads, Xymox, Danse Society, The Chameleons UK, and many others to mention.. all of which have played a part in My Musikal Inspiration..

Yayumi - The first electronically run band that I fell in love with was Portishead in which Beth Gibbons voice is absolutely brilliant. Needless to say I fell in love with the sound. I also fell in love with Bjork at around the same time. Depeche Mode, and The Cure were amongst my favorite bands growing up as well. The electronic sounds made my heart race and my emotions spill. Laurie Anderson's musik and performance blew me away. (I will talk of the performance aspects later on in this interview).Musik like this sticks to my heart and when I'm ready to express myself with Bizarre Musik Machine, the keyboards,drums and vocals in which I sequence is everything, including musik that I have soaked up in my heart. They are my views, the musik I've endured, my life, and most importantly my heart. Bizarre Musik is not meant to be a specific genre, its meant to be our (Gino & Yayumi) raw emotions, views and lives.

GC: Is Cocteau Twins is more an impact on your sound?

Gino - The atmosphere of The Cocteau Twins is the first & closest Musikal example to what I feel inside.. so it definately impacted the direction I went with for my guitar playing.. I've always loved alot of Depth & Spaciousness in guitar, Ambience is the Key element to my creativity.. I can barely play guitar without Echo & Delay swirling through.. it just opens so many doors for me, through which I can hear the voice of my soul calling me to create the guitar melodies that I do..

Yayumi - I actually first heard Cocteau Twins when I started dating Gino in the beggining and I absolutely fell for their sound. Gino's influence on guitar was definitely seen once I heard them. I would definitely think it's safe to say or think that The Cocteau Twins have a very big influence on my voice. Elizabeth Frazier's voice is that of an angel. Everytime I hear her (Elizabeth Frazier's) voice, no matter how many times I have heard it, it always has the same effect as of when I first heard it (her voice)...speechless and breathless.

GC: What motivated you to make this kind of music? Gino - The Desire to express myself and to escape the boredom of EveryDay Life. I think without the two things most important to me.. Musik & Yayumi, I probably would not be here today... so Goth of me to say :)

Yayumi - Observation, Art & LIFE.

GC: How do you define music that is "hopeful" and "helpful"

Gino - Well... any musik that can reach out to someone and change their perspective on life or outlook is awsome.. I know that the musik that I listen to has been a Big Help in getting me though a bunch of Tough Times of in my life and has been something that has always given me Higher Hopes.. Some songs that have helped me in these times of are: Morrissey - I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday, Siouxsie & The Banshees - Forever, Xymox - The River, Severed Heads - First Steps, Rema-Rema - Fond Affections, Cocteau Twins - Grail Overfloweth, LowLife - Cowards Way, Dead Can Dance - The Carnival Is Over, Abecedarians - They Said Tomorrow, etc.. etc.. I'd recommend each and every one of these songs and bands :)

Yayumi - Musik has always been my therapy, whether Im listening to it, or making it. I believe that musik can make everybody feel and act in different ways. I know some musik has really angered me and want to bash someone's head in, or wait.. that was just Britney Spears...

GC: Before performing live, is it complex to keep most of your music saved in the keyboard memory bank?

B.M.M. - We use a Ensoniq TS-10 for our main sound which has a built in memory unit and we have all of our songs saved to disk. We constantly back up our sequences/songs to ensure no precious Bizarre Musik Data is lost.. So far, nothing bad has happened on stage (..knocks on wood..) and the TS-10 is built like a tank so it is very dependable! We load up songs on the fly (including our newest songs not yet recorded) and work them into different setlist evertime we play so every Bizarre Musik Show is different..

GC: What kind of response do you get from the crowd and what is their reaction?

Gino - From my perspective I most of the time see that our crowd stands in awe bobbing their heads and moving to the beat.. Sometimes they are frightened by our Bizarreness... especially when Yayumi works her magic and put on her performances.. Sometimes even I freak out on stage on some of the stuff she does.. I remember on show we did @ The Sancutary where Yayumi wore a very flowing scheer dress with a very wierd looking mask and she danced around on stage with her dress flowing as she twirled her arms.. she looked like a Ghost.. it was awsome! Most of the time after the show people ask us Where Are You From? Most of the time they cannot believe that we would come from a place like San Antonio, Texas... FRANCE maybe, but not San Antonio, Texass.

Yayumi - Ahhh, that is my favorite part of the performance. I absolutely love performing and watching the crowds reactions. I encorporate performance art in to the performance and change costumes alot to change the mood of the songs. Im not sure, we get mixed reactions. Since I am usually running and dancing in costume around stage, I get to see alot. I have seen scared faces, extremely happy drunk faces, and confused faces. Alot of people arent used to seeing a band like us here in San Antonio so the reaction is beautiful. As far as off of stage, alot of people say that our sound is very "different".

GC: What are you listening to in your cd player?

Gino - Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Xmal Deutschland, Klaus Nomi, The Cure, Danse Society, early Christian Death, Xymox, Vicious Pink, Pink Industry, Fad Gadget, Joy Division, Cinema Strange, Kraftwerk, Abecedarians, Chris & Cosey, Visage, The Creatures/Siouxsie, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Downfall Funeral, D.A.F., Depche Mode, The Flying Lizzards, The Glove, Girls At Our Best, John Foxx, Lush, Mission Giant, Morrissey/The Smiths, Moev, O.M.D., Section 25, Single Gun Theory, Thick Pigeon, etc.. I have a 100 CD Changer system .. :)

Yayumi - what has been in my CD player lately: D.A.F., Front 242, The Diary, The Vanishing, The Danse Society, Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Welle Erdball, Dead Can Dance, Klaus Nomi, Kraftwerk, early Human League, David Bowie, Gary Numan, My Robot Friend, Ace of Base (I love the dark synths used), The Sugarcubes, Abecedarians, Anything Box, Book of Love, The Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Xmal Deutschland, The Glove, Joy Division, Severed Heads, Visage, Bjork, Fad Gadget, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Single Gun Theory, The Specials, Tears for Fears, Portishead, Radiohead, Clan of Xymox, and *sigh* Vicious Pink. I listen to musik alllll day while'st working on Ebay...

GC: Majority of bands nowadays rather be independent and have a distribution deal. Do you prefer to be independent or be signed to a label?

Gino - The world we live in today has made alot of changes to the Music Industry so I think that getting signed to a Label is obviously one of the WORST things a band like us can do .. We are still evolving our sound and we need Total Creative Control over what we do.. I'm not to sure that too many Major Labels would be willing to intvest in this sort of thing.. especially since they are content with all their Blandly OverProduced Rubbish that is put on the radio.. Perhaps a nice Independent Label (maybe Bella Union or Mute Records..) will come along that will support our Bizarre Musik and offer assistance on Promotions, Cd Production, Merchandise, etc.. until then we remain D.Y.I. by fate..

Yayumi - Well, I have never really agreed with corporate run labels, they bother me in how they just love to take heartfelt musik and destroy it to its core by adding stupid things to the musik. Most producers and record companies are just looking for money. That isnt what musik should be about, survival yes. A starving artist should never have to starve. But in this world of greed, its pretty common for it to be about gluttony and the idea of rolling around in a big bed of money. I have no respect for that. I would prefer to be independent and have a distribution deal rather than be signed to a label. The only labels I would EVER consider signing to if ever offered would have to be 4AD, Bella Union, or Mute. (independent labels ONLY). Besides, usually if you get "mainstream" with the huge corporate labels who drink maritinis and roll around in YOUR hard earned money, the probability of a large and very strong fan base are unlikely. In other words, the next moment NSync (a corporate made band BTW) comes up with a new CD, they ditch you and go to the next new thing. I would much rather be appreciated by people who actually HEAR the musik instead.

GC: Living in Texas, how do you view the electronic and gothic music scene? Are there bands you particularly like or despise?

Gino - The Electronic/Gothic scenes here in San Antonio are quite small and survives only through the support of a few NightClubs & Live Musik Venues.. There are only a few other Electronic/Goth bands left here in San Antonio right now such as: Hearts Fail, DownFall Funeral, GastroMachine, The Guild, Emilys Gone Mad, HyperBubble, Hollow, Chant, Bombs Over Berlin and a few others.. So it is sometimes very hard to book shows with only a handful of places and bands to work with.. The future is looking a little better though, with more bands emerging, I think eventually we can all come together here in San Antonio and rise above all the other stuff going on and show what we have offer..

Yayumi - Well, the electronic/gothic scene has a fairly small support net here in San Antonio, with the exception of local Nephilim Netwerk, Deadwire, and Ghost Cat Productions. These exceptions have done very well to keep the scene in S.A. alive. Bands I particularly dislike in Texas: carbon-copied Metallica-like bands in San Antonio are not uncommon and are a dime a dozen it seems. I hate that. Bands I particularly love here are: Heart's Fail, Downfall Funeral, Gastromachine, and from Denton, Midlake (who is by chance on the Bella Union label).

GC: What's next for Bizarre Musik Machine and when can we expect a new album?

B.M.M. - Playing alot more Bizarre Musik Shows in the San Antonio & surrounding areas.. Hopefully we can play other areas soon.. We are alway coming up with New Songs and we always have a New Song Every Show! All of the New Songs will be recorded Very Soon! Can't really say when an new CD would be out yet, but please check our website for the Latest in Bizarre Musik.. www.bizarremusik.com :)

Thank You Very Much Donovan Tate for Taking the Time To Process This Interview and for Listening to Bizarre Musik!

If you like: Bjork, Cocteau Twins, Joy Division, Siouxsie, The Cure etc.. May We Introduce Something Bizarre: https://www.bizarremusik.com