| |
Features - Interview
 Made Out of Babies Interview by Sean Butze | July 8th, 2008
When it comes to breaking all the rules, there’s certainly none better than Brooklyn’s MADE OUT OF BABIES. Over the past few years the experimental hardcore group has acquired a cult following throughout the extreme music underground, gaining notoriety for their ferociously wild techniques and the hauntingly epic vocal presence of front-woman Julie Christmas. Just two weeks ago the band unleashed The Ruiner, their third and most impressive release to date that has already received overwhelming praise from critics and fans alike. As they gear up for their next tour, band members Julie Christmas and Brendan “Bunny” Tobin took a few moments to talk with us about the new album and their careers as part of Made Out of Babies.
----
SF: I have to ask—How did you come up with the name “Made Out of Babies” and what (if any) significance does it hold for the band?
Bunny (Guitar): It was a joke that stuck.
SF: The press release for your upcoming album, The Ruiner, calls it your “most inspired and complex album to date.” Do you agree with this statement? Did you approach the new album differently compared to previous releases? How do you feel you’ve matured as a band?
Bunny: Most definitely our most complex and also most ambitious, so much so that I wondered if we pulled it off. I think we have. We spent way more time on this record. Built our own studio and wrote, recorded, rewrote and rerecorded these songs trimming fat and building the songs more and more each time..
Julie Christmas (Vocals): Once we heard the finished album, I think we all knew that even if everyone hated The Ruiner, that we’d done what we set out to do. We wanted to try new things because we’ve all gotten better individually as well as better at playing together as a band. Sometimes it got tough because we inch into territory that makes you wince in a oh-no,-this-is-a-thirteen-year-old-girl-with-a-crush kind of a song, but we decided to embrace our inner thirteen-year-old and go with it.
SF: Can you reveal some of the theme(s) behind the new album? What exactly is “The Ruiner”?
Bunny: I think it’s different to each of us. For me it’s many things, making this album messed me up financially, strained and ended a relationship I had been in for a couple years, and took me away from my chosen profession. I wouldn’t have had it any other way though.
Julie: It’s great to hear what other people think it is. Another interviewer thought “The Ruiner” was a woman because of the cave-lady on the front combined with the fact that he’d just been dumped.
SF: Do you feel your music translates well in live performances? What have your experiences been like with touring and playing gigs?
Bunny: The show is the thing. It is never half measures. People can like us or not but they can never say that we don’t give it our all.
Julie: He’s right. Everyone has an off-night occassionally and speakers and head-phones change things a bit, but if you go to a show and the band sounds very different from the way they sound on their record, it’s probably because they cheated in the studio. We don’t put anything on our records that we can’t pull off live. It’s a pain in the ass actually. It makes things much harder. Still, anyone who takes the time to come see us deserves all of our efforts.
SF: Your primary influences seem to stem from the likes of the Melvins, Fugazi, Neurosis, The Jesus Lizard, etc. etc. What other artists and sources in general have had a profound impact on your music that might not be as obvious?
Bunny: I like Radiohead, Pink Floyd and the Beatles a lot. I had to learn how to play guitar completely differently in the year before writing this record when I was filling in for Cliff Meyer in Red Sparowes. It drastically changed my approach to writing and playing.
SF: I have a few questions for Julie. What do you feel are the rewards and/or challenges of being a female in the largely male-dominated metal scene? Why do you think there are so few women in the genre?
Julie: I usually walk around the venue to warm up before a show and I’ve been mistaken for a prostitute (not because of how I dress, but because of the usually third-world state of the neighborhood around the club coupled with the fact that I’m walking alone) so many times that I’ve taken to carrying a knife or blade with me. Other than that, I have no complaints other than that I do sometimes miss female company and I would love to see more ladies at the shows – especially right after we play when I’m hyperventilating on the floor of the little girls room. Men do not usually say disrespectful things to me. I am never trying to be sexy on stage and usually get quite ugly, I think. Also, I am usually traveling with a group of guys that may look like they just got back from a stint in medium security prison, but are genuinely very good guys, and very protective. It’s always the clean-cut guys you have to watch out for, right? The big guy with the black tee-shirt and full sleeves is the real gentleman in the room 9 time out of 10. As far as bands go, I would definitely say that there aren’t too few women: there are too many men.
SF: What kind of impact has your involvement in metal had on your career as a musician, as well as MOoB as a group?
Julie: I haven’t had any other music career outside of heavy music, and though I don’t think I qualify as a “metal” singer, I’m generally drawn to darker music. Even though the state of heavy music on the radio is shocking and painfully crammed with pop tarts exploring the “depths” of their depravity, in the larger scheme of things, it is more common to hear heavier genres of music on the radio now than ever before. I’ve started to work on some very interesting projects, including scoring a controversial French film called “the beginning”. I was approached for the project because the director, David Blin, had heard some vocals I’d done. If he heard me from a different continent, it’s because heavy underground music has become more far-reaching.
SF: Your vocal style and lyricism with MOoB are typically very aggressive and at times even downright disturbing. Where do you get inspiration for your lyrics and the intense energy that you pour into each song?
Julie: I guess if I had to pretend that I actually had some idea of what I was doing, I would say that I lyrically and melodically respond to what is in music itself by combining my own experiences with pictures of characters that live in my head. I am usually influenced more by authors than other singers when I am making music, and I’ve found that the writers that most nearly capture my own experiences are those who write children's literature – a bizarre, fantastic and disturbingly brutal genre of writing. Hans Christian Anderson, Lewis Carroll and the brothers Grimm are my favorites.
SF: What’s next for Made Out of Babies? Will there be some kind of tour in support of the new album?
Julie: We just played a few shows around the record release and we’ll be appearing on FOX Fearless Music TV…I think on July 19th and again in August. We’ll be on tour in the North East US and in Europe throughout August and we plan to do a US tour in October. We’re working on a track for a compilation where all proceeds go to abandoned and abused pit-bulls and we have some other exciting things coming up. People should check our MySpace and website if they want to hear more.
SF: Any additional comments you’d like to make?
Julie: I just want to thank everyone who opens up their minds enough to try to listen to us. Thank you very much.
----
MORE
- Listen to The Ruiner at the band’s Official MySpace Page
- Read SF’s review of The Ruiner
|
| 
|
