DECADENCE EBM AND UNDERGROUND MUSIC.: EUFORIC EXISTENCE ( INTERVIEW )

Decadence( Is a honor to make an interview with Euforic Existence,they are 18 years doing a good EBM and Dark Electro music. I had their contacts because of Karen Sturm,she is a nice friend that had a honor to enjoy their gig at Familientreffen 2018.) Now enjoy the interview.

1 1) It is a pleasure to talk with you Bart and Koen. Introduce yourself please!

Hi Guys, We are EE from Belgium. We play Indus-EBM, as some people call it. The project started back in 2000. After falling asleep in 2003, it was relaunched in 2013, and in 2015 Bart Joined as a technical and live support. We had the opportunity to play in Leipzig and Familientreffen in Sandersleben (the world’s most important EBM festival) this year, and we hope many other opportunities will follow. On stage, Koen is doing the vocals, Bart takes care of the machinery and backing vocals. The music we play has a lot of influences, leading to a darker and harscher kind of EBM, while the sound itself is strictly EBM (synths only).

EE did every production on their own (12 albums) and dreams about finding the right record label to release our albums.

2) When did you start to make music and when was your first gig?

EE started back in 2000 by Koen. The first gigs were all in local pubs around our hometown. Koen was also involved in other projects like Virtual Ice, Et Mantis and Tragisch Optimisme.

Bart played bass guitar before in a rockabilly band, but was already experimenting with synthesizers since the late 90ies. In 2016 we won a local contest that gave us the opportunity to play on BIMfest 2016, where we were picked up by people from bands like Akalotz, Rhesus Factor and The Juggernauts. This opened the international doors for us.

3 3) Tell us more about the EBM scene in Belgium nowadays…

Unfortunately, the scene is not as big as it was. Most of us are getting a bit older and don’t come out each weekend anymore. We don’t have any big festivals like Germany has (Amphi, WGT, FamilienTreffen,…) but each year there are a few very interesting festivals. We see that many people are active in bands, and at this moment we are expecting a lot from bands like Zynik 14, Stin Scatzor, ELM and Wülf 7. Fortunately, Germany is nearby 😉

4 4) I would like to know how was your gig at Familientreffen 2018? And if you have plans to play in other festivals or to play in other continent like North or South America…

Familientreffen was a huge blast for us. We were very honoured to play there. We were a bit sceptic to play as the only band on the opening night (people had to come one day earlier if they wanted to see us), but were positively surprised by the enthusiasm of the audience. From the beginning til the end of the gig we noticed the crowd was only growing and started to dance more and more.

Our next big thing will be the Summer Stomp in Kassel, Germany, an EBM festival that will take place for the 15th time. The line-up is impressive: we’ll share the stage there with Frontal, Angriffspakt, ELM, The Psychic Force, Impulskontroll and Serpents. We have some contacts to play more in Europe, but nothing is finalized on this moment. We haven’t thought about playing outside Europe, but we would feel honoured if other parts of the world would book us.

5 5) Do you know about Brazilian or South American EBM scene?

We know that the scene is very active there. We had some collaboration with Signal Operator and Coma Frequency (both from Brazil). We like Dr Body, UMM and Rebel Empire but we would like to discover more. Anybody who can help us with that: please contact us on facebook.

Dr Body is from Chile,UMM is from Portugal and Rebel Empire is from Mexico. Both amazing bands.

6) EBM is an alternative kind of music and there are few ways to propagate it around the world (there are few alternative media like; BLOGS, MAGAZINES, FANZINES and YOUTUBE CHANNELS), and what do you think about it? Are there good bands that are making a good job? And are there good alternative medias that are making a good job as well in your opinion?

Of course we feel very happy about it. This is a pretty easy way to promote ourselves worldwide. Also it gives the opportunity to discover new things, to meet or to come in contact with other people, to get feedback and to start up collaborations with other bands.

Facebook also does a great job, by making it possible for anyone to get in touch and to make groups with mutual interest. We like very much to communicate with our fans like their equals.

7 7) What are you influences to compose your music? What kind of music do you listen at home?

Bart is mainly focused on the EBM scene nowadays. He has been interested in the dark electro scene with bands like Leaether strip, Plastic Noise Experience and PP? But in the last year he shifted his interest more to the pure EBM bands like Frontal, Zweite Jugend, Jäger 90, Altmark Electros,…

Koen has been a dark metal fan since he was a kid, expanding his horizon as much as possible. He loves all kinds of dark music, from Black Sabbath to Dive. The last few years the EBM scene also took his attention, but he loves music too much to have a real focus.

That gives the specific structure of the EE music. The structure is not as repetitive as the typical Anhalt EBM, there are more rhythm breaks, tempo-switches and solos like in Rock and Metal. However the sound is purely focussed on EBM.

8 8) What are your future plans with Euforic Existence?

In the beginning, our ultimate dream was to play on BIMfest in Belgium. After we were there, people convinced us to aim higher, and we started dreaming of playing at Familientreffen and WGT. In meantime we reached the goal of Familientreffen, so it seems we have to look beyond our dreams each time. Everything that follows now is a big surplus and the main thing we want to do is to enjoy all of it. We played so far in Belgium, France and Germany, and we would definitely be happy if we get the possibility to play in EBM country Sweden. The world is bigger than only Europe, so please surprise us! On this moment we are signed with an online label (Body Music records) and released all of our albums on our own, so we would be very pleased with a real record deal. The greatest thing about being a musician is that you get to meet a lot of interesting and fantastic people 😊

9 9) You are free to say what you want...

We want to say thanks for the support and the attention. Thank you for reading this. We hope we all meet one day, please feel free to contact us. Enjoy our music and keep the EBM spirit alive!