You just came back to States from your European “The Sentinels of Apocalypse” Tour with Death Squad. How are your feelings and impressions after its termination?
I think it was a great success as far as the European leg of the tour went. I was not involved with the US leg of the tour, except for the Cleveland show. The Cleveland show was OK, a bit sentimental because me and Michael have performed here 4 times, and that’s all it will ever be. Michael is pretty soured on touring the US, and for good reason… the energy for shows here is non-existant.
Do you consider your music / audio work to be part of the whole cultural – terroristic concept / pact or do you feel something special? What do you consider +makes Quell different?
Up until recently I really didn’t aurally or visually take a stance on any subject. Lately the focus for Quell has been pretty clear, and the listeners know what it is. I will have to say, in my own defense, I have about the most layered sound around. God knows I’ve got more money invested in equipment than anyone else I know. It’s sad, really.. a total waste.
What do you think is typical mark for Quell sound / conception?
Im a perfectionist with everything. I’ve thrown away so much recorded material afterwards because I just wasn’t happy with it. My second release was pulled because I grew to hate it.. now its sought after. I still don’t like it. I like the first release, but even I don’t have a copy.
I’ve always been concerned with the quality of sound, that is most important to me. Anyone can over-process and super-distort sound shit, but I can also tune into a blank AM radio station and get the same effect. Pretty, arty covers and packaging don’t make up for bad sound. Its nice, but not what you bought it for, or go see a show for.
What role does video play in the frame of your concept?
Very little nowadays, unfortunately. Our first performance and a few thereafter we used the autopsy video and the response was great. People vomiting and repulsed and running out because it was so damn loud and ugly. Lately I’ve been concerned with being over-the-top loud, and it’s been my claim to fame here for some time. I have been working on a new video forever now, someday it will be ready and even better than the last.
What do you consider to be your biggest success?
Being known without a released on an official label. Up until a few weeks ago, everything I did was self-released and I was able to tour Europe and the UK. I’ve played quite a few cities here in the states. All of this with the gracious help of Death Squad, only because he knows good taste {smiles}.
How is your position on the States? Do you think there is any scene or any kind of network? Are you isolated or do you feel to be part of it?
My position on the states is that the buying is good, the shows are shit. There is an amazing scene here in Cleveland, and the people that have been here know it. We are proud of it, and try to keep it alive with bullshit and propaganda. Sometimes we have shows, too.
I am isolated through no fault of my own. I don’t really care about it, to be honest.
What do you feel the most exciting about the whole thing you do?
I can play for fifteen minutes and get free drugs and alcohol for 3 hours.
Do you consider yourself a kind of sound-artist or do you feel more opposite – more in anti-artistic position?
Im professionally trained in art. I hate it, whether it’s sound or visually or words. If I want to really make a statement, it will come straight from my mouth into theirs. I thought when I was a kid that when I grew up I would be an artist… now look at me. Im just an alcoholic.
What does Quell mean for you? Purification, liberation, the power, the joy, the path….?
Great question! Its an outlet for stress, I guess. Pent up sexual frustration. Fuck, what a cliché of an answer. Oh well.
The typical question – what is your biggest inspiration for your work, in your creative process?
Right now it‘s complete and total hatred of females, and Im serious about that. Everyday it gets worse and worse for me. It’s not in the homosexual sense, it’s in the sense that I have yet to meet one that isn’t a filthy whore or worthless or just plain shit. I’ll burn every fucking bridge with this statement, but I don’t care anymore. Let it kill me.
When have you started w. industrial music?
About 12 – 13 years ago I read about Industrial music in a British record collecting magazine. There was a section on Whitehouse, and its been true love ever since…
I know you love Whitehouse very much. Tell us when you have met this band for the first time (how was your reaction) and what point of their work do you especially appreciate on Whitehouse? In other words – the most exciting thing about Whitehouse?
I first met them back in ’93 I think. Great people, very kind. Peter Sotots is a wealth of wonderful information and extremely intelligent. A wonderful human. William is very kind, and Phillip Best is a riot. The day after I talked to Phillip Best, I bought a $1400 keyboard. Bastard.. Im still playing on it.
I think Whitehouse are the most consistant powerelectronics band, with each and every release being better than the last. This is MY opinion, not necessarily everyone else’s of course. I just agree with everything they have ever said. I also enjoy their propaganda.
The most exciting things in your life? (besides Quell)
Lately I just look forward to dying and seeing what’s on the other side. Im also interested in destructive weather patterns, like tornadoes and lightining.
Mainly for excitement these past weeks I’ve been filling my body with chemicals to the point of almost overdose, or I’ve been picking up stray women/prostitutes and driving them far from their destination. They hate that, especially when you take them out to the suburbs. Its fun for me, though.
What was your hardest, most bizarre performance experience during the Quell years?
I would have to say in June of ’99 I did quite an incredible performance here in Cleveland. I was slobbering drunk and it turned out wonderful. This was later released on the QUELL – PROMO CD. Its my personal favorite, and the one people bitched about most for being so fucking loud.
What was the strangest reaction on your music?
One time I got done playing a show here in Cleveland, and I went outside and there was this junkie guy walking his dog and heard me playing earlier. He went off on how much he loved the show, how he never heard anything like it, and then proceeded to ask me “if I burned”. I typically am not much of a marijuana user.. but hell, I didn’t want to dissapoint the guy. It was funny, me in the basement getting stoned with this guy while his dog was fucking another dog that lived there, all the while he is talking about seeing Led Zeppelin back in 1979 or some shit…
The last show I played I had some bum walk in off the street and praise me. Michael gave him a Death Squad CD and the bum asked me to autograph it… it was lovely.
What can you tell us about the industrial community in the city you live - Cleveland? I´ve heard really “hard” stories.
We aren’t all that industrial or hard, but it’s a stinking, aching steel-works town. We live in the shadows of chemical factories and football stadiums, and to our north we have a great big sewer that some call Lake Erie. The favorite Cleveland pastime is listening to Bruce Springsteen at the local tavern while wearing Rustler jeans and throwing darts and talking about the baseball game the day before.
Cleveland is home to Quell, Lockweld, Psywarfare, BaAL, In Death’s Throe’s, Xterminal, Noumena, Contamination Diet… I probably missed a few. The first 5 are quite established, and Steve and Karen from Lockweld are my best friends. They are true Clevelander’s, too: Steve is fat and ugly and Karen works in an office. On the weekend we eat at a Mexican restaurant and they watch me get drunk and have a gay waiter hit on me. I like him because he gives me free drinks. I think he thinks Im gay. He came to our last show, but late, and just saw me play last. He liked it. This is Cleveland.
I hate Cleveland.
What do you think – will you stay just alone in Quell or are you open to more members?
I am always alone in everything I do. I plan on staying alone. It’s not always my choice, but it seems to stick with me.
Are you open to collaborations, remixes?
I actually have two collaborations in the works. Can’t talk about them…. Sorry.
You were two in the beginning – why have you split and when?
Yes, Quell was originally myself and “the other Quell member”. He was my best friend, actually. He has left to another city for personal reasons, but continues to remain somewhat active in sound development and occasional samples. He is the only person that I will let contribute to sound. We are hoping to have somewhat of a ‚reunion‘ live, here in Cleveland, by the end of the year. He is also helping to work on the next video abomination.
How do you see, how do you wish the ultimate (best) impact of your music upon the audience?
I like it when people actually realize it’s a put together composition, not just some ugly guy making random sounds and yelling at will. I work very hard at the sound and its finality, and when people recognize that I feel that I accomplished something.
In a live setting, I want people’s jaws to hurt. It’s the only way to go.
Can you tell us something about your (anti)musical history – when have you started Quell, was there any non-musical experience before that?
Quell was started in 1994-5, doing very simplistic experimental work with mostly fucked-up radio frequencies and an 8-track Portastudio, some effects, reel to reel tapes, etc. I started it because it killed a certain pain in my head.
When I was about 14, me and my friend were doing all these strange, really long soundtracks onto tape. We used a bass guitar, a mixer, pedals, a sampler, a reel-to-reel, and anything else we could find. It sounded a lot like Non or something. Funny thing was, I had no idea that other people were doing, nor did I care. We just did it because we had nothing better to do and it made the LSD more fun. We also did a bunch of video cut-ups. I have no evidence of any of this early material except for the video. My friend spilled grape soda in the VCR while the video was playing one day, and it never looked so good. Colors bleed everywhere, sound is gone… its bliss.
Have you organized concerts too?
Yes, I have my hand in just about every noise show that happens in Cleveland these days. I grow tired of it.. someone else can now take over.
Quell and Lockweld organized the “More People Playing Than Listening” festival in February. This was the most successful show we had… we had a lot of people from out of town. There were 10 bands, including Spastic Colon from California. A really great turnout, great chemicals, great sound. I even drove someone home, which is like suicide for them. Fun!
How do you personally feel and understand the evolution of your sound / concept?
I don’t really think about it. I just do it, and that’s not often anymore. I’ve never sat and went to myself “now, where should I go with this sound now that I have this image in my head?” I usually just get loaded and think about what makes me most angry / hate life, and translate it into sound. Usually the subject ends up with a certain woman or women on my mind, and viola! New Quell track….
What´s the most important part of your concept / attitude?
Probably the most important part is the fact that Im dead fucking goddamned serious. I take this into the music with me.
Whom do you pay respect in todays artistic world?
Not anyone of notable mention in the artistic world, but just last week we had a guy in Cleveland shoot his girlfriend and then when the cops came after him he cut his own head off with a chainsaw in front of the police. THIS is what art should be. They should erect a statue in downtown for this guy.. he was pissed and sick of everything. I’m sure his girlfriend started all of it, too. Probably got mad at him for leaving the toilet seat up, or something stupid and inane. Whatever it was, she deserved it. My favorite part of the story is that all these cops will forever have the image of seeing this guy lop his head off in front of them. Think of the nightmares! This is beauty…
What kind of role does PAIN play in the Quell concept?
Quell started out in pain, and surely it will die in pain.
Quell by one word?
“Alone”
If you should use one word to express / describe the whole Jason Quell existence?
Loathing.
Do you want to control the audience, make pain or liberate / purify? Is there any goal?
I guess making people have partial hearing loss is fun. Other than that, no real goal as long as they like it and want to return.
I know you don´t have any official recording at the moment, even you exist still.. Do you plan any?
“Death Kontact Volume 1” was just released on Lux Sexualis De Organism (LSDO) tapes in California. This was my first official recording on another label. It’s a compilation of 4 bands. Its a lovely little piece.
Why no official recordings?
No one has cared, until recently. This will soon change, I promise. Can’t say much more than that right now.
Whom labels do you pay respect?
Broken Flag is and always probably will be my favorite. This is the most powerful recordings on the planet ever. Unfortunately, some of the hardest to get.
How many studio recordings have you done?
One 30 minute cassette, one 60 minute cassette… my VERY first cassette was never (or ever will be) released. I have a slew of studio recordings (including a collaboration with Death Squad from 1998) on DAT that have sat in my possesion and will most likely never see the light of day. I am currently working on a ton of new studio material.
Tell us more about your home studio…Do you use it also for other musicians – equipment?
Pretty decent home studio… I have a lot of options for recording in whatever format, i.e. CD, MiniDisc, DAT, cassette.. any digital format I have. I have a 14 track digital porta-studio on top of the 128 tracks or whatever ridiculous amount it is on my computer. I try not to use the computer too much, because its just too easy and takes the fun out of it. It’s impersonal, and gives it no real soul. I prefer DAT up against anything. Everything that Quell has released thus far studio has been “live in the studio.”
I have used the studio to master and touch up a bit the next Lockweld CD. I’ve never lent the studio out to anyone, of course no one has ever really asked me. If they did, it would be “no”. Buy your own shit.
I don’t like to talk about what sound equipment I use. I don’t think it’s really anyone’s concern. If they are that interested, go see Quell live. I bring most of it.
You love to drink. What do you love the most? Any good tip for our drinkers?
Yes, it’s the only thing I adore anymore. I’m a big fan of rum and coke or any good whiskey and coke. I’ll drink anything, really.
My best tip for drinkers is to visit Prague. Enough said.
Any projects / persons to recommend?
I really hate to recommend anything, because if I forget to say someone’s name they get pissed at me.
My favorite live shows are Death Squad and Lockweld and In Death’s Throes. The CD that really impressed me was the Skrol CD that you gave me.. this is great stuff. I don’t listen to a ton of “noise” or “industrial” music. If I listened to it all the time I would be an even more boring human.
Right now Im listening to the Pet Shop Boys.
What were the best performers in the States under your opinion in last ten years?
John Duncan (who got smart and left the states), Death Squad, Strict, Hydra, Final Solution, Taint, Illusion of Safety, Schloss Tegal, Black Flag, Christian Death, The Misfits, and last but not least…. Geza X.
What does industrial music mean for you? Ecstasy, education, medium, the basic principle for your existence, electricity, transformation, anti-dogma front…
I think the term ‚industrial‘ has turned to complete and total bullshit nowadays, being associated with Nine Inch Nails and Ministry.
For me, it means electricity. Yes, this is a good term. Thanks for letting me use it.
Thank for your interview and have some very good drink soon…
Soon? Im drinking now, of course….
Ciao
Jason Quell - Tom Saivon 10 / 05 / 00