n0teeth has been meaning to write about Australian one-man "synth crust" outfit Schkeuditzer Kreuz for some time now, ever since formerly London-based Leech Woman frontman Alex Boniwell (also currently residing in Australia) recommended it to us. As the artist is fairly new and intel rather sparse, we decided to approach da Kreuz directly for comment.
To our delight, he agreed, and happily submitted to our ruthless grilling technique (asking a few questions via Facebook). The two month interrogation course we took at a CIA black site in rural Finland clearly wasn't a waste of taxpayer money, as n0teeth's questions struck gold: we hope you will find Schkeuditzer Kreuz's revelations as interesting and entertaining as we did.
n0teeth: Name, rank and serial number?
Schkeuditzer Kreuz: Well, I'm Kieren and I do everything. Rank amateur. Serial No. 6079.
nt: There's an undeniable dash of punk influencing your sound and aesthetic. Were you playing in punk bands before? If so, how did you get into electronic music? And if not, what was your musical background pre-SK?
SK: I've been playing in punk and HC bands since some point around 1990. I was a bassist first. I played in bands in New Zealand, Australia and Germany at different times - S*M*U*T, Oppressed Earth, Bastardos, Murder Disco X, Vae Victis, Death Church, Dark Horse to name a few. I found punk when I was around 14 or so and have been kind of obsessed ever since. Starting from when I first heard The Clash. I also started playing piano at about 4 years old and moved onto keyboard from there before I discovered the wonders of strapping a stringed instrument around my body. And I was still in single digits when I first started to hear electronic music - it was a great time to be glued to the radio. Whether it was listening to War of The Worlds on cassette in the car or hearing Are Friends Electric on the radio - it all fucking fascinated me. Those weird and otherworldly sounds. So cold and dark, so different from the warmth and cuddliness of most of the music on the radio. It made me uncomfortable, it made me think, and it made me want more.
"I go a bit funny if I'm not playing music."
Fast forward a few decades and I'm playing bass in Dark Horse and life is going good - we are touring, releasing records, and then just after we get back from a euro tour people around the world start getting sick and everything shuts down. Covid restrictions meant no gigs and no band practices. I go a bit funny if I'm not playing music. I struggle with mental health issues as anyone who reads my lyrics has probably worked out. Making music gives me a reason to exist when I can't see any other. That next tour, that next record, are a light at the end of the tunnel and without it I struggle to remember why I am here. So when the lockdowns started I needed to find something to do.
Schkeuditzer Kreuz performing live. Source: kindly provided by artist.
The first project I worked on, I wrote and recorded a bunch of songs using an online 909 + 303 emulator as well as guitars and keyboard and a bunch of other stuff I had lying around the house. I wrote the songs and then sent them to friends around the world to put vocals on. We were all shut down to a greater or lesser extent at that point and people did what they could - a friend in Sweden got into a studio, one friend in Melbourne screamed into his phone while playing the music on another phone through headphones. Another friend in Melbourne who makes lathe cut records screamed his lyrics directly onto a record and posted it to me. It kept me entertained for a while, but when I finished and released it I needed something else. At that point there were glimpses of hope for shit opening up so I wanted the next project to be something I could tour with (turned out lockdowns would come and go for a long fucking time after, but we were hopeful). So I started working on that - it meant getting hardware and working out how to use it. And everything has developed from that point. Those first recordings don't stack up very well as far as recording is concerned but it is all part of the development of my sound. I learn as I go.
Kieren performing live with Dark Horse. Source: Dark Horse Facebook.
nt: Do you feel your music fits the "industrial" tag? What are your thoughts on industrial generally - any favourite classic albums, anything more recent that has caught your ear?
SK: When I think of industrial, the first things that spring to mind are Neubauten, Laibach, Throbbing Gristle etc. - the old school or whatever you want to call it. I heard that stuff first and still love it very much indeed. Halber Mensch and Rekapitulacija in particular find their way onto my stereo fairly often. But the term industrial has become used more as an adjective than a noun now: industrial punk, industrial metal, industrial dance music. It is a descriptor, not an absolute. And that has its good and bad points but one of the main results is that two people who are totally obsessed with industrial music might have no time at all for each other's tastes [editor's note: we cannot possibly imagine what he means; surely the global consensus is that n0teeth's taste in industrial is definitive].
"Industrial has become more of an adjective than a noun. It's a descriptor, not an absolute."
I lived in New Zealand when I first became aware of this stuff. I remember going to Palmerston North to record a tape with S*M*U*T at a studio called The Stomach in 91. The studio at that time was run by a woman name Claire Pannell who was in a band called Froithead. We were up there for a weekend and stayed at her house when we weren't in the studio. There I heard bands like Negativeland for the fist time and started seeing how samples and found sounds could be incorporated into music and how that also fit the genre. And I have always sought out new music. So I added that sound to my music want list and as I trawled record stores or tape traded I tried to get find more of it. I wasn't hugely successful - my record budget was three fifths of fuck all and most of the tape traders I knew were strictly punk and hardcore but I found a few gems.
The infamous Kreuz. Source: Welt.
nt: As a casual fan of transport infrastructure, your choice of band name - a rather complex set of autobahn loops on the border of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the shape of which is also alluded to on the cover of the Give Me Nothing EP - pleases me greatly. What was it that drew you to this particular stretch of motorway in Germany and not, say, Spaghetti Junction, or indeed, New South Wales' very own Rozelle Interchange?
SK: Years ago, I was driving from Leipzig to Berlin (I ended up living in Germany for a few years but this was before that) and as we drove past the intersection I looked up and thought "Schkeuditzer Kreuz - I'm going to call a band that one day". It took 20 years before I did it because nobody else thought it was a good idea, so I had to wait until I was solo to fulfil that particular dream. When I started this, I didn't think I would take it very far. But here I am, several records and a bunch of tours later and I'm stuck with it.
"As we drove past the intersection I looked up and thought, I'm going to call a band that one day. Nobody else thought it was a good idea."
And, well, it kind of works? Like - the sound I make is kind of culturally attached to that part of the world. It feels at home in Berlin and Leipzig. To me anyway - that is where its roots are. I played a few gigs around the Leipzig area last year and foreseeing a LOT of repetitive conversations and explanations, I posted on FB "what do you think SK means - wrong answers only" and took everyone's ridiculous responses and put them all on a flyer which I handed out at the gigs.
nt: When I think of Australian industrial, I think of Severed Heads, Foetus and SPK. But when I listen to Schkeuditzer Kreuz my mind immediately goes to the early Mad Max films: your music conjures images of man and machine being pushed to their limits in parched, post-apocalyptic deserts. Granted, you probably don't get many desert car chases in suburban Lawson, NSW, but would you say your environment has rubbed off on your music in other ways?
SK: My early exposure to industrial was in NZ - with bands like Skeptics, CTV, Cell, Froithead etc. Seeing that Skeptics video on TV back then blew my mind. Not just because it is so fucking ugly visually but the whole sound was incredible. Just put it on now as I'm writing and it's still amazing. Like hearing Headless Chickens - Stunt Clown for the first time and just falling in love with it but at the same time being like "what the actual fuck is this?".
"I wanted to be that little plastic Lego bloke. Everything in its place, all the controls at his fingertips, the world at his feet. I get the same feeling when I stand behind my machines to make music."
[re: Mad Max] I like that you get that out of it - I think of my music as road music in a way. I love driving. Not just because I like travelling but also the symbiosis of human and machine. I remember when I was young, playing with Lego and building machines and putting little Lego figures in them. I would build the cockpit with instrument panels and everything the pilot would need all within reach. When I closed the hinged entrance I would feel a deep sense of comfort. I wanted to be that little plastic bloke. Everything in its place and all controls being at his fingertips. The world at his feet. Nothing else mattered to him - he could go anywhere and see whole new worlds, but the controls would be the same, be familiar, and be within reach.
And I get a diluted version of that same feeling when I settle into my car and when I stand behind my machines to make music. I'm sitting here now at my computer in a cabin I built and to my right is my cockpit - my synths, drum machines etc - it all wraps around me. I have created a version of that Lego world where I can write the soundtrack to my thoughts and control the part of my world that matters.
Gary gets ya, Kieren. Source: Sunday Times Driving.
nt: As I reside on the other side of the planet I've yet to have the pleasure of catching SK live, but your recorded output gives off a raw energy that I imagine goes down a treat at shows. Are you happy with your one-man-and-machines set-up for now or do you foresee the addition of live instrumentation in future?
SK: My live show is pretty fucking energetic I reckon. When I play bass or guitar in bands I jump around and wave my guitar about and generally get heavily into what I'm doing and share my enthusiasm with the crowd. I can't do that with my table of synths and machines, but I still live out the songs - I still put across the energy and thoughts that are in them and give every part of myself to the performance. By the time I finish I am drained and empty. I remember when I was in Vae Victis and I played with the Japanese band Framtid in the Netherlands and watching them it was clear that they were happy to die on stage. Not a single thing was held back. And that to me is what live music is about. You give everything. This is not to say that watching (for example) Kraftwerk stand still behind their machines is not entertaining, but it is not what I want to do. I want to have a visceral effect on the people watching. But even that sounds too contrived - it is not that I "want" to do it, it is more that this is just how my music pours out of me. It is never pretty but it is seldom boring.
Since I started SK I have envisioned doing some live collaborations but have not made it happen yet. I have plans though. I have thoughts of noise collabs, guitar collabs and percussion collabs. Fuck - give me all at once. I remember watching the Japanese grindcore band Self Deconstruction play a set with Merzbow live in Tokyo and it blew my fucking head off. Live collaborations like that are incredible and I want to try to make something work.
"I don't want to devolve into a self-gratifying noise jam - it needs to be focussed at the audience and it needs structure."
As for myself making use of live instrumentation - well, I'm not sure. I record live percussion and either sample the individual sounds or record whole backing tracks of me beating the shit out of something. And to this point that keeps me happy. It would be cool to have some stuff on stage but finding the balance between hitting shit and keeping the songs structured and focussed is what stops me. I don't want to devolve into a self-gratifying noise jam - it needs to be focussed at the audience and it needs structure in order to make me happy. There are other practicalities as well - at this point I can still, more or less, walk with my equipment. Not far, not happily, and not without swearing to myself. But I can. And if I was to start adding barrels and found objects it would take that out of it and for whatever reason, that has always been important to me.
nt: Is there any other hot new musical talent in your town or state that n0teeth readers/Mr Internet stakeholders should be made aware of?
SK: Lawson (the town I live in) is small - about two and half thousand inhabitants. It's a village really and for the most part the music available here has tended strongly toward cover bands and ukelele orchestras. But recently there has been some amazing stuff happening - there is a guy who owns a small cabinet making factory in the industrial area of the town, and he makes these incredible lighting rigs - it is almost impossible to describe but they are hand built and can be sound triggered and computer controlled. So recently he has started putting on gigs in his factory - mostly experimental and electronic stuff although last weekend he had bands for the first time. But from local acts to touring experimental noise makers. It is cool as fuck and I hope it continues. I haven't played there yet but am looking to later in the year.
"There are so many amazing experimental projects everywhere I go...bands pushing the boundaries. It feels like every other day I'm hearing something new that blows my mind."
Further afield, there are so many amazing noise/experiemental/weirdness projects everywhere I go - from Betty Whitenoise, Puddle, and Terrornoid in Queensland to Colostomy Baguette, Umbilical Tentacle, Festering Genital Orifice, Cast Iron Angels, and Uboa in Victoria to Shuriken Cell in Adelaide. I'm playing with Cheap Coffins and Wicked Sisters next week and I have never seen either but they are both creating their own thing. Then there are bands pushing boundaries - whether it's metal/noise crossovers like Whitehorse and Religious Observance or electronic music creators like Toecutter and Sniffer Dog. It feels like every second day I'm hearing something new that blows my mind. There are so fucking many creative people in this world. I am lucky enough to get to tour a lot and every show I play you will find me glued to the other bands' performances, taking in everything they do and taking home whatever merch they are offering.
Schkeuditzer Kreuz's latest salvo Ratchet // Amerika 24 is available for download from Bandcamp. Open wide and get it in ya: