“You are dancing to the sound of deception A product that we have designed” [from “Darkness/Influence” Les Chansons Neurotiques] Are we? Is this true?

If your local DJ plays my record, then your are 😉 Definately 😉

What is the product that you design? Could you label it for us?

If I were “Ora-Ito” I would label it with the highest quality labels. But labels do not count. I create my little monsters, that I call “songs”. They are 100% Fish, Neuroticfish. My inner thoughts, needs, angers and fears…

Neuroticfish is a one-man project. Do you prefer working on your own to cooperating with others?

All my work is very personally. So I am very straight in my work and don’t want to be confused by others. I have a few people around me, who understand that and respect my ways of working. For example my live-crew Ollie and Hennig. On stage we three migrate to one person.

You’ve been “close” to sixties-rock (your father) and wave sounds (member of a wave band back in the ’90s). What made you decide to dedicate your time and inspiration to Neuroticfish and a darker synthpop electronic sound. Was it a matter of need or influences at that time?

I can’t remember any kind of trigger, that pushed me into Neuroticfish but I always felt, that there is something inside of me that needs to be “born”. My father told me how to write songs and how to understand and feel music. My several projects before Neuroticfish are like stations on a long railroad to myself. But Neuroticfish has still a long way to go…

In both albums there are fast paced dancey tracks of high bpm’s, suited for club play. How important is it for you to see your tracks in almost every play list?. Being recognized and recognizable in clubs, which play this kind of music?

I do not visit clubs very often. I prefer to bury myself in my studio. But sometimes when I am “on the road” it feel strange when I listen to my own songs in a club. I never intended to create club-compatible work but there are people who enjoy my music. Sometimes it makes me frightened.

Although there are tracks of high-bpm melodies and others slower…down-temp songs, for a more relaxed mood, the general homogeneous impression that both albums give, makes them special…with “character”. What gives, in your opinion, special “character” to a future-pop/ebm band, considering that nowadays there are lot’s of them?

First of all I’d like to state that I am not a “Future-Pop-Band”. I think “Future-Pop” is a Marketing-Label that was artificially created for the market. Then later bands came up to fill this label. I am not like that – I am different. The character is me… These albums are like children to me. I think as an artist you have concentrate on what you are and not what you are longing to be. No Instruments was some kind of Statement like “Here I am – Here is what i do” LCN is one step further. LCN reflects a moment in the long way of the progress of Neuroticfish. It is like an inner journey.

In 1999 the first album “No Instruments” was released. Then, 3 years later, came the second one. And it’s worth the patience. Most of the songs in both albums can stand alone as singles. Not to mention the b-sides in the meanwhile. How long do you think it takes for the sound of an album
To mature within you, to be expectable but not predictable by the listeners?

It differs. For me it is all in a kind of flow. But sometimes I have to translate the songs into a understandable language. So it takes some time.

Have you ever worked on a soundtrack for a movie? Would you ever do it? What kind of movie would that be?

It has to be a kind of movie, where the pictures do not dictate the music. A movie that gives me the freedom to express my point of view. Eventually it could be a movie like “Memento” where every moment stands alone – I would give every sequence an own song.

Soon, you’ll perform in a festival together with And One. How do you feel about it? Any other favorite groups you’d like to be on tour with? Could you also tell us 3 electro / ebm groups or artists that – in you opinion – are the greatest and biggest ones nowadays?

To perform with And One is nothing special to me. We performed together before. It will be fun. All people I’d like to perfom with are dead. You remember ? EBM is dead ! So I also can’t tell you my favorite ebm-bands. I can tell you my favorite bands – but they change from time to time – Now they are “Suede”, “Bush”, “The Smiths”.

How would you like/expect your audience to be? (here in Greece for example) Paranormal maybe?

More paranoid, I guess 😉 Hey I am a neurotic person. So don’t make me neurotic about the audience. It is always a game of cause and effect. It is an interaction between Neuroticfish and the audience. I never played in Greece before. But I heard that Greek are very hospitable people.

So, is electronic body music really dead? Do you think that this kind of music (whether it is called ebm, or synthpop, or dark electro) has the power to become as huge and popular as electropop / synthpop was in the 80s, or will it always remain in the underground?

EBM has left the underground some years ago, they changed the voices and call it now Techno or Eurodance or whatever. It is funny that some very successful Dark Electro acts are copying this sound again, put some pathetic lyrics over it and call it “Future-Pop”. Funny – Isn’t it ?

I could not miss the chance of asking your opinion about music piracy, Internet and the way Record companies are dealing with these matters nowadays. Would you ever suggest an alternative way in which these situations should be treated, so that both record companies and the music fans would be satisfied? Do you agree that one of the reasons that lead to piracy is that music cds are too expensive?

Friedrich Schiller said “Art is a daughter of Freedom”. With the music of the artist the listener gets a piece of this freedom to follow his non-mainstream-taste. By purchasing the music the listener gives the freedom back to the artist to create the music that is not mainstream. I see no reason to limit the honest listener with a copy-protection. Of course the illegal way to consume music is cheaper and sometimes easier. But Neuroticfish never used copy-protection and never will. We trust our fans. I don’t know if the records are too expensive. In times where a SMS via Mobilephone costs some money and people rather comunicate through this media because they are unable to interact face to face, I cant tell you what expensive really means.