https://wickedspinsradio.org/wsr2012

For all the emptiness Interview for Wicked Spins Radio

WSR – Thank you for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, can you give our readers a little introduction to the for all the emptiness world?

for all the emptiness – for all the emptiness is a Canadian electronic music project which started several years back. the sound is a mix of musical theatre, heavy metal, synthpop, and futurepop. we like to focus on themes about critical thinking, and epistemology. however we sometimes examine human emotions and what drives them.

SR – seduced by a disease is nothing short of amazing, personally really like the song.  The video is amazing too, how does the story seen in the video match the feelings in the song?

for all the emptiness – thank you very much for your kind words.

“seduced by a disease” is the examination of a person who faces this choice. they feel lost, alone, and desperate. however they have been offered a promise that would save them from themselves. they have been offered an idea. This idea however fulfilling, conceals a danger. This idea is much like a parasite, for it to exist, it must find new victims to infect. This idea is dangerous, and although it would make the v
ictim feel better, it would ultimately destroy the victim. The idea doesn’t care about the individual, it only cares about infecting and existing. The victim doesn’t care that they are harming themselves. The victim is willing to do anything to feel fulfilled, they offer themselves completely. Their goal is to please the parasite and they truly believe that the parasite is doing them good.

From an outsider who is witnessing this, all they can think of is how horrible this is. The idea, the parasite, has seduced its victim into hosting it. The seduction is made from offers of meaning and hope.

This song is narrated by the outsider, who understands the situation and begs the victim to fully understand their choices. In the end the victim has every right to decide to harm themselves.

As i watch many people fall into this trap, and find meaning in different forms of hatred; racism, tribalism, self-hatred, sexism, and so on… it hurts me.

As an outsider I want to understand, is this what they want? Do they know they are victims? Do they know the harm? dD they even know they are being seduced by a disease?

WSR – In an ever changing world everything seems to be going digital with the physical world seeming lost, when creating mt ep how did you want to release it?

for all the emptiness – Given that I treat physical releases as a work of art on its own I wanted to be sure that the physical release would also be special. For example I took a great deal of time to source cds whose recording side/data side is all black. I made sure the album art was consistent with the themes and presentation. In the end there is a very limited supply of the cds because most of the music is purchased and listened to in digital formats.

As for the price of the digital albums, I chose to list it as a ‘decide what you want to pay’ price. People can pay $0 for the album, however if they feel that it is worth $0 then I am not sure why they want it, since deciding it is worth $0 means it is worthless.

WSR – Is it harder for a band to release physical copies these days and to you what format hold the greatest memories for you?

for all the emptiness – Releasing physical copies are very easy for us, the only issue is that the demand is very low for them. Most people prefer digital copies. I like cds, I remember waiting in lines to buy them. I remember being able to hold the music, and I still purchase them. We will plan on releasing physical copies for every major release even if people prefer digital releases.

WSR – It seems like it took quite a long time to release mt ep, what obstacles did you have to overcome to get mt ep out there?

for all the emptiness – Several things delayed the release. One was the desire to perform live over writing and creating new material. Second was a very difficult time in my personal life back in 2012. Lastly was that life gets in the way, I am a software engineer and that takes a great deal of my time.

WSR – A while ago you were involved in Electronic Saviours, how important to you was it to be part of that and why did you choose the track you did to appear on the compilation?

for all the emptiness – We have been involved in two of the compilations, I was very excited to be a part of that because at the time I thought my contribution added value to the release. we chose the tracks because we thought they were cool remixes of our music.

I feel that the cause is very important to fight for. Jim is a very nice person and very hard working, I am happy to see that the compilation is very successful, however I don’t see us submitting anything to in the future.

WSR – Something I have noticed recently is that we are losing a lot of amazing music festivals, of all that have recently gone is there any festival that you particularly miss and why?

for all the emptiness – We were asked to be a part of the last Kinetik festival before the promoter cancelled it for legal reasons and kept all the money. A festival I miss is a small one in Toronto called ebmfest. however, I remember another festival years ago that I miss called Synthpop Goes The World. That one was a fun one that lost a great deal of money. Festivals will go on, there will sometimes be more and sometimes fewer. The only thing that I see as consistent is that people will always say that festivals are dying.

WSR – How do you think the way people perceive music and its value has changed as we have entered the current technological era?

for all the emptiness – Music is easy to attain, there is no struggle in getting rare bootlegs and no work in purchasing albums. The accessibility means that anyone can release music to the public. Given this, there is a flood of music which would have previously been filtered out before it was available in wide release.

For the most part I feel as though music is valued less, but that is because much more of the music which reaches the public is of less value. I am not worried at the future so much, I feel there has always been a spectrum of music I like and don’t like. Therefore there will be music I like, even if more of the music I don’t like is not being filtered out.

WSR – As I have moved and travelled I have discovered so many food that are specific to that area of the world and sooooo nice, so tell me what is your favourite place for food and what is your favourite food from that place?

for all the emptiness – There is no specific city and no specific local food we prefer. When we tour we always are interested in things we cannot normally get. However in the end we always end up craving good seafood. Not sure why, but myself and Kristian (keyboard player) always end up making plans to eat somewhere special but never do.

WSR – mt ep brings a much fuller richer sound and tone than that of axioms, now axioms was a piece of art in its own and amazing album but why is mt ep much deeper than axioms?

for all the emptiness – Axioms was written deliberately as minimalistic so that it could be played completely live without a backing track. This was a mistake since it turns out that no one cared. These days it looks like people don’t care about musicians performing and they are content with a DJ or a simple karaoke show. mt ep discarded the restriction of being able to play without a backing track. In fact the next tour will not have any instruments on stage, it will focus on a more theatrical act with a singer and two performers.

WSR – How much do you feel music can influence someone in their personal life and how would you hope for all the emptiness influence people out there?

for all the emptiness – There is a great deal of history and evidence of music completely changing lives. For example, many bands receive floods of emails saying how the music “saved them”. Since “for all the emptiness” focuses on the study of epistemology, I would hope that one day someone examines what they believe about a subject because they were sparked by something in the music. They don’t need to change their mind, but the fact that they want to examine their beliefs is fantastic.

WSR – seduced by a disease stuck in my head for a very long time as its such a great song, but has there ever been a song that stuck in your head that you wished would go away and you just couldn’t get rid of it?

for all the emptiness – This happens regularly, usually because someone else starts singing a piece of the song. there is no specific song that this happens to, but it happens all the time and even with songs I like.

WSR – Thank you so much for this interview, is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers?

for all the emptiness – The music is available at foralltheemptiness.com. we are planning on releasing a remix version of mt ep next, as well as a new music video. further on we are looking on another tour as well as a new full length album which is nearly complete.