Sixteen years down the line and mainman Jim Thirlwell is still essentially on the fringe of a style capitalised upon by the likes of Ministry and Nine Inch Nails; gaining a formidable reputation (or notoriety, I'm not sure) for his aurally challenging work and remixing, and his authoritarian challenging attitude. I met him in thoughtful form at the Empire for his first ever N.I. gig, mentioning the dreaded "I" word, his London based "I" soulmates and how much he misses his girlfriend.
What has been going on since the last Foetus record?
Well...my last European tour was seven and half years ago, in 1988 - around the time Thaw came out; but in the interim I did three US compilation albums, a single called Butterfly Potion, a mini album with Lydia (Lunch), a mini album with Wiseblood, two Steroid Maximus albums, I produced about four or five albums, about thirty or so remixes and spent about two years writing and recording Gash. I've also formed a corporation called Ectopic Ents., so its not like I've been ...immobile! As well as that I've put out a CD Rom called Foetus of Excellence Vol 1 containing unreleased songs, poetry and writings plus lots of...sneaky surprises! All that on top of the fact that I couldn't get a Visa thanks to my...Life of Crime!! They wouldn't let me out of the country.
Do you see that bands like Nine Inch Nails have, well, ripped you off and commercialised upon it?
Yeah, totally. But I get this question in every fuckin' interview! Trent and Jourgensen and Young Gods and Cop Shoot Cop all acknowledge their debt to me...not in the press, but to my face. They all say that basically if it wasn't for me it wouldn't have turned out the way it did. But you can't be bitter about it - I'd rather see y'know Nine Inch Nails at the top of the charts than say Mariah Carey. I hate the "I" word - I'm always told that I'm the godfather of industrial. However, for a while I was in two minds about whether to embrace or deny the association, but now I've decided fuck it because I deserve the recognition! Because the way I work - I'm creating in a vacuum and lets face it I'm without peers, and well...I hate labels. I consider it Foetus music, but for the anally retentive its avant-classical-punk-meets-big-band-swing-meets-world-meets-koo-koo-kaa-kaa!!
Are you still in firm control with what you to?
First and foremost I'm a songwriter, but I'm also an artist - I do all my own artwork, an entrepreneur - I head my own label, a misanthrope about town. I came up with this really good term a few days ago - D.D.D.G. - Dirty Decadent Dandy Glamarchist. I'm into this idea of Glamarchy (in squalling Johnny Rotten pastiche) "Glamarchy in Ireland! I am a Dandarchist! I am a Glamarchist!"
What about your reputation as a remixer? Are you worried that it has overshadowed your own creations?
Not at all. I consider myself a bit of an underachiever, and I could do more. I'm in the middle of writing my next album, maybe called Bust, but I always like to add my own influence to others work. God, the amount of people I've remixed is pretty ridiculous...Cranes, Pantera, Curve, Megadeth, The The, Nurse With Wound, The Cult, Red Hot Chili Peppers. I started counting how many records I've been involved with...I stopped at about 130!!
What about your partnership with Lydia Lunch?
Well, we're recording an album together at the moment called First Exit to Brooklyn. Y'know Lydia and I lived together for more than seven years so ofcourse we still love each other...we continue to brainstorm together, though she moves about a lot and stuff. But we'll never lose touch.
And do you still feel an affinity with the "I" people?
Like there's some sort of community? I know all the "I" people, but they all hate that label! Like Current 93 or Neubaten would go mad if you called them that. True "I" music was really Throbbing gristle or SPK, and before that people from the left-field artworld like J.G. Ballard and electronic composers like Cage and Stockhausen. That whole Wax Trax thing...Sister Machine Gun or K.M.F.D.M., all that crap is just disco music with heavy metal guitars and a fuzzbox on the voice. They want to make ear-friendly music and thats not what its about, its crap.
But TG were sort of disco-ish, and often very listenable...
And so am I! Very accessible...hard but fair!
I see, from some of the songs on Gash, you still like to ruffle feathers...
Yep! I wage war on complacency and the right-wing and the religious right, in fact any organised religion. I welcome misinterpretation, and I like rubbing people up the wrong way because it makes them think. I sing "when you quote the Bible/Thats when I load my rifle". I received bomb threats in Holland, and in one show I did we had to stop halfway through because of threats.
By who?
It was anonymous, but I reckon it was from a left-wing organisation. We had to clear the audience until the cops came and searched for the bomb.
Religion has always been a specific target for you hasn't it?
Yeah. When the album Whole came out I made these big posters, they got put up all around London, and had an image of me looking totally emaciated, nailed to a cross, which had on it : "Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel: If you're gonna get down, get down and pray". And the Irish neighbourhood went totally ape and ripped them all down. I've had my records held up on Christian Fundamentalist Programs - (in cretinous redneck voice) "This Man is the Son of Satan!" I think they heard me saying that the only good Christian is a dead one!
So we finish, we swap stories about New York and Belfast, his meeting with David Bowie and his hanging out with my mates Karl Blake and Danielle Dax. Jim looks me earnestly in the eye: "I walk it like I talk it...to me my art is the most important thing...hence, well I'm still paying my dues after fifteen fuckin' years! And I like it that way. I walk the walk I talk the talk I think to be the man you've gotta beat the man...SO BEAT THIS MAN!"
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