CUBANATE

Victor Mejia: How are you received in the U.K. in comparison to the rest of the world, since not to much of your style of music seems to come out of there to begin with.

Marc Heal: You’re right. We’ve hardly played within the U.K. The difficulty with the U.K. is it’s a much smaller country than the states and therefore it is a lot more easily dominated, which it is, by two or three publications. They like indie music. So, it’s very very difficult in our own country to break through. We do okay.

VM: How do you do in the rest of Germany?

MH: That’s a lot better for us, you see. Europe is good for us. I don’t know what the reaction to this album is going to be, and, of course, we haven’t released an album for two years now. So maybe everyone has forgotten about us.

VM: What label are you on in Europe?

MH: I don’t know. That’s a good question. You’ll have to talk to TVT about that.

VM: How do you think the whole electronic scene has channged since Cubanate came into existence?

MH: I think the most obvious way in which it has changed, and something we were most influential in, was the fusion, the idea that you could mix a rock vibe, that you could mix guitars with electronics. I think six years ago, before we came along (it’s difficult to remember now)....And now it seems completely idiotic that people didn’t mix guitars with electronics. When the first Cubanate album was released, everyone in electronics was up in arms about it. Where now it is completely accepted. If that doesn’t sound too arrogant.

VM: It sounds like Cubanate’s sound has changed somewhat over the course of time from more of a dance vibe to possibly more of an industrial thing.

MH: Yeah. Well, it’s been a long time. Antimatter was released four or five years ago and of course, one moves on during that time. There was a feeling of frustation with what we were doing. We felt like we had done it and a lot of people had copied it, so we thought about trying to keep going and keep staying ahead of the pack instead of just keeping pace with them. I guess you just mature. I’m five years older.

VM: How many videos have you made?

MH: We did “Body Burn” and we are just about to do another one. A couple, I guess.

VM: Do those get played anywhere in Europe because MTV here hardly plays anything anymore?

MH: I don’t know whether they still do, but they used to get played. “Body Burn” used to get played all the time on MTV in Europe on Headbanger’s Ball and 120 Minutes. I have no idea, Victor,. whether they were played in the states at all. I think the trouble is that the whole music scene is dominated, certainly in Europe, by the whole indie pop thing. It’s incredibly difficult for any band who are trying to do something different to get any exposure at all. I’m sure things will change. I’m quite optimistic, but right now it sucks.

VM: How does the average Cubanate song take shape?

MH: I don’t like to look at any song like particularly average, but there is a process to it. We find it very very difficult, in fact, impossible to write outside the studio. Everything is done inside the studio. Even if I had a preconceived notion of a lyric before going in, it all gets changed in the studio. So, everything is very spontaneous, which is why it takes us, ironically, quite a long time to do things, because when you are doing things that are spontaneous sometimes it all fucks up. It goes wrong and you throw it in the bin.

VM: What do prefer more: singing, writing lyrics, working with the synths?

MH: I like doing it all, but writing the lyrics is a kind of terrifying thing. You are committing something down, which everyone can listen to, and you are exposing your own thoughts. If you make a fool of yourself, you’ll have a couple thousand records printed up with your idiotic thoughts written on it. Lyrics are the most thrilling, but...I get most nervous about the lyrics anyway.

VM: What kind of things do you find inspirational for your writing?

MH: This is going to sound like a really vague and wimpy answer, but just personal experiences really. On this last album, especially, I really tried to recount specific instances or specific people and to really tell it as I saw it. I just tried to be truthful. I hope this doesn’t sound too wanky....

VM: Do you see Cubanate more as an electronic band or as a rock band?

MH: I’m not being funny, but I never think of it. I just don’t know. I just do what I want to do and I would never want to try to categorize it really. I honestly cannot answer that question. I’m not trying to be evasive.

VM: What is it like to be the Motorhead of the techno community?

MH: A whole load of fun. We haven’t made an album for a while and this album we’ve got big hopes for...I understand why that definition was given to us, but I’m kind of hoping to break down that cliche slightly. There’s worse things to be than Lemmy. Except for the warts...I don’t want the warts.

VM: It seems that you and Cubanate have been able to create a fair amount of animosity from different individuals and fans within the music community...how do you take that kind of reaction?

MH: I am personally an antagonistic person. People that I get on well with, I love and respect. I have very close bonds to. I freely admit that I’ve got a big mouth and the people that I don’t like, I will tell them that. I’ve done some stupid things as well. So part of it might be my fault, but I think most of it...you have to take the rough with the smooth. If you are going out and making this kind of music and you are deliberately trying to provoke people, then you are doing your job when you provoke people and people hate you. I regard that as a kind of sign that I am doing something right. The worst criticism is indifference.

VM: How many projects are you working in?

MH: The last year I’ve done Cubanate, C-Tec, Ashtray Head, which is one of my solo things, and then a lot of remixing. I like to work the whole time. My next thing is, I’d really, really...you know, what I would really, really like to do is find a girl...find a girl, period, now that I think about it. I still don’t think it’s really been done to get a...a lot of the kind of music I’m involved in is very sort of macho and stomping up and down, and I’d like to get sort of a female vibe on it. I think that could be really cool.

VM: You got an awful lot of hype in the very early stages of Cubanate...did it ever feel like it was coming too soon?

MH: It was like a glass ceiling for us in the U.K. We did get attention immediately, but I was so confident in those days that I knew I was doing something that was new. Only now I have recovered the real self-belief, where you won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I knew what I was doing was cool at the time and I knew it would get press and it did. By the third album I thought we had exhausted that. I know that we worked so hard. We were starting to be...not ignored, that’s the wrong word, we were still getting more press than many bands, but I knew we needed to have a rethink. I needed to have a rethink. So, that’s what I’m so happy about, this new album, for me, personally...I’ve got that sense of, ‘right, motherfuckers. Beat this.’ And I know that I’ve been honest lyrically. I haven’t really had that feeling, to be honest, since the first album.

VM: Do you think honesty is essential in good music?

MH: Totally. Either honesty or complete lies, but nothing in between. I don’t mind bands like Gwar or something like that. That’s cool. It’s funny and great as well.

So, whether or not you like the new Cubanate album, one thing is for sure, it is a very honest album. Marc Heal is a very honest man who is not afraid to speak his mind. So, if you meet him and he calls you a wanker, then there is a great chance you probably are, but if he thinks your cool and all that, then you probably are that instead. You shouldn’t expect any more from the man and you should never expect any less.