Xe-NONE - interview for Industrial Metal

The name XE-NONE is pretty cool and fits well to the music in my opinion. Who made up that name and why did you guys choose that name?
Lexy (vocals): It was me who thought up the name for the band. I wanted to express the main creative conception in this word. It is a kind of musical ideal we are looking for, that lays in the basis of our style. The name consists of two words: a Greek word “XENOS” that means “alien” and English word “None” that is “nothing”. This is something absolutely foreign, alien to Metal culture and at the same time something that has emerged out of it. It is like the Alien, a monster from my (and all the band’s) favorite film, and it is still NONE, as it has not been created yet.
Newman (keyboard): All our creative work is a search for a musical perfection. We are going to look for it for a long time.

There are lots of elements from different music styles in your music. How would you describe your music?
Lexy: First of all I on behalf of my group want to say that we do not stick to a certain musical style. Xe-NONE is six people with absolutely different musical tastes and the basis of our creative work is overcoming of contradictions between us. We ourselves call our style as Blood Rave Cyber Metal. This combination of words reflects a way we are going – Bloody and sweaty mincer of guitar and electronic music. The list of bands, which had their influence on us, is too large to write it here. My keyboard player likes Trance. He listens to such records as Dark Soho, Armin Van Bureen and other DJs from Holland, but at the same time he is a great fan of CRADLE OF FILTH, THE KOVENANT, SUMMONING, KATATONIA.

Max (guitar): I am fan of SLIPKNOT, PANTERA, SEPULTURA, CANNIBAL CORPSE. The main thing about music for me is its headbang drive.
Schulz (bass): I like American alternative bands such as TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE, ILL NINO and so on.
Lady Evilann (vocals): I like NIGHTWISH, COURTNEY LOVE, ENYA very much. But at the same time I’m trying to make my manner of singing individual and recognizable.
Lexy: As for me I am the great fan of industrial music NINE INCH NAILS, FRONTLINE ASSEMBLY, LAIBACH, MARILYN MANSON. Besides modern extreme bands such as THE KOVENANT, CRADLE OF FILTH, MESHUGGAH, IMPALED NAZARENE, FEAR FACTORY appeals to me very much. But I also like some pop musicians for example.

Your music is a very modern kind of metal, not much bands play that kind of metal (yet). Where do you get your inspiration from?

Lexy: As I have already said, our musical tastes differ greatly, but it is these contradictions we take as a main principle of our music. Movie ( such films as Resident Evil, Blade, The Dawn Of The Dead, Aliens, Star Wars, Dune), literature ( Russian authors on the whole Michael Bulgakov, Vasily Golovatchev, Nick Perumov) and even paintings (HR Giger, Salvador Dali, Kazimir Malevitch, Pavel Filonov) are our source of inspiration. Sometimes when you listen to music various visions and images appear in your mind. I’m talking about music of PINK FLOYD, TOOL, NINE INCH NAILS and LED ZEPPELIN. So we want to make our music expressive and powerful also.

Your first EP is out now. Are you satisfied with it? What do you think about it yourself?
Lexy: To tell the truth, our release is not as perfect as we wanted it to be. One of the main reasons is the technical equipment which is still on the initial level. We use inexpensive guitars (Washburn), inexpensive guitar processors (Zoom 505), and there is a cheap sound card in my computer (Creative SB Live). That creates some difficulties for our ideas and projects high-quality realization. I began studying music soft (Cubase SX, Wave Lab) recently and I’m not a skilled sound producer and arranger man yet. My English pronunciation and skills of writing lyrics are also to be brought to a better state. We are aware of our shortcomings and do our best to improve them. Only our constant development in all mentioned directions will help us to make a record, which will absolutely satisfy us.
Newman: It is our next album!! Hahahahaha!!!!


You guys also did a cover of the infamous song ‘EIN, ZWEI POLIZEI !!!’ on it. What’s the background behind that cover?
Lexy: In 1994 (It was the last year of my study at school) this song was number one hit at all school parties, and this clip was shown on TV very often. At that time I had records of 2 UNLIMITED, MO-DO, E-ROTHIC and all albums of EMPEROR, ENSLAVED, PANTERA, MANOWAR and other various music!!! Perhaps such a mixture of Eurodance and Metal caused emerging of musical conception which in ten years brought about forming the band XE-None. Dance and Metal music have changed greatly since then (Only MOTORHEAD is eternal forever), but no other dance music style has surpassed Euro dance yet. IMHO. This is music of my childhood and youth. We did a cover of this song as a tribute to the past. Besides, my ancestors came to Russia from Germany, so it is a Call of Forefathers *wink*.

When I read the lyrics the first thing I noticed is that they are pretty aggressive. Is this really the way you look upon the world?
Lexy: Yes, you are quite right; our lyric is as aggressive as the world we are living in. There is no exaggeration in it. Our songs reflect some happenings and state the fact that too many evil things going on around us. Perhaps, you have heard of the tragic events which took place in Beslan on 1 September. 25 bastards destroyed school and murdered 350 children. What a terrible tragedy it is! But still I consider writing songs about such events a speculation and profiteering. Every day thousand inner conflicts occur deep inside us, they destroy people’s souls, kills their feelings, damage their lives. To my mind, the spiritual collapse, which accompanies technocratic civilization development, arrived at its climax when there is no way back. All the sense conceptions of the first album is a story of two lovers, but computer technologies causes the loss of mutual understanding between them, their relationship breaks off and one of them dies. Another one will be a main character of our next album “CyberSex”.


Any plans for the future?
Lexy: Our plans for the future are to record the album, release it and make our music heard all over the world. To record the next album and never stop at what we have achieved!!! My motto is «Nothing can’t stop me now, ‘cos i don’t care anymore», as Trent Reznor (NINE INCH NAILS) once sang. This is our guiding life principle. We are dreaming about touring around the world together with THE KOVENANT or T3CHNOPHOB1A (hello to Snuff and others!!!). If only we could live on the road!

Thanks a lot man! Some final words?
Lexy: Holland!!! We are really infatuated with Amsterdam!!! We are looking forward to playing gigs at your clubs!!! We believe that music can get over the bounds!!! Listen to us and you will find something to your taste! From Russia with Love – Xe-NONE.


Interview by: Gerardo (October 2004)