This is I where it all started, and this is where it continue s today. Dubbed tha Forefathers of Industrial,
Killing Joke are one 'of rock's most influential bands. When it comes to much of today's. aggressive rock,
you'd be hard pressed to find many band's who haven't, at one time or another, cited Killing Joke as an
influence. The members of Nirvana were fans, and Metalica, nine inch nails and Soundgarden are just a
sampling of the bands who have admitted to being under the influence. Rising out of the Notting Hill Gate
section of London in the late '70s, Killing Joke was miles ahead of it's time with use of synthesizers and
lyrics foretelling of societal decay. The music was fierce, yet beautifully executed conglomeration of exotic
music, tribal rhythms, chimey, heavy guitars, sampled noises and throaty vocal. A primitive, ritualistic vibe
as mesmerizing as it is hypnotic.
In 1979 they released their first EP in the UK, Turn To Red. With a string of steady releases throughout
the '80's, Killing Joke's status as perhaps the quintessential cult band is due largely in part to not having a
US distributor (their early records were all imports), and the fact that its members, Jaz.Coleman, Youth
and Geordie, have involved themselves in a variety of other projects.
During Killing Joke's downtime, Youth produces records in addition to running his own UK indie label,
Butterfly. He has to his credit Tom Jones, The Orb, Paul McCartney and Heather Nova. Jaz Coleman is a
classical music composer;who has worked with some of the world's greatest orches- tras. A Londoner
residing in New Zealand, he is currently in composing residency for one of that country's leading
orchestras. Coleman and Youth collaborated on two symphonic albums- 1994s Symphonic Music of the
Rolling Stones, and most recently Us and Them: Symphonic Music of Pink Floyd, while Geordid
has,worked with the band Murder Inc.
In 1994, after a twelve year hiatus, Youth was reunited with his Killing Joke bandmates Jaz and Geordie
to record Pandemonium, Killing Joke's first album since 1990's Extremities, Dirt& Various Repressed
Emotions (which featured a different line-up). Pandemonium, produced by Youth, was record-ed all over
the world, including The Kings Chamber of the Great Pyramid in Egypt -Throughout the years Coleman
has recorded in Egypt and studied Arabic music; it was-through his connections that Killing Joke was
able to record inside the pyramid. The band toured extensively in support of the album, which featured
the hit, 'Millennium' and went on to become the most successful U.S. release to date.
Following the tour, Coleman retreated to Sedon.a, Arizona where the first seeds for Democracy were
sown. He says he saw a new American dream emerging. The song, "Medicine Wheel' was born there.
"We felt we needed to examine an alternative lifestyle that is good, that has vision. Self-sufficiency,
self-reliance- this is true anarchy! Armed with this idealistic vision, the band felt they could change things
through their music. Coleman thinks Democracy.is the most optimistic Killing Joke album to date. Youth,
who produced the latest release adds, 'I believe that within each individual human being's mind and soul
is an infinite amount of energy and power, that tapped can change society. Part of what we're trying to
express is our belief in the power of being able to change your external and internal reality by changing
both of them, really, and becoming more political in your perspective on life, towards the environment,.
how you treat people, how you present yourself.'
The song, 'Absent Friends,' was inspired by a belief that the band shares about friends and family
members who have died. 'We firmly believe in the idea of ancestor worship, the idea of remembering
loved ones who have passed on by recalling their spirits: They too, live again in our joy,' says Coleman.
'It's about tying your belief system into your music. That's important. I believe spirituality is essential now,
especially in music.' After an eighteen-month period where Coleman was prescribed Prozac to treat his
depression, he wrote the song: 'Prozac People.' No longer on Prozac, Coleman is very weary of not only
the various unknown side-effects caused by the drugs but the partnership between large pharmaceutical
companies and corrupt members of the medical community who monitor over one million people without
knowing the long-term side effects of the drug.
Last Summer, Killing Joke rented farmhouses in Sussex and Cornwall, England, where they rehearsed
and wrote 'Democracy.' They didn't record until all the songs were complete, thereby lessening
experimentation in the studio. Recording took one week in a little studio called The Dog House in a
village on the Thames river. Producer Youth says spending more time writing rather than recording, was
a first for this band. 'I wanted it to just sound like a live band playing songs, really straight-forward. Even
though that's kind of traditional, the idea of Killing Joke doing that makes it a bit different. I was really
happy with the result. I think each song really jumps out at you and has a lot to say, and is very different
than the previous one, yet it still shows the dynamic and power that is within the soundscape of Killing
Joke.' Democracy is stripped-down Killing Joke. 'On Pandemonium, I'd gone for big soundscapes-big
backdrops of.texture and color. I tried.to get a bit innovative with the technology of electronic music. What
I wanted to do with that was get some of the hypnotic intensity you get with that sort of music. That was a
theme Killing Joke played with a long time ago, and I wanted to return to that with a contemporary idea. It
would have been quite easy to continue that theme on this album but it is quite important for us to keep
the challenge of going through. uncharted territory. If you listen to the first three, four albums, each one is
discerningly different from the other one.'
The title track proclaims, 'Democracy is changing.' In Youth's view the album questions.what democracy
is in today's world. He says Killing Joke is 'not declaring democracy wrong or bad, it's basically
questioning whether what we have is actually democracy or not. Is it the freedom the forefathers of
America really conceived? America is such a brilliant idea. If the founders could see what has happened,
walk around and look at the results, they would be very shocked. It's questioning where that has gone
wrong and how that can be curbed to a degree and changed. And it is changing. Democracy is changing
around the world, and in America.' He points out that the members of Killing Joke all have very diff erent
feelings politically and spiritually. The fact that things still gel after this long together is a testament to the
band's free-thinking, collective conscious.
'It's certainly an unusual band.' states Coleman. "When we do our gigs, people know it's going to be a
great evening of revelry and celebration. It's nice to keep something that's tradition, something that we
love passionately, alive.'
Always the innovators, always ahead of their time. This is Killing Joke.'
