The All-Purpose Nuclear Bedtime Story In-Studio
Ronny Moorings proved to be a quietly charming interviewee. He is polite, gracious and intelligent, with a soft-spoken manner that is very appealing. He has none of the rock star attitude you might find in someone who’s been in the business as long as he has. Mr. Moorings holds himself with an understated confidence that puts one at ease when talking to him. Nevertheless, we were a bit nervous having him up to our humble studio, particularly since we were not as well-prepared as we could have been. Both he and Antrome were very patient and cooperative with us. They graciously donated two CDs and posters to our listeners, as well as provided us with a copy of the new CD single for our show library. The following is an edited transcription of our conversation from the show.
JUSTIN: Tonight we have a special guest in the studio with us.
RONNY: Hi, I’m Ronny Moorings, from Clan of Xymox.
JUSTIN: And we also have Antrome, from Tess Records, in the studio. So…
RONNY: Fire! You’re still trying to get your breath from running into the studio, right?
JUSTIN: Yes, the joys of caffeine! So, tell us what’s been happening with Clan of Xymox… The last thing I remember you doing was as Xymox actually, with the album Phoenix. But I saw on the bio sheet that you’d done a few albums since then.
RONNY: Yes, well, that was just basically Xymox experimenting with a new direction. The most important thing is that now Clan of Xymox signed to Tess Records, which is based in Santa Barbara. We just recorded a new album, called Hidden Faces and a sneak preview, of course, is this EP, Out of the Rain.
JUSTIN: And when was this released?
ANTROME: Two days ago, on the 8th.
JUSTIN: And when will the album come out?
RONNY: This September.
JUSTIN: We’ll be looking forward to hearing that. So what made you decide to change the name back to Clan of Xymox?
RONNY: I think it’s for the same reason that, when we dropped “Clan of” when we signed to Polygram Records it signified a certain change for the band, having left an independent label for a major label. For the same reason, we stuck the “Clan of” back on Xymox, because we signed to an independent label, where we feel much more at home. For me, Tess represents the same style of label as 4AD in the early days when we signed with them. I feel that this album is the logical follow-up of the Clan of Xymox and Medusa albums. Therefore, we actually wanted to make some sort of distinction between the Clan of Xymox and Xymox releases.
JUSTIN: Right. You can really hear the difference when you hear the two, from the early Clan of Xymox material and the later Xymox material. I’m sure part of that was the producers you worked with.
RONNY: Yeah. I think we just drifted a bit into a certain area and we just reversed course.
JUSTIN: Do you find that you feel freer working with an independent label, compared to the time you spent working with a major label?
RONNY: Oh, the thing with major label is that you have major budget, so you tend to over-spend your time in the studio and I think it takes away some of the spontaneity of it. I think that if you know what you want to do, there’s no point in hanging out in the studio for six months or so. The studios are never really the nicest environments to stay in, so I appreciate a more reasonable amount of time. Also major labels tend to want a producer who will do the job, but also make it so that the music can be played on the radio, which sometimes doesn’t necessarily complement the band. Certain things should be a bit rougher and not so clean.
JUSTIN: How did you feel about the production you recieved from Polygram as opposed to your time spent with 4AD?
RONNY: That’s actually kind of funny because Ivo, the boss of 4AD, suggested that we should work with Pete Bowles –it was our choice to work with him– and in those days he was notorious for his production of Simple Minds, but he also worked with Gene Loves Jezebel. And we thought, ‘Well, we’ve never worked with a producer before; we should try that.’ He has some sort of crispy sound and I think that now, in retrospect, I would have had it a little bit more… rougher, tougher. Like John Fryer’s production basically; but he wasn’t a producer, he was mixing, we needed another mixer then… I don’t know, it’s just a different approach. The label seemed to be happy with their producer, and if we would have said ‘Well we want to have this or that person‘ they might have put up a fight with us, I don’t know.
JUSTIN: You’re working with some fairly well-renowned producers on this new album, aren’t you?
RONNY: Yeah, we worked with Dave Allen on this song you just heard, Out of the Rain. He’s produced Sisters of Mercy and The Cure, to name a few. We chose him for the reason that he worked with those bands, and I like the sound on those albums, so… If you work with a producer, you have to first admire their work, so that you feel comfortable. Other tracks were done with John Rivers, known from Dead Can Dance – you’ve played already some songs from Dead Can Dance… He produced all their albums. Obviously he has a great ear for sound and he mixes very well. I also had experience with him from the 4AD days, he produced one ep.
ANJI: Who are you working with on this album? I mean, is it all just you doing the music and vocals?
RONNY: Well, it’s the same as always. The vocalist sings the song that wrote the song. On this new album, there’s a girl singing, Moinsa. She’s in the band, for the same reason that Anka, who used to be my girlfriend, played the bass and got one song on the album [Clan of Xymox]… now it’s Moinsa. Basically it’s the same structure as with Clan of Xymox. She sings a heavier song, much too heavy for me. But she could handle it, so it’s great.
JUSTIN: So do you have a tour scheduled?
RONNY: We’re working on it. Just to give you some idea, we’re thinking around October somewhere.
ANJI: Do you enjoy playing live?
RONNY: I think I will now. You know, I haven’t done it for awhile. If you do it too much, you tend to get really boring after awhile. You’re taken away from a normal life, and you lead a kind of unreal life on the road. Sometimes that gets to you, but as I haven’t done it for awhile, I’d like to have a bit of that again.
ANJI: Like you said, you can’t spend all your time in the studio.
RONNY: Yeah, you need to vary in life, and that’s one of the variations.
ANJI: How long have you been working on the material that you recorded for this new album?
RONNY: Ahh… I’ve spent actually, three years writing the material, so there’s actually a little bit more material than there is on the album. I’ll keep that for later. Otherwise it would be a double album!
ANJI: Well, what a comeback that would be!
RONNY: Yeah, OK, but we’ve got 14 tracks on the new album already, and some tracks for the EP.
ANJI: I noticed that the EP has got a sampler of styles on it. The first is a nice solid pop song, and the second is more of an industrial dance number and the last is a really nice ethereal instrumental.
RONNY: It is almost like a sampler of things to come. Clan of Xymox tackles different kinds of music, and we thought that if we put 3 different styles of music on the EP, then you’d get some idea of what’s going to happen.
JUSTIN: We just heard “Going ‘Round ’97.” Would you tell us why it’s “97”?
RONNY: Well, “Going ‘Round” was a song which appeared on our very first-ever ep on our own label, which was a long time ago, and it was also a limited edition, so not too many people got to hear that song. That’s the same reason we rerecorded “Muscoviet Mosquito” for Lonely is an Eyesore on 4AD’s label.
JUSTIN: So that was from the first EP?
RONNY: Yes, from Subsequent Pleasures, so’s “Going ‘Round.” There’s a slight change of attitude on that song, same as “…Mosquito” at the time. So, that’s why “’97,” ’cause it’s a new version from ’97.
JUSTIN: Wow, that’s fascinating, I love “Muscoviet Mosquito,” but I didn’t realize that EP existed.
RONNY: We actually rereleased it in ’94, because it had been bootlegged so heavily that we had to release it in order to hamper bootleggers and also to bring in the proper quality as we wanted it. We called it Subsequent Pleasures, as well, and stuck some extra demos on it, to show people why we’d gotten signed to 4AD. So it was some sort of, like, history booklet, and also for the fact to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the band.
DACH (host of Closed Caskets for the Living Impaired): I have a question, if I may… I’m curious as to what prompted you to change from a U.K. label to an American label.
RONNY: Why? I think I answered that earlier on, but basically, we felt that we would have a wider distribution in America. Especially at that time it was crucial for us because we (?)ended on 40(?) on the import charts and people were bugging us that it was very hard to get our material. And actually, it still is — from 4AD — it’s going at these ridiculous prices, like $25, which I think is too much to pay for records. So that was the argument to sign to the American label. At the time, it seemed to be a sane decision.
ALL: (laughs)
ANJI: I understand that you have a lot of promo things planned for the next week or two?
RONNY: Yes, we’re doing some interviews, some release parties…
ANTROME: We’re doing give-aways locally at Helter Skelter, and then in San Francisco and so on. We’ll be giving out copies of the new CD single, Clan of Xymox t-shirts that were just pressed yesterday — so they’re not even on the market. We made a limited amount of them and when these are gone, they aren’t going to be remade. It’s a special edition t-shirt which is specifically for Out of the Rain. Later on, when the full-length album comes out, we’ll have t-shirts for Hidden Faces, which will be mass produced and available for years. So, we’ll be giving away some of those limited edition Out of the Rain t-shirts and some really beautiful Clan of Xymox posters.
Please visit the official Clan of Xymox website for more info,