First of all, how has the band been formed? Where have you met Martha, and who proposed an idea of starting up DISTORTED REALITY?

- Martha and I, we met after a concert in Germany, when she was on tour with DEEP RED as a support of PROJECT PITCHFORK. We talked for a while and discussed our ideas regarding music. We kept in touch and after a while we decided to found DISTORTED REALITY... via e-mail.
 
If I'm not mistaken, you and Martha live in different countries (or at least rather far from each other), hence doesn't it cause certain difficulties in your collaboration?

- This might be hard to believe, but: No, there were no major difficulties, but, of course, this only goes for Demo purposes and not for professional recordings...  Martha lives in Florida / USA and I live in Germany. When I finish a piece of music, I create an mp3 file and sent it to her with an e-mail and she will tell me about her ideas and what I will have to change. This way we work on it until the song is done. Then I will record it on a CD and send it to her, so that she can go to a studio in Miami to record the vocals. Soon we will produce the album with Bruno Kramm (DAS ICH) here in Germany and for that Martha will come over here and we will be in the studio
together.
 
DISTORTED REALITY... This moniker undoubtedly is more fitting certain death metal band than f.ex. gothic / dark wave one, what do you think?

- I don't think that something distorted must necessarily be associated with some kind of metal music. Everyday life is more distorted than we think, but a lot of people don't want to see it. A lot of people suppress the problems of their environment and they life in their own "little world without problems". The real world that we actually live in is what they would call distorted reality, but actually their reality is the one that is distorted. It's a matter of from what point of view you see it.

That "Supercrush" track sounds pretty different from all the other tunes off your promo CD. Who came up with this composition, and what were you aiming to reach, by including it among others?

- I don't like it if every song sounds just like the other ones. It would be boring to have the same kind of mood in every song. Life is so manifold and so should be the music. I'm always trying hard to make every song unique expressing a certain mood and actually I think that every song has something that makes it diffrent, I think every song has a diffrent atmoshere. I wanted to make a fast and melodic, but hard hitting song and I did "Super Crush". Martha liked it from the start and she came up with some awesome lyrics for it. "Super Crush" became one of our most promising songs.
 
The rumors say you've got a record deal already. Consequently, I'm itching to find out whose roster you joined...

- We haven't got any record deal signed yet, but this will happen soon after we produced the album in March. Adrian Hates from Accession Records in Germany is very interested in our music and probably we are going to sign a deal with him, but that's not for sure yet. Who knows, maybe somebody will make us a better offer...?

Any comments on the CD you're going to make your debut with (I suppose it's (almost?) complete by the time we're chatting with you)?

- As mentioned above it is a collection of songs that express diffrent moods and that have diffrent atmospheres. Some songs are pretty tenseful and sound a bit like a soundtrack taken from a movie, others are pretty dancy. It is a promising piece of music and we want to find the right lable for it...

What kind of equipment has been used whilst you were recording that demo CD?

- I use a sampling workstation (Ensoniq ASR-10) which is the main composing tool. Besides that I used a Waldorf Pulse plus (analog synth) or an Oberheim Matrix-1000 for some tracks. Everything gets mixed in a Mackie Mixer. Regarding sequencers, I often used the internal ASR-10 sequencer, but today I go over to use Cubase VST more which is much more comfortable... To record the vocals Martha went to different professional studios in Miami and they mixed the instrumental track with her voices...

I still can't feel myself comfortable due to the fact I'm definitely not capable of figuring out what genre we should reckon DISTORTED REALITY to! Perhaps, you'll help me out here?

- This always seems to be so important. I have problems myself to answer this question, because diffrent styles get mixed. I guess the easiest way to answer it is to name a few bands that influenced the musical work and to name a few singers that sound similar to Martha's singing. I like a lot of diffrent bands and that influence my work and they get mixed with classical elements like strings and piano. Some of these bands are DEPECHE MODE, NINE INCH NAILS, MASSIVE ATTACK and THE PRODIGY just to name a few. Martha's singing qualities are often compared to Tori Amos or Shirley Manson (GARBAGE).

What kind of promotional tools were used in order to spread your name in the underground (and not only underground)?

- We sent of a whole bunch of promotion kits, including a CD, a promo picture and a band info to music magazines, record lables and also to DJs in Europe, Russia and North America. Also we have a website that keeps people up to date about our latest developments: www.distorted-reality.com

What's your opinion on the bands whose members are either married or
engaged? Isn't it a yet one more cause for splitting up before even the very first effort has been brought forth the light?

- Well, I feel too young to think about getting married and stuff, but I guess that this is always a question of how flexible someone is... a relationship is based on compromises.
 
Human theories, even if they have been proved scientifically, often
appear as utterly unfounded ones. What's your opinion on the human mind and various kinds of seemingly splendorous researches, being more or less worthless on the outcome? Do we really have to go forwards, craving to reach the borders of the supreme kind of knowledge? Aren't all of these attempts miserable? I mean, the more we learn, the more horizons remain unexplored...

- It's never wrong to learn, but we must take care about who is in charge of what. It's not the gun that kills, but it's the finger pulling the trigger.

What kind of human behavior (as well as particular qualities) irritates you most of all?

- Racism.
 
Do you know anything regarding Russia? Any metal bands coming from the country of mine you've heard lately?

- I've seen a PRODIGY live concert in Moscow on TV... that must have been incredible! Serious: I know things about Russia, of course, but I don't know any bands from Russia. I know what traditional Russian music sounds like!
 
I've just exhausted my imagination by the time I'm typing these words, therefore (since there won't be any more questions) the time has come for the final words of yours.

- Let's try and change something! ;-)

DISTORTED REALITY contact -
Email: Dreality98@aol.com