The following otherworldly incident took place aboard the band's tour bus at "The Abyss', Houston,Texas on Wednesday night, May 8th 1996.

I'm very excited to be here with these crazy "chaosmongers" tonight who have been part of "future metal" for the past thirteen years, it's..VOIVOD!  On "thunder machine"/drums & percussion -AWAY (Michel Langevin)...

AWAY-"Heh..heh..."

"...and on the VOIVOD axes/"technical desolation" - PIGGY (Denis D-Amour)

PIGGY-"Yeah"

"...and also, a new part of the VOIVOD machinery...on "cosmic screams''/bass & vox- Eric Forrest."

[1].Terrance-"My first question is, of course about the biggest radical change on "Negatron" that "Snake" isn't in the band anymore and he's "slithered" on to other ventures, including opening a restaurant in Montreal."

AWAY-"And closing... heh, heh..."

Terrance-"It closed already?"

AWAY-"Yeah."

Terrance-"I also heard that you named the album "Negatron" because of the negative feedback you got from a lot of people in Montreal for continuing VOIVOD without "Snake". Can you understand why a lot of people had strong opinions about this decision?"

AWAY-"I do understand but it's just that...I didn't really mind people telling me to change the name, but to quit and I was pissed off! It's not because SNAKE and BLACKY didn't feel like doing it anymore, that we should stop. We decided that it was enough 'VOIVOD-sounding' to keep the name, and the concepts are there and the music he (referring to D'Amour) writes. It's always been that way in VOIVOD and I always do the concepts and he always wrote the music, and the core is there."

Terrance-"As for myself, when I first heard about it, I got the news from someone I know in Montreal. At first, I kinda freaked out and it was like/are they gonna quit?" But part of me was hoping to see VOIVOD continue, even in an instrumental capacity 'cm there's not really a band like VOIVOD on the scene. My next question is an extension of that-do you personally feel that the VOIVOD project had to continue, and was "Piggy" equally enthusiastic about it, or were there deep discussions to keep it going?"

PIGGY-"Yeah. we spent a few days talking about it. Of course we were thinking "should we go on not", but I still had some tapes I made him listen to. ya know?"

Terrance-"0f your solo stuff?"

PIGGY-"Not really solo stuff, just "darken stuff" on tape for all kinds of listening
purposes.and ya know we were listening to those tapes and, "man...that's great
stuff there!" We just try to continue. to find someone else...like us."

AWAY-"As long as they deliver a very good quality product, heh..heh..."

Terrance-"So it maintains a strong science fiction edge to the concepts?"

AWAY-"Yeah! That's the thing. ya know?" We have a lot of music and I still have a lot of ideas to put into music, and we thought the VOIVOD fans would enjoy hearing those new songs."

[2].Terrance-"For my next question, back in November I bought the album (it's U.S. distribution is Mausoleum), and it took me awhile to get used to it, but I really enjoyed the harder edge and the ferocious nature that you guys were going to continue no matter what anyone said, which is what I liked about it! "Insect" is cool with the way it starts out...the beginning riff is "hardball the way down to other songs like "Planet Hell","Meteor","Project X". On the "Bio-TV" song, there's a riff that reminds me of "Brain Scan" on the chorus part). I'd like to ask "Piggy" if you lifted that riff from "Brain Scan" to make it a main one in "Bio-TV"? 

PIGGY-"No."

Terrance-"Do you know the one that I'm talking about?"

PIGGY-"I just realized it now...heh, heh.. No it's not a "leftover it's just one of the
clichés I got. ya know? I wanted my own signature cliché."

AWAY-"Eric was a big part of the writing, too."

Terrance-"Since he just got into the band, did you feel comfortable collaborating
on the concepts on "Negatron", or did you have most of it completed already?"

AWAY-"We wrote a whole bunch together."

ERIC-"I kinda walked in and we just wrote music and that was that."

AWAY-"We had songs before but we got rid of 'em when we heard Eric's style. We 
decided that we had to write with him 'coz it was a new approach." 

PIGGY-"ln the beginning. we had five songs written when we met Eric, it was down to one, which we kept. All the other stuff is brand new."

ERIC-"Nanoman"

AWAY & PIGGY-"Nanoman."

Terrance-"Yeah,there's some other tracks that I was wondering about, like "Mental 
Pollution" and "Vortex". On the Japanese cd, there's one called "Erosion" that I haven't heard yet."

AWAY-"Erosion" is "Mental Pollution".

Terrance-"It's just under a different title?"

ERIC-"Yeah,Erosion and "Mental Pollution" is the same track."

Terrance-"I guess without giving anything away at tonight's show, will the song "Drift" be played".

AWAY-"Ah..both "Erosion" and Vortex" are on the "Nanoman" ep."

Terrance-"The "Nanoman" ep? It just came out?"

AWAY-"Yeah, it's out now...if you get in touch with Mausoleum it's available."

Terrance-"Cool! I didn't know about that!"

AWAY-"Yeah, it's a promo cd."

[3]. Terrance-"This is kind of an obscure one for Eric. I read that you used to be in a Toronto band called "Liquid Indians." If so what kind of music was it?

ERIC-"That's correct—it was a few covers and it was kinda just a thing to get together and play to keep the chops goin'. I was between bands, in "SKULL" and "ENTROPY" before these guys called me just right around the time they called me during his stint in "ENTROPY"]. I've always been into heavy stuff."

[4] Terrance- 'Away", is there a central concept on "Negatron" or is it a loosely based collection of stories? On this particular album, I noticed you wrote the lyrics along with Eric except for "Nanoman" (also written with Ivan Doroschuck/formerly of "Men Without Hats" who played keyboards on "The Outcast" from the "Angel Rat" album). The title track itself was written with Kiisti Matsuo who helped VOIVOD with lyrics from "Nothing face" to "The Outer Limits" era. Were there some concepts Eric thought of that ended up on "Negatron?"

AWAY-"Yeah...sure we had a bunch of subjects and I had a bunch. I'm a little more into "space" than he is, and I think it's more "street-oriented", and I'm more "sci-fi oriented".. we try to combine both of those. It's a mixture of different ideas we had. I think Eric came up with "Planet Hell" and "Reality?". I came up with Nanoman" and "Bio-TV. For "lnsect", we sort of put together 'coz we were looking at that Waco film of David Koresh and we thought about "mind-manipulation."

Terrance-"But in a sort of science-fiction vein?"

AWAY-"lts real facts that we turn into "sci-fi" stories."

[5].Terrance-"Also, I'd have to say that the title track itself my own opinion is the weirdest one on the album! "Negatron" is really atmospheric and depressive as though you guys were in a studio filled with fog and puddles of water on the floor. I liked the mechanical "slow" part with the "robot-vox" and then it explodes with Eric shouting "Now, what's going on? Motive unclear," and the fast part. To me conceptually it seems like it's about a cyborg having a "nervous breakdown", but "Away" you're the one that does the concepts so you would know more about it than I would. Basically, what's it about & the lyrics are pretty "out there", like "Vacu-vampire", You Magno-void" and "Sub-electrosquad of vagabond?" It's pretty much "out there" (even in the chaotic universe of The VOIVOD story).

AWAY-"ln "Negatron", there's two senses. ya know? There's the sub-atomic particles that circle around the core of the atom, and it's just that we started to think of all those people that had a negative approach towards us because of the new line-up. and we started to picture them as "negatrons" circling around the core of VOIVOD, and those "vacu-vampires..."

Terrance-"Like the people who said that VOIVOD isn't going anywhere?"

AWAY-"Yeah...sort of draining your energy. heh...heh...it's a parallel idea."

Terrance-"Man, that's a really long way to take a singular concept and putting it in as a science-fiction context!"

AWAY-"Yeah. l don't think that the people we are targeting are going to get it..heh, heh!"

[6].Terrance-"Also, I mentioned that "Negatron" has a lot of chaos and anger which is good for these hard times 'coz I'm sick of all this "lo-fl alternashit!!!" Now, VOIVOD is on a label called "Hypnotic" and the name itself is very fitting for VOIVOD. I dunno. It seems that when VOIVOD left Mechanic/MCA they never knew how to promote the band, especially on "Angel Rat" with the dreadful CD ep remix! they were trying to make you guys sound like an alternative band instead of being VOIVOD and promoting it for what it is. Do you know what I mean?"

AWAY-'Yeah. l know what you mean. We had a big fight about that!"

Terrance-"Did you guys get to leave or were you dropped from the label?"

AWAY-"No, l mean we had a big fight with this remix of "Angel Rat!"

Terrance-"The whole album?"

AWAY-"Not the whole album, the ep they put out."

Terrance-"You mean the one with the "Clouds In My House" remix?

AWAY-"Yeah, the one with female vocals, keyboards and stuff."

Terrance-"When I heard it, I was like "What are they doing?!? They're messing with it!"

AWAY-"We were not involved in that and when we realized it. it was already too late."

PIGGY-"lt was all done and billed!" (followed by short laughter)

Terrance-"So you guys couldn't do anything about it?"

AWAY-"Yeah, we were real pissed off about it and we had a big argument in their
office!..Heh..heh"

Terrance-"Was it after that promotional party that you guys went to New York for? I don't know if you remember but VOIVOD played an Alice Cooper cover of "You Drive Me Nervous' at the Mechanic/MCA party in their offices shortly after the album's release."

AWAY-"Oh yeah? I don't remember what happened to those songs...it was "Nomads" and "You Drive Me Nervous."

Terrance-"I did hear "Nomads" and "You Drive Me Nervous". I got a chance to hear those two songs.

AWAY-"Yeah?"

PIGGY-"Oh yeah? That's cool! Where did you find it?"

Terrance-"Well I have a trade contact 'coz I collect a lot of VOIVOD stuff especially 
unreleased tracks. That's how I also found out about the "Mental Pollution" ('Erosion")
and 'Vortex" tracks. I also wanted to say as far as the new label do you guys get complete creative control on "Hypnotic"? They don't interfere in any way?

AWAY-"Yeah! It's in the contract! Heh.heh. We have total control."

PIGGY-"They're cool people who we get along with!"

Terrance-"So they're totally behind VOIVOD and what you guys are trying to do?"

PIGGY-"Yeah."

ERIC-"They're open-minded as fan as what we're trying to do."

PIGGY-"Ya know. they're just like us...a bunch of kids ya know and they make something happen."

AWAY-"And when we're there. we feel "at home"...smoking pot in the office, heh...heh."

Terrance-"So you guys don't have to worry about the A&R folks comin' by to say/turn the guitar down?"

PIGGY-"Yeah,ya know if you're not happy .then you turn around and tell the guy there."

AWAY-lt's the first time we made an album and nobody came into the studio. Once in
awhile.the president guy will come in and say, "the snare sounds great!" (everyone including myself laugh)

Terrance-"That's something you don't hear often with big record companies!" 

[8].Terrance-"Production-wise,VOIVOD shared a producing credit on "Negatron" and it's noticeable because "Piggy", your guitar signals come out more. Do you think it's important for VOIVOD to continue this, because on the first four albums VOIVOD produced and mixed them and only VOIVOD knows what music to put out as opposed to a producer who has his own agenda for the music?"

AWAY-"Yeah, well we have no choice but to make an indie album. Finally, we were happy to self-produce it with two in-house engineers at "Hypnotic" which really helped. With majors, it's a corporate thing 'coz you have to have a producer and spend a quarter of a million-that's the budget for the album, and it's like...you have to follow the rules. Um, right now it's a totally new approach and I guess it's the most VOIVOD'- sounding record in awhile."

Terrance-"I would say that "Nothingface" had good production by an outside producer-Glen Robinson. He made it a bit "clean", but it had "VOIVOD" on it."

AWAY-"Yeah...it's a little "cold-sounding, but everything is very clean on "Nothingface."

Terrance-"It kinda goes along with the concept of the digital thing, and the VOIVOD
character going back inside his head or whatever."

AWAY-"lt gives a kind of "1984ish"...like that movie. Did you see it?"

Terrance-"I saw that movie...the one with John Hurt. It's kind of grey and oppressive!"

AWAY-"l like 'Brave New World' heh, heh"

[9].Terrance-"And now for a "not-so-serious" question-let's say that a few years from now. that there will be commercial flights to Mars and VOIVOD becomes the first band to play on the red planet. What song would you start off with to get your audience of human colonists, citizens of Mars and other alien beings acquainted with?"

PIGGY-"Suck Your Bone!"..l'm just kidding, heh.heh.

AWAY-"Fuck Off &Die!"..heh,heh.

Terrance-"Warriors Of Ice"...heh,heh..

AWAY-"I don't know...not '"Astronomy Domine"..heh..heh. "Cosmic Drama"..I don't
know. really..."

Terrance-"It's a silly question."

AWAY- (to ERIC) "What do you think?"

ERIC-'The Lost Machine."

Terrance-"The Lost Machine?"

AWAY-"That would be a start."

ERIC-"Also, "Planet Hell."

Terrance-"Yeah, that's a good one."

AWAY- "For Mars. yeah except that it's pretty cold there! "Heh...heh, it's red."

[10]. Terrance-"My next question goes back to an album we discussed earlier. It starts with, 'The idiot walks along a canvas Sunday rendezvous Mr. Phobia..."(which is the song "Angel Rat" from the album of the same name). The reason why I decided to bring it back is that personally I felt that there were some good songs on it unfortunately the musical politics override the whole record which kept folks from getting into it. I brought this up 'coz I wanted to discuss some of the concepts and I didn't know VOIVOD wanted a "moody, atmospheric rock-n-roll album. I know it comes from the "chaos-theory" (the book "Away" read) and the general stories. I want to know about "Best Regards". Is there a particular concept for that song?"

AWAY-"Yeah, that was SNAKE'S."

PIGGY-"lt was kind of a complaint letter."

Terrance-"I thought it may have been about a clairvoyant who tries to warn people, but they don't listen."

AWAY-"I think SNAKE was writing a letter to the president of something."

PIGGY-"A letter to someone...l can't remember."

AWAY-"It's such a long time ago, heh..heh..it's so many joints ago."

Terrance-"Yeah, it's a long time ago, but how about the concept for "Twin Dummy"?

AWAY-'Twin Dummy?" That guy talking to his puppet...that drawing is on the front cover. It's about somebody who's in a freak show but he's such a freak, but they leave one morning, and he's at the train station talking to himself with the puppet. I think that's the story. "Angel Rat" was a little less "sci-fi", except for "Nuage Fractal" and "Freedoom". 

Terrance-"It was a little more into VOIVOD folk tales. I read the lyrics for "Nuage Fractal" and it had lines like "Nobody can detect the butterfly effect...patterns of flat spirals.." I also read that "Chaos" book you mentioned awhile backhand it mentioned the "butterfly effect" article-that the fluttering of the butterfly wings would result in a storm
disturbance somewhere."

AWAY-"Yeah, the "chaos-theory". "Chaos-theory" also explains why when you go to the
laundromat, you come back without a sock! "[everyone laughs]

Terrance-"Was "Freedoom" about being stuck in a virtual limbo?" "In the lyrics, it goes like, "oceans of motion...nearly nirvana. Is this quest forever?"

AWAY-"What?"

Terrance-"The song "Freedoom"...was it conceptually about being stuck in a virtual
limbo?"

AWAY-"lt's connected with "Nuage Fractal". It's about somebody...it's like someone sends a cloud. It's like you're a cloud...a virus. A computer virus that takes oven all digital machines on the planet...like internet. It goes into the internet and stuff. It's intelligence from somewhere that's sending the cloud...it's sending the cloud into computers and it also involves "chaos-theory", it's causing chaos everywhere in the machines."

PIGGY-"Its like a conspiracy."

AWAY-"lt's another of those conspiracies. I mean. it's gonna happen in the year 2O27."

Terrance-"Do you believe that it'll happen with computers worldwide?" I saw the "Clouds In My House" video, and it seems like a waste that the record company spent money on the video instead of a small tour! They could've gotten behind the weird, "circus-atmosphere" of "Angel Rat." I dunno...they could've maybe let VOIVOD play at some circuses."

AWAY-"What happened with "Angel Rat" was that we put it out and "Mechanic" parted
with "MCA", and we decided to go with "MCA" so it took about 4-5 months for legal stuff
to be set up. We were without labels and we couldn't do anything. so we wrote "The Outer Limits."

Terrance-"I know that VOIVOD only did a few gigs in Ontario, 0ttawa and the QC provinces. Unfortunately, there were no U.S shows!"

AWAY-"Yeah,w e played with "GRIMSKUNK" in Ontario and Quebec."

[11].Terrance-"On the cd, there's a multimedia track with the "Insect"  video, lyrics, graphics and interviews. Since the "Nothingface" album/Away" has used increasingly sophisticated means of computer artwork. How do you balance between keeping the human aspect of emotion that goes into the artwork while perfecting your style on computers, which usually smoothes out the rough edges?"

AWAY-"I do a lot of sketches. but it's true that after "Nothingface" and "Angel Rat", l
started to freak out. I was afraid of losing my skill so I did "The Outer Limits" with ink. The 3-D treatment was done on computer. but all the drawings were done with ink so once in awhile I go back to ink."

[12].Terrance "This is for "Away" and "Piggy" in regards to a quote from long ago. Do you guys still have the desire to do a video near that aluminum factory back in your hometown of Jonquiere?"

AWAY-(laughs)-"No I don't wanna go back there!"

PIGGY-(laughs)-"No!" They're gonna close down that thing! It's killing everyone over there and it's destroying the environment! They already put a new one there which is robotized. It's smaller, more efficient."

AWAY-'With ten times the pollution!"..Heh...heh.."

Terrance-"It sounds like the concept from "Pre-Ignition."

AWAY-"Yeah, it comes from "Pre-Ignition" and "Missing Sequences". It's all connected with the aluminum factory/Alzheimer's...stuff like that."

Terrance-"Do you have relatives still living in that area?" Do they still work there?"

PIGGY-"Yeah."

AWAY-"Yeah, everybody has to...most people do."

Terrance-"It's a "catch-22" situation 'coz there's not a lot of jobs out there, and you either have to work at the factory or..."

AWAY-"Yeah. and like PIGGY said they are going to close the big one. and the smaller one will be all robotized. but they will have the same pollution everywhere. There's less jobs over there."

Terrance-"So much for "progress."

AWAY-"Yeah..heh."

[13].Terrance-"When VOIVOD started out with the "War and Pain/RRROOOAAARRR!!!." look, the lyrics were about nuclear desolation/warfare and the band's imagery ofchains, bulletbelts and spikes. Did you guys get misunderstood by some folks as being "pro-military" or "anti-peace?"

AWAY-"Oh yeah! I heard the whole thing. like we were "nazis" and stuff. We were just
describing what could happen after three or four nuclear wars!...Heh...heh. We were never really promoting it, just...um, trying to channel the rage into something. Same with "Metallica" and I'm sure they didn't really mean what they were saying. They were just...um "hyper" kids."

PIGGY-"Also, when we did write about nuclear war and stuff, that was the fear at that time because all those nuclear arsenals. Everybody was afraid that "who's gonna control it?"

AWAY-"Especially the "Star Wars" project. We were really freaked out on that on "Killing
Technology."

Terrance-"That time was especially weird with the Reagan administration wanting to do
something based on a movie."

[14].Terrance-"Do you guys feel that in this culture there is a subtle "anti-intellectual" mindset with the "dumbed-down" sitcoms on tv, politics and movies in this society? It seems that a lot of people would rather be spoonfed reality than to expand their worldview."

AWAY-"Whoa!" I lost you there, sorry?"

Terrance-"I think I went a little too fast there!" (repeats the question)

AWAY-"I think it's always been that way. ya know? That's why they burned the witches and the alchemists. They were afraid of science and preferred to follow God or any other religion and stuff like that. Now it's the same thing...it's simple stuff like people who believe in flying saucers. The government, they make sure that other people make fun of them so people won't search for the truth, heh..heh.. What am I saying?...heh.."

Terrance-"I know that I'm taking up a lot of time, but I have a few more questions left."

[15].Terrance-"Has your former bassist Jean-Yves Theriault ("Blacky") come out with anything based on his solo work into modern dance/electronics and sequencers?"

AWAY-"Ah, BLACKY?"

Terrance-"Yes, has he come up with anything?"

AWAY-"Yes he did—it's more "ambient" stuff and a little "techno" at times. but it's more
"industrial ambient" almost "new-wave".

Terrance-"Would you say that the stuff he's doing is different from what everyone else is doing?" Did you hear his stuff?"

AWAY-"Yes I have his cd. No, it's not like it's really different. ya know? I know what is "ambient" stuff and I like the "Orb" or "Orbital", more "techno". I think it's pretty generic and it's just...just that it's not "rave" or anything. It's like a soundtrack for dance so it's more "ambient". You can't really "charge"...put too many instruments and it sounds "anti". 

[16].Terrance- "Back on "Nothingface" I detected a bit of 'The Outer Limits" feeling, particularly in the first song, "The Unknown Knows". There's a riff in it that reminds me of some instrumental music on a few episodes. I was wondering if I was correct on that assumption?"

PIGGY-"Oh?"

Terrance-"It was the beginning riff "da^da-da-da^da-da" and I noticed the same rhythm on some old episodes like, "The Sixth Finger" (an episode about a poor illiterate Welsh coalminer who willingly participates in human evolutionary experiments that are accelerated by mechanical means resulting in a cold, "anti-human" intellectual being).

PIGGY-"lt came from when I was a kid. ya know? I was watching that show as a kid. The show was like...l got into it the most. The music of that time and the score of the show. I really love the composer of the music, Dominic Frontiere. I like this guy and everything he wrote."

Terrance-"Do you have the soundtrack of the tv show?"

PIGGY-"Yeah. and he also did the music for "The Invaders". Have you seen it?"

Terrance-"I haven't seen the show but I remember it only lasted two years. They don't air the reruns much in the U.S but I know the plot. It's about a guy who knows about an alien conspiracy but most of the people are aliens. He recognizes them by a small physical defect."

PIGGY-"He wrote the greatest scary songs of all time! To me, "The Invaders" theme was scary! It would get under my skin watching the show and afterwards. riding my bike at night in the middle of the streets hearing it in my head. It was like "Waaaooooo....!"
Man, everything became scary!...so ya know obviously I've got a few of those tapes of that time during "Nothingface". I got a few videocassettes from television episodes and I got an episode of "The Man Who Was...ah, Unborn". It's "The Man Who Was Never Born"...that's where it comes from."

AWAY-"Yeah, l haven't heard such a scary theme since "The X-Files!"

Terrance-"Did you finally see that show 'coz I know I asked you the same question back in '93 when it premiered?" I know you hadn't seen it yet."

AWAY-"Fuck yeah!"

Terrance-"Do you like the show?"

AWAY-"I love "X-Files" but sometimes I think it's too "soap opera-ish"...they have good
subjects."

Terrance-"I guess when they do the serial killer angle, they rely too much on that formula." It's usually the "when do we find the girl?"

[17].Terrance-"VOIVOD has always done some interesting cover songs, particularly on the 1st demo-"Anachronism" (which also documented their first show in '83) with covers of "Motorhead"/"Tank"/"Steeler" and "Budgie". There was also a cover of "Slayer's- "Chemical Warfare" (from the "Morgoth Invasion" '84 demo), along with that there were two 'Pink Floyd" covers-"Astronomy Domine "/"The Nile Song". I'd like to focus on the old
song/Batman" VOIVOD used to do before the movie came out but stopped afterwards. I
thought this was cool because you guys were still pretty much unknown in the music
industry, and that song could've exposed VOIVOD more but you decided to keep it special. Do you think that it's time to bring this song back without being perceived as trying to "cash in" on the popularity of the movies?"

AWAY-"Yeah, actually we stopped because of that whole "Batman" thing!" We didn't go for the "trendy" thing again. but we did try to move to Seattle!..heh..heh" (everyone on the bus laughs at this obvious display of sarcasm)

Terrance-"I guess you didn't have your flannel shirts!..heh".

AWAY-"We got kicked out!"

Terrance-"Ah, VOIVOD is too weird for Seattle!"

PIGGY-"We were never metal!..Heh..heh."

AWAY-"Yeah..we were never metal!..heh."

Terrance-"I also remember that VOIVOD did a cover of "Iggy and The Stooges"-"Search & Destroy". You guys were supposed to be on the "Pump Up The Volume"(1990) soundtrack, but it never materialized."

AWAY-"Yeah! I don't remember why."

PIGGY-"Ah,yeah!"

Terrance-"The reason why I remember this obscure piece of news is that I used to get the "IRON GANG" newsletter and they brought it up."

[18].Terrance -"Aside from the album cover artwork being of an ant, termite or cockroach and the "Insect" track-"Away" it seems to me that you have a fascination with bug, particularly spiders because some of the lyrics of past songs mentioned these creatures: the song "Voivod"-"come with me in my spiderline...in the black hole of the night. ("War and Pain") "Too Scared To Scream"-'Im an experimental schizo...full of spiders in his mind."(Killing Technology") and "Cockroaches", "Missing Sequences"- "Spiders spinning sand...grubbing enterprise" (Nothing face"). I was wondering if that was true?"

AWAY-"lt's an ant (on the cover of "Negatron")..yeah well, l also did one on "Angel Rat" and "Nothingface".

Terrance-"On "Angel Rat", it was that spider and a carousel drawing."

AWAY-"Yeah..."

PIGGY-'Im fascinated by that too, but I wouldn't like to be smaller than that!"

AWAY-"Exactly, ya know that on "Angel Rat"-the spider? I took that from "The Incredible Shrinking Man". That's where I digitized it from the movie and it was the first time when I was young. l saw that and I was just freaking out on the guy who was fighting a huge spider with a needle."

PIGGY-"Yeah, he gets the needle and sticks it in! There's ail this spider blood everywhere!"

AWAY-"lt's a scary movie!" Have you seen it?"

Terrance-"Yes...he's on a boat passing over a radioactive cloud."

AWAY-"Yes."

Terrance-"Even though a few of those films were cheesy, there was some good ones made on the theme of the 1950's fear of atomic radiation and "insect-paranoia", like "THEM"(1951)."

AWAY-"Yeah, they put stuff ...like if you want interesting stuff about nuclear mutants and stuff, there's Japanese comics and animation."

Terrance-"They made some good movies."

AWAY-"lt's always mutants and of of course, everybody knows why because of Hiroshima and stuff, but that's all."

Terrance-"I'll leave this question with an ugly fact about cockroaches: They exist in all four corners of the Earth and they can stand up to 100 times the power of radiation than a human..."

AWAY-"Yeah, they'll be here after us."

Terrance-"They'll be there to eat the rest" from "Cockroaches"!

[19].Terrance-"This one's for "Piggy"-when I saw VOIVOD back on "The Outer Limits" tour during the songs, "Wrong-Way Street" and "We're Not Alone" I noticed that you used a toy laser gun on your guitar which had a really good effect. What made you think of doing that?"

PIGGY-"Ah, it came out in the studio where I was working on the pick-ups. I found that
"Pocket Terminator" which was like a hand toy...a toy gun. It had three knobs with three different sounds and so I was playing with it all day annoying everybody. I put it over the pick-up of the guitar because I took it with me to the studio. When I played the guitar, the thing was beside me and I put it over the pick-up which sounded great!"

Terrance-"So it made for a good effect?"

PIGGY-"Yeah. so we put it on the album. After that. this thing got stolen...someone stole it from me! You know. l was shopping for something to make noise. which I can put on a pickup. I found those toy guns. ya know with lights."

Terrance-"When the lights went out during those songs it was cool!"

PIGGY-"Yeah? It's still pretty cool!"

Terrance-"Sometimes, do you get your ideas for the technical effects from watching science fiction movies/tv shows when they use sound effects for lasers?"

PIGGY-"Ah?"

Terrance-"For example, during "The Outer Limits" recording did you get ideas for the laser sounds being a guitar effect?"

PIGGY-"Im not sure what you mean?"

Terrance-"0kay,when you're watching a science fiction movie and they have sounds of
flying ships, do you think about creating a guitar effect from listening to it?"

PIGGY-"Yeah, it's not much that way...it's things that you hear. it's not always in reality..."

AWAY-"lt's coming from outer space!..Heh..heh.."

PIGGY-"Most of the time I'm writing the riffs and stuff ,I put it together .that's after I hear the sound that's coming around. Sometimes, yes...sometimes you write a piece of music and you listen to it and what comes into your head, yeah it's one of those sounds you hear from the movie. Sometimes it's way before and you say, "okay that's a good place for this sample!" You try to find it out or recreate it somehow and put it there."

AWAY-"Like the sound that we picked from "War of The Worlds". We need something
like that...like an "electronic snake". "Oh, yeah! That movie!" So we sampled it."

PIGGY-"We have a few samples from the "Thunderbirds" too."

AWAY-"Look at that plane crashing (on the television screen. there is a news report of a plane's crash landing).

Terrance-"That's why I dont like to fly!" Too many crashes!"

[20].Terrance-"Eric, were you a listener of VOIVOD 's earlier albums before you became part of the line-up in the band?"

ERIC-"Yeah, l liked all that thrash stuff on 'Banzai Records"(Canada).

Terrance-like "War and Pain" and "RRROOOAAARRR!!!"?

ERIC-"I grew up on early "Judas Priest", "Venom", 'Voivod", "lron Maiden"...early punk
music, "Motorhead"...whatever." I still am."

Terrance-"I guess some of us are still into the old metal...eh?"

ERIC-"Yeah...l haven't really bought anything new record-wise...not much stuff."

[21].Terrance "The track "D.N.A.(Don't No Anything") with "Foetus" (akajim G.Thirwell) marks a second collaboration with VOIVOD as "Away" made an appearance on the "Butterfly Potion" ep."

AWAY-"No, it was the "Steroid Maximus" album."

Terrance-"You appeared on that album?"

AWAY-"I remember the "Butterfly Potion" ep 'coz I was in the studio but I didn't play on it."

Terrance-"I guess that was a mistake, but how does "D.N.A." fit within the overall concept of the album?"

AWAY-"lt's another collaborative story about some experimenting on a human, a bit like
"Nanoman".

Terrance-"Is it about someone turning into a freak, like "noise that wanders like a liquid?" ('Nanoman')

AWAY-"He's becoming a freak but he doesn't know. There's no mirror in the cell so he 
thinks he's getting better and better like a super human, but he's getting more and more
like a "freak". "He thinks he's a king..."

Terrance-"But he's more like a fool."

AWAY-"Yeah, a monster!"

[22].Terrance- "I've noticed that some computer programmers who dabble with "virtual reality" don't really show their imaginations, instead of creating weird surrealism they try to recreate aspects of reality, like someone drinking a cup of coffee or smoking a cigarette. Do you ever wander about this?"

AWAY-"Um..."

Terrance-"The reason why I brought this up was that during the recording of "The Outer Limits" you were working with computer programmers."

AWAY-"For the "President X-D" that's where I got the "President X-D" concept because it was for the "Angel Rat" video-"Clouds In My House". I had to deal with those two guys, the guy with the computer animation, and they said that they wanted to represent reality. I asked them why and they said it's the thing and they were trying to create an actor that was totally digital."

Terrance-"They're about one step closer with the movie, "Toy Story". They're one step
closer."

AWAY-"lt's getting close when you see Toy Story"...it's unbelievable!"

Terrance-"It's 100% computer animated."

AWAY-"They're doing another one called "Bugs" and it's gonna be out one day." I'm sure
there's gonna be actors totally digital and that's where I got the idea for "President
X-D"...like a digital president...a "virtual president".

Terrance-"They had a show that came on awhile back called "Wild Palms" by Oliver Stone. It was about a 'Virtual reality" senator trying to invade LA."

AWAY-"Ahh,yeah...l heard about that! It was a T.V movie...did they show that once or
something?"

Terrance-"They showed it a few years ago and it was pretty weird for t.v!"

[22].Terrance -"My last question is in regards to the song, "Into My Hypercube" from the "Nothingface" album. This concept has been nagging me for a long time 'coz the only explanation I read about it was, "The logic's dripping from the upside-down cuboid-cell..." Was it about the VOIVOD character beginning to retreat inside his brain as a sort of shelter?"

AWAY-"Um...no. It was about the fact that there could be nine dimensions instead of
three. At first I read in a paper that with computers they are able to draw objects in nine dimensions, so a cube would be a "hypercube" and they showed the drawing. It kind of looked like a cube within a cube and they wanted to prove that right now they're able to calculate nine dimensions in mathematics and stuff like that. I just tried to imagine the VOIVOD living in the nine dimensions of the "hypercube".

Terrance-"Man...that was really weird which is why I enjoyed that album and I'd like to say that's it and thanks a lot for the interview!!!"

AWAY-"Thanks a lot for the tape." (i gave him a tape of early "Killing Joke" peel sessions and a cover of "Missing Sequences" by "Dahlia Seed")

Terrance-"Thanks, Piggy also!" Nice to meet ya, Eric and you did a good job on the album!"

ERIC-"Thanks a lot!"

~Terrance 'neutronboy2000'