COMA Music Magazine

After his set at Club Firestone in Orlando, We got to sit down in the backstage area with the man behind Assemblage 23, Tom Shear. Tom was not at all like you might expect from his music, he was actually very upbeat and friendly, it was a huge pleasure to speak with him.

Interview written, conducted and transcribed by j. ward.
Photos captured by j. ward from video by Mic Knight.

[COMA] Have you ever gotten to meet the DJ that introduced you to industrial music to thank him?

[Tom Shear] No, you know I don't even know who it was. They didn't make any sort of announcement or anything like that. In fact having seen Depeche Mode on their last tour, they did something similar where they were playing some of the stuff that they are into now so I'm not even sure if it was actually a DJ or if it was just a mix they had prepared for the tour to kind of try and introduce people to some of the music that inspired them. Obviously it had a really big impact on me.

[COMA] Have you ever got to meet any of the members of Depeche Mode to tell them about it?

[Tom Shear] You know, I haven't and I'm not even really sure I'd want to. I have a very deep seeded kind of fear of meeting my heroes because I'm always afraid they'll turn out to be assholes. (laughs) So I'd rather have the image of them in my mind that I have. I don't know what I'd say to them that hasn't been said to them a million times before anyway.

[COMA] Have you seen the fan video for "Cocoon"?

[Tom Shear] Yeah.

[COMA] Do you like it?

[Tom Shear] Yeah, I think it's a really interesting new phenomenon that just seems to have popped up in the last year or two and I think thats one of the interesting things that the Internet has brought. Obviously it's brought fans closer to the artists they like because alot of the artists are more accessible. People can write directly to them; but also the fact that fans can sort of collaborate. Even though it's not a collaboration directly, the fact that fans can contribute something back to the artist as well I think is really really cool.

[COMA] Do you have any plans for making any official videos?

[Tom Shear] Not at the moment. It's one of those things that is-- I actually worked as a video editor for a while, for many years before I started doing music actually, and it's expensive to do well and this type of music there aren't any outlets for. Your only outlets really are YouTube and it seems almost contradictory to go through all the trouble of making a video with beautiful high production values and then it gets smashed down to this horrible grainy eight bit kind of computerized image so, not at the moment. I really prefer just working in a studio.

[COMA] You had said that you recorded the acoustic version of "Ground" because normal remixes are usually pretty lame. How, when you do a remix, do you make a version that you're proud to put your name on?

[Tom Shear] What I started doing with the single back with the "Storm" album was to kind of expand on what the idea of a remix is in general. Not only just do a remix but actually complete new recordings of the song often with completely different melodies, different tempos, that sort of thing. I think the remix market, probably about, 5 to 10 years ago really peaked and I think even the fans have a little bit of remix fatigue. It was just an attempt to do something different that I hadn't really seen alot of artists do before and furthermore, I wanted to make the single something that someone could sit down and listen to start to finish which, alot of singles, you can't do that. You might have one or two remixes that you really like but you get tired of the song by the end of it.

[COMA] Your albums show a clear progression from one to the next, what has been your biggest inspiration as of late?

[Tom Shear] Well, there's a little bit of it reflected on the new album, Meta, but towards the end of it and currently I've been really getting back into listening to rock especially this new wave of bands like The Editors and I think they appeal to me because in alot of ways they have the same influences that I had when I was getting into music, Joy Division, old U2. So, I've really been connecting with that kind of stuff again. Although you might not hear it directly in Meta, I did a lot of things like sending the keyboards through guitar amps and stuff just to dirty then up and make them sound a little bit more organic and interesting. So that may be a direction I explore a little bit more on the next album.

[COMA] Your wife is a musician as well, would you ever consider a collaboration with her?

[Tom Shear] Probably not. I think she's extremely talented but I think part of the reason that our relationship work is, we keep the music side and the relationship side separate and I'm not one for collaboration much in general. With collaborations there is always arguments over something as minute as bass sound or snare drum sound and I'd rather have my wife as someone I can go to to bitch about the problems that I have in the music industry and not somebody who I'm arguing with.

[COMA] You played M'era Luna with the keyboardist from FaderHead. I was really blown away when I heard their first record, FH1, do you feel that they are breathing some much needed life back into the electronic genre?

[Tom Shear] Yeah, I think if you compare them to what you hear going on in more mainstream forms of electronic music, it's not that radical a departure. But for our scene, our scene especially recently seems to be very closed to new influences and outside influences and I think that's really led to alot of stagnation. So if that can maybe draw some people in to checking out some of these other forms, I mean, that's the kind of stuff I listen to like some of the electro house stuff coming out of Germany, IDM and all kinds of electronica stuff. Maybe it will help people expand their horizons a little bit, to be open to allowing bands to bring more of those elements in and breathe some life into the genre again.

[COMA] There were no movie samples on the last two albums, how come?

[Tom Shear] First of all I think that whole trend has run its course. The other main reason is that when I use movie samples in the past-- I think there's alot of bands who use them just to fill up space. They're like, "I don't know what to do with this song so I'll just in this cool Hellraiser sample," of whatever. I always tried to make them kind of like an underscore to the lyrics, something that reinforced the theme of the song. And I simply haven't-- you know, so many of those are happy accidents that you find and I havant had any of those happen. But it's not something I think I'll be doing too much more in the future, I just think its been done to death and it's time to move on.

[COMA] What are your thoughts on Davy and Jade of AFI forming Blaque Audio?

[Tom Shear] I think it's great. I got to do a remix for them for the single version and I knew that they were both fans of this music, I've met them before and they're just really nice, down to earth guys. But what surprised me the most was that Interscope, this major or indie-major label took the chance to put something like that out, cause it doesn't sound like anything else happening in the mainstream. It sounds very connected to this but no big labels are taking chances on this kind of music anymore. I think it's great, I love the album, it's really good.

[COMA] Do you think they will help draw people that are more into mainstream music into electronic or do you think they'll just pick up the CD and be done with it?

[Tom Shear] I don't know, every time theres a band, the last time I can remember it happening was when Nine Inch Nails broke through to the mainstream.

[COMA] On Interscope...

[Tom Shear] Yes, funny enough. But I remember the same sorts of discussions going on. People were like, "This is it, this kind of music is going to break through." and it really didn't. It was good for Nine Inch Nails and there were undoubtedly some bands lie Machines of Loving Grace and Gravity Kills that kind of fed off that sound but they didn't have the longevity of the exposure that Nine Inch Nails did. So I don't know. I know personally we've had alot of AFI fans joining our MySpace, I know it's helped, people see the remix and think, "Oh, I'll check these guys out." But weather it's going to be a huge revolution, I kind of doubt it.

[COMA] With you helping out doing the remix of that and Ronan (Harris, Of VNV Nation) remixing Miss Murder, the AFI song, why is it that you guys go out of your way to help them out? Is it because they are fans of the genre or...

[Tom Shear] As I said before, they're really great guys. I mean, there are bands in this scene who have more of a rock star, prima-donna attitude than they do and they certainly have-- I don't believe anyone has a license to be like that but if anyone does it's them. But you know, it is some exposure for us and it's also an opportunity for us to work on something different than just stuff from the scene and I think that helps us expand our horizons as musicians and I learn something new every time I do a remix and especially getting to work with someone who's a really good vocalist like Davy with really well recorded materials, that's pretty refreshing from some of the more amature-ish stuff that we find in our own scene.

[COMA] So, do you guys more or less only get approached by people in the scene for doing remixes and whatnot?

[Tom Shear] For the most part. But over the past couple years I've been meeting some members of some bigger bands in other genres and I'm hoping to do some more remixes outside this scene. But nothings in stone yet. It's alot of fun for me more than anything, but it's also kind of cool when you meet someone from a big band who's really into you, it's kind of strange actually.

[COMA] The vocals on "Raw" and "Madmans' Dream" are quite a departure from your normal vocals, why did you decide to change the way you sang them?

[Tom Shear] Well, I just wanted to try some different thing to keep it interesting for me. As far as "Madmans' Dream", I've been doing harmonies and backing vocals on a higher range for a long time but I think those tend to blend in and people don't necessarily notice them. So I just wanted to do something that brought that a bit more to the fore and also, the emotional content of the song, I think it makes its connection a bit better when it's sung in that octave. And same thing with "Raw", I just wanted to do something different that people wouldn't expect to keep the fans on their toes as well.

[COMA] Do you think you're going to do more of that kind of stuff in the future?

[Tom Shear] I think so, this was a tentative testing of the waters to see how accepting people would be of stepping outside our boundaries and I always liked trying new things so I hope to try some different things in the future as well.

[COMA] Why have you chosen,with songs like "30k ft" and "Old" to end at least a couple of your albums on such a depressing note?

[Tom Shear] I guess it's never my intention to leave it on a down note as much as, on all the albums the last song has always been one that doesn't fit the flow of the album. It's a bit different. I think it just so happens that the last two happened to be kind of downers as songs go but I think also on the other end of it some albums just kind of, the last song is almost an after thought that kind of blends into the background and I would rather have the last song be something that really affects the person and makes them remember the album and has an emotional impact on them that will make them think about it later.

I got an email the other day from a guy who's training to be an airline pilot and he was talking about how he listens to my albums on the flights that they go on and I was saying, "I hope you're not listening to Storm." and he said, "Yeah, that's one came on the other day but I was ready for it so it was all right."

[COMA] I think that might freak people out.

[Tom Shear] (laughing) Yeah, I hope his copilot was apprised to what was going on.

[COMA] Alright, that's all we've got.

[Tom Shear] Cool. It was a pleasure meeting you, thank you very much for the interview.

Assemblage 23's newest album "Meta"is out now.
Visit Assemblage 23's official website at assemblage23.com

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