Interview:2007-Orkus-2

Here is the full English translation of an interview that was recently published in the German music magazine Orkus #06 June, 2007:

How many gigs have you played in your life so far?

With Death In June it is about 200 shows around the World between 1981 and 2005.

But, with Crisis who seemed to be playing every week from 1977-1980 I have absolutely no idea. Rock Against Racism and the Anti Nazi League certainly got their pound of flesh from us playing at their benefits during those years as we drove from one end of the country to the other trying to save the UK from itself.

It didn't work, did it! The Tube in London is still alive with paranoia, fear and death!!

How many songs have you written in your life so far?

I've written, or co-written, about 130 for Death In June, including those so far unpublished for the forthcoming new album called 'The Rule Of 3rds', about 20 for Crisis, some of which were sadly never released as the tapes were lost, probably about 35 with Boyd Rice for various projects such as Scorpion Wind etc, a few albums' worth of material for Current 93 with David Tibet but, as I no longer allow that material in my house I have no idea of actually how many songs that may be, and a few for other groups or people such as Somewhere In Europe, Occidental Martyr, Luftwaffe, Strength Through Joy, Thomas Nola etc.

How many texts have you written in your life so far?

In truth, I don't really keep track or differentiate that much about all the stuff I'm involved in, certainly not since Tony Wakeford and Patrick Leagas, the 2 other original members, departed DIJ in 1984/85 respectively. I am very busy doing what I'm doing, not thinking about what I've done! It seems a very anally retentive thing to do to keep count of songs and words and people I've worked with etc and I have already enough arseholes in my Life - for good and for bad - to worry about! "Einsatz, Einsatz, Einsatz" was some extremely sound advice I was given many years ago. Sadly, too many people rely upon "Nag, Nag, Nag" these days!

As a rule, I never interfere with lyrics that Boyd Rice writes but with the text that Tibet wrote for Death In June I was always fine tuning and adjusting these words with the notable exception of 'She Said Destroy' and that was also fine with David.

For argument's sake let's say I've written about 100 of the lyrics written for Death In June.

In how many bands have you been playing? What were their names?

I've only ever considered myself being in Crisis and Death In June. All other bands such as Current 93 I was only ever guesting in upon request and other groups such as Scorpion Wind or Boyd Rice & Friends/Fiends were got together for specific recording projects and some live peformances.

Since when have you been a musician in the broadest sense of the word?

Since I thought of the name Crisis, reading a newspaper which had the word written all over its main headlines and drinking a bottle of Carlsberg Special Brew lager walking along the beach front in Minehead, a West Country seaside town in England during the Easter holidays, 1977. It was a fundamental moment in my Time. In a great named place to think of a great name! A little drunk, I telephoned Tony Wakeford who I had already started to write songs with to tell him that's what we should be called, and very shortly after other people presented themselves to us and soon we had a group. So, 30 years would be an accurate reply.

All my other attempts were up until then merely attempts that remained in the typical rehearsal enviroment of the bedroom and nothing more, even though I first started writing/creating music in 1974.

That's all for now :-) Oh... have you ever heard the music of the band called ROME? Interesting guy from Luxemburg,

Yes, Jerome and I are very much in contact. Rome's great!

Heilige! Douglas P.