WERTHAM An interview. This interview has been mailed me by a French guy called Burt. Unluckily Burt forget to send me his address. I decided to use it as an excuse to explain some concept behind the WERTHAM project. LET'S START WITH THE USUAL STORY. Ok, WERTHAM is run by me (Marco) and occasionally by other friends who're going to help me, especially on the live front. I started playing noise with other weaker projects called V156, EBOLA TERZA FASE and RETROGUARDIA ATTIVA, but they all have been just excuses to start putting my hands on sound manipulators and start understanding how my "idols" have been working. Well then, when I got my KORG synth and a little mixer I was able to start a real project named WERTHAM. The sound was really rough, I was trying to get out from my poor keyboard the most noise I could. After one song on SPINELESS tape compilation (for my life time friend Lasse Marhaug) I put out the BORN TO RISE HELL tape for MURDER RELEASE, very rough power noise with some voice, followed by the split tape with ORIGAMI REPLIKA on my own tape label SOFFITTA MACABRA, which was mostly isolationist ambient + one song with voice which is the new kind of stuff I'm playing now. Then I recorded a song for the FUCK OFF WE MURDER compilation on our label and another song for another compilation. WHICH PROJECTS HAVE INSPIRED YOU? MMM does anybody care??? Well Too many I think CON-DOM and THE GREY WOLVES has been the biggest influences both in sounds than in text I've always thought the things I'm saying but they shown pretty well how to mix this kind of ideas with great sounds. Actually I'm very into all the German power electronics/death industrial projects like GENOCIDE ORGAN, ANENZEPHALIA, EX.ORDER, INADE, SOLDNERGEIST, TURBUND STURMWERK, STABAT MORS, PREDOMINANCE, but I also like some yankee and Italian stuff like ATRAX MORGUE, IUGULA-THOR, SLOGUN, DEATH PILE, TAINT And many other stuff like BRIGHTER DEATH NOW, NON, MB, FINAL SOLUTION WHITEHOUSE, MATHAUSEN ORCHESTRA, SIGILLUM S, TERRE BLANCHE, ... Too many stuff to mention I also listen to many other music (from OI! To Classical music), but you haven't asked me about this. WHERE DOES THE NAME COMES FROM? From Frederick WERTHAM. I wanted a name which sounded strong but not the usual nazi doctor name or serial killer (even if I speak about those things), and studying censorship in comics I've discovered this psychiatrist who wrote this book entitled THE SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENTS, where any evil of American society was considered as a result of the E.C. horror comics like Uncle Creepy. I think it sounded nice. Why Not? Later I discovered he was the same psychiatrist who studied the well known pedophile serial killer Albert Fish. So it's still enough trendy to sell a couple of copies more. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE SERIAL KILLER TREND? These kind of things has always fascinated the mass, and they will always work. Today, when the society of images has sold almost everything to its customers, showing an atrocity exibition is an excellent way to create new kind of social fears and paranoia. I've always been interested in extremities, but in this moment I'm not very much interested in the serial killer itself, but how the media use it as status symbol. Today it's easier for a person to loose control of his darkest side, and the medias stimulates you with not stopping yourself. I'm not saying that television creates serial killers, but it surely help this phenomenons to become cult and get used to abstract people from other things. This works also on sexy scandals, and the death of famous persons (like Lady D). This is what people seem to seeks. ON YOUR FIRST TAPES YOUR LYRICS TITLES SEEM PRETTY HYRONICAL. DO YOU THINK NO SENSE MAKES SENSE? Well I don't think that the text lyrics of my first tape are non sense. I don't have a tape in my head to remember them perfectly, but things like "BRING ME THE HEAD OF SUSAN SONTAG" is an anti-intellectual track. As CHINA REVOLT AGAINST SOCIAL PARASITES is about Chinese government doing mass execution of parasites like drugs dealers. On that tape I had not much time and room to explain my views. This won't happen in the next works. HAVE YOU EVER PLAYED LIVE? Yes, three shows with LASSE MARHUAG and one with ORIGAMI REPLIKA. I hope to do more stuff in the future, both as solos than collaborations. I'm also planning an installation but this will takes me lots of time and money, so it's too early to speak about this. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SO CALLED CULTURAL TERRORISM? MMM, great. It's the perfect way to explain certain concepts. To me is making really political things without getting involved in a defined ideology. Confusion is surely the only possible thing we can create in this system. The problem with Militant music is that, especially in the underground, there's illusion that you can change things from a stage, but you are always preaching to the converted, masturbating yourselves in how coherent and correct you are, but there's a big world outside who never heard about those bands, etc. You know it's like those intellectuals who speak with difficult words to people who'll never understand them. I can't imagine my father, who might agree with some revolutionary messages, understanding words said by big fat intellectual revolutionaries lived in libraries which never spent a day in this nice village called reality. YOU OFTEN USE RIGHT WING IMAGES. IS IT A PROVOCATION OR YOU BELIEVE IN IT? AND DON'T YOU THINK THAT NAZIS CAN GET INVOLVED IN YOUR SCENE? What???? Where have I used right wing images? Are you drunk? Please tell me. WERTHAM, till now, never had spoken about right wing related things/propaganda. Maybe in the future, but not in a political approach. I think anyone is responsible of his actions. Anyway the concept of right and left are linked to official politic and that's absolutely what I'm not interested in this moment. Anyway these kind of risks (if you can call them risks) are part of the game. I prefer confrontation than taboos. I TELL YOU SOME WORDS, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT? MMM. Who cares about. Mmm anyway let's see. FOOD: Great, especially Italian one. Magick: Do Thy will! EUROPE: The country where I live. LEGA LOMBARDA: Boring middle class movement who'd like to split what can't be broken. MILAN: Never given a fuck about soccer, sorry. Just Holiganism is funny to be seen on TV. S/M: One of the many way to make sex. DEATH: I still have many things to do on this planet. RELIGION: The drug of the masses. DRUGS: One of the many religion of the masses. Christianity: A very bad dream, but with some interesting elements... LADY D: Ah! Ah! Ah! Black Metal: Bathory rules. VIOLENCE: I'm a good guy. Go and make mess somewhere else.. SEX: Uh? HOW'S THE SCENE LIKE IN ITALY? There's no a real scene. Most of the people here is interested in different kind of underground. The scene is very linked to squats and this gives both good than bad points. A big amount of political correctness and a big fear towards European symbols. So not the best place for power electronics projects. There are very interesting projects, both old than new, and I listen to many stuff and have many friends, but there's lots of bad stabbing and bullshits due also to political things. I much prefer the German scene where we often go and found many great persons and where I'm making my new best friends, especially in the area of Munich. There things are much more professional and till now I never had problems with anyone and never been forced to explain anything. Anyway we're working to make things grow. But also musically there are not many persons interested in power electronics, I think most of the people who listen this kind of stuff also play in a project. Anyway people like Old Europa Cafè, Slaughter, Wolf Age, Less Than Zero, Verba Corrige are doing their work very well! FUTURE PROJECTS. Solve my problems in my job/family, a 7" for MEMBRUM DEBILE PROPAGANDA, a possible LP on a famous German label, a couple of compilations and tapes and more shows. This time alone and together with Luca of WUTANES HEER. Home