Click: album collaboration to see more press for for Feel It Like A Scientist. CHROME INTERVIEW for The New NOISE, By Yanick Blay
Translated from French to English below by Sandra Vivas
“Chrome, self-proclaimed acid punk, rock group, was formed in the mid 70’s in California. After the death of its co-leader Damon Edge in 1995, Chrome continued. Helios Creed, the other thinking head and genial guitarist of the group, decided to keep it going with the help of Tommy Grenas on the keys and Aleph Omega on the drums ( cf our biographical article in the New Noise #18) Today, in the wake of the compilation The Lost Chrome Tracks from 79-80, the new album ‘Feel like a Scientist’, reconnects with the original post punk, punk, synthesizer and industrial sounds. Its all here: the distorted vocals, the lines of the synthesizer, the collages in the Cabaret Voltaire style, and very evidently the riffs of the inventive and psychedelic guitar of Creed. His promotional discourse seems very well prowled…
“MOST OF MY LYRICS ARE ABOVE ALL FREESTYLE AND YOU CAN COMPARE THEM TO DREAMS, IN THE SENCE THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO TELL WHERE THEY COME FROM”
Q: You have always called your music “acid punk” Can you explain what do you mean by that?
Helios Creed: We always considered ourselves at the beginning, a psycodelic punk group. But we did not like that term so we prefer to call ourselves as acid punk.
Q: Can you introduce us to the musicians that are Chrome today?
Helios Creed: Well, I found my keyboard Tommy Grenas in the 80’s when he came to visit me with some friends in San Francisco, from Los Angeles. It was not difficult to find me because everyone knew at the time that I was living in a school bus in the Panhandle in the Haight Asbury. We did a tour together with Nick Turner d”Hawkind for his project Space Ritual and I realized then what a riot he is. He also was a great fan of Chrome, so we decided to restart the group some months after Damon Edge’s death. (NDR Damon Edge was founder of Chrome, who died in LA in 1995) He rescued Damon’s keyboard when his stuff was sold. I started auditions for a drummer and I found Aleph a year later. His performance is as hard and solid as it should be. I have always said that the quality of a band depends of its drummer. Aleph had always admired the Damon’s unique style on the drums, and therefore he studied it really well. It has been 17 years that I’ve played with him and Tommy and we know each other musically. They are, as I like to say “well Chromed”. I mean by that that I need to break their rock habits, because Chrome has an approach like no other.
On the other hand, I met Monet in the 80’s in San Francisco, then she was still a teen. She took photos of me for Amphetamine Reptile (NDR: Many solo albums by Creed came out of AmRep) in the 90’s. But we started to make music in 2012, after she asked me to perform in one of her performance video art pieces. Her work blew my mind when I saw her solo show of performance video art in 2011 in her gallery KROWSWORKS in Oakland! Her work can be seen in the internet. She really is a great artist. I was so amazed by her talent and her timing musically that I wanted her to participate in Chrome. She gives us her conceptual-art energy similar to Damon’s. For the project, she becomes Anne Dromeda. She participated on the last album but she’s not on tours with us. Lou Minatti is a young guitarist that I met in the city two years ago. I had the intuition that he was a good musician but I had to verify this so I went to see him play. And he gave me such an impression that I recruited him right away. He also is a sound engineer and therefore he took care of the recording engineering of our album. At last, Lux Vibratus has been our bass player for the last five years and he plays a good amount on the album. I met him during one of my solo shows. He is an excellent musician. But while we were finishing “Feel it like a scientist” he was replaced by Steve “Trash” Fishman, a guy freom LA that knew Tommy. He understood the story, the sound and the influences of Chrome and he wanted to work with us. He played in many incredible bands (Editor’s note: Paul McCartney, Roy Orbison, Elton John, the Sex Pistols, the Damned and Stranglers). He plays on a few pieces on the new album and tours with us. He’s great. So I finally have the ideal group to make Chrome sound as I always wanted after the death of Damon.
We perceived indeed a real cohesion on this new album, which was not necessarily present the previous twenty years …
Yes, everything is set up properly at the right time. New members arrived in recent years and have created the perfect alchemy of sounds and songs to make Feel It Like a Scientist become gold. We are going to reach many new listeners with this amazing album that is what I was looking to achieve since the death of Damon. And our older fans – Some listening to us since our inception 37 years ago – find the same feeling as listening to Alien Soundtracks … I really like our new record, as well as my group. We started working on Feel It Like a Scientist in 2012. I told each of member of my band, that this was going to be the best Chrome album ever and they needed to make the idea a reality.
Q:Who made your beautiful cover artwork?
Helios Creed: Thats Anne Dromeda aka the artist Monet Clark. Didn’t she nail the covers? I love the two covers she’s done, this new one and she did Half Machine from the Sun too. She used Damon’s work and Chrome’s visual history and took it to the next level and made it sexier and her own. The fans have liked them too so thats cool. Thats what she wanted to make it Chrome and still hers.
Q: What was the first song recorded or composed for this record?
Helios Creed: “Prophecy”. Everyone in the group seemed to love. I think it set the tone of the album, serving as a model because we all wanted each song to sound as good. I worked on “Prophecy” before the group joined me in the studio, to take care of arrangements. Tommy Grenas found this line of keyboards and it was really inspiring. Then we recorded the top tracks , such as Anne Dromeda’s singing in reverse through the song. We then added other vocals and the guitar during the mixing session at Capitol Studios. By listening carefully, you can notice Anne singing over the line of keyboards. This song has gone through a lot of phases, as the most of the other songs. Different ideas are chained to the best. This album is full of flavors and distinct styles, as good or better than “Prophecy”, and it all of it is Chrome. This is what I really like about this album!
Q: What is the biggest challenge for a musician that is part of Chrome? How do you do the “chroming”?
Helios Creed: Simply, I am always behind them to tell them if I find this idea a bit cheesy or if another one does not work. I try to guide them so that everyone knows what to do.
Q: What is the best compliment you’ve gotten?
Helios Creed: Difficult to choose from thousands! (Laughter)
Q: Are you yourself cyberchondriac, as suggested
perhaps the song title “Cyberchondriac”?
Helios Creed: The internet is a double-edged sword. It is impossible to escape a bunch of crap, while at the same time, it makes amazing and interesting things accessible. But to answer your question more specifically, I happen to be in at times a cyberchondric.
Q: It seems that you’re always interested in Science-
Fiction. Apart from that, what inspires your lyrics? Astrophysics, dreams? What inspires Anne Dromeda’s lyrics I see she wrote some of them?
Helios Creed: I know Anne draws on her own life for her video creations and she did the same for her words on the new album. But those she wrote for “Prophecy” are a mixture of various conversations that we had about Annunaki (Editor’s note: Anunanki : gods of Mesopotamian mythology) and chem trails (Editor’s note: chemtrails). She added some Hopi prophecies as well as some mutual frustration about the overall state of the planet. I wanted each musician to write a line and prophesize about it. Otherwise, most of my lyrics are rather “freestyle” and comparable to dreams, in the sense that it is impossible to say where they come from. My interests, obsessions of the moment can not help but express themselves. As for Tommy’s lirycs, they are rather “goth” and dark.
Q: What’s so special about the orbit of Nibiru that you’re referring to on the new album as well the famous “Planet X”?
Helios Creed: Nibiru or Planet X was called The Great Destroyer by the Sumerians. Various theories coexist in this subject, reinforced by the fact that we are in a “dangerous” time. It suffices to note the increase in natural disasters, such that large tsunami in Malaysia and all these recent horrific hurricanes, whose appearance is linked, according to many sources, to global warming. But maybe is it a natural cycle caused by the magnetic attraction of a planet in our solar system whose 36,000 years orbit would be closer to the sun. The attraction of bodies around our solar system has a effect on us and our planet, the tides being the most prominent example. But the orbit of this planet Nibiru, if it exists, affects the Earthmen and the Earth itself. Ecosystems are in danger. Increasingly animal species disappear. The oceans are polluted … How can Humanity survive? Financial systems are breaking. The sun is probably more hot. I have many questions and few answers. The words of “Prophecy” revolve around that. I made a solo album in the 90’s called ‘Planet X’, well before being aware of Nibiru. I just thought it was a nice album title! (Editor’s note: According to some theories, the planet X should have passed our solar system in 2003 and caused disaster on Earth. Extensive research reveals that some anomalies were detected with such a strange presence beyond Pluto. It would be orbiting around a dwarf star of very low brightness, called Nibiru, not big enough to initiate thermonuclear fusion reactions. It find again the myth of the planet Nibiru in Sumerian tradition, it is supposed to be the home planet of the Anunnaki, “gods”, descended on earth, according to the Sumerian tablet. This is the equivalent of Marduk in Babylonian …)
My album’s titles have often predicted events in my life. I became seriously interested in the famous Planet X much later. Can this planet really exist or is it just a metaphor for the cycle that we know will undoubtedly lead to the human extinction. Maybe this cycle is infinite and there are systems within systems. Anne also think that “life begins as a simple cell and it evolves out of the ocean before taking human form. But as overpopulation destroys our resources and oceans, life dies out. Then we restart all over again, cyclically. ” Who knows? What seems certain is that the government hides a lot of things and that I am always searching for the truth.
Q: What is the latest scientific advance that has greatly
attracted your attention?
Helios Creed: The famous drones flying over 15 meters.
You can not see them with the naked eye, while they are yet able to kill you from this height, it gives me the goosebumps. They can aim and hit a dime. And they have the ability to provoke a heart attack so we may believe the cause of death was natural. The reality is catching up with science fiction.
Q: Reading the credits, we see that the words of the song
“Big Brats” are Damon Edges? This is also one of the best tracks on the album …
Helios Creed: Yes. After recording the album, in the middle of mixing with my guitarist Lou Minatti, I had the idea to record ‘Big Brats’. Damon and I had left this in the drawers. Only Lou and I recorded it, both on the guitar and I am also responsible for the bass. As a result, this is the only piece of the album with a drum machine. We actually added a little later some percussion played by Steve.
Q: And who are these big kids spoiled rotten spoken of
the song?
Helios Creed: Who are the “big brats”? Well, it’s Damon and I, in any case, at the time! (Laughter)
Q: Is there a relation of “Lady Feline” and movies by Jacques Turner and Paul Schrader?
Helios Creed: Not at all. Anne Dromeda had the idea of the chorus lyrics “I’m Retina Leggy Feline I wanna make you mine.” While Lou and I gave it “Lady Feline” as the title. It worked and it stuck.
Q: For the tour, how did you determine the set list?
Anyone could advise?
Helios Creed: Yeah, I always let others choose songs that they are really into it. We play our classics titles, Lost Chrome Tracks titles that we just released, and Feel It Like a Scientist titles.
Q: Are there any songs that you or Chrome can’t or
no longer want to play?
Helios Creed: Not really. We play almost anything we want. Tommy, our keyboardist, has absolutely all samples of each of the albums.
Q: What titles do you prefer to play on stage?
Helios Creed: “Amargeddon” (Editor’s note: on Third from the Sun) and “Third from the Sun. “I also like “Abstract Nympho” (Ndr: This famous title on Half Machine Lip Moves) and “Danger Zone “(Editor’s note: from Alien Soundtracks). And I love playing “March of the Chrome Police” (Editor’s note: Half Machine Lip Moves) as well as our new single “Prophecy”. From the Lost Chrome Tracks, I love playing “Fukishima (Nagasaki)” and “Something Rhythmic”.
Q: Do you play the entire new album?
Helios Creed: No, actually, we play two or three titles from each of our records.
Q: What can we find at the merchandising stand at
your concerts?
Helios Creed: The CD s of the new album. As to LP, they are still in print, but will be available in the stores in Europe earlier. Otherwise, we will have for the market: Half Machine from the Sun, The Lost Tracks from Chrome ’79-’80 CD and LP and the Angel of the Clouds CD including the titles that Damon has left behind his death and I completed and arranged. Tommy and Aleph play on it also. Our label King Of Spades has just rereleased it. We will have t-shirts and posters including collages that Monet made for the cover of Half Machine from the Sun. In short, lots of good things …
Q: Do you remember your last visit to Paris?
Helios Creed: The concert at Point Ephemere will be our first in Paris. But I played as Helios Creed in the early 90’s. I can not wait to return.
Q: What can you tell us about Damon Edge? You
must miss him in the studio and on stage, right?
Helios Creed: Damon was a totally unique companion. I liked the years we had to work and play together, and I am sorry he is gone.
Q: What was his greatest talent to you?
Helios Creed: With him, sound became a full-fledged art. He influenced me a lot. I was attracted by all that was experimental in the mid 70s and Damon fascinated me because we shared this passion. So we became very close and we influenced one another. I loved his singing and his playing keyboards, it had its own sound. I think he was a genius.
Q: By what was the tubesque “Perfumed Metal”, published in single in 1982 inspired by?
Helios Creed: During one of our conversations, a friend spoke of “perfumed metal.” I immediately liked it and I thought it would make a great title for Chrome.
Q: And the famous “TV as Eyes”?
Helios Creed: ‘TV as Eyes” was composed in seconds! At first I thought it was stupid and thought nobody would like it. But it is just the opposite: everyone loves the guitar riff. And I must say that now I really like it. I did not know what I was doing and this is surely why it is so cool. This is the first Chrome song I composed. It was written at the time of Alien Soundtracks, but we ended integrating it into the next album, Half Machine Lip Moves.
Q: A few words about a “Abstract Nympho”?
Helios Creed: “Abstract Nympho” means Phil Manzanera (Ndr: guitarists Marist Roxy Music) in the twisted mind of Damon. (Laughter)
Q: What were the groups that you feel inspired you and Damon in the late 70’s?
Helios Creed: When we first met, we enjoyed tons of groups. Before Punk was born, we especially liked Pink Floyd. But also Iggy and John Cale, even if all this was still pretty new to me. I was still very influenced by the scene in the early 70’s with Sabbath, King Crimson, Hendrix and all that … And of course, Hawkwind. But I was thirsty for new discoveries and when punk appeared all was changed at all levels.
Q: What is your favorite novel science fiction?
Helios Creed: The machine back in time H. G. Wells.
Q: And your favorite film science fiction?
Helios Creed: The Red Planet (Editor’s note: released in 1959 and directed by Melchior) had a huge impact on me when I was a kid, and War of the Worlds (Ndr: Byron Haskin released in 1953, according H.G. Wells).
CHROME
Feel It Like a Scientist
(King Of Spades Records)
staticwhitesound.com / chrome / discography.htm
