Publication: Ectomag
t.o.t.s. Interview w/Ectomag (Oct. 2005)
by; Sameerah

Ecto/Sameerah: Fucks sake, It’s been another shit day at my day job and once again I am running late. These days it seems like the story of my life. Tonight it isn’t a rush to get home and feed the cat or a potty emergency that sends me driving like a bat out of hell through the streets of Los Angeles. Tonight I’m going to sit down with Things Outside the Skin, the dark industrial trio from NYC who won my ears with their blend of insane sounds and kick as lyrics. I soon found out that this group of guys does much more than make awesome music. They are all brilliant artists that work on projects ranging from music production to television and everything in between. They are perhaps the coolest group of guys I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Now that I have settled in with a cocktail I begin my journey into the minds of Tim, Chvad and Blight, the demented minds that make up Things outside the Skin.

Ecto: Hello darling, its Sameerah I’m just getting in from my day job so give me a few moments to collect my thoughts and get a cocktail…

Chvad SB: No sweat! Take your time…. drink up! We’re still waiting on my brother to pop in…. howdy howdy! Blight is here so whenever you’re a liquored up, we’re ready to go.

Blight Productions: hi

Ecto: Hey blight how’s things?

Blight Productions: Cool

Ecto: All right boys lets get this show on the road

Chvad SB: Supercharge activate! GO!

Blight Productions: Tiny Timmy?

Ecto: Timmy are you tiny?

Tim: ahhh only mentally

Ecto: Touché’ Tim

Blight Productions: I just saw a movie about a bunch of birds??????????

Ecto: Huh? Birds?

Blight Productions: March of the penguins, wow

Ecto: Ahhhh I thought it was cute my god kids loved it

Blight Productions: Pretty stupid animals

Chvad SB: They’re giant monsters

Ecto: But they’re oh so cute!

Blight Productions: Extremely cute animals but I think they need to re-think their living arrangements.

Ecto: Lol that’s true

Chvad SB: Before they mutate into kaiju

Ecto: Hashanah! OK. Everyone who has listened to the new disc asks me about Cow Tippin, who’s the vegan? Why do a track on how unnecessary cows are to our existence?

Blight Productions: Chvad is crazy

Chvad SB: That would be me.

Tim: You’re not a vegan Chvad

Chvad SB: Here’s the scoop, I’m not a vegan. I was for about 6 years but had severe “issues” with irritable bowl disease so I had to reconsider my diet. It’s not something I’ve been happy about…

Blight Productions: Milk gives him bathroom issues, he is a little bitter.

Chvad SB: Basically yeah, and the amount of pain I was in daily was close to intolerable. BUT I believe strongly in proper respect for animals, living conditions, diet etc etc. I eat poultry and fish.. no red meat of any kind.

Blight Productions: Chvad says, “The cows are bad”. We must agree, or he will get mad

Ecto: And here I thought I had found someone else who shared my belief in the evil of the dairy industry

Chvad SB: The dairy industry is horribly evil. I agree with you 100% on that. Worse in many ways than the meat industry.

Ecto: Yeah cause the dairy industry relies on the myth that we need calcium to be healthy

Chvad SB: Among a lot of other things. Beef and dairy is not only bad for us to eat but it’s destructive to the environment as well. I am not interested in telling people that they’re bad or wrong for eating milk and dairy. That’s their choice. They should know who and what they are supporting though and what the results of their actions are. Aside from all of that, cows are also.. GIANT MONSTERS! It’s true.

Blight Productions: I hate the industry, but I need my bowl of cereal in the morning

Chvad SB: Use rice milk, milk is bad all the way around really. You’re a bad person.

Ecto: I can’t stand milk myself that shit is horrible! I eat my cereal dry

Blight Productions: Aaaaaahhhhhgggggg

Tim: Haven’t drank milk in years and hasn’t done me any harm

Ecto: I was the only kid in school whose rice crispies didn’t snap crackle pop. And you don’t get the same effect with OJ trust me boys.

Chvad SB: Hee hee hee

Ecto: I think the milk people disapprove of this conversation

Chvad SB: I know I’m a total hypocrite but right now there aren’t really many other options for my ass that worked right. But I support anyone who can be vegan not have their body self-destruct.

Tim: The milkmen under the stairs

Chvad SB: … A new film by Wes Craven

Blight Productions: But what about the cheese?

Ecto: Cheese is filled with some weird addictive narcotic the dairy people refuse to admit exists which explains those weirdoes in Wisconsin

Chvad SB: Cheese is a GIANT MONSTER

Ecto: On to the next question…

Chvad SB: What is the capitol of… THE MOON!?

Ecto: Your cover of Spice Up Your Life is awesome! Actually it’s the only time that song has been good, why cover that song of all things?

Blight Productions: Because it was Chvad’s favorite song when he was a kid. He would sing it in the shower while uncle Louie scrubbed his back

Ecto: Ok remind to bleach that picture out of my brain

Chvad SB: We were asked to participate in a “teen idol” tribute CD. Originally I planned on doing “Hangin’ Tough” by the New Kids on the Block but we were beat to the punch… so… I thought, the Spice Girls… yeah! They rock! History in the making kids… pay attention. Spice Girls…. GIANT MONSTERS… uncle Louie… GIANT MONSTER.

Ecto: Lol, sounds like it! I noticed that there are a lot of remixes on this disc and a lot of different folks working on the mixes including blight, why did you decided to add so many mixes

Chvad SB: I’m a big fan of older vinyl releases… not in terms of it being vinyl but they always came with so much stuff… posters, lyrics, extra 45’s…. tons of bang for the buck so… I like to put a lot of material on the cd’s… the site as well… if you look underneath the cd tray on the cd you’ll find a link with 12 more songs even… and extra artwork. I love Easter eggs and shit, that’s why all the material. Like our site, if someone likes to dig into the bands they like… we have a ton of content. https://www.outside-the-skin.com/tots/YKIAAbonus/ .demo trax, extra remixes.. unreleased stuff…

Ecto: I was talking to a reader the other day that said he didn’t like American industrial cause it wasn’t harsh enough. according to this cat the only industrial that matters is from Europe. what are your thoughts on the scene in the rest of the world?

Chvad SB: interesting

Blight Productions: that makes me sad

Ecto: Yeah me too

Chvad SB: I think it’s dangerous to classify anything based upon geographical location and it’s a rather slanted statement. I like bands from all over the place. US, Europe or otherwise. I love music. Location is irrelevant to me. Scenes are always a tough thing though. I really like to play for everyone. Punk kids, hip hop kids, metal kids, industrial kids, Goth… whatever… so long as they’re enjoying themselves and having a good time together. If you’re reader is convinced there’s no harsh American Industrial then so be it. I’m sure he/she/it misses out on a great deal of cool shit, in music and in life.

Blight Productions: I think there is bound to be something cool no matter where you are, great artists are every where, its just that sometimes they are promotionally retarded, so you may never know they exist unless you dig a little or watch my TV show!!!(plug, plug, plug)www.artorsomethinglikeit.com and www.blightproductions.com (plug, plug, plug)

Ecto: yeah I had a hard time with the idea that US bands aren’t “harsh” enough. harsh is a relative term

Chvad SB: someone told me once we weren’t heavy enough to be included on their industrial comp. I jokingly told him we were contextually heavy… we still weren’t put on the disc. Context means little to people. Most people don’t read the lyrics or listen to the words but for me… the words are always first. That’s what makes bands like DEVO, The Residents, Ministry, Consolidated and Pop Will Eat Itself all great acts… more than just beats and music…. content.

Ecto: you mean it isn’t all about the bling and bitches? Lol p diddy and 50 cent will be crushed!

Chvad SB: HAHAHA!

Blight Productions: what!?

Chvad SB: I missed out on both! Sonofabitch!

Blight Productions: I quit the band…. I was just in it for the chicks anyway, and diamond covered boots

Ecto: when you’re coming to LA?

Chvad SB: LA? Man, I’d LOVE to play the West Coast but we’d need someone to book enough gigs that paid enough to get our broke asses over there.

Ecto: ahhh yes that is always an issue, cause even evil has to eat

Chvad SB: otherwise it’ll have to wait til we move out west… whenever that is…. but if there were an opportunity… we’d do it in a second

Ecto: over the last 3 discs your sound has evolved a lot where do you want to take things from here

Blight Productions: funky..crazy..god like..themed..pretty..soulfully soul less..happy..sad and everything in between. just keepin it real for the people ..you know. I’d like to make video music, not music video but video music.

Ecto: Blight, what’s the difference? What’s the difference between music video and video music?

Blight Productions: I write music with the video, video music is when you compose the music out of video clips and retaining the sound from the actual clips of video to create glitchy types of rhythms.

Chvad SB: Where the music (for t.o.t.s.) is headed is anybody’s guess really. I try to not cover the same ground too much. I try to push the level of production and song writing forward each time we release something. I’d like to shoot writing a CD with a more cohesive theme the next time. I have a lot of ideas… what will end up materializing? I haven’t a clue… lyrics and beats and melodies for a song in most cases are separated by years of their actually inception.

Blight Productions: Word.

Ecto: Sounds cool. Actually what’s really cool is while this may be the longest interview I have ever done it was most definitely one of the most fun! So if you had as much fun reading this crazy shit as I did writing it make sure you get a their new disc “You Knew it All Along” on their web site www.outside-the-skin.com and if you’re on myspace.com ( which who isn’t these days) make sure you add these kids to your friends list you wont be disappointed.