Orkus: I think that, in Germany, Cinema Strange is not as well known as in America. Please say who you are, how young/old you are (on the cover picture on the album you seem very young!), and who does what in the band.
Lucas: Michael Ribiat plays guitar and is aged 43. Daniel Ribiat plays bass and is 67. I provide the various vocal extravaganzas and have just turned 3 years old. Bonzo von Ecke is 84 and collaborates on live shows and other artistic endeavors. Retch Dempsey is 305 and contributes written material to our international campaign.
Orkus: From where do you come and, if there is a difference, where do you live now?
Daniel: I was born of darkness and shadow. Armageddon has a capitalist and that capitalist is I.
Bonzo: Outside of that, we all live in California. Lucas and I are from the New England region of America, originally.
Retch: And I snuck over from Great Britain.
Orkus: Can you please talk about the important facts in the band history?
Lucas: Well, as a band we discovered a new elementary particle in 1988. Our findings aren't published yet.
Bonzo: In 1991 we matched wits with the infamous Brain-Eating Llamas of Brixton... and won.
Lucas: Next would be the bloody and drawn-out Nishigori conflict, the result of which generated a 500-page Interpol file on the band.
Bonzo: And now, Cinema Strange's first release on Trisol records.
Orkus: I haven't much info on you. Is this your first album for the German market?
Bonzo: There were MP3 songs available to listen to from anywhere on earth, but this is the first traditional label album.
Orkus: Please, try to describe your music, your style, with your own words.
Michael: Our music is the blood that flows through our veins.
Daniel: It's like a mutant erector set of darkly resonant fusion with classical stylings set at the height of post-punk. In short, it's like grunion running, only different.
Retch: Cinema Strange is a collective lunatic. I'm still not sure how noticeable it is in the music- my perspective is skewed- but they have this voracious, unfocussed energy. It manifests itself when they attach doll heads to themselves, or when they run in circles for hours... it's like hearing something unexpectedly sophisticated come out of a hyperactive 5-year-old.
Orkus: Please say something about the lyrics. What are the main themes?
Lucas: Just about every song is a story. There are lyrical ghost stories, tales of horror and astonishment, murder, psychiatry gone wrong, songs about the dilapidated state of American sewers... those sorts of things.
Orkus: Which bands do the members of Cinema Strange like to hear?
Daniel: Amon Tobin.
Michael: Al Martino.
Lucas: Cab Calloway.
Orkus: Do you have musical models?
Michael: Yes, the sonata-allegro form.
Daniel: I don't have models.
Can you say something about the future plans of Cinema Strange?
Lucas: We have some travelling to do, I think.
Bonzo: Perhaps we'll make it to Germany next year...
Retch: ...Sowing the seeds of lust and confusion, fear and consternation.
Orkus: Do the members of Cinema Strange like life? What in human beings don't you like?
Daniel: My life is sehr wunderbar. You know, really top-notch. However, I don't like most other humans, at least in America.
Retch: That's just because he works in retail.
Michael: Life is one of the great mysteries of the universe. It has no simple definition. We can easily recognize most things as either living or non-living. We know a rabbit is alive but a dead rabbit is not.
Orkus: What in your life is important for you?
Bonzo: My stamp collection.
Lucas: For me, it's important that there aren't any terrorists who may have mistaken me for the leader of a rival faction, and are therefore following me in an intimidating fashion.
Orkus: Do you believe in a human future?
Daniel: I heard about that story, but I don't believe it.
Orkus: Do you like animals? If yes, which kind and why?
Daniel: I like grunions. And cats, too. And armadillos, some spiders, most marsupials...
Michael: While man has used many animals, others have been his deadly enemies. The larger animals that once hunted man have been killed or have learned fear, although even today tigers kill many unarmed natives in India and Malaya. But a few rats or squirrels carrying serious disease may kill more people than all the beasts of prey put together.
Bonzo: I like lesser apes.
Lucas: I like animals. I do feel guilty about eating them, however, so in tribute I make a little stuffed animal for each species that I consume carnivorously. I have a little cow, a little sheep, a chicken, an aardvark, a cuttlefish...
Orkus: Last words to our readers?
Daniel: This may sound trite, but we will scare you.
Michael: Could I have a blindfold, please?
Lucas: People from the future are going to look back on us and laugh, won't they?
Retch: Oh, yes. Albeit nervously.
Bonzo: Don't forget to floss, kids!