Edmonton Standard

Local experimental rock band Mana Gunray Serpentine have been working hard and are nearing completion of work on their latest work, a long-awaited third album entitled 3: Carnifex. One of the band's multi-instrumentalist members, the notably attractive young lady Albany Eglibez-Tortolez has taken time out to speak to us.

Your second album II: Aux-Drawn & Quartz received a cult following. How do you hope to follow that up with your third release?

This album pursues a different direction with equal fervour because we cannot stand still. We are sharks. No legs. Well, we do have legs, but we broke them. With hammers. The most important track on Carnifex, the one which we hope to be the song which will propel us to the stars like an enormous expulsion of gas, is entitled “Yawn”

That's a short title by the standards of your previous works. Any reason?

Because it is the longest track it seemed fitting that it should have the shortest title.

There have been rumours of a collaboration between the band and Lobedoctor MC, any truth to this rumour?

Yes there is.

Can you tell me more?

We recently collaborated with Lobedoctor MC.

And?

And earlier this evening I ate a small fish. It was quite tasty.

Okay then. You have quite a strong following here in Alberta.

Probably because we're from here.

That's what I meant.

Okay then.

What's taken you so long to get this new album out?

Only fools are enslaved by time and space. It took very little time. It's already out. We never recorded it. Who are you? What's the difference? The reason it took so long is that we spent a lot of time recording it. And not recording it. And those two things add up pretty quickly. Time makes fools of us all. You know, it turns out that even if you had a time machine, you could only go back to the time that you built the time machine, because the time machine would have to connect to something. Time flies when you're having fun. What was the question?

Why has it taken so long between albums?

Because it did.

I'm sensing hostility.

I'm not.

A lot has been said about your theatrical live performances, particularly this past summer's US tour where you turned out the house lights and played with lights on your faces and bodies. What influence are bands like the Residents and Penis Colony on you?

We like those bands. What we do live is more to do with surrealist theatre than traditional rock music. Rock music is boring. Rock shows are boring. If you listen to rock music you're bored. Boredom is bad. We prefer confusion. Confusion precipitates thought. In reference to the Regarding You Tour this summer, we aimed to present an interplay of light and dark, and also hopefully cause permanent visual damage as well as our usual hearing damage.

Increasingly your music has moved away from its early foundations, sometimes toward more conventional formats. Will we see a Mana Gunray Serpentine pop record?

No. We don't know what a pop record is. Carnifex features spoken word, like a kind of monotonous retarded version of rap. Fifty Cent fans might like that. But otherwise I expect if you don't get what we've already done, you're probably not going to get this one. At one point there's an acoustic guitar. Being cut into by a circular saw. For about ten minutes.

You use a lot of strange instruments and sound sources in your music. What made you decide to do this instead of playing in a standard rock format?

We don't know what a standard rock format is. We have guitars, and drums, and sometimes we sing. We just like lots of other things too. We like movie soundtracks. We like art installations. We like fridges, televisions, printers, wind chimes, birds. If it makes a sound and it inspires us to make a sound, that's good. On Aux-Drawn & Quartz we used lots of clocks and rhythmic sounds to suggest the implications of time. On Carnifex, we have used cutting, blades, knives, saws, zippers. Though you probably won't be able to identify them as such.

What is Carnifex all about anyway?

Carnifex is Latin for executioner. So Carnifex is about judgement, justice, murder, cutting, extraction, amputation, invasion, violation and above all, rape.

Rape?

Yes please.

There seems to be a lyrical fixation with rape across all your releases.

That you noticed that says more about you than it does about us.

What is it like being a woman in a band with four men?

We are gender-unspecific. I have a vagina, and they all have penises. Different character of voice perhaps. Menstruation is a factor. Otherwise, it doesn't really come up.

What is it like being signed to Mongolbord Surfingturd?

Conflict of interest. Quentin runs the label with his wife.

When is the album due out?

Ask the label.

Thank you for your time.

Hey, no problem. P.S. Don't forget about rape.

Edited by user 16 December 2009 08:37:29(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified