 Rank: Advanced Member
Groups: Moderators, Registered Joined: 18/05/2009(UTC) Posts: 13,540   Thanks: 4336 times
Was thanked: 8853 time(s) in 2785 post(s)
|
  “This year has brought an exciting influx of rock and alternative music, from the future superstars to the re-emerge of heroes from days gone by and it’s been a blast! 2014 looks even more promising as the newbie’s look to build upon their growing reputation even further and the established stars hope to lead the way once again. Not a lot surprises us in the music industry, but there is one act that emerged as a booze-fuelled idea, a way of channelling rebellion and the destructive and addictive nature of rock n roll into the new year with style and sexiness. Yes, this is ‘Mutual Addiction’, the brain-child of Alex Simms and Julia Volkova.
Alex Simms has made some serious noises since breaking into the music industry mid-way through the year, his debut album 'Enigma' became a very popular record and featured a string of successful hit singles and ever-growing hordes of screaming young girls at concerts, he made himself known in an industry where it's easy to be drowned out by the perfectly presented sounds of mainstream pop music, but Alex Simms seems to have the ability and the fuel to make himself a big deal in the years to come!
Julia Volkova on the other hand, dominated overwhelmingly, her two albums sit comfortably in the echelon of the top albums of the past few years, 'All You Want To Know About Me' sits perched at the very top in terms of album sales of the last few years and her reputation goes far beyond rock music, her appearance can reduce adolescent boys to quivering nervous wrecks and her live show is a lesson in seduction. Put the two together if you want, it looks like a partnership that can't fail.
Kerrang! Magazine are the first to get the two together for a conversation about their plans for the new year, just don’t call them a dream-team!”You both first met earlier in the summer when you recorded a song together, what were your first impressions of each other?Alex: “I was aware of Julia’s work before we met. But I was struck by the presence that she had when I first met her, it was crazy, a little intimidating at first! She walks into the recording booth, big black sunglasses on, leather shorts and boots, I think she was wearing a Sex Pistols T-Shirt and she just had this almost mythical aura about her. She has a don’t give a f*ck attitude about her, I was just thinking this chick is so f*cking cool. She walks into the booth and shakes my hand, she says “So you want me on one of your songs?”, I said yeah and she said “convince me then”, so I took her out for some drinks and I guess I managed to convince her.”Julia: “You’re still in the process of convincing me Alex, LOL. I mean, yeah we had a short meeting around last summer, but I was so busy with my album and so did him, so we recorded ‘Vultures’ and then we part ways to tour and follow our schedules. But I admit Alex is not a typical guy, or a typical singer that you record a duet, you just have to experience with him the song you’re going to record.”How did the opportunity to record a full album together begin?Alex: “When we recorded ‘We Are Like Vultures’ together, it was obvious to me that our voices and styles worked really well together. We both went our separate ways after we worked together at first, I happened to meet up with her again while I was visiting the ‘Reckless Infinity Tour’ and we hung out, had drinks and wrote a song together, we spent a couple of days with each other and ended up writing four or five more songs together. We just thought, why not record these and put out an album together.”Julia: “I actually think that when we wrote ‘Bad Influence’ and forgive me for giving up on a song title, but damn that song brought to me that fire we sick as musicians when we’re trying to be creative. I’ll thank Alex for that, I have to say I was blocked, I didn’t know what direction to follow after ‘Haunted’ but that song showed me what was need to be done and that makes the story and after that other songs were just appearing out of nowhere when we had like seven songs written we decided to rent a studio and record them, now here we are.”Are there any long-term plans with ‘Mutual Addiction’?Alex: “We’ll be releasing our debut album together around January, we’ll put out a couple of singles and we’ll announce a few tour dates. We’ll see how everything goes and if it goes well then we’ll end up doing a full-scale tour together, I think the thought of touring and performing together is what made the project sound more appealing. We’re both solo artists and you can start to go a little crazy sometimes when you’re on the road alone. I think we envision the tour to be very eventful, we talked about what we’d like to achieve with this project and we both basically said “let’s have fun with it”, ya know? No pressure, let’s just be reckless and wild and enjoy it”Julia: “The point here is exactly what Alex just told, let the river follow its course and let things happen as they appear. Future plans right now, are the album and a couple of concerts, if I did not feel like punching Alex out of the stage… (Evil look to Alex) we’ll manage to go on a world tour. LOL”Both of you belong to different record labels, was it hard for you to convince the respective executives of those labels to allow you to work on a side project like this one?Julia: ”From Chaos Records side, it was kind of complicated to explain that I would take some time off my own solo career, to adventure myself into a side project with another musician from the point of view that I renewed my contract this year and they expected me to release another album next year. So we did had to negotiate some terms, but by the time we got some songs done, and the project took a full form, the moods were changed and now there’s nothing about love looks and future dollar signs over us. LOL”Alex: “My label knows nothing of this project … let’s hope this interview doesn’t appear in their mail. Nah, the truth is that my label are fine with this, in fact the guys over there, Amy in particular really sort of encouraged this project, simply because she’s got a passion for music and rock music in particular. I feel lucky to be at a label that gives me complete creative control, essentially I know that wherever my career goes, it’s down to the decisions that I make and I think that’s important. But ‘Songs to Love and Die By’ seem to encourage that, they’re very supportive.”So why did you choose the name ‘Mutual Addiction?Alex: “We could have just called it ‘Alex and Julia’, but we decided that it would be better to actually have a name that represents the project, it would give the feeling that this is a band rather than a duet type of thing. I mean we’re recording with a backing band and we’ll be touring with them too, so there is a band feeling about it. Even though primarily it’s myself and Julia’s vision. The name ‘Mutual Addiction’ seemed appropriate, it best describes the material that we’ve written and we both have our vices and are very similar in that sense.”Julia: “He’s just as addicted as I am when it comes to rock music. Don’t think we’re like drug addicts or anything like that, because of the content of the songs, when we got in the studio, it was really hard work man! So it’s a mutual addiction to rock music!”How would you describe the overall sound and feeling of the songs that you’ve both written so far?Alex: “The songs have came very naturally to us, the themes are along the lines of the ‘Sex, Drugs & Rock N’ Roll’ attitude. They’re songs about again recklessness, destruction, addiction and passion. There are some songs that are quite bold and straight to the point. Some of the lyrics are out there and are quite descriptive. But I think that’s what makes this project so exciting for us both, it does feel like a real call-back to those classic rock attitudes and I think Julia has certainly helped me let loose a little more as a songwriter."Julia: “The best thing about this project musically to me was that I got the opportunity to still bring my tastes to it and so did Alex too and the songs still sounded coherent and hardcore. We have some folk influences but also we have trashy punk guitars and everything that our fans are usual to listen from us. I’ve been in a band before but I must say that I never felt that I could enjoy the ‘band’ process of creating music, and I did with this project. I’m really happy and impressed of how much our musical influences worked together.”How much personal did you guys went through on the lyrics of the songs you did together?Julia: “There are a few personal lines on some songs, but some of them just went over our own boundaries, so there are some overacting situations described on them. But in a way they all seem pretty personal to me. I’ve been living this rock and roll life for over two years now and I have experienced some craziness through these years. I don’t know. Sometimes I like to think that’s not about Julia Volkova but some sort of Janis Joplin alter –ego I created to write those lines with Alex. Some of them sound extremely dark and painful, I’m not like that, the ‘painful and the darkness, although I feel like that sometimes.”Alex: “For me, it’s definitely got a lot of personal lyrics in the songs. There’s a lot of passion in the words that we’ve written, there’s a sexual tension throughout the record and that sort of dominates the record. I see the album as an album centred around dysfunctional love and destructive romance, I’ve not been blessed to have been in what you’d call a normal relationship, so a lot of this album is quite personal, at least to me anyway”I know how outspoken both of you are, when it comes to your personal beliefs and lives, seeing you together like this and thinking about “we are like vultures”, are you guys dating?Julia: (Julia ironically look to Alex), well… we’re musically connected, that doesn’t mean we’re dating. I mean we’re not dating. LOL. Alex is not my type. (Julia laughs hysterically)Alex: (Laughs) “Oh please, I’ve got better offers, ya know? … Nah, the truth is that we work quite well together, I think we bring out a lot of creativity within each other and we generally have a good friendship, there’s time when we’ve gotten annoyed at each other and we’ve fallen out, but that’s just part of the charm, it helps drive the creativity that little bit further and I think that has become evident in the songs that we’ve written together.”But how far can you be musically connected?Julia: As far as we want I guess. You don’t have any idea of what is like finding someone who can complete your creativity in a level like Alex did with me. It’s different than being dating, you know, it’s a daily understanding. We’re still finishing the record and each time we’re in the studio, it’s like discovering some deepest feeling from one another. I only have felt it when I was starting my career back in Brazil with Magie and Lilly, and I did not necessarily date them. But Alex is charming, that’s all I’m saying. (Julia likes the confusing face the interviewer is making)Alex: “Sometimes there’s just that one person that can get more out of you than you thought was possible, you can be inspired by music, film, stories. You can be inspired by an image, a fading summer or a moment of absolute vulnerability. But a person can inspire you more than anything, it’s just a stroke of luck that we both have such an influence on each other’s creativity at the moment, it’s very much the same for me. I think there’s an attitude and power that Julia exudes that makes me write songs that I wouldn’t ordinarily write. She’s beautifully flawed.”Fine, enough talking about relationships, let’s talk about fans reaction. How is that going so far? Are you guys feeling your fans connect as you’re doing together?Julia: Most of my fans enjoyed our performance on the Reckless Infinity Tour, I think that was our only experience as seeing our fans connecting. We haven’t released a single yet, so it’s hard to determine if we’re be followed by our own fan bases or we’ll be followed by a brand new fan base, or we’ll be hated for the rest of our lives. (Julia gives a terrifying look to Alex)Alex: “Yeah, I was happy with the reaction that we received when we performed together, the crowd went nuts and I definitely hope that can continue. We haven’t released anything yet, but there’s people out there that are hoping to hear something soon. Of course they’ve heard ‘We Are Like Vultures’ from my album and that’s had a positive reaction. It’s difficult to tell, some people will want us to stick to doing our solo thing and some people will really embrace this collaboration. (Alex nods in agreement) We could definitely become hated, it’s a very real possibility.”Julia, you’re very known by the visual aspects of your music like your videos and your stage shows, will you keep that in this project?Julia: I LOVE making videos, hopefully Alex will be behind a camera with me and we’ll deliver our fans some nasty, dirty visual personification of our music. I can’t tell you that yet! For our performances, we’re thinking about an old school rock look, but for a music video, perhaps I’ll shoot a sadomasochist sex scene with Alex. (Julia dirty laughs)Alex: “I’ve not actually delved into that aspect of my music yet. I’ve always been a fan of the art of certain music videos but I’ve avoided creating any so far. I think my thoughts on this is that, as a fan, when you listen to a song, you have the capabilities to create your own music video to that song in your mind, once I make a music video to one of my songs, then that may remove that aspect. I think if we are to make any music videos to our songs then they would have to be quite powerful and extreme visuals, there’s no point doing things half-assed. The live shows will be very much centred around passion and energy, that is a given. The world is definitely waiting for an Alex and Julia sex scene (Laughs).”Can you guys gibe up a name for the album or the single before we end the interview?Julia: “I don’t wanna ruin the surprise, but the fuck with surprises, I’m not good on keeping secrets, the first single was not choosen yet! But the album will be called… tah dah (Julia looks to Alex to see if he’ll approve her attempt of revealing the name of the album)Alex: (Shakes his head disapprovingly) “Don’t tell them! It’s all about the chase, Julia. You gotta get them all excited first, get some anticipation going and just when they think they can’t take it anymore, that’s when you pounce with the big reveal. (laughs)” |
