As is the case with most interviews, some material didn’t make it into print for the one I conducted with Godflesh mastermind Justin Broadrick. For the hardcore Godflesh fans out there, here are the outtakes from this feature that ran in last week’s paper.
Godflesh play Neumos tonight, along with Cut Hands, House of Low Culture, and La Fin Absolute du Monde.
What spurs you to make so much music [Broadrick’s past and current projects include Final, God, Ice, Main, Techno Animal, Jesu, Solaris, Sidewinder, Greymachine, White Static Demon]? What would happen if you couldn’t do this?
I live and breathe it, and am fortunate enough to have this as my career or life. It chose me, so to speak. I can only imagine the frustration if I didn't have this, but, it's all I know, since I made music at such an early age. Maybe if this had never chosen me I wouldn't miss it since I wouldn't recognize what it is to express myself in such a way. If it was taken away from me, I cannot truly imagine what that would be like. I'd be very empty.
When did you become a vegan and what were your reasons for doing so?
Ah, it’s a misconception that I am a vegan. I never have been, but somehow it’s been documented that I am! I was a vegetarian for many years in my teens, but this ended in my early 20s. Now, I essentially just strive to eat healthily, I barely even eat any red meat, and same for white meat. My diet is fish, fruit, and vegetable rich. I just wish to eat well and balanced, not at the exclusion of anything that could have a benefit upon my health.
Is it true that you had a phase where you listened to nothing except Cannibal Ox and the Verve?
Haha! I've barely had any phases where I've listened to anything so exclusively or approached listening to music dogmatically, but, I did love the first Can Ox LP a lot, and I did really enjoy the Verve for some time. Both could've been around the same period, and maybe I said something sweeping around that period proclaiming they were the only things I was listening to at that time. I think I was just being melodramatic and a twentysomething, I'd assume, haha!
What’s your take on dubstep and its de-evolution into "brostep"?
Early dubstep was quite amazing, just after the grime explosion, when it sounded like drum and bass at 33 1/3 rpm! I loved it. But it rapidly became ultra-conservative and extremely lifeless. Brostep is not really something I recognize. What I have heard doesn't even sound like the original dubstep. For a start, there's no dub! I am a lover of dub reggae—have been since I was a kid—and these musics (drum ’n’ bass, grime, techno, etc.) absorbed dub and twisted it up, with the dub aspect removed, it sounds very much like conservative, dull techno.
