Aversionline Interview Interview by Joselito, Answered by Andrew, Done June 9, 2004 thru email Hello, Andrew! How are you now? Tell us what�s new with AVERSIONLINE. Hey, Joselito. I�m not doing so bad. As for what�s new with AVERSIONLINE, not much! I�m actually preparing to update the site with the June 2004 issue sometime within the next week or two, actually. I just need to wrap up a few more reviews and get the interviews laid out. Is this your first time having an online webzine, or have you also made a print zine (fanzine) before? This is my first time. I never did a print zine and AVERSIONLINE is my first webzine, which launched way back on January 1, 2000. Mostly what bands and labels are you featuring in your webzine? I guess mostly metal and hardcore/punk bands, with occasional features on emo/indie rock and experimental noise as well. I cover all genres of extreme/underground music, but since I listen mainly to metal and hardcore those are the two genres that seem to get the most coverage. In your �Features� section you can find more about a band�s review, there�s also an interview, etc. What is this, a band exposure section? And is it your personal choice to feature the bands in this section or is any kind of band welcome to be featured if they just contact you? It�s my personal choice, yes. Sometimes bands will request to be featured here, but usually I turn them down because it�s only the bands that really impress me a lot that I decide to place into this section to give them a bit more attention from the readers of the site. Also you have a section called �Spotlight� which I think is the same as the �Features� section, but the difference is that you feature here labels and record companies. Could you tell us also more about this, and also is it the record label owners requesting to be featured in your webzine or is this your personal choice as to what labels you like also? As you said, it�s basically the exact same thing as the �Features� section, but covering record labels instead of bands. It�s also my personal choice here. I rarely get labels asking to be featured in the �Spotlight� section, though. So I just ask labels when I feel that they�ve consistently done a good job with their releases. It�s also sort of rare to see interviews with people who run record labels, so I think that�s something interesting and a little different to add to the site for people to check out. What is the difference between the �Demographic� section and your �Reviews� section? They look the same because they both have reviews, or is there something I didn�t see that makes them different from one another? Actually, the �Demographic� section is also basically the same thing as �Features�, but those are features on unsigned bands who only have demos out. The �Imprint� section is closer to the �Spotlight� as the �Imprint� area is features on/interviews with zine editors, and then there�s the �Internescene� section that collects reviews and interviews regarding certain scenes outside the US that I feel are very strong and deserving of more attention. So far I�ve only done features in that area on Brazil and Estonia, and I am currently working on one for Finland, and then hopefully Japan. Another section that I found is the �Vault� which, if I�m not mistaken, looks the same also with the �Features� section? Could you tell us more about this compared to the �Features� section? The �Vault� area is a little different as that spot focuses on bands that are no longer around � highlighting older and often out of print records that I totally love and think other people should check out. I also reprint old interviews with the bands in this section. I haven�t updated it in quite awhile because I�ve sort of run out of older interviews to reprint, but I know a lot of people have found out about cool and underrated bands like Damn the Machine and Xentrix in that section of the website, so I hope to continue with the �Vault� in the future. Your �Interrogation� section is your interviews section, right? And it looks like you�ve got a huge number of contributors that make interviews for this section. How do they become contributors, or are they your regular staff who also work with AVERSIONLINE? Right, that�s basically the section for interviews. However, there are no contributors other than me. Everything that you see on the site is written by me � every feature, every interview, every review, etc. The only time anyone else has ever contributed was when I published the Navicon Torture Technologies interview by Richard Stevenson (July 2002). It was intended for the 6th issue of his own zine, Spectrum, which I was a big fan of, but he quit his zine and didn�t want the interview to go to waste. It was an awesome interview so I ran it on my site so that people could check it out. Another interesting part of your webzine is your �Contest� section, which as of now I�ve never yet received any confirmation from AVERSIONLINE that I�ve won? Ha! Well, when did you start putting this section of your webzine together and how many people have already been lucky enough to get a chance to win in this section? I don�t remember when I started that section. It was several years ago. I�ve run tons of contests over the years so I would guess that 75 � 100 people have had a chance to win something since that time. Who knows for sure!? I don�t keep track, ha! As long as people are still willing to send me stuff to give away the contests will keep on running... Hmmm� it�s a little bit confusing. Could you please define for us in short the following: 1. Features � This is a section for featured bands that contains a highlighted record review, mp3/real audio samples, and an interview. It�s used to draw more attention to bands that have really impressed me. 2. Spotlight � This is for highlighting record labels and contains a collection of reviews of the label�s material, mp3/real audio samples from a few releases, and an interview with the label owner. 3. Demographic � This is like the �Features� section but for unsigned bands who have only released demos. It contains a highlighted demo review, mp3/real audio samples, and an interview. It�s used to get people to check out new bands that aren�t getting enough attention. 4. Internescene � This is sort of like a scene report, except it�s not an article. It contains reviews of a bunch of bands from the chosen country, mp3/real audio samples of a few strong releases, and interviews with some of the most notable bands from the scene being covered. 5. Vault � This is where I reprint old band interviews and offer mp3/real audio samples from awesome older releases of bands that have broken up, like Amebix, Damn the Machine, Xentrix, etc. 6. Imprint � This is a featured area for zines, so I�ll review the zines and interview the zine editors, which a lot of people don�t do. I like interviewing other zine editors, it�s pretty interesting. 7. Interrogation � This is just what I call the interviews section. It contains tons of interviews with all sorts of bands. I remember that the way to win one of these contests is to just drop you an email with a line like, �Yes, I would like to have this stuff in your contest section,� or something like that begging the price. Hmmm� right? Well, what is your basis for choosing people who deserve to win your contests? I choose them all at random. On rare occasion there will be something specific like a trivia question that has to be answered correctly, but the actual winners are always chosen at random in the end. That�s the only way to be fair. Are you also the one who shoulders the postage expenses when you�re sending the prizes to the people who win your contests? Or do you ask for some extra cash from the so-called �lucky guy� who wins to cover the postage expenses? No, no. The winner never has to pay for anything. I pay for the postage costs, even if it�s going overseas. Sometimes the labels themselves send out the prizes, but usually it�s me sending everything and I would never ask someone to pay for a prize! That would be a really shitty thing to do! Ha, I definitely always pay for all of the postage. Are you the one who builds your website or do you hire any web designer expert? If you are, what applications are you using and how many times do you update your webzine? Yeah, I�m the one who does the site design and everything. The site looks like crap but it�s pretty easy to read and stuff, I guess. I�d like to redesign it with a more appealing look, but it�s such a large site now that I don�t have the time to put everything on hold to take the time to fix the look. Maybe this winter I�ll be able to find the time to finally do that. You never know! As for updating the site, I try to add a new issue every month but since I have a full-time job sometimes I have to wait and update every other month instead. It all depends. In almost five years I don�t think I�ve ever gone more than two months without updating the site, though! Do you ignore people who are begging you to review their stuff and asking for an interview if they are not the type of band/label for your webzine? How do you handle this kind of situation? I try to never ignore anyone. If someone emails me asking for a review or interview and I think their band is not right for my site, or if I simply don�t like the music, I�ll openly tell them that. I see no reason to lie or ignore them. I just tell them, �Hey, sorry, that�s not really my thing, but thanks for getting in touch.� Sometimes they still want a review so as long as it�s music that fits within the styles I cover I�ll review it, but usually I tell them to just save their money and resources since I�m not really into what they�re doing. Do you have any plans to make AVERSIONLINE into a print zine? No. I�d love to do that but I don�t have the time or money to bother. With my job taking up so many hours, and working on the website taking up so much of my free time, there�s no way I�d be able to make it into a print zine. What do we call AVERSIONLINE, a political webzine or a music webzine? Why? A music webzine. There�s nothing political about it at all. I have my own political opinions and I listen to a lot of political hardcore/punk bands, but I�m not the kind of person to write articles or columns or any of that stuff in a zine. That�s just not my style. I care about music first and foremost. Do you have your own band? What about a label? I have an experimental noise band called Never Presence Forever that I�ve been doing since 1998. I ran my own label for a short time in the late-90�s, but now I�m involved in a local experimental noise collective record label called 804noise, and we�re putting out records by artists in our general area. Hopefully it will continue to grow. I play guitar and bass as well and was in a thrash metal band for a short time in the late-90�s, but I�m less interested in being in �traditional� bands because I hate playing shows. It�s interesting to hear that you have a noise band. I�m a fan of some noise artists, too. If you don�t mind, could you please tell us some short information about your noise band Never Presence Forever? And also about your noise label? How many releases have you done and what noise artists do you have? Never Presence Forever is pretty much a dark ambient/death industrial project. As I mentioned I�ve been doing that since 1998. I�m the only member. You can check out more information at the website: http://www.holyterror.com/neverpresenceforever/. The label, it�s not my label, it�s actually a collective label called 804noise, run by a group of people, and I happen to be one of them. It�s limited to experimental artists here in Richmond, VA where I live. So far the only releases are the "804noise" compilation CD and the Harm Stryker/To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie split 7�. One of the next scheduled releases is a Never Presence Forever/Monolith Zero split CD. One of the other artists we plan to work with is Birds in the Meadow, and the comp also features a lot of others. You can check out the tracklist and some mp3�s at http://www.804noise.org. What do you achieve or obtain through doing your webzine? Do you think being a webzine editor is a time-consuming thing for your personal life/activities? I get to find out about shitloads of awesome music that I�d never hear if I didn�t do the zine, and then in turn I get to expose other people to all of this music through the website. And yes, being a zine editor, for me, takes up an immense amount of time. It�s the most time-consuming thing I do with my life outside of my full-time job. I have a common question here that I always ask to all the bands and zine editors I interview, �What do you know about the Philippines?� But before that, tell us also if you have a unique, common question you ask for your webzine except those questions about band history, influences, members, etc.? Nope. I don�t have any common questions that I ask like that, sorry! And I don�t really know much about the Philippines, sadly! I�ve checked out your site a lot in the past and read about some of the bands over there but I�ve barely heard anything from the Philippines. I�d love to hear more of that music because I�m a lot more interested in bands from other countries than I am about what�s going on in America. American bands are overrated and have an easier time of it than international acts do. It�s a lot harder to find out about bands and labels from places like the Philippines than it is to find out about American or European bands and stuff like that. In fact I think the Philippines is in one of those locations that has a much, much harder time than most other scenes, wouldn�t you agree? I�m not sure I could name more than one or two bands from the Philippines at all, which is very unfortunate! Okay, I think that�s all for now. Thanks� Are there any last words you would like to say? Thanks so much for the interview, I definitely appreciate it! If anyone is interested in checking out the website it�s at http://www.aversionline.com and hopefully everyone can find at least a little something to enjoy there. Also, if anyone likes experimental noise music, I�ll be starting up a second online magazine this summer called FALL || OF || BECAUSE at http://www.fallofbecause.net just for those genres, so check that out as well. And if there are any bands, labels, or zines in the Philippines that I should check out, please contact me and let me know at [email protected]. Thanks again, Joselito, and keep spreading the word about the Philippines and other obscure underground scenes in NoiseAttack! AVERSIONLINE - extreme music magazine P.O. Box 5084, Richmond, VA 23220, USA
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