GODFLESH: Interview with Justin Broadrick

Thirteen years have gone since Godflesh had released their last record “Hymns”, and for a long time it looked like industrial metal veteran Justin Broadrick would never record with his most influential metal outfit again. However, Godflesh has now returned with a new EP entitled “Decline & Fall” and to celebrate the occasion Against Magazine had a chat with Justin Broadrick about all things concerning the new EP, Godflesh’s next full length album, the future of Jesu and even his participation on Napalm Death’s first record, “Scum”.

Photo by VB

So, Godflesh is now officially back with the “Decline and Fall” EP, which is your first batch of original songs in 13 years, and you’ve done a series of shows where you reactivated the project back in 2010, but I think you weren’t that decided to do originals again back then. So what led you to write and record again after all this time?
I think… when we reformed, I was very excited, as we both were, to play the music that we created so many years ago, since we hadn’t performed this material in so long, but I think ultimately probably both of us, were more excited by new material, or at least the concept of new material. I wasn’t right in when we first reformed for Godflesh, but I had ideas. Ultimately the reformation was actually more about wanting to make new records than just play performances where we just play all material, you know. We never had any wish or did I have any wish for us to exist and reform and just play all material. It’s been great to do that, and initially that was our intention, but the drive really was about reforming and making new music, and that’s more exciting to me than anything, having the rebirth of the band and making records again. I’m glad we split up, because we can make good records again! (laughs)

Going back a little bit to when Godflesh split up after 2001′s “Hymns” What made you put the band on hold? Was this due to the desire to explore other projects such as Jesu or just because you thought that time wasn’t probably right to keep delivering Godflesh music to the world?
Yeah, I mean, it was a combination of things, you know? At that time, the other half of Godflesh, Ben, he didn’t want to tour anymore, his life had changed at the time, and he didn’t really wish to tour with the band anymore, but after we just made “Hymns” obviously we needed to do some touring, So Ben left, and basically Paul Raven, the bass player from Killing Joke and Prong, who unfortunately isn’t with us anymore, he’s dead, he joined, he replaced Ben, and we had Ted Parsons on drums at the same time. I think Godflesh had not become Godflesh basically. Without Ben Green it wasn’t really Godflesh anymore and I think Godflesh needed to finish there and then because it somewhat lost its identity you know? I feel personally we’d lost our way for the last two or three albums, and a break was a brilliant idea, we needed to get back to what we were. I think that the band existed and done enough and achieved enough within the time that it existed. As soon as I started to question the identity of the band, like any artist I think…if they start to question what the band is, it’s probably time to finish the project or at least put it on hold and explore other things until they refocus again, or do not ever revisit if you don’t feel you can ever justify or validate why. So, ultimately, the break was a fantastic thing, I wasn’t even sure we’d ever do it again. Maybe the first four or five years of Godflesh not existing I think we’d probably both considered that it would never happen again, but I couldn’t be any more happy that it has, and I equally couldn’t be happier that we split, you know, be finished.

Yeah, it ended up being good, you know? You’re revitalized.
Yeah, exactly, it’s literally a rebirth, it’s feels like a new band again. It feels refreshing. Who knows how long it will go on again, but it feels really exciting now, I really love the new material and it feels like it’s what we should have done. We would have never made this material if we hadn’t finished the band, so I’m really proud of this EP and I’m even more proud of the new LP, the new LP is even better.

The new LP, right! “Decline & Fall” ends up being a sort of teaser for the new Godflesh album, which is called “A World Lit Only By Fire”. When is that album coming out? What can we expect from it?
It’s released at the end of September this year, and it’s even more direct than the EP. The “Decline & Fall” EP…I’m very proud of the EP, it’s very dynamic, you know? Every face of Godflesh is contained in the EP. The album is a continuation or an extension of the EP, but I think it’s much more direct. I think the EP is maybe what people would hope for from Godflesh and the LP is beyond what people would hope for, it’s beyond expectations. I think it’s even more direct, even more hardcore Godflesh than the EP. It’s very aggressive, brutal, minimalist…a reduction of Godflesh. I think it’s very similar to the first three records.

Well, that’s excellent man, we’re all looking forward to hear it then!
Yeah, I hope so. Haha!


Going a little back to “Decline & Fall”, how did the recording go for the EP and how do you compare the way you record now to the way you used to do things in the end of the ’80s and early ’90s in terms of how technology helped you?
I mean, Godflesh was always technologically informed, you know? We’ve always been, even when we first formed in 1988. We were using a drum machine, so we were always excited by technology, and I think Godflesh evoluted as the music technology. So, it was always a voyage of discovery for me. What’s interesting now is we’re using old school technology and very very contemporary computer technology as well, but the recording process is still very organic. But it just makes things more accessible, it makes things slightly easier. Ultimately, we’re recording like we did, but without having to use tape anymore. It just accelerates the process, you know, it makes the process a little less painful, and we can be more focused and concentrated on making the music. I think that’s a great thing. It also means that production can be even bigger, which is something I’m really enjoying. I think the new Godflesh record sounds big, we sound even bigger than we probably ever sounded, and that is thanks to technological advancements, and the maturity of myself, in how I’ve produced them, I’ve learned so much. Godflesh, when we first initiated the project, we were still learning very much about the art of production, and we always essentially have pretty much produced ourselves, because we have a very clear idea of what we want, a fairly clear idea of the finished product, and that’s even more so now, you know? I feel very mature as a producer now, so much so that I can make decisions where I’m not just experimenting, where I can actually execute a vision with some sense of maturity and being able to follow through a concept and see it through to the end without self-doubt. I love the way that the bridge of technology and the organic side of what we do is even easier to cross now, it’s much easier for us.

So, when you talked a bit back about those first records, which were the debut “Godflesh” (the EP) and “Streetcleaner”, those I think were displays of rebellion against your own surroundings and the panorama of the ’90s society where you lived. So, after all these years, what’s your source of inspiration? Do you still draw that kind of inspiration from what surrounds you in our current society?
Yeah, I mean, I don’t live in the same environments that I was raised in, I live in a very tranquil, very pastoral setting now with very few human beings, very isolated, trees all around me, woods, mountains, sea, which is completely intentional. I needed to get away from the throng of humanity, you know? (laughs) And I’m very happy in my surroundings. But it’s not where I was raised in, like most people are aware of, who listen to Godflesh or know my music, as you’ve just said. I felt I was… it had been a battle against my environment and against myself, you know, somewhat as well, and really, for me, being brought up and raised in that environment is indelible, it’s something I’ve never been able to shake off. It is me essentially. So the fight goes on, It has never ended. There is no end to what I experienced as a child and as I was growing up, these feelings remained essentially. All I’ve done is just isolate myself as I got older and there is no change. Music for me isn’t even cathartic because that would suggest or say that these feelings are relinquished or can be absorbed through music, which is not how I view it really, it’s more a vehicle of expression, and essentially it goes on, the fight, and I’m sure it will when I’m even older, you know? I’m still exasperated by my own frustrations and my own responses, and the environment, it’s like I said, I can never shake off what I was exposed to as a kid you know, as a child and as I grew up, both the hostile environment I was raised in and so on. These things, they never end, essentially.

Godflesh are considered to be a huge influence in the Industrial Metal genre, and I think if it weren’t for you, probably bands like Fear Factory wouldn’t have existed, or at least they wouldn’t have that kind of style they have. After so many years, what are the sounds or influences or bands that drive you, that you say that have an impact in your songs?
I mean, essentially, without sounding arrogant, all the new Godflesh material is inspired by what we were, not to suggest that other music has had an impact, but essentially I think the blueprint that Godflesh created, it feels quite endless. I think it is the sound that never finished. Even if the band finished, the source is the same. When I was writing all this new Godflesh material, essentially the inspiration was our back catalog. Not that I was sitting there listening to it, but what inspired us was playing the old material live. What it made me realize was it made me refocus what drove me originally to make this music, and it made me want to listen again to what inspired Godflesh, and a lot of this stuff that inspired Godflesh, it’s again a constant source of inspiration. So much music inspired Godflesh and those old records by these bands for me are still as valid now as they were when I was listening to them in the ’80s, you know what I mean? The early Swans records, the early Killing Joke records, early Black Sabbath records, Celtic Frost, early Discharge, Throbbing Gristle, Whitehouse, Hellhammer, even stuff that was at the time, like Obituary, everything from Power Electronics to Industrial to Death Metal, to Crass, Run DMC, Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, everything from old school Hip Hop. You know…all these things, it’s this huge melting pot of sound, and we’ve put that together to make this really quite singular brutal sound, and for me it’s the same sources of inspiration and now our own records are inspiration.

Talking about your 26-year-old career, since you’ve started the band. Would you change something or would you always have treaded the same path if you had the chance to go back?
I wouldn’t change anything, nothing whatsoever. I mean I’ve got no regrets with anything I’ve done, really. I’m very lucky to have had quite a rich career of creativity and music and I’m very lucky to have made music in a period when music was so important to people, which basically has given me a very lucky career, you know? I think actually I’ve been making music now for probably 32 years? And the first record I made was when I was 17, with Napalm Death…

“Scum”
“Scum”, yes, exactly…God, I’m 45 this year, so I think it’s even longer than 20, I think I’ve been making records something like, what is that, 29 years or something? So yeah, and it feels like I’ve only been doing it five years, you know. (laughs) It feels new to me, I still feel like I’m in my twenties, making music, you know? And it still feels fresh and I still feel like I’m learning, and I feel like I’ve got so much more to give, so much more to learn, and there’s so much music in me.

Let’s just hope you keep going for another 29 years then!
Yeah, I hope so too. (laughs), and stay alive that long! (laughs)

You’ve brought up Napalm Death’s “Scum”, your first official recording. There was a remaster that came out in 2012; looking back, do you feel proud of what that album has achieved over the years? I heard the other day that Mick Harris said it still sells pretty well nowadays, which is incredible.
Yeah, yeah, it still sounds great. I mean, it’s funny because it was a record that was made without any ambition, you know? We were just three very young teenagers inspired by an awful lot of music that just happened to make some hybrid. We made a combination of our influences that we didn’t feel at that time anyone else was really truly doing, but it’s just happy accidents, really. It really was. Kids making happy accidents! So again, I wouldn’t change anything, you know, I mean… Amazing, amazing, very lucky to be a part of that record really. I think the only thing I regret is that the record is still owned by Earache Records, you know (laughs). Same with the Godflesh catalog. I wish I could own this music myself, and I wish I hadn’t signed the rights over to a label when I was so young that I didn’t know any better.

Yeah, I understand. Other times.
Yeah, that’s right.

It still holds on, I was with that album on my cellphone for weeks listening to you, Mick and Nik Bullen. It’s still amazing, it stills stands the test of time.
It’s surprising, isn’t it really?

Yeah, it’s not about the production, it’s really about the music in itself, the anger, the rawness. You guys really did something new back then.
Yeah, the energy, the combination of influences…Somehow, it was…we hit something original.

Totally. You have two bands that influenced various generations.
Very, very lucky. Somehow I feel lucky to have been a part of music that has had such an impact on music generally, you know?

So, moving on, your other project, Jesu, is kind of on hold right now, so the thing is: after the next Godflesh record, do you think it’s going to be the last Godflesh record or do you have plans to keep both bands active for the near future?
Oh, both bands are active now! I mean, Jesu released their new album last year, and the new Godflesh is this year, so we’ll probably find out that the next 2015 will probably be a new Jesu and so on. (laughs) Each year will be a record from one of the next projects, that’s what I imagine anyway, because both are active simultaneously. At the moment I’m doing Godflesh shows, and then in three weeks I’ll go to Japan with Jesu, and then throughout the summer we’ll do some festivals with Jesu, and then more shows for Godflesh towards the end of the year, and then the new album comes out… So yeah, both are entirely active, and that’s how I’d like to keep it, I want both to be completely active, I love both projects and I love doing both projects, and both are quite opposite now, which is great as well.

Probably with the fact that you reactivated Godflesh, now both projects might influence each other, you know?
It’s strange, because it’s almost the opposite. It’s like Jesu can go further, even become more musical, and Godflesh can become even more brutal. So there’s not gonna be so much middle ground I think, which is good. Even the last Jesu album, “Everyday I Get Closer to the Light from Which I Came”, was much more somber, quieter and less reliant on heavy guitars, whereas the new Godflesh is all about heavy guitars and heavy beats and heavy bass. So the gap is actually widening, which is intentional. I want them to be recognized as two very individual projects. So I actually hope they don’t inspire each other. (laughs)

So, two different sides for your personal expression.
Yeah, yeah, really! Exactly! That’s the intention ultimately!

So, about playing live Justin, how’s it going to be? Will you be going to make some tours now, some select festival dates?
Yeah, Godflesh has already done a bit of touring this year. Not much European stuff, some European stuff, but Godflesh toured America a few months ago, we just toured the UK and we just done Hellfest in France, and we’re doing a couple of festivals, but Jesu is doing festivals in the summer, more this summer. When the Godflesh album comes out we’re gonna do a lot more next year, in 2015, which is when we’ll start doing some more European dates, and doing a lot more across the world again. Towards the end of this year Godflesh is just going to do the UK again. And some festivals, I think. (…)

Okay, Justin, just one last question, which is: any last words for your Godflesh fans out there?
No, I’m pretty terrible at last words, I never really know what to say, apart from…Thank you for those who enjoyed this music and especially thank you if you buy our music as well (laughs) You know, if you don’t steal it off me, if you buy our music, I’m very very grateful!

Originally published on Against Magazine on July 1, 2014.