Bill Leeb: Front Line Assembly

Canadian hardcore band Front Line Assembly have carved out a niche for themselves in the Electric Body Music market — but the hard men of synth rock have a softer side, which is emerging through various alter‑egos and an evolution of the band's own sound. Nigel Humberstone talks to Front man Bill Leeb.

Throughout their rising career, Front Line Assembly have been at the forefront of the industrial electronic music scene, having perfected their sound within the genre, experimenting and pushing the sound barriers to the extreme. But with their latest album offering, Millennium, FLA have re‑invented themselves in a career move which they themselves openly describe as an attempt to branch out and reach a new market.

FLA have existed in one form or another since 1986, with the personnel nucleus now consisting of Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, following the departure of Michael Balch back in 1989. I spoke with Bill Leeb, long distance to Vancouver, Canada and started off by asking him what kind of reaction to the new album's direction he foresees from FLA's considerable fan base

"It's kind of weird, because Roadrunner [the record label] are marketing to a whole new crowd with all these magazines like Metal Hammer, but they've all been digging this record. I think we went as far as we could with that whole EBM [Electronic Body Music] kind of thing. There's no room to grow in that market because it's just like, such a definitive style. Now the only big crowds are on the metal side and with alternative music like the Cranberries. So you either die out, or you re‑invent yourself and find a new kind of groove".

When Leeb talks of 'metal bands', he's not refering to the old ones like Judas Priest, but the new breed of the '90s — groups like Pantera and Carcass, who are deemed more 'politically correct'. Leeb: "Rhys himself has been turning into a bit of a 'metal head'; he's changed quite a bit, so between that and us listening to a lot more hip‑hop and ambient techno is the reason for the new sound. I also think that you've got to lose old fans in order to gain new ones. Nowadays we don't even listen to that old electronic scene any more, but it seems that the whole 'metal/industrial' thing is really trendy right now, especially over here in the states, and it's perfect for us because we come from the industrial side. We've also done various remixes for these metal bands like Fear Factory and Motley Crue, so now it seems that we're in the right place at the right time."

One track from the new album, 'Victim Of A Criminal', even features a rapper — Che the Minister of Defense, from P.O.W.E.R.

"Again, we're just experimenting. We'll probably 'weird out' all these white anglo‑saxon Swedish kids, but we haven't been in Europe for so long and I guess we get more influence from the whole American culture. A couple of years out of Europe and you get into your own world — we're so close to LA that we're engulfed by the whole genre from down there and that's really where we get most of our cues from."

Front Line Facilities

FLA have their own programming studio, Cryogenics, in Vancouver, which is used for writing, pre‑production, and the occasional completion of their numerous projects. But when it comes to recording and mixing FLA material, the duo uproot and transfer to the Armoury Studio, a well‑equipped facility complete with 92‑channel SSL console — an expensive option, but one Leeb feels is fully justified.

"Oh yeah — we have maybe 15 keyboards running, then three Akai S1000s with all their outputs and millions of samples. Then you've got all your vocals on tape — so you just add all that up and you've got 85 strips right there. It's kind of an ordeal with the amount of gear we use, but it's what we need in order to get that 'huge' sound. Like the guitars; we'll mic a guitar from an amp and then put it through the SSL and a couple of EQs, and then into the sampler, where we'll layer it maybe five times and time‑stretch it so that it's picture perfect. We need that process just to get the size of the sound."

Guitars are in fact the essential ingredient of FLA's new sound, in the thicker, hardcore style employed by acts such as Pantera, Sepultura and Fear Factory. Wildheart guitarist and ex‑Vai vocalist Devin Townsend has supplied most of the guitar work for the album, along with Don Harrison, and various samples. As the the rest of their music, the key process is 'layering'.

Layering

"Usually we're trying to get the fattest sounds. When we start a song, we get three or four kick drums, minimum, and we put them all on top of each other — and it's like that with the snare drum, the bass synths, the sequences and the strings: everything is layered.

"Like our bass sounds — we'll use the MiniMoog, sample it two or three times, then use the Pro One and put that on top of it. Before we go into the studio we try to get it perfect, 'cos it's so expensive in there.

"Once we've got a sound prepared we then take it into the studio and process it by putting it through compressers and harmonisers, as well as through the SSL. I think the SSL board is a big factor — it's possibly the punchiest‑sounding console there is for electronic music. Neve are great too, but they're really warm sounding and better for acoustic bands. We always want things to be as punchy as possible and to that extent I think the mastering is very important. We use a guy called Brian Gardner, who's done people like Janet Jackson. In fact we mastered this album four times, and that place [Bernie Grundman's in Hollywood] is $400 an hour! By the third time it was pretty good, but still not right. It was Greg Reely [FLA's engineer/producer] that said it could be better — I mean, we spent two years making this album, so we're not going to just say 'OK, this is good enough', even though we drove the record company crazy and nearly missed our release dates.

"Between the time when we start writing the songs, then layering the sounds and with all the processing that we use — by the time it goes to the mastering plant, it's gone through so many different stages and has had so much work put into it that it's got to sound good. Like with our latest Intermix album, which we just got mastered. It's leaps and bounds better than the first two. We did it at a place called Sterling Sound in New York and we booked, like, five weeks ahead, and the guy we used had done the last two Madonna albums. It just sounds awesome and I think that part is so important in order to bring out the extreme highs, sub‑bass, and widen the whole stereo field."

Perpetual Projects

Leeb and Fulber are workaholics. Not content with one particular avenue, they have consistently diversified with various side projects and alter‑egos — including Intermix, Delerium, Will and Cyberaktif. Leeb is now also putting together a series of compilations called Organism, which will feature ambient/trance music from local Vancouver artists. So just how do they organise themselves and find the time for so much activity?

"We don't have a life! It's like we have our own little studio — Vancouver's a nice place, but there's not a lot to do and we don't party much or do drugs, so for the lack of all that we just go in and work, and you'd be surprised after a year just how much material you have. If you work it four to five days a week, at the end of the year you've got a couple of hundred songs kicking around — and you might as well release them."

As Intermix, which represents an outlet for their experimental and underground dance grooves, Leeb and Fulber are set to release their third album. With Delerium, however, they have recorded six albums of deeply cinematic sounds. The latest album, entitled Semantic Spaces, features vocals from Kristy Thrisk of the Rose Chronicles. Distributed through Nettwerk in North America, the album has even been playlisted on top 40 radio stations.

"It's kind of weird — the music's so fluffy and so light with a beautiful voice, and at the other extreme we've got this almost heavy metal Front Line record. With Delerium material we'll just write the whole album in one shot. We've always thought that we can write as commercial music as anybody, but until now we've never had the vocalist. The hardest thing is finding the vocalist, someone who can sing well, without sounding 'cheese‑ball'.

We're trying to get the fattest sounds. When we start a song, we get three or four kick drums, minimum, and we put them all on top of each other — and it's like that with the snare drum, the bass synths, the sequences and the strings.

"I think that the last three records we've done, the last Intermix, the new Delerium and Front Line Assembly, are easily the best. It's probably because of the years of doing it that we're finally putting two and two together. It's a learning process, which is slow thing, especially with electronic music — and I think it takes a long time before you really learn to do more with less. Like before, I think we tried to use a million sounds and ended up making everything sound totally busy and overbearing. Now it's more important to use less sounds, but just put them in the right places and make the sounds perfect and bigger. Then I think the whole thing gells a lot more.

"It takes a while to learn and we're still learning. Every day there's a new piece of gear and you've got to figure out how to use it." Front Line Assembly certainly have amassed a considerable collection of electronic equipment. Modern digital technology shares space with an increasing analogue arsenal of Moogs, Sequential Circuits, Oberheim and Korgs. Leeb: "We have a friend in Seattle who's a 'synthbroker', so he's always looking out for analogue stuff for us. This guy can get anything you want — though it's not cheap. But it's our livelihood, so we don't mind splurging if it's a really cool piece of gear that nobody else has.

"I've always wanted one of those WASP synths — you know, the ones with yellow and black keys — but you can't find them in the states.

"So we're slowly collecting all these antique analogue keyboards and modular systems. Using them is a slow process because these things are so funky that you've first got to find a sound, sample it and then put it all across a keyboard — which takes forever. But in the end it's more of an original sound."

On the sleeve notes to Millennium are listed a large selection of FLA's equipment, including a pair of Kurzweil K2000s.

"Yeah. Rhys is really good at programming that thing. He programs these really cool washy string sounds and we layer them with other keyboards — we layer everything! He even does some sampling on the K2000 and processes on it."

Speaking of sampling, Front Line Assembly are one of the few groups that I know who use both the Emu Emulator (IIIXP) and Akai S1000 samplers. Usually it's either one or the other. Leeb comments:

"I can always tell the difference between an Emax and an S1000 or an Emulator — I can always tell them apart because each has a sound of its own and it's all down to personal preference. The Emulator we sometimes use for drums, whilst the Emax creates a weird, processed sound which almost sounds robotic if you sample someone talking."

Another interesting choice is FLA's continuing use of an Atari computer within an American market that is almost completely dominated by Apple Macintosh systems. Leeb: "Yeah, Ataris are kind of old, but we never got round to using Macs, even though I've got a big one at home. For us the Atari/Notator setup is more than fine for what we want and what we do. It really depends on what you're used to, and this is just so easy to use and so logical for the way we like to write. The Atari for us is so fast; like when we get ideas, I don't want to spend a hour trying to put them across on the computer. We can run the Atari with our eyes closed, and that's the ideal situation."

Also included on the album sleeve notes is an extensive name‑check of all the bands and artists that have influenced FLA. Ranging from Killing Joke and Napalm Death through to Orbital and Future Sound of London, the list is quite a diverse acknowledgement. The Human League are also mentioned, which is interesting, because one of the FLA tracks on the album, 'This faith', has certain similarities to their style — in particular, the bass line, which is reminiscent of 'Being Boiled'.

"You've got a good ear, because you're the first person that's actually caught on to that out of the hundreds of interviews that I've done. I loved the first couple of Human League albums — I thought they were awesome."

The vocal textures on Millennium are in a similar vein to other industrial bands, like Nine Inch Nails and Skinny Puppy (Leeb's first band until 1986) — creating that distorted‑yet‑controlled effect. For the new album it seems that Leeb has further refined that vocal sound.

"Greg Reely is the guy that gets the results. He uses Eventide processors quite extensively; he's got three now (H3500 DFX, H3000 SE and H3000 S) and between those he does most of the vocal processing. They are the ultimate for vocals and Greg is the master; he sits there for hours and just tweaks those things, modifying the parameters — I would never have the patience.

"Usually we write all the songs first. Then I take about five weeks and write all the vocals, then we go into the studio. I never write them beforehand because I find that the music and the samples that we use inspire the whole vocal scenario." Leeb recognises the importance of Greg Reely's role and as a result he has consistently been employed to engineer, shape and mix the FLA sound, including the new Delerium project.

"He's awesome — when you go into one of these studios with fully automated SSL boards and all that gear, it takes years to master it all and become really good and fully proficient. He's a perfectionist with everything. I also think he gets some of the best drum sounds.

"We don't use drum machines any more; instead we have a huge library of drum sounds and drum loops. I collect sounds from various sources — records, CDs, and from various producers who we've worked with. I've been collecting for six years, so after a while you get a lot — but you can never have too many. I have a laser disc at home and a DAT player, so whenever I hear anything that I think sounds unusual I sample it. It's become like a full‑time thing."

Front Line Assembly plan a World Tour for February/March 1995