Outtakes from an interview with Clan Of Xymox

XXX

Ronny, how did the band get started?

It all started with the release of the mini album Subsequent Pleasures on my own label.(1984)Of course I wanted to tour , so I asked (my at the time girlfriend Anke ) to play the bass live and sing on one of my tracks of Subsequent Pleasures and my former room mate Pieter to play keyboards at live shows. Looking back I still have good memories of it's creation. At the time I studied and tried to make some music,but most of the time didn't have a clue what I was doing on the keyboards. It was recorded on a portable 4 track recorder. Also it was a period when you had to play everything in real time. The whole process taught me a lot about the workings of music in general. Now looking back at those tracks I find them pretty chaotic.
The good thing about "Subsequent Pleasures" was that one day when I was promoting the mini album in Nijmegen I met Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance in a restaurant. They were having dinner at the same table I was sitting and they told me they were the support act of the Cocteau Twins. After talking for a while they invited me to see the show and asked me to come backstage after the show. There I also met the Cocteau Twins. This was the first real life encounter with 4-AD artists. I gave Brendan a copy of Subsequent Pleasures and we kept in contact. A few weeks later he asked me if Xymox wanted to do a tour with them in the U.K. Of course we felt honoured and accepted the invitation........ Soon Ivo Watts the label boss of 4-AD offered us a recording contract.............

Could you by the way remind us of the meaning of your band name ?

" Clan" means a close knit group united by a common interest or common characteristics and Xymox is the name I wanted to give myself as a Pseudonym way back in the early eighties, but later I decided just to use my own name. I liked Xymox so it stayed. Xymox is a bastardized version of the word Zymotic, Hence, Clan of Xymox
Why did you change the name of the band from Clan of Xymox to Xymox and then back again to Clan of Xymox?
To confuse you and the rack jobbers in the record store:)
OK, every time we changed the name it was a sign there was a certain change for the band and it's direction.

Who writes all the music & lyrics?

Ronny writes all the music and lyrics and records, performs , produces and mixes everything too , so basically from start to finish all is done by him.

Who illustrates the COX album sleeves?

Mojca designs all the album sleeves of the band.

What is the current LIVE line up?

The current live line up of Clan of Xymox is 4 or 5 people on stage. The names are :
Ronny Moorings (vocals, guitar, Mojca (Bass & vocals), Yvonne de Ray , Denise Dijkstra , Agnes Jaspers(all keyboards) and Mario Usai (guitar) Of course I also consider our sound engineer Heiko Duus and light engineer Lebo as part of the band, without them our live sound and show would be lost.

Why did you change at times the LIVE line up or a band member?

Playing live and touring is a hard life sometimes. It takes a lot out of people. Mojca and myself are the core of the band and we work with people we know from Leipzig & Berlin . The (past)band members have their own lives and jobs to go to when we are not touring with Clan Of Xymox . Of course sometimes it will happen that it is no longer possible for someone to keep touring with the band because of their job or study or plays once and a while with us. That is why gradual changes sometimes takes place. This does not affect the music nor the music writing in any way because Ronny Moorings writes and records all the songs on his own.

When you tour? Will you play old songs as well?

Of course , we will play also songs of our first two albums on 4-AD , some better songs of the Twist Of Shadows album and naturally songs of all our albums .
We try to give a very balanced repertoire and revise and update our set on a regular basis.

Will you play in our country soon?

I recommend reading our tour page regularly because we update this site all the time. The tour dates listed are the dates confirmed. If your country is not listed it simply means that so far nothing is booked there. Don't despair though because we book shows all the time. It depends on your local promoter if we play in your town or not , so you can always ask your favourite venue to book us. All contacts for that are on our home page.

Words of General Advice in the case you cannot find an album in your local record store ?

A lot of music sores have limited space and stock up most of the time very commercial music, it does not mean they cannot get a record you want.
Sometimes people can't find in their local record store the album they are looking for, instead of walking
out of the shop you can ask if they can order it for you. Most stores have a computer (linked with a distributor)
where they can order it straight away for you.
Your request is most of the time also a good signal to the local store that certain bands
are in demand in their neighbourhood and in future they might be clever enough to stock a few copies.
With this action you support your favourite band and the label they signed to. Of course you can order our albums on line listed on our site ...and now you have it really easy if you have i-pod , just go to the i-tunes homepage.

Are you against downloading?

No , as long as it is from a legal site like i/Tunes or similar. For the average band it takes 2 to 3 years to write and record music and that time needs to be compensated. If an artist does not get income from their work I guess most will look (have to) for something else to do , simple as that. So if you cherish your artist then you support them by buying their album, as simple as that.

Who is the label for Clan of Xymox now?

We have our own Label and Publishing company called simply Xymox Control and license all our material through Pandaimonium in Europe, Metropolis Records in the USA, Irond Records in Russia, Vision Music in Poland .
Xymox Control is not really an active label in the classic sense of the word but just a vehicle to control all the processes concerning the releases.

Will there be a DVD of Clan of Xymox soon?

Yes , the 21st of March 2008 and it is called "Visible". It is going to be a double DVD with on top of that even Hidden Tracks :)