"He seems fucking insane!"

Kerrang! 2002

Dave Grohl: he's Alec Empire's number one fan...

When did you first come across Alec?
"The first time I hear Alec Empire was in New York city when someone gave me a tape. I just thought it was the absolute demise of techno music. I just thought it was awesome; this band had done something with this music so radical that nothing afterward will survive. You can't get anymore fucking hardcore than this. Like, this is the biggest wall of noise I've heard in my life. And the subject matter was great too. He was talking about the police, TV, fuck you, violence and war. It was about destroying 2000 years of culture. It was astounding. Not to mention that a lot of it used Bad Brain samples as well. I couldn't argue with that could I?"

What are your impressions of him on a personal level?
"I've only hung out with him a few times. We were on a tour of Australia and they were on, he was...alluring and intimidating at the same time. Sometimes he seems so happy and outgoing; other times he seems just fuckin' insane. I don't know how to explain it. The couple of times that we've talked he's just seemed like this bizarre sort of General. Just really intense."

Do you have any plans to collaborate in the future?
"Well we've done a couple of things together, although I don't know if it'll ever be released or whether it will ever come out. He actually sang on a Probot track-I don't know what's going on with that album by the way-but he worked on one of the songs on that record with me. The song was called 'Tear it out'."

Why should a Foo Fighters fan listen to Alec Empire's music?
"Well just as Bad Brains' influenced me to play the drums and to start a punk rock band, it seems that they influenced Alec Empire to do the same thing. But he has a more technological take, his interpretation seems to be a little less literal."