Caustic

Matt:  The joke is that my style of music is called “jizzcore”, but that in some ways can be defined just by what you’re saying—whatever sticks works for me (and enjoy the symbolism there).  Bands like Pop Will Eat Itself and artists like Moby, who was at one point doing everything from straight techno to electro punk like Animal Rights, really resonated with me with their genre dexterity, while still maintaining their own voice and style. I don’t like being pigeonholed, so I do what makes me happy. 
Matt:  I don’t see what I say as meant to influence, because I think my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, like anyone else’s.  I definitely try and inspire and encourage people to try things they’re afraid to do. Fear of failure to me is stupid when it comes to creative endeavors. I’m not saying I’m fearless, because few are, but I’ve built up enough confidence to go down an unfamiliar rabbit hole if it seems interesting.  Beauty Queen Autopsy is the result of that, as are a lot of tracks on my albums. I’m no beacon of uncompromising originality, but I do push myself to work outside of my normal boundaries and always question why things are the way they are.  That comes from performing for years doing improv.
Matt:  I used to be a lot stupider with shooting my mouth off, but over the years I learned to keep quiet.  The last “controversy” I caused was a few years back when VNV dropped off the Skinny Puppy/Haujobb/Youth Code tour and I, assuming people would know it was bullshit, added myself as the replacement band using MS Paint. Apparently cEvin Key and Metropolis were getting all kinds of emails going “WHY THE HELL IS CAUSTIC ON THE BILL NOW?!”  I ended up emailing the Skinny Puppy guys to apologize.  Oops. 
Matt:  Sometimes people don’t get the joke, or the sarcasm, but I find that even funnier.  When we released the Fuck in a Suit video a lot of people actually believed me when I said the Men’s Wearhouse was putting a restraining order on me.  Again, I assumed people would realize it was just me fucking around, but it doesn’t always translate.  Now and again I have to let people know I’m messing around, but I try to be gentle about it.
Matt:  Well it’s funny if you weren’t getting your soul ripped apart watching something you’ve worked over a decade to build and create get the equivalent of being shat on by the assholes of a million babies with gastrointestinal distress.  Sure, I guess that’s chuckle worthy.  Or not.
Matt:  Wow. Good for you.  I’m glad Tom Shear’s DISassemblage of my page simultaneously entertained you and made you hungry.  Have fun bouncing on his crank.  I’m getting back to fucking work to repair all the damage he’s done.
Matt:  Metropolis and I had an amicable split—it wasn’t a bad relationship, but I wasn’t getting what I needed out of the label as a whole and they weren’t getting what they wanted out of me, so we shook virtual hands and called it a day. I miss my good pal Jim over there a lot, as he was my only regret leaving as I loved working with him and he was always rooting for me, but I’m a medium sized fish in a pool of giant fish there, so I’m not going to get the same attention Combichrist or Covenant gets, and nor should I.
Matt:  They’ve been fantastic. They trust me and what I do and have supported me every step of the way. Metropolis was similar, as I have nothing bad to say about them on that front, but where I don’t think Heckman understood what the hell I was doing, Roger and Micah get Caustic and appreciate all the crazy shit I come up with.
Matt:  I, like any artist probably, have plenty of self-doubt, and as Caustic “the joke band” I always felt I had something more to prove to people because no matter what I fucking put out someone will think I’m taking the piss.  While that’s true SOMETIMES, it pushed me to make a few records just to show people I could.  Golden Vagina was my club album, and The Man Who Couldn’t Stop was a massive, eighteen track concept album. I’m proud of them both, but this time around I just wanted to make a bad ass Caustic album with meat and potato tracks that just pounded people. I put so much on my plate with the last couple full lengths that I realized I don’t owe anybody shit and I’m not going to try and “prove” myself to anyone, and I loved the results. I made exactly what I wanted and how I wanted to do it.  I worked with my regular team of pals (Josev of CTRLSHFT on mixing duties and Eric Oehler of Null Device on mastering) to finish it off, as we all have a shorthand because we’ve known each other a decade and a half and if I tell Josev I want the drums to be mixed like Ministry’s The Missing then that’s all he needs to know.
Matt:  'Fuck in a Suit' and 'Michael Fucking Ironside' caught on pretty big with a lot of people (and didn’t get much terrestrial radio play, for some odd reason. Fuck if I know.)  I like seeing people drop FIAS references here and there. It shows it resonated.  That track is perfect for the election year, where everyone’s freaking out about big money buying politicians. I really hope that shit will change some day, but until then I guess I’m (metaphorically) advocating for the execution of the CEOs spending all that money for political favors.
Matt:  Videopunks is comprised of my pal Mike Mazzotta and his buddy Hex Taylor.  Mike was the live video guy for Angelspit’s shows for a long time, and he and I hit it off at their Madison tour stop years back.  He does a lot of old school VHS manipulation and I put together a decent budget for the track with my Kickstarter money so we did it.  The concept was his, we bounced a few ideas back and forth, and they killed it.  They’ve since worked with 3TEETH on one of their videos, too.  People should check them out, as its nice getting that old school feel with new school gear and ideas.
Matt:  I think it’s great.  There are always things you wish you could change, but you learn to let that go.  I think it’s an album that may appeal to people outside of my normal fan circle too, although I called it Industrial Music because I really don’t give a shit anymore about acceptance or exposure outside of our scene. I just wanted to kill it on an album and think I did as well as I could.  Is it my favorite album? It’s got some of my favorite songs I’ve ever done on it, but each album is like a disfigured baby to me—I love ‘em all, hideous as they are.
Matt:  I wasn’t even planning on doing a remix album until the thought of asking Alex and Bruce to curate it came into my head, and they were the ones who came up with the idea of doing it track for track with the original album. I’m always trying to give a fresh twist on an old (and, most of the time, boring) idea, and when they let me know they were down to help I knew they’d pick a lot of interesting artists.  Some I’d heard of, some I was friends with, but a few were indeed brand new to me. I trusted Alex and Bruce’s choices implicitly though, and was going with whoever they decided. Knowing their tastes I figured some cool match-ups would take place, as each artist was specifically assigned a song from the album based on what the guys thought they could do with it, and I think the results were awesome.  I made a few new pals in the process and have some wildly different interpretations of my tracks than I would have had I done it myself.
Matt:  I hit up a bunch of pals for the maxi-single, mainly because I thought getting tons of “club” mixes of a track that’s about how useless the club scene is would be funny.  I loved the thought of a “maxi-single” too, as I loved those when they were a thing in the nineties. The Head Like a Hole one was in constant rotation in my car.  Actually, if you’re familiar with that maxi-single there’s a stupid reference to it at the end of the last track on Bomb the Club Mixes.  Why? I’m an idiot.
Matt:  No idea. The nice thing about the internet and music these days is you can make up your own rules.  I’ve got a few ideas in the works, and the album’s only been out 6 months, so things like the maxi-single are a good way to get music in people’s proverbial mitts but also to remind them that the album’s out there.  
Matt:  Brian and I just agreed on the title for the next album, or what it may be, but we haven’t done much else other than bat around a couple stupid song titles.  He’s been crazy busy with doing shows on the last Gothsicles album and promoting Hardcore Pong, his thing with Zoog from Angelspit.  I’ve been busy putting out BQA and the new Caustic, so we’re cheating on each other for a while, but I think we’ll get back together when we need to.  The Causticles ain’t nuthin’ ta fuck with, after all.
Matt:  I’m not touring any time soon, as my family is my main priority. I’m doing an Electronic Saviors release party here in Madison on July 9th with GoFight, The Dark Clan, and Am.Psych that I’m looking forward to, as I rarely play live here and I love all the other bands. I’m really stoked to finally play Terminus in Calgary this year alongside Hate Dept, 16volt, Cold Cave, Cygnets, Kanga, and a bunch of other great artists. I have one other big show later this year but can’t announce it yet, but I’m really damn excited to be a part of the lineup.
Matt:  Thanks man. I really appreciate that. The only thing I’d like to say is if you want to be a part of my new album I’m doing it as a song-a-month (meaning I’m writing them month to month) for Patreon.  It’s a platform like Kickstarter but instead of one big pledge you can do a small monthly/per song pledge and get all the cool shit I’ve been working on. I’m working on the fourth track now, and the whole album is going to be exclusive to patrons for quite some time.