Nebula-H

You aren?t that well-known in Sweden yet, tell us more about you guys and Nebula-H.
- "Nebula-H saw the daylight in summer 2001. As long-time member of Side-Line music magazine, I'm taking care of most of the reviews. This way I got the opportunity to discover the music of This Morn'Omina. When Mika send me his "Hegira"-trilogy I became deeply impressed of his trance-electro-tribal-industrial music and send him a message to congratulate. A few days later he called me up and we'd a long chat about the eventuality to start a common project. We didn't exactly know what kind of music we would compose. We were like moving through a state of mist, which inspired us to find the name NEBULA-H and served as inspiration for the lyrics and the music as well. As I was in touch with the guys of Alfa-Matrix, I just let them hear our 1st song (cf. "White light"), which they directly put on the "Cyberlab"-sampler. We got an excellent response on that song. A few more sampler-contributions followed and after having achieved 4 or 5 songs, we got an offer to get signed by Alfa-Matrix. We contributed with the "Twilight Zone"-MCD to their "Square Matrix 02"-series and released the "H" album in November 2002!"

Your music isn't classical EBM, how would you describe it yourselves?
- "We don't really care about the stamp you want to put on it! It's for sure 100% electronic and we often call it "a bastion of electronic electism", which means that we're very open minded and just try to incorporate the ideas and influences running through our minds. We for sure have a strong EBM basis, but I think you can only perceive other elements like Techno, Trance, Goa, House, Industrial and even Jungle."

It's been a while since you released something, what are the plans for now, is there an upcoming album and if it is, tell us more about it.
- "We don't want to work with limits like one album a year etc. We need the liberty to work on new songs whenever we feel it's time for it. So after achieving 'H', we both needed some rest. Although Mika started working on his new This Morn'Omina DCD 'Le serpent blanc ' Le serpent rouge' (released on Antzen). Concerning Nebula-H, we just went on with the concept of a live show and got invited to play some real important festivals like Eurorock and Dour festival in Belgium, Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig-Germany and Electric Gathering in Stockholm, Sweden. We actually get a lot of ideas that we've to work out in the studio. I think they'll be no new album before next year."

Your gig at the EGF-festival was your first in Sweden, right? What was your impression of Sweden and its fans?
- "Mika already played this year with This Morn'Omina in Stockholm, but it was the first time for Nebula-H. Well, to be honest with you, I felt a bit scared because for some reasons I can't explain. We didn't get that many reactions from Sweden. So what could we expect playing such a big festival with bands like Laibach, Blutengel, Camouflage, Boytronic and our friends of Project-X! The gig went extremely well! I think we got some amazing response and it seemed that people really liked our stuff. I saw them dancing the entire gig long. Concerning the people, I've to say that the Swedes are extremely kind and relaxed while all the people are more stressed here. It feels really comfortable for a band to prepare a gig that way and I'll take the opportunity here to thank all the stage crew we worked with!"

You've been talking about what Nebula-H needs is more promotion in Sweden and in Scandinavia, how are you going to do that? What are your plans?
- "It's just a matter of fact even if I heard from Alfa-Matrix that they sold several records and boxes online. I have to say this is a very important item because the Swedish scene is definitely one of the most important one in Europe. I've already discussed it with our company, but it's now up to them to see if anything more can be done. I know Hot Stuff is doing some distribution in Sweden, which I think is a kind of reference! We maybe needed this show at the Electric Gathering to get a bit more known!"

At your live show you had a female with you, what's her status in the band?
- "Peggy Kurstjes aka "Goahoma" have been active in the Goa-Trance-scene for numerous years. While we were in search of a real cool live-concept, Mika contacted some friend of him, active in the goa-scene. We already saw some real cool and hypnotic projections in the goa scene and thought that it could be something interesting for Nebula-H and a way to do something different on stage. So we got in touch with Goahoma! She became the 3rd member of the band, but only for the performances! She's doing some real live-projections and is undoubtedly the most concentrated of the band on stage! We have some more plans to make a second video-clip and will probably collaborate with her!"

Have you any side projects or have you done music before in some form?
- "Speaking for Mika, he's the artist and genius behind This Morn'Omina. Next he's also doing a project with Herman of Ah Cama-Sotz. It's more into industrial dance music and they'll soon release a debut release on Pflichtkauf. So watch out for Pow(d)er Pussy and the 'One day' release. Last, but not least Mika is still involved in a few more projects, but more as helping hand. Next he's running his Atomic Studios, doing a lot of webdesign, mastering etc. Speaking for myself, I've been the singer of FuzeBoxMachine, which split up in 1998. We released the 'Forbidden games' CD in 1995 on Cyberware Productions in Finland. I've also been a member of Toxic Shock Syndrome, an old project I set up together with Johan Van Roy of Suicide Commando. Last, but not least, I'm now member of Side-Line music magazine for more than 10 years."

At your homepage you have the text note "New Ways of Electronic Misbehaviour", what do you mean with this?
- "Nothing serious at all, but I think as (new) band you need doing some kind of propaganda. It's a way to catch the attention of the people and it seems to work because you're just one more asking about it. Seriously now, I think it perfectly reflects the spirit of the music we want to compose. We're a bit sick about all these "traditional" EBM formations even if I think some of them are doing real great stuff. We just wanted to compose something different, not really "new" but from a different approach, incorporating other influences and ideas."

Any last words to our readers?
- "First I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity of making this interview! Next I want to thank Torny Gottberg for helping us to play at the Electric Gathering festival. Last, but not least I want to say hello to all the nice people we met in Stockholm and just hope that we'll play again soon in Sweden. Maybe for the next album? We'll keep you informed about our activities at: www.nebula-h.be and www.alfa-matrix.com.

This interview was made 2003 and initially published on Neurozine.com