I found this cover within a newsletter from Nuclear Blast; I fell in love with the artwork as soon as I saw it. Initially when you look at this cover you see a disfigured face but look more closely and you see two ravens or crows coming out of the image, I find this to be very effective, very dark, and in some ways possibly emotional, this possibly due to the nature of the title of the album. Par Olofsson created the cover design and artwork. Looking at his other designs for other bands, his work is both dark and beautiful, being full of darkness, hatred and death. The band revealed this artwork in July 2009 although the albums release date was not until September. The design works well with the gatefold layout that it was released with, however it still works just as well for a non-gatefold album. http://parolofsson.se/ http://nuclearblastusa.com

Click Here To Buy This Album

Master of Puppets - Metallica - Elektra - 1986

The ‘Master of Puppets’ cover was created by Don Brautigam, who sadly is no longer with us, but is survived by his two sons. I was unfortunate in that I was unable to discover the story behind the design, but do know that is a large painting, most likely acrylics. I’m afraid you’ll have to do with my thoughts on this marvellous piece of art… I find the design outstanding, I think it really fits in well with the lyrical content of the album and the fact that the crosses are in perspective also gives a sense of being in the painting itself and being at the side of the fallen heroes. The hands in the corners with the strings leading to the crosses gives a sense of being controlled and enslaved, and pretty much lead to their death. The helmet on the left hand side cross gives another sense of the war effort, and the red sky gives me a sense of unease, bloodshed and of being laid to rest in a war torn land, rather than taken home and laid to rest under a blue sky. For this issue, seeing as Remembrance Sunday is almost upon us, I would like to take a minute to remember those who fought and lost their lives in the Great War and the Second World War. Every year I buy a Poppy to show I care about our history and the lives that have been taken. Just Remember

The history of sex toys did not begin with modern day rubber and latex products. In fact, mankind has been using erotic devices from the beginning.

                      

Dildos (shaped like a penis) have been discovered in Upper Paleolithic art that was created more than 30,000 years ago. These depictions leave no doubt whatsoever as to what their subject matter was intended to do. Pleasuring oneself or another with such an object was obviously a no-brainer as it predates even the invention of the wheel. Think about that!

Sex toy history actually begins in earnest with the Greeks. Dildos (Greek: "olisbos") appeared in their art and literature from the third and fourth centuries BC--Some 2,400 years ago. Among numerous ancient Greek artifacts of the time is a vase on to which a double-headed dildo was painted. Since Greeks did not classify themselves as we do in to sexual preference groups (e.g. straight, gay, bi, etc.), the use of such dildos was common. It was a patriarchal society where the average wife was ten to twenty years younger than her husband; men enjoyed sex with concubines, and also broke young boys in to oral love making themselves. Thus, the dildo served them well in whatever relationship they found themselves

In Egypt, Cleopatra (69–30 B.C.) is known to have shared her bed with a whole regiment of men immediately after enjoying a tryst with Caesar! History says little about the sexual appetites of ancient Egyptians but evidence does exist to prove that the dildo was a familiar and appreciated device of the day. One can only imagine what the Queen of the Nile did to entertain herself when all the men were away at war. However, when considering that bit of history, we need not stretch our imaginations too far before coming up with what would be a plausible answer.

Somewhat surprisingly, most sex toy history comes from the erotic art of each culture and era. For example, the Hong Kong Museum of History has an ancient Chinese bronze sex toy on display which dates back to the Han Dynasty (approximately 2000 years ago). The Sex Museum in Amsterdam houses some fabulous true works of erotic art which display sex toys as part of the subject matter.

The Roman Empire was flagrantly excessive regarding wild sex orgies. It is no wonder the very word “sex” comes from the Latin word "sexus". Both their written and artistic histories include numerous references to dildos and other simple sex toy innovations.

In the Middle Ages, (476 A.D. to 1453) sexual pleasures were called "the Devil’s work". Religious persecution by the Roman Catholic Church was brought down upon people who gave free rein to their sexual lusts and many ended up in shackles or burned at the stake. The clothing of the time for both males and females covered most of their bodies from neck to feet. Sexy female lingerie was not allowed for fear of punishment. Sexual urges were best kept to oneself under the threat of serious physical punishment. Even whispering the words "dildo" may have been punishable by death.

In the 12th century, European men used chastity belts to keep their women faithful. These chastity belts were made of leather with metal bands which could be tightened or loosened at the husband's whim and were secured with padlocks for which he kept the key. There are now chastity devices for men, too!

In Renaissance Italy (14th thru the 16th centuries), dildos were called diletto (meaning "delight"). Made of leather, stone, ivory or wood, they were quite primitive, but functional. Skilled and trusted craftsmen produced custom dildos. Those who used them employed olive oil for lubrication.

Sex toys were also taboo in Victorian England. So, too, were books that contained any hint of human sexuality. It was during the Victorian Era, (mid 19th century) that rubber dildos, butt plugs, and vibrators (1869) were introduced! These toys were much more sanitary, comfortable, and realistically made than their predecessors. Vibrators were also quite popular and were sold on the open-market at the time as "massagers". Even health spas of the day offered more "elegant" alternatives to manual paroxysm through steam-powered vibrating devices and water jet massage. Men and women flocked to these spas "for the medicinal waters".

                                                

The vibrators of this era were prescribed to women by doctors to treat "hysteria" and were powered by an electric cord in a wall plug. In 1880, a British doctor invented the first battery-operated, electric vibrator. This was actually the first "high-tech" sex toy in and is the predecessor to our modern day battery-operated vibrators, dildos and other electronic sex toys. Surprisingly, there is actually more modern-day, sex toy history from the Victorian Era than from any other era in history except our own.

During the Victorian Era, butt plugs in the shape of wooden eggs were invented by a European doctor. They were prescribed to “help prevent loss of sperm through wasteful ejaculation”. The eggs supposedly helped send semen back to the female reproductive organs. They believed that by plugging the anus, sperm loss would be alleviated. Today's butt plug manufacturers design all different shapes and sizes of butt plugs.

The term hysteria comes from the Greek word "hystera", which means "uterus". At the time, it was believed that female psychiatric infirmities had their roots in uterine imbalances reflected in anxiety, irritability, sexual fantasies and "pelvic heaviness". Doctors of this era treated the "hysteria" by massaging the suffering female’s vaginal lips until they experienced relief via "paroxysm" (orgasm). Because it was believed at the time that only men were sexual creatures, the vibrator was prescribed to calm down these "hysteric" women.

In 1918, the Sears Roebuck catalogue offered a vibrator as a “very satisfactory…marital aid that every woman appreciates. A 1921 issue of Hearst’s magazine marketed vibrators toward men as Christmas gifts for their wives to insure they remained “young and pretty” and free from the scourge of “hysteria”.

During the 1920s, “blue” movies (erotic cinemas) with women using vibrators as sexual stimulator's became common. No longer were vibrators socially camouflaged as medicinal in nature. By 1930, they were openly advertised and made available to anyone.

In 1948, Sexologist, Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, shocked the world with his international bestseller "Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male," This study is commonly known as the Kinsey Report. This sexual survey reported that 94 percent of the men and 40 percent of the women interviewed admitted that they masturbated to orgasm--remarkably large proportions considering the perceived prudishness of that time. Today, the Kinsey Institute declares that "the vast majority" of people masturbate: both sexes, all ages, single, married, divorced and widowed.

During the 1960s, “Free Love” was the rage. Sex toy history becomes even more interesting in this era because people could obtain sex toys through special retail outlets and through magazines. The Hippies of that time period became the parents of today. Thus, sex toys have become even more numerous and varied. Even though they can be easily obtained in speciality stores in most cities, they are now sold in vast quantities via the Internet in all colours, sizes, types, and brands. You just might find yourself the satisfied owner of your very own "olisbos," "diletto," or "buttius pluggius." :P

25,000 BC - Clearly sexual prehistoric stone carvings of women started to appear. These faceless, nude sculptures boasted greatly over sized breasts, hips, buttocks and vaginal lips. Most experts consider them fertility goddesses, but they may have also served as the porn of their day.
2,500BC - Egyptian art depicts female dancers gyrating nearly naked, carrying a sculpture of an over sized erect penis to Honor the god Osiris. Possibly an agricultural fertility ritual, although one has to wonder...
500BC - Invention of the olisbos, an early version of the dildo, was made in the Greek port of Miletus. Traders sold these olisbos around the Mediterranean as sexual refuges for lonely ladies.
350 BC - First mention of olive oil as a sexual accessory. Originally it was touted for contraception, but couples have used vegetable oils as lubricants ever since.
300 AD - The invention of penis extenders, now known as prosthetic penis attachments or PPAs. These cylindrical devices, which fit over men's erections to make them look larger, were first mentioned in the classic Indian sex manual, the Kama Sutra, which suggested crafting them from wood, leather, buffalo horn, copper, silver, ivory or gold.
500 AD - Invention of Ben Wa balls. Originally they were a single ball used to increase men's pleasure during intercourse. Some were solid, others hollow with clappers that made a ringing sound as they rolled around in the vagina. Eventually they were paired and used by women to increase the strength of their pelvic floor muscles, much like Kegel exercises are used today.
655 AD - Introduction of mirrors as sexual accessories. Lady Wu Chao, consort to the Chinese Emperor Tai Tsung, ordered sheets of reflecting glass arranged around their bed. When other courtiers insisted that the mirrors were a bad omen, the Emperor ordered them removed. When Wu Chao seized control of the throne after Tai Tsung's death, she reinstalled the mirrors to enhance trysts with her subsequent lovers.
1200 - Invention of the proto-cock ring. The first documented rings were made in China from the eyelids of goats with eyelashes intact. The flexible eyelids were tied around men's erections, and the hardened lashes were said to increase the pleasure of intercourse.
1400 - Coining of the term "dildo." In Renaissance Italy, the Greek olisbo became "dildo," possibly from the Latin dilatare, to open wide, or perhaps from the Italian diletto, to delight. Renaissance Italian dildos were made of wood or leather and required liberal lubrication with olive oil for comfortable use.
1600 - Invention of the modern cock ring and clitoral stimulator. Chinese men slipped ivory rings over their erections to help maintain them. The rings were ornately carved, usually depicting dragons. Over time, the carved dragons' tongues extended to form a nub that would rub against the woman's clitoris and enhance her pleasure during intercourse.
1700 - European health spas installed gravity-fed systems that sent powerful jets of water into bathing pools, much like the jets used in today's Jacuzzis. While not specifically developed for female genital massage, surviving accounts hint that some women spent considerable time leaning into water-jet spouts.
1750 - Appearance of modern BDSM. European brothels began specialising in flagellation and other SM-style "punishments" that dominant prostitutes meted out to willingly submissive men.
1791 - Publication of Justine by the Marquis de Sade, from whom the term "sadism" is derived. His controversial writings helped popularise BDSM and the many toys used in sexual power play, such as riding crops, whips, nipple clips and restraint devices. ("Masochism" comes from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who wrote a novel about male sexual submission.)
1844 - The vulcanisation of rubber, which made it stronger and more elastic. This would later lead other inventors to develop rubber condoms, dildos and other sex toys.
1869 - Debut of the first vibrator. Developed by an American physician, George Taylor, M.D., it was a large, cumbersome, steam-powered apparatus. Taylor recommended it for treatment of an illness known at the time as "female hysteria." Hysteria, from the Greek for "suffering uterus," involved anxiety, irritability, sexual fantasies, "pelvic heaviness" and "excessive" vaginal lubrication -- in other words, sexual arousal. However, since it was the Victorian era, women were not considered to be at all sexual and it was therefore deemed a disease. Physicians of that era treated hysteria by massaging sufferers' vulva's until they experienced dramatic relief through "paroxysm" (orgasm). Unfortunately, hysteria was a recurrent condition and repeated treatment was often necessary. Taylor touted his steam-driven massage device as speeding treatment while reducing physician fatigue.
1882 - Debut of the first electromechanical vibrator. Forerunner of today's vibrators, these vibrators were smaller and less cumbersome than Taylor's steam-powered device. The original electromechanical vibe was a battery-powered massager designed by British physician Joseph Mortimer Granville. It featured attachments similar to those in today's vibrator kits, which allowed the physician treating hysteria to vary the vibratory sensations the device produced. However, Granville was firmly opposed to using his device as a treatment for female hysteria and considered it useful only for massage of men's skeletal muscles to treat injuries caused by overexertion.
Early 1890's - Invention of the motion picture. Almost immediately after movies appeared, early filmmakers began producing pornography, some of which featured women playing with vibrators and dildos, including strap-ons.
1899 - Publication of America's first advertisement for a home electric vibrator, the Vibratile, in McClure's magazine -- as a cure for headache, wrinkles, and "neuralgia," or nerve pain, a term that included hysteria.
1900 - 1910 - Popularisation of the home vibrator. As electricity became widely available around the U.S., plug-in home vibrators were one of the first electrified home appliances. Marketed to women as health and relaxation aids, vibrator advertising copy was filled with double-entendres, for example, "all the pleasure of youth ... will throb within you." They were advertised in many consumer magazines, including Needlecraft, Home Needlework Journal and Woman's Home Companion, and even sold in the Sears & Roebuck catalogue as an "aid every woman appreciates."
1907 - The Penis Stiffener wins a U.S. patent. This device, the first American PPA, was developed by Louis Hawley. It was a hollow, metal cylinder. It had a wide opening at one end for insertion of the penis and a small opening at the other to allow sperm into the vagina. It was designed for use by men with erection problems.
1921 - The first vibrator advertisement aimed at men. Published in a 1921 issue of Heart's magazine, it exhorted men to buy vibrators for their wives as Christmas gifts to keep them "young and pretty" and free from the scourge of hysteria.
Mid 1920's - The emergence of strip-tease. Dancers slowly peeled down to nipple covers (pasties) and crotch covers (G-strings) and incorporated many props into their acts, among them: fans, furs, capes, and feather boas. Many of their costume pieces were eventually incorporated into sexual accessories.
1927 - The introduction of KY Jelly. Originally marketed to physicians to improve women's comfort during pelvic exams, KY went over the counter as a sexual lubricant in 1980. Since then, many other lubricants have been introduced.
The late 1920's - Vibrators appear more prominently in porn -- not as "massagers," but as masturbation aids. One movie, The Widow's Delight, showed a well-dressed matron at her front door bidding good night to her equally dashing suitor. After rejecting a kiss, she races off to her bedroom, where she strips down to her underwear, grabs her vibrator and finishes off her evening.
Around 1930 - Vibrator advertisements disappear from magazines and catalogues. As more pornographic films showed women using vibrators for sexual self-stimulation, it became impossible for manufacturers to defend the polite fiction that they were simply innocent "massagers." Self-appointed guardians of rectitude branded them immoral, and very quickly, vibrators virtually disappeared.
Development of latex rubber. Lighter, softer, and more pliable then vulcanised rubber, latex revolutionised contraception, allowing production of better condoms and diaphragms. It also led to the development of latex sex toys.
1948 - Debut of the Polaroid-Land camera and the birth of amateur erotic photography. The Polaroid produced black-and-white photographs in just one minute without a third-party developer and allowed anyone to become an erotic photographer.
1952 - AMA declares that hysteria is not really an ailment. Since the vibrator would no longer used as a medical device, it had be acknowledged for its real purpose.
1953 - Debut of Playboy magazine. Although it was attacked as "pornography," the early issues were extremely tame by today's standards. It did, however, pave the way for X-rated media as we know it today.
1965 - Re-emergence of the vibrator. You just can't keep a good sex toy down. ;P
1970 - Debut of the waterbed. Inventor Charles P. Hall designed it for sleep comfort, but waterbeds quickly came to be considered sex enhancing. Hugh Hefner installed one in his bedroom at the Playboy mansion. Many hotels added them to their honeymoon suites.
The late 1970's - Debut of the home video camera. Forget Polaroids; with a camcorder, anyone could produce porn videos in the privacy of their own home.
Late 1990's - Alabama follows Georgia's lead and implements a law outlawing sex toys punishable by heavy fines and even jail time. Within a few years the law was overturned, despite the state's argument that women do not have a "fundamental or constitutional right" to items used for sexual pleasure.
1998 - The Rabbit vibrator makes an appearance on HBO's multi-award winning show, "Sex and the City®" as the once timid character Charlotte's new best friend. After the episode aired, demand for the toy skyrocketed.

This time we catch up with Richard Silverthorn and Mark Hockings, aka ..... electronic legends ....... MESH!!!!

Is there any story behind calling the band “Mesh”?
Richard: ‘laughs’ unfortunately it’s a very boring answer. We’ve been in bands before Mesh and we both experienced problems of coming up with names. You spend more time trying to think of a decent name or something that doesn’t sound like something else – you can spend far too much time on it. So when we sat down and said we want to come up with a bandname, Mark just said “Mesh” and we just said “Yep, that’s fine”. There’s no kind of real meaning. It was literally one of these words that we just liked. We didn’t want a band with a “the” to start so it just needed to be a very short word.

In October 2006 Neil Taylor left the band for personal reasons, how did this make effect the remaining members?
Richard: It came as a bit of a shock but if I was really honest, if somebody had said that somebody is going to leave the band I think I would have chosen Neil. At the end he didn’t seem very happy in his role really. The way we worked was: I tended to do the music and Mark was doing the lyrics but Neil’s involvement in the band was more of the business side. He’d be the organiser and take the phone calls and organise the money and things like that. I think it was really difficult for him. When we were going out doing live-shows I think he felt slightly alienated. He was standing there playing music that he didn’t have much involvement in, so he just decided he wanted to leave. He had enough of the whole music thing and he wanted to kind of just settle down and have a normal life. I mean, both Mark and myself are married and have children and a family. And well, we’ve been in a band and I think Neil struggled with that so he needed to distance himself from the band and create a normal life. And now he has settled down and become a father. But it was a shock. I mean we were really expecting it but we weren’t expecting it when he did it. Because we just put out an album, we’ve done our first part of the European tour and then he decided to leave and we still had like festivals and another part of the tour. It did leave us with a big problem but we got through it.

Neil Taylor also was in charge of the artwork, right?
Richard: Yeah, he was. And that’s something else we had to struggle with. Right from the beginning he has always done the artwork for us. So with this new album we had to find somebody who understood what we were trying to achieve with it. I think we did it in the end. The artwork is very very Mesh-like and I’m pleased we managed to do that using somebody else.

With the Single “Only Better“ and the new album you seem to have a harder and darker, “Shattered Glass”, f.e. is heavy on the guitars, is this a total new direction?
Richard: I’ve been asked this question quite a lot lately but I think we feel more confident than we ever have before. When we started a lot of people said we sound like somebody or we sound like this or that band. But over the years I think you discover your own sound. And the whole thing with guitars is quite funny because we’ve always used guitars and also real drums right from the very beginning but I think we disguised them and maybe mixed them quietly and things like that. Over the years I think we became more confident that it sounds ok playing guitars and different instruments so why shouldn’t we push them a little bit more to the foreground. People now think that we’ve changed but we haven’t really. We’re just kind of mixing it differently now. It’s the same with playing live. I mean before we were hiding behind the keyboards, perhaps we weren’t really confident in ourselves. Now we decided that we can do all this quite well so let’s just do it. I started playing a guitar live and we have a live drummer and things like that. It does upset a lot of kind of purists out there, people who really love electronic music who are saying “Oh, you started turning into a rock-band”. But we haven’t really at all.

Maybe you could tell the readers about the new album, what is behind the title “A Perfect Solution“?
Richard: It’s quite funny actually. Usually the title of the album is literally the very last thing we come up with when we do an album. We’ve become notorious, we were leaving it far too late and the record company was really annoyed with us because we haven’t come up with the title. This time we actually came up with it quite early which is really unusual for us. I think that helped us shaping the album. We came up with this phrase “A Perfect Solution” so we knew where we wanted to take the album. I think the title sums up what is in all relationships. Weather they’re good or bad, some people have massive arguments and fall out with each other but that might be what keeps them together in a way. And that might be the perfect solution. Specifically when you listen to the track “Who Says”, the one we’ve done with Julia, it kind of sums up the whole album to me. We all get each other and kind of annoy each other but that’s what make things work sometimes. Perhaps that is the perfect solution. We love each other because of this reason so it was just a good title.

In “Everything I Made“ it seems you are very critical of yourself, is this track taken from your own experiences?
Mark: It’s almost a self-critical song. It’s about letting people down and not maybe fulfilling the things that you could have done and the things that maybe fulfilling your potential as a person and the things you do within your relationships with people. That one was almost quite easy to write in a way because that’s a little bit of me. I think I’m one of those people that feel like letting a lot of people down sometimes. I’m very involved in certain parts – my work and the things I do. When you’re preoccupied with things other than family, friends and stuff that you’re putting not much time into you feel like letting people down a lot. That comes out in that song.

“Only Better“ has a quite sarcastic tone and seems to be about someone who is gone, what can you tell us about this song?
Mark: That one is kind of difficult. It’s a not really long song. There’s only a few lines in it. I suppose it’s about looking at someone who is about to leave you in a way and you can’t understand how somebody could invest that much time and that much of their life in something and just walk away from it. I’ve been in a similar kind of relationship to that but I was on the other side of it. I put a lot of time into a relationship and then you just walk away and draw a line under it. The whole life is almost like a road, it’s just suddenly blocked off and I think that’s really where that came from. The weakness that you feel is almost like a sense of loss and the complete change of your life which can happen just over night. It’s not as anyone’s died or anything but you almost have to start your life all over again. The song was written from the point of view I wasn’t on. Maybe it was just kind of revisiting something in the distant past and writing it down. It’s been a while since I’ve written these. It’s good because I have to sing it in the next three weeks. It’s quite difficult to remember your own lyrics sometimes. I need to remember what they’re about.

“Who Says“ is interesting, you work for the first time with a guest vocalist, tell us a something about that?
Richard: Actually the way it came about was that I’ve written a piece of music for “Who Says” which I gave to Mark and he came back with this song and sang it in the studio. Because he kept repeating the same line I had this idea. I said that this could be really good; it could almost be like an argument, one person saying one thing and another person saying the same thing. I said it would be quite interesting to get somebody else to sing this second part rather than Mark singing the whole song. We’ve known Julia for a long time and she became a good friend of ours. So I rang her up and said “We’re in a real hurry for this, could you possibly, if I send you the track, just sing it, record it in the studio and send your part back again?” She did it. Within almost two days she recorded it in a studio in Germany, sent it back via the Internet and I dropped it straight in the track. And it was really cool. It works quite well, sounding like two people talking to each other.

Where do you get the inspiration for your songs; is it all personal experiences or also stories about others?
Mark: Not really. I think you just follow a lead sometimes. It can be anything. There’s several different things involved in it. I tend to just listen to the music and that can be something that is done or something that I just play around with. Then kind of words and phrases pop out and then you go back and try to find out what it is that’s coming out of it. It’s very odd. Sometimes you got no idea really. But that’s the way I write. People write differently and I tend to just feel what comes out with the music. Then all of the sudden you got an idea of where it’s going. It kind of has a life of its own. The song writes itself sometimes. It just comes from somewhere. It sounds strange but it is like that. That’s my kind of talent and that’s what I bring into the mix. I can make songs write themselves.

Let’s have a more personal question, what do you regret in your life and if you had the chance to go back in time, would you change something or are you settled and happy with everything?
Mark: Sometimes I think you kind of look at some of the things that you do and you think “I could have done something different; I could have been somewhere else”. But when I look back at the threads of what has happened I’m in the best place I could be really. I think it’s two thoughts. I’m happy with where I am and I can’t imagine being happier but in the same breath you think you could have done something different. When I was younger and left school I did a lot of things because I almost couldn’t be bothered to do anything else but in the same aspect if I haven’t done those things I wouldn’t be where I am now. I’ve always kind of worked hard. Sometimes you make decisions because you’re frightened of doing something else. A lot of people do this. I don’t think anyone can truly sit down and say “I wish I’d never done anything else other than what I did”. That’s quite unusual; I think most people would be lying. Sometimes I wish I’d maybe gone into science or lived abroad but when you’re look at where you are and are glad that things went how they did, it’s a really difficult question. Yes and no ‘laughs’.

This year you signed to Stefan Herwig and Dependent records, bit of a change for mesh, what’s the story there?
Richard: We were in a position where we had signed with Sony Columbia. After making “We Collide” our contract ran out. We decided we didn’t want to sign a record contract again. I said to Mark that the best thing would be if we’d just take our time, write a good album and then find a label later. That’s what we did. We wrote an album together without a label or anybody’s money and then near the completion of the album we asked our manager to find someone to release this. Four or five label really wanted to sign us and put the album out. It was quite a good position for us, because we had the choice and could look what each label can offer us. And we had signed by Sony, but we were realising that it’s really not about the money or the label. It’s about the people you work with and their dedication and belief in what you’re doing. So when we talked with a lot of these people they didn’t really come up with that. When we spoke to Stefan he was completely upset. He followed our career, knew everything about us and he really admired what we’ve done considering we had normal jobs as well. He said “For a band coming to this level without doing it full-time is amazing.” He was just very honest and a breath of fresh air for us. Based on that we wanted to work with him. Stefan is a very clever man when it comes to this scene and this whole music business.

Did you find a lot of freedom making this new album with no label, did it make the writing process more fun that previous albums?
Richard: Yes, definitely. To be honest we have been quite lucky in the past that most of our labels really haven’t interfered that much. Possibly at the end they had ideas about changing little things like making it more radio-friendly and things like that. But with this album we had complete creative freedom and we did whatever we wanted to do. By the time any label has heard it, it was pretty much finished. And it feels closer to me then any other album we’ve done before this one.

As you say yourself, you were influenced by the early Electro-Bands like Depeche Mode or Nitzer Ebb. What impressed you the most about these bands; by what did you get inspired?
Richard: I think it was just possibly their purpose to that all and the fact that it was just so new back then. I remember being into music, just kind of normal bands but made me really listen to music was f.e. Gary Numan. It was so different to anything I’d ever heard, using Synthesizers in that way. And it was the same with all the other bands that came up in that period of time like Depeche Mode or Yazoo. Yazoo had a massive influence on me, because it was the first time that electronic music had a soul. All that what came about in that time was just so refreshing. I was so bored of hearing guitar bands and when electronic music took off it was the thing that really caught my ears. Especially the non-commercial bands like DAF, Fad Gadget, Portion Control and all these slightly weird bands.

What was the funniest question you’ve been asked?
Richard: Well, I don’t want to give too much about, but.. ‘laughs’ unbelievably we’ve had three people contact us just recently. They were such big fans and they wanted to propose their girlfriends at the concert. That never happened at all. And we’ve got three completely different people asking at the same time. We do get awesome strange things.

What experiences have you gained and learned from the lifetime of being Mesh?
Richard: I think playing live is a big experience. Every time you do a tour you grow in confidence and know what you’re doing. I think as people we’ve just become aware of everything. You’re very naïve when you start. You try and do anything and listen to everybody. Over the years you learn just to go with your heart – do what you want to do and what you think is right and hope that people like it. That’s the position we are in now. For this reason I like this album more than anything else because we’ve done it ourselves. We haven’t followed a trend and we haven’t really tried to copy anybody. We just do our own thing and I think that’s what every band should do, especially in this scene. There’s so many bands I listen to and when I get CD’s sent to me they’re all sounding the same. They are all trying to do this future-pop stuff and are beginning to sound exactly like each other. So stop listening to it, do your own thing and hope that people like it. That’s what we tried all along. I think we haven’t really changed. We’ve just always been Mesh.

On your upcoming tour you have “Informatik” as support, what’s the story there?
Richard: We were looking for somebody quite interesting to take on tour. So many bands end up using the same bands as support. We’re just had to do it a little bit different. In the past we brought over people that the German audience haven’t already seen, f.e. we had Iris, a band from America which I’ve been following for years. We’re always looking for something interesting to put on the show. And Informatik approached us. They’re involved with Metropolis Records, which is our American Label as well. I really liked it. It was different and nobody hasn’t really seen them in Germany; so it was really of interest for the tour. That’s how it came about. We have never met them. We are first going to meet them in Germany next week. It’ll be interesting; we will see what they’re like.

What can we expect from the upcoming tour; do you plan something special?
Richard: Yes, we’ve been working on something and we’re hoping and praying that it’s all going to work because it is getting so complicated and technical now. We were one of the first bands that start using video on a big scale. We’ve been doing it for such a long time now. We decided to do something else because all the other bands are doing this. The technology is cheaper so we came up with a new idea for the upcoming tour which involves multiple screens in different places. It’s very complicated but we managed to get it working. We haven’t actually tested it which is really funny but we’re confident that it’s all going to work. Hopefully it’s going to be a little bit interactive. At the end of the last week we came up with the idea of taking pictures of everybody coming in. We will go backstage with the camera, download all those pictures and drop them into a folder. All these pictures will become part of the show in the background. People will be really surprised when they see pictures of themselves on the video screen behind us. We plan something similar for this tour as well. We are excited to play the new songs and we’ve also redone some of the older stuff. It should be really, really cool.

Do you already have any plans for the future?
Richard: Not really. You tend to just think of a couple of weeks ahead rather than the big picture of years. None of us is getting any younger. We were completely concentrating on this album and now the album is out so we’re looking forward to the release. Now the next concentration is onto the tour. After that we will start thinking about what’s coming next. We were talking about Singles; there is plenty that we’re getting on with but I can’t think far enough ahead. It’s just thinking about the immediate things to be honest.

Thanks for the Interview, best wishes for the tour hope it all works well!!
Richard: Thank you very much. Mark: I hope so. Thank you very much.

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