The 3 Cold Men were formed in late 1999 by Franck Lopez from the french group Opera Multi Steel, Alex Twin from Individual Industry and Maurizio Bonito from Volv Uncion (both from Brazil). Separated by distance but united by creativity, they found their goal and created their sound…
With songs full of feeling, their musical style is currently defined as Retro Wave, the music revolving around the use of vintage synthetisers coupled with modern sound technologies and also acoustic instrumentation. The lyrics of their songs deal with issues harking back to the days of the Romantic movement but that are, nevertheless, very present nowadays.
In 2001, they began recording their first songs, resulting in a demo-CD. This led to appearances in compilations and, in 2004, to the release of their debut album, the self-titled “3 Cold Men” in the German label Sequensed Sonic Interferences.
C.B. – As the old song goes, “let’s start by the very beginning…”, namely the origin of 3CM. How did the band come to be?
Alex Twin: In 1999, I was thinking of starting a project more 80´s and Electro than Individual Industry. I asked Maurizio and Franck (both are lovers of the 80´s) and they sad “Yes”.
C.B. – The mandatory question: why the name “The 3 Cold Men”?
Franck Lopez: When we are asked about the meaning of our band’s name, we usually answer that we are three, that we are male and that we all like (among many other things) cold music. This explanation may be quite simple and evident. Perhaps we could change the name if we were four, five, six or if the band was about to engage one or several female musicians. :-)
C.B. – And a bit about yourselves, what motivates you to do music? What is your musical background?
Alex Twin: Music is my life. I can put all my feelings in my music! Since 2001, I’ve been open to different styles and sensations, because I’m living excellent days with my girlfriend and it helps me with my music!
Maurizio Bonito: Basically everything that touches me sensorially: dissatisfaction, happiness, anxiety. My reasons are vast, I don’t think I would be able to be more objective about the primordial impulse… ;-)
Franck Lopez: I’ve been making music for such a long time now that I must admit it is certainly something essential to my life. If it was not so, I guess I should have stopped for many years now… Regarding music, I feel it as something like a reason to live… I could not imagine living without “creating”. What motivates me may be the fact that life is short and that time is counted, so each day passed must be the opportunity to leave some trace behind me, whatever thin it is, even if I perfectly know that all these considerations are syndromes of pure vanity… Regarding my musical background, my very first musical emotions were with the Beatles’ songs. Perhaps their melodic and unformatted musical style gave me the original seed for an open-minded way to approach music… But I also evolved among choral classical formation that gave me the taste for baroque, Renaissance and Medieval music… So my very first musical experiences were very marked by folk and medieval traditional music. Then came my taste for electro but I suppose that all the original background that we are carrying influences in a certain way your manner to merge different styles… and to be, or not, ready to embrace new experiences…
C.B. – What are the musical influences that shaped your musical development and, consequently, shaped 3CM’s sound? What have you been listening to as of late?
Alex Twin: I listen to different styles inside alternative music. Favourites from the 80´s and new stuff: John Foxx, Visage, Classix Nouveaux, Cocteau Twins, Pink Industry, Diary of Dreams, Deine Lakaien, Suicide Commando, Das Ich, XPQ-21, Haujobb, SiTD, Feindflug, etc…
Maurizio Bonito: Well I’ve basically listened to: Minimal/Electro/Wave/IDM of the last few decades and their contemporaries (John Foxx, Client, Ladytron, FSOL, Autechre, Japan…), oldies, Trip-Hop/Downtempo/Blisspop (Violet Indiana, Esthero, Anja Garbareck, Astronaut Wife…), soundtracks, Classical music…
Franck Lopez: As I told before, the panel of influences is very wide, going from Medieval, Renaissance, Folk, Electro-pop, Gothic Darkwave… I don’t think that the medieval side of me may be very noticeable in the 3CM sound but all that concern the original 80’s electro pop wave (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Ultravox, Human League, Rational Youth, Gary Numan …) and the second 90’s wave (De Vision, Wolfsheim, Apoptygma Berzerk, Spock…) are obviously influencing my manner of singing and the way I am creating melodies for the 3 Cold Men. I could also notice many bands that could be put into my musical luggage: Qntal, Dead Can Dance, New Order, Talk Talk, Malicorne, Helium Vola, This Mortal Coil, Clan of Xymox… the list is so long that it’s quite impossible to be exhaustive.
C.B. – And influences other than music? Literature, cinema, etc… what would you say helped shape the ideas and visuals of 3CM?
Alex Twin: I love “Edwards Scissors Hands”, Gothic Style, New Romantic style, Terror Films and Books! I love medieval history and fantasy.
Maurizio Bonito: I’m a fan of science and technology, therefore I’ve loved futurism and science fiction since I was very young. Science Fiction films and series, and their sounds full of electronic noises basically introduced me to electronic music, in the case of “Forbidden Planet”. In art and literature I’ve used as a reference the modernist movement at the turn of the century (Dada, Cubism, Bauhaus, etc.), although I don’t always have them in my conscious mind while I compose. The visual element was always the purest entertainment for me personally, as if I transformed myself into a member of the Adams Family or some Tim Burton character, such as “Nightmare before Christmas”! ;-)
Franck Lopez: Concerning literature, I think I have always been more attracted by poetry than novels… I have always been a big fan of ancient French poets like Ronsard, Du Bellay, Louise Labbé, Clément Marot that were writing, in their time (XVIth century) in a very pure French way… But I am also very fond of Elizabethan English poets like Ben Johnson, Michael Drayton or Thomas Lodge… Returning to more recent acts, I adore surrealistic poetry of the early XXth century or pre-surrealistic ones from the Sixth century. I like as much the strict rigidity of ancient forms of poetry as the complete liberty taken with the themes and the forms that were initialized by poets like Lautréamont, Rimbaud, Jarry, Breton and lately Prévert.
Regarding cinema, my tastes go towards historical, fantastic, Science Fiction, visionary or introspective ones. My favourite directors are David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Terry Gilliam… Among my cult films I could notice “Star Wars”, “Eraserhead”, “Brazil”, “The wings of Desire”, “Alien” and too many others !
Besides, as we cannot be too serious all the time, I am a bit mad about TV series like “X-Files”, the original 60’s “Star Trek”, “The Experts”… I like the English outdated charm of “The Avengers”… The schizophrenic delirium emanating from “The Prisoner”…
C.B. – How does your creative process work? Lyrics-based, music based or some kind of synergy?
Alex Twin: It’s very natural. We go to the studio and start with some ideas! We have a good synergy!
Maurizio Bonito: To be precise, mine is sound based. I stay for hours in front of the synth controls, looking for sounds I like and normally one of them suggests a structure, after which a pattern, and so on, until the conclusion of the song. But from the synergistic point of view, sometimes I change the arrangement to conform with the melody i get from Franck.
Franck Lopez: According to our being so far, for this first album we had to divide clearly the creative process. So all song bases, rhythms, loops and keyboards were made by Maurizio and Alex in São Paulo… Then they send the files for me to work the vocals here in France. The way I work is quite simple. I listen and listen again to the instrumental background in my car when driving until I find a satisfying melody fitting with the music of my two colleagues… When it’s done, I record the voices, backing voices and additional guitars here in France and I send the completed tracks back to Brazil for them to be mixed and remixed. It’s a bit frustrating for me not to be able to share the final mixing process but that’s the disadvantage of working like quite virtual partners… But I have the great pleasure of being surprised when receiving the final (and numerous) versions of the songs concocted by Maurizio and other remixers like those that were involved in this first album’s project.
About lyrics, Alex and I wrote some while exchanging word files through Internet (“Your face”, “Truth”, “I need you”, “Change of Life”) and I wrote alone the lyrics of “The Three Cold Men”, “The Tower”, “Don’t Pretend” and “X.Fragile”.
C.B. – Is it an exaggeration to suppose, from your “3 Cold Men” anthem song, that there is a strong sense of unity in your band?
Alex Twin: Franck wrote the lyrics to this song and, of course, he managed to show the real spirit of 3CM. We are good friends and that’s the most important of all.
Maurizio Bonito: Yes, we have a clear consciousness which is from our combined forces, and the band is the result. We have specific tasks but we have opinions over everything done together.
Franck Lopez: It’s obvious that this song was written in order to begin an anthem and a kind of profession of faith relating to all those great glories that gave us the flame to create this 3 Cold Men band. Moreover, being (and staying) united beyond the distance and time passing by and leading this project to a concrete finalization was a very difficult wager… This song is also a kind of exorcism against the eventual split that could occur in case of artistic divergences! But that won’t be so, hopefully! Perhaps while listening to this song, it will work like a mantra. Let’s hope it will be effective for a long time to come!
C.B. – If so, how does that unity (and musical creation) work since band members (correct me if I am mistaken) are split between Brazil and Europe/France?
Alex Twin: We don’t have problems with this. Just we spend more time exchanging packages by mail. Maurizio and I did the music and Franck trusted us! At the same time, we trust Franck to do the melodies and lyrics! We don’t need talk every time about directions, etc…
Maurizio Bonito: Well the world isn’t that big! Internet and mail help fix quite a bit of the communication problems. But obviously physical proximity helps brainstorming and other such creative endeavors.
C.B. – What about past projects/bands?
Alex Twin: I have 2 albums with my first band “Individual Industry” released in Germany. And another project in 1994 called “Mauve” (Darkwave style) with just one demo tape released in the same year.
Maurizio Bonito: Volv Uncion which began in the mid 80’s basically with musical calculators, looped tapes, Metallica scraps and whatever thing that you have in your hands. Today it’d be called “Minimal-Electro/IDM/Freestyle Electronica”. Individual Industry which I joined in 1989, whose next disc we will work on. Stylistically it was founded in Ethereal-pop with Coldwave and some Experimental Industrial. Today it’s Blisspop/Dreampop which has elements of Trip-Hop, Downtempo, Electronica, acoustic instruments, and female vocal experiments.
Franck Lopez: I have previously recorded eight albums (last one on the German label Triton) with the French eclectic synthetic minimalist band Opera Multi Steel. This band stopped being operative last year.
C.B. – Moving to the present: current side-projects/bands?
Alex Twin: I have recorded a new project after 3CM called “Wintry” and will be released next year. One more Project (Industrial) is coming soon!
Maurizio Bonito: At the end of last year I began working on a new project called Sci-Fi Moritz, which, despite also having elements of Minimal/Electro and IDM, is comparable to Volv Uncion aside from having some guitar and bass here and there. But until now I haven’t had the initiative to record it on CD. It’s something I did to play live.
Franck Lopez: Outside 3 Cold Men I also play and record bass guitar in the French dark band Collection d’Arnell Andréa under the pseudonym Franz Torres-Quevedo. I am also running an electro medieval band called “O Quam Tristis…” under the pseudonym of Hugues Dammarie. This band, created in 2000, has already released two albums on the Italian label Palace of Worms. A third one is in progress.
A soft Electro-Folk duet with Emeric Lenotz (“O Quam Tristis…”) called Thy Violent Vanities will be soon issued. It will be also featuring additional vocals by members of the French duet Hide and Seek.
I have also performed some few vocals for the second album of the Dark Ambient American band Bleeding Like Mine.
My different pseudonyms help me not to merge into schizophrenic diseases…! Anyway, the 3 Cold Men is the first band in which I am involved as a full part singer…
C.B. – Alex seems to be quite a protagonist with his “side career” as deejay… is there synergy between that activity and 3CM? Or is it another facet of 3CM public relations?
Alex Twin: Yeah… I love DJing! I started in 1987, and after a few years being very busy with my personal life, I started again in 2000. It is very important to promote some parties as DJ, because I will be promoting 3CM as well. Right now, I play more danceable music on my DJ sets. I love Lots of styles, but I prefer more beats to play with! I always play 3 Cold Men on my DJ-set…
C.B. – Hearing your music and by your looks, it becomes apparent that 3CM can easily be pigeon-holed as a ‘dark’ band (and Alex’s DJing work is a dead-giveaway…;-) ). However, you have undeniable mainstream appeal. How do you feel the response to 3CM has been, both from the “expected target audiences” as well as from more mainstream ones?
Alex Twin: Pop music is the name given to any band/song easy to listen and sing. We got lots of this kind of music around the world, but the most part doesn’t get to be popular! We hope we can get more audience after some years and maybe get a big space on the mainstream media!
Maurizio Bonito: I think it’s been on average very positive, I personally was expecting a lot less!
Franck Lopez: I think this ambivalence is the fruit of the influences that we are melting together. I think we are not feeling guilty about making “potentially” mainstream songs.
The Electro-Pop or Synthpop genre does not include the word “Pop” for nothing. Is being (or sounding) popular a problem? I don’t think so… I think we just would like our songs being able to move people of all generations. Mixing Dark, Cold, Electro of 80’s and 90’s and more if possible in the 3 Cold Men melting pot is not irreconcilable. I hope this first album gets to be the demonstration of this fact… Anyway, any melodic song is supposed to become popular It has… just to find its way among the tons of the annual musical releases. We are just one point in an ocean! And sat between targeted and mainstream way of sounding … But perhaps that’s what we deeply are. Time will tell if it was the good way to be or to act…
C.B. – I have to admit that until the autumn of 2003 I had never heard of the 3CM until I bought “Synthétique” and 3CM was one of the bands that most impressed me in there. From that little compilation to a full-length release (on a young and upcoming label but nevertheless), DJ sets, etc… a bit of a meteoric rise, no? Even if you actively worked for it, did you expect this?
Alex Twin: We worked hard to release the album, get fans, good reviews, so we were waiting for some reward! Of course we are happy with lots of good reviews! We hope we can do better than the first album. About the DJ set: I’ve been a DJ for 16 years, I’m happy that can play in Europe and different people listen to my DJ-sets!
Maurizio Bonito: Yes and no… for me it’s clear that we would have encountered some recorder or that some recorder would have encountered us, but it wasn’t that incredible if you take into account the band’s existed since 1999, almost 5 years!
C.B. – Is there any sort of interaction between artists in the SSI label? Would be interesting to have you guys mixing (and being mixed by) Cycloon… ;-)
Alex Twin: Not yet! It could be great doing work with different bands and styles!
Maurizio Bonito: Up until now there’s been no interaction with our label’s other musicians, but of course I’ve always been curious about the artistic visions that other musicians have done in their compositions.
C.B. – As for the future, what do 3CM hold in store? Do you have any new recording material already in the works or ideas on development of your sound for a new album?
Alex Twin: Yes, we are working on the next album! We hope we can release the second one in April/may 2005.
Maurizio Bonito: Yes, we already have some rough drafts and the rest are on their way.
C.B. – An European tour has been mentioned. Are there any set dates/countries?
Alex Twin: 3CM will be on tour in 2005. We don’t have dates yet. Anyway, we are right now talking about it with some agencies! Probably we will be in the next summer in Europe. Maybe we will start the tour in Brazil.
C.B. – Even more into the future, now that your goal was found and you created your sound, how do you envision your continuing quest for the final Grail? ;-)
Alex Twin: We never stop until we get the Grail. After that, we will run to get another one, and after that another one…
Franck Lopez: First, let me thank you for having so subtly employed the words from our anthem song! Concerning the Future, I could say: “May the Force be with us…!”
C.B. – An obvious question that comes from the touring question… what do you do for a living? Do you live off music, or do you have ‘real jobs’? If so, how do you manage to coordinate music and ‘real life’?
Alex Twin: I worked 10 years with music. I worked on a record shop and an independent label until 2000. After that, I produced some gigs in Brazil (Clan of Xymox and The Mission UK). I worked as DJ in a Brazilian night club. Right Now I’m a freelancer making parties, management with some companies, etc…
Maurizio Bonito: I worked for some time as a small courier. I wasn’t able to live from the sales of the CDs… Those who live off of music here normally do songs for publicity… apparently the great majority of the musicians are basically DJ’s and not musicians, although there are DJ-musicians and vice-versa.
Franck Lopez: As I often say, I don’t live off of music (or partly) but music helps me to live. Music is my better ally in the continuing fight against depression… Besides all my musical projects, I am working as a teacher. I think it is considered as a real job, even if I still have pleasure while practicing.
Music and “real” work are two very separate lives.
C.B. – Despite the fact that you are obviously an electronica-based band, how would you react to the challenge of doing a 3CM fully acoustic album of concert? Off-hand, any ideas on how that could be coordinated (guest musicians, etc)?
Maurizio Bonito: Well I certainly couldn’t play, as I’m a horrible pianist! ;-) In order to recreate the same impact of certain songs, it would require a small orchestra for strings, piano, horns, and percussion. It would be fantastic and possibly very expensive! Nowadays it’s difficult for new bands to do live shows when they have a double image such as eight more people than the usual performance!
Franck Lopez: You mean something like some unplugged performances…? Why not!
But you know that to give something really attractive we would need a big amount of extra musicians like violas, violins, cellos and so on… to replace synths, acoustic percussions to replace rhythm patterns… Well, returning to earth, playing some songs with just a guitar could be possible but perhaps a bit boring in the end… Anyway, performing and recording acoustic versions of 3CM tracks could be an idea to exploit in the future. But I think it could just be isolated experiments.
C.B. – Franck Lopez’ English vocals are quite good, but it is obvious that English is not his native language. Why the choice of English for your lyrics, why not go for your native luso-brazilian?
Maurizio Bonito: First because almost everyone speaks English. Economically speaking, therefore, it was our first option. The other option would have been German for obvious reasons. Perhaps I will ask Franck to do some French version which the market already appears to be opening itself slowly to this language. Brazil doesn’t support this type of electronic music that we do with 3 Cold Men. I also thing it would be strange to hear electronic music in Portuguese, especially song by men. Few people that I know would be able to do it with decent results. I’d never risk it!
Franck Lopez : My name has of course spanish origins but I don’t speak spanish (or so little) and therefore Portuguese sounds quite strange to me even if I can understand it a bit while reading… but if you could hear my Portuguese accent, you would laugh about it one night and one day long! I speak and pronounce English better, even if it’s certainly very easy to notice I am not a native! But accents have also their own charm…
I thank the Gods because if the two other Cold Men had chosen to sing in Portuguese, I would not be here to answer this interview!
C.B. – I can’t resist but I have to ask, what are your feelings about past and present legendary Brazilian musicians? Vinicius de Moraes, Tom Jobim, Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, etc… any preferences?
Alex Twin: I don’t like brazilian music. I respect it but it is not my kind of music!
Maurizio Bonito: I like some songs by Tom Jobim, such as “Insensatez”, and I hate others such as “Garota de Ipanema”, whose inspiring muse were photo sessions of erotic nudity with his own daughter! What bad taste! I like something from Elis Regina and a few songs from Chico Buarque. Popular Brazilian Music for me is in general very simplistic. It loves this type of thing… to be slippery, to be a “malandro” (a euphamism for corruption), who only cares about taking advantage of everything. It really doesn’t look to the future. Even a little while ago Brazilian Popular Music was also a big opponent of the computer, electronics, and their users.
We aren’t nationalistic, like the majority of the people who think Brazil is the best place in the world just because it’s big, has sun, beaches, soccer, and beautiful women! The cultural references that we have are European, such as the music that we always listen to, be it Pop, Electronica, or Classical. However, I also like World music and some Latin rhythms such as Salsa, Mambo, Cha-cha-cha, generally the instrumental versions…
C.B. – Slowly drifting away from music and on wards to the ‘real world’. Have you ever considered creating songs with more extrovert themes, both mundane or more ‘serious’?
Maurizio Bonito: I actually never thought of that to be honest, but I also don’t have anything against it. It’s enough to not be simplistic! ;-)
Franck Lopez: For this first album, it’s obvious that the lyrics are mainly tainted by some kind of romantic feelings about love’s disillusions and consequences (Your Face, Change of Life, Truth…). Alex will certainly talk about the songs he wrote…
Except for the first anthem song of the album, it’s possible to notice that the themes of some other songs, even autobiographical ones are about autism (X.Fragile), the quest for a sexual and viable personality (The Tower) and the solitude we can feel sometimes when living too long a time with a person that you know so well that she (he) becomes a kind of stranger in the end (Don’t pretend). These subjects may all be considered as serious but we sing them on so danceable rhythms that they become silly… That’s the magic of Synthpop… It all sounds happy but melancholic at a time whatever may be the subject… I really don’t know what will be our inspiration for the songs to come… But we are certainly not confined to contemplate our navels… It will depend about our personal experiences and life events…
C.B. – How do you view the world as it is now? What are your feelings on the current situation of the world from the US invasion of Iraq to the rise of religious fundamentalisms (muslim, christian, etc…), the fighting fire with fire “war on terror”, US elections?
Maurizio Bonito: Wow! That question needs a book to be responded well to! ;-) A] I really feel insecure, with things such as making use of our material resources to correct the majority of our problems, the hunger for power still dictating the laws, and I feel that the future of the world to be, in the best hypotheses, a hell without any resources, worse than any apocalyptic film would ever dare to show.
B] The USA invaded Iraq, so those who support the homophobic, xenophobic, and President of Evil, Bush, are the Oil companies. Not that Saddam Hussein was a saint, but it’s obvious that in strategical terms, Bin Laden would have been the better choice to have happened to Bush. On one hand it’s quite horrible to see so many people die in terrorist attack in the world, but on the other hand, the first world has taken all the natural resources of the earth for forever. It’s only natural that at some point, as there is no justice, there will be a reaction by force, not that this resolves anything. In the 1960’s there were some attacks in Brazil and other Latin American countries, perpetrated through the CIA to blame the Communists. They even planned to blow up their own embassy in Sao Paulo, to be able to justify a future intervention, but the spy who was responsible declined to participate. What’s saddest is that the majority of the population didn’t chose Bush and are paying for it… If this political system of theirs doesn’t change soon they will end up adopting the name “Home of the Graves”… :-(
C] How much more will state and church mix themselves up? I’m not Christian, nor jew, and even less of a satanist. Therefore, I prefer not to get involved in this blowing up others, for I will never understand necessity to hurt others in the name of the “God” of his or her favorite philosophy/religion. The USA speaks of fundamentalism as if it were something horrible but in the southern states darwinism was expunged from the school curriculum because it was contrary to the bible. [i.e. it’s quite poor in terms of general knowledge, what it shows is the lack of common sense and respect for other peoples]. What’s next, burning in little fires widows that have cats and make tea?
And the Vatican doesn’t improve anything, either… It’s an incredibly rich state that only thinks about gathering more faithful to richen its already fat coffers.
D] Hatred is a bad councilor, as is hunger… adjust the socio-cultural level of the world for equality, and I think that a great deal of these [problems] would end. Eliminate this stupid necessity of material gain and another part would be resolved. Seeing the increase of the right extreme in the whole world, even the European underground music scene openly supporting ex-Austrian Arnold Schwazenegger (pro-tobacco, pro-weapons, pro-alcohol…) the extreme right candidate from Austria, now governor of California… and considering the fact that the American people did not even choose Bush the first time, I only can wait for things to get worse. I believe the rights of brutality, greed, and idiocy will win…
Franck Lopez:Well, from all these emerge very worrying constatations…
First : It seems better by these times and for the balance of world to support a dictator rather than to eliminate him…
Second: Democracy cannot be imposed to people by force, above if these people were not used to. This process is a long way and cannot come from one day to another.
Third: Liberators are now being considered as invaders.
Fourth: The image of Democracy has been spoiled by those who are supposed to be fighting for it.
Fifth : The new ennemy of “democratic” capitalism / liberalism is definitely no more communism Islamism… is now the enemy and therefore we are their enemy… whatever we could do. But alas, many people will think that every Muslim is an enemy… What is for sure far from being the truth.
Let’s hope that fanaticism (from all sides) will not be the new and only way of expression in this world in quest of identity …
I am afraid to see that in 2004, so many people, in the western or Eastern countries are now expressing themselves and fighting in the name of religions, the most irrational creations of human’s mind… We are not in a mental progress… When religion comes out of the private intimacy of people to become a kind of emblematic flag to avenge by arms all the misery of the World, the worse is to come. All these events sounds like a “devolution” to me and I am not very optimistic about the future of human race. Medieval religion confrontations with the technical ways of nowadays may be completely destructive if we do not come out from this infernal sphere of organized human misunderstanding.
I just have the very deep feeling that we are the hostages of two conceptions of the world apparently distant but fighting together towards the same goal : the confrontation of two worlda that could just make one with a bit of tolerance. The bomb was made by Bin Laden and Bush fired it. Medias are doing the rest of the job.
Just one little sparkle of hope: no-one is eternal…!
C.B. – Despite being a potentially useful tool (and the means for this interview), what are your opinions about the Internet and the consequences of its use? As a musician, the concept of ‘file-sharing’ can increase your popularity but also cause you damage due to piracy…
Maurizio Bonito: I find it’s irreversible. The music industry has gotten so large and is as slow as a dinosaur. And as such goes, it will consume itself. The necessity to create pop icons every summer takes it to unreal levels, keeping the price of CDs so high for the consumer. The economic success in the past has given them an unstoppable arrogance. This combination was fatal for them. The problem is that it also happened to independents who work with small margins of profit and a lot more expenses! I think that in some time music will not longer be a way to survive, which is perhaps good from the artistic point of view, as it will continue to makemusic for tastes and not for profits. In terms of sharing, the internet is only good in excess; it’s like a place where everyone has a place in the sun… it’s difficult to be noticed amidst all the other “offers”…
Alex Twin: I share Maurizio´s opinion!
C.B. – On a personal level, the Net allows the contact of people from far off places of the globe but one thing that becomes readily apparent is a leveling by the lowest common denominator and the other is a leading to a certain isolation and reduction of ‘real human contact’. Care to comment on these issues?
Alex Twin: People are afraid of it these days! The Internet came to change the life of everybody around the world. Fear, pain, disillusion causes one to stay behind a computer rather than get a real life.
Maurizio Bonito: I think that isolation only occurs if the person doesn’t feel with real contact. The world is getting more insecure all the time and I find it normal that people prefer the comfort and security of electronic contact or a perfect illusion to live fantasies in complete anonymity, for moderate prices, thinking of how much a transcontinental telephone call costs… with time and better technology, it will be, as Atom Heart said in 1994, “walking without move”…
C.B. – A bit of a fan-boy oddity… on January 1st 2004 I visited your website (this was before the redesign) and there was an opening message stating that “on this day the 3CM died”. Prank for the fans or did this have some other hidden meaning?
Alex Twin: I don’t know anything about that!
Maurizio Bonito: I have absolutely no idea what this is about and I don’t know what it means!
Franck Lopez: Well I was told about this fact by someone else that visited the site on January 1st 2004… If I understood it correctly, it was on the fan website and not on the official one… I have no explanation for this except that we know nothing of this curious announcement Perhaps the… girl running the website was alone and a bit depressed on New Year’s eve! I don’t see any other explanation. But what is sure is that we never decided to split, even for one day… It seems that the message did not stay up for a long time, because when I came to visit it has disappeared… A kind of Internet Mystery!
C.B. – In closing, I’d like to thank you for this interview. Do you have any final words or requests? ;-)
Alex Twin: Thank you so much for the great questions! It’s a pleasure to be on your e-zine! To fans: Send me messages! I love making contact with people all around the world!
Maurizio Bonito: Thanks for the awesome interview and the opportunity for us to get to know each other!