So, what exactly is "Cyberpunk"? Is it a form of music, a fashion, state of mind?
vx69: Basically, Cyberpunk means we use machines to play punk music - or maybe we play machine music in a punk way. Most cyberpunkers use big words to define themselves, it's just pretentious self-indulgent bullshit, too much cyberwanking. Rivetheads trying to give sense to senseless things... Who needs a meaning?
Miss Z: Some think VNV Nation are cyberpunk. Ha! Al Jourgensen said one day that cyberpunk music was electronic music when it's not dance stuff, that's a quite good definition. And VNV are definitely Dance of the worst kind.
vx69: Most people have a very restricted vision of cyberpunk culture. Matrix, just enough Gibson to use words like simstim or neuromancer, shitty synth-pop or Nine Inch Nails as background music, some bits of misunderstood hacking ideology, wearing cyberdog clothes. We don't belong to that.
My first impression of your music was that it reminded me a lot of old Ministry and other Wax Trax bands from the early 90's. Do you all take any of your influence from those groups, or that industrial scene?
vx69: Ministry, Revolting Cocks, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, sure. TKK for the funny, sleaze attitude. I'm really happy they seem to be back on track. And, well, Ministry. If I had earned one dollar every time I listened to a Ministry record, I would be richer than Bill Gates. The Land Of, Mind Is, Psalm 69 trilogy is just absolutely perfect, too bad they sank into sludgy-metal after that.
Miss Z: A guy once wrote in a review that our songs sound exactly Ministry-like. It was probably a criticism, but that one made me happy. I'd rather read we are Ministry rip-offs than being compared to Marylin fucking Manson.
Who are your main influences?
vx69: We listen to a lot of music, and are quite easily influenced, when we dig something. Ministry and TKK as already said, Sheep On Drugs, The Lords Of Acid, Foetus, Skinny Puppy, Motorhead, Cubanate, Iggy Pop, The Cramps, White 'n' Rob Zombie, Killing Joke, Hawkwind, Chrome. And digital-hardcore bands too, ec80r, Atari Teenage Riot, Ambassador21.
Miss Z: It's quite easier to say who we never were influenced by…Marylin Manson, Rammstein, Bob Marley, Tom Jones. Well, Tom Jones, who knows, maybe a bit.
Your stage shows seem like they would be an amazing site to see. Where did the idea for the black lights and neon body paint come from?
Miss Z: Actually, back in the 90's, we had stolen black UV lights in a nightclub, and someone said ‘why not try to use these for a gig?’As there was no other use we could think of, we tried, and it was like the world had blown a fuse. Never stopped after that. Actually I suspect the idea came from watching one of the Batman movies, with UV reacting bad guys in it. But as we were stoned most of the time, the memories are quite hazy.
vx69: In the beginning we used very light make-up, the full body paint thing came after. Just because when you do something, you have to do it full screen. Or just because we never know when we should stop.
What's the deal with Olga, the dancer? Is she part of the band, or does she just get up there on stage with you all and get crazy?
vx69: Well yeah, basically, getting wild onstage is the only thing she does, but that makes her a full member of the band. She can't be there every time, but really, she's not just a visual element, we couldn't work with people who don't really believe in the stuff. Hired people or anything, that just wouldn't fit. I mean, at a time there were two Olgas. Both of them really called Olga. One of them had to stop touring with us, but she'll be part of the band till the end of times.
Miss Z: Countess Olga. She's like a big sister to us.
Who else is in the band, and what do they do?
vx69: We're four noisemakers onstage. Miss Z plays guitar and sings. She's the female one. X.AV plays drums, P-rlox plays guitar and sings. No one ever told him the noise he makes with his throat are not really singing, but who cares. I just sing and work on the machines in the studio. That's the core. But PY wouldn't be the same without Olga, and our new dancer Klodia with her metal-grinder 'n' sparks, and the crew, we're a family. A kind of Addams family, but still, a family.
You all seem to have done quite a bit of touring throughout Europe. Do you have a good following there?
vx69: In France, yeah, a very good following, ‘cos that's where we've been touring for years and years and years. I suppose we can say we're the number one industrial act in France, which doesn't mean much, to be perfectly honest, no one buys industrial records in this country.
Miss Z: We also have quite a good following in Belgium, Switzerland, and its growing fast in Germany and in the UK. In other countries, well, we still have work, but after years of complete underground, we now have a label working on all this. Strangely, we have a lot of excellent feedback from the USA, a country where we're not distributed and never toured.
I noticed that one of you recent shows in Venansault was canceled by fascists.
vx69: Funny story. You have to understand France is quite a liberal country, where gigs never get cancelled or prohibited to under 18, things like that. And this one got cancelled by local right-wing politics. When they took a look at the website, they menaced the promoters of the gig. Because we are a ‘bad example’ for the local youth, apparently. I hope this kind of cultural fascism won't ever become a rule in Europe.
I was checking out your website, and I noticed some mention of the apocalypse. How is your music preparing you and your followers for this event? Do you all truly believe that the apocalypse is coming, or is this all an act?
vx69: Ah, apocalypse. Sometimes people really don't get the joke, actually. Even if I do believe the end of the world is coming soon if we go on like this, this reference to the end of times is nothing more than a subcultural joke. I mean, this is one of the strongest clichés used in Sci-Fi literature, comic-books, and movies. Our sense of apocalypse owes more to Jack Kirby's characters, or Doctor Strangelove, or post-atomic books, than to any commentary on the Bible. We always liked that kinda pulp vision of the end of days. We're no prophets nor trying to be. Just willing to entertain with something scary -Apocalypse seen as the über-incarnation of Halloween stuff, in a way.
When "the end" arrives, do you plan on rallying an army of survivors, or are you expecting to become Zombies?
vx69: I thought we were already zombies.
Miss Z: Better undead than dead.
vx69: We're already surrounded by TV-watching-junk-food-eating zombies. I hope when the final blow comes there won't be any survivor among that scum.
Miss Z: Hey man, you're forgetting you watched TV for millions of hours eating frozen pizzas.
vx69: That's what I meant. Scum. No survivors.
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