1. Greetings to Italy. First of all, I would like to express the gratitude of mine (and of many Czech fans that are yearning for the interview) that you were willing to answer. I guess that your are overwhelmed by interviews and other activities connected with the release of the new album. So, let’s start a bit informally. How are you doing?
Fabban : Thanks to you my friend! Czech Republic is a great cuntry and Prague is a city that I bring in my hearth and it’s always a pleasure to me knowing that there are many Aborym fans there. We’re litterally flooded with interviews from all over the world. I would never expected such a noise for Aborym’s return...
2. It has been nearly four years since the release of "Generator". Can you please tell us what had been happening in the band until the initial impulse to start composing the new material came? Did you have take any break from the music? did you just live your "normal lives"?
Fabban: First of all, right after Generator was released, I started thinking about the chance of going on by myself, as it was impossible for me to keep on working with the old guitar player. In the meantime I wrote down some ideas, some riffs, but the new album was born in the exact moment when I replaced the old guitarist with Hell:IO:Kabbalus. With him, Pyschogrotesque has come to life. In the meantime we released two albums with Malfeitor and I looked after other things in my life. It took 4 long years for the new Aborym album, and I believe it was worth waiting.
3. There happened a small formal change in the band. Two years ago, Hell-I0-Kabbalus joined the band. Could you please describe the circumstances of his arrival? In that time, you probably were starting to plan the new material, weren’t you?
Fabban: I had the chance to value and know him better as we played together in Malfeitor in the past few years. He’s the perfect guitar player for Aborym. It’s a bit of a shame I haven’t had the chance to meet him before. As I told you, a huge part of Psychogrotesque music, has been written in a short lack of time as I decided to work with Hell:IO:Kabbalus, while some ideas and riffs have been written between 2006 and 2009.
4. A year later, Prime Evil left the band. What were the reasons of this decision? Did Prime Evil participate in any other activities of the band apart from the vocal duties?
Fabban : Preben (Prime Evil) had different priorities in his life and it’s right the way it is. He’s been a great singer for Aborym and a great friend to me as well. I wish him the best.
5. Now, let’s move to the presence and take it from the beginning. From the very beginnings of "Psychogrotesque". Could you please more in-depth describe the composing/recording process, the impulse or inspiration that lead to this material and, of course, what was the participation of the band on the new material?
H:I0:K – This time we decided to split the work to be more efficient in the songwriting and production process. I took care of the musical part of Psychogrotesque, concerning composition, guitars, keyboards, drums programming etc. while Fabban, beside helping me in the songwriting, took care of the lyrics, concept and vocal lines. Faust once in the studio focused on enhancing the drum parts to add dynamic and variety to the album, and he did a great performance. Personally I just sit down and let inspiration flow. It's not something that works all the time, sometimes you spend hours trying to find a single good idea, and sometime in just a matter of hours you lay down a whole song. I believe it's easier to work when you are in the right mood and the subconscious brain activities are at peak. It's like the wall between our rational mind and our subconscious gets thinner, making it easier when you compose to grab more disturbing and “primordial” ideas.
6. "Psychogrotesque" from the very first moment feels like a truly sophisticated concept. It feels really eery. I would expect a lot of things to be "behind the curtain". Could you please reveal some of these to the fans?
Fabban: A very sophisticated concept, maybe even the most sophisticated as we’re talking about human mind. Psychogrotesque is a story, and I chose such a formula because it was the only possible way to make metaphors and concept exist all together at the same time. It’s the story of a man who becomes crazy as he gets locked in a mental hospital: the man is a metaphor for mankind, for the society...and on the other hand, the mental house is a metaphor for the world, the system, for our society. A society that generates sterile men, without a strong personality, a society that offers fake myths and ecourage men to be fed by it, every single day, until they reach a total sterility, a total inability to judge what it’s wrong and what it’s right, a disarming alienation in front of social issues, politics and great themes of our millennium. What’s important today is the projection we give of ourselves to the other people, not what We really are: people just don’t think, they execute. Media keep us constantly under siege and humans are just lobotomized slaves, designed and manufactured in series. My story moves with cinematic rhythms, almost like a film. My character turns into a fly, a dirty insect, symbol of filth, symbol of a filthy existence. It’s an insect that flies on garbage, on waste, that sooner or later will be crushed. I suggest you to read the lyrics, as keeping on telling you about it, will take 4 or 5 pages of your magazines...hehehe...
7. The most significant difference are probably the live drums. What was the main reason to abandon the drum machine and start using the real drums? From my point of view, it helped the record a lot and it contributed in creating the far more livelier sound.
H:I0:K – I agree, we found a great drummer in Faust and his work definetly added a new dimension in the sound of Aborym, impossible to realize with the drum machine. This also open another door for us that is the contamination of human drumming with synthetic samples, and you can hear the result at the beginning of „III“, I think is really amazing stuff.
8. There are quite many guests participating on the album. Guitar solos, sampling, even a saxophone - that is just a small listing of all the elements. Was the main reason behind this to try the cooperation with so many other musicians?
Fabban: Karyn Crisis, Davide Tiso, Pete...and all the others...they’re all friends. They’re people who expressed themselves through Aborym and this album, who gave a lot to it and took a lot from it and as well as this experience. We’re always absolutely opened to work with other artists, both italians or foreigners, it doesnt make any difference.
9. Looking into the past, one could say that each Aborym album is different. That is for sure one of the biggest positives. The album represents a great progression again. "Psychogrotesque" definitely is your most mature album. I believe that you see it as "your best"?
Fabban: Normally the last album is always the best for an artist, even if this is more a commonway of thinking. In this case, I really believe that Psychogrotesque is the best album we made, because it’s the more experimental, mature and daring one that allowed us to push us over the limits too, reaching Blues , Heavy Metal, Jazz and Ambient. I believe it’s a progressive album, a complicated and emotional album at the same time, an album that is able to intrigue the listener from the very first notes and that it’s impossible not to listen from the beginning to the end. It’s like a movie. When someone likes a movie, it’s impossible to push stop and not watch it anymore. Many people told me about this peculiarity and well, it makes me feel very happy because when we started writing the album, we wanted to have something very close to a film or a short movie, with times, pauses and dynamics of cinema.
10. The only thing I would see as a negative is the artwork of the booklet. To me, it seems pretty cheesy and kitschy (no offence). Who is the author of the motif?
Fabban: There’s no problem. Anyone has his own tastes. I like it a lot and I find it perfect for the album, it’s kinda 80s, so I wanted it to be and I realized it.
11. Are you planning anything else than "just" the CD? A DVD, a video clip, possibly some life gigs (or, in the best case, even a tour)?
Fabban: No, no live dates. Aborym don’t play live, we’re a studio band. There aren’t DVD or Videos planned at the moment.
12. During the years in the scene, you have been through a lot of changes. Could you please describe the individual phases or eras (maybe while taking the albums as references) and summarize the biography of Aborym?
Fabban: Trust me, I couldn’t know how to answer to a question like this. It will take hours and hours. The story of this group starts from 1992 and since then, many things happened. I’m not the same person I was 15 years ago and obviously music walks together with the life of whoever creates it, like a sort of shadow that follows us and melts with us. Aborym transformed a lot and now we’re the band who published Psychogrotesque: a real band, who looks more at the content rather than the appereance, who focuses more on technique, on the details, on sound research and who’s strongly projected to real and concrete issues, and less to the clowning around typical of many and many black metal or extreme bands. We have grown up and we have matured a lot, both as musicians than men, and I guess this transpire from our music.
13. You collaborated with Attila for quite some time. How was this collaboration? Are you considering joining forces with him again any time in the future?
Fabban: Absolutely not. At the moment it would be quite hard for me to work with a person like Attila. I’m not as patient as I used to be. We’re too different and we live music in completely different ways: to me it will never be a way to make money, it will never be a job for me. If I wanted to make some money with my music, I would have played some pop or rock. Aborym’s door are opened for someone and closed for other ones. Definitely.
14. Industrial and experimental black metal is getting quite popular these days. How do you, as one of the pioneers of the genre, see the current situation in the scene? Do you have any favourites these days?
Fabban: Thank you. Aborym have been the pioneers of a brand new musical genre, invented from scratch...if I could, I would call our music abo-metal, but I never liked being labelled. I don’t listen to modern music, so I can’t answer. My favourites are still the bands that are at the top since ever, as Nine Inch Nails, Ozric Tentacles, Massive Attack...A very recent and interesting band is Zechs Marquise. They’re great musicians. About extreme music instead, there’s a band to be carefully followed: Control Human Delete. Anyway...I don’t really follow nowadays music...I listen to everything but, in most of cases almost exclusively old bands, music from the past.
15. There has been a lot of new material coming from Italy lately. I do not mean just the well-known bands like Nefarium, but also a lot of young bands. Are you so much into the scene that you notice this? And if yes, what is your opinion about it?
Fabban: As I said before, I don’t follow the musical scene and I’m not updated about new Italian bands. During the past, there have been few bands that wrote the history of extreme music in this country, such as Schizo, Necrodeath, Excidium, Sinoath, Bulldozer, Monumentum, Devil Doll...Probably I forgot many others...
16. We are pretty much getting to the end, where I usually ask about something not connected with the music. Usually the questions are about our Republic. I can’t resist, so I will ask you too. Czech Republic - what does this term mean to you? Have you ever been here or would you like to visit our country (both as a band and personally)?
Fabban: You did well asking this question. I love your country...I’ve been there last time 2 years ago...I’ve been to Prague for a week. Czech Republic is a great country that is trying, despite thousands of problem, to get out of the nightmare in which it was imprisoned for years, a state of repression of old regimes. Prague is a fantastic city, unique, but when I went there I had the chance to visit the suburbs as well, and there you can still “smell” poverty, I’ve seen insecurity and lots or resignation in the eyes of the people living there. People in your country must have suffered a lot, and it just takes to move out of town to face it. Prague city centre is amazing, full of tourists, clubs, attractions of every kind...if you move to the suburbs there’s nothing there, just poverty. A complete different condition. Now, if I am not wrong, you’re in the European Union, but I know that for years there was the Komunistická strana Československa, the KSC if I am not wrong. I know as well that before the Second World War, Czechoslovakia was one of the first ten most industrialized countries in Europe. Being part of the EU should protect your country, although it’s not always like that. For example, in Italy things got worse since we joined the EU countries as the cost of life has doubled here and I think the same happened to you. Plus in all of this, we’re right in the middle of a worldwide economical crisis. I hope I’ll go back soon to Prague. I remember I went to the Staranova synagogue in the Jewish area: according to the legend, in its attic, Rabbi Jehuda Löw ben Bezalel hide his golem. Czech Republic is a bit like a Golem, it’s matter, a nation that has to build itself slowly, step by step. You’re a great country and you deserve a future of dignity and well being. I don’t want to talk about bands...you gave to the world people like Franz Kafka, Milan Kundera...I guess it’s not necessary to add more. I wish I go back there soon.
17. Thank you for your exhaustive answers and I hope to meet you at your concert in some time! If there is something you would like to share with the readers, go for it. Greetings to the whole band!
Fabban: I hope so too and I thank you on behalf of Aborym. To connect: www.myspace.com/aborym666 Greetings to Czech Republic!
