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Involvements/Projects
Front Line Assembly (1986 - ) |
![[Bill98]](imagery/leeb2a.jpg "Bill Leeb, circa EQUINOX - HOLON (1998)") |
After I was awakened to Industrial by NIN I went in search of more. I found Mr Bill Leeb and his Techno-Industrial Troup Front Line Assembly within about a month I had abandoned NIN as a farce and embraced this Unlikable, uncharismatic, Canadian Nerd as my new God of sound. Bill has quite a bit of technical talent, no lyrical talent, no musical talent, but god help me i love the guy. I love his psychotic deranged vocals that sound like a Cylon doing a passable Ian Curtis and his paranoid songs about corruption and conspiracy. I love the way no-body likes the guy, I love the way he sets up a new band every time he does something new so he won't be messing with a winning forumla everytime he has a bit of an idea. I love the way every record company he signs to folds after one album. I love his silly hair, I love tha fact that every song he does these days sounds like the last one: FLA is the lighhouse Family of EBM and I love them because of it. sigh
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Anyway, back in the early eighties Bill Leeb was keyboardist with the Vancouver based Industrial outfit Skinny Puppy. For some reason that doesn't seem to have been recorded in the annals of history he was going under the name Wilheim Schroder. Since the other members of the band operated under silly Germanic pseudonyms I can only assume that it was the fashion at the time. |
![[Mike Balch 90]](imagery/balch.jpg "Michael Balch, circa FLA - GASHED SENSES AND CROSSFIRE (1990)")
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Bill felt he couldn't properly express himself under the self imposed puppy whip, and needed to let of a few beats of his own design, maybe do something that people could dance to without having passing St Johns ambulancemen forcing spoons into their mouths. So around 1985 he left and with the assistance of his weird mate Mike Balch he started work on Front Line Assembly. |
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After releasing a few demo tapes and building up a bit of a repution the two also aquired the drumming assistance of some punk kid they found hanging around the clubs waiting for trouble. For four years they kept him locked in a back room at the studios only letting him out to make some noise for the next release and to go get the pizza. This, they theorised, would keep him away from psychotic deranged perverts and social workers. |
![[Rhys Fulber 90]](imagery/yrhys.jpg "Rhys Youth F, circa FLA - GASHED SENSES AND CROSSFIRE (1990)")
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Sadly one night he escaped and found out what they did during they day with his work. He demanded his own share and in 1989 when an argument between them all resulted in Mike being decapitated, Bill had no choice but to make the boy a full time member of the band... after disposing of the corpse and making up some story about Balch being "involved" with a new project by Al Jourgensen. |
![[Bill & Rhys 95]](imagery/billrhys.gif "Bill und Rhys, circa FLA - HARDWIRED (1995)") |
The twosome carried on creating psychotic, paranoid dancemusic to terrorise clubs around the world. Then in 1993 FLA agreed to remix some tracks from Fear Factory's album "Soul Of A New Machine" and release them as a mini-album. Upon meeting the band Rhys decided he wanted to grow his hair long, build his muscles and get tattoos... he also wanted to wear more black. Over the course of the next few year he equipped himself with such things, driving FLA down a dark road to Rock hell taking poor old Bill with him. |
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Bill finally managed to wrestle the beast back under his own control and steered it back into more recognisable pastures. However Rhys had been bitten by the metal bug, he agreed to produce the new album for Fear Factory and even though he promised he'd be back the next day, slipped away forever. Bill was left alone. |
![[Bill97]](imagery/drugs.jpg "Bill, circa FLA - VOUR OF THE WEAK (1997)") |
With no-one to fetch his pizza or programme in beats when his eyes where getting bleary he contemplated packing it all in and becoming a guest DJ in the vancouver dance clubs when Chris Peterson, live assistant engineer with the band for over five year just happened to pass by. Promising him fame, fortune and as much haddok as he could eat Bill Leeb aqquired a new slave, and set out on the road again. |
Selected Cuts (Real Audio)
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