Senser are, in my opinion, one of the most overlooked bands of the past 20 years. As every biog will tell you they were formed in the late 80's by Nick Michaelson (guitar), Heitham Al-Sayed (vocals), Kerstin Haigh (vocals), John Morgan (drums), James Barrett (bass) and "Haggis" (engineer, producer, programmer), and in 1992 they were joined by Spiral Tribe D.J. Andy Clinton. Their eclectic fusion of rock, rap, dance and space rock psychedelia was as infectious as it was groundbreaking, so they soon found themselves a loyal following and signed to Ultimate Records. Their singles, although never charting particularly high, became regulars on the playlist of just about every good club DJ in the land and their first album, Stacked Up, charted at a rather impressive number 4.
Their live credentials were equally impressive, playing all the major festivals to huge crowds and supporting acts like Rollins Band, Skunk Anansie and Moby. Unfortunately the band decided to split in 1995, citing "musical differences". Heitham, John and Haggis went off to form Lodestar while the remaining members of the band recruited drummer John Soden and continued under the Senser name. After releasing one album, Asylum, the band yet again decided to split. With festival commitments to honour the band invited Heitham, John and Haggis back for these 2 final shows, which were very successful and also proved that the band could still work well together. This return to harmony resulted in the band collaborating, although working seperately, on new material. This third album, SCHEMAtic, was released on One Little Indian and received very little in the way of promotion, much to the band's disappointment. 4 years on and Senser are touring in preparation for the release of their first, self financed, album on their own Imprint Music label. So, with it being a fantastically sunny day, I sat by the Clyde with Heitham and shot the breeze(although there wasn't much breeze at all) about Senser, music, record companies, and Victorian hip hop. Yes, i said Victorian hip hop.
Alternative Nation: The band has just started it's own label, was that a reaction to how little time and effort One Little Indian spent on SCHEMAtic?
Heitham Al-Sayed: They didn't do anything. SCHEMAtic's got it flaws but i think it could have done a lot better than it did. They just didn't let people know it was there and we're determined to do better. I think any fucker could do better, to be honest with you. It was almost insulting, we didn't even get them to pay for making it. We made it ourselves and all they had to do was let people know it was there, they couldn't even do that. The amount they spent on it was pathetic.
AN: So it was self recorded and self promoted as well, with a record company saying "we'll put our stamp on this"?
H: Yeah, and "we'll take the money, thanks". It was really like the worst possible mistake you could imagine making. The only person that really sniffed it out was Kerstin, she said "they're under no obligation to do anything here, they haven't invested in anything so they don't even have to make any money back". We could have sold copies of that record if the people who were into the band knew that it existed, but they never did and that was really irritating. It cost us a lot of time and energy, it's a lot of wasted energy. At the end of the day you're still where you were in terms of trying to let people know that you're being creative again and making music.
AN: Did that make you angry and want to show people that you can do the same without a record label?
H: I dunno, I think it just seemed to be logical. It's one of those thing we should have done earlier really, we should have tried to start our own company. But we weren't in any position to in the past, we are now in the sense that we have the right people with us who can help us out with that. The band on it's own couldn't do it, we need the help of our manager and the people who... - It's kinda their business to market things. And that's what it's about, it is just about letting someone know that it's there. It's gotta be done in a professional way. Radio, posters and everything that people expect when something new is coming out.
AN: Is that why you're doing a tour before releasing the album?
H: Kind of. I think we're just touring because we didn't know when the album was finally going to be ready, so we just booked this in thinking "well, you never know. maybe it'll be out". It's taken a long time and it's still not ready.
AN: Does that mean we'll get to see you again this year when the album comes out?
H: I hope so, I hope it's going to be this year. There is talk about putting it back to next year, that is the thing that's causing heartbreak. But the more you try and do it like a big release, like a synchronized thing, the more it has to be timed and all this stuff - like prep. You have this period of letting people know before it comes out, and then it comes out and you have to support it. It's all the stuff that we didn't have to bother with before, everything was all scheduled and now we have to worry about this stuff ourselves.
AN: But at least you know that when it works it's all down to you.
H: There's nobody else to throw rocks at.
AN: The last album was very much a natural progression from Stacked Up, is this album taking the same elements and pushing them that little bit further again?
H: It goes to more extremes. So the heavier stuff is more brutal sounding, I think. The programming style gets more extravagant in places, the hip hop style gets more grim and grey. It's taking a lot of the things into new places, it's evolving all the elements of it a little bit further. The extremes are more evident, we're pushing things a little bit more.
AN: Was the new album recorded in the same way as the last one?
H: No, it's recorded together in a studio. The other stuff was recorded in layers, things moving back and forth over the internet. It was a very strange way to go about it but it kind of worked. You don't hear a band
playing together as much, it was a bit more
studio sounding.
AN: How much fun was it to all be recording in the same room again?
H: I really enjoyed it. We went to an island on the Thames, not the ones that everyone thinks of. Not The Isle Of Dogs or Eel Pie Island, there is this other island which is a little bit further out of the way. There's just Geese, Ducks and broken boats. I really liked it, we had a great engineer. Since we first went into the studio recording techniques have really changed, lots of kids cheat now. Lots of musicians in studios, they don't really play together anymore. Even the studio, it wasn't set up for that. We had to clear stuff out of rooms so that we could all play together at the same time and they were all like "oh, ok". This was a novel thing for the next generation of musicians because it's more to do with getting the sound for them than playing together. It's much more of a technical exercise than a sort of communion, which I can understand. But you just get a different sounding record. Often it's really sterile and I'm into the band playing together where you can hear that they've played at the same moment.
AN: Before your initial split the band was working on tracks for a second album, did any of those resurface?
H: No. One of the problems with that period was that we'd just killed it with Stacked Up, we toured way too much with it. We didn't have the energy to make the right kind of music. I was exhausted, even the style of music was too much for me at that point.
AN: Senser isn't your only musical project, are you working on anything else at the moment?
H: I have a french band called Fiend (Heitham now lives in Paris), It's kinda heavy. If you like bands like The Sword, Big Business, High On Fire, Sleep, Om and bands like that - that's the kind of stuff that I listen to a lot. I listen to all kinds of music, but I'm really pulled in by this kind of heavy, earthy, primal kind of music. It's not like a supergroup, but everybody's been in bands before.The bass player (Nicolas Zivkovich) is in a band called Thirteen Zealot. The drummer (Simon Doucet) was in Kickback, this really brutal French hardcore band. The guitarist (Michel Bassin) has played with Treponem Pal, the cult French industrial band. He also played with Ministry, he's a really cool player. We're going to release a demo that we recorded live in our rehearsal space. We're going to put that out in September, i think, on a French metal label called Trendkill. I do a fair amount of bands, i have to say. I've done a lot of things that have never made it to the final stage, like the Victorian hip hop album.
AN: A Victorian hip hop album?
H: Yeah, The Guild Of Initiates. That got made a few years ago, that's a really cool one. But no-one's heard that one. When i find the guy that goes "yeah, I'll put out your Victorian hip hop album" then you'll hear it. It was just using a lot of the sounds from that period, harps and pianos and strings. Lots of the content was to do with stories from that time, and Egyptology and Freemasonry. So it's really steeped in that, it's like an aquired taste. Like a really strong port.
AN: Sounds like it could almost be the soundtrack to something.
H: Yeah, it would be more like a soundtrack if I hadn't rapped all over it.
AN: Finally, how did Haggis get his name?
H: I think he got called Haggis years when he was in his "biker", session band days, It's to do with his surname, his real surname, there's a connection.
With our hour in the sun over it was back across the road for the gig, unfortunately it was quieter than expected. Maybe it was the sun's fault, I know that a glass fronted venue isn't top of most people's "where do you want to go when the temperature is nearly in the 80's" list. Fortunately it didn't stop the band giving the fans what they'd come for. The fourteen track set consisted mainly of new material and tracks from Stacked Up, in fact I don't think anything from SCHEMAtic was aired at all, though they did throw in a superb cover of Eric B & Rakim's Follow The Leader.
The old fan favourites were there - States Of Mind, No Comply, Switch, Age Of Panic, Eject and Charming Demons - but this was no retro show or trip down memory lane. The old tracks seemed to have a renewed vigour about them and the new material sat perfectly alongside it. Even though a large amount of the tracks are now 14 years old they were so far ahead of their time that they still seem fresh, and better than most of the crossover stuff currently on offer. Everything seemed to have a more brutal edge, like a band with everything turned up to 11. Heitham and Kerstin held the audiences attention for the whole 75 minutes as they traded lines and harmonies, sometimes the pace of their delivery is almost hypnotic. Usually I'd have stood still and watched the show if I was reviewing it, that was impossible to do so I gave in to the urges and spent most of the time bouncing about, bouncing off things or bouncing off people. Even the slower tracks were too upbeat and bouncy, so at least I can say i got some exercise. I personally can't wait to hear the new album, so if you want a taster then follow the link below to get a free download of their latest single. And don't forget to sign up for the mailing list, you'll not want to miss the show when they come back.
Official website -
http://www.senser.co.uk
Imprint Music -
http://www.imprintmusic.co.uk
End Of The World Show free download -
http://imprintmusic.co.uk/artists/senser/downloads.html
Fiend -
http://www.myspace.com/fiendofficial
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