DJLarge

The Brutally Natural Rhys Fulber: Canadian producer Rhys Fulber is best known for his work with Front Line Assembly, but he’s also released music with Delerium, under his own name and as Conjure One. Speaking to us recently, he said that he’s been writing a lot of new music during lockdown.

“I took a few pieces of my studio in the valley out to Oak Park and just really focused on refining a bunch of material with a more minimal set up,” Fulber says. “I then went back up to British Columbia where I am from and refined it even further. I got two solo records and music for a few other projects I am involved in out of it. Just something like eliminating commuting time added hours to your days, so a lot got done.”

The artist describes his solo sound as a “soundtrack techno sound with some industrial elements.”

“I like to keep moving things forward while still maintaining a couple flourishes from the past,” he says. “There also things I have learned over years of production and programming for other artists that find their way in as well.”

We ask Fulber what he thinks of the state of industrial music today.

“For a while I thought industrial music had re-found itself in dark Berlin techno,” he says. “A similar spirit and sound palette but in the context of club culture injected with a new younger subculture crowd and energy. I think the true spirit of industrial music is one that is evolving into other forms, like the aforementioned, rather than being a recipe from the past, so I would say the term is at its best when morphing through other forms.”

Fulber’s latest solo album is Brutal Nature.

“[It] was made in the pandemic scenario I described above,” he says. “Born in L.A. lockdown then refined on abandoned cold rocky beaches in British Columbia.  The idea was nature reclaiming human wreckage.  Plants growing over concrete. You can check it out here. I also shot a video in BC for an album track called ‘Fragility’ [see below].”

Looking ahead, Fulber has more solo material coming, and hopefully some shows.

“NYC, Minneapolis and eventually L.A.,” he says. “Its an ever evolving situation… I’ve also done remixes and programming for metal bands Machine Head and Fear Factory and am also doing a doing a tour with my past and now current again band Front Line Assembly in May through the US.”

The Brutally Natural Rhys Fulber: The Brutal Nature album is out now.

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