With an extensive European/UK tour looming and a new album just dropped, I sat down with Kieren Hills of Schkeuditzer Kreuz to find out more about the band, the album, the tour, and what the future holds.
Firstly, can we start with a bit of background? What has been your music path that has brought you to where you are today?
I guess I’ve played music all my life. Started on piano when I was 4, had my first performance of music I had written myself when I was about 5, and kind of went from there. At 15, I got my first bass and started getting together with friends, drinking beer, and trying to play some of our favourite punk and metal songs. It was pretty loose then, and I didn’t really have a focus except hanging out with mates. But there was a local band called Animosity, named after the Corrosion of Conformity album, that I would follow around and watch whenever they played all-ages shows, and they were really my introduction to the idea that anyone could do it.
Before that, I was listening to anything I could get my hands on, but the musicians were always at some remove from me. I could listen to The Clash, Exploited, Black Flag, MDC, Suicidal, DKs, or whatever, but I wasn’t going to see them at my local and chat to them.
And that was the start, really. I pissed about doing bands that were mostly covers for a couple of years, before finally getting together with a few people I lived with and starting to write our own songs. At that point, we were all living together in a huge dive of a house in Christchurch, New Zealand. We had “renovated” two of the rooms in the house, knocking down the wall between them and building a stage at one end of the space. We played a handful of shows there with various other local bands. The gigs would end up drunken and often violent, but they gave me a taste of what it was like to play live.
Fast forward another year or two, and I was asked to join a Wellington band called S*M*U*T, which was probably the most active punk band in New Zealand at the time. So I packed up and moved cities to join them. With them, I recorded for the first time, toured for the first time, learned to book shows and tours, and learned a lot about what is involved with running a band.
And then I never stopped. I moved to Australia and played in bands, moved to Germany and played in bands, moved back to Australia and played in yet more bands. And all the time I learned more about how to play music, about how to make the sounds I like, and how to tour more, and more widely. And I learned that this was my favourite thing in the world to do: to play music and tour.
_ Specifically, can you explain Schkeuditzer Kreuz, the sound, how you evolved it, and what you are trying to do with it?_
So yeah… Wind the clock forward to 2020, and the pandemic hit, which made getting together with my band impossible. So, to stop myself from losing my mind completely, I started writing and recording some music on my own. The first thing I did was a project where I wrote all the music, then sent it to other friends around the world to put vocals on, which they sent back, and I released it all on tape and CD.
Some of those tracks are not amazing, some are alright, but through the process I worked out how to record and mix, and how to create music on my own: how to program a drum machine, how synths worked – that kind of thing.
So once that first release was done, I decided to start working on a new project: this time, something I could play live with, tour with, and make a viable live band with.
So, I started to work out the basics of what sound I wanted: basically a punk band, played on distorted synths, with “industrial” rather than traditional drum sounds, and the only kind of vocals I can do – screaming and shouting.
That was the start of it, and at first, I had some rules around how to do it: it had to be pretty minimal, had to be very raw and not overly processed or polished. I wanted to spit out the music as fast as I could play it.
But over the last few years, that has changed a bit, and I have started to put together songs that are more detailed, that have more layers, and are more varied. It is still me just screaming out what I think of the world or what is wrong with my head, but it is starting to take in all of the influences from what I listen to. I still listen to mostly punk, but I also listen to a lot of industrial music, and quite a lot of techno and electronica. And it has all started to combine. I have started to make some kind of weird techno crust mix that is making me happy and is a lot of fun to play.
You have just released a new album, “Swan Grinder.” What can we expect to hear, and is there anything specific that you are trying to say through the tracks, any dialogues you are having with the audience?
In the 5 years since I started this, I have toured a lot and played with a ridiculous number of bands and acts around the world, and my worldview and music view have totally exploded. I was never sheltered or confined by what I listened to, but seeing so many people express themselves in their own ways has forced a whole lot of new ideas into my head.
So, my own music has become more varied, but also my way of making music has become both more complex and more defined. I now feel like I am at a point where I can actually create the noise I hear in my head. As far as what I am trying to say, there isn’t that much change: the world is fucked, and I am one fucked up little cog in that machinery of death.
And that is never going to change. We are going to march endlessly into death until there’s nobody left. There’s no Road Warriors to look forward to, and no noble death in the face of the machine – just a rotting, clawing, decaying mess of humanity fighting each other for one last gasp of fresh air. And I’m just a part of that – my head fights against me, tries to stop me feeling happiness or even contentment, and instead throws an endless array of horror my way… and all of that is what I try to get across in my songs, both to share the pain and to exorcise the demons.
You have just announced an extensive tour of Europe and the UK. What are you looking forward to most? Where are you playing, and with whom are you sharing the stage?
Yeah, as I write this, I am all packed up and ready to head off tomorrow morning, and I’m feeling a mix of excitement and panic. I’m doing a mix of returning to places I played last time. Last tour I started at The Black Bull in Gateshead, UK and finished at Goldmark’s in Stuttgart, Germany. This time it is exactly the opposite: start in Stuttgart, end in Northern England.
And then I am going to places I have never been, or never played in: Georgia, Armenia, and Spain. And I am so excited for all of it. I want to get out there and throw my music in the face of anyone who turns up, and see how they take it. To meet new people and catch up with old friends.
Who am I playing with? Well, I’ve got a couple of gigs with Attrition in the UK. I met them when they came to Australia, where I not only supported them but also actually joined them onstage as synth player for all nine dates of their tour. Since then, I also went over and played with and for them in Thailand and Hong Kong. So, I am hugely looking forward to seeing them again.
Other than that, it will be a lot of bands from the towns I’m playing in. And again, I will get to see and hear whole new sounds, and new ideas of what can be done.
What are the challenges of taking such a complex sound into the live space? Is it an easy sound to recreate on stage?
Sort of. I mean, one of the main challenges is just physically lugging so much shit around with me. But once I’m at a venue, all I need is a PA to plug into. I don’t take every instrument I write with to a live setting: my live setup is a synth, a sampler, two drum machines, a mic, a mixer, and a ton of effects pedals. The sampler carries what I can’t. When I have put a song together, I then work on how best to perform it.
There are no rules to this. It just has to be enjoyable to play and entertaining to watch. I don’t want to tie myself to a desk, staring intently at my machines, and never moving, just so I can claim the “authenticity” of playing everything live and improvised. But I also don’t want to just stand there doing karaoke – so I come up with a way to perform the songs that gives them the feel and the energy that I want them to have.
The sound you make, which encompasses everything from industrial and darkwave, grunge, electronica, and gothic, is a sound more associated with places such as Germany or the UK. Is there a significant scene for it in Australia?
No. Not a significant scene. But there are a fair few acts around the place doing weird dark electronica in different ways. I am in touch with a fair percentage of the people doing it in this country, and we help each other out, communicate, share ideas and unreleased tracks, and do collabs and all that. Sometimes I play with other acts that are along kind of similar lines, but often I play with punk bands or whatever.
And beyond the album and the tour, what does the future hold, and what do you hope it holds for you, your music, and beyond?
Just keeping it going while I’m still feeling it. After Europe, I tour Australia for local release shows, then New Zealand in January, and hopefully India in March, and back to Japan in October. After that, I will probably really sit down and start writing again – get some new things happening.
In between all this, I have a couple of soundtracks I am working on and some other collaboration stuff, so I am not getting bored at all.
Thank you so much for such a detailed insight into the band and your own history, not to mention the tour, album, and what the future holds. Best of luck with everything.
Bandcamp
Linktree
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
photo credit Hold Still Photography
Tour Dates
Thu 18th Sept Goldmarks – Stuttgart, GERMANY
Fri 19th Sept Schrottbar – Biel/Bienne, SWITZERLAND
Sat 20th Sept Wagenplatz – Zurich, SWITZERLAND
Sun 21st Sept Romp – Luzern, SWITZERLAND
Wed 24th Sept Quarterdeck – Basel, SWITZERLAND
Thu 25th Sept Horst – Kreuzlingen, SWITZERLAND
Fri 26th Sept Secret Place – Tbilisi, GEORGIA
Sat 27th Sept Muha Bar – Yerevan, ARMENIA
Sun 28th Sept TBA – Kutaisi, GEORGIA
Tue 30th Sept TBA – Tbilisi, GEORGIA
Wed 1st Oct MS HIGHmat – Los, Lingen (Ems), GERMANY
Thu 2nd Oct Cafe Bosch – Arnhem, NETHERLANDS
Fri 3rd Oct TBC – Copenhagen, DENMARK
Sat 4th Oct Kafe 44 – Stockholm, SWEDEN
Sun 5th Oct TBC, SWEDEN
Wed 8th Oct TBC – Gdansk, POLAND
Thu 9th Oct TBC – Děčín, CZECH REPUBLIC
Fri 10th Oct Noisebar – Bohuslavice, CZECH REPUBLIC
Sat 11th Oct Connewitz – Leipzig, GERMANY
Sun 12th Oct Wiesbaden, GERMANY
Wed 15th Oct La Diskordia – Madrid, SPAIN
Thu 16th Oct Rock Beer The New – Santander, SPAIN
Fri 17th Oct Bola8 – Gijon, SPAIN
Sat 18th Oct Sala Asatru – A Coruña, SPAIN
Sun 19th Oct Astika Herria – Bilbao, SPAIN
Tue 21st Oct TBC, UK
Wed 22nd Oct Just Dropped In – Coventry, England
Thu 23rd Oct The Peer Hat – Manchester, England
Fri 24th Oct The Skerries – Bangor, Wales
Sat 25th Oct The Black Bull – Gateshead, England
