What kind of music do you hope to expose people to through intermission?
EVAN : We are deliberately trying to play more modern stuff, a lot of people in Belfast simply seem not to have heard of it, people who are just getting into the scene seem to think there is only Marilyn Manson and the Sisters of Mercy and whatever ...
IAN : Even by playing bands like Rosetta Stone ,who would seem obvious to us, but to others it may not be.
EVAN : Yes exactly , and bands like Corpus Delicti and even some of the industrial cross over stuff ... Girls under Glass, Project Pitchfork Do you feel industrial is important in the Goth scene at present?
IAN :Yes, I think it is. Its influence has definitely been taken on board ...
EVAN : It is not my personal cup of tea but I am warming to it ... maybe not straight industrial bands but most of the guitar based stuff has already been done. I think you need more of a fusion between the two, Suspira being good example of that. They are like '80's Goth and dark, but it has a modern feel to it which a lot of other stuff doesn't, bands like Die Laughing, for example ...
Yes, very All About Eve-y ...
EVAN : Definitely. They are not necessarily a bad band but are standard issue Goth that don't use modern technology.
What do you think of bands like Corpus Delicti (now Corpus) who have moved towards the industrial side of things?
EVAN : Personally, I love Corpus Delicti. I think they are one of the bands who do it very, very well. They were always very tribal ... I think that is very cool but I am not sure about some other bands, though.
IAN : I like to play a lot of the more Darkwave / Electro stuff ... basically because that's the suff I like!
EVAN : I am more boring and old fashioned!
How do you envision Intermission's future? What plans do you have for it?
IAN : At the moment it is just going to be a monthly event. Hopefully the numbers will grow to the extent that we can maybe get it more often than that.
EVAN : We don't want to start up a religious cult or anything! Though part of the reason for starting up the club was that there basically hasn't been anywhere good for goths to go. It is so much of a subculture because of the way the music press NME / Melody Maker treat it. They think we are all silly people who like bats and eyeliner and whatever! They cannot see beyond that.I have plenty of "Straight-ish" friends, for want of a better word, and when you play them a band they say "That's good! That can't be goth!". We want to get that out ...
Do you think the "scene" has the capacity to evolve into something different or is it stuck in an '80's timewarp?
IAN : I think it will evolve into a more commercial form.
EVAN : I don't think it is stuck in an '80s timewarp. Many people see the modern version of goth as a variant of Heavy Metal. I read a brilliant Rosetta Stone interview in which they were saying that bands like Nine Inch Nails were getting the praise for something they had already done.
Do you think that to thrive, because Northern Ireland has a very small scene, there needs to be backwards progression rather than forwards progression?
IAN : I don't really think so, people who are just getting into it now aren't really concerned about what the Sisters did in the past. It is probably easier to get into the new bands now because the sound is more modern, more '90s. We don't want to force people to like certain things though.
EVAN : You force me to like certain things! And do certain things but we aren't going to talk about that!!!
How did the club come about in the first place? Was it an idea you toyed about with for a while?
IAN : We talked about it for a couple of years ...
EVAN : It was only recently that we finally did something about it ...during a drunken conversation in "Rock Bottom".
IAN : We thought the Venue would be a good place because it already had an established Rock night and a lot of the clientel there possibly be interested in Intermission. It was only going to be a one off to start with but we were really impressed with the response.
EVAN : Yeah, it seemed to go down quite well. The first night was phenomenal. IAN : We expected maybe 80 people the first night, but there was 130.
EVAN : Its good when you hear about clubs in Liverpool getting about 40 people. Although we are drawing upon a wider area, the whole of Northern Ireland, and as many from down south as we can. We have got a good response, surprisingly ... about 15 / 20 people from Dublin.
What do you think of the state of scene in Belfast?
IAN : It is a hell of a lot better than it was about three or four years ago. It was very clique-ish.
EVAN : Things have improved. It used to be shite!
How do you compare the atmosphere in Belfast to some of the clubs in the UK?
IAN : Certainly there is a lot less pretentiousness.
EVAN : Yeah, less of a "Look down your nose at people" atmosphere. However, one thing about Belfast is that people tend to go is groups of people they know, and then maybe won't get to know other people. We were thinking about advertising a big piss- up one night, but that might reinforce it, rather than try and break it down. There is no way you can force people to mix. It is funny though. I can walk through the dodgiest parts of Manchester and London without people blinking an eyelid but whilst walking down the street in Lisburn you get people standing up shouting "Fucking Faggot!", or whatever, not getting the joke that I am the one with the female and they are butch lads with moustaches standing in a line like the villiage people! Work it out!
Is there anything else on the agenda for Intermission?
EVAN : Yeah, we were thinking about things like T-shirts, a bit of an ego wank! We were also seriously thinking about compilations and an online fanzine, as we are working on a website. We do a lot of promotions by e-mail now, which is a good way of getting organised.
IAN : The compilations would give some of the newer bands greater exposure.
What about getting bands to play?
EVAN : Nah, they are all shite. Goths shite!! Well, no matter what Hot Press or whatever will tell you the music scene is shite. There are no decent venues for up and coming bands to play... plus all bands seem to be stuck on what is trendy at that point in time. Ash are a load of wank ... and you can put that in!
IAN : In theory we have no objection to bands playing ...
EVAN : It is just trying to organise it. We have had at least one band come up, unsolicited, and go "We are booking a tour..." and we would love to get a good band to play but, at present, we are not sure how many people we can guarentee. If a band is playing a UK tour we don't want Belfast to take away from Dublin and vice- versa. We were also thinking about having a Goth boy band. We could get like open shirts and dance around ... a goth Take That!
Any names on the pipeline?
EVAN : Yeah "Cider 'n' Black"!
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