Hi Terminatryx, Welcome to Global Entertainment Mag.



What inspired the band to come up with their unique name Terminatryx which is derived from the Latin word "terminator" also meaning to "conquer"?

Paul: We felt that our music was quite unique in the South African context, and wanted an original name to reflect that and embody some of the aspects the band encapsulates. In addition to the word's root, most Rock derived bands are out to 'conquer the world' (if only to get their music heard in as many parts of the globe as possible). The band name is pronounced "Terminaytrix".

Sonja: Our affinity for movies including Sci-Fi also filtered in via the likes of man's destructive technology in movies like The Terminator, Tetsuo The Iron Man, The Matrix, and the Nexus replicants from Blade Runner. The dystopian futures are bleak and uncomfortable, yet fascinating.

Paul: While not a dominatrix, Sonja's darkly sexual hotness filters into the dangerous yet appealing dominatrix mould. Initially in the early-2000s the band name was spelt Terminarix with an "i", but then came Terminator 3 where the female cyborg was referred to as that, and we didn't want it to seem like we borrowed it from there, we also discovered there was a club called Terminatrix, and a Manga movie came out with the same name. So, we decided to change the "i" to a "y", without losing the pronunciation. While this may lead to some people pronouncing it incorrectly if not illustrated phonetically or hearing the band name first hand, the advantage is that we got the .com website, and on-line searches lead to us and no-one else.

Sonja: Then there is also the River Styx - In Greek mythology, this river is the boundary between Earth and the Underworld, Hades. Styx is guarded by Phlegyas, who guides souls from one side of the river to the other.

Paul: We're fascinated by human duality, and our interaction between the physical and spiritual, with technology in the middle, and in an elaborate way, the band name illustrates it.

What inspires the band to write such detailed lyrics that peels away visual layers of human ignorance, hypocrisy, sin, and tyranny?

Paul: Besides being exposed to these counteractive human traits in a global sense, living in a country like South Africa it has been ingrained in the social structures making it an undeniable (but not satisfactory) part of life. From the racist history kick-started in the 1600s when the Dutch landed, to the British occupation and the Apartheid system institutionalized in the mid-1900s, the current government for the most part merely continues the same self-serving corrupt practices of their predecessors. Whatever the race of the politicians in charge, corruption and hypocrisy is never far behind.

Sonja: We choose not to simply accept this as the way things are and always have been. Being in a position to have a say with our music, we use that platform to highlight grievances or any subject we feel needs addressing, in stead of the vacant slapping together of words to get the best commercial response - like "hanging in the club", or "putting your hands in the air like you just don't care".

Paul: If you have the opportunity to say something, say something of substance.

I couldn’t believe what I was visualizing as I read your lyrics and pondered, are these images from a dark past in South Africa’s environment or history?

Paul: Some of it does, for sure, but we try to keep things as diverse and universal as possible, because it can get a bit preachy or a downer if the negativity of the world is simply reflected. We try to give it a critical and analytical slant within the song context, structure and energy of the music, to instigate some further thought for those who want something more intellectual from a song than just the rhythmic and melodic properties that move them physically.

Sonja: Songs that reflect on South African (but also global issues) include "SleepWalkers" (dealing with fat cats sitting in governments and churches with petty bickering and self-serving agendas, while the people they're meant to care for get trampled and ignored), as well as "Siek+Sat" (our Afrikaans language song translated as "Sick+Tired", which is a deliberate tirade on the serious and even more petty grievances people face every day, here and abroad).

All lyrics at www.TERMINATRYX.com



Track Listing

1. Venus Rising
2. Consume
3. Virus
4. Midnight
5. SleepWalkers
6. Tabloid Android
7. Symbionik
8. We Come In Peace
9. Up To You
10. The Love Song
11. Siet + Sat
12. Absinthium

Which member writes the majority of the band's lyrics or does everyone help contribute their ideas to the lyrics?

Paul: I write all the music and most of the lyrics. This was a result of being busy with our other endeavours and whenever I found a gap I'd spend time on it. Starting out on drums in the mid-'80s, a decade later in the mid-'90s I started messing around on the bass guitar and wrote all of the Terminatryx songs (and my F8 solo project tracks before that) on bass. With the distortion FX the bass also acts as one of the guitars. I was driven to also pick up the guitar by necessity when our first guitarist Tom moved to Scotland. Many of the lyrics come to me in a flash and it often happens that I end up pairing finished lyrics with a piece of music written entirely independent of it, and they fit perfectly. I often have a concept in mind and then work it into a song with that specific purpose.

Sonja: My main lyrical contribution on the debut self-titled Terminatryx album is for the song "Midnight". It is inspired by a friend from the '90s Cape Town Goth scene, and a tongue in cheek look at the rituals of going out and drawing parallels to vampires. It is not demeaning in any way, but rather reflecting a time in my life of which I have very fond memories. Instrumentally Paul and I worked together in creating the opening instrumental track "Venus Rising".

Paul: We are very much on the same page when it comes to our likes, dislikes, and world view, but for our next album I want more lyrics from Sonja to expand the perspective. The new songs are also more collaborative with Patrick (guitar) and Ronnie (drums & additional programming).

Sonja: I am currently working on a few songs for which I have high hopes. Subject wise it deals with humanity's treatment of animals and convenient Biblical justifications, and how artists can often be targeted as easy scapegoats.

Having listened to the majority of songs I noticed that there seems to be more of a brutal Metal edge in both the instruments and Sonja’s powerful voice. How long did it take to produce your self-titled CD Terminatryx?

Paul: After getting into Kiss together with my brother Francois in the late '70s / early '80s, we quickly got into the more extreme side of Rock, gliding through Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motley Crüe, W.A.S.P., Metallica, Nuclear Assault, Slayer and so forth. Punk bands like The Exploited and Dead Kennedys were also favourites. These translated into our first garage band Moral Decay, then Metalmorphosis, and V.O.D (Voice Of Destruction). So Metal has always been a part of my Alternative musical leanings. My solo project F8 had more of an electronic influence which also found its way into Terminatryx. The Industrial and Metal elements are the most prominent, but each song can have its individual sub-genre from a more Hardcore edge ("Tabloid Android") to Gothic ("Midnight"), and organic cinematic moods ("Absinthium").

Sonja: I won't consider my vocal style to be full-on Metal as such. The music often dictates the vocal attack. It is neither operatic like for instance Nightwish, and definitely not as extreme as a band like Arch Enemy. It is nothing like Evanescence (as people often expect it to be). I think it is unique to our music and I feel the vocals should never stand separate from it, but rather integrate as one of its elements. The voice is an instrument after all. My personal likes when it comes to female vocals include polar opposites like Cher and Diamanda Galas, but in our music it is not a case of trying to replicate these in any way. In growing into my Alternative music taste, Paul's influences are more Metal based whereas the Alternative music taste I grew into is reflected by artists like Einstürzende Neubauten, Laibach, Kraftwerk, Type O Negative, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, but, I also love Radiohead and Tom Waits.

Paul: Between 2003 & 2006 all the songs on the album were very much complete and some in demo form. I also played drums in my brother's band K.O.B.U.S., and felt that we were procrastinating in releasing an album. So, early 2008 we decided - release an album or call it quits. I quit K.O.B.U.S., and we tackled the task to re-record all of the songs from scratch. Including mixing, this took about 2 months.



Your bio states; that the band slowly cultivated and sculptured their sound. Was this to perfect the brutal Metal forces coming from your music now?

Paul: Not really, it was more a case of us exploring our own abilities and the moods, messages and themes we wanted to convey with the songs. I won't consider the Metal elements to be as brutal though.

Sonja: We had no intention of merely imitating existing bands out there, but we did take our time to develop our own sound to the point where we felt comfortable with the end result. We had no deadlines or release dates to meet, so we took our time and did it on our own terms.

Paul: The Metal elements were always there, as I've been playing that kind of music since the mid- to late-'80s. There are hardly any female-fronted bands with the Alternative elements of Industrial, Metal and Electronic extractions here in South Africa. We want to do something unique, firstly to please ourselves in creating something we can be proud of, and for those who prefer an alternative to the boring rehashed pop music littering the planet.

What has been the most challenging task so far to bring Terminatryx to the perfected masterpiece of polished sound today?

Sonja: Although our album was released by local indie labe ENT Entertainment, we still financed the production ourselves, which included setting up our own studio, having the end product mixed and mastered by professionals. This also includes marketing and promotion of the final product, from incalculable man hours spent on-line, to hotels and airline flights.

Paul: Sticking to our intent without compromising our vision or pandering in hopes of cornering a commercial market to rake in the financial benefits is a given to us, but with the expenditure it takes some courage dishing out a whole lot without the guarantee that you will recoup.

Since the band has been on the internet are they finding that they have a huge fan base in Europe or North America?

Paul: Our musical style is definitely more geared towards those territories, and we have had some very positive feedback from there, although much more needs to be done to break into it.

Sonja: Distribution in those areas will definitely spread the word more and is our next challenge.

Paul: We've had contact with some labels in both the States and Europe, but we are waiting to see what can materialize.



How did the band land the opportunity to support Rammstein on their SA tour?

Paul: We sent our proposal to the promoters doing the Rammstein tour here. They were very impressed and we ended up on the (very) short list. For undisclosed reasons however, Rammstein ended up performing with no support act, but, we reckon they didn't want to get their asses kicked by a band with a female vocalist! (ha-ha! wtf! lol!)

Has Terminatryx ever been on a North American or European tour yet?

Paul: We haven't done North America, but we'd love to. Around 2006 we were in contact with the GothicFest to perform there, but financially it would've been too heavy a load at the time.

Sonja: In 2006 we were one of four South African bands to play a showcase at the Popkomm music faire in Berlin, Germany. A UK show before Germany was planned, but turned into a get-together with South African expatriates now living there whom we hadn't seen in years. We've played most of the major music festivals here in SA (like Oppi Koppi, Ramfest, Metal4Africa, Goth Industrial Gathering etc.)

Paul: And supported several European acts on their SA tours, like Diary Of Dreams, VNV Nation, Sheep On Drugs, and Martin Degville with his current incarnation of Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

The band's video production should be in Hollywood. "Virus" is a well mastered video with stunning artistry and make-up effects. The other video I enjoyed watching was "Midnight". How long did it take to produce these videos?

Paul: Thanks! We make all our music videos ourselves. As with our music, we want our videos to have our identity, and like the music, not to be straight forward. Cost can obviously be a serious factor when it comes to the final product.

Sonja: "Midnight" was a very cost effective video, and we included clips from the classic vampire movie Nosferatu (for which we also created a brand new motion picture soundtrack and features on our "Terminatryx / Nosferatu" DVD). We shot the performance clips in one evening and Paul edited it across a couple of days.

Paul: "Virus" was quite a process. October 2009 we shot one segment over one night (where Sonja arrives home to find an envelope with an old Beta video tape, the full moon on the screen turning her into a werewolf). We used this clip as our HorrorFest film festival's promo clip for that year, which had a werewolf theme. The rest of the video (including more involved werewolf make-up FX, forest scenes, performance shots and more) was shot over a weekend in July 2010 (in freezing winter) plus an extra night thereafter for an additional camper attack scene. We also expanded the video into a more involved short film entitled "Marked", with a cinematic soundtrack and more detail. The final edits were finished around May 2011.

Sonja: A long and exhausting process, but a very satisfying final product. We're sending the music video and short film to some festivals as well.

Paul: But no rest for the wicked, as we have another 2 videos to be produced over the next few months.

See "Virus" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDiRabFQXvg

See "Midnight" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNwPqABV1Vg

Who helps the band with all their video production, make up and artistic effects?

Paul: Sonja and I produced the videos, I direct and usually edit them. I like being hands-on. Recently we started working with Leon Visser who edited the "Virus" video. We've made short films and plan on producing our own feature film in the future.

Sonja: We were lucky in that our very talented friend Clinton Smith and his make-up FX team from Cosmesis Prosthetic Make-Up Studio assisted us with the amazing werewolf make-up for "Virus".

Paul: Cinematography should never be underestimated, so we were happy to have Marnus Tredoux on board as our Director Of Photography.

"Virus" was selected to feature on European Metal TV site LoudTV, and other sites like EerieTube. Is this video still appearing on these sites and perhaps other sites?

Paul: Yeah, it will be on EerieTube for 6 months. After just 2 months of being on-line, it hit 10,000 views on our YouTube channel, which is not bad for an unknown Alternative band from South Africa. It featured on Voice Of Rock, Twitch Film, Metal4Africa, a Werewolf site, and many others.

Sonja: It was play listed on SA satellite TV music channel MK, which mainly features more commercial material...

Paul: ...and is reportedly getting later slots because of the horror elements!

Is the Terminatryx "Virus" video appearing on the band's new "Remyx v1.0" album, or is the band creating more videos to put on a DVD soon?

Sonja: The remix album will feature all the album tracks remixed by an amazing range of international and local remixers, plus some bonus tracks like a cover version of Animotion's "Obsession" (which Canadian's may know better as the theme music for your Fashion TV show). The remixers include Martin Degville and Lloyd Price (UK0, Industriezone (Austria), Sheep On Drugs (UK), The Awakening (USA), Modern-e-Quartet (Greece), and local acts like Battery 9, Mr. Sakitumi, Axxon, Nul, Jekyll & Hyde, iRONic. Some Terminatryx reworkings like an acoustic track is also included.

Paul: We're still considering whether to add the video as an enhanced feature (as we did with the "Midnight" clip on our debut self-titled CD), but it will definitely appear on the next DVD, together with the short film version "Marked", and another one of our new full length movie soundtracks to a classic silent horror film.

Can you tell our audience about Horrorfest Film Festival and the band's involvement in this event?

Paul: We made a dark short film "imPERFECTION" in 2004 (featuring Terminatryx music and my solo project F8). There has never been a Horror film festival event here in South Africa as in the rest of the world. With this movie and nowhere to screen it, we decided screw it, let's create an event focussing on all things Horror, because no-one else seems to be bothering to do so.

Sonja: We love Horror movies and Halloween, the latter event not very big in SA. But, with all of our interests and projects leaning in the Alternative direction, we felt compelled to make this exciting type of event available to other like-minded people neglected in that respect.

Paul: We screen classic, new and rare horror movies from around the globe...

Sonja: ...include Halloween dress-up, a literary section with a short story competition, a short film competition and loads more.

Paul: The HorrorFest also led to us creating our side project The Makabra Ensemble. Together with some our musician friends Simon, Sean and Matthijs, we create brand new soundtracks to classic silent horror movies, and perform these live underneath the big screen. We've done Nosferatu, Häxan, Maciste In Hell, Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, Phantom Of The Opera etc. While it is quite a task setting up an event like this, finding the the rights holders to movies you want to include (in addition to the many movies producers submit to us), since 2004 we've created various other film festivals, including the X Fest Extreme / Underground / Cult Film Festival, Celludroid Sci-Fi / Anime / Fantasy Film Festival, Daring Doccies Documentary Film Festival, Sound On Screen Music Film Festival, Reel Ink Tattoo Film Festival as well as Cinamaniacs special movie events.

All festival links at www.flamedrop.com/events

Makabra Ensemble: http://www.TERMINATRYX.com/makabra

Female fronted metal bands are a rare breed in Canada, in that there are not enough of them, is it the same in South Africa?



Sonja: Most definitely. In SA there are virtually none! Industrial acts in general are also extremely rare here, and female fronted ones non-existent. It makes it very hard for us to be categorized or matched up with other bands in the same vein when it comes to shows.

Paul: Unfortunately there is still very much a sexist stigma attached to women in rock music and I think most bands who try to include a female vocalist in SA simply give up.

What does the band hope to accomplish within the next couple of years, and are the members writing songs for another album?

Sonja: We want to get the Terminatryx word to the rest of the world. In SA the Alternative scene is very small and hard to access with the wide spread of the major cities. Paul: We've been in contact with some labels outside of South Africa, but will have to see what that may lead to. With each release we'd like to push ourselves to become better and would love an opportunity to have an album produced by someone like (one of our personal Canadian heroes) Devin Townsend. Nothing's impossible!

Sonja: While we're wrapping up the last bits & pieces for the remix album, we are in the process of working on new material for the next album.

Paul: There are about 5 new tracks so far. We also want to make a feature film where Terminatryx music will naturally feature.

Sonja: We want more people to get into our music because they like it, not because marketing convinced them they ought to.

I hope to see Terminatryx come to Canada on a North American tour in the future. Thank you for taking the time to complete our interview with Global Entertainment Mag. You Rock

Sonja: Thanks so much Tina!

Paul: Only a pleasure. Yeah, it will be brilliant to do North American tour. Thanks for helping in spreading the Terminatryx "Virus"!