August 6, 2023
We're grateful to Jeff Scheel, vocalist of Gravity Kills for taking some time for an interview with us. On the heels of a show scheduled in November in St Louis, he answers questions about the days of new and old.
Gothy: The timing of this interview is strangely coincidental. Gravity Kills just announced their first show in 11 years the same week that I reached out to chat. Is there anything cooking we should know about or is this more of a one-time exhibition?
Jeff: We really don’t know at this point. It’s all snowballed and gained momentum from the vinyl release. Kurt and I started talking about doing a show about a year ago because we knew the clock was ticking and we wanted our kids to see us do this at least once. We will see how we feel about everything as we get into full band rehearsals and see how it all fits together now. We are talking about some 2024 Festival dates but nothing to divulge at this point.
Gothy: I saw that you just reissued the self-titled album vinyl this past Spring. In a recent interview you said that you guys weren't sure who even had your masters. How did you pull off the vinyl reissue?
Jeff: That is a great story. I started hounding The Orchard a few years ago and just couldn’t get anywhere. All the former TVT employees were gone and we simply didn’t have any allies left in the building. A long time friend and former TVT national radio promotions guy texts me one day and gives me the name of a guy to reach out to. I sent them this long email selling the band and the idea and the person came back and said yes BUT, The Orchard only had the final masters and did not have the finished mixes in a premastered form. Doug actually still had the sonic solutions system we used to record the self titled and he was able to find the mixes we did with John Fryer from September of 1995.
The problem was that we didn’t have the hardware to push the files out of the mid-90’s technology into an AVID system. Doug tried to put something together but couldn’t find the right combination of hardware locally to make it happen. We told The Orchard that we didn’t want to simply remaster a previously mastered for CD file and hope it sounded right on vinyl. Doug searched the country for hardware to make it happen and after 18 months of trial and error with various pieces of hardware he had tracked down, he finally was able to push the files from 1995 into 2022. There was a bit of magic and reediting in the transitions on the record but Doug was able to make it happen. We wouldn’t have released anything other than a true mastered for vinyl version and Doug is the real hero in that story. He actually has the premastered final mixes from all 3 albums.
Gothy: What kind of bands are you a fan of at the moment: whether upcoming and under the radar or more well known? What's on Jeff's playlist nowadays?
Jeff: I’m all over the place. Still a Depeche Mode fan through and through but as far as music from the last 10 or 15 years, I’m listening to bands like Blood Red Shoes, Ladytron, White Lies and She Wants Revenge. I’ve actually been on a RUSH kick lately and today when I worked out, I was listening to Queens of the Stone Age. Of course I can be found still listening to NIN, Ministry, Killing Joke and Gary Numan.
Gothy: I noticed that you contributed to a music project for UNICEF to help those displaced by the war. Are you still involved creatively in any music endeavors? Either professionally or just for the hell of it? Or was that contribution just a one-time thing?
Jeff: John Fryer reached out and asked me to be a part of the UNICEF project. How could I say no to John? It was a real honor to be a part of that and make a small contribution. I have a home project studio that I do fire up from time to time, but I have yet to release anything that’s been born there.
Gothy: I have a couple of obligatory nostalgic questions. I don't want to dwell on GK's past too much, but I've been a fan since the beginning (my first band t-shirt was Gravity Kills) and there are some interesting tidbits of information that I've known about for a while... yet I could never find the details on. I've been dying to know more.
First off: the music video for the Blame remix that was on the "Escape from LA" Soundtrack; It was directed by the late Peter Christopherson who is a legend in the industrial scene. Throbbing Gristle is arguably where it all started. I never did actually see the video back in the day and I surprisingly can't find it anywhere. Did you actually meet Peter and work with him on the video or was it more of a remote working situation where he was fed video clips and did the work without interacting with you all?
Jeff: We actually did meet Peter and spent 2 full days at 2 separate locations, and one late night after a show with him and crew to shoot one scene at a 3rd location. The video was up on YouTube for a while before Viacom had the YouTube police. Meeting and working with Peter was one of the highlights of my career.
Gothy: In 1996, you guys did a number of shows opening for The Sex Pistols. If you've ever watched or read any interviews with John Lydon, he can be be very scathing in his criticism of a wide range of bands so you guys must have made an impression. How did touring with the Pistols come to be? Did you court them? Did they reach out to you? Was it organized by a third party?
Jeff: First, the band and I feel so lucky to have done that tour. It was an amazing experience and I was able to spend some time with John. Our involvement was initiated by the a guy named John Marx at William Morris Endeavor. We think the band wanted new bands on the bill with them as to change the context of the show. Steve Jones and Paul Cook came out with some William Morris people to a show we were doing in LA at The Dragonfly. The room was very small and our show came off very punk like in that room. I guess they liked it because we were extended an invitation to do the tour. That same summer, KISS was doing their first reunion tour and openers were having to buy on to those shows. The Sex Pistols actually paid us to play.
Gothy: Final question: There's been a resurgence of interest in darker music associated with the 80s and 90s, demonstrated by the rise in popularity of festivals such as Cruel World and Darker Waves in SoCal, combining older goth and new wave with newer darkwave acts. There's also Cold Waves in Chicago. Do you think there's potential for another industrial rock heyday on the horizon? Either through renewed interest in some of the original bands or through newer ones such as Youth Code and 3TEETH?
Jeff: Industrial music in all of its forms was and is true counterculture. It was never music for the beautiful, the accepted or the popular. My optimism is guarded but maybe industrial music is the true intersection between the imperfection of humanity and technology. Maybe industrial music can be the space where humanity still controls technology and is the anti-AI. I do find it interesting that both industrial and Nu Metal are making a resurgence. One can dream!
Gravity Kills have just issued a remastered vinyl release of their self-titled album in May and have a sold-out show scheduled at Delmar Hall in St Louis with Frost Children on November 11, 2023.