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Invading Quebec City, Canada September 26-27 is Red Invasion 1919, an event that's more than just a festival; it's a multimedia steampunk experience. Concert promoters Chromosome Syndicate and Neurovortex have put together a host of top-notch artists from the industrial and techno scenes, and combined with extensive visuals, costuming, and performance art, they aim to transport festival-goers through time and space into an alternate 1919, where the Soviet army, complete with steam-powered battle robots, attempt a land invasion of North America. More than just steampunk escapism, Red Invasion 1919 is also an artistic and political statement, celebrating the sacrifices of North America during the first World War and also calling attention to the many parallels between the global climate before World War II and the current sense of a world on the brink of economic and ecological catastrophe. If that all sounds a bit heavy, that's still no reason not to dance, and dark trance artist Xenomorph, French electro duo Interlope, such industrial and power noise favorites as Memmaker, Ad·ver·sary, and Worms of the Earth are sure to keep fans dancing. Chromosome Syndicate's own Nicolas Joltek talks to ReGen about the concepts behind Red Invasion 1919 and offers a preview of what attendees can look forward to.
Tell us a little about yourselves. Who is behind Red Invasion 1919? What other events or clubs have you been involved in promoting before setting this up? Is this your first festival-sized event?
Joltok: I started booking industrial shows and events in clubs in 2001. My first concert was VNV Nation on their Futureperfect tour. After that, KAO Production started monthly events and concerts at Foufounes Électriques, and I helped promote those events. Besides working for KAO Production, I did a couple of other events with other friends of mine in Montreal. In 2003, after a trip to Toronto to see a Converter, Manufactura, and Displacer concert organised by TIK (Toronto Industrial Kollectiv) with my friends Guillaume Bourassa and Sébastien Gravel from PerfectionPlastic, we came back to Montreal with the idea of doing a festival. Finally, after a couple of months thinking about our project we created C.O.M.A., Montreal's electro/noise festival. I worked with Guillaume on the first two C.O.M.A. festivals, and then I moved back to my hometown of Quebec City in 2005.
In 2003, I became a DJ known as DJ Biotek; it helped me to share my passion for electronic music - mainly power noise, rhythmic noise, and breakcore - with a larger crowd. Back in Quebec City, I started a collective with artists from different art media, and we did five bioMETRIK events which had good success. In 2006, I did The Ascension rave with Manu le Malin and many other major industrial bands. Besides that, I helped Guillaume promote C.O.M.A. 3 and 4 and KAO Production promote Kinetik Festival in Quebec City.
Then in 2007, I was tired of doing concerts with only musicians, people dancing, and that's it, so I decided to start a new production company: Chromosome Syndicate. Our goal is to create events of electronic music - not only industrial music, but electronic music at large - with visuals arts, performers and with a concept or a goal for each event.
As for Nicolas Girard (Neurovortex), he's been a DJ, DJ Shango, and promoter in the trance scene in Quebec for a couple of years now and gained huge popularity in the rave scene of Quebec City. They also did an outdoor event at our national birthday celebration in June and had around a thousand people show up.
Red Invasion 1919 is an event with a very detailed theme behind it. Tell us a little about the concept behind the event, and how you came up with it.
Joltok: It's Quebec City's 400th birthday this year, so we wanted to do an event to celebrate our history, but with electronic music, visual arts, and performances. In 2008, we celebrate the 90th anniversary of the end of the first World War. Many citizens of Quebec City went to war while their women built munitions and guns in a factory in Quebec City. This festival is done in their memories, so that their losses in the name of liberty and democracy will never be forgotten. In 1919, Lenin created the International Communist Committee with the goal of converting all the world to communism, so the artistic concept of Red Invasion 1919 is that we will bring you to a parallel steampunk universe in 1919. In this universe the Red Army has won World War I and has now decided to invade North America. Friday night will be the night of preparing for war. All the visuals of this night will reflect this idea. Saturday night - the big night - is divided into two parts:
For the first part - the invasion - the costumes of the artists will have a Soviet influence. The visuals will be based on World War I and World War II. The music is power noise, rhythmic noise, and hardcore.
For the second part - the liberation - the artists will be dressed more as Marines or Men in Black. The visuals will cover the Cold War, space travel, terrorism, global warming, Iraq, etc. The music will be new industrial, hard techno, and hard trance.
Our goal is to make a critique of totalitarianism - its human and economic consequences - and to make a comparison to our world in 2008, where extremist parties and ideals are gaining more popularity and where our economy is near a crash, which is the same situation as the one before World War II. Will we let this happen again? Will humanity face its own self-destruction ? It's up to us to decide. History repeats itself unless we decide to change it.
If the event goes well, do you have plans to do similarly-themed steampunk or alternate history events in the future?
Joltok: I have a project for 2009, with a bio-punk concept, with digital hardcore, breakcore, and power noise artists. I also have a project for 2009 or 2010 of an electronic kabuki based on Japanese theater, with electronic music, but like you said, all those projects will depend on the success of Red Invasion.
Tell us a little about the artists scheduled to perform. Which performers are you personally most excited about seeing?
Joltok: First, all artists were chosen because I believed in their work. The lineup will not be based on their popularity or prominence; each artist is scheduled to fit the concept of the event. But I can say I'm proud to bring Worms of the Earth for their first concert in Canada. Dan is a young power noise artist with a promising future. I can't wait to hear the new album of Scrap.EDX, which will be released at this festival. Also Memmaker, PerfectionPlastic, and Ad·ver·sary have released top quality new albums this year. They will get their chance to promote those albums in Quebec City for the first time.
I can't wait to hear our major headliner, from Germany, Xenomorph, who is one of the biggest names in dark psy-trance, not to say that he invented the genre. Xenomorph is the artist at this festival who will bring people from the industrial scene to dance with those from the Goa trance scene. In 1991 in Goa, industrial DJs mixed their music with psychedelic music, which created Goa trance. Almost two decades later, industrial artists will work with trance artists again to give you a memorable experience.
Finally, Interlope is one of the major drum 'n bass artists in France in 2008. They've played in front of thousands of people at various festivals. Their music is pretty interesting, because they mix elements of breakcore and electro with drum 'n bass, and their lyrics are all really politically involved.
What do you feel is the biggest 'draw' of this event? Compared to other festivals, what's the biggest factor that sets Red Invasion 1919 apart?
Joltok: We've created an event where all artist work together with a goal; the music, visuals and performances all have the same importance in this event, as they all work toward this goal, this concept. Hopefully this event will not just entertain people but make them think about our global political and ecological situation and its comparisons with the past.