Voltaire, it's really great that you are working on new material. How does it feel to be in the studio, with brand new songs?

It's really exciting, as you can probably imagine! I've been getting a ton of email in the last few months from people inquiring about whether I'd ever put out another CD so it's great to finally be able to say that it is on the way. I still really love the songs on The Devil's Bris but after four years of playing them, I was really looking forward to working on new material. It is an opportunity to try new things and venture into new musical territory. Some of these songs aren't so new in actuality. There are songs on Almost Human that I wrote BEFORE any of the songs on Bris, that for one reason or another I wasn't able to or chose not to put on Bris that are now "right" for Almost Human. One such song is "Underground" which was on our original demo (circa 1995!). People who frequented our shows back then would come up and ask me "Why the HELL isn't "Underground" on The Devil's Bris?!!! It's my favorite song on your demo!" Well, now everyone will get to hear it!

You say that some of the songs have to do with an Angel coming to earth, and the cover also has the angel imagery. What does this signify?

The Devil's Bris was very much an over the top, satire of EVIL. It was a lot of fun to write, record and play those songs. It did, however, get me to thinking seriously about WHERE evil comes from. It doesn't just pop up by itself, it is usually born out of pain or abuse. A child isn't born evil, it becomes evil after it is ridiculed or abused by others. I was, in a sense, studying the mechanisms of being evil and I thought, hey, where better to look than at the alleged source of all evil, The Devil. Here is this beautiful, most favorite of God's angels who is cast out of grace and forced to live here on this rock with only us pathetic mortals for company. I'D BE PISSED, TOO!!!! That led me to having some (to quote another band) "sympathy for the devil" and thus led me to write the title track "Almost Human". Other ditties from the perspective of fallen angels were soon to follow.

When you are in the studio, are you standing over the band WHIP IN HAND? or is it a casual place where you all kick back and enjoy yourselves?

HA HA HA!!! You should ask the band! I'm sure they would see things very differently than I do! But yes, they do believe I am something of a whip cracker but only because I know EXACTLY what I want and I work on people until I break their wills and get it out of them ;) Luckily for me, I work with an incredibly talented group of musicians who do AMAZING work. During production, I had to go to LA for a week to direct a Pop Tarts commercial (yes you heard that correctly!) and the boys were left without any parental supervision. When I got back ALL of the violin and cello parts were recorded and they were OUTSTANDING! Apparently it was a terribly, long tortuous process and I MISSED IT ALL!! LA LA LA!!

Where do you get the ideas for those crazy lyrics of yours? Do they come to you easily, or is it something you torturously work at?

Believe it or not, they just pop into this sick and twisted little head of mine. I really can't explain it other than to say I think I might be suffering from multiple personality disorder! Sometimes I hardly remember writing these lyrics. I wonder 'HEY! where the hell did this song come from?' Usually, I try to get into the mind of someone who's perspective I want to write a song from and once "in character" the lyrics just start flowing.

That violin player of yours is amazing! Why not tell me a little bit about the people you are working with on Almost Human.

NO! It's all about ME ME ME!!!!

Yes, Gregor Kitzis, our violinist is definitely otherworldly! He blew me away on The Devil's Bris so I pretty much knew what to expect from him on Almost Human. OR SO I THOUGHT! When I sat down the first time to hear the string parts that were written for this CD I nearly fainted. They make the virtuoso string parts of Bris look like a cake walk! Matthew Goeke, our cellist, is largely to blame for that. I get the sense that he started charting his parts first and he set the bar rather high! In other words, expect some of the most incredible cello and violin playing you've ever heard ANYWHERE on Almost Human. Truth be told, now I'll never be able to find substitute players (and I think that is EXACTLY what they had in mind!).

We have also added a bass player to our line up. His name is George Grant and when he is not "beating down" his parts or "smokin us" with his bass, as he would put it, he fronts a Monster Rock band of his own called The Serpenteens. The addition of the bass has really helped the songs to have a fuller low end and helps them to groove more, making the songs on Almost Human significantly easier to dance to than those on Bris (don't worry, Almost Humanain't no techno CD!). George also owns and operates a recording studio called Planet Grey with his partner Mark Zap, where we are recording and mixing Almost Human. They blocked out about three months for us which was really great because we have been able to work on the songs over a period of time making changes and adjustments as we went along. The Devil's Bris was recorded, mixed and mastered in four days!!!

nuff said!

Drum duties on Almost Human were split up between Grisha Alexiev who worked on Bris and Stephen Moses, back from being on the road with Rasputina supporting the Marilyn Manson tour.

If you could be any kind of pasta, what would it be?

Fusilli, because it's better than being a Silli-Fu!

I notice a lot of talk about your character's thighs in "Oh My Goth!" -- is this an obsession of yours?

It's not really an obsession, no. It's just that MY THIGHS ARE REALLY REALLY FAT AND NO MATTER WHAT I DO THEY WON'T GET ANY THINNER EVEN THOUGH I WENT ON THAT DAMN ATKINS DIET AND I LOST 20 POUNDS BUT NONE OF IT FROM MY JELLIED THIGHS BECAUSE THEY ARE SOOOOOOOO FAT AND JIGGLY AND DID I MENTION THAT THEY ARE REALLY, REALLY FAT? ...ahem, anyway, my thighs are a little plumper than I would like them to be (probably because I'm Cuban) but I am coping with it the best way I know how......with comedy!

Do you ever wish you were living on another planet?

There isn't a day that goes by that I am not trying to find some way to get off of this rock!Aliens! Are you listening?!!!!! Get me outa here!!!! Actually, in the next issue of my comic book, Oh My Goth! I go to Planet Bjork where the entire population are Bjork clones and they are eager to serve! I can hardly wait!

Would you rather be a hammer or a pen?

Um... I'd like to be a pen from the neck up and a hammer from the waist down. And I think I'd like to be a waffle iron between the two. (but with thin thighs!!!)

Look forward to Voltaire's Almost Human in stores near you on August 1st.

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