Godflesh's creativity

Question: Don\'t quote me on this, but I remember reading a long while back from an interview from Godflesh/Jesu mastermind Justin Broadrick, on the topic of Jesu, that this current band is a fresh break from Godflesh where he felt so restrained and restricted with it creatively.

I don\'t know if this statement involves the label he was on, but if it did, do you guys restrict artists on some levels with creative direction like many mainstream labels do? And what\'s with Justin\'s statement... would you think it had anything to do with Earache restricting him creatively? From:


Answer: That's gotta be one of the most ridiculous things i've ever read.We sign bands to encourage their creativity, not restrict it.I think you are taking what Justin said the wrong way here, my reading of what he said is that GODFLESH developed a style and identity over the course of a decade, and subconsciously any new material he would write came with a weight of expectation from the past,making it difficult to branch out.GODFLESH werent on Earache when they imploded at the end by the way, they were on Koch Records.

I don't even recall having a discussion about musical direction or type of songs with the band- free rein to do whatever they damn well like, is what bands enjoy on this label.When Godflesh went into remix mode, influenced by the DJ/dance culture which was springing up in the UK at the start of the 90's, there was no complaints from me.Remix 12 inchers?- no problem.

There was one infamous exception to that tho- in the mid-90s period a band called OASIS began to make serious waves in the UK music scene.Seemingly from nowhere their debut album sold over a Million copies but due to clever marketing and management also appeared very hip and cool aswell.They could do no wrong.OASIS style Brit-Rock more or less took control over the UK's Rock scene for the rest of the decade- still to this day the workman-like catchy Brit-Rock they invented remains the dominant format on UK radio stations.Even GODFLESH caught the bug and between album they made a 3 song demo for the label and their own amusement, where they experimented with a Brit-Rock style.It was a serious attempt to have a go at the hugely popular genre mainly to see if they could pull it off, and maybe persue that direction.
I remember telling the band we thought it was a terribly bad idea, mainly because Justin didnt have the vocal style to pull it off correctly. The demo was shelved and quickly filed under ' momentary lapse of reason'.The songs never even made it onto "In All Languages" best of and rare comp, because we wanted to spare the bands blushes.

Heres CRUSH MY SOUL video directed by Andres Serrano (£75,000)