When I was first asked to do this interview after the death of Dr. Luv, I felt privileged and honored. This was my second interview with Thomas Thorn since the release of Kiss The Goat LP. I was amazed to do another interview to promote his Calling Dr. Luv LP, espeacially after one of his closest friends and band member had just past away. This interview is a classic one from the vaults but I am only putting it in here due to a possible 3rd interview to promote his newest LP and look for The Electric Hellfire Club. His latest effort is Electronomicon. The style has changed and improved since his total re vamping of the band and his look. But, enjoy this little trinket from the past ... I sure did.
We open up with why he split from the Thrill Kill Kult....
Thomas Thorn: "...It was like everything else...it started to become work. So, it really wasn't fun anymore so I figured it was time to move on to something else. The other thing that you realize is that it was some that was never really the product of my creative process..I contributedto a degree..when it really started switching away from being more of a balance between the catchy stuff and the heavy stuff, it really sort of lost its appeal for me."
Sad Ol' Goth:You said in an interview that they became more of a campy fashion. Now was that they were just using Satanism as a thing to promote their albums?
T: I think that it was always the case..
S: How'd you meet all the band members?
T: I met Rev. Dr. Luv that was somebody who was a TKK fan and who came to alot of our shows and was somebody I started talking with and eventually started hanging out with...we've had a lot of changes a sort of revolving door far as band members. Right now, the drummer and the guitar player we have - the drummer is the original drummer from all the demo sessions we had up until te first album we recorded, and the guitarist that we have played on Satans Little Helpers and played on the tour for Burn Baby Burn. So, things are changed alot. I think we're pretty set with the line up we have right now.
S: I just got your newset CD, Calling Dr. Luv and I wondered if this was really emotional for you to do?
T: Sure. Yeh, definitely...It was a difficult process. In that the writing process was even difficult in that I've been the primary writer and Shane(Dr. Luv) who was second in command, was basically the guy that I would bounce all my ideas of of and say 'What do you think of this?' 'What kind of drum do you think we should have in here?'
And I was pretty much completely alone in the writing process as far as this record went, which was difficult and disturbing. Then like wise in the studio....At the same time there was a lot of emotional turmoil involved in creating the ecord but I think it came out really good. I've been through the most difficult year and a half of my life at the same time came out with what I feel is probably the best record we've done.
S: Now are all the songs written after his death?
T: No. I would say probably three of them written prior to his death. Nothing was completely finished prior to that. He had even started out a couple of things that are included on the record.
S: Who played most o the keyboards?
T: I played all the keyboards.
S: You have a lot of sampling on the album. Where do you get the samples?
T: They come from everywhere...from answering machine messages, to weird old movies, to television shows, to whatever...On occassion we'll make our own samples...
S: Now on Pack 44 and 7th Angel, those are mostly someone reading scriptures or something.
T: Pack 44; it's a combination of things. Some of those things are things people wrote....That piece there are people that are comrades of ours through one sense or another that we asked them for a statement up to 2 min. long that we would include in a piece...some of it was Boyd Rice...some of it was taken from the Satanic Bible and some of it was stuff they wrote. Shawn Partige does something that was a quote from the Marque De Sade. Then 7th Angel, the music was actually performed by Letters In Wait, in Atlanta. They provided us with basic tracks and we put guitar on top of it, then the vocals on top of it. It's Enochian key that is read from the Satanic Bible that's read for a funeral.
S: Where do you get most of your musical influences from?
T: Early on, I was exposed to a lot of Opera and Classical as well as some other worldly music, like Ali Akbarkan and Robby Shancar. But, the first group that I actually collected records by were the Beatles. And, I went from Beatles to Kiss...and I went from Kiss to AC/DC. Ten I discovered Punk Rock. There have always been alot of things that influenced me....and I always collected weird and obscure stuff.
S: Do you think you guys evolved as a band?
T: Oh, sure. You listen to the sound structure and the production and everything on this record. I think it's a lot more mature It's hard to grow up in public but necessary evil to do that...At this point now, it's probably going to change since we lost what was an intricate member, an intricate contributing force to that sound. It's not like we're going to go out there and look for somebody who can duplicate that exactly.
S: Since his death, does this bring up any thoughts when you were with Slave state?
T: ...It was definitely one of those things that was 8 years previous that Boris had taken his life. Yeh, there are a lot of issues like that when you deal with the death of a really close friend. Some people say it's harder to deal with suicide and I think that it's realy not. It's a lot more tragic in Shanes case, because Shane wanted to live his life...he had a lot more living left to do.
S: Just to get off the subject, is it me or does Cleopatra get carried away with all these tribute albums?
T: I think I get crazy with them because they sell so well...The new one that they're working on is a tribute to The Cure..We're actually going to be on Reconstructins, TV Terror because he pitched me something I couldn't refuse. He wanted us to do Charles In Charge because of my affinity for Mr. Manson. So we're going to do a version of Charles IN Charge of Charley Manson oriented.
S: There's a thing that kinda caught me - Imean the whole thought of Satanism...You said you started when you was 11? Now 11 yrs old. What kind of things in your lfe happened to make you sit there and say 'This is at I'm gonna do, this is what I believe in'?
T: It was one of those things since I was 5 or 6 I've been obsessed with monsters and witches and dark things and had always been encouraged to read as far as things like that went. It's a logical step when you basically go from reading fictional accounts -you know, myths and legends - then you realize there is such a thing as Black Magic and you start investigating those sort of things. 11 was when I started practicing Black Magic.
Anton Levey always said Satanist are born not made. It was a natural orientation for me. It was n't some...earth shakin event that occured that made me say 'oh well, I'm going to renounce God and embrace the left hand crap.' It was a natural progression for me.
S: Now, you do believe in a god then?
T: Not by most peoples definition. As far as the Judeo-Christian tradition...no I don't embrace those. I don't believe in them.
S: Now there's a difference between Judeo and Christian.
T: I pretty much think it's the same...
S: I think God was a little bit more moody back in the Old Testament.
T: Yeh, that's the whole thing. One of the things you can say right there is 'Which God do you pray to; The Old Testament God or The New Testament God?' The Old Testament God turned people into pillars of salt and sent plagues down on them... that's not a loving, forgiving God as far as I'm concerned.
S: I've been studying Theology for a long time; mostly on my own, and I started reading Dantes Inferno around the age 11...
T: I think I read it at 12.
S: And I read Waitng for Godot, which was totally weird for a kid to read at that age. A lot of kids at that age were reading White Fang or something like that.
T: Sure, if that. I mean now you rarely ever see kids reading.
S: That's true and they just go by whatever they hear...Are your views on Satanism the same as Antons?
T: I don't think primarily that my views stand coincide to those of Dr. Levey's There's certain areas we might differ on, but I think that for the most part, we're pretty sound as what it is and what it means.
S: Would Athiest be Satanic?
T: No, I wouldn't say that because most of the people that I think are Satanist are spiritual people. I think atheism is a rejection of spirituality and that's not what we do. I think Satanist; more than most people today, excepts mans desires and needs for some sort of spirituality and ritual in his life.
S: How is your views on politics?....about Rock the Vote thing...
T: I don't think that it's MTVs place to tell em to vote, to tell em not to hate, to tell em to do this, to do all these things. MTV is way the fuck out of line. They're there to entertain and what they come across as informing and educating is brain wash. I think MTV have an obvious ploitical slant....
S: Don't you think that it's hypocritical that they get a lot of these groups up here like Rage Against The Machine - totally against government, but then afterwards go 'Hey, Rock the Vote'
T: Rage Against the Machine is the biggest joke that ever existed anyway. Supposdly they say they're against technology. What the fuck do they think are making these CDs that they sell. I'm sorry. I don't see them doing anything other than jumping up and down and beating their fist against the wall.
S: Do you think there's any connection with Satanism to Nazi's and KKK and stuff like that?
T: I think that when it gets down to it, Satanism could be described as a fascistic spirituality in a sense that the Nazi's were fascistic in nature and KKK have a fascistic agenda; which is a stretch of the imagination. I think KKK are pretty more the extension of the Christian church than anything else...I don't believe that all people are created equal. I think that's what facts and statistics show and that the fact people are not all created equal and the general level of education that occurs in public schools is going down, because of the fact we need to cater to the lost denominator. It's testimony to that. I don't think it's on the basis of ethnic or raciallines. That's not the kind of agenda I'm interested in but at the same time there are a lot of creative intellegent people not being nurtured in our current society because we feel we have that need to cater to the weakest.
S: You have anything against humanity in a whole?
T: Mans a raging degenerate animal; at this point , and couldn't survive by his instincts and we've done everythingwe can to eliminate those parts of our being...I think we create a culture contrary to that . Contrary to progression.
S: You said in the past that you've had these evil spirits at your concert. You ever have good spirits against you?
T: It's always hard to say that sort of thing. It's that fine line between good luck and bad luck. Unless they were directly speaking to me saying, 'Thomas Thorn, we're the good fairies of the land of sunshine and we're gonna to do everything in our power to stop you....' Other Than the fact it's electrical nature, I can't really define. I'm not in the position to do so.
S: Now if you went back to your High School Re-union, would you expect these people to say, 'Yeh, I expected this from him.'?
T: Yes, of course. These are the people that when I graduated high school early and went to college, their explanation to it was thatI was put into a mental institute....Prayer groups use to come over to my house to pray for my mother because I was spawn of the Devil.
S: I don't know about Satanism concerning the afterlife. Is there an afterlife?
T: As far as Satanist are concerned, you have to realize that one of the things that seperates us from the Christians is that we don't claim to have any of the answers. Everybody has their theories but Satanist are willing to expect that this might be the only shot you got in life and because of that, we're not willing to gamble with what we're given. We want to live each day as if it were our last and make the most of it.
S: You don't go around saying 'I want this and that' and go arond killing because this is your last try.
T: No, the thing is you have to take everything into consideration in that way because, if I could be assured that there are certain people I could kill and get away with it and suffer absolutely no reprecussions from it, I would certainly do it. There are alot of people out there that deserve to die and I would be the first one to do it if I wasn't going to be affected in anyway. That's the whole thing in living each day as if it were your last, precludes the possibility of placing myself in a position where I could be incarcerated and have my freedom taken away from me. That's counter productive to the life I want to live...
S: You don't believe that if I do something, Satans gonna back me up here.
T: That's not the kind of Satan that we look at. That's more of a Christian definition of what Satan is. I think that while there are things that can be done along those lines; if you're talking about those sort of powers, you don't even have to leave your house to kill those people.
S: You ever have seances to contact people, like Shane or some one?
T: No, not with Shane. I have a tendency to think that if once you go there, that's where you belong. It's an imposition to your afterlife; if there is one, to pull you out of it.
S: Do you feel he's with you spiritually when you play?
T: A lot of the time, Yeh. Through a lot of the things that happened, it's no coincidence that someone quits the bands and that's there's someone there immediately to fill their place within the hour. I can't help but feel that I have some guardian spirit.
S: Are you going to replace him with anyone at this point?
T: Yeh, we have a woman playing keyboards at this point. As far as bringing someone in as a permanent band member....we're not jumping into that just yet. We have someone playing on tour at this point...
S: You have any future EP's or LP's in the plan?
T: They put out a single which they called Calling Dr. Luv but I think there's probably going to be a remix EP that's going to come out more towards February(96) or something like that. We'll probably feature a remix of 'Very Groovy Boots' and remixes of songs we've done along those lines like 'Psychedelic Sacrafice' and 'Black Bus' and 'Bitchcraft'...a '60's go-go feel to them.
S: With you being in Satanism, is it hard for you to get gigs at times?
T: On occasion. It depends on the place...the people not wanting to book us on the basis on what were about alot more than anybody out there....It still remains as one of the buzz terms of this decade that people are frightened and disturbed by it....
S: You have any last words to your fans?
T: If you haven't got the new album, check it out and see you on tour.
