SPILL FEATURE: GOING SOLO – A CONVERSATION WITH BILL LEEB

GOING SOLO

A CONVERSATION WITH BILL LEEB

If you were to compile a list of the most influential musicians of the past four decades Bill Leeb’s name would make the list. From his work in the industrial and electronic music genres with Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly to his venture into ambient and trance music with Delerium, his impact on music is undeniable. His latest release, Model Kollapse, marks an exciting new direction as it is his debut solo album. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Leeb about Model Kollapse and his career.

With several musical projects under his belt, including, Cyberatkif, Delerium, Front Line Assembly, Skinny Puppy, and Noise Unit, among others, it may surprise people that Model Kollapse is Leeb’s debut solo album. Reflecting on the events that transpired that led him to create the album, he says, “Jared [Slingerland] reached out to me, and I consider him a good friend. We sort of casually reconnected. At the same time, cEvin Key [Kevin Crompton] from Skinny Puppy they were just doing their final farewell tour. We also started to reconnect. Kevin said, ‘What about doing a Cyberaktif album?’ and I said, ‘Well, when did we do the first and only one.’ It was exactly 31 years ago, which is a long time. A lot of people don’t even live that long. Also, [Front Line Assembly] just started our Gary Numan and Ministry tour, which was a pretty epic thing for us. All of these things came into play within a year and a half, and it really inspired me.” This inspiration led Leeb to start writing lyrics for both the Cyberatkif and his solo album. Leeb adds, “Jared and I started reconnecting, and he sent me some ideas, and we always had this really unspoken chemistry for working, which is hard to find with people. You can put two people in a room, and they can be best friends and no magic. It’s very personal, too, sitting there with someone and going, ‘What do you think of this?’ or ‘How do you like this idea?’ You can’t do that with anybody. Also, at the same time, Dave Heckman, president of Metropolis Records, who rest in peace, passed away; we were really good friends. We were like the first major band he signed years ago. So, we’ve had a history. He also kind of always gives me carte blanche, and he said, ‘I would be fully supportive if you wanted to do something solo.’ The shame is he didn’t get to hear or see the final product; kind of bittersweet and sad… There were days when the label said something like, ‘Why don’t you just call it another Front Line album because it’s been a while,’ and I said, ‘I just feel like in my own spirit the lyrics aren’t usually what I do with Front Line’ … Rhys [Fulber], he does a lot of remixes and released two sort of techno, no vocal type records on Sonic Groove. So, everybody’s doing stuff, so I thought I might do stuff too.”

Leeb enjoyed the experience working on his solo album and feels very close to the album, noting, “I thought this is going to be my record, and I’m just going to do things that I like and that are fun. As a whole I felt every song had a meaning to me. It took over two years, so there was no rush. With Greg Reely mixing, he took his time, and we would go back and forth digitally until like 5, 6, 7, 8 mixes. To me, that was the most fun and productive way to make a record… I don’t feel like any [song] was rushed. I feel like I put as much time in each one as I wanted to and could.”

Throughout his illustrious career, Leeb has collaborated with numerous artists from multiple genres. Model Kollapse features songs with Shannon Hemmett and Jason Corbett of ACTORS, and Mimi Page. Reflecting on why he collaborates with so many people, he says, “I was just talking to Rhys [Fulber] about that, and I was thinking if we put all our portfolios together, everything we’ve done and all the artists we’ve worked with it would be a pretty long and incredible list. It really started with Delerium, where we started bringing in vocalists. We’ve used 30, 40 vocalists, maybe more. It makes it more fun. It always opens your eyes and learning curve and learning different styles and different sounds. Our music, between all these projects, and Rhys with the four Fear Factory albums, we’ve gone through so many different channels and met so many different people. That’s probably one of the reasons, the longevity of still being interested in what we’re doing because we’re always thinking, ‘Who could we do a song with that would be fun.’ I think it keeps it going. I feel lucky that we’ve touched so many people and have had that opportunity.”

“I like Portishead. I think [Beth Gibbons] would be great on a track. [Some people say] we should do a track with Marilyn Manson. We did one with Al Jourgensen already and became pretty good friends with Gary Numan on the tour and that would be cool to do a single with him.”

PURCHASE MODEL KOLLAPSE VIA BANDCAMP

Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly are two giants in the industrial world. They helped shape what would become one of the biggest genres of the ‘90s with bands like Filter, Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Orgy, Powerman 5000, Rammstein, and Static-X. In looking back at the impact and influence Skinny Puppy had, Leeb notes, “It’s a crazy place. Whenever I think you hear bands with distorted vocals, heavy samples, and weirdness, Puppy was like the only band in Canada really doing that. Even when Remission came out, a couple of reviews were like, ‘Who do these guys think they are from the land of Anne Murray and Gordon Lightfoot? We’ve never heard this before. What is this?’ So, it resonated right from the beginning… I’m waiting for the next generation to see what else can you do that’s gonna really change things… I think Skinny Puppy, their last tour, they sold out every show. I think they played five nights in a row in L.A. It just shows you the legacy of the band. When it first started, I don’t think any of us had any vision that it was going to be where it was or how it would go. But we definitely felt between us all that we were creating something really cool and different and that it was important from the first get-go.”

Leeb has always been around music. He was raised in Vienna, where he was in the boys’ choir and played the violin at the convent that he attended. His mother also sang in a choir. As a young teenager he loved ‘70s rock, electronic music, especially Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, and going to live shows. Once punk rock and new wave became popular, he became really interested in music as a career, saying, “There were so many artists and so many possibilities. I loved all the experimental and industrial world also. Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Joy Division, it all started to really talk to me…. I just loved music so much that I just wanted to be part of it, so one thing led to another. I guess in the back of my mind, I must have thought music was the place I wanted to be. Making a living from it is a completely different thing. Nobody knows.”

Recalling what it was like to create music when he first started, he states, “There was no social media, there was no computers, it was just analog synths, there were no virtual synths. Whenever we would create something at home, you could hopefully store the sound and write down the notes and then in the studio you had to recreate it. You had this little sequencer box with a 3-inch screen and you’re trying to put entire data songs on there. It never worked properly.”

A career as prolific as Leeb’s is bound to create tons of lasting memories. Going to Moscow and playing a sold-out show is something he will never forget. He notes, “We did an in-store, and there were people lined up outside down the street. We had this big table full of beer. Everybody wanted a picture and wanted to hug you Russian style.” Another memory that has stuck with him forever is when his mother saw him play at a show in Vancouver. “She’s from a different world and a different era, and she came to this packed house to see [Delerium] play. That meant a lot to me.”

The biggest hit of Leeb’s career is Delirium’s “Silence” (featuring Sarah McLachlan). Leeb initially met her at Nettwerk Music Group while she was recording her first album. Their friendship grew over time, and while Delerium was recording Karma, they would partner up for “Silence”. “We gave [Sarah McLachlan] some songs, and she wasn’t feeling the tracks that we gave her. We were in the studio with Greg [Reely] mixing at Hipposonic Studio in Vancouver, and we were mixing “Silence” as an instrumental. We were in a full session, and the phone rang, and it was Sarah. Sarah said she had an idea for a song we’d sent her and wondered if she could come down and sing it. We were like, ‘Yeah, it’s on the board. We’re actually mixing it.’ Cause it was going to be an instrumental. She came down and sang it two or three times, perfect each time. And the rest is history.”

Eventually, the song became a worldwide hit and an anthem at clubs. They were asked to be on Top Of The Pops. It is also considered to be one of the greatest trance songs of all time. Leeb was and continues to be amazed by the overwhelming reception of the song. “It became insane how big that song was. Even now it still gets played. And just think it was being mixed as an instrumental. But I guess that’s how the magic moments happen. The craziest thing is that song probably sold more than all of our records together. A lot of artists, if they’re lucky, they’ll have one or two songs in their lifetime that can carry them through their entire life ‘cause people wanna hear that song… If it never happened, I can’t even imagine that. What would have happened to us? Maybe we would be on the street busking.”

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Photo Credits: Bobby Talamine