Sinzine

He may be among the hardest working six-stringers around, but you can still bet that Mark Gemini Thwaite's career - which has included stints with The Mission, Peter Murphy and Gary Numan to name but a very few, sounds nothing little short of heaven to a host of aspiring musicians.  d.Void gets up close to examine the ups and downs that actually go with the dream job.

Mark Gemini Thwaite is a musician so prolific that his influence is practically inescapable on alt. club playlist.  The guitarist's covetable musical CV notes that he has recorded no less than six albums with The Mission for starters, and goes on to list stages and studios shared with a whole roll call of iconic artists. Amongst the 'names' Thwaite has recorded with are Bauhaus' Peter Murphy (most recently for imminent new album Ninth), Ministry's Al Jourgensen, Gary Numan, Tricky, Revolting Cocks and Mob Research - the group he formed with the late Killing Joke bassist Paul Raven in 2007.  Live performance credits meanwhile include Combichrist, Imperative Reaction, Spear of Destiny, P.J.Harvey and Tool to name but a few.  SinZine asks MGT about his first breaks, biggest struggles, and the possibility of sharing just one day in his rollercoaster life....

What gave you your break from the unknown or unsigned into being a highly sought after guitarist?

I guess it was a slow but steady progression over the years, from being an unknown to being a member of some established bands. I'm originally from Birmingham UK, went to school in Lichfield - a leafy quiet city outside Brum, and slaved away for many years in the 80's on various unknown Midlands bands that didn't get anywhere.  It wasn't until I moved to London in 1989 and answered an ad for a guitarist by Dave Roberts (of Sex Gang Children) that things slowly started to click into place.  I did some gigs and recording as part of Dave's band The Children, which lead indirectly to an offer to join Spear of Destiny for a new album and tour. Recorded an album (Sod's Law)which was released in 1992, and it was at that point that The Mission advertised in the press for a new guitarist to replace the departed Simon Hinkler. I responded to the ad, just like thousands of other guitarists, and was surprised to get called for audition in Summer '92. I got the gig and joined The Mission full time in November '92. At this point I was now a full time pro-musician on a wage, in a band signed to Phonogram. After recording a few albums and touring the world with The Mish they disbanded, and I joined Tricky's band as guitarist in 1998.  Ended up recording on three Tricky albums and doing numerous tours between 1998-2008, also rejoined the Mission for more tours and albums.. I guess it was a snowball effect that slowly built up over the years..

Which was the first 'mainstream' or known act you played with?

That would have been Spear of Destiny, I suppose.  Not so well known now, but back in the 80's and 90's they were fairly well known in Britain, as they had some chart success - it was the first time I got paid to play! A novelty at the time, as many unknown musicians - including myself - routinely had to play to play..

Was it really a chance meeting with Kirk Brandon? And how did that lead on to you being Tricky's regular guitarist?

After I moved to London I joined Dave Roberts new band The Children, the offshoot of his old band Sex Gang Children.  His new drummer was also jamming with Kirk Brandon at that time, who was tinkering with the idea of reforming Spear of Destiny for a new album and tour.  Bobby the drummer got me down to audition and I got the gig as Spear's new guitarist, we played some sold out S.O.D shows in 1990, then toured as Theatre Of Hate for the band's 10th anniversary in 1991 - I was in place of original guitarist Billy Duffy, who was otherwise busy with his 'new' band The Cult.   We recorded the Sod's Law album which came out in 1992, and later that year I joined The Mission and it wasn't until Wayne Hussey disbanded The Mission in 1996 that I joined Tricky's touring band in 1998 to promote the Angels With Dirty Faces album. I got a call from a London based session agency asking me if I was interested in playing for Tricky - and could I play like Anthrax!  I was intrigued, as I had Tricky's first album Maxinquaye and it was trip-hop with hardly any guitars.  I went to the audition and it turned out Scott Ian of Anthrax had recorded loads of riffs on the album they were about to promote, of course Scott was too busy with Anthrax to tour.  He came to the New York show in 1998 and was very complimentary, which was nice.  I ended up recording on three Tricky albums between 1998-2008..

There really is a feeling amongst aspiring musicians in the UK now that there's no money in music anymore.  Do you feel there's still a viable career to be carved from playing, or is it a path to be perused out of passion alone?

Hard question to answer really, I think all musicians should be doing it for the love of creating music and performing first.  Then, if they want to make a living out of it, that's something to work on and an additional bonus.  But the way the industry and record sales have declined in recent years any musician would be crazy to pursue the rock and roll dream without genuinely getting a kick out of doing it, first and foremost.  I think musicians can still make a living, mostly from touring and playing live nowadays, but it's certainly not guaranteed.  It's pretty much like starting your own business, and 9 out of 10 new businesses fail.

I think to outsiders (non musicians) being on tour and in a band is easily romanticised; the travel, seeing the world... Is it any of these things or, as often reported by  musicians, is it a case of not having time to really see the countries and cities you visit on tour and often not even recalling where you've been or where is next?  And how does being away for such long periods affect your family and personal life?

Yeah touring can be great of course, you get the opportunity to see parts of the world that many folks don't get to, but it can be a blessing and a curse.  Sometimes you get some time to check out the cities you travel too, but all too often you are at the mercy of the tour schedule - which may mean you roll into town on your tour bus and only get a couple of hours to sight see before having to soundcheck, eat and then play the show.  More often than not your bus is hitting the road for the next city straight after the show, so it's only on days off that you maybe get to check more of the city out. I guess your marital status will depend on how touring affects your personal life - if you're young free and single then it can be a blast to meet many new people everyday.  But as you get older and have loved ones and family it can be a strain to be away for too long.  Luckily the rise of free video services like Skype makes it much easier to keep in touch cheaply, over the miles..

Do you feel downloads have opened up exposure for new artists or essentially destroyed the music industry?

The jury is out on this one. Some see Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich's taking down of Napster years ago as a seminal defining moment.  At the time many thought it was money grabbing, the millionaire rock star whining that some people - fans - were stealing his band's music for free, but in retrospect he saw the writing on the wall, as the widespread availability of file sharing sites all but destroyed and decimated album sales over the last 5-10 years.  It's not all bad of course, some bands have managed to break on the internet via Myspace selling their own mp3's via iTunes and CD Baby, without having to go through the steel-walled record label system.  Apparently MP3s are now creating more revenue than CD sales, but this hasn't translated into a healthier industry, as overall the sales of music combined have still declined each year.  Some blame the onset of gaming and other media, and that the younger generations just expect their music to be free via torrents and file sharing, unlike my older generation that is used to paying for CDs and albums. But first and foremost music should be about the music.  That's what it was about 100 years ago, it wasn't an industry then, so perhaps we have to rethink the whole thing. Everything happens and evolves for a reason.

You've had some difficult times with recent new bands, perhaps closer to your heart too as being formed by you, with Universal dropping New Disease and Paul Raven's sad and untimely early death in 2007 after the formation of Mob Research. Has this given you greater inner strength to try again with your own band, or are you intending to focus on your session work and Metalmorphosis sideline remix project?

Yeah I was devastated by the death of Paul in 2007.  We had been working on the Mob Research album, it was sounding great and he was so excited about it which was infectious.  We had recorded over 10 songs musically and vocalist Kory Clarke (Warrior Soul)  had completed 4 songs with vocals at that point.  There was a period of several months after Paul died where it felt weird to continue with the album - it was Paul's brainchild, he was the motivator and protagonist in the band, he named it and,  came up with the album title . I was the primary musical force in the band, Kory was the frontman, but Paul was the guy pulling the strings... Originally Al Jourgensen had offered to release the album under his 13th Planet label, but after Paul died Al seemed to drop the ball so I waited until Kory finished the vocals.  It took us best part of a year to get it all finished and mixed, then I shopped it around, eventually signing a deal with Echozone/Sony Music in Europe. It was a hard time to get a deal, with the recession..

New Disease, a band I formed when I left The Mission, signed a deal with Universal records USA in late 2003 - after we had released our debut Axiomatic EP through C1, which drew the attention of Tool producer David Bottrill, who was looking for new bands for his Universal label imprint.  We signed to Universal and commenced recording of our album in early 2004, releasing a record in 2004 and touring with Skid Row as well as a UK headliner tour.  Unfortunately we were dropped by Universal later that year as loads of labels dropped tons of bands, and David Bottrill chose not to renew his contract with UMG.  So we never did get to release the ND album - most of it is recorded and mixed, but I'm still hoping to find a small independent label to release it at some point, there's some great songs.  We never officially split up, but now that I live in Los Angeles, and everyone lives in different cities, unless someone offered us a new deal it's unlikely we would reform - but never say never..

'Metalmorphosis' was a pet project started a decade ago. I used to play along to albums like Dare by the Human League when I first started playing guitar in my teens, as there were no guitars on the album at all, so I could make up my own riffs. During 1999, when I installed Logic Audio recording software on my home PC, my friend suggested that I try recording the guitar riffs I used to make up as a way to get familiar with the program. I took 80's synth hits by The Eurythmics, Soft Cell, Human League, Visage, Depeche Mode, Madonna, Dead or Alive etc and added hard rock guitars, rock drums etc to beef them up. The main remit was to pick recordings that have no guitar on the original version. I found that once the new guitars were mixed into the original mix the 80's rhythm section would sound weedy, so I would apply rock drum loops and record additional bass where necessary to bolster up the original track. It was a fun project to do and I got to hear the songs how I always heard them in my head. This led to some remix commissions from friends and artists that heard my 'mash-ups, including Gary Numan, and more recently US bands Combichrist and Aesthetic Perfection..

You've played all around the world, what is your best gig and why? Or maybe we should be asking what was your worst gig and why!??

Quite a few - too many to recall, perhaps.  Certainly my first Mission show at Leeds Town & Country Club in 1993 was notable as Andrew Eldritch of The Sisters was also on the same bill, performing with Utah Saints!  Playing Tower of Strength on Top of the Pops in 1994 - a highpoint for any British musician!  Many memorable shows in Madrid and Portugal with Peter Murphy, Tricky and The Mission; the crowds go crazy there.  Headlining the Zillo festival in Germany with The Mission in 1995 was great, I remember it was a blazing hot day - all the Goths were melting! Playing in Santiago Chile with Peter Murphy was also great, touring the USA with Tricky supporting Tool as special guests in 2001 also memorable - we were playing huge sheds and arenas, and we went down surprisingly the metal crowd.  On the last show Maynard, Adam the guitarist and Justin the bassist all got up and jammed with us...

Worst gig? Actually, I played a show in Paris with Tricky around 2001, he had overheard that the sound system the promoter hired was under our specification on our rider, and he walked onstage, we did maybe one or two songs then he walked off hating the sound and refused to come back out, the crowd almost rioted.

We'd love to know what it's like to be Mark Gemini Thwaite, share a day in the life with us!

Well of course every day is a new day, and every day can be different; if I'm on tour, which I was for the last two months, I would rise on the tourbus around noon, grab coffee (essential), get some brunch, check my email and then check out the local part of town before getting ready for soundcheck.  Pretty much the same deal at home - just take out the checking out the town part! I'm a bit of a hermit nowadays when not on tour...

Finally was there any question we should have asked but didn't? (and your answers!)

Nope I think you covered it all!  Let me plug Peter Murphy's new album Ninth, featuring yours truly on guitar, released on Nettwerk Records on 7th June.  The new single I Spit Roses is out now on iTunes and Amazon. Also, my Bitter Tears remix is out on Aesthetic Perfection's new EP The Devil's in the Details, and watch out for the Mission's XXV anniversary show at Brixton Academy on 22nd October! Some very special guests appearing - all this info and more on www.markthwaite.com