Foetus. Wiseblood. Steroid Maximus. No matter what moniker he uses, Jim G. Thirlwell has been creating some of the most unconventional and interesting sounds in the music world for 20 years now. Despite his absence over the past few years, 2001 has proven to be a busy one for the man often called "The Godfather of Industrial."

As Foetus, he released some of his most diverse experiments to date with Flow and its remix companion Blow. While Flow opens with the mechanized beats and edgy guitars common to industrial music on "Quick Fix," it eventually incorporates big band horns, Middle Eastern melodies, jazzy drums, and orchestral strings on songs like "Mandelay," "The Need Machine," and "Heuldoch 7B." With remixes by the likes of Kid 606, Ursula 1000, Pan Sonic, and Charlie Clouser of Nine Inch Nails, Blow proves to be just as diverse with each person manipulating different songs from Flow with his own personal imprint.

Although one might think that such orchestrated chaos comes from lengthy planning, Thirlwell claims his writing process is more instinctual.

"It starts as a whole thing in my head and it's a matter getting it out and somehow getting what I hear onto tape," he says. "Sometimes [songs] start from amassing sounds and one sound suggesting another sound. Or, sometimes it's just like having a blank canvas and building on it. Sometimes the idea of the song doesn't become apparent until after I've written it."

As Manorexia, Thirlwell also released Volvox Turbo - a 64-minute arrangement split into 14 tracks - exclusively at foetus.org. While most of his other projects are more schizophrenic in nature, Thirlwell says Manorexia required a creative process with which he was not previously familiar.

"That was written as one, long, 64-minute piece that literally started and then finished at the end," he says. "So, obviously I knew where that was going and I sort of knew this section was going to go for 'X' amount of time and what that was going to segue into. It was almost like painting it with a brush, only instead of a one-haired brush - which is how I kind of craft Steroid Maximus and Foetus and some of my more meticulous projects - I wanted to have a project that could be coming from a different part of my brain and be more instinctive. I think I've been doing it long enough to trust my instincts that it's not going to suck too much."

As far as being called the "Godfather of Industrial." Thirlwell says, "I don't like being pigeonholed into any category. I've done albums that are kind of orchestral ambient type things and I've done albums that are instrumental. I can go from my warped version of world music into hard core into big band within one song. So, I don't know if there's a category for that, nor should there be. It's Foetus-core."

Next year will be just as busy for Thirlwell with a Steroid Maximus release sometime in 2002, a live Manorexia event in Los Angeles next summer, and Thirlwell's DJing gigs in New York as DJ OTEFSU.

Foetus drummer, Vinnie Signorelli has his own tattoo shop in the New York, Queens area called True Blue Tattoo.


back to top