Interview with SydneyGothic.com: The Crystalline Effect recently released their stunning debut album "Glass", what has been the general reaction to it thus far? Pete Crane: It's interesting, and I've noticed this with my previous release with The Lady Of The House Of Scandal, that you always see a theme with reviews and they all seem to say very much similar things about a release. And so far the reviews of Glass have come back very positive, even scoring a couple of 5-star ratings. The general reaction has been really positive in regards to our slow, quiet, more trip hop tracks, and not so convinced about our more EBM numbers. I guess it's hard to impress the Europeans with EBM as they've heard it all before! So I've taken some of this onboard when writing for our next release, but still keeping the variation between genres which people seem to like. Myself, I can't wait for our next release because I really love what we've been creating since Glass was released! We're thinking an EP or two and then another full-length album with no remixes. I noticed that included with the album is a remix disc, featuring exclusive remixes by Ivory Frequency, Tankt. Angel Theory and many other talented electronic artists, how did this come about and what was it like listening back to how all those bands had remixed and reinterpreted your songs? Pete: I forget if we suggested making our debut album a double, or if it was our label. Either way I was incredibly pleased when they told us it would be a double and asked me to come up with an album full of remixes because that's a rare thing for a label to do when debuting a band. It's always a beautiful moment when you hear a remix of your work when it's clear the artist has really put themselves into the track, using your song to inspire something new. Listening to the remixes really is like listening to our songs for the first time in full objectivity which is a really gorgeous experience. Congratulations on getting the VNV Nation support slot for their upcoming Australian tour - can you tell Sydney Gothic what we can except from you live show? Any new tracks or potential surprises? Pete: Well thanks! And thanks to Synthesis for giving the slot to us. This will be our 19th gig as The Crystalline Effect and I think we've learned a few things to apply to this gig. When I first got the news that we were supporting, it was actually a time where I was feeling a bit unenthusiastic about The Crystalline Effect's live show, having just come back from a disastrous gig in Brisbane. But instead of turning down the gig, I set out to improve what I thought we lacked by doing a series of remixes of older songs to make them more dancefloor friendly as well as making them representative of our current production skills. So we are playing some remixes of old and new songs, as well as some completely new material. For the first time I love every song in our set so I feel a lot better onstage! Our live line-up will now be a 4-piece band with Elenor on vocals, myself on keyboards and laptop (I've eschewed the guitars I used to play at gigs and replaced them with a laptop), Lee Bulig aka STARK is on bass guitar and Wendy is on keyboards. We're playing a couple of Stark's remixes too! And just to ensure that our sound will be of a superb, international standard, our backing tracks have been mastered by Len Lemeire aka IMPLANT, who has also done the mastering for many noteworthy EBM releases in Europe lately. The EBM & industrial scene is obviously huge in Europe, but over the past year we've had the likes of KMFDM, Nine Inch Nails, Covenant and now VNV Nation on our shores, plus compilations such as The Crash Frequency Collective and new albums from local artists such as Tankt, yourselves and Angeltheory. Do you think the scene is growing or is the underground following becoming more vocal and proactive in its support of darkwave artists and musicians? Pete: Yep, there's no doubt that the EBM scene is massive in Europe, but we have our moments here too. What really excites me is clubs like Sydney's Vortex, which reaches over it's 3-level venue capacity on a regular basis. That really gives me hope for the scene here in Australia. On a musical level it's really exciting, because it's now possible to create music of world-class production standards using the computer you're reading this interview on, so a lot of people are really putting their true self into music using the same technology everyone else is using. It's very cool to see the darkwave music scene rising here and getting support from local DJs and such, but I think the greatest support will come from continuing to bridge the gap between here and Europe with band tours, compilations like Crash Frequency exposing us to the European crowd and 'net promo and correspondance. If you had to sum you 2005 for The Crystalline Effect in a few sentences, how would you do so and what are your aims and ambitions for the rest of the year and leading in to 2006? Pete: I think we "levelled up", production wise. And I really love all the music and remixes I've done in 2005. This is the year our debut album was released and I believe it's made a name for us in Europe which I hope to build upon for the rest of the year by keeping on writing and doing remixes to lead us into 2006, in which I hope to put out a new release or two. Can you tell us a little more about your vocalist Elenor Rayner and her involvement with her side project The Bom which is featured on The Crash Frequency Compilation. Pete: Elenor has been involved with a lot of projects, originally with Soulscraper (who were signed to Polygram and played the first Big Day Out), then with her involvement with Snog, but mostly with her solo project, Sobriquet, which has achieved quite a lot of success. The Bom is a project with Elenor and The Bom collaboratively writing songs, with Elenor doing the programming and The Bom on vocals. They've just finished up a demo album. When it comes to peer-to-peer networks and the distribution of music illegally, do you see it as a positive tool for gaining exposure for unknown artists or do you disagree with the notion that people can download your work & enjoy your music for free? Pete: To be honest I haven't developed an extreme stance one way or the other. I do believe it is an effective tool for gaining exposure, I've personally been exposed to numerous new worlds of music thanks to people burning me CDs of bands they think I'd like or dumping mp3s onto my hard drive… This is music I would have heard of but wouldn't have actually heard if it hadn't been given to me. Though I've seen our music on Soulseek and I'd be lying if I said I was totally cool with this. On one hand it's cool that people are listening to our music and spreading the name, but the effect on sales is directly affecting us, in that you can buy our music directly from us through our website. Basically I think we can do without p2p's "help" though. I don't think we need it to "gain exposure" because that's why we have a record label. Also, there are 4 full-length mp3s available to download from our website, 2 from each disc of Glass. Having a couple of tracks from each release to download is a tradition that I think if everyone kept it would be harder to justify p2p.