3. GodfleshSelfless
There was a chain of events that started with Isis covering ‘Streetcleaner’. At the time we didn’t know Justin [Broadrick] and I don’t even know how we arrived at the decision to do that, but we did it and somebody eventually played it for Justin and somehow it got back to us that Justin approved of the effort we’d made on it. At the time that was no small thing for us because Godflesh was an influence and there was a mythical aspect to Justin, and so to have that distant contact and know that what we had done was to his liking was nice. That led to him remixing a song of ours for the EP that we did for Neurot, which was another step in making a connection and ultimately led to Hydra Head releasing the first Jesu full length and then Isis and Jesu touring together, us becoming friends, and working together in various capacities.
This record was the one that I felt the most drawn to because there was a very successful marriage between the fragile and very melodic aspects of what Justin does and the crushing, merciless, industrial components of his sound. I think Selfless was a precursor to what he ended up doing with Jesu. This is one where I found in someone else’s work this combination of the more typical aspects associated with metal, like dissonance, aggression, and really heavy rhythms, and much more melodic, sometimes serene and even atmospheric aspects. That was something that I definitely ended up pursuing in various ways. There’s always this flux between different experiences, feelings, and relationships and I love the idea that music can be really reflective of experience. A way to filter it and understand it rather than the function it sometimes serves which is more like an entertainment value or a tool for distraction.
