1. The bandname Alien Sex Fiend, where does it come from? Why did you chose this name for your band?

Nik Fiend : We were trying to find a good name & considered a number of names, but when I head the words ”Alien Sex Fiend” I thought that was IT. It was completely unto itself, it was  timeless. Also it was not trapped as being a “punk” or a “psychobilly” or a “heavy metal name”, with some bands’ names you can almost guess what the music will sound like, whereas “Alien Sex Fiend” suggested “otherworldly” & something different, so that fit with how the music was.

2. Can you discuss the origin of the band and the link with the legendary batcave club?

Mrs Fiend : We were already under way as a band but we hadn’t played any live gigs at the time. Olli from the band Specimen who ran the Batcave club came across a review in a music paper which described our demo tapes as “the ugliest thing I’ve ever heard in the name of music”, he booked us immediately! & we played our first show there on 1^st December 1982. That was how it all started, things just didn’t stop after that.

3. Was it so special to play in the batcave club in the early eighties or are the stories about this legendary club romanticized/idealized/exagerated during the years? Were the people and was the atmosphere so different from the people and the atmosphere at contemporary gothic clubs or gigs? Can you discuss some differences?

Nik Fiend : For a start there was no such thing as a “gothic club” in 1982 at all, anywhere. That term or genre had not been created at that time. When “gothic” was first used it was more of a derogatory term used by the media, than a compliment!

Mrs Fiend : Punk had more or less ended by that time, & New Romantic had started up, that was the “next big thing”, but there were other people like us who found that music too light, too “pop” & the look too…

Nik Fiend : Too good looking! There was no place for ugly people to hang out! Or dysfunctional angry people like me!

Mrs Fiend : (Laughing) Yes the New Romantics….

Nik Fiend :  Would spend all day getting ready to go out & we didn’t have that sort of time!

Mrs Fiend :  The New Romantics seemed to completely disregard elements like punk, psychobilly, psychedelic & other music that we loved, & there were a lot of other people who felt like that – those people found their home at The Batcave club.

Nik Fiend : Although it was relatively short lived – it ended around 1984 - it did burn brightly & did create something new that is still going to this day. There wasn’t a “purist” Batcave “identity” though it was a big mixture, it brought together different types of music, fashion, & people of all types – photographers, writers, as well as bands, many creative people, it was a big melting pot. The repercussions are still being felt now. I don’t suppose that the people are that different now.

Mrs Fiend : You couldn’t buy “the look” you couldn’t buy the clothes “off the peg” – I used to have to make a lot of my stuff.

Nik Fiend : There was mass creativity going on in all departments. The only clothes you could buy were punk stuff like studded belts & wristbands or teddy boy type clothes, all the stuff that’s so common-place now wasn’t available then.

Mrs Fiend : We used to dye clothes black in the bath!
Nik Fiend : I made prints of skulls to put on T-shirts. Camden or Portobello Road were the places to get clothes, you could find something there & then doctor it into your own style.

The atmosphere of The Batcave was created by the people that went there, & I think it’s the same with other clubs now.

4. What do you think of the term batcave to describe the music of the band? In fact, the term didn’t really describe a musical style, it was the name of a club... Are you happy with the term?

5. I think that the ASF sound was rather different from the sound of other famous batcave bands as Specimen and Sex Gang Children because ASF integrated more electro (in the vein of Suicide) in its sound. Do you agree with this?

Mrs Fiend : Yes our sound was different to all of the other Batcave bands as you say, & each band had it its own sound. Yes we had more electro elements, we were indeed big Suicide fans, but we were also into things like The Velvet Underground, The Cramps & Iggy Pop, & spacey (sci-fi) sounds, so we had those kinds of elements in the mix as well which the other bands didn’t, for example, Specimen were much more in the glam rock vein.

Nik Fiend : You can hear that on The Batcave album - there are very different music styles there. I think that we’re the only band that has continued non-stop from that time, so I think maybe our sound has become synonymous with The Batcave in a way, but it doesn’t really cover all that we do. We also have a sense of humour or irony, there are a lot of different sides to ASF.

Mrs Fiend : Because of that broad mixture I think it’s very difficult to describe our sound, so maybe that’s why some people use “Batcave”, otherwise – as I read somewhere recently – we’re described as “Psycho-Goth-Electro-Industrial” & even that doesn’t cover all of the aspects!

6. How did the characteristic ASF sound originate and develop? It’s not only gothic, (post)punk and electro that I hear, but also metal, industrial, rockabilly etc.

Mrs Fiend : Yes, you see “punk” got missed out on that last description I mentioned! So it is hard to encapsulate all of our sound. As I said I think that partly comes from the wide range of music that particularly Nik & I were into. Just as an example I love Metallica, Iggy & The Stooges & early Pink Floyd – just those 3 are a pretty weird mix!!

Nik Fiend : When I started ASF I wanted it to be free of any restraints. I had been in punk bands & the people in those all wanted to be like the “latest” whatever. ASF was intended to be completely different. I’d already had some experience so I knew about recording, studios & all that & I chose 3 people who had never been in a band before because I was fed up with the usual musicians who wanted be like someone else. These new people did not have those preconceptions & the result was Alien Sex Fiend.

7. What music/artists were you inspired by? ASF covered Hawkwind (“Silver Machine”) and The Rolling Stones (“Satisfaction”). Do these bands have a special meaning for you or did you just like the song?

Mrs Fiend : Yes we liked both those artists, in fact I spent a lot of time listening to Hawkwind’s “In Search Of Space” album when I should have been studying for my exams, but hey I still passed! We have to have some kind of affinity for whatever song we cover, it has to have some meaning for us personally.

Nik Fiend : The first record I ever had was a Rolling Stones single, so of course that would be an influence. Our favourite album of theirs is actually “At Their Satanic Majesties Request”, which was panned by the critics & most people don’t rate it very highly in comparison to their other albums – so that’s another thing that stands us alone! (Laughing)

Mrs Fiend : Yes “2000 Light Years From Home” from that album is amazing, I love that track! We also like 60s psychedelic stuff, 13^th Floor Elevators…

Nik Fiend : Then there’s Public Enemy, James Brown, Motown, all sorts of stuff.

Mrs Fiend : & I was brought up hearing jazz & classical music as well, so it really is a strange hybrid!

8. What about the typical Nik Fiend look and the make up? Where did you get the inspiration for this? Bauhaus? Dave Vanian? Alice Cooper? Zombie movies?

Nik Fiend : Probably all of them contributed to my first dabbling in make up, as well as other things & other people like Arthur Brown or Screaming Lord Sutch & Lux Interior, but I didn’t sit & copy anyone, it’s my own interpretation of those ideas.

9. Can you tell us something about the design of the characteristic Alien Sex Fiend font as seen on the t-shirt that the ‘typical’ batcave fan wears? Who did design this and when?

Nik Fiend : I designed what we call the “drippy logo” initially & it looked slightly different from how it ended up. I first did in Tippex. Over time it was adapted & copied & re-copied & it altered over time – for example, a T-shirt company printed it thicker than it was - but it was based on my initial concept.

10. What are the ASF lyrics about? SF and horror movies seem to be your favourite source of inspiration for the lyrics?

Nik Fiend : Those are in the mix of course, but a lot of SF & horror movies do have a lot of social comment messages hidden within them. The main basis of my lyrics, I think, is to do with the human condition - life, death, fear, anxiety, depression, injustice, all those things - we all suffer from them in one form or another. I think that’s why a lot of people feel an affinity with our songs. Or, if they are more stable, perhaps that’s why they don’t like ASF! Perhaps their life is so cosy they don’t have any troubles – well that’s good for them!

Mrs Fiend : One example of the social comment that Nik mentioned is in the George A Romero film where all the zombies are wandering aimlessly around a shopping mall – that’s a comment on consumerism if you look at it deeper. The thing is with lyrics is that they are open to individual interpretation, & that is how they should be. With Nik’s stuff there are a number of layers of meaning, so the first layer seems to be about one thing, but if you look deeper you will find they are saying other things as well.

11. Can you tell us something more about the new ASF album “Death Trip”?

Nik Fiend : We’re very excited by the reactions we’ve been getting so far to it. It’s our 13^th studio album & it’s the first Vinyl LP we’ve put out for over 12 years. It’s self-financed, being released on our own 13^th Moon Records label, self- produced, self-played, mostly self-engineered, so in a way there’s more of “us” on it than before. There are 10 new tracks on it & it’s the first studio album for 6 years, so it’s all very exciting right now.

Mrs Fiend : So far we’ve had nothing but highly positive comments about it, Mick Mercer said it’s the best record we’ve done since the 80’s – thanks, Mick!
Nik Fiend : The cheque’s in the post, mate!

Mrs Fiend (Laughing) Other people are comparing it as being equal to or like (the albums) “Acid Bath”, “Curse” & “Another Planet”, but “NEW” all of those are considered to be “Classic” ASF albums now, so that’s great. “Death Trip” seems to somehow be a mix of old & new ASF & people are enjoying it very much. They love the artwork too, the Limited Edition Vinyl LP has a full colour inner sleeve as well as the outer, & the CD booklet has 16 pages so there’s loads of Nik Fiend art in there.

Nik Fiend: The media were saying that no-one cares about vinyl or even CDs anymore & that people only want downloads but that’s not the case for us, it’s been selling like hotcakes.

Mrs Fiend : In fact the first CD pressing  sold out on pre-sale so we had to get it re-manufactured - fast!

Nik Fiend : So we took a chance & we’ve been proved right – it’s not just us that like Vinyl or artwork.

12. You played in Waregem, Belgium a few years ago. Do you have any special remembrances about this concert?

Mrs Fiend : It was the first time we’d played Belgium for many years so it was great to play there again & to meet up with some of the fans who had been at that last gig.

Nik Fiend : It was special because we premiered “One Way Ticket” (from the new album “Death Trip”) & it was the first time ever that we had played that song in public, we hadn’t even recorded it at that time. The crew hadn't heard it before either, we’d been working on that song especially for those shows.

Mrs Fiend : Nik resurrected his red drape jacket from the "Magic" video & without realising the significance he wore a Judge Death T-shirt, later he found out that he had also worn that t-shirt the last time we'd played in Belgium, so that was a weird coincidence.

13. What can we expect from the concert at the Gothic Festival 2010 in, Waregem, Belgium? Can you tell us something about the content of the playlist?

Mrs Fiend : We will be playing many of the “old” songs of course, & we hope that we can fit in 1 or 2 new ones, but we have restricted time on stage because it’s a festival.

Nik Fiend : It seems that we don’t do what a lot of other groups do - which is to rehearse songs inside out & they know exactly how long each song lasts, & they know what the encore will be beforehand & so on. We don’t work like that, we never have. I will pick the set depending how I feel, it will come to me what we should do on the night, I don’t have pre-conceived ideas. We don’t play the songs like you are listening to a record, we improvise a lot, so they vary in length & we play the songs according to how we feel on that day, at that particular show. That keeps it fresh & unique & it stops us from being wooden. It keeps it exciting for us, we really don’t know what’s going to happen next & that keeps it exciting for the audience too.

14. Do you have a last message for our readers? Why should they come and see the ASF concert in Waregem, Belgium?

Mrs Fiend : Because we might die !! (Laughing) We’ve been at this for 28 years now, so we are getting on, you know! Ha ha ha

Nik Fiend : People should come because Alien Sex Fiend isn’t like anything else, so if you’re sick of seeing tired old rock bands going through the motions, come & see some mad people!

Interview made by Henk Vereecken - DARK ENTRIES