converter suddenly rose from the depths of ant zen's band-repertoir and exploded like a nuclear bomb in the upper levels of the atmosphere. the emp can still be heard in the cd-players around the world. time to ask the mastermind of this new project, scott sturgis, some questions.

we never heard something about converter until the release of the coma-lp and of course shock front. since how long does converter exist? tell us something about the history of converter.

well, i began working on converter material directly after i had finished recording the pain station 'disjointed' album, in around march of '98. before that, i had wanted to start a side project, but didn't have the time. i knew i wanted to go in a more noise-oriented direction with it too, but it wasn't until i got my first taste of some ant-zen projects that i knew exactly the direction converter would go in.

what do you consider your main-project now? converter or pain station? why are both projects released on different labels (ant zen and cop)? are there also other projects?

both projects are pretty equal in my eyes and neither one takes precedence over the other right now. of course, if you ask me which project is more fun to work on, i'd tell you it's converter. they're on different labels simply because i approached two different labels to release them. i had my heart set on getting converter signed to ant-zen because it was ant-zen who helped converter become what it is. at the moment the foundation for another project exists, with several tracks recorded. i've promised myself i wouldn't tell a soul what it is, though, because i don't know if it will ever be released. i'll leave it at that for now.

what kind of equipment do you use? i heard you don't have a lot of stuff, so how can you get so much sound out of so few equipment? others need hundreds of racks for the same music.

hehe... well, maybe. i use just one piece of equipment: an ensoniq asr-10 sampler. with the converter material (and the new pain station album), everything just comes straight out the back of the asr-10 into the dat deck. that's all there is to it. as for getting so much out of it, it's the only piece of equipment i've used for the last 5 years, so i've had plenty of time to get used to it. i still don't think i've ever pushed it to its limit, other than memory-wise, but i keep trying little by little.

converter is a little bit more useful for clubs, but some djs mourn about the fact that most of your tracks really start after 5 minutes. don't you make your music for clubs? what is the primary intention of your tracks then?

no, i don't purposely write club material. i like tracks to evolve over time. there are times when it's okay for a track to start right off with a beat, but most of the time i like to let a track grow into something. i wouldn't say that converter has any real "intention," just me making some noise. so there will be tracks that might work in a club and there will be those that never will. it's just not something i think about when i sit down to write.

do you hear a lot of rhythm noise? what do you think about other ant-zen acts like imminent starvation for example?

yeah, i tend to listen to mostly rhythmic noise stuff. i've always been attracted to music that has a strong foundation in rhythm. that's why my own material is typically so rhythm-based. imminent starvation has been a big influence on converter. i think imminent starvation is one of my favorite acts ever. as for the rest of the ant-zen roster, i haven't heard a single thing that i didn't like as ridiculous as it sounds. there are acts i like better than others, but it's all 100% quality stuff and i think i'm extremely lucky to get to be a part of the ant-zen family.

you use some interesting but only few speech-samples in the sound of converter. what roles does they play? isn't it already a cliché for electronic music to use such samples? from which movies are your samples?

i don't think the samples play much of a role in the songs, although a couple of them have been the basis of the name of the particular track. like in "cannibals" for instance - the sample "all obsessed with the taste of flesh" gave me the idea to call it "cannibals." very simple. also, the fact that it's a bit cliché is part of the reason i used those particular samples, because they're rather funny, i think. as for what movies they're from, many of them are from a particular sample cd that i own. they're just from old 50s and 60s movies, i think. it was just convenient to sample them because they'r eon cd... it's a pain for me to hook up my vcr to the dat to sample from movies that i own or rent, so i don't do that as often anymore.

how did you get in contact with stefan alt and ant zen?

i just e-mailed him and asked him if i could send him some stuff. he was very accommodating.

some bands and projects of the industrial-scene are in close contact with right-winged ideas and they use symbols and slogans of europe's fascist past. what do you think about that? have you personal experiences with fascism or fascists? maybe in your own music-scene?

i can't say that i have any opinion on fascism, really. i mean, it's just never really affected me and i don't know many of the viewpoints involved. i haven't come in contact with it personally.

your music and the whole style of music is very aggressive. do you think, aggressive sounds lead to aggression?

i suppose it's possible, but i think how far the aggression goes depends a bit on how stable the listener is. for me, i like aggressive music the best, but i don't listen to it and lose control or anything. maybe some do, but i doubt the music is to blame.

what are your favorite albums of all time?

oh no... this will be nearly impossible to answer. i won't be able to remember all of them. let's see...these will be in random order: 242's 'geography' & 'front by front', xmtp's 'the killing had begun', 'sonic youth's 's/t', ministry's 'twitch' and 'land of rape & honey', skinny puppy's 'mind: the perpetual intercourse', butthole surfer's 'locust abortion technician', scratch acid's 'greatest gift', body rapture vol. 1, ant-hology, imminent starvation's 'human dislocation', suicide commando's 'construct/destruct', nitzer ebb's 'belief', tom waits' 'mule variations'... that's all i can think of right now.

what is your favorite part of your equipment? (brand name)

the ensoniq asr-10 sampler is all i use.

what type of equipment is it?

it's a sampling keyboard with a built-in sequencer and onboard effects.

when did you buy/get it?

i purchased it new in 1994.

why do you like it so much?

it does just what i need it to do. it's pretty much an all-in-one package that does a little of everything, some things better than others.

for what parts of your music do you use it? (please name some songs/sequences were we can hear it in action)

i use the asr-10, and nothing else, for every song i do. so just put on any pain station or converter track and you're hearing it!

what are the advantages of this equipment?

like i said, it does a bit of everything and it's got a built-in 8-track sequencer with onboard effects, so i can write entire albums with just this one piece of gear.

are there any disadvantages?

yes, several: it can only handle 16mb of ram, so i'm limited with how large my samples are. there's no step recording in the sequencer. when using a zip disk as a storage device, the asr-10 can only read a small portion of a zip disk, so much of the storage space goes unused, causing it to be an expensive method of storing sounds, but a necessary one when sampling large stereo sounds. finally, it's very, very heavy! anything else is not too bothersome to me.