This. Last Ministry record I appreciated was Houses of the Molè. After that, the void. And to the cu nt up there, even Cardi B has a discogs. So what? @@A_Final_Hit
I wouldn't be surprised if Al Jourgensen HATES seeing old interviews of himself but the truth is he gave his most interesting interviews back in the day. He was such a smart guy and a music visionary.
of course. You know how you see stuff you did 5 years ago and cringe? Now add 3 decades to it... If you don't get douche chills from the crap you did as a youngster you might have big issues.
I seriously don't think he hated the music of the album as much as he didn't want the label to get any money from the sales of it. Very much how David Lynch never talked about DUNE because the studio never gave him final cut.
Wow! I have never seen this! Al so young, handsome, very intelligent, witty, personable, articulate and healthy looking. Great interviewer with great questions.
Sorry Uncle Al.... I love the with sympathy album........... all of it, and still get fucking nostalgic with everyday is halloween. I'm 48 now and still dance to it at the clubs here in Dallas Texas.
@@bradyvacationinc Ministry’s music became weaker and more generic as time went on. The last good album was “Filth Pig”, everything after that was pretty forgettable.
@@bradyvacationinc that's not cool man. I think people can like whatever. Some of the music I like probably has 10 fans on earth. Who cares? Like what moves you or you find meaningful, not what's popular. Or love what's popular, who cares? I'm gonna go listen to Ministry's Thieves. Then I'm gonna listen to Roxette. Joyride!
So young and so inspired...this is the Al Jourgensen that had Trent Reznor & Richard Patrick swooning with motivation...Reznor worshipped Uncle Al back then according to Richard Patrick and he was blown away by him too. Something tells me Rob Zombie was a covert disciple of Al’s too around this time up until the early 90s...WaxTrax was saved by Uncle Al’s Ministry & their side projects...there would be no Front 242 or Pigface if it weren’t for Uncle Al.
It’s said that Trent got the name Nine Inch Nails and the name of the first single off of Pretty Hate Machine, Head Like A Hole from an interview of Al’s where he said his own music was driving nine inch nails into a head like a hole. I’ve been scouring the internet in hopes of finding it.
@@Greedyselfish97 I don’t know how true this may be, but I remember a while ago hearing that the name nine inch nails was referring to the size of nails being used on Christ’s crucifixion.
Wow. Al Jourgensen before he turned into a mere caricature of himself with all those face piercings. He was once a handsome guy....LOVED "With Sympathy," a true 80s classic!
Won't ever sell out again? With age comes wisdom. All our heroes sell out if they live too long. Those bills aren't such a bad thing when your all beat up
Holy shite!!! Never seen this footage... never knew he even did on camera interviews at this point. No tats, coherent, wasn't totally loaded on heroin. This is music history 👍 - and 'Over the Shoulder' was inspired by the invasion of Grenada..... who knew?!?
@@GnarMarv2 yes. And if you see old pictures he really held a variety of appearances. It started with a top hat/synth pop new wave look. No studs or spikes. There's an image I saw that looked kind of like Skrillex. To then this kind of look. Then a top hat goth look. To then leather jacket/long hair/bandana. Finally arriving at the half military/Jamaican pirate/biker.
I miss this world. I miss the underground. Being less connected… there was mystery to life. There was bordom. There was your thoughts. I don’t know if we were better people then, but we were happier…. On a path to self actualization perhaps, without even having a need for such words…
Time may change you, but you can't change time. Greetings from UK, would you say Zeigeist is always the NOW?, definitely a shame we have to move on!, we've had it good though.
There are demos of With Sympathy floating around containing interviews with Al stating he was shopping the album to major labels. The songs are virtually identical to what ended up on the album. So of course he wrote it. It was made before he ever signed to Arista.
It's a great album for an 80s Synth-Pop album. The musical landscape was very different back then. Hardcore had gained a lot of influence over the youth and underground scene by the mid 80s and Al wanted a piece of that energy. He felt he had to disown With Sympathy to get any respect from a large segment of his target audience. And he was right to an extent. Kids today are much different. They realize they can love Land of Rape And Honey, Twitch, Psalm 69, AND With Sympathy all at the same time. Back in the 80s, things were very tribal and your musical tastes had to conform to what was accepted by the tribe you wished to belong to. It was all very silly to be honest.
@@NachtSchreck13 That's crazy , until this day , even on the recent "yahoo" interview (which is awesome actually) he goes on about how he practically didn't write the album, definitely didn't write a few of the songs at all and that "they " wrote the songs and/or made him sing them..etc.. a certain way.
It's hard to know what is true with him at times because he was under the influence and embellishing. And even now his memory is kind of bad where he contradicts himself even in the same interviews. I agree that he likely mostly went against his early synth pop sound because he was changing his taste and styles were changing. Synthpop wasn't the cool thing any longer by the early mid 80s. A lot of it had become mainstream music and not underground edgy in the US. It seems he felt he had to find the next sound which became much darker and hard rock metal influenced. It's likely drugs played a part. It lost too much beauty and became dystopian chaos, almost like a bad psychedelic trip instead of a surreal positive experience. Electronic music did eventually also get more ambient and IDM and it's a shame he didn't or couldn't go that direction instead of metal noise sounding.
This was awesome. Al rarely hits on Twitch any more, but it was a lifeline to the weird kids (like me) in high school in the 80s. Just saw Ministry on Saturday. Seeing him again in September in Cleveland.
This is so great. Thanks for sharing this. The best period of Ministry. Twitch and LORAH are by far Ministry's masterpieces and 2 of the most amazing albums ever produced. Al here is the quintessential edgy hipster, and clearly high as hell on coke, speed, or both. Even down to the statement about doing all of his work in Europe - London, Belgium, or Berlin - he was a hipster edgelord. Seeing him here at this stage in his career, I can now understand how he was able to connect with Ian MacKaye to produce the 2 Pailhead records. Sad seeing Bill Rieflin here looking so young and vibrant (surrounded by that infernal cigarette smoke). I've always felt that Jourgensen was a magnet for extremely talented people who would orbit around him and his crew for awhile, then move on. He was like a mix of producer and front man. As a producer, he was able to inspire the people around him to reach their creative potential and he got results, he had an infectious drive and level of self-confidence. 10:47 this perfectly sums up the role of a producer. He also had an absolutely amazing singing voice. His vocal tone was pure gold, much like Kurt Cobain. Unmistakable and irresistible, one of a kind. 11:11 the computer and lone instrument upon which Twitch was produced was the Fairlight CMI II.
Something you don't see anymore - a good interviewer - who researches and remembers his guest's information and facts about the band, and the music, labels, everything - and relaxed in his atmosphere. I truly miss that. Down with wiki - hit the streets.
@@leroyanthony449 right, I was talkin' bout him - it's something you don't see - today it's like they roll out of bed after a rough night and read the paper in front of them. It's a sad state of affairs that nobody remembers the work it took to get to where we are at - so it will be lost, so will the talent of the ones being interviewed are starting to become watered down and shallow, plastic. Save the whales!
Twitch is my favorite Ministry album. It sounds very unique and is Ministry’s closest match to the EBM/Industrial sound. I love seeing this interview from then, but what I would really like to see is live video of this concert and video from any other Twitch tour concerts, beyond the very little Twitch tour video footage that exists today. Hopefully more will turn up.
He did a whole album of instrumental European type stuff once too. It was a bit too European. Weird because we grew up in the same neighborhood and nobody else was doing that at the time.
I Love pretty much every song Al Jurgensen ever put out. He's a musical genius. I saw them at Sick New World festival in Vegas last month and Ministry stole the show
Al Jourgensen Interview - April 20, 1986 - Virginia Theatre, Champaign, Illinois, USA. muthas against punx? refer to psychotic Lancastrians against brains..... good family innovation eventually bites back.
I grew up in the 80s and 90s NYC where NYHC, metal and punk ruled, (CBGBs was like a second home to us as well as Coney Island High, the Pyramid, the Bank, etc.)we had No Wave (but by the time I was a teen Lydia Lunch was into Poetry and James Chance was doing I don’t know what) but Industrial bands were few (we had Bile and a few) I always wish I made it to Chicago !!!! Wax Trax had their Night of Chaos at the Limelight back then I saw Meat Beat Manifesto with DJ Zero and Consolidated one night as a 16 year old - back then you could get into the clubs if you knew the door guy which my friend did - That’s about as close as I got. The Limelight is now a shopping mall, all the clubs closed. It was such a great time for all of us back in the 80s and 90s in NYC. I lived in a squat and in an apartment where we paid $150 a month each for rent. I worked in a coffee shop on St Marks and was able to pay rent and live large.
Wish we could have done a foreign student exchange or a prisoner swap or something - was fortunate to have spent my youth hanging out at places like Wax Trax!, Limelight, Warehouse, Metro - one of my best friends was the nephew of John Medusa , (was friends with the family and they would will call us past the line and straight in to the club, lots of nasty looks from those in line, gotta admit, felt pretty cool) but we always wanted to to NYC, to have been able to get into CBGB's was like a dream very, very few of us could afford. Would have loved to be in your shoes !
I can totally understand what AJ was trying to say about his 1983 album "With Sympathy". In my opinion, I don't care about the way that album came to be, because it really gave AJ a time to shine as a pioneer that took complete control of the reigns and his style and become who he was to date. The Genius behing Ministry. Now that I think about it retrospectively.
Digging and searching for the good music was a total Chicago thing (grew up a couple blocks away from Al's parents) . We all did it, and our pirate and indy stations were totally innovative until recently. I grew up on weird music from all over the world because of Chicago.
Watching this video helps me understand SO much better why Trent Reznor looked up to him. He's always seemed so trashed from the 90's on that I never knew he could be so lucid and sane.
Meanwhile fast forward 10 years in 1996 and Al is wearing a diaper, shooting heroin and paranoid enough to wear a bullet proof vest on stage cause he thinks people are out to kill him. Not making any of this up. Watch the Fix Ministry documentary if you want to know why people think he's nuts. By the end of his drug run in the late 90's/early 00's he was living in a crackhouse. I believe some of his toes were even amputated. He also has a book where he talks about alot of this stuff. Probably even way crazier stories than what I mentioned. Part of the reason Paul left ministry was cause he was sick of cleaning up after Al.
This is a rarity among rarities. I had no idea that the backing band was called Crucial for a bit. And apparently there was going to be a 5 song EP (probably tracks later put on Trax!Box), a video for "We Shall Cleanse The World" and a video planned for the unreleased aggressive remix of "The Angel"! It was cool to see the late Bill Rieflin at the end.
@@b.l.fisher8230 I think that became the "Box Set/Wax 019" project. All instrumentals done by this incarnation of the band, minus Al. Roland's piece recently was released with the Wax Trax documentary. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ga2RV4VjQMI.html&ab_channel=WaxTraxRecords
Some of his mannerisms here remind me of Zappa, especially the response about "Over The Shoulder." Al's a cool guy, I'm so glad I learned about him recently!
I'm impressed with this interviewer honestly (Where are these people now??), he didn't look the part but he did really well. Good shit. Also, Al is full of it, all his albums are good regardless of what he thinks :P I did like his response about listening to good music tho, fuck being judged by what people think influenced you. Family entertainment, lol.
Have no idea who is the interview but he did a amazing job he totally did a good and entertainment interview very different from what we see nowdays when some annoying reporter keeps trying to make dumbs jokes and interrupting the artist all the time
I remember Al sending me a letter talking about a new 5 song ep, a ‘severe’ mix of “Everyday Is Halloween” and a video of The Angel directed by Sleazy.
It's a well-known fact that Al HATES With Sympathy, and that's too bad-for many fans, it's his best work, and sounds nothing like what came later under the Ministry banner, but that's his prerogative. Personally, I love the With Sympathy album and still listen to it to this day. Funniest thing I've seen with regards to this is a picture of Al a few years ago holding a sign saying, "Will sign a copy of With Sympathy for $1000". :D Cool interview, though-thanks for posting it!
Actually, he's re-evaluated the album in recent years and now sees it differently. He sees it as the album that put him on the map and actually has some good concepts and ideas in it. Sometimes the years can soften an opinion on a product. Maybe his thoughts at the time were based on his experience in making the album and his lack of control over the production.
I love that Al has come to peace more with the album With sympathy..he's decided to actually retire ministry by remaking With sympathy and coming full circle. I love it
thank you!!! his voice...no doubt. i never yet been to a show, so far....so i barely got internet. didn't even recognize him! he's been THAT the WHOLE time??? wow
He did use amphetamines around that time (allegedly that's what Twitch was named after), but from what I gather, his severe drug habits got progressively worse through the late 80s to the 2000's. Al also isn't exactly the world's most credible autobiographer, so take anything he says with a grain of salt.
@@hogmjr makes sense, there's some songs on it he doesn't even seem to contribute much to. Honestly, I always felt like Mind was a step down from LoRaH, too spotty in quality and consistency
According to his autobiography he had quite a few memories to reflect on during the making of Twitch and the MIATTTT. They did have a big bag of hallucinogens during MIATTTT and it messed with them quite a bit. But Dark Side of the Spoon is the album he says he has zero recollection of. He thinks his substance abuse got so out of hand that his mind wasn't able to create any new memories during that time.
I wish he had stayed beautiful and intelligent. Sadly hes changed so. I had their album Twitch and strangely enough it was introduced to me at a Christian music festival by called Jesus 86 in 1986 by some attendees. I still laugh about discovering them at a christian concert.
