I meant to make a record, to be sure, but not this one. What I had originally intended, when I started writing Burn, back in the summer of `94, was the ultimate `cyber' experience. I was heavily influenced seeing Chemlab play some thirty-odd times earlier that year when we toured with them and KMFDM, and I was always under the opinion that they were so much more `cyber' than us, so much more in touch with what I would consider "industrial" music today to be. I have to admit that I was kinda jealous. Here we were on Wax Trax!, the end-all-be-all of industrial record labels, and I was being out-industrialed by a band from my neighborhood in New York.

I knew I had the ability to make a record that was harder, and more electronic, than our previous two albums, and that is what I started to do. The first song completed was "Hole In The Ground," a Die Warzau song that was given to me because Jim and Van didn't feel they could do it the way they wanted to. I even got Gino Lenardo, Chemlab's main guitarist at the time, to do the guitar chores for it, thinking, I suppose, that this would help. We turned this song in to TVT, a one-song demo for the new record. Chris Kelly and I told them "This is what our new record is going to sound like. Hope you like it."

TVT came back to us and said "are you sure you don't want a producer for this one?" We gave them another song, "Better Than Me." I was reasonably convinced that I was going to make the super-cyber record of all time. Then Chris Kelly quit.

This had an incredible effect on the sound of the band, even though his input in the studio was minimal. Chris was the one who listened to Klute and Bigod 20 and Nitzer Ebb. He was the one who made me listen to electro and the one who said "let's make a song like this..." Without that input, I found myself falling back on my own influences, which are neither industrial nor even electronic, even though I consider myself a keyboard player. My influences are bands like The Beatles, The The, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, and Gary Numan. Not very industrial.

Then another thing happened that further changed the way SMG sounded. I was looking for a new guitarist, as we had been without one for two years. I was introduced to Xmas, a guitar player from Michigan, and we hit it off pretty much from the get-go. Xmas liked all the Wax Trax! bands, but he didn't play like them. He got his style from Isaac Hayes and Barry White, and P-Funk, with a little MC5 thrown in for good measure. This had an even more drastic effect on the sound. I started writing songs that fit my idea of what music should be, with Xmas adding his funk flavor, and liking the new stuff quite a bit.

Then the final straw was added. The death knell to the old SMG and the beginning of the new. I fell in love.

I met Lisa at Cro-Bar here in Chicago, and my whole world shook. That was it. My life had focus. A single point of reference, around which everything could revolve. The next song I gave to TVT was "Burn." TVT said "okay." Three months later, on January 24, 1995, Lisa and I were married in Las Vegas.

I wrote thirteen more songs, and sent the whole lot of `em to TVT, and I said "well, what the fuck do you want to do with this? This isn't really what you expected, is it?" They said "we think a producer is a really good idea. Why don't you make a list of people you would like to work with, and we'll see which one we can get." I sent them a list consisting of one name, John Fryer. TVT had worked with John before, on Pretty Hate Machine, and considering the success of that album, they said "sure." John agreed to it, but at the time we were already over budget so I was only able to do six songs with him. So I picked "Hole In The Ground," "Burn," "Red," "Overload," "Dispossessed" and a song called "Oscillator." Xmas and I took the 24 track tapes to England, and spent three weeks at Brittania Row, one of the three studios in London owned by Pink Floyd. There were problems with the tape that "Oscillator" was on, and we were unable to mix that one. John had several instrumental tracks he had done, and offered one of them to us. We added vocals and guitar, and had "I Don't Believe." DAT in hand, Xmas and I returned to Chicago. TVT said "okay, we got half the album now. Go finish it." We returned to Warzone, and I picked the best four of the remaining seven songs. These were "Disease," "Better Than Me," "Snake" and "Inside." We mixed them with Van, adding a live horn section, and live bass (both unusual on an industrial record), and layering everything with a thick soup of keyboard textures. After a couple of months fine-tuning everything, I went to Bernie Grundman Mastering in L.A., and returned to Chicago with the new album gripped tightly in my sweaty hands.

I have to admit that I am worried that you might not like it. I know it isn't what you expected. But I just wanted to let you know what was behind it, so you don't think I sold out. I wasn't trying to make a record that would get me a nice car and a house in Beverly Hills. I was just trying to make a record that I liked. And I did it. I dearly hope that you like it too.

Chris Randall
Chicago, October 1995