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Retractor
Retractor, one of Polish label Black Flames most recent newcomers, consists of Milton Sanchez and Anthony Stuart, currently living in sunny Florida, USA. But Florida is neither sunny when I talk to Milton, nor where they were born.
Milton starts off by apologizing for how longs it's taken to get the interview. "The effects of Katrina were felt here too" he says and who can not accept that excuse? He then goes on to clarify the bands heritage. "Yes, we were both born and raised in Puerto Rico. Anthony moved to France for a couple of years and I decided to study music and moved to Florida USA. Then a few years later by coincidence we meet at a record store. We decided to go back to our roots, which is EBM and Military Pop music."
What bands have influenced you and how would you describe the way that Retractor's music is different from these bands?
"We have a lot of influences from many different levels and genres of music. But we can say that we like The Klinik, Solitary Experiments, Yelworc and so on! Retractor has a lot of elements: Old Techno, Military pop, Noise, Ebm and Dark Poetry lyrics. We shift tempos on all the tracks and change the speed from one to another. We also used a lot of historic and futuristic samples."
What is the band's modus operandi when making new songs?
"Anthony brings ideas to the table and I (Milton) produce the final touch and the work on the studio. As far Ellen's [Ellen Enderle, credited as a band member in the "No Resistance" inlay] concerned she wrote some lyrics and brought other ideas too! We change all the time it depends who is not busy at the moment."
The title "No Resistance" has a political ring to it and "One Man's War" for example could certainly be politically interpreted. Does Retractor have a political message? If so, which?
"No Resistance" is a symbolic title. As in, "There is no resistance from the Future", "there is no resistance from the obscure and the powerful." The world is unpredictable of how good or bad it can be for all of us! Regarding "One Man's War" this song is all about the War in the Middle East. We don't have any political influence. But we would like to see the end of it! Is sad that all this countries are brothers and they been fighting a war for almost a 1,000 years I think is ridiculous. Money, power, religion; what else they can blame on it now?!"
Tell us all there is to know about the upcoming EP!
"Right now we're just collecting as much remixes as we can so we can develop a really good EP. We have like four new songs and the rest is mixes from the "No resistance" album. There are going to be experimental tracks and also club oriented tracks too. At this point we don't have the track list but everybody can check our website for updates."
What other plans are there currently for the band?
"Our plans now are to finish our EP and tour in Europe and the USA. After that we are planning to start the new album."
http://www.retractoronline.net
/Fredric Düring
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