Justin K. Broadrick’s output is an intimidating one. He began, aged 15, with the recording of his first—and last—record with Napalm Death. From there he formed pioneering industrial metal group Godflesh. He also met Kevin Martin, AKA The Bug, and began experimenting with everything from dub and techno to hip-hop, breakbeat as Techno Animal. Together they produced four albums, plus a collaboration with Porter Ricks. JK Flesh debuted in 2012 with the album ‘Posthuman’ on 3BY3, but it’s lineage can be traced right back to Kevin “K-Mart” Martin and the pair’s psychedelic industrial techno project, The Sidewinder, which was picked up by Mille Plateaux in 1996. The studio pet-name would later become his alter-ego, as Broadrick explained to Resident Advisor in a 2012 interview: ” JK Flesh is the angry, hateful, disenchanted side of what I do with electronic beat-driven/bass-driven music.”
FACTS:
1: There are no facts.
2: There are no facts.
3: There are no facts.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Life.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
10 years old, tried to learn to play guitar because of punk rock in the seventies, got my step dad to teach me one chord and i went from there…
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
Killing Joke – Killing Joke
Jeff Mills – Waveform Transmission Vol 1
Discharge – Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Crass – Stations of the Crass
Whitehouse – Great White Death
Public Enemy – It Takes a Nation of Millions
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Too many things; but my earliest memories are finding out I was a quarter german and that my grandma once owned a house with a few other people in Berlin in the 1950s!
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
My home.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
Probably not exist.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
No More Time by Terrence Dixon – digital bought on Bandcamp.
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Brian Eno.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
Dillinja – first ever Valve Sound System performance at Fabric, London early 2000s. I was a spectator.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
After I got slightly to grips with a guitar at age of 10 I discovered industrial music in 1982 as a 12 year old, I then began putting a radio tuned to shortwave through my step dad’s cheapo space echo copy, it was from this moment that technology became central to my music and has been ever since…
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
I have a 7 year old boy, he’s beginning to discover my music now, but is too young for nuance, so it’s all new to him now, but he has no context so his response is very pure…
JK Flesh will headline Krake festival’s weekender at Griessmühle that spans from Saturday, 28th to Sunday 29th July 2018. Listen to JK Flesh’s upcoming EP on Athens-based Pi Electronics here.
Photo © JK Flesh
