Interview with Dirk Ivens (Absolute Body Control) at Ombra Festival 2021

With the occasion of the Ombra Festival, we interviewed Dirk Ivens, a living legend from the industrial genre. Absolute Body Control, his project with Eric Van Wonterghem, was one of this year’s festival highlights. With over 4 decades of existence, this is one of the reference bands from the Belgian and European industrial, EBM and synthpop style. We discussed with Dirk about Absolute Body Control and other projects.

Alterna2: You are an icon in the industrial, minimal wave, EBM music… A pioneer with over 40 years of experience. There is no doubt that your presence is always well awaited among the audience. Congratulations on the show! You killed it! How do you feel when you engage with audiences from different generations with the same energy for so long?

Dirk Ivens: Music is our life ha, ha 🙂 Who could thought 4 decades ago that our music would be still around. Me and Eric are very pleased to know that our musical outputs make people happy especially in these strange days. And yes, our audience covers several generations which we consider as a real honor and to see how they react it’s simply fantastic.

A2: Absolute Body Control was part of last Ombra Festival year’s line-up, but as you know, the festival was cancelled for obvious reasons. Fortunately, the event is back (in great shape). Some artists took that forced break to create new material. Others did not find the inspiration due to lock-down. ABC launched a new EP: A New Dawn. The story behind this album is curious. If I’m not wrong, you were thinking of launching a single with Waving Goodbye, a song from your archive (from 1983) that was never released. Then, due to the COVID times, you decided to launch a compilation. Another track included Invisible Touch which was played by the band several times. How did you choose the rest of the songs for the LP?

D.I.: Well the idea was to celebrate the 40 anniversary of Absolute Body Control with a special 7 inch which we could sell on the live shows. Like you said there was already one track «Invisible Touch» and for the B side we where looking in our archive. We discovered a live recording from «Waving Goodbye» but the sound quality was really bad, so we recorded a complete new version. In the meantime we continued on creating new ideas, new lyrics and new music. The result was that we ended up with an EP with 6 unreleased tracks. The label Mecanica re-released also the Lost & Found compilation CD on vinyl for the first time and to make it special we included 8 unreleased instrumentals.

A2: You mentioned, in one interview, that the title of the EP, A New Dawn, is connected to a new era «after Corona.» How do you think this new era will be for music?

D.I.: Well we hope that after the dark clouds the sun will be shining. How the future will be no one can tell but we have to stay optimistic, and the songs sounds hopeful. In the meantime we could play some shows but also again others are cancelled or postponed. Let’s hope that in the spring of 2022 all get backs to normal again in the most possible way. Waiting for a new dawn – Waiting for the sun to come, Waiting for a new dawn – Waiting for the rising sun.

A2: It is not a coincidence that ABC and Esplendor Geometrico, one of your favorite bands of all time, took part in the same festival. And this is not the first time that one of your projects shares line-up with them. You launched, under Daft Records, three CDs from Esplendor Geométrico, Sheikh Aljama (1991), Nador (1995), Tarikat (1997) and one single Treinta kilómetros de Radio (1996). Explain this collaboration with the Spanish band?

D.I.: E.G. are an amazing band and besides good musicians they became really good friends. When i discovered them I got really in love with their sound. In every interview I did in that time I always mentioned their name and it was very nice when they got picked up in the scene and played so many gigs. I have really nice memories on the gigs we did together, and there where so many, all over Europe and the U.S, and how we enjoyed us after the shows having relaxed times. Sheikh Aljama was the first CD that E.G. ever released, the same for Treinta Kilometros De Radio which was their first CD single, I’am proud of our relationship 🙂

A2: Your work is prolific, with so many different projects: ABC (synth pop, minimal wave), The Klinik (industrial, dark-gothic), Sonar (more electronic and hardcore), DIVE (your solo project, electro-industrial, noise), Motor!k (krautrock, with influences from Neu!, Harmonia), your labels Body Records, Daft Records, … What an impressive career! Tell us your secret!

D.I.: People should realize it’s a life’s work for more than 4 decades, so many time went over it. And I had the luck in life to know really great people who had a big part in all this. There’s no real secret but the most important of all is that all projects sounds really different from each other and besides that, I’am a real music lover. You will find me on record fairs and record shops in my free time. It’s such a pleasure to discover new things. Several times people send me their latest release and i enjoy it so much playing that in my car.

A2: As DIVE, you even created a soundtrack for a 1995 film by the Italian band Sigilium S and visual artist KOMA. Several times you have declared your admiration for John Carpenter. Would you consider working on a soundtrack again?

D.I.: I often thought about it and i’am sure that some day i will :-). As a matter of fact, 4 years ago I visited Japan and there I performed for the very first time ever the whole album live on stage. That was a really nice experience so I did a few extra shows in Europe. For the audience it was also something different, to see me behind machines, without voice, but i can assure you that the haunting and cold music spoke for itself.

A2: Coming to the Ombra once more, this is the second time you play at this festival. We saw you as DIVE in 2019, a show full of energy! How has been your experience at this event?

D.I.: I must say the whole festival is fantastic, it has the right vibes and when I get so much positive feedback from the audience then it drives me to the edge. I try to give myself for 100% each time and you saw it for yourself, the people gave me so much in return.

A2: Please, share with us your next projects, launches and live shows.

D.I: For the moment we are doing some more Absolute Body Control shows in Europe, several DIVE shows are planned for next year and we finished the recordings for a third MOTOR!K album already which is now at the pressing plant and planned to be released around April/May. So hopefully 2022 brings us more opportunities to play, play and play 🙂