Below is an email interview with István Gazdag of First Aid 4 Souls. All interviews are published unedited.

The question is right, but I have to say, that in this project, the main point is on intellectuality and art. Maybe the black humour based on my experiences in the world is the thing what can be felt in some songs, but not in all of them.

The intellectual integrity and the roots of the group rely profoundly upon great intellectual achievements in history with an emphasis on ideas from classical philosophy – Heraclites, Plato and Hegel playing a large inspirational role. This conscious identification with our intellectual frequency serves us well creatively and also represents the group’s pride in its well rooted European culture. Regarding
transcendence, there are distinct religious, philosophical and magical traditions making appearances in our themes, but the band definitely refuses the negative energy of Satanism and New Age philosophy hasn’t served to inspire the group musically in any way to date. Essentially, the maintenance of the spiritual, mental balance is of great importance to us. We are constantly moving toward the essence behind this existence believed to be reality.

Musically, FA4S also relies on several kinds of tradition, deliberately mixing the fine brutality of noise music with the psychedelic pulsation of trance and blending the rich melodies of new wave with the strict grinding of industrial metal. Obviously, we don’t care for being labeled to suit any one category of music and the
current musical trends have no effect on us at all. I have a lots of songs, that are not a bit dance music, and I keep several experimental and noise music in stock, that soon can be listened by the audience.

On one side, First Aid 4 Souls can be viewed as my personal project since all the music is written by myself. On the other side – thanks to the contributing singers and musicians – the band is a real international “supergroup”. The music ranges from dark ambient, nonetheless incorporating new wave impressions, and it converges to
old and new electro schools. Basically it’s a big ocean of genre, that’s why a lot of people can find their expectations in it. It’s not EBM, let’s say instead that it
is some kind of dark electro pop… in one word Brutpop 🙂 Constant members of the band (as far as gigs) Kati Helfenbein (drums, vocals), Attila Pálfalvi (drums, vocals, mastering), Zoltán Havasi(visual, drums), and myself for the electronic gear and vocals. This is the first row of the front line, but the real surprises come with guest singers. These artists are just seemingly gusts at all, because the cooperation is continues and is successful for everyone Linda Daemon needs no introduction as she is a prominent member of “Drugzone”. Her outstanding sound and range of voice blinks in First Aid 4 Souls songs. Aaaron Rusell is the leader of the American industrial band named “Impurfekt”, he is the one who is directly responsible for the authentic industrial vocals Mark Duffield is the founder of the alter band “I am One”, he brings in the new wave sound. Eszter Ágoston is a prominent representative of Hungarian jazz pop, her singing is a bright color on the new album as well. Madalina Kertész is a now 14 years old Csango girl, we can thank her one of our most beautiful songs. And finally, Tor Marrock is the demi-god of the goth metal scene of Wales, just for more adventure in a surprising directions.

So we play live with two drummers and we use a very precise visual scene, cut for the music in seconds for the real visual orgy. So we can give the people a real audio-visual cathartic experience of our music.

In this autumn will be release the new album called BRUTPOP in ELECTRO ARC Label edition. The album is an interesting attempt between the easy catching electro pop and experimental intellectuality of electronic. Uncategorizable music, uncategorizable people from uncategorizable people. Due to complexity of compozition the album will have surprising combinations, maybe not for everybody, who pick on long standing stereotype, maybe a little bit is rounding the square… At the beginning in an exclusive format will appear a specimen limited to 500 with huge online downloadable opportunity. The Brutpop partly represents a quibble toward Britpop trend, partlyis a smiling determination of the album.

In the following year, a lot of concerts can be expected in various places, with various styles. We want to open to the West-European public, and we pay special attention to play the appropriate music for the audience of the locale. The electro-industrial scene will hear electro-industrial, for the ones who are hungry for electro, we’ll play electro. Also, we are planning to take a step in the direction of
the club scene.

Now there is a very severe industrial CD is in production with the cooperation of Péter Kecskés (United Gods), incorporating his magical lyrics, impulsive performance, and my own darkest music…