Updated: 3 days ago
Q: Who are you and what do you want?
Better I ask you the same! All I have confirmed is that you, your cassette label, and your zine are based out of Glasgow. Last you informed me... along with your invite to this interview, you were just celebrating the one thousandth release on your label?! Holy fukk man... congrats!
Thanks for reaching out for this exchange. This year I am celebrating my label's fortitude and perseverance... as I founded Zhark International back in Manhattan circa 1996 when I had just turned 20! Possibly not as prolific as your onslaught, but obviously just as dedicated...
Let's get on with this...!
Q: You are a musical project called HECATE, what's it about?
Not one to revel in cut-and-paste type answers, asking for an insight into the original lore around how I chose the name HECATE cannot be anything else, thus. Obviously, you must have some readers who are not familiar with me, so let's respect that...
When I was seven years old and my six-years-older brother, Richard, would leave the house... I would creep down to his basement bedroom... which was covered in Grim Reaper blacklight posters, along with Dio and that 'Powerslave' Iron Maiden poster... down in the cellar where all the wolf spiders resided... I would pore through his Dungeons & Dragons books. Always drawn to the 'Deities & Demigods' book, I would go through it trying to decide which Goddess I wanted to embody or grow into. I was torn between Ishtar and HECATE. In the end, the illustration of HECATE flanked by two wolves with the moon and her belt really won out.
Once I started recording around '94, I was playing with which pseudonym I would take on as my own. Once I split Zhark into two different divisions with my partner Kareem in '97, I decided to dedicate myself and my music to the current and vibe of HECATE that I had once been introduced to, as her draw had become inescapable by that point in my life as it was. My path coalescing at the Crossroads, as it is known to happen...
Q: You are one ov the OG breakcore producers, what got you into clubbing and raves and producing?
Coming of age in Detroit during the founding of the underground Detroit Techno warehouse scene in '92, I had already spent a couple of years as a young psychonaut before finally feeling the urge/need/challenge to make my own beats.
I could write an in-depth take on how it was as a 17-year-old raver girl to try and convince anyone to show me how to program a drum machine... wasn't as easy as I have made it look, haha. Alas, when I put my mind to something, I will accomplish it!
Reading Keyboard magazine religiously every month, I took out books from the library on synthesis and taught myself the basics whilst kicking around with the Detroit crew. Eventually, I found myself producing my first material with John Ryan in 1994, which was pressed up on 12" as Citizen of Shade. Alter Ego - Lynn Powderhorn. We recorded that material on a 24-track Tascam reel-to-reel and an insane mixing board and setup!
Alec Empire had commissioned the EP for DHR originally... in the end, it was published by Kool.POP from Berlin, as Alec's British manager and I really did not see eye to eye! They also released a full-length cassette of mine as HECATE entitled "Pay for Protection".
Q: One thing that always stuck out for me with yr releases especially on yr albums is the variety ov sounds, not just breakcore or techno but elements ov dark ambient and industrial and touches ov noise, not many dance producers can work a vibe over an album or command repeated listens like yrs do. Are there genres big influences for you, you also collabed with der Blutharsch (RIP Albin Julius) how did that hook up happen?
Looking back, there were some standout LPs in the electronic scene back then that crafted my vision for what a full-length composition should embody. Off the top of my head...
Plastikman - Sheet One
Autechre - Amber
Reload - A Collection of Short Stories
Alec Empire - Generation Star Wars
Pink Floyd - most...!
I was never a real student of musical training besides a year or two of the piano as a child. Even with the first two 12" releases on our ZHARK imprint, we included two bangers and two ambient tracks to mix into/out of, or just offer another doom-laden atmosphere and mood. Around this time I was also influenced by Throbbing Gristle and the bands around them...
Dynamics are not only important when it comes to the mix, but also the composition as far as I am concerned. Naturally, I can dig some old-school Nihilist releases or some cut-up trash breaks like ADDICT Records and Doormouse were putting out then...
Spending close to 16 hours smoking weed and producing in the studio every fukking day as I ended up doing for more than a decade, I found it more fulfilling to come up with some rather dramatic, fantastic concepts and build them out sonically, less rock opera than Faustian melodrama, haha... Happy to hear you have appreciated the work that went into my full-lengths, btw!
Lastly, you mentioned ALBIN JULIUS (RIP)... That could be a whole 'nother exposé and tribute unto itself. Let's remember him as the most goddamn handsome, talented, hilarious, and decadent motherfucker ever in the entirety of Austrian Music History! Haha! I do my best to keep up the decadence and enchantments in his absence! It was a trip working and befriending him since 2006. He still haunts me every other morning around 6 am when I have to break open a bottle of Prosecco like we always used to at that time... texting each other studio to studio... "Prosecco time!" It was always a good time with ALBIN!
Q: You have also performed/collaborated alot with BM band Belphegor, how did that come about? Can you see yourself adding more black metal into yr work?
Funny that whole first meeting! Around that time in 2005, I had already been living and recording in Basel, Switzerland for some years. No surprise it was, and most likely still is, expensive as hell to go out to gigs. I wanted to see NILE headline at the Z7 and didn't wanna pay the 70 Swiss francs entrance, so I ended up asking Karl Sanders if I could interview him and I would do some promo for their gig in the city guide! It all worked out, and almost fatalistically that evening I came to know many from that lineup... I went on to have lasting working relations and friendships with a few of them.
The lineup was totally insane... INCANTATION, BELPHEGOR (whom I had never heard of), UNLEASHED, BEHEMOTH, and NILE! It was their last day of the tour and they all got on stage in a line and sang Black Seeds of Vengeance altogether! Back then BARTHL (RIP) was BELPHEGOR's bassist and he helped me find a safe place for my leather backstage. Siggie was the lead guitarist, and HELMUTH could not speak... literally any English.
We kept in touch after that first night, and HELMUTH subsequently invited me to do the outro on Pestapokalypse in 2006, which was their first release through Nuclear Blast, coinciding with their first American tour on DANZIG's Blackest of the Black Tour. Serving as lyricist, press secretary, backing vox, video, and stage Sukkubus for over 15 years after that initial introduction... we sure had a good run!
Q: You started Zhark Records with Kareem in the 90's and continue with Zhark International, are there any stand out releases you put out or where a part ov? What are yr plans for the label?
It goes without saying that the first 12" we ever pressed up was one to remember! At that time, I was sharing an apartment with Patrik Strottrop (Kareem) after I decided to return to NYC after 6 months in Detroit... I was working 3 or 4 days a week as a professional Dominatrix at 19 years old in Midtown Manhattan. One day a week I was working at the awesome independent record store "STRANGE?" RECORDS on the Lower East Side.
All my other free time was dedicated to working on tunes with Kareem while he was studying journalism at NYU. During those days I was also frequently hanging out with KHAN OF FINLAND who owned TEMPLE RECORDS and WALKER from AIR LIQUIDE. Nice to report me and Khan are still in touch to this day! He rules, always an inspiration!
Being pretty flush as far as the cash was going torturing execs and perverts most afternoons, I didn't wanna waste it all on partying and clothes and sushi and taxis etc... and just told Patrik... LET'S PRESS A FUKKKNG 12"! The most laughable fukking thing I can still never stop heehawing about is when we first received the 800 12"s into the tiny Irving Plaza apt and took them around town...! Oh man...! It went like this...
"Whoa... sounds good Rachael!
Cool... who is doing your distribution?"
"What's distribution...??"
Hahaa no joke! As you can imagine... little did I ever think taking that first step to just master 4 tracks and press a 12" would end up shaping my entire life.
Everyone knows the music business is not a rose garden, more like a swamp or sandpit in some cases. Luck plays some part, but you have to have a steadfast resolve to actually see your fancies through to their physical manifestation.
My entire career I was always close to real dedicated artists that made sure to push me to be the best I could be. Everyone from ALEC EMPIRE, to BELPHEGOR, TO ALBIN JULIUS... KHAN... ETC ETC... Everyone always expected I would put out only my best offerings... respect the art and keep it Rock n Roll! Don't talk about it... just fucking bring it... Loud! (With the best packaging you can afford of course, haha).
These past few years have seen the archiving and build-up of my Bandcamp (zharkinternational.bandcamp.com) with some select gigs... I hit Tokyo again in 2019, played Scotland mid-Pandemic... a couple gigs in Vienna and Russia two times in the past six months, brought in 2026 live in Athens for my first time and booked to hit Prague in November!
Although I still have some unreleased and unfinished/yet to be mixed tracks... I would love to start recording some fresh material and will do so! ZHARK INTERNATIONAL will be releasing a killer compilation through Bandcamp this Autumn, and I am looking towards compiling a book to be published by the end of 2026. Your readers can keep up to date with my moves from the links following this interview!
Q: Can you tell us abit about the Homewreckers label?
From 1998-2001 I embarked on founding the first-ever ALL FEMALE - ALL ELECTRONIC music imprint as a sub-label to ZHARK INT. You cannot blame me for holding some idealistic dreams close to my heart. Without some vision of things being better or "easier" for people, life can turn into a narcissistic misanthropic hellscape.
Not schooled in classic Feminist Theory, I had an idea that I could set up a label hub/collective-type base for Ladies that wanted to learn about producing electronic music outside of the usual channels, which in many cases even these days are dependent on a man to welcome you to his studio and acquaint you with the gear. Still unclear what the ultimate aim was with the whole experiment, however, we pressed up five 12"s and one 7". In 5 years whilst I was pressing full force on ZHARK INT. and also started a 3rd sublabel STILL RAVEN... not bad!
Your readers should keep in mind not only was I releasing and promoting/booking gigs for the artists on ZHARK INT., these years also brought about many of my own HECATE releases on several other labels... namely ANTZEN/HYMEN and PRAXIS amongst others...!
Looking back with that knowledge and hindsight... I find it laughable that these days, currently in Vienna, there are 3-day workshops at the Volkstheater aimed at F.L.I.N.T.A.s (aka everyone except a straight man) paying like 90 euros to spend their weeknights complaining about how "unfair" and "misogynistic" and "unsafe" the Music Industry is! CAN YOU IMAGINE... if these whinging "ladies" all took their 90 eu together and put in to press up a double 12" LP and tour with it?! YEP... NOT MY PROBLEM!
Q: Raquel de Grimstone was a project that had more ov yr vokills, can you tell us about that?
RAQUEL DE GRIMSTONE was another alias I came up with after churning out Hecate 12" after 12"! Sticking to my guns... I did not want to drag my lust for screaming/panting/rapping around on cheap(?) mics into my rather well-fashioned industrial electronic music trench. Just another side project!
FUN FACT! I took the name DE GRIMSTON(E) from the "PROCESS CHURCH OF THE FINAL JUDGEMENT" as I was always interested in their a/effect on culture and occultism... I still bear their cross tattooed on my wrist!
Q: Have you ever come across any sexism in the music scene?
NOT SURE ACTUALLY! I actually do not base the interactions I have with people on my gender... Born as one of the 5 million Kossaken on Earth, first Generation American to an Austrian father?! Who knows..
Obviously, I don't give a fuck about most low-level conceptions which these drugged out and low IQ humans waste their lives arguing about. I SERIOUSLY DO NOT GIVE A FUKK.
THE MOST SEXISM I DEAL WITH EVERY DAY ARE THE FANATIC MUSLIMS AND IMMIGRANTS THAT CANNOT DEAL WITH A BLONDE WOMAN WALKING ALONE AFTER DARK IN EUROPE WITHOUT HARASSMENT OR VIOLENCE.
Q: Hecate did some interesting remixes (Le Tigre, Misfits, Lustmord) do any stick out and are still down for remixes?
Funny... I reckon I have had more people remix me than I have remixed. ZHARK INTERNATIONAL released a double 12" (with full color cover and poster) of innumerable artists remixing one song from RAQUEL DE GRIMSTONE... "SHAPESHIFTERS"... The now-defunct label Ad Noiseam also released a 12" of several artists remixing tracks from my BREW HIDEOUS LP. I fancy the guess that Le Tigre still owes me royalties.
Considering artists I would like to remix in the future... I have a weak spot for well-written verse coming from sweeter voices than mine... a couple of projects by Ladies I listen to that I wouldn't mind working out would be MINUIT MACHINE and ZANIAS. One other project I highly rate is VIOLENT MAGIC ORCHESTRA from OSAKA! They are killing it lately which is nice to see! Already scored tickets to see them next week here in Vienna! Yeah!
Q: You are also an artist and have had some exhibitions, have you any plans for more and what disciplines are you working in at the moment?
Momentum compels me! Still celebrating my 30th anniversary of PRO-APOCALYPSE electronics with the founding of ZHARK INTERNATIONAL, I look towards publishing my first book by the turn of the year. As the train director here in Vienna screamed in my face mid-Pandemic... "THE WORLD IS NOT A STAGE!!!" harhar... I am always up for last-minute actions and also can be found time to time with my wares at the Flohmarkt here, which always turns into an exhibition as soon as I put my offerings on the table and pour myself a drink! I generally dedicate my time to fashioning #upcycled wares and interior design in my rather elusive Dungeon Studio.
Q: You have opened Pentagram studio in Vienna, what goes on there?
YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW! HARHAR!
Q: Pentagram lab also had some fetish items made in the studio, can you tell us about these?
Now we will have to circle back! If your readers are just scanning around maybe they missed the part about the BARTHL of BELPHEGOR helping me find a safe place for my jacket in Switzerland?!
Upon returning to reside in Vienna after finalizing my divorce and four years living in the middle of Finland... I had the impetus and support to make an alternative art/horror/fetish studio here in the city....
Once the plans were locked in and funding resolute, I called ex-BELPHEGOR bassist and madman and craftsman BARTHL (RIP) and told him my ideas... He asked what I needed crafted for me and the first thing I ordered was my own Coffin I had already designed.
PENTAGRAM.STUDIO houses an extensive collection of rare Occult objects, custom-made furniture and torture implements, upcycled decor, and an almost incomprehensible amount of skulls, jewels, art, and fetish wares. Obviously, everything is curated by me, as a sort of living testament to the parallels I inhabit. The spaces between spaces... those things forgotten and reimagined.
BARTHL just lost his life over a cliff around Abtenau in a driving incident a couple of months ago. Not only was this phenomenon the best lyricist/stage designer for BELPHEGOR, but he also built his own Legacy with his Sonnenwende fests on the mountains up from Salzburg known as "Houses of the Holy". Goes without saying, he was not always the easiest person to deal with, but he was a fine craftsman and musician with a great vision.
PENTAGRAM.STUDIO houses the 3m wide Pentagram I commissioned, my custom coffin, the Bloodthrone he built for me as well as the NecroSado Whipping Horse I never asked for haha... along with several copper, hand-fashioned masks and whips him and his crew suited out my place with! SAFE SPACE?! MAYBE NOT! HAHA. Safe for hoarding and always pimping out the vintage selections I am custom finding around town!
Q: Will there be a new Hecate record, or any other musical projects you are working on?
Last Autumn I recovered my lost live tracks from my Black Ambient Live Ritual at BRUTAL ASSAULT circa 2018. Long story short, I was invited to perform in their Ambient Absinthe tent as HECATE! It was cool as I usually just kicked around with the other bands I knew in the years before. They always put on an Awesome fest... Haven't been since the plague pandemonium shit, but I look towards mixing down those tracks by the beginning of August... just subscribe to my Bandcamp to keep in the loop! Otherwise... stay tuned! Still got some tunes bunkered of course!
Q: Best live show you've seen?
Gonna skip this one! What about you?!
Q: You played an all-female prison in Bogota, what was that like?
Talking about memorable gigs... There is not enough I could write to describe the feeling I had in my heart and soul playing that fukking gig. Tears well up almost anytime I try to communicate that day to anyone, even typing is pushing me here!
That performance went down like this... I arrived in Bogota alone to my friends from BOGOTRAX FESTIVAL picking me up and telling me I should get a few hours sleep as my first gig starts at 6 am! I was like... "wtf??!"
"YES WE HAVE TO DRIVE THE SOUNDSYSTEM TO THE PRISON, GO THROUGH SECURITY... SET UP THE RIG AND PLAY AT NOON."
It climaxed with my DJ set being the last of the afternoon, all others were cool as well... some Frenchcore, raggadubcore etc... and then I went on and took the mic, and when I screamed... man... those 600 female prisoners screamed back even louder!
I got to mix like 4 records before I was surrounded by extremely hot (we are talking 70s prison exploitation fetish level) Colombian female guards telling me I "MUST STOP THE MUSIC NOW"... as I was totally feeling it... I didn't take them seriously and reached to get another 12" to mix and then the entire crew was like "RACHAEL STOP NOW OR YOU WILL BE LOCKED UP HERE!!!" Looking around, I actually didn't mind even mins, hey fuck I just landed anyways wtf is even happening here! I gave one last shout on the mic... stopped the turntables, and then all the prisoners fucking rushed the stage!!!
This afternoon will go down as one of the most intensely "giving/receiving" experiences of my life. Now as a few tears well up and make their way down my face, I tell you man... I was surrounded by hundreds of female "criminals" who felt so much for me and our crew to bring them some real cool music, energy, and some unadulterated rage direct from me... I sat surrounded by them and had a translator interpret all their questions for me while the sound system was being packed up. HELL, MAN. Always have to laugh at them telling me I should just stay there with them... I was like "well I just landed... not sure how this festival is gonna go, but thanx for letting me know I am totally welcome Ladies!!!" WHAT A BLAST!!! Nothing will ever come close to that! Thnx BOGOTRAX!!
Q: Hit us with some more crazy tour/clubbing stories, I'm sure you have some!
Most recently I returned to Russia for the second time in the past six months. I was out there last September on some kinda dare from a war reporter friend of mine in England, as he told me he was invited to speak at a symposium at the University about the CIA and their dealings with Hollywood. He told me that was his plan and I joked "not without a Kossaken bodyguard!" Ended up just writing my friend I talk to all the time anyways in Moscow and he was like... "Yeah... Just book a flight... we are waiting!"
Skip ahead four months or so, I had just lost my mother Lynette (RIP) this previous February and thought... ah... the only place I really wanna celebrate my 50th birthday and the 30th anniversary of my label is with my fulkkng awesome mates in Moscow! Booked in for about 12 days, I landed in ST. PETERSBURG and was received once again by my great crew (you will find their musick on the forthcoming Zhark Comp in Autumn).
Spent a few days there... totally blasted a crazy warehouse district... made it to Moscow on the bullet train... ended up North joining my "manager" aka best friend Mischa at the punk gig he was drumming with, drove back down that afternoon destroying enough Cognac to kill and had to shower for soundcheck! Awesome underground club, my monitors sounded great... heard it wasn't the best out there... and then ended up playing another 2 times in 3 days at some totally wikked locations.
Last September we had a Sunday with this lovely photographer I know through BELPHEGOR... OLGA from RED OWL PHOTOGRAPHY... we have made it a Moscow tradition to hang out on Sunday... this time finally with the plan to shoot some pix! All was awesome (lokal fashion designer joined with his gear) and then I ended at another awesome club to say goodbye.... Ended up playing again for two hours! Wow!
Yeah! We really blasted... but it wasn't all about that. I also had some time off where we went on nighttime walks through the forests... checked the zoo... more parks and walking, talking... also had some scheduled check-ins with some very insightful intellectuals. Hated to leave but I know I can always come back! Fuck the strife and this bullshit which effects us all. Some of my best friends on earth are in Russia and they deserve just as much respect as any other freaks in my life hailing from wherever!!!
Stay strong and never take the official line for granted... just go there yourself and make your mind up if you want to have an opinion!
Q: You are into a wide array ov musicks I'm sure, can you give us 5 top releases to listen to in the following 'genres'?
NOPE! I think I gave you enough! I will give you the best of what you asked for!
Breakcore: S.D.B. FROM MOSCOW (upcoming on Zhark compilation in September)
Black Metal: BLACK ALTAR
Industrial: MINUIT MACHINE
Techno: DOOM HK
Anything else: RIGHT NOW I LISTEN TO ORBITAL LIVE... ALWAYS COOL!
Q: I see alot ov esoteric occulture, fetishism and transgression in yr work? What drew you to the Occult and have you ever practised practical magick? Also what gives you the drive towards a more confrontational and transgressive approach?
My esoteric/magick path is founded in a lineage of women who have possessed unnatural traits otherwise known as "extra sensory perception". My mother was a telepath, and I am happy I didn't inherit that! I would never want to know what people are thinking... haha! Her mother was the head of the Detroit chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and was an Eastern Orthodox. I am clairvoyant which is not the easiest thing to deal with but also pretty fukkking hilarious / outrageous most of the time! Raised in a strict Catholic house... it was common knowledge we dealt with these traits but just treated them as normal.
As far as the paths I have been drawn to... there have been many. I have never joined any Order and prefer it that way. Respectfully... I seriously do not give a fukk what anyone indulges in spiritually as long as it is not detrimental to the youth or those too lame to realize what they are dealing with. Most of all of my boyfriends/partners are always strict Atheists which is always hilarious as they can never discount all the fucked up shit they have to encounter with me!
Q: The world is black and white for a moment and you have to choose between the following...
Coke or Pepsi - COKE OF COURSE... I HAVE "JACK/COKE" TATTOOED ON MY KNUCKLES SINCE 2009
Ecstasy or Acid - Mushrooms or Opium, please!
Black Metal or Electronic - FUKK YOUR SO-CALLED DUALITY!
Q: Whats next for YOU?
YOU TELL ME!
STAY TUNED FOR THE REST 2026 WITH AN UPCOMING ZHARK INTERNATIONAL COMPILATION DROPPING SEPTEMBER ALONG WITH THE ONLINE SHOP; MORE GIGS AND ART!
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN BOOKING HECATE JUST WRITE TO HECATEZHARK@GMAIL.COM
ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR SUMMER!
THANX CLAN DESTINE AND THEE KRYPTEIA FOR THE INSPIRING EXCHANGE AND CONTRIBUTION TO THE 30 YEARS ZHARK ANNIVERSARY... KEEP UP THE PRESSURE AND NEVER STOP THE MADNESS! XXX
