CoolJunkie Interviews Infected Mushroom

September 10, 2009 6:07 PM
by Marcos Colón

One characteristic of music that we’re fond of is when genres collide. We’re already familiar with tags like alt-country, pop-rock, and even rap-metal (no thanks to guys like Limp Bizkit). However, there haven’t been many bands that have attempted to try their hand at fusing together electronic music and heavy-metal…that is unless you’re Infected Mushroom. Their heavy metal meets electronica sound was perceived in a weird way at first, however, now they’ve basically created their own genre [Psy-trance] and legions of their fans have been following the Israeli-bred duo (Amit “Duvdev” Duvedevani and Erez Eisen) since day one. Their newest album which was released last week, Legend of the Black Shawarma, is their best work yet, featuring cameos by Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell and Jonathan Davis.

CoolJunkie recently had the chance to chat with Infected Mushroom’s Duvdev about the release of their new album, how food was an influence on the album, and working with Perry Farrell and Jonathan Davis.

CoolJunkie: I know you guys have a lot of dates ahead of you since you’re album’s about to be released in a couple of weeks. How’s the touring treating you guys thus far?

Duvdev: The touring has been really good. We’ve been able to play a lot around the country, then we’ll actually leave the country for a bit because there are a few launch parties around the world. It’s been really good.

CJ: I read that the concept for the album actually came through your travels and food. How did that come about?

Duvdev: Yes! The Legend of the Black Shawarma actually started as a food diary. Since we’re on the road all the time and we love to eat, we’re constantly going to different restaurants, each track has a name of a favorite food that we like, like Poquito Mas is a chain of Mexican restaurants in LA, Franks has the best tacos in Mexico, Sa’eed has the best hummus in Israel, so it started like that. But then we came across some serious songs that we couldn’t use food as names for.

CJ: Did you guys have specific musical influences when working on this particular album?

Duvdev: Not really. It was the same as usual. We’ve always had our influences in heavy metal, electronic music and what’s going on in the radio. You can say we had the same musical influences as the previous album. But this one did come out a bit more heavier than the last album.

CJ: There’s a great balance on this album between the metal and the breakbeats, and the album is a lot harder. Was this intentional?

Duvdev: I don’t know if it was intentional. The previous album was a bit more commercial, not that it’s bad, but for this one we wanted to make things a little harder and aggressive, and that’s how it came out. But it doesn’t mean that the next album will the same.

CJ: Obviously it’s interesting that you guys have that metal dynamic to you. What are some of the bands that have influenced you in that aspect?

Duvdev: We’ve always loved Korn, Metallica, System of a Down, Pantera, there just have been so many different bands in that genre that have influenced us and we still listen to them today.

CJ: Funny you say Korn, because I just saw the video for your new single, Smashing the Opponent, and it features Korn’s lead man Jonathan Davis. How did you guys end up hooking up with him?

Duvdev: You know for this album we wanted to do some collaborations so we approached a few people like Jonathan Davis and we also have Perry Farrell on the album. Luckily enough they knew Infected Mushroom and they liked our music, so we hooked up through our managers and they came into the studio and we laid the tracks. It was a great help for us and also very cool because Perry was a fan of Jonathan and us knew about our music too. I’ve been listening to Korn for 15 years so it was a really cool experience for us.

CJ: You also worked with a very big name in the electronic world, Paul Oakenfold. What was that like?

Duvdev: It was great. The album is coming out on his label and he served as the executive producer for the album. It was really cool because he was part of the entire process. It was great meeting him and we’re still great friends. He helped so much in opening doors for us. He’s just a great guy and I have so much respect for him.

CJ: Being a global artist and traveling so much for gigs gives you the opportunity to see how electronic music is being perceived in different markets. How do you think it’s doing in the U.S. so far?

Duvdev: In the last two years electronic music has just been on fire in the U.S. Clubs are booking more, there are more raves around the country, people who never used to come to the U.S. are coming to play now. It’s just opening more and more doors for other artists in the electronic world.

CJ: What do you guys have planned for the rest of the year?

Duvdev: Well the album is about to come out, so we’ll be touring all around to promote the album all around the country and outside of the U.S. The second video will be Killing Time with Perry Farrell so look out for that.

Click here to hear more from Infected Mushroom.