Your name:
Derek Whitacre

The name of your band/act etc:
The Moscow Coup Attempt

Where are you from (city/country)?
Los Angeles, CA, USA… the godless city of God’s country.

Your sound can be described as?
Hmmm… let’s fill this area with all kinds of catchy phrases that the music press loves to use. Down-tempo, organic-electronic-cinematic-sort-of-movie/drug music.  I don’t really know actually. That’s for other people to do. Describe music. Google me and take a listen if you don’t know already. There’s plenty out there.

One reviewer described me as “eyelid-music”. I always liked that one.

Fill us in on the history – where did your band/act start, what changes and developments have happened along the way and where are you now?
Well, I started it all as a personal experiment after becoming completely disenchanted with being in bands and the whole LA “music” scene.  Interviews are sort of an odd thing for someone like myself.  One being a person that doesn’t like to talk about one’s self a whole lot.  I was interested in film-music, and some of the moodier offspring there-of.  Then I became completely obsessed with shortwave radio “numbers stations”.  I really don’t feel like explaining what numbers stations are for the 500th time.

[I] started making music for my own little movie in my head involving numbers stations and musical themes derived there from. Then [I] started doing collage work with archive film to go to the music.

Now it’s turned into a film and music thing.  I work with film while I write the music to go together from the start, assembling footage while I work on the music. That’s why I put out CDs and DVDs now as opposed to the first album that was just a music release.

[I] started working with singers too. Vera Ostrova is my siren, and everybody should love her.

Now I’m rambling. 

What’s your earliest memory of developing a passion for music?
My Mother tells me that when I was just a wee sprite, I would pull out the pots and pans from the cupboards and play drums on them.

Your influences (musical, political etc) and why?
Musical… that’s a tough one.  I don’t come from a really deep electronic music background. A lot of metal. A lot of Mike Patton. Experimental shite. A list? Ennio Morricone, Black Sabbath, Refused, Mr. Bungle, Pigface, Meshuggah, Bjork, Don Caballero, Slayer, Pepe Deluxe…

I really can’t say.  Everything I listen to, or have listened to, has shaped me in some way.  For one to be able to narrow down their influences would be to narrow the scope of what they see themselves being capable of.

Political… well, I am a human male born in the most powerful country in the world in the latter half of the 20th century.  I had nothing to do with it; yet, I must be proud and not dissent. So you see, I feel a bit lost politically. I have no influence from politics because it’s a pointless word. Its power hungry thugs grandstanding and beating their chests to one another until somebody dies… somebody that has nothing to do with any of it.  I suppose if I were to be aligned with some political party it would be Libertarian. But that would be saying that I align myself with a certain ideology, which in my mind is wrong… as murder is wrong.  Ideology is death for independent thought. Other than that – Bill Hicks.

What’s your Mum or Dad’s favourite record/song and why do you love/hate it?
Ouch. Man… sorry Mum. My Mother loves musicals and all that Andrew Lloyd Webber type of shite. I grew up listening to all of it subsequently. I fucking hate it. I hate show tunes. I hate musicals. And what really pisses me off is that I know all the music and half the lyrics to all of them. Kind of like how everyone knows Barry Manilow tunes, but no one with any taste actually likes them

Most memorable gig you’ve played and why?
The one where everything worked as it was supposed to. 

What’s the naughtiest thing you and/or the band have gotten up to on tour?
Naughty? Am I six-years-old?  I’ve verbally abused a few crowds here and there. That was back when I was in a band though. We were all very tall and sort of scary, so I could get away with that.

Do you drink? And if so what’s you’re favourite rock ‘n’ roll recipe? If you don’t drink would you care to elaborate as to why?
Drink. Yes. Cabernet mostly. Red wines. Not very rock ‘n’ roll. Oh well.

What was the first record that you ever owned and tell us the story of how it came into your possession and why you loved it?
That’s a tough one!  I think the first one I had was my Dad’s 45 of They’re Coming To Take Me Away Ha-Haaa! by Napoleon XIV. On the B-side, they just put the song in reverse. That was my favorite version.  I actually knew the lyrics in reverse.

What’s the best thing about the music scene you are involved in and why?
I didn’t even know I was part of a scene. If I am, would somebody please let me know?  Seriously.  I’m not kidding. Somebody write me and tell me what scene I’m part of.

What’s the worst thing about the music scene you are involved in and why?
See the last question.  Seriously though, all scenes are fashion.  If you want to be yesterday’s news of tomorrow, get your band or act at the centre of a scene!  Ask Fred Durst about this.

How did you get involved in the music scene you find yourself in now?
Oh fuck it! I give up. I don’t know.  Is this a quiz? MySpace.

Any parting words?
Rosebud.