PITRIFF - It's a shame, because it came across great, you know?

SK - Do you think Ministry got clearance? I mean, their new album starts with that thing!

PITRIFF - (laughs) I don't have the new Ministry yet. I didn't know they used that!

SK - Yeah.

PITRIFF - Well, tell me a little bit about the KMFDM power structure, the monster riffs, the electronic foundations and stomp beats, you know, the past few albums have really been aggressive.

SK - Right, what do you want to know about it, how it happens and stuff?

PITRIFF - Yeah, exactly, when you guys organize it together.

SK - Well, it's very hard to say. It's always like this or it's always like that. Every song has a sort of, like, a bit of history that is kind of unique, and shapes the song as well. Some tracks start with a guitar riff. For example, "WWIII" started with that little banjo intro and after that, we were like, okay, now where's the rest of the song? (laughs) Four of us that do the writing, Lucia (Cifarelli), myself, Julian (Hodgson) and Andy (Selway), and between the four of us it just kind of gels and happens in an organic kind of way.

PITRIFF - Definitely. Now, I would have to say KMFDM's mission statement, and I'm borrowing a quote from your site, is to 'rip the system.' How would you elaborate upon that, as far as ripping the system?

SK - Well, ripping the system is essentially what we...not without sort of detours here and there, came to do. We completely eliminated the middle man, we're not on a label anymore, we own all our shit. We own all of our merchandizing, our publishing, and we successfully ripped one system, the system of you know, music...major labels and that kind of stuff, the whole exploitation and the whole unfairness of the business. We took control of our own entity and our own fate.

PITRIFF - So what kind of things happened to you in the past? I guess, what, record labels screwed you, managers screwed you?

SK - Yeah, both. I mean, we got screwed here and there along the way and I've always been quite on the...outlook and pretty alert on those kinds of things, but it definitely happens. I mean, people have their hands in the pot and they can't help but take, you know?

PITRIFF - Yeah.

SK - And, so now it's really all where it should be. If one dollar comes in, the four of us get twenty-five cents each.

PITRIFF - That's cool.

SK - There's no manager, there's no one that gets himself enriched by our work, other than ourselves.

PITRIFF - The way it should be, man, at least you have total control. I'm starting to see a lot of that; it's more the wave of the future. I think people are getting savvy to what's going on in the business world and taking measures in their own hands.