It’s been three whole years since Hanin Elias brought us her rather fantastic debut album, “In Flames” and now she returns with a new record, a newly independent record label and, most importantly… a European tour!!

Hanin rose to prominence as a founding member of the infamous Berlin noise band, Atari Teenage Riot whose politically charged music fused together elements of punk and techno and spawned a whole new genre named Digital Hardcore. This resulted in the construction of their independent label Digital Hardcore Recordings which is still running today and continues to release some of the most innovative and exciting music available including solo material by Hanin’s ex-band mates Alec Empire and the late Carl Crack with Empire in particular achieving huge solo success with his epic double album, ‘intelligence and sacrifice.’
Atari Teenage Riot were famed especially for their live performances particularly their ‘noise’ shows, the most infamous of which was supporting Nine inch Nails at Brixton Academy in 1999 to a crowd of 8,000… a show which was so intense it had both fans ripping off their ATR shirts and fans buying their very first ones. The show was immortalised when it was released as a live album... much like Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’ it’s something of an ‘acquired’ taste. Following the release of ’60 second wipeout’ and the tragic death of Carl Crack in September 2001, ATR have unofficially had something of a hiatus with the remaining members -such as Hanin- choosing to concentrate on solo projects. Hanin is now the flagship artist for her own label, FATAL recordings that was formally a division of DHR but is newly independent. Other artists on the label include Lolita Storm, Chiffre and Nic Endo. The label is primarily a platform for female musicians to conquer new and exciting musical territory particularly using electronic equipment, as Hanin herself says,
“It's gonna be a movement to change the music business and the whole world! It's gonna be FATAL!"

Why did you decide to leave DHR and make Fatal an independent label? Have you found any advantages to running the label independently?
I changed a lot over the years and wanted to develop and do things that wouldn’t fit into the tight DHR world.
I met Chiffre who did music on the new album for the first time, he produced the album with me and we organized the Fatal-Filmfest together. Bettina (Fatal-Recordings label Manager) and Michael (Promo and everything else) were fired from DHR and so we decided to form an independent label. I wanna get in touch with different people and different music but I still wanna stay myself (remain political) and become more open minded musically.

How is Fatal changing or is going to change the representation of women in music?
I first thought Fatal could be a platform for women but now I’ve changed my mind and want to have an open space for people that I like and music that’s dark and energetic and this includes men. I think the tension is more intense if men and women work together particularly if they are also concerned about politics and humanism. I really love dark passionate women who have a powerful presence on stage and who transport feelings with their music and thoughts of their own. I don’t care if they do music with someone else or if they are alone. It’s the vibe and the sexual power that “Fatal spirit”, something broken and not clean about a person. If men are like this then it’s the same. If the music sets me on fire then there must be something about the band and our label that must transform.

Ideally, how would you like to see women represented?
Women should represent themselves, they should be authentic, happy and they should not do what other people expect them to do. If they are sexual, most other women start picking on them and try to “civilise” them ‘cause they are scared and jealous, if women are introverted people pick on them also and so on. Mostly men criticise women and make everybody look at them in the same way that they do.
I really like to play with old fears that men have and have always had of a woman. The Spider that eats the little spider… a man after having sex, the vampire that lusts for blood (essence of life.... sperm?) Women who are active and dangerous, who are crazy, hysterical, Women like wild animals.... there are as many clichés of females as there are people on earth.
The Fatal Femmes, we are seen in very social Darwinist ways and we have to destroy the clichés by using them to death.
Also in politics every fear is based on social Darwinism and nobody seems to ever get tired of it. Good and evil, black and white, women are like this, men are like that, bla, bla...let’s wake up and see the colours in between.

Do you feel that women have too little influence on how they are represented in mainstream music?
Maybe but the difficult thing is that there are many women working for MTV and other mainstream music businesses that look at products with a man’s eye and become very macho about everything. Because they have to serve men they have to learn what men want and they can’t see how they would’ve seen things if they weren’t so brainwashed.
There are no videos without arses or tits anymore and it really gets on your nerves if all the girls look at you like they wanna fuck you but you are a girl yourself and you get used to it and start behaving the same way ‘cause it’s normal, you see it night and day. Brainwash.

Do you regard yourself as a feminist? Why?
No, I’m very interested in feminist literature but I guess that too many points don’t fit with my views. I would call myself a Haninist. (-:

You’re a female role model for many young people. Do you ever feel pressurised by this? I feel pressured by this a lot ‘cause feminists often put me under pressure and tell me that I’m not a real feminist and men criticise me being too anti-male. I guess I will always piss everyone off....

Are there any artists who you particularly like at the moment? Who are your role models?
I really like C.H.I.F.F.R.E.’ S Music and Pig, Cat and Cow with Khan and Jill who we will hopefully sign soon. I also like Jessie Trashed with the Vanishing from San Francisco who sound like Fuzzbox from the eighties. I don’t have any role models.

Do you feel that your upbringing helped to define your interest in politics?
My father was very patriarchal, he always said that women and politics don’t fit together and that made me get interested in politics. If you want your child to be interested in anything in particular you should forbid it...;)
I was always very sensitive if people where outsiders or were treated badly or unfairly, I could fight for justice like a lion!

‘The Future of War’ has been banned in Germany, what are your feelings on censorship?
I’m against censorship. If the things that our neurotic culture brings up get censored then we lie to ourselves and create more schizophrenia. If you show pictures of war without blood and dead people who cry and suffer it’s a lie and just army propaganda. If you show only sexy Playmates on TV and no fat girls having sex or fun then it’s a lie and clean, boring, asexual clone-shit. If children get raped and used by arseholes that got raped as kids themselves and you just forbid these things without preventing the cause, it’s hell! When people who have feelings about politics and have a message about a fake democracy put lyrics about their fears and nightmares of total regimes, corrupt politicians, American megalomania and worldwide terror (that have mostly all come true by now) on CD then it gets censored and forbidden. It’s a fake democracy. And that is how it is.

Atari Teenage Riot achieved an incredible amount in their career, especially in terms of breaking down boundaries and raising political awareness. What achievement are you most proud of? How do you think the group affected you personally?
It was the most intense time I’ve had ‘cause I never had to fight so much against criticism and tour so hard. We had fights and threats and personal problems; Carl Crack died and we’ve all split up now ‘cause it was all too much. I don’t regret anything for myself, I’m just proud that I survived. It all made me a little paranoid but that fades away more and more.

Do you think that Alec Empire’s recent commercial successes will help to bring more attention to the digital hardcore sound?
I don’t know… I think you can hear noise in many songs and musical genres now, which is an achievement of Atari Teenage Riot.

What influenced you in making your new album “No games, no fun”?
I finally had the freedom to do whatever I wanted and with who I wanted. I just wanted to try new things such as new singing methods and musicians who spontaneously crossed my way.
There are lots of lyrics about power games, megalomaniacs, feelings, politics, about sexism and feeling sexy or just confusion, fun, paranoia and depression. All that influenced me and of course the people I collaborated with.

‘Vic