Splendid: It's pretty weird for someone not in tune with it. Where does that come from?

Otto Von Schirach: Wow. I don't know. (laughs) The recklessness? Damn. Yeah, that's a good one. (laughs) I guess, like, everything around us is just crazy. Fast access internet. (laughs)

Splendid: On the same token, your execution is so technical and on point, it's startling how chaotic it sounds. Not to mention injected with this juvenile humor.

Otto Von Schirach: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's growing up in Miami, straight up. Down here, it's like, you still feel like a kid or something. Like you're skipping school. (laughs)

Splendid: Well, nobody does it like you. You push things over the top with it. Even your artwork, these slogans you come up with... In the album insert, it says, "Brush your toenail and/or sequence the odor." I mean, it's kind of disturbing.

Otto Von Schirach: Sequencing the odor is kind of like what I try to do, you know? (laughs)

Splendid: Okay, I gotcha. I think.

Otto Von Schirach: You know what I'm saying? Try to imagine the smell or an illusion of something inside the music, but then put some Miami personality in it, you know?

Splendid: What about "Brush your toenail"?

Otto Von Schirach: That I don't know. I don't know about that one. (laughs)

Splendid: I was thinking that you have a lot in common with Mike Patton's aesthetic. When Mr. Bungle came out, there was a lot of that kind of crazy, juvenile humor in there.

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, definitely. The first one, you mean, right? Yeah, I love that record. I listen to that record a lot. That probably influenced me a lot, and all the crazy hip hop and the gangsta stuff. Mr. Bungle and Mike Patton, as well as Trey (Spruance), one of the other guys... he's in Secret Chiefs, you know? His other band. But he was the guitarist in Mr. Bungle.

Splendid: Yeah, well I thought that stuff might be an influence.

Otto Von Schirach: When I hear my music, I hear it as a major influence on Escalo Frio, my second Schematic album.

Splendid: People listening to your stuff are going to make an impression of the artist. Has anyone every approached you cautiously, expecting some sort of madman?

Otto Von Schirach: Yes! Or a 50 year old German guy who doesn't speak good English. For sure.

Splendid: I'll just assume you're not as provocative in real life as you are on record.

Otto Von Schirach: Nah, nah. Not usually. On stage, maybe, or if I need to be. But no, I'm usually a chill guy. It's in my music. It's in my computer, or wherever I'm doing stuff.

Splendid: I'll just have to guess that your music serves as a way to tap into that place and find an outlet for it.

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, definitely.

Splendid: So you don't bring your girlfriend to a restaurant and disturb the patrons?

Otto Von Schirach: Well, sometimes. It gets a little crazy. Maybe (we'll) get dressed up as freaks and go to a restaurant and act like retarded people -- just freaking people out and making them feel uncomfortable. But it's fun. It's in good fun. We live in America, dude. (laughs)

Splendid: Right on. You're one of a kind, man. I tip my hat to you.

Otto Von Schirach: Thank you, man. That's a compliment.

Splendid: When you first started making tunes, was there a plan to have such weird packaging?

Otto Von Schirach: It just came out. I honestly think that the reason my music sounds the way it does is because I don't know how to make music. When I started, I didn't know how to make music, I just knew what I wanted things to sound like. I don't play any instruments. I try to play guitar, but it's like... put distortion on it and go to town. I don't know how to play notes or sing, but I like the way things sound when they're all torn apart.

Splendid: So, you just thought all your life, "Wow, wouldn't it be cool if music sounded this way?", and then -- when you had the opportunity -- you went for it.

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, with a lot of hip hop and drum 'n' bass and experimental. I wanted to make it sound different, and I don't know how to read music or play piano.

Splendid: How did you get so proficient with computer-based music? You're using a Mac, right?

Otto Von Schirach: I was, actually. On Global Speaker Fisting, it's like half Mac, half Windows.

Splendid: What was the reasoning for that?

Otto Von Schirach: I guess, uh... I'm working with Windows now. I sold my Mac, because I feel there's more software for Windows. I was always doing stuff on Windows. I would make my sounds, and record them into my Windows computer, and then transfer them to my Mac, because my Windows has a better sound editor.

Splendid: So it was a matter of convenience that you switched totally to PC.

Otto Von Schirach: Definitely. Like, Sound Forge, WaveLab, there's so many (on the PC)... Cool Edit Pro. With Macintosh you just have Peak. There's just one: it's just Peak. I'm big on the sound design, inside a sound design program. Inside an editor. More than people who are strictly, like, synthesis. I'll take my synthesis and kind of sample-base it, you know?

Splendid: Right, I gotcha. So was it a matter of just knuckling down and learning everything as you went?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, I started on the Akai. My first couple of albums were on the Akai. Then I moved to computers because I felt it would make my music sound better. It's awesome doing vocals (with computers). I love doing vocals now.

Splendid: I noticed! I love it when you put people you know on the mic. That's your girlfriend on the track "G4 Scramblin'", right?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, man. (laughs)

Splendid: Another thing I noticed on Global Speaker Fisting -- you're either paying tribute or sending up death metal on a couple of tracks. With the vocals, the stop/start rhythms, the crunchy guitars... it's all in there and it's brilliantly done. Where does that come from? Do you listen to death metal a lot?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, I have listened to grindcore and goregrind and metal for a long time. I started including it in my music when I was a kid. I did a bunch of jungle tracks, Atari Teenage Riot style, but more metal and more jump up, like hip hop or something. It was a weird blend. Then I was in a band for a long time, and we made a more electronic death metal... kind of like if Mr. Bungle was more death metal and more electronic. A lot of start-and-stop rhythms, a lot of hip hop vocals and really messed up death metal vocals. But I didn't think Schematic would be down to put something like that out. It's like, "Whoa, what a difference."

Splendid: The place that Schematic is in now, they probably would. The label has changed quite a bit.

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, a lot. I think they saw me play (the death metal stuff) live a couple of times and they were like, "Oh, we gotta put this out." 'Cause live, it's a whole other story.

Splendid: Has anything else changed with your approach since your last disc, Chopped Zombie Fungus?

Otto Von Schirach: Yes, I think that now I'm taking a lot longer time with music. I'm trying to change things, you know?

Splendid: How so?

Otto Von Schirach: Just doing it backwards. Or not doing what I would usually do. Like, maybe recording the vocals first before I even have the song. Stuff like that. There's actually a track on Global Speaker Fisting, "Flexible Neck Static". With that one I recorded the vocals first, actually, and I made the beats to match the vocals.

Splendid: Cool. Is that a means of challenging yourself?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, yeah. And making it sound different, you know?

Splendid: Actually, it sounds like you have a case of ADD, and you're constantly trying to uncover new things. For instance, while there are a few moments of out and out accessibility on the new album, where the beats are repetitive and funky, most of Global is more compelling. You can't wait to see what's coming next.

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, awesome. That's what I wanted, kind of.

Splendid: What kind of replay value do you get out of your own music? Do you listen to it and hear new things?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, most of the time I'm like, "Whoa, how did I do that?" I can't even go back and redo it. I'm starting to save my files, 'cause I'm wondering what's going on. Some of those tracks, like "G4 Scramblin'", were super old. They were done before Chopped Zombie was released, but I finished them recently. I mastered them and reedited them. But, I don't have a lot of those files. "How did I do that stuff?" One of the craziest songs, the one for the super geeks and the people who are pushing their minds -- "The Inventor Of The Milf'ed Decibel" -- I don't have the files for it, and I'm trying to redo that now.

Splendid: Okay, so you're trying to go back in and analyze what you did?

Otto Von Schirach: I'm trying to use the same techniques that I remember using. I did that track super fast. It was one of those days where I knew what I wanted and I finished it in like a week. And then I threw away the files, because I was throwing away a lot of files back then. I would finish the song and throw away everything. Start brand new.

Splendid: You have a pretty extensive body of work at this point. What kind of people are in your audience? Your music is pretty difficult for the average IDM fan.

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, it's spread a lot, now. I'm seeing young people, too. I'm getting young, 17-19 year-old kids, people who are at radio stations, the college crowd, and I have the super freaks. It's spread. And the whole Skinny Puppy thing got me a lot of industrial/gothic fans, which is crazy because before that, there wasn't really that fanbase. I love it. It's awesome. (laughs)

Splendid: To me, there's a logical connection. I'm a big industrial fan and I was definitely drawn to your stuff. When you were supporting Skinny Puppy on this last tour, did you go over pretty well?

Otto Von Schirach: I think I did. I was happy with all of the turnouts of the sets and stuff. I think that the kids were open-minded. I was messing with them. I was screaming. I was asking them where the gothic people were -- "I don't see them!" They were having a great time, I think. A lot of people knew who I was, I guess from reading about it online or past shows. Those are loyal fans, those Skinny Puppy fans. Awesome people. People down for the extreme.

Splendid: The Skinny Puppy crowds must have been some of the biggest crowds you've ever played for.

Otto Von Schirach: Yes, they were. I've played for big crowds, but at festivals or raves. To me, that doesn't count. (On the Skinny Puppy tour) I would play at, like, 8:15 p.m. and there would be, like, 2000 people. And I'd be, like, "Okay, let's do it."

Splendid: Yeah? So you weren't intimidated?

Otto Von Schirach: At the beginning I was. I just think I started having fun with it. I started noticing that it was no holds barred. CEvin and Ogre and the whole crew... they were for it. They became fans. I know Scully -- one of Ogre's mic techs and cEvin's keyboard/computer tech; he would come out every night to see me play. He would come to the side and he would scream and stuff.

Splendid: It was probably different every night. Did you wear the wig?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, the costume -- I started with a fez and a suit, and I would take off my suit and I would have these breasts underneath. These fake breasts I got in New Orleans. And then I would put on this big king's hat that was like three feet tall. And I would take off the breasts, and I would be shirtless and then I'd put on the wig. So there would be like three kinda costume changes.

Splendid: For those who don't know, can you retell how your involvement with Skinny Puppy came about, and how you ultimately ended up contributing to their latest album?

Otto Von Schirach: The Schematic crew was in LA on tour three or four years ago. It was eight shows on the west coast, and we stopped in at LA. Our friend Omar from Native Instruments was living with cEvin at the time. I think cEvin wanted to meet the Schematic guys... or maybe Omar wanted to bring us over. I don't remember the exact reason we were there, but we just went. CEvin lives in a beautiful house, and I was amazed by his studio. I asked him if he had any Skinny Puppy treasures on wax sitting around that he didn't want anymore. What do you expect from that? You expect, "No, I don't." He says, "Actually, I do. Nobody ever asks me for that stuff anymore." He pulls out ten sealed Skinny Puppy records. We're talking about Bites and stuff, still sealed, 20 years old. He gives them to me, and I gave him 8,000 B.C., which was the only release I had at the time.

Then we left for San Diego. Omar met us there and told me that cEvin was really amazed by my music, and that he might want to use me on the new Skinny Puppy album. I was, like, stoked. And then I think a year went by, and I kind of forgot about it. I was in my thing, trying to finish Chopped Zombie Fungus, and I was in New York to play a show. After the show I checked my email, and there was one from cEvin saying that if I wanted to help out with the new Skinny Puppy to give him a call. And when I came back to Miami, I called him and then gave him a bunch of tracks -- like, eleven. I went into the studio and pumped out a bunch of crazy stuff. They used a lot of my sounds and sequences.

Then, after all that, he asked me to do some more stuff, two months before the record was dropped. He sent me "Ghostman", and he was like, "Do the end of it. Make it crazy. Make it an Otto ending." And I took "Ghostman" and just destroyed it.

Splendid: Is that the one with the really crazy breakdown, with a lot of metallic sounds at the end? I could tell that was you without even reading the liners. I was like, "That's Otto!"

Otto Von Schirach: (laughs) I love the way it turned out. I love the way it was mixed, too. That track is great.

Splendid: So are you pretty happy with the way it all came out?

Otto Von Schirach: Yeah, yeah. I'm definitely happy. I can't wait for the next one.

Splendid: Are you going to be on the next one?

Otto Von Schirach: There's talk. There's a lot of talk about a next one, and there's a lot of talk about who's on the next one. I don't know if I'm going to be on it, but I'd be more than honored, you know? I'll just make it more fucked up.