PROBOT Vs. ALEC EMPIRE: Former ATARI TEENAGE RIOT Singer Clears The Air

March 14, 2004

German techno noise animal ALEC EMPIRE (ex-ATARI TEENAGE RIOT) has issued a statement explaining the absence of Dave Grohl's name in the credits for the ALEC EMPIRE CD "Intelligence & Sacrifice", which features the backing track for what eventually became the PROBOT (Grohl's much-acclaimed "metal" side-project) cut "Access Babylon".

"Dave Grohl and me hung out at the Big Day Out in Australia in 2000," Alec explained in a recent online posting. "We talked about doing a collaboration and later he sent me a tape with a couple of backing tracks. One of these was the backing track for the song which became [the ALEC EMPIRE song] 'Tear It Out'. At the time Dave explained PROBOT was just the collective name he had for a bunch of collaborations he was considering. Later, as the idea developed, he decided he wanted PROBOT to be a platform for an older generation of singers and I didn't really fit in.

"In the meantime we were sitting on our version of 'Tear It Out', which we loved, and it seemed a pity there didn't seem to be any prospect of putting it out. I was putting CD1 of 'Intelligence & Sacrifice' together and the energy of 'Tear It Out' fitted perfectly. We got permission from Dave, but it was so last minute we fucked up the credit on the artwork. While it meant no one would know of his involvement from the sleeve there was another consideration. FOO FIGHTERS and Dave had a very high profile at the time and there were a lot of examples of artists using other artist's names for their own advantage. We could have balanced out the missing credit by announcing to the press but I didn't want to trade on his name. We wanted 'Tear It Out' on 'I&S' because it was a great track, not because it was it was a collaboration with Dave.

"Of course we pay Dave record and publishing royalties on the track and when the time comes to repress we'll change the artwork. We had no idea the same backing track was being used on the PROBOT album but it's cool track on a very cool album."

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).