interview by John Wisniewski
genCAB, the thinking man’s industrial band, have recently released the cryptically titled album ‘III I II (THIRD EYE GEMINI),’ the follow-up to their 2023 critically acclaimed album ‘Signature Flaws.’ Although it is a bit complicated, the new album is partially a reworking of genCAB’s debut album ‘II transMuter’ from 2008. Sarcastically, genCAB describes themselves as “sharp synthpop for delicate human compost,” which should give you a bit of insight as to their perspective. With an explosion of releases over the past few years, genCAB has been frenetically busy and is also active on the road with dates that will lead up to an appearance at Dark Force fest in the spring of ’25. Main genCAB man David Dutton gave us a bit of his time to explain parts of the complex world of genCAB.
John Wisniewski: Please tell us about your new album “Third Eye Gemini.” What does the new record contain?
David Dutton: “Third Eye Gemini” came out of the idea to remaster and re-release our first album “II transMuter”. Unfortunately the premasters for that were lost by multiple people over the year. Athan Maroulis (of the band NØIR) gave me the idea of maybe trying to recreate some of those tracks and before I knew it, I had most of it done in a matter of weeks. It’s interesting though in the sense that I haven’t listened to that album much over the years and I needed help putting that record together in the beginning. This version of it however feels a lot more like me, because I know what I’m doing in a studio environment finally. I was also able to write a couple of new tracks that blended with that original idea very well, so it’s got some freshness also attached to it.
JW: When and how did genCAB originally form?
DD: We came together in the early aughts of this century. I always did all of the writing but I brought on my friend Tim Van Horn to play drums. Eventually, we both joined the Aesthetic Perfection live show and this project took a backseat because we didn’t get live opportunities that were as interesting. Eventually I felt like I developed writer’s block and more or less abandoned this project to start an indie rock / shoegaze band called Crown of Pity. That lasted until around the pandemic, when we were all pretty encouraged to isolate. I learned a lot more about recording in the interim and wanted to see if I’d be able to handle working on this stuff again. Fortunately, I’ve been way more productive with genCAB now than when I had first started it. And also fortunately, Tim Van Horn is still playing drums for us, while my wife Alayna Rakes is coming on to play keyboards.
JW: What are some of the topics you explore in your lyrics
DD: A lot of my songs end up being about exploring my own mortality and self worth, with various other things that bother me peppered in. To be fair though I like to write and finish each song as an instrumental first. Then I’ll start writing without a goal. Usually the lyrics change and rotate out a few times, then when everything flows and feels right, that usually ends up being the time that I figure out what the song is about. I guess it all really gets settled in my subconscious and more than half the time I have no idea what I intended to talk about. I used to have issues with medication in the ast and I used to think some of my older material was about that. But for instance with re exploring my older tracks, I actually see a lot more themes of the abuse I went through when I was younger.
JW: The music of genCAB combines a number of different genres, perhaps you can tell our audience how that came to be.
DD: It was probably like a lot of people, I started out wanting to sound like the stuff I liked the most. At the time it was Nine Inch Nails, NCC, SKinny Puppy, etc. But my instinct would always tell me to try other things. I wasn’t really just listening to industrial music, but at the same time a lot of alt rock and what would be considered to be emo too. So abstract elements of that started to bleed into it, but it felt just like me and I didn’t have to try to sound one way or the other. It’s really important to me that it just sounds like something that I would enjoy, to the detriment of really fitting perfectly into another genre. I constantly go back and forth on what to describe us as. The past few years I’d been listening to a lot of shoegaze and bands that were on Sargent House Records and naturally that ended up bleeding in. But fortunately I still think it all works together cohesively. Being original to myself is what’s most important.
JW: Any specific pieces of gear that you favor on genCAB recordings?
DD: It’s weird, for recording I generally keep everything in the box, so a lot of VSTs and plugins become my usual gotos. The synth engines I favor the most are Omnisphere, u-he Diva & Repro-5. I’ve been trying to push Schwabe Digital’s Gold Clip on everyone I know because that’s made all of my mixes so much fuller without losing any punch. As far as hardware there’s one pedal I like to use a lot for background atmosphere made by Hologram called the Microcosm. It’s a granular delay. Another pedal I use sporadically is the Strymon El Capistan. There’s a setting on there that I use that can get a great aged delay vibe to anything that’s run in and out of it. I’ll also give a shout out to Dunable Guitars, since I use one of their Yetis to track whenever I need things like that.
JW: Do you feel that you are trying to advance and try different things with genCAB from album to album?
DD: I certainly hope so. At the very least I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable singing and I hope that that’s something that people notice. I also end up being in a position where I have to mix and record everything myself, and I’ve definitely noticed improvements from the last 3 albums. It’s funny to think about though, considering this last album was mostly a refresh of older work. The previous album i did (Signature Flaws) was something that I was looking at as a bridge between what I do with this project and my other creative avenues. That all had this theme of recycled death, and then maybe ironically I ended up in the hospital right before it came out. I’m not really sure if that album resonated with the people in this scene or not though. I’ve always had this thing where I mostly want to make albums for someone’s headphones. I’ve never been focused on trying to put out singles or dance tracks and I know that’s not what people want the most in this genre. It’s like everyone goes to the goth club to dance and then we go on and it’s like “ok everyone, lets get miserable together!”. In the end though, I do still really hope we can get anyone to check us out and hopefully resonate with us.
JW: Any current up and coming synthwave, darkwave or industrial bands you’ve been listening to?
DD: One of my favorite bands at the moment that has a huge old school industrial feel to it is Model/Actriz. It almost reminds me of Swans, except slightly more terrifying and queer. There’s also a band from Canada called Eye Steal that I did a show with in Montreal a couple years ago and they blew me away. They felt punk without even trying to be. Since working with Bara Hari I’ve gotten into her stuff too. Also a big fan of So Below, Heavy Halo and Ringfinger too. But most of the time I’m listening to Holy Fawn. They’re more of a heavy gaze band that I think could actually plug right into this genre if they wanted to.
JW: Any future plans, projects or tours you would like to mention?
DD: As far as shows, we got 4 lined up in November for the east coast. Next year we’re going to Europe for the first time for Dark Malta. As far as the US, we’ve been booked for Dark Force Fest again and another US festival that we haven’t been announced for yet. I’m also rejoining Aesthetic Perfection next year for a handful of throwback shows where we just play things off of the first two albums when I was more involved. Also planning to put out another small Crown of Pity release to break things up, and I’m also planning on working on a post Kelli Ali / Sneaker Pimps type project with a friend of mine that I hope we can finish up by the end of next year!
-Bandcamp: https://gencab.bandcamp.com/album/iii-i-ii-third-eye-gemini