Bio of the Week: Fictional
Fictional is one of several side projects by Funker Vogt founder Gerrit Thomas. Because he is involved in so many projects, Fictional’s activity is a bit sporadic at best, but the electronic music they’ve produced is as good as any. Here’s a complete band biography, written by Joe Hunter of DeutschMusikLand.com:
Gerrit Thomas, one of the masterminds behind Funker Vogt and Ravenous, formed Fictional in the late 1990’s to create a hybrid between the two bands. The project forged high energy music similar to Funker Vogt with vocal styles of Ravenous to make a pounding, non-stop electro mix that is entirely contagious.
Zoth Ommog released Fictional’s first album, Fictitious, shortly thereafter. Comprised of ten explosive tracks, Fictional quickly became a dance floor favorite. With the exception of two tracks sung by Tim Fockenbrock (Ravenous), Blue Lights and Dream of God, Gerrit did all of the music and vocals for Fictitious. Intense synths and keyboard melodies are strung throughout the tracks with insatiable beats and poppy vocals. Blue Lights yielded to be the most popular track off of the album, and is still getting continued club play. Unfortunately, due to the demise of the Zoth Ommog label, Fictitious has become extremely rare and in high demand.
Including work on Fictitious, Gerrit has also done remixes under the name Fictional for such bands as Decoded Feedback, Leaether Strip, Melotron, Merge, and several others. Other band projects include the aforementioned Funker Vogt and Ravenous, along with Fusspils 11.
After a long break, Gerrit began working on a follow-up to the debut in 2000. This time, with a new singer from Scotland, Jason Bainbridge, Fictional began an evolution. One of their first tracks was a cover of the Pet Shop Boys song “Opportunities”, which can be heard on Dancing Ferret Record’s Pet Shop Boys cover album, Very Introspective, Actually. While Fictional’s second CD was being formulated, Metropolis Records released a new version of Fictitious. Titled Fictitious [+] the 2001 release featured new artwork and two bonus tracks. The supplemental live tracks were recorded during Fictional’s first and only show ever, in Orlando, Florida at Das Maschine, featuring Tim Fockenbrock on vocals.
Finally, the long overdue follow-up to Fictitious [+] has been completed… Fiction has arrived! The new album definitely makes up for the wait that fans have had to endure. Electro and synth-pop are fused together to form a smooth, yet abrasive sound. There is nothing *fictional* about this band, they are the real deal, and nothing will be able to stop them when the album invades dance-floors July 2003!
There really isn’t much information about Fictional lately because they simply haven’t done much since the release of their 2003 album Fiction. The only website that’s actually dedicated to the band is a fansite located at Fictional.FunkerVogt.com. Gerrit is just busy working with main project Funker Vogt, as well as other side projects like Fusspils 11. However, I still recommend picking up an album if you can find one.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Thanx for supporting us, we need it, haha!!
Mikki