interview from noize addict:

Surrounded by the enormous factories that nicknamed Detroit the Motor City, Factory 81 was born. Sticking to their industrial roots Factory 81 soon became a well-oiled machine, earning fans the hard way and bringing the dreary music scene back to life. Factory 81's brand of heavy music and energetic live shows challenged their fans to open their minds and interpret their music.

Their popularity grew after their self-produced CD, "Mankind" in 1999. It was later re-released that year after being picked up by Mojo Records. For the past few months, they have been touring across the U.S. with Unloco, Insolence and Slaves on Dope. We caught up with Nate Wallace (vocals) and Andy Cyrulnik (drums) on the last show of the tour at the infamous Whiskey A Go-Go in Hollywood, CA.

Noize Addict: Hailing from Detroit, Michigan. You guys acquired the name Factory 81. Can you tell us how that name came about and what it means?
Andy Cyrulnik: I wasn't even there at the time so it's all you.
Nate Wallace: Yeah, there is no significance means to the name. I had a workshirt that I bought at a resell shop and it was like a Chrysler factory that was in the metro Detroit area and it was Factory 81 and it had such a good ring to it.
AC: And where we practiced actually was right in the center of a lot of factories, so it's pretty much the surroundings around us and that's pretty much it. There is no deep meaning like a lot of people think.

NA: What was the music scene like in Detroit around the time you guys started getting notice and how did your friends in Taproot come into the picture?
AC: Well actually as far as heavy music in Detroit at the time, there was a decent amount of bands but not a lot of bands that were really doing much with the scene as far as putting shows together. Speaking of Taproot, those guys would be in Ann Arbor and we are from Detroit, which is about 45 minutes away, but we would swap shows. They would bring us out there and vice versa, so we were two of the bands that kind of started the scene and tried to help out the other bands. For us it was about playing all ages venues and promoting the hell out of them.
NW: Yeah building a following like based off of all ages. There is a club out there that is kind of a coffeehouse slash rock club.

NA: What was the name of the club?
AC: The Wired Frog
NW: It's called the Wired Frog and that has kind of like been the cornerstone of like the whole scene and we pretty much built it out there from playing with other local bands. Kids in high school jam pretty well and you know, they would bring their crowd and we would exchange crowds the same thing that we were talking about Taproot. That's kind of how you build a music scene, you start working with other bands in the area to try to get more people to show up. Instead of sitting around doing nothing you go out and hand flyers out to people and you get people to shows.

NA: How did you guys promote your own shows then?
AC: A lot of flyering and instead of just like making little baby flyers or putting them in a couple of record stores, we would go to Kinko's and make huge posters that read Factory 81. So it's like even if you don't go to the first show the first time, you would see our name out there and people were like "these guys don't screw around." And we would go to concerts and go places where we knew the kids were going to be. Even when we were starting to headline a bigger venue like St. Andrews in Detroit, we were still out there passing out flyers. We did it ourselves.
NW: We went out to a lot of shows, a lot of them!
AC: and through word of mouth you know, we started building a larger following and the cool thing that we noticed was that every show we played maybe a hundred more kids would show up. There were tons of kids out there that were looking for a local band to start and building a scene and that was really cool. They made us completely!

NA: When did the band start?
AC: The winter of 97, I had just turned 17.

NA: What was the ultimate factor that made you decide to sign with Mojo Records?
NW: The cool thing about Mojo versus being on like a major label. Mojo is more independent, works more independent and they have the backing of the major labels. You get more individual attention.
AC: Yeah, you definitely get more individual attention.
NW: They are more focused on us instead of like being all spread out like throwing out a net and trying to see what you can catch. They put a lot into us.
AC: And at the time, Mojo didn't have any rock bands and had a lot of ska bands. So we thought we wouldn't get caught up in the mix being the only rock band on there we would get more attention and that's how it pretty much worked out.
NW: Plus the people there are really cool and we got a good family atmosphere going.
AC: Most definitely more personal and not as much business, making more relaxing situations.
NW: Plus they listen to us a lot, they are more willing to work with us you know and that is a rarity as far as I know from talking with other bands. Sometimes it's hard to get yourself heard you know with people that work around you.

NA: What kinds of emotions and issues do you deal with in the album "Mankind."
NW: There are a lot of different messages. I talk about police brutality and unfortunately one of the messages got misinterpreted. Some of the stuff that I wrote inside the CD was changed from a flaw from someone who was working on the insert at the time.

NA: Are you talking about "Peace Officer?"
NW: Yeah, the song is definitely about police brutality but the overall message wasn't necessarily about cops, but power in general. People in power tend to abuse that power. Not all people and not all cops either, I've met plenty of cops who do the right thing and enjoy what they do. A lot of the messages on the album are spiritual and social. I make a lot of social comments and I try not to be too specific you know. I would rather have people listen to it and make their own interpretations of it.

NA: Is that why you didn't include the lyrics of the songs inside the CD? You wanted to challenge the fans to get their own meanings and experiences from the songs?
NW: Exactly, I would rather present an idea or a feeling and let people hear what they want out of it you know. Then it becomes more art and then it's just not my art, it's their art too. My favorite analogy is this. I wouldn't want Van Goh sitting there explaining his paintings and what they mean. I would rather look at it myself and see what I see and interpret it.

NA: On your website www.factory81.net there are a lot of Asian symbols (clothes/writing) what is the significance?
NW: I'm a spiritual person I take from a lot of different forms of spirituality. A lot of different things, I really don't hold onto anything specifically. I trained Kung Fu for a few years now and I still try to train as much as possible but I don't train as much as I used to.

NA: So that is something that has been with you for years?
NW: Yeah, I enjoy the philosophies and teachings you know, there are a lot of values to acquire.

NA: What is your main philosophy? Is there a certain one you go by?
NW: I'm really into "The Art of Peace." It's primarily about the path of a warrior but it talks in terms of stillness. Instead of thinking in terms of driving out emotions and hatred, you try to keep a balance instead of hurting somebody. You use their own energy against them. You know, that sort of philosophy I mean it applies to physical forms of fighting but it also applies to everyday life.

NA: If you could play with any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?
AC: Any one artist?? It would probably be different for each of us.
NW: I would love to play with Tori Amos. Our styles wouldn't be very compatible but I think it would be cool.

NA: So what are you guys listening to right now? Are there some bands you are really into to?
AC: Lot of different stuff. Nate and I listen to a lot of instrumental music, a lot of jazz.
NW: Yeah, I don't really listen to our own style of music and it's not that I don't like it, I love our style of music but we play with so many heavy bands every night so we get to listen to this music all the time. I'd like to expand and try and throw new elements into our style of music to innovate it. I like listening to Tori Amos, Bjork, Fiona Apple, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Brand X. I like the last Radiohead album that was out. I like them in general. I could sit here and name tons of bands.

NA: Any interesting road stories about the other bands you are playing with right now (Unloco, Insolence, & Slaves on Dope)
AC: Those are all really cool bands. Unloco, those guys are awesome and they are doing really well. Insolence is another great band; they have a good style. They feature two rappers and actually we might bring Insolence out with us if we do a headlining tour, we talked about that.
NW: We will see if they want to do that. Speaking of Unloco, it's our second time touring with them and they are really nice guys and I like their style.
AC: Slaves on Dope has been really cool to us too! It's been a fun tour; it's actually been like the best tour we have ever done. Not the biggest tour, but overall it has been a fun tour especially when you get to tour with great bands.

NA: So is the tour with Unloco, Insolence, and Slaves on Dope continuing?
AC: This is actually the last show of the tour right here at the Whisky in Hollywood. And it's been going on for about a month.
NW: Actually it has been longer, we didn't do the first leg of the tour.

NA: You had mono right?
NW: Yeah, I had mono.
AC: Oh yeah, so actually it's been a two-month tour and Nate had mono for about a month.

NA: So are you going to be going out on tour again any time soon?
AC: We are going to go back and start writing new material for the next album for about a month or so and probably plan on doing a headlining tour this summer.
AC: We are going to do a radio single for the song "Peace Officer."
NW: Yeah it's going to be our next single and we want to do a really thorough campaign for it. Last time we went to radio we did the song "Nanu" and it was a good start you know, we got to meet a lot of people in the radio. We didn't get a lot of spins from it, but we learned a lot from that whole experience and we want to go back and do it better this time.
AC: We would like to go out on the road and meet up with radio stations and do it ourselves. Try to get people to request the songs.

NA: Very cool, I think we have just one more question for you guys. What would you tell someone who has never came out to see a Factory 81 show. Like what could they expect live?
AC: A lot of energy and just fun. I mean we like to include the audience in the show and we hate playing on big stages where we are way up here and everybody is down there you know. Nate jumps down into the audience and we bring them up on stage and we make a party out of it and have a good time. We try to focus on performing well too. At first we would try to get as crazy on stage as we could, jumping around but now it's like we are trying to be more intricate.
NW: More control.
AC: Yeah, control it and make a balance out of it.
NW: Having a good show all around, you can be sloppy on stage but really energetic versus that, we are trying to find the perfect balance. We have always prided ourselves with our live show. I mean our album is kind of a representation of that. For the most part we were pleased with the way it turned out.
AC: It was really low budget, raw, live and a lot of one takes.
NW: It was also produced well.

NA: Any last comments about the album or anything?
AC: Please buy it we are poor, we have been wearing the same clothes for over a month now. I need new socks and underwear.
NW: Yeah, bring socks and underwear to our show!
AC: Please, donations are accepted!