Talking "Eighth Day" and Animal Rights with Marc Massive

A special thanks to Barbara Sobel of Sobel Nation and Queens Our City Radio for arranging my second chat with Marc Massive of Massive Ego specifically to express his animal activism and the evolution of this new protest song for the dancefloors.

Dj Buddy Beaverhausen: Marc, so great to talk with you again. And this time for Queens Our City Radio! How have you been?

Marc Massive: Hey, really great to be asked back again. It’s been a hectic few weeks since we last spoke as we just had our first release on American label Ninthwave Records called ‘Generation V’ released on a new compilation called ‘Fuel for the Machine’ which is a more rockier edged guitar fueled industrial sounding track than we normally produce, so been busy promoting that with some shows.

DBB: Your song, "Eighth Day" is a cover of a song from the film, Breaking Glass, which was an international smash hit in the '80s. What attracted you to this particular number?

MM: You know, it’s actually always been one of my favourite tracks from the 80’s, and initially it started out as a duet between me and Martin Degville from Sigue Sigue Sputnik. We’d been mates for years, live nearby each other in Covent Garden and thought it could be a great ‘coming together’ of minds; however that project ended our friendship when he decided to pull out at the last minute, as the track was ready to be released and after I’d commissioned a load of credible remixes and paid for a video to go with it. There was some on-line bickering and slander from the Degville camp so I just thought f*@k you and made all of the mixes available to download for free on-line. Sometime after and wounds licked, I decided to re-record the vocals myself and put it out as a single for charity, salvaging some of the footage from our original video shoot and inserting some extra scenes and using one of the remixes as the new single edit. I’ve recently started performing this track live at our shows and it seems to go down ever so well, so marking a year since I originally released it, I'm giving it another push as it seemed to get lost in the new releases wilderness last year and I just think I can do better for the deserved charity.

DBB: 100% of the proceeds of your single release will be donated to F.R.I.E.N.D (Farmed Animal Rescue) in Kent UK who rescue ex-factory farmed animals that otherwise would have been killed. How did you become involved in this effort? And what more can you tell us about this organization and this cause?

MM: It’s a small animal sanctuary ran by Marion & Mark Eaton in the Kent countryside in the UK. I first saw Marion speaking passionately about Veganism and the sanctuary at an anti-factory farming demo I went on in Brighton. She just came across as a lady with conviction and integrity and was struggling financially to care for the 150+ animals she was looking after…some rescued, some handed in to her but all sharing the same fate…death, had she not taken them in. It was seeing her speak that made me decide to release the "Eighth Day" track, and turn the project's bad karma into good and donate the profits to her sanctuary. Myself and my partner and band member, Olly, are huge supporters and campaigner for animal rights across the board, both becoming vegan at the same time over a year ago after watching the life changing documentary called Earthlings http://earthlings.com, this film single handily has changed many people’s opinions of the dairy industry, meat eating, fur wearing, and animal cruelty in every shape and form, and although not comfortable viewing I can’t recommend it enough to educate yourself as to what’s really happening to animals and the industries that show no mercy in bringing you 
your favourite burger or that winter coat with supposed faux fur trim. It’s an eye opener as to what is happening and one that I’m glad I don’t contribute to in any shape or form anymore.

DBB: Do you currently have animal companions of your own?

MM: We do, an adorable 6 year old pooch called Squeaky has allowed us into her life and we cherish her every move. She’s goes everywhere with us, and is very rarely separated from us.

DBB: What about growing up? Favorite pets of your childhood?

MM: We did have a couple of dogs when I was growing up and some guinea pigs.

DBB: How can readers contact F.R.I.E.N.D.?

MM: They are always looking out for either small donations to help buy bedding, straw and food for their animals or even just helping spread the word and they can be contacted at

http://www.friendsanimalrescue.org.uk even just liking their Facebook page would be a big help

https://www.facebook.com/friend.rescue.fanpage

DBB: I think the first dance hit protesting cruelty to animals may be "Supernature," in its subtle way, by Cerrone. It was written by Lene Lovich and she, much later, recorded her own version of it. Do you feel, in your song going the dancefloor route, that you're part of a rare but distinct tradition in dance music protesting cruelty to animals? Do you think it helps to raise consciousness?

MM: It’s funny; we have also covered "Supernature" many moons ago and it came out on several dance compilations. There’s quite a string of Massive Ego environmentally based tracks in our back catalogue now; we also covered Duran Duran’s "Planet Earth" some years ago, and now with "Eighth Day," there’s something of an subconscious ‘Save the World’ link going on… maybe we should do "Earth Song" [laughs]. I’ve just co-written another song called "Animal Rights Humans Wrong" with a friend called Zaran and it’s ready to go to the studio with, but just looking for the right person to duet on it, and this will definitely fit the tradition of animal rights protest songs and is up there with Lene & Nina Hagen’s "Don’t Kill The Animals" 80’s track. It’s also got very controversial lyrics that name and shame the likes of Gaga, Lopez, Dior and L’oreal, not sure what the legal standing is for such lyrical content but I’d like to think free speech prevails.

DBB: Since we last spoke, anything new going on that you'd like to discuss outside of "8th Day”?

MM: Myself and Olly also launched our t-shirt printing business Frost + Massive in the summer, which has taken up a huge amount of time getting it up and running, but we’ve already been supplying merchandise for the recent Steve Strange and Visage tour, an anti-Putin "Vladiqueer" t-shirt in opposition to his recent anti LGBT legislation which has taken   Russia back into the dark ages. It’s also nice to now have our own in-house band merchandise production. We aim to introduce a new wearable and trendy Vegan range shortly, so please check us out at www.frostandmassive.com and we ship worldwide.

DBB: Marc, thanks so much once more. We'll be listening to "8th Day," a very strong rendition of the song to be sure, and to your forthcoming Massive Ego ventures.