Guest Artists

Edward Messier (aka DJ Essence), contributed additional loops and programming on “Frantic”, from The Artemis Complex.

A high school friend of Eric’s, Edward was a techno and trance producer and DJ, and frequented the Interface studio in its early days. Stuck on the direction of an uptempo industrial-sounding track, Eric had him take pages from the playbooks of some of his favorite artists, and give it more “electronica” feel. In return, Eric produced and recorded his sole album of material, Reality Is My Only Enemy. He has also remixed Interface on multiple occasions, as well as other artists.

Julie Veil is an old friend of Eric’s, and was the vocalist of the goth-ethereal project Persephone’s Veil. She is also an author, performance artist, playwright, amongst many other talents.

Julie’s unmistakable voice can be heard in a duet on “The Softest Blade”, from The Artemis Complex. To return the favor, Eric collaborated with her on Persephone’s Veil’s lone release …From Under The Snow.

Lacey Elizabeth (aka Lacey Allure) wrote the lyrics for, and was the original intended vocalist for, “Labyrinth”, on Angels In Disguise. She’s also somewhat of a Renaissance woman of sorts, being a performer, writer, musician, and makeup artist.

The song was originally written in 1998 for consideration to be included in an Artemis Complex-era release. When deciding that the song should have a female vocalist, Eric found Lacey in a local classified ad, with the potential of even launching a side project. After pushing it onto the next album, several sessions failed to produce results either party was happy with. Thus…

Jakineko (Jacqueline Barclay) was the guest vocalist on “Labyrinth”, on Angels In Disguise.

Originally introduced to Eric via a mutual musician friend, Jacqueline was the long time lead vocalist for the NYC gothic band Murder In The Dark. With sessions for Angels drawing near a close, and with Lacey Elizabeth electing not to record her vocals, Eric approached Jacqueline about the song, a challenge she accepted. After learning the song during the course of an afternoon, and heading into the studio that evening, the song was done in a minimal amount of takes. She has also been a guest of the band onstage on a few occasions, performing the song live.

Her music career has taken her into a wide range of genres, such as jazz and hip-hop. Besides singing, she is also an accomplished dancer/choreographer/instructor.

Chris “Doktor” Boring was Eric’s former bandmate in Valve – the two co-founded the band in 1995. After Valve parted ways in 1997, he began to focus more on IDM, ambient, and breakbeat styles, bringing them back into the HeXanE project. He also was one half of the NYC-based duo Sub:Divide and Vektor7 production/remix team.

Eric and Chris remained friends throughout the years, and he would drop by the studio from time to time and add quirks and glitches to Interface tracks, such as “Movement (In)” and “(Out)”, “Within Your Reach”, and “Colors” from Angels In Disguise and “Insomniac” from Beyond Humanity. His career was unfortunately cut short by his untimely passing in November of 2005.

Level 2.0 (Mike Hoffman and Matthew Clennan) were friends of the band and fellow Long Islanders. A chance encounter between the two bands resulted in a long relationship, with the two groups sharing many stages all over. The bands would even join Nilaihah as label mates for a period of time.

One night, while together in the Interface studio, Mike, Matt, and Eric began trading off some of the vocals of “You Will Learn” for fun, and it was quickly decided to record it as such on the album, appearing as the second track of Angels In Disguise. Though Level 2.0 supported Interface on several of their Angels-era tour dates, the song was never performed live. Level 2.0 on Bandcamp

Bret Calder contributed bass tracks to “Wonderland” on Beyond Humanity.

An old friend of Eric’s, Bret has a lengthy career as a session and touring bassist for many bands throughout the last two-plus decades, most recently working with I, Parasite and Android Lust.

Hard to believe that noisy, pixelated sound that ends the song is a bass guitar, right?

Rachel Feder was the lead singer of the short-lived electro project Kronik Kondition. She contributed backing vocals to both “Destination” and “Never Say Farewell”.

In addition to the studio, she also frequently joined the band onstage when performing both songs.

Dawn E. Mitchell was the lead vocalist on “Voices (Echo)” from Visions Of Modern Life. She is a classically trained mezzo soprano with credits in many operatic productions.

Part of the electro-synthpop act Missile Command, Dawn caught the band’s ear when the two bands shared a stage during a 2006 showcase in her native Cleveland. After exchanging info and expressing a desire to collaborate, the chance finally arrived in 2008 during the Visions sessions. The vocals were recorded in two takes.

Liebchen (Dominique Stephanie) was the guest vocalist on “Inner Light”, the band’s contribution to Electronic Saviors Vol. 2: Recurrence.

Echoing a series of themes elsewhere on this page, she is a classically trained lyrical soprano with a number of opera productions to her credit. She was also another “last-minute” success story, recording the song when another candidate dropped out near the compilation’s deadline. She returned to the studio again in 2018, delivering a haunting wordless vocal to the coda track “Hiraeth” on Where All Roads Lead.

She is known to this scene as a DJ and a vocalist/keyboardist of the DC-based group XuberX.

Brian Graupner (DarkNES) is the founder of the one-of-a-kind act The Gothsicles. He combines his unique sense of humor and love of old video games into a series of songs that have to be heard live to be truly appreciated…

In 2014, the two bands collaborated on the song “Code Thief” for Electrogenesis, a covers compilation from Digital Recovery paying tribute to video games. The song combines his hilarious lyrical ability with the music from Mega Man 2’s Dr.Wily Stage One.

Mari Kattman is a singer, producer, and performer based in New England. She has several releases under her belt as a solo artist, and is also one half of Helix alongside Tom Shear of Assemblage 23.

Mari kicked off the ongoing “Sirens” project, featuring prominent women in the dark music scene, by writing and performing the lead vocals on the song “Dangerous Game” in 2018.

Emileigh Rohn is the main force behind the downtempo project CHIASM. Her unmistakable vocals and songwriting have not only graced CHIASM’s work for over 20 years – she has worked with several influential artists around the industry such as John Fryer and Jean-Marc Lederman.

In 2020, Eric dug up an unfinished track called “Isolation” finding it to be perfect for Emileigh’s voice. It became the second entry in the “Sirens” project that autumn.

Sapphira Vee is a Rochester, NY based singer, musician, songwriter, and producer. As a solo artist and band collaborator, she has worked in many different genres of music, and is currently a label mate of Interface on Distortion Productions.

She took the instrumental “Behind The Senses” from Dystopia to all new levels of amazing, reworking it with vocals into “Whispers”. Sapphira Vee On Bandcamp

Tara Saavedra is the musical and creative force behind the witch house/witch wave solo act Morgue VVitch. Her ethereal vocals and dark synth ambiences have won over crowds all over the dark music scene.

Her vocal layers and lush synth textures grace the collaboration track “Spellbound”.