You have such a variety of sounds and styles that I wonder how you manage to get a Godflesh album to sound like a Godflesh album and not have other aspects of the other works bleeding into the mix. I suppose if you did something piecemeal, it would be really hard to put down those other influences.

Justin: It's really about focusing and reminding yourself what you are doing. It's what we did before Hymns actually. I sat down and reassessed everything. "Okay," I thought, "It's time to go to the other extreme now." Us and Them was everything else in my life filtering through into Godflesh and the whole concept with Hymns was to stripe away all that to the point where it was all gone and you are just left with the guitar, bass, drums, and voice. I am the sort of person who has to do things like this: it's either all this or nothing. I really do brush away things sometimes. I can do something and then call it "shit" a year later. I can really say, "Nah, that was a mistake." [Laughs] But then in two years, I'll say, "Hold on now. I can see why that was good now."

How do you feel about the In All Languages retrospective that Earache put out?

Justin: Um...all I hear, actually, is people moaning about it. [Laughs] I don't think I've heard one good report.

It is what it is, and I think due to the very nature of things like that that it isn't going to make everyone happy. Those sort of compilations are destined to be like that. It serves its purpose quite well, but it could have been done in so many different ways. It could have been executed so differently, but I think ultimately it does its job. It's a functional thing and I think it serves quite well.

A lot of people have said to me that there weren't enough rarities, but the fact remains that Earache could only put on there the songs that they had released. They couldn't license the rest. They couldn't chase this label or that label. It just couldn't be done.

I wonder if they had any interest in doing that.

Justin: Well, yeah, that is the other side of it. It is effort, isn't it? "Oh my god, I'm going to have to pick up a phone and call up some label that disappeared 10 years ago." That isn't really such a hard fucking job, and if you wanted to do a great job at something, it is worth doing that. But, no, they weren't interested in doing that. This compilation was done after we left the label. I did get input into it, don't get me wrong. I did get input, and if I hadn't, it probably would have been a lot worse than people are saying. But it still isn't -- no -- it never could be everything that I think something like that should be.

It's the music I've made over the years so I need to find some heart in it. When they came to me and said that they were going to do the compilation, I said, "I don't give a shit as long as 'Love Is a Dog From Hell' is on there." For me, that is the one of the best songs we ever made and I just wanted to know that was going to open one of the discs. I just wanted everyone who liked Godflesh who have never heard this track get the chance. I wanted everyone to hear [that song] -- whether they liked it or not. For me, it is a really important song.

Are you done doing the dub remixes of the Godflesh albums? Is that something you are considering for Hymns?

Justin: No. It could be done. It could be done to any Godflesh stuff. But I'm looking more to what I can do next with Godflesh really. I get through things really quickly. We should still be promoting this album. We haven't even toured America yet. But I'm already thinking about the next record. I want to move on from this. I don't want to be stuck on the same thing. As soon as I start seeing the failing of a record, I want to move on.

It's a whole process of discovery for you.

Justin: That's what Godflesh is all about. It grows up in public. It takes risks. It just does this shit and worries about it later. That's what makes it a challenging band, really, a band that does what it wants and doesn't worry if it is going to sell them records. As soon as music is made for those reasons, it is doomed for failure. Nothing I make is done to sell records. I'll form Limp Bizkit if I want to do that shit.

The next Godflesh is going to be so different from Hymns. [Laughs] The hip-hop beats are going to come back. It's going to be more machine-like.

Is there anything else on the horizon?

Justin: There's always other bits going on. I've been recording a new Final album for about the last year now. It probably won't be finished until the end of the year. That's coming out on Neurot -- Neurosis' record label. That's always in motion. There are bits and pieces of things going on with Techno Animal, but that'll all come out soon in the news. It's not that solid, actually, but there are bits and pieces to the ideas of what we're going to do next.

I've been making a lot of drum and bass. I've been making drum and bass for many years now and I've just started working with a lot of the labels that I've been interested in -- you know, the ones whose records I've been buying. I absolutely adore making drum and bass. I've been obsessed with it for years and absolutely love making it. I've got a lot of that stuff on the horizon coming out.

Have you heard Mick Harris' new Quoit record?

Justin: I did a remix from him not too long ago, but I haven't heard that record. Is it any good?

It's actually on Quatermass -- the sub-division of Sub Rosa. It's more beat heavy than Lounge was.

Justin: I only heard a bit of Lounge.

Lounge was pretty much Lull with monster beats.

Justin: Yeah. I work in a different area than the way he works stuff, what he does is more experimental. I really work with purely U.K. jungle labels -- they're all about stuff for the dance floor. Whereas what Mick does isn't for the dance floor -- it's the home listening sort of beats. There's quite a bit of difference there. Mick doesn't go to the clubs whereas I do, and that's the sort of scene I'd like to see my music getting played at, see it rocking a whole crowd. My stuff is a functional DJ tool; Mick's stuff is more experimental. That's why he's working with a label like Sub Rosa. Their stuff isn't at all about dance floors, much more art house.

A lot of the time the straight up dance floor stuff is the stuff that really rocks. It's really, really solid, and the way it explores bass lines is very functional and is building to certain peaks. Whereas a lot of the experimental stuff, for me, has no focus. Which is why I don't release the jungle I do through experimental labels. It just isn't about that. The only people who buy the jungle that I do are people who are purely into jungle. The people I work for at these labels don't know who the fuck I am. [Laughs] They've never even heard of Godflesh. To them, I'm just some kid who makes jungle. I don't use my background when I go to these people; I just use my tunes. They treat me like I'm some 19-year-old who just wandered in through the door.

Jungle is really punk in that way. It is truly independent and a lot of the people who make jungle have real punk attitudes. Jungle doesn't sell that many records, but you can go to a club and you can see a thousand people going mental off some really great tunes. You'll stand there and you'll know that seventy percent of those people won't ever buy that tune. They're just having a good night out and that's it.

On the web:
Crumbling Flesh (official site)
Avalanche Inc. (label for Justin Broadrick projects)
In the Flesh (fan site)

Inside Earpollution:
Hymns album review
Us and Them album review
Symbiotics album review
The Brotherhood of the Bomb album review