UNIT:187 Talk New Album, Single And More

Canadian industrial rock band UNIT:187 will release their new album ‘KillCure’ on Friday 6th December 2024 on Metropolis Records. The band kindly chatted to us about the new record, their latest single ‘DICK’ and more: 

Who is in UNIT:187, what do they play and how did you meet?

John : Unit:187 is John Morgan, Chris Peterson, and Kerry Vink-Peterson. The Band was originally founded in 1994 by John Morgan and former singer Tod Law who passed away in 2015. Tod and John formed the band after attending a show together and realizing they liked similar music and thought they could form a band based around some of their influences.

When did you begin songwriting?

John : Some of the song writing for the latest album was done before Tod passed away in 2015, and it took us a few years to assess what we had, and then start to work on the music again. New songs also started coming together at this time.

What is your earliest musical memory?

John : That’s a tough one as I grew up in a small town so I didn’t get to see a lot of bands,
but once I started going to shows I’d see bands come into local bars and pubs, some of
which really influenced me musically – like skinny puppy, cop shoot cop, and chemlab.

Chris : Hard to say, but as the youngest of 6 kids, I did grow up with music that was
beyond my years, and was exposed to a wide variety of styles.

Kerry : I grew up with one parent who listened to only classical and opera. The other
listened to pop and contemporary music. My first owned album was David Bowies, Let’s Dance. My mother bought it for me on cassette when I was a kid. I took it with me in a little old RCA tape player everywhere I went.

Your new single ‘DICK’ is out now. What was the inspiration/story behind the track?

John : Even though the lyrics are written from a first person view point, it’s actually about
how other people in the industry can be total dicks.

Do you have an official music video for the single?

Chris : There is actually no official music video for it. No immediate plans for one, but
something we’ll look at down the road.

Your new album ‘KILLCURE’ is released on 6th December 2024. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

John : Much of the music was written before our previous singer Tod Law passed away.
We took a few years to get all the material we worked on together, and starting to look at finishing these songs. Once we heard everything, there were are few songs where our new singer Kerry finished the songs along with Tod’s vocals.

Over the next few years as well, we started to write new material and have Kerry start to track vocals on these tracks
which we really liked, so it became clear that we would have an album that featured both singers, in a sense working together at times like on Killcure and Glammhammer.

Chris : Firstly as a tribute to the late Tod Law, and for people to hear whatever we could
find of his work before he passed away, that has yet to be heard. Eventually, we started to
find ourselves writing more songs recognizing that we had some good chemistry going as
we finished off the old material, so decided to keep writing and keep Unit 187 going with a
new format.

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

John : The album was tracked at Johnny home studio and as well many of the songs were
also tracked at the Peterson Bunker. The album was produced and mixed by Chris
Peterson, with additional mixing by Ken ‘Hiwatt’ Marshall and Mastered by Greg Reely.

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the recording sessions?

John : Chris is pretty funny when we get together to record and work on music – I always
thought he actually had some other parallel career in stand-up comedy. Nothing
individually stands out, but generally every session was a good time.

Chris : Not that anything stands out in particular. We usually have a few good laughs
every time we get together, and just enjoy the process. I suppose recording Kerry’s parts
for Famous Face was one of the more hilarious moments for me. You’ll know why when
you hear it. Lol.

Did you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

John : Chris and I use a lot of synths and drum machines. Chris has a Modular rig that he
gets incredible sounds out of. I use a bunch of old synths, such as a Prophet 5 and the Arp
2600. For Vocals we track through a Neumann U87 into a really great preamp called the
Sonic Farm Berliner.

Chris : Besides the typical DAW environment, I give it a boost with UAD plugins, especially since they model so much of the old studio gear I got to use in the days when you would go into a professional room. It’s pretty essential for my mixing. Besides that I really like my modular synth setup, and I lean on that quite heavily for my sounds and atmospheres.

Which of your new album tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

John : Not sure about happiest, but I definitely feel the title track Killcure is the most
reflective. Tod wrote the chorus lyrics before he passed, and Kerry finished the verse lyrics only about a year ago. Tod almost foreshadowed his upcoming battle with cancer in the lyrics which really makes it a very emotional listen.

Chris : A) Dick B) New Beginning. C) KillCure

Kerry : A) Eyes Open. B) Overrun. C) KillCure

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

Chris : A lot of happy people that saw us, and for me to have that very addictive feeling of
accomplishing that.

John : We’re not a band out there to change the world, but just want to be authentic to
ourselves.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

Chris : Kerry and I have both used the Korg R3 quite a lot by now as a mainstay live unit.

Poor thing really needs a going over by now. I try to add as much to that by way of alternate noise making schemes or modular synth bits that make things new every time I play as well. It just depends on how much extra stuff I can bring based on the location and practicality of it. But ya, that poor Korg covers the bases reasonably well and isn’t a giant heavy pig to lug around or pay big time for overweight charges when flying and such.

John : I’d say Chris Peterson’s modular beast is a featured instrument as he gets the most
insane tones out of it – sometimes it’s a dirty bass synth, at other times it’s a twisted siren.
It’s incredible how interesting he can make it sound.

Kerry : An old beat up SM 58 that I’ve had for Fifteen years.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

John : I grew up in a small town on Vancouver Island, but consider Vancouver my
hometown as I moved here in the 80s when I was 18. It was a great town for electronic
music back then, with some cool record shops and the emerging industrial music scene.
Chris : Vancouver has been home for most of my life. 5 words? Beautiful place, way too
expensive.

Kerry : I grew up in a small rural town in Ontario. Farming community. I moved to
Vancouver to go to University and got stuck out here for the second half of my life.

How do you look after your voices?

Kerry : Early mornings I yell along with stuff like Killing Joke before anyone else gets to the office. When my throat hurts, I drink tea with honey.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

Chris : Total blank here. Sorry, not much for novels, most of my reading is pretty dry
stuff. But, I would jump at the chance to do a film score if it was something I was inspired
by.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

John : Johnny – My musical influences would include Kraftwerk, Skinny Puppy, Depeche Mode, Neubauten, and electronic bands such as Orbital and early techno artists.

Chris : Early Electronic and Industrial or experimental/electronic music, some old blues, and a little seedy jazz. Too many to list for recommendations, but let’s see, Portion Control, Bourbonese Qualk, Legendary Pink Dots, Severed Heads, John Lee Hooker,
Cabaret Voltaire…….

Kerry: A lot of what Chris said but what I was listening to a lot of during the making of this album was bands like Tool, Killing Joke, Sleaford Mods, Swans and Tricky, Underworld and The Prodigy.

Do you have any live dates planned in the UK/Europe in 2024/2025?
John : We’re not sure yet on European tour dates, although I think it’d be great to get on a European tour or festival tour on 2025. Hopefully we can make something happen.

Who created/designed the album artwork?

John : This great artist Chris has worked with before – Simon Paul created the amazing album cover art. He took our previous design ideas based around skulls and came up with the KillCure album art very quickly and we liked it right away.

Was it a difficult album to write?

John : The album was pretty difficult to write considering everything that happened, but I really feel right now we’re actually writing quite easily and have our process down really well. I’m hoping this means our next album will come much faster.

Chris : Yes, at times it could get very emotional working on songs and hearing Tod’s voice, and all the memories that flood in. As we started to gain some momentum, it became easier, and it really felt like we were doing something that he would enjoy and be smiling down upon us as we go.

What makes UNIT: 187 happy and what makes you unhappy?

John : We’re most happy when a song is finished and mixed – always so great to hear a song when it’s completed. Mostly unhappy when life conspires against us to get in the studio to finish a session.

Chris : I try to stay even keeled, appreciate what I have and not let the shitty stuff drag me down. Easier said than done these days, but it’s worth remembering what’s important and what is just noise that you don’t need.

Kerry: Happy to be doing anything BUT my day job. Unhappy, doing my day job and running the rat race.