By selling well over 150,000 albums since they began in 1996, Israeli outfit Erez Aizen and Amit Duvdevani - more commonly known as Infected Mushroom – have established themselves as one the most influential and well-respected acts in the psychedelic scene.  Continuously redefining the realms of psy-trance with all five albums, and sometimes breaking the rules altogether, Infected Mushroom have made one thing clear – they have no boundaries! 

Infected let their creative juices flow by using psychedelic trance as a primary platform to showcase their aptitude in classical, breaks, techno and yet to be classified genres of music.   The boys have created their own delicious sound with distorted, ambient vocals infused by industrial, metal guitar riffs and thumping bass lines.  The end product is brilliantly unique and often hauntingly enigmatic, leaving the listener craving more! 

Having kicked the freeloaders off the couch, packed their bags and relocated to Los Angels, Infected Mushroom’s Erez Aizen has a chat with Noise Maker about their live shows, and discusses the secret to their recipe…

When did you officially begin working together as Infected Mushroom?  

We started in 1996.

Did things always run smoothly for you as a duo? 

Ah, in the beginning it was really hard of course.  Nobody wanted to sign us, nobody liked our material.  We didn’t get a break until we found BNE -  the record company and they gave us the change to sign.  But in the beginning,  it was really hard.

Do you ever work individually?

No, as Infected Mushroom we never work separately.  Only together.

How long does it usually take to create one track?

It usually takes – the main work of the track – maybe two days and the third day is just listening to it again and editing and stuff.

Israeli guitarist Erez Netz is coming on tour with you guys, how did you meet and decide to work together?

He is the best guitarist in Israel.  So we were lucky we got him.  We are just performing with him now for a few gigs and also on this upcoming album that we are now about to start work on, so we will involve him too.

Will Erez be coming on tour with you to Australia?

Yeah, he’s coming along to all the live shows.

How do you continuously create tracks that sound so different from one another, yet still have that distinct sound that people recognise as your work?

pause In one way that’s a compliment and in other ways not so much because we try to change and continuously be different from track to track.  So that people will not know it was Infected because each track will sound completely different.  But it is impossible for us, we are not sure if we succeed or not.

You’re renowned for taking the listener way outside the boundaries of traditional psy-trance, what areas of music interest you the most and what sounds are you keen to explore in the future?

The one that interests us the most is Heavy Metal.  Just an example is ‘Dream Theatre’.  They are an American band, really, really good.  Black heavy metal.  This is what we mainly hear.  In the future I don’t know what will excite us, maybe some production for other people as well.

Simon Posford & X-Dream are two of your biggest influences, have you worked on many projects with these artists?  If so, what was it like?

We worked only with Simon Posford and at the time it was the biggest dream come true.  It was great!  We didn’t finish the track together actually, it was released but we were just talking and hanging out in the studio and fooling about and stuff laughs.  It was really nice for us but we didn’t finish the track like we should have.  But it was great.

What would be your most memorable experience on stage? 

That’s a hard one, there are a lot.  I’ll tell you a recent one, it happened two days ago, or yesterday I think – in Costa Rica. The table that was holding the mixing desk just broke and the computer fell and the mixer fell down and all the equipment fell down on the floor

Oh no! Was it Broken?

Luckily it wasn’t broken, we just pulled it off somehow. 

How long were you guys without sound for? 

It was silent for 3 or 4 minutes. laughs But it was actually pretty funny because the crowd was cheering, in a good way, you know – not like complaining.  It was funny.  Everyone was really cool and really nice about it.

Having bought out 5 albums, which one would you consider to be your favourite?

For me its Converting Vegetarians, disc 2. 

Is there any particular track that has particular sentimental meaning to you guys? 

Hmmmm, this is a very hard one.  Usually, when you finish a track you usually like it.  We like most of the stuff we’ve done, but if I had to pick one track, it’d have to be “I Wish”.

Does the political turmoil that is going on in Israel effect your music at all?

Not at all.

You guys recently released album number 5 ‘I’m the Supervisor’ have you been happy with how it’s been received by the fans?

Actually, very happy because this is the first album that we got minimum complaints.  The critics always complain.  Their always like: ” its not like ‘Classical Mushroom’ or ‘The Gathering’” they always complain.  And then when the next one comes out they complain about that.  Like ‘BP Empire’ and when we bought out ‘Converting’, they said its not like ‘BP Empire’.  But it’s always like this.  And this is the first time they didn’t complain and its got really good reviews from everybody.  So we’re very happy.

You guys have a pretty busy schedule this year, touring at least 14 countries.  When do you think you’ll be back in the studio making a new album? 

We are all the time in the studio actually.  Usually when we perform, its on the weekend – Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday too. And then Monday we are always working in the studio so we have five days usually to work in the studio.

Even when you’re on tour?

Yep, because we never stay in the country.  Like just now, we stay in Australia for only two weeks. 

And then do you go home?

Yeah, then we go back to LA because we’ve moved to LA now.

What sort of music do you listen to in your own time?

I listen to ‘Dream Theatre’ and I listen to a lot of hip hop and Linkin Park also radio.  A lot of radio actually because hearing the same thing all the time is boring.  I like radio.

You guys are renowned for your live shows, how do feel about DJing?

It depends.  If I have a lot of new tracks from artists and a lot of unreleased good stuff that I know that the people will like then I am excited to DJ.  But most of the time that doesn’t happen.  In general I like to perform live shows instead.

Do you guys have a 5 year plan?  Do you think you’ll stay in LA, or relocate?

We moved to LA for something different, a nice change.  Because in Israel people come over our house all the time, you know 24 hours a day, and sleep over 24 hours a day – which is nice.  But we didn’t have time to work and we don’t feel free to tell them “We gotta work a little bit”.  So we moved to LA for a little bit of quiet.  And who knows, maybe it will sound different when we’re in a different country.  Now we can involve different musicians.

Experience Infected Mushroom for yourself when they tour Australia this March:

4 Mar, Sydney – Space
5 Mar, Gold Coast – Troccaderos
6 Mar, Perth – Heat
11 Mar, Cairns – Brothers
13 Mar, Melbourne – The Metro