X Marks the Pedwalk


X Marks the Pedwalk is a German band whose styles range from post-industrial dance to electronic body music. X Marks the Pedwalk’s influence in the industrial and electronic music scenes was considerable during the 1990s, as they were one of the first and most popular acts from the now defunct record label, Zoth Ommog.

History

X Marks the Pedwalk – initially named "Scarecrow" – was founded by Sevren Ni-Arb in 1987. Schmechta, who did the writing, production, and engineering of all X Marks the Pedwalk tracks, was the only consistent member throughout X Marks the Pedwalk’s history.
Schmechta, a classically trained musician, became interested in synthesizers at an early age, and found himself part of several bands after he was able to buy his first keyboard at the age of 16. At that time, with influences such as Skinny Puppy, Kraftwerk, and DAF, Schmechta started a band called Scarecrow with his school-mate Regan Eracs.
Shortly after releasing their first single on the Techno Drome International label, 1988's "Black Door", the members of Scarecrow were offered to sign to German DJ Talla 2XLC's new record label, Zoth Ommog. The project name was changed to X Marks the Pedwalk to avoid any legal troubles over using the name "Scarecrow." The new band name came from a reference in the Stephen King novel, Dance Macabre, to a horror-story by the science-fiction author Fritz Leiber named "X-Marks The Pedwalk."
The first X Marks the Pedwalk concert was performed in Wiesbaden, Germany on December 16, 1989, where they opened for industrial music artists Vomito Negro. Most live material at that time came from their then just-released single "Arbitrary Execution", and the previously released Scarecrow single "Black Door".
In 1990, the group produced a series of singles and EPs: "Abattoir", "Danger", and Disease Control. The next year they released their first full-length album, Freaks.
Their first tour throughout Germany began after the release of Freaks, with an additional concert being played in Budapest, Hungary. Three subsequent concert tours throughout Germany occurred again after the release of "Cenotaph", Human Desolation, and The Killing Had Begun. With few exceptions, these live shows took place in Germany. X Marks the Pedwalk was a band that consisted of two members at a time, therefore, they never performed completely "live," but relied heavily on the incorporation of DAT playback. This was complemented with "live overdubs, drum-effects, lead-melodies, atmospheres...", with André on lead vocals.
After the release of the single "Cenotaph", Böhme left the band in 1992 to pursue other interests, and Schmechta enlisted the help of his brother Raive Yarx. Also in 1992, Schmechta built T.G.I.F. Studios. T.G.I.F. formed the production nexus not only for X Marks the Pedwalk and related projects, but for many other Zoth Ommog bands including Armageddon Dildos and Evils Toy.
Despite the membership change, X Marks the Pedwalk's musical style did not change drastically during the Schmechta brothers' first two efforts together: Human Desolation, released in 1993, and The Killing Had Begun in 1994. For The Killing Had Begun, Schmechta experimented with vocal treatments on the track "Insight" from his future wife, Estefania, who then became a vocalist for X Marks as well as for other of Schmechta's side projects. 1994 also saw the release of the retrospective compilation Airbacktrax simultaneously in Europe on Zoth Ommog and in America on Cleopatra.
1995's single, "Facer", introduced a combination of "techno-dance" and electro-industrial styles. The next two X Marks the Pedwalk albums, Meshwork and Drawback, built on this new style and received favorable reactions by many fans within Europe, and thanks to the latter's release by Metropolis Records, helped build an extended fanbase in North America. The change in musical direction beginning with Meshwork is seen as having split the band's fanbase with a sound that deviated from strict industrial/EBM and presaged the development of the Futurepop genre.
By 1998, André Schmechta put aside his work on X Marks the Pedwalk to concentrate on his family and career, including selling off his T.G.I.F. Studios in 1999. During the hiatus, Schmechta became a business owner, share-holder and managing partner of two companies, and took time to raise his two children from his marriage with Eckmann.
During the band's hiatus, two compilations of previously released material were produced: Retrospective 88–99 on the Memento Materia label in 1999, and Experiences on Dying Culture in 2003. Infacted Recordings also produced a set of re-releases with additional material in 2009 and 2010.
The band's hiatus ended in 2010 with the release of Inner Zone Journey, the first of several albums to be released on the Infacted Recordings label. Inner Zone Journey was followed by The Sun, The Cold And My Underwater Fear in 2012 and with The House Of Rain in 2015.
In 2016, André launched his own electronic music label, Meshwork Music, named after the band's 1995 album. The label released X Marks the Pedwalk's next three albums — Secrets, Transformation, and New / End — as well as releases by new projects by André and others.

Side projects

Throughout the course of X Marks the Pedwalk's history, André Schmechta especially formed or joined several side projects as a creative outlet for music that had a different sound than X Marks the Pedwalk. This is a list and short description of some of the other ventures taken upon by members of X Marks the Pedwalk.
PAX was a project that was created as the result of a working relationship between André Schmechta and Heiko Daniel. Schmechta, who was producing an album for Daniel, felt that they had "something fascinating, easy, emotional and outstanding." From this, two albums and an EP were born.
Ringtailed Snorter was a solo-project by André Schmechta, the first song of which was written as a tribute to a friend who had died. Ringtailed Snorter differs from X Marks the Pedwalk in its use of "clean structures" and "minimal soundscapes to leave more the minds of the audience."
Hyperdex-1-Sect was a one-time collaboration between André and Stefanie Schmechta and Jonathan Sharp of the project New Mind. Their release features remixes by the artists' main projects, as well as a remix by cEvin Key's project, Download.
U-Tek saw the coming together of Alexis Schaar and André Schmechta to form a project that combined Alexis's dance and club music background with Schmechta's EBM background. The duo's second project, A-Head focused less on this interaction and more on creating alternative electro music.
Deluga was a darkwave project by Thorsten Schmechta, Stefanie Schmechta, and Falk Aupers. The project never got past the first demo stage.
SN-A is a solo project of André's launched in 2012. The name is a combination of letters that stands for Sevren Ni-Arb. As SN-A, André produces instrumental electronic music that Side-Line Magazine described as "danceable electro-ambient."
Duophonic Noise Construction a dark electro project by André and his son Luis Maximilian. Launched 2024.
Some other projects by André Schmechta included two with wife Stefanie, Viviane and Polyxena, the latter also featuring Heiko Daniel, and Lighthouse with friend Bernd Schöler.

Timeline

  • 1969 – André Schmechta is born.
  • 1969 – Stefanie Eckmann is born.
  • 1971 – Thorsten Schmechta is born.
  • 1987 – X Marks the Pedwalk is formed under the name Scarecrow, with its initial members being André Schmechta and Jörg Böhme.
  • 1988 – Scarecrow released their first single, "Black Door". Scarecrow is signed to Zoth Ommog records, and changes their name to X Marks the Pedwalk.
  • 1989 – "Arbitrary Execution" single is released. X Marks the Pedwalk plays their first live show.
  • 1990 – "Danger/Disease Control" single is released.
  • 1991 – "Abattoir" single is released.
  • 1992 – The first full-length album, Freaks is released, followed by the "Cenotaph" stand-alone single.
  • 1992 – Jörg Böhme leaves the band and is replaced by Thorsten Schmechta. André Schmechta builds T.G.I.F. studios.
  • 1993 – "The Trap" is released, followed by the second full-length album, Human Desolation. "Paranoid Illusions", the second single from the aforementioned album, is also released.
  • 1994 – The third full-length CD, The Killing Had Begun, is released followed by a best of collection titled Airbacktrax. Stefanie Eckmann makes her first appearance.
  • 1995 – The "Facer" single is released in Europe, along with the Cleopatra Records release Four Fit. The fifth album, Meshwork is also released.
  • 1996 – X Marks the Pedwalk releases their final album, Drawback.
  • 1998 – André Schmechta switches careers and sells T.G.I.F. studios. Metropolis Records releases the collection Retrospective.
  • 2003 – X Marks the Pedwalk makes a brief reappearance on Dying Culture Records with a 2CD best-of collection called Experiences, and contributes two new tracks to the release, "Bloom" and "Hothead".
  • 2004 – André Schmechta meets with former X Marks the Pedwalk producer Alexis Schaar in the latter's studio in Hamburg for a small recording session. Details on this interaction have yet to be elaborated.
  • 2009 – sevren ni-arb has announced a new album will be released later this year.
  • 2010 – The comeback: X Marks the Pedwalk releases single Seventeen and album Inner Zone Journey. Re-Union show at Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2010 in Leipzig, Germany. Impressions:
  • 2010 – sevren ni-arb has announced a first Live DVD.

    Philosophy and style

X Marks the Pedwalk was inspired by the late 1980s European and Canadian Electronic body music scenes, yet its members were looking to create a sound that was unique to themselves. Early X Marks the Pedwalk was often compared to fellow industrial musicians Skinny Puppy; Front Page magazine titled an article about X Marks the Pedwalk, "Die deutschen Skinny Puppy?!". Later, however, as their style progressed, X Marks the Pedwalk were compared to other bands. According to André Schmechta, "The concept and themes for the lyrics around were influenced by the idea to lighten up the dark side of human psyche…" Although the latter may be true, in as much as it was an objective strived for by the band, X Marks the Pedwalk found most of its audience in fans of gothic and industrial music – scenes typically associated with dark culture. What Schmechta describes as X Marks the Pedwalk's "aggressive percussion and synthesizer sequences" may have contributed to its place within the harder dance music scenes.
In addition to Skinny Puppy, comparable bands include many of the Zoth Ommog label-mates of X Marks the Pedwalk. Some of the more prominent similar acts include Leæther Strip, Evil's Toy, Armageddon Dildos, Spahn Ranch, Mentallo & The Fixer, Birmingham 6, and Funker Vogt.