BIOGRAPHY

Massive Ego formed in 1996 with original members Marc Massive and Andy JT. Marc ex-model and dancer for Boy George’s 90’s Jesus Loves You band, DJ and art event curator has fronted the band from the beginning. Marc Massive's first taste of showbiz came in 1989 where he was asked to dance (vogue) for MC Kinky who was just about to release her drug rave anthem, Everything Starts With An E, upon an unsuspecting British public. Marc spent two years dancing for MC Kinky and label boss Boy George with his Jesus Loves You project. His eyes were opened. Marc then spent four years as a model with Storm Models in London, running catwalks for the likes of Paul Smith, D&G and John Richmond and appearing in many pop videos for various artists including Take That, Wet Wet Wet, Holly Johnson and Roxette to name a few, and received editorial in magazines such as I.D, Dazed & Confused and Attitude magazine. Massive Ego's first gig took place in 1996 at the HQ club in Camden Lock, London, for a Romo (80‘s new romantic revival scene) night entitled, Club Skinny, and the rest is history. The band were originally at the centre of the short lived new romantic revival scene in London called ‘Romo‘ which culminated in a glowing half page live review by journalist Simon Price in UK music mag Melody Maker. Over the years, with many line-up changes Massive Ego have played the length and breadth of the UK at clubs and festivals including shows at London’s Finsbury Park and Trafalgar Square and in Europe. The band have seen several single and album releases in the UK (Klone / Public Disordar Recs) Germany (ZYX) as well as releases in the USA (Ninthwave Recs), Belgium (Black Leather Recs), Japan (Avex Trax) and Australia (Pro-DJ). Massive Ego tracks have featured on well over 40 compilation albums from the labels above. Originally known for their new wave pop sound, all that changed in 2013 when Marc Massive became more interested in the darker ebm/industrial/goth scene and from this point all new material reflected this change. Early 2013 saw Marc supply lyrics and vocals on a track called Dead Silence by Lia Organa & Electric Prince and was released through Belgian label Black Leather Records with a brilliant video by Polish film makers/artists Suka Off and a remix package including The Horrorist and People Theatre. This single was followed up by the Low Life EP with Empire State Human. 2014 and work started on a new EP called Noise In The Machine, with remixer and producer Lloyd Price involved in production. With the track’s completed Marc secured a remix from Daniel Graves (Aesthetic Perfection) and sent the EP off to a couple of labels. 2015 saw it released on Out Of Line music with lead song I Idolize You also featuring on their hugely successful Electrostorm CD compilation Vol 6. The EP has had great reviews from the likes of Side-Line Magazine, Brutal Resonance and Storming The Base websites. The EP entered the Deutsche Alternative Chart (DAC) at #10 and the German Electronic World Chart (GEWC) at #13. A track called Low Life (Zarkoff Remix) was featured on a new vinyl release called Synth Wave Vol 1 released in May on new label Electro London Records. a new track called Out Of Line featured on Electronic Saviors Vol 4 released on Metropolis Recs.2016 they celebrated their 20th anniversary with live dates at Infest UK, supported Blutengel at Das Open Air Concert in Chemnitz and Out Of Line Weekender in Berlin. The band also recently remixed Blutengel, OST+Front,CHROM and Ludivico Technique. 2017 and the band released their first album for OOL a double CD entitled Beautiful Suicide. They took the album on tour supporting Blutengel on their Leitbild Tour, performed at Wave Gothic Treffen, Amphi Festivals and Whitby Goth Weekend. Marc Massive

Photo: David Levine

Oliver frost initially joined Massive Ego in 2004 as a synth player during live performances, however following the new band line up in 2015 he began to play percussion - drawing on his experience playing drums during the early 90‘s whilst training in contemporary dance. Prior to meeting Marc and coming on board with the band Oliver trained in various fields of art and design, including contemporary dance, performance, and fine art. He also set up and ran his own café in Clerkenwell, London for several years, alongside various nightclub promotions. Since completing his BA in Fine Art in 2013 he has designed and created several residential interiors, and curated the annual London based ACT ART event for 8 years, 6 of which we're co-curated with Marc Massive. In 2012 Oliver and Marc became vegan's and began campaigning for animal rights, in the same way that Oliver had during his teenage years whilst he was a vegetarian. In 2013 the pair went on to study on various printmaking, textiles and graphic design courses so that they could collaborate together in designing and making items for the printmaking venture they run alongside the band. Oliver is also a keen gardener, and enjoys up-cycling furniture, creating mosaics and expanding his visual interests. Although he fundamentally considers himself a visual artist, his practise in all fields of art, design and music means that each field benefits from his experience in multiple disciplines. oliverfrost.com

Photo: Marc Massive

Scot's Collins very first keyboard was an old Casio with really small keys, although for a five year old it was perfect. He used to spend hours pressing all the buttons and driving his mum mad with the same noise time after time. During Secondary School, Scot discovered Cradle of Filth and was inspired to form a band. Martin Powell was his inspiration, so he was very disappointed when he left the band, causing him to look for other music inspirations, at which point he discovered Industrial. Nobody had heard of it, none of his friends liked it but Scot was instantly hooked. Scot then joined the School band and went on to perform in several school productions using an old Korg Triton. Other bands were formed during this time and Scot’s first gig in an indie band, battle of the bands. Scot left the band he formed in School a year later as he wanted to be produce serious music, and over the coming years he appeared in several metal, and indie pop bands. During his years performing with live bands, Scot discovered Dance music. And it was the huge euphoric sounds that drew him in and off he went to a Hardcore Heaven rave. After this, Scot started learning how to produce dance music of his own. One of the things Scot loved to do live was put the keyboard (a Korg M3 at the time) through a guitar pedal and make it scream, whilst playing extremely fast noisy solos over the top. Whilst playing at the Barfly in Camden, London he noticed his fingers were actually bleeding during the gig, and on another occasion he caused the pitch bend stick to snap off. He sometimes refers to himself as a guitar player in a keyboard player’s body. Scot moved to a laptop setup after looking for something easier to carry around. He also wanted to create a heavy sound and tried to program guitar on Ableton Live but it just didn’t sound right, so he bought himself a Jackson guitar and learned some power chords to sample, which sounded so much better. After listening to the likes of Celldweller he became inspired to butcher and distort the clip of the guitar in unthinkable ways leading to some of the sounds he now creates with other instruments, such as snares. Scot has joined Massive Ego in 2015 where he can now make a lot of noise and turn it in to something amazing.
scotcollins.com

Ableton Live
Macbook Pro
Novation SL 61 MK2
Novation Launchpad
Alesis Vortex Keytar
Jackson Guitar
Line 6 POD Guitar Pedal (For Keyboard Use)

Photo: Marc Massive