Seattle’s Tom Shear released his debut album as ASSEMBLAGE 23 in 1999.
Released on the Canadian label Gashed, ‘Contempt’ was a cult hit in Germany as it rode on a wave of dark electronic dance music alongside acts such as VNV NATION, PROJECT PITCHFORK, COVENANT and APOPTYGMA BERZERK that fell under the umbrella of futurepop. Signing to Metropolis Records which has been Shear’s home since 2001, ‘Contempt’ was reissued along with second album ‘Failure’ to build and consolidate ASSEMBLAGE 23’s reputation as one of the leading exponents of a movement dominated by European acts.
With deeply personal and relatable lyrical gists often broaching difficult subjects such as suicide and depression, ASSEMBLAGE 23 became a constant on underground dancefloors and at alternative music festivals. The albums ‘Defiance’, ‘Storm’ and ‘Meta’ maintained the standard while ‘Compass’ in 2009 contained what has now become the fan favourite ‘Spark’. 2012’s ‘Bruise’ saw a move towards a more mature sound but 2016 ‘Endure’ went back to the harder electronic sound following Shear’s 2014 more EBM-centric side project SURVEILLANCE.
The new album ‘Null’ is the tenth by ASSEMBLAGE 23, but the first since the pandemic afflicted ‘Mourn’ in 2020. Ahead of its release, Tom Shear toured the UK with his wife and HELIX partner Mari Kattman in support to preview tracks; he chatted to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK about the making of ‘Null’ before the London show at The Dome.
It’s been 5 years since ‘Mourn’, how do you look back on the making and reception for that album?
It was a very strange time to be making an album because that was during the pandemic when I started it. On one hand, it was the ideal situation because you are stuck inside and can’t do anything else; the concentration was in a way, a nice thing. But it also made things very difficult when it came time to ship the album and merch. All the shipping supply chains were really screwed up. There were a lot of delays but fortunately the fans were very understanding.
The new album ‘Null’ was much more of a positive experience as far as putting it together because it didn’t have these complicated circumstances surrounding it.
How was the title ‘Null’ chosen and did it set the concept for the record?
I wouldn’t say there’s a unifying concept through all of the songs… whereas a lot of prior ASSEMBLAGE 23 stuff is very internally focussed, this is more “the world has gone crazy” although it is partially internally focussed because how do you navigate that situation? But ‘Null’ is a bit more social commentary than there has been in the past.
The name ‘Null’, I thought it would be funny to call the tenth album “zero” but I also like the fact that the concept of “zero” or “nothing” really depends on the context. If you go to the doctor and the treatment works and there’s no more sign of cancer or something, that’s the best news you can get. But if there’s no money left or whatever, it can have a negative connotation and I like that about language, about how context can completely change the meaning behind it.
You’re touring before the album is out, it’s kinda the wrong way round now, was that intentional?
We started booking these shows before I really knew what the release date was going to be… the album took me a little longer than I’d anticipated. The timing is not ideal but it kinda good to preview these songs in a live environment. People absorb music in a different way when it’s something that they know versus something that they don’t. So far the reactions to new songs have been really positive, so I hope that will hold true for when the album comes out.
‘Tolerate’ is very on point in the current climate?
Things have just become increasingly divided, obviously I’m viewing it from the US perspective but I think this is true in Europe as well. It’s gotten to the point where it’s really fractured relationships, not just from a political level. Some of these views might be seen as so abhorrent that I don’t want anything to do with somebody who believes in something that is so harmful. I think unfortunately it’s a common experience.
Have you ever heard of The Paradox Of Tolerance? If you tolerate intolerance, then tolerance will cease to exist because the intolerance will wipe it out. So the point is, somebody who considers themselves tolerant has a limit… that line, once it’s crossed, I can’t engage with them anymore because their views are not just different from mine, they’re directly harmful to certain populations.
Nothing is really black and white at the end of the day. The unfortunate thing is that your average person out there doesn’t navigate nuance very well, like they want things to be black and white… but at the end of the day, I think that there are other groups that have other interests.
I’d say it’s in the ultra-wealthy’s best interests if we are fighting about something else rather than they are robbing everybody… the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer… we are now seeing obscene wealth, like more money than anyone needs! I feel there are issues to deal with in immigration and racism but at the end of the day, those are tools being used by people who want to keep their way of life… it is greed at the end of the day!
This keeps the people distracted, because there’s a lot more of us… I say that in one of the songs called ‘Overthrow’ and it sounds it’s about overthrowing the government but it’s about overthrowing the system of wealth and equality. That’s why a lot of this stuff happens, it’s happened perpetually throughout history, it’s just the marginalised groups that are targeted changes with time.
It’s the “divide and rule” mentality… so have you yourself hit ‘The Line’?
Oh yes! Absolutely! The song is talking about difference in politics but I’ve had it in other cases where there are people that were friends who I found out were domestic abusers… I knew someone who I found out was screwing minors! So the song is in the interest of not having it be too unfocussed, it focusses on politics but I think there are lots of different times where you have to evaluate whether you want to keep these people in your life or do you really need to let them go…
‘Lunatics’ is self-explanatory… but which lunatics are you referring to, the messengers or the ones believing the message?
‘Lunatics’ is more focussed on the people in power, leadership, the oligarchs who are buying influence and the media who are complicit in spreading those messages, aiding and abetting them in those goals! They are the people who are using other easily influenced people to further their agendas. But I guess the reason why is because those people can do the most damage and the most harm, simply because they have the most resources to do so. Obviously both sides are part of that equation and one doesn’t work without the other.
‘Gone’ has got this fabulous chill, is the song personal or more a narrative?
I am turning 54 years old and as you age, one of the unfortunate things about that is the list of people who you know and who die grows… I have, especially in the last couple of years, had a lot of people gone before their time. So the song is about that, looking at the loss of people in your life that just increases the older you get… the experience of losing someone and then almost forgetting about it, but you see something that reminds you of them… you relive the moment but there’s the grief because they are not there anymore. You think enough time has passed for your brain to make peace, but that’s the line about how “you’re gone and I can’t reach you and I wish that I knew why…”
For this ‘Null’ campaign, you have become more active on social media, is that all Mari’s doing?
Yeah, she was a big influence with that because I thought she did a spectacular job with her own social media promotion for her album ‘Year Of The Katt’. I really wanted to dial back from social media because I think it’s a net harmful influence in just about every way. But it IS the de facto method of promotion these days, so you have to play along and make us of it. Mari was definitely influential in that, I watched what she was doing and saw she did such a good job, it got a really great response so that was the model I followed.
How are you maintaining your enthusiasm for playing live as ASSEMBLAGE 23 after nearly 30 years?
Our first show was 1996! Obviously, the shows increased with frequency after that… the role of live performance has changed a lot, as the music industry has changed, to where it is the primary area that you’re going to make money unless you are lucky enough to get a song licensed to a movie or video game. Some individuals do very well with streaming despite the fact that it pays very poorly. But I think the experience of the average musician is that doesn’t form a significant portion of their income. In that sense, playing live becomes more important but it’s not just about selling T-shirts, this is your main chance to have some income from what you’re doing.
How are you doing on vinyl because when ASSEMBLAGE 23 started releasing albums, they would have been on CD, unlike say DEPECHE MODE?
It’s been doing great, I’ve had pre-orders for ‘Null’ open for a couple of months now… we’ve done vinyls in the past and they’ve always done well but I feel like this time, it’s doing even better than it has before.
I’m not a vinyl person myself but I get it… the crackles and stuff just adds a bit of aesthetic to it, it’s pretty unique. Also, I think we’re about to see a shift in things where people seem to be getting back to physical media because they’re exhausted from all these different streaming services and you don’t own it! If you don’t pay your subscription fee, it’s gone. People are starting to realise after some time that they like more of the permanence that physical media provides.
What about CD sales these days?
Previous tours, we would go out with hundreds of CDs and we would have to restock halfway through and come home with just a handful of them. But the last full US tour we did in 2016, we had a lot of CDs left over… it probably took a year to finally sell those. There are people who still like this format to consume their music but in a weird way, I think CDs have become autograph receptacles… you can’t sign a stream or an MP3! So for a lot of people, especially when you are playing live, the CD is almost a souvenir, you can’t count on somebody to go home and search you on Bandcamp, so you might lose sales by not having something right there that can immediately be picked up and bought as a keepsake.
Imagine if you ever had the energy and willing to do a Tom Shear event with ASSEMBLAGE 23, SURVEILLANCE, HELIX and Mari Kattman all in the line-up, who would you like as your special guest in this fantasy festival?
Gary Numan, that would be a great choice. The reason is he’s really responsible for me getting into electronic music. When I was 10 years old, I was at my cousin’s house and there was a Top40 countdown show and it was the week ‘Cars’ came out and charted in the US. It stopped me in my tracks because I’d never heard anything that sounded like that before! I didn’t know how to distinguish musical instruments, what was making the sounds, but I knew whatever it was, I wanted to be a part of it. It’s so interesting to me how a single moment can totally change the course of your life. I’ve made a living from this for decades now and it was that one moment that pushed me in that direction.
If you were to pick five tracks as an introduction to your career either as ASSEMBLAGE 23, SURVEILLANCE, HELIX or remixes to draw in newcomers, what would they be and why?
‘Disappoint’ from ‘Failure’ is an obvious choice, I feel like that was the track that really moved us up to another level.
‘Damaged’ off ‘Meta’ is another one that I think people relate to…
From ‘Storm’, I would say ‘30 Thousand Feet’ as well because a lot of people who hear it for the first time go “oh sh*t!”; the last US tour that we did, we ended the set with that and as people recognised the track, people went “oh-oh!” *laughs*
I would have to have some HELIX tracks in there, ’Hurt Like Me’ is one of my favourite ones to play live and I also love ‘The Beautiful Unseen’, I think it’s a really beautiful song.
You used to end shows, with a cover of INXS ‘Don’t Change’, but have you ever noticed how the synth leadline was virtually identical to ‘Bunker Soldiers’ by OMD?
I didn’t, I’ll have to listen again! *laughs*
I remember when I first saw you do ‘Don’t Change’ at Islington Academy in 2011, I thought you were covering OMD and it then morphed into this INXS song…
Who knows if it’s intentional or not, there’s only 12 notes to choose from so it’s inevitable there will be things that come out the same. At the end of the day, we like to romanticise it, but creating musically is being a clever thief, taking and choosing the parts that appeal to you. It might not be a direct one-to one copy but you might hear something and go “oh, that gives me the chills, I want to do something like that so I’ll take that”; you create this Frankenstein’s Monster of all your favourite things and put them together. But I would be curious as to the origin of ‘Don’t Change’ and whether INXS were OMD fans…
There’s always a debate as to whether ‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas film, so is ‘December’ from ‘Endure’ a Christmas song?
Hahaha! Obviously that wasn’t my motivation when I wrote it but I do have a memory of when I was a child, it’s such an awful story… it was Christmas morning and we had a dog who had been suffering from heartworms. We came downstairs and the dog had died under the Christmas tree! So you can imagine how traumatic that is and it was probably worse for my younger sister! Yeah, maybe there’s a subconscious link there! *laughs*
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Tom Shear
Special thanks to Gary Levermore at Red Sand PR
‘Null’ is released by Metropolis Records on 7th November 2025 in CD, vinyl and digital variants, available from https://assemblage23.bigcartel.com/ or https://assemblage23.bandcamp.com/album/null
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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
25th October 2025
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