From Front Line Assembly to solo creation, Bill Leeb discusses his artistic evolution

Transmission 196: Interview with Bill Leeb

Bill Leeb is an Austrian-Canadian electronic musician and producer, best known as the driving force behind Front Line Assembly and Delerium. After early involvement with Skinny Puppy under the name Wilhelm Schroeder, he left in 1986 to form FLA, pushing into harsher EBM terrain alongside Michael Balch and later Rhys Fulber. Leeb later expanded his work through multiple collaborations and side projects, including Delerium, Noise Unit, Intermix, and Cyberaktif, maintaining a continuous presence across industrial, ambient, and electronic pop genres.

Title: Neuromotive
Artist: Bill Leeb
Release Date: 2025-04-04
Genres: EBM, Electronica, Experimental Music, Industrial Music
Label: Metropolis Records
Description: Interview with Bill Leeb on Model Kollapse, EBM roots, and upcoming Machine Vision EP via Metropolis Records.

Born in Vienna in 1966, Leeb moved to British Columbia as a teenager, where he developed his interest in electronic music, influenced by artists such as Kraftwerk, DAF, and Tangerine Dream. His early classical training, combined with exposure to Canadian wilderness and early punk culture, contributed to a hybrid musical background. After departing from Skinny Puppy in 1986, Leeb formed Front Line Assembly with Michael Balch, eventually working with longtime collaborator Rhys Fulber. The band became one of the key figures in the development of North American EBM and electro-industrial, particularly through albums like Caustic Grip (1990) and Tactical Neural Implant (1992).

In 2024, he released his debut solo album Model Kollapse via Metropolis Records. The Stacks Mix of “Neuromotive” by longtime collaborator Rhys Fulber precedes the remix EP Machine Vision, due in July 2025. Leeb returns to the UK for a run of shows and continues to work on new Delerium material.

What first drew you into music—was it something visceral, or did it build gradually over time?

Being born and raised in Vienna and being part of a convent where I was part of the boys’ choir, we all had to learn an instrument. My mom was a singer, so I’ve always had music around me my whole life. It was a big part of me. I never thought about being in a band, but as time went on, electronic music really talked to me. When bands like Kraftwerk came along, it wasn’t conventional music like Austrian classical music, but it wasn’t rock either. When that kind of music appeared, Tangerine Dream and so forth, I really started to get interested. Then the whole alternative early punk scene, Gary Numan and all that stuff came along, and the German kraut scene—I just got excited about it. I started playing around with synthesizers, and technology started to grow and become interesting. All of those things added to my development and got me to where I am now.

Growing up between Vienna and British Columbia, which sounds or environments left the deepest mark on your imagination?

I think definitely coming from Austria, being surrounded by Baroque art and music. I was going to a convent for quite a few years when I was young, so all that traditional classical music definitely left probably the biggest mark on me. Even when we’re doing electronic music, melodies and song structure always come back from that era. At the same time, in North America, music for experimentation didn’t really exist in Vienna, which was a very traditional country. I needed both. It was lucky for me to move from the church to the wilderness of British Columbia, which was still a frontier and gave me a whole new look and mindset of what is possible, not just the old way, but with the new way. All these things created my psyche, my development as to how I look and listen to music.

Joining Skinny Puppy in the early days—what was the atmosphere like back then, both creatively and personally? How did you join them?

Skinny Puppy was definitely a very wild and crazy time. We were kind of fed up with everything around us, with music. Everything was still traditional, and I think we sort of had a very punk rock mindset, even though we were doing electronic music. We liked that same concept, but not wanting to be a traditional band to get a big label and try to make music for the radio. We had no interest in that at all. If anything, we wanted to deconstruct music and find ways of using instruments that were not being used conventionally.

Between that and a lot of late nights and a lot of other experimentations, shall we say, to be creative with our minds – we didn’t set any boundaries or limits. We spent weekends being high, jamming with synthesizers and just finding new ways to be creative that had not yet been done in the way we wanted it to be. It was a pretty exciting time. Social media hadn’t come about yet, and computers were just starting. Everything was samplers, everything was new and we had to find ways to learn all these things and be in the first wave of everything.

When we went on tour, a lot of people had never really understood or heard this kind of music, but found it exciting because it was something new. In this genre, that’s always kind of important to do. Those were very chaotic, crazy days and there was a lot of paranoia because of the drugs and everything, but it created the environment for this very angst-ridden electronic music that was created by us.

What were some of the early challenges you faced after stepping out from Skinny Puppy to form Front Line Assembly?

I think probably one of the hardest things was that we were all very deep friends. Skinny Puppy was really taking off and had already made a big mark. I found that for me, with Ogre being the vocalist and such a dramatic, great performer on stage, and Kevin (Nivek Seven Key) who came up with the name and was the first one to create the band, I was still learning and he already had much more experience.

I felt like there wasn’t going to be any room for me to be more than just the third silent partner. I thought this was a good time for me to step away. For a while, there was silence between all of us, and everybody was doing their own thing.

Also, because Skinny Puppy had such a strong identity, at first trying to create my part of it, even though I was part of that, was a challenge. At the same time, it was good because when I was getting my first reviews, when it said Bill Leeb from Skinny Puppy, people would listen because that band had a strong name already. It had a lot of pros and cons.

Looking back now, I think it was all for the best. I think we all ended up where we needed to be. You can’t predict these things in life, but at the end of the day, I think it went the right way for everybody.

What was your vision when you launched Front Line Assembly with Michael Balch? Did you feel it had to be radically different?

Ironically enough, with Skinny Puppy, the music was darker and more sinister, maybe even a little less conventional. I liked more the rhythmic side—Liaisons Dangereuses, Cabaret Voltaire. I felt like I wanted, like early Front 242, to be more rhythmic in a more hypnotic type of way.

That’s where my heart lay, so I found that’s where I needed to go with it more. For the stage presentation, it was a totally different concept and idea—no blood, no drama, no horror. It was more about rhythm and maybe different kinds of politics and stuff.

That was where I wanted to go with it.

What was the spark behind Model Kollapse?

Model Collapse basically came about because Metropolis Records, who have always been big supporters of mine, and Dave, who was the president—Dave Heckman, rest in peace—we were really good friends. He always supported all of my projects and music. One day we were just casually talking, and he said, why don’t you just release a solo album? I said, maybe that’s a good idea. So I started working on that. Dave gave me a good budget. Sadly, he passed away before it was finished. I felt like it was in his honor and my intuition to finish this thing we had talked about as a friendship.

Jared was involved too—he had been a big part of Front Line Assembly for the last 12 years with Echogenetic and Wake Up the Coma. That was also the time Jeremy had passed away. It was kind of a reconnection of everything. With Dave’s passing, I thought this was the right time to make a record like that. I also tried to bring in a few different people, some female vocals, and conceptualize different artwork. Allen Jaeger did the artwork; I didn’t use the regular guy, Dave McKean.

It felt like the right time to do something at this part and age of my career. I don’t know how many records I have left in me, but it felt good to do. Rhys was busy doing his own thing; he’s got his own projects too. There was time for everything. We had just finished two big tours with Gary Numan and Ministry. I really felt creative, so I thought, I’m going to do this and honor Dave. It just came together bit by bit. It kind of made sense to do it. I don’t know if I’ll ever do another one.

It was the right time. Sometimes you just can’t predict with music and art and directions and how things will go. You can’t overthink it. I just went with the flow. One thing led to another. I really enjoyed the process, and it was fun. To me, that’s still one of the most important things—that I enjoyed it, and it was a lot of fun to do. That’s one more thing behind me now. It’s just too bad Dave couldn’t hear it, because he passed two years ago. He kind of got me going on that track.

Maybe upstairs he’ll hear it. It’s kind of bittersweet. It’s one of those things, right?

How did that remix of Neuromotive come about?

Ironically enough, the original mix, when Jared approached me, was one of the things I really liked. I thought, to make a record with this idea and this vibe, this would excite me. When it came time to mix it and recreate it, we had actually lost the stems and parts, so we just had that one demo.

That track was recreated for the album, but I liked that lo-fi demo that was the initial instigator that motivated me. We have an EP coming out called Machine Vision in July, and that song we just released, the Stax remix, is also going to be on there. I really wanted to release it in its raw form, because I think it had this kind of magic. We just did some tweaks on it, because we work great together. Greg mixed it literally from an mp3 file.

I love it. It’s great. It kept its original concept. That’s the story behind that song.

Do you still chase new machines, or is there a core set of equipment that you keep going back to?

I have a really nice collection of analog synthesizers—the Minimoog, Multimoog, Oberheim 12, the Oscar, and I love Pro-1s.

Me and Rhys just finished writing all the demos for a new Delerium album. When we write, a lot of times we’ll use virtual synths in the studio just to be quick and spontaneous. Then we’ll turn on the old analog synthesizers, sample them, and put in those parts because they still have a thicker sound. We use the best of both worlds. For writing, doing it digitally and virtually is much easier now. But before we mix, we’ll turn on the old synthesizers and replace or layer the bass with a real analog one to give it a bigger, fuller sound.

We like to use both worlds. It’s a real luxury now being able to do it that way. In the old days, it was way more time-consuming. Before MIDI, you had to trigger things manually. That had a sound too—it was different, like in the early Tactical Neural Implant or Caustic Grip days compared to now. I think now we’re lucky we have all these options. I like to use both.

What are your next projects after this?

Like I said, we were just writing and came up with a whole bunch of demos for Delerium. We’ve sent those to some singers. Apart from this short tour, where our last show will be in Malta—which I’m excited to see—we have a big tour coming up in the fall. We’re headlining and playing 18 shows with Clock DVA, Nitzer Ebb, and Lead Into Gold, which is Paul Barker, who was also in Ministry. That’s going to be a big tour for us.

I think Rhys has a solo album coming out at some point. Between that, this one, and doing Delerium, I think that’s enough for me.

As far as Front Line Assembly, maybe after that, we will do one more album. Who knows if we’ll ever do another after that. Maybe that’s where it stands for now, but there’s always things coming up.

We did a remix for Let the Flowers Grow for Peter Murphy and Boy George for Metropolis, which is coming out in the fall. I love that mix.

We have some things lined up. We have our hands full now with these tours and trying to get the Delerium album out. That’s as far ahead as I’m thinking.

Photos courtesy of Bill Leeb

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others