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"As a musician, an icon of female empowerment and a visual force, Japanese-American electronic musician Nic Endo is in a class of her own. Currently tearing up global stages as the female head of Berlin-based digital hardcore group Atari Teenage Riot, she&amp;apos;s been a main player on the international electronic and noise scenes since the 90s. Aside from her innovations as a producer and performer,&amp;#xA0; she&amp;apos;s earned praise as a social crusader who maintains the pioneering feminist spirit of riot grrrls, whom she says &amp;quot;must define the avant-garde&amp;quot; in music. She&amp;apos;s also the spokesmodel for British beauty brand Illamasqua&amp;apos;s new fragrance, Freak &amp;#x2013; and, like Illamasqua&amp;apos;s cosmetics, the fragrance revels in contrarian attitudes, celebrating nightime mischief and the notion of experimental personal transformations.\r\nRolling Stone spoke with Endo as she tours across Europe and prepares for the release of Atari Teenage Riot&amp;apos;s new single, &amp;quot;The Collapse of History,&amp;quot; out January 23rd on Dim-Mak.\r\nHave you done a style or beauty collaboration before? Were you hesitant?It never came up before. Maybe because of the nature of what I do musically, which is regarded as very radical by most people. I am very careful  about what I get involved in. That goes from the remixes I do, to the projects I take on, to the bands I play in. I think Illamasqua&amp;apos;s approach will change the way a lot of people look at make-up and how they can use it in a more creative way. If we are honest, then we should admit that we all look towards great looking actresses, models or artists, and then try to be like them &amp;#x2013; but we end up being a worse version of the original. Illamasqua&amp;apos;s idea is to completely forget about those role models, look at who you really are and which sides of your personality you want to bring out. I find this very radical and modern in its approach.\r\n\r\n&amp;#xA0;\r\nYour own makeup is extremely distinct. What do the characters on your face represent? It  is Japanese (&amp;quot;teiko&amp;quot;) and means &amp;quot;resistance.&amp;quot; I slightly altered the  kanji signs, so they fit my face shape better. I use waterproof liquid  eyeliner with a felt tip to draw the sign.\r\nWho were some women musicians you feel have used their visual in a progressive and powerful way? In   my opinion, your visual appearance must extend your music; it must   reflect your music.  Bj&amp;#xF6;rk has done this probably best over the past   decades, while Lady Gaga did the exact opposite. She disguised the   mediocrity of her music, which, to be fair, makes her sell more records   than Bj&amp;#xF6;rk. She wears these over-the-top outfits that, at the end of the  day are mostly inspired by the avant-garde.  It&amp;apos;s like she is flicking  through the books, grabbing ideas without  context. It sounds negative,  but I don&amp;apos;t mean that. I prefer that over  artists who dress themselves  as if they were your neighbors. Another  good example is Debbie Harry. Her  face, her music, her whole character  made her appearance so unique,  while in theory she could have just been  another &amp;quot;blonde&amp;quot; pop star. That  is quite powerful because she stands  out even decades later. Of course  Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex was amazing. I am thinking about her early New Wave punk look, the way  she posed; that worked well with artwork of those colored 7&amp;#x201D; vinyls and  the album cover. &amp;#xA0;\r\nIn a digital age, does strong art direction for an album visuals and videos still count? I  think so. Although, I find everything digital not as intense as it used  to be. Photographs, for example: they have a lesser impact than a great  print in a magazine. Same goes for experiencing music as an MP3 file,  or videos on YouTube that we watch with the constant thought in our  minds, &amp;quot;Can I click away now or should I watch it a bit longer?&amp;quot; I see  more and more creative people being less motivated to make the best  product they can because of that. Most pop music can only appear &amp;quot;new&amp;quot;  because of the visual side of it. So, yes, it is still important, maybe  more important than ever before. But I hope we will see a future in  which we can experience it all richer again.\r\nDoes Atari Teenage Riot have a particular set of opinions to showcase in their style?  Yes,   even before I joined the group in 1996. Some people think the band is   some sort of cyber industrial band, which has nothing to do with the   reality of Atari Teenage Riot. If you look at ATR photos from 1995, they   look almost like the Velvet Underground. Just two years after, when   [ATR founder and frontman] Alec Empire was wearing Fred Perry, they   looked like British Ska bands, like The Specials.  Then when I joined,   every member started to stand out more individually.  Alec Empire almost   looked like Iggy Pop during his Berlin phase in the 80s, [former   member] Carl Crack looked like he could have been a member of Wu-Tang   Clan, [former member] Hanin Elias had this &amp;quot;Louise Brooks&amp;quot; silent movie   star look, while I was the complete opposite &amp;#x2013; I loved that mix of   Japanese face painting, Anime female superheroines, and the &amp;quot;Emma Peel&amp;quot;   leather body suit.  One idea Alec Empire had right from the start was   that the band should not target an existing scene. They should bring   together people from all kinds of scenes.  Of course, that was reflected   in the clothes they needed to wear to not fit in.\r\nDo you personally follow fashion in a traditional sense? I   have it all on my radar, pretty much. There are many things in fashion   that I find inspiring,  also for my music. But that doesn&amp;#x2019;t mean that  it  dictates what I wear that season. We have seen many musicians  getting  quick attention by the media and music fans because they were  wearing  certain clothes or glasses or whatever. I am very aware of the  fact that  these trends wear off as fast as they come up. As an artist  you don&amp;#x2019;t  want to die in that process. The music world and the fashion  world have  one thing in common in our age: they are both getting more  and more  fragmented. What is &amp;quot;hip&amp;quot; in New York might be totally awkward  in Berlin  or in Tokyo.  In fact, it might never become &amp;quot;hip&amp;quot; at all.  When you  play to an international crowd like I do, you need to make  sure that you  avoid those traps. Does that same ideal apply to how you produce your music &amp;#x2013; avoiding any overt trends? &amp;#xA0;When  you find a sound that makes you stand out from the rest, then it would  be stupid to follow every new micro trend that dies soon after. In the  electronic music scene there hasn&amp;apos;t been a major change. Okay, some  might say now it was Dubstep. I disagree with that. This stuff is all an  extension of the Nineties rave scene, a variation of it. I don&amp;apos;t mean  this in a negative way. But it wasn&amp;apos;t like the Big Bang happened and  then there was Dubstep. While with early Rave music, it was a huge shift  from point A to B.   How important was it to evolve the actual production and sound of the music for Atari&amp;apos;s comeback record?That  was the fun and ironic part of making this album &amp;#x2013; that we wanted to  stick to the dogma of programming everything on the Atari ST 1040  computer. That is such a big part of the ATR sound. If we would switch  to let&amp;apos;s say, a Mac, and use Ableton as a software, then we would start  sounding like bands who were influenced by ATR. It would be like giving  Muddy Waters an Ibanez 7 string guitar or something. It is like  returning to the basics of Rock &amp;amp; Roll. ATR&amp;apos;s sound is very, very  physical and it outdoes any other electronic band right now in terms of  sheer punch and assault to the senses. This time around, though, we  focused more on songs, rather than having novelty sound effects on the  album. It has worked to our advantage. When we played this huge show in  Berlin last month, the new songs went down the best in the set. A lot of  people in the crowd were there only because they heard the new record.\r\nMany of your lyrics also touch upon individuality and social issues, which is somewhat rare these days.  A   male journalist recently said to me that certain issues that I   raised   on this album were raised in a similar way in the past by other   female   artists, especially in the riot grrrl movement. I told him   that I find   pretty much everything that &amp;quot;male&amp;quot; groups talk about in   their songs is   old news to me.  Why do I talk about stuff like human   trafficking and   forced prostitution, for example? Because these   problems are far from   being solved; instead they grow. As long as   there is stuff like that   going on, we artists have to write songs   about it, in every generation.    If you look at the women in my   generation &amp;#x2013; Peaches, Kathleen Hanna,   Beth Ditto, Karen O &amp;#x2013; they   couldn&amp;apos;t all be more diverse and unique in   their approach to music and   lyrics. \r\nRelated&amp;#x2022; Random Notes, Rock&amp;apos;s Hottest Photos"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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