In 1997 Andy LePlegua and Sebastian Komor established the project, Icon Of Coil.
Shallow Nation, released early in 2000, sold out the first thousand copies after only two weeks in the stores, which resulted in a deal with the Norwegian record label Tatra Records. Around that same time Tatra Records released the compilation Sex, Goth & Electronics, to which IOC contributed an exclusive version of their song Repeat It.
Before they started working on their second release IOC did programming for the Apoptygma Berzerk track Starsign. Soon afterwards, they traveled to Germany to support Apoptygma on their Welcome to Earth tour 2000 at their gigs in Frankfurt, Cottbus and Leipzig before going back to play together in Oslo, Norway.
Audiences seemed to enjoy Icon Of Coil with Sebastian's energetic and melodious sound fused with Andy's hypnotic voice and the band's success grew. One Nation Under Beat debuted in the top 20 on the DAC-chart (Deutsch Alternative Chart) for eight weeks and peaked at number three.
In late spring of 2000 at a gig in Sweden, Christian Lund joined the band as a live-member and went on stage with Andy and Seb for the first time. Along with being the vocalist for his En Route project, Christian had a background from a melodious EBM Fredrikstad-band called Elected By Fear where he played together with Fredrik Hansen from Echo Image and Marius Johnsen from Centravibe.
After the release of IOC's first full-length Serenity Is The Devil in November 2000, which reached number three on the DAC-chart, the band went to Germany together with Beborn Beton. With nine gigs, positive feedback from the audience and very good reviews on the debut album, IOC gained a following in the Electro-Industrial and Synthpop scene.
Shortly afterward, the album crossed the Atlantic and was released in North America by Metropolis Records. In 2001, the band itself followed and boarded a plane to Chicago. They were on their own in a foreign country and on a tight budget. The band flew from city to city constantly. The song Situations Like These from the Seren EP was played live for the first time to an incredibly enthusiastic and energetic American audience, which made the tour a big success. Then after playing in London, the guys had a short break before they faced a festival-filled summer in Europe.
The summer kicked off with a successful show in Germany at Wave-Gothic Treffen. The following festivals included CSD, Zillo Festival, Xtreaktor Festival, Eurorock, Infest and ended at M'era Luna where the trio did a hard-hitting performance in the Hangar.
Situations Like These became a big club hit and the band was ready for a second tour of North America with VNV Nation. The leg began in Chicago to a packed audience, which set the standard for the rest of the 19 shows. Icon of Coil, VNV Nation and the rest of the crew continued up to Canada, down the east coast to the west in the U.S. The four-week tour ended in Edmonton, Canada with a great show and a huge after-party =).
During their tours, the band found the time to write material for their April 2002 sophomore album, The Soul Is In The Software, which stayed at number one on the DAC for a several weeks. IOC then performed at two more festivals: The Dark Jubilee Festival in London; and later for Synthpop Goes The World in Toronto, Canada.
Icon of Coil came a long way in a short amount of time. For 2004 their third album, Machines Are Us, continued the trend with pummeling beats, sympathetic vocals, anthem-like melodies, and sweeping synths. Careful not to be outdone or forgotten, Icon of Coil released UploadedAndRemixed, which featured brand new mixes of songs from their first two records and two exclusive tracks at the end of 2004.
Today the members of IOC continue to be in the forefront of dark electronic and alternative dance music by creating & producing their own critically acclaimed and chart-topping projects:
- Andy LePlegua with CombiChrist and Panzer AG
- Sebastian Komor with MELT, Moonitor, Monofader (w/ Richard Bjorklund of Spektralized), Komor Kommando (new club project) and Zombie Girl
- Christian Lund with Northborne
Each member continues to produce their well-known works as well as productions and remixes with many other artists today, from Ayria to KMFDM, Front Line Assembly to Suicide Commando.
Rumours of the Icon of Coil's demise were put to rest with live reunion performances in 2007 in Canada and the United States. This year, the original lineup of IOC performed at the Blackfield Festival in Germany and in 2009, the original lineup performed live for the last time at Festival Kinetik 2.0 in Montreal.
Separately, Icon of Coil consists of three artists each of whose works continue to drive audiences to the dancefloor. Together, they remain the modern lords of synth-electronic music as their collaborations continue to become legendary!
*This IOC My Space is maintained by END: THE DJ.
Final approval by Seb, Andy and Christian, who check often!*