An industrial approach to battling cancer (Beaver County Times)

Scott Tady

Feb. 8, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- HARMONY TWP. -- Jim Semonik experienced gut-wrenching emotions when, at age 31, he learned he had colorectal cancer.

He felt fear.

Anger.

Sorrow.

The Harmony Township native especially felt sorry for his mother, who a few years earlier had lost her husband, Joe Semonik, to cancer.

"I told her to please not worry, and that I would fight 'til my last breath," Semonik said.

To wage that war, Semonik pushed aside his negative feelings, and followed a more productive path paved with defiance and determination.

Semonik knew what he needed to do: Fight cancer with the music he loved.

Loud music.

Aggressive music.

A style of music defined as "industrial."

Two years later, after surgery and grueling hospital treatments, Semonik is deemed cancer-free, though he continues to battle the disease on behalf of others. He enlisted 83 of his favorite industrial artists to supply fresh songs for a five-CD set of music, "Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer," which Semonik will release worldwide on Tuesday, including at select stores in the national Hot Topic chain. All proceeds will go to Cancer Recovery Foundation of America, a Harrisburg-based group that educates, empowers and encourages cancer patients and their families.

"This is a dream come true," said Semonik, a 1997 Ambridge Area High School graduate who plays in a Pittsburgh industrial band, Rein(Forced), and promotes Pittsburgh concerts with nationally touring industrial bands. In his day job, Semonik works as a buyer for Eide's Entertainment in Pittsburgh, making sure that independent record store is stocked with the latest industrial releases.

To an outsider, industrial music -- with its pulsating beats, techno beeps and blips, and oft-screamed lyrics -- might seem cold, hard and impersonal. But an aficionado such as Semonik appreciates the genre's lyrical depth and raw, heart-on-its-sleeve emotions.

He turned to such music for comfort and diversion in May 2008, when he began rigorous chemo and radiation treatments at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

"The first five weeks were extremely brutal," said Semonik, who dropped 30 pounds and had 18 inches of his large intestine and two malignant tumors surgically removed.

To pass the time during recovery, doctors encouraged him to listen to music. So amid recuperating from radiation blasts, Semonik cranked tunes by favorite industrial bands, including The Dark Clan, Iris and Chemlab.

The day after his final radiation treatment, Semonik mustered the strength to visit a Pittsburgh club where he had booked a show by 16 Volt, an industrial band he had first seen while at Penn State University. As 16 Volt unloaded its gear, Semonik approached singer Eric Powell and floated the idea for a compilation CD raising money for cancer.

Powell accepted immediately, noting that he had lost two grandparents to cancer, and that his mother-in-law was undergoing chemo for lung cancer.

Semonik began reaching out to other industrial artists with whom which he had forged business relationships. Those bands didn't hesitate to help.

"Jim's one of the guys who has kept the underground electronic scene going in the East Coast for years (so) having the man ask us to submit a song for this compilation was a no-brainer," said Sean Payne of the Chicago band Cyanotic, which supplied the song "Axiom" that appears on Disc One.

Dan Clark, of the Milwaukee band The Dark Clan, also leaped at the chance to help Semonik's cause.

"His fortitude and honesty and amazingly upbeat attitude in the face of our species' greatest killer and the pain and horror it forced him to endure were all the inspiration any artist should need to celebrate the strength of the human spirit," Clark writes in the "Electronic Saviors" liner notes.

Some of the contributed songs, such as "Notes from a War" by Madison, Wis., band Stromkern, specifically address cancer. Nearly every song imparts a message of standing strong in the face of adversity.

That's what Semonik did, and now he's living proof that -- in some cases -- courage and hope, coupled with support from doctors and loved ones, can turn back cancer.

"Jim's approach to his disease and to his life is inspirational, not just to other patients but for those of us who care for patients with malignancies," said Dr. David Medich, leader of the Allegheny General Hospital staff that treated Semonik. "He has taken on life's greatest challenge at such a young age, and done so with exceptional grace and courage."

In a personal essay titled "My Survival Story" that appears in each box set, Semonik thanks Medich and the Allegheny General staff.

Semonik's recovery has been slow, steady and not without harrowing moments. In January 2009, four months after reconstructive surgery to his intestines, he developed a nearly fatal case of pancreatitis from the chemotherapy that left him dehydrated and with low blood pressure.

But after a colonoscopy and three CAT scans last September, doctors declared him cancer-free.

"My health now is improving," said Semonik, who has been living in Whitehall Township, but plans to move back home with his mother. "It is rough getting used to a new digestive system. I would say I will never be 'normal' again. I am getting pretty damn close, though.

"I plan on doing a lot of exercise and running when I move back to Ambridge," he said. "And I will do that, of course, to some huge industrial beats."

Scott Tady can be reached online at stady@timesonline.com.

Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer

What it is: A box set of four CDs featuring 67 industrial artists. Each set comes with a 12-page booklet with a coded card that allows the buyer to download for free a fifth album with 16 more songs.

Who it helps: Proceeds benefit the Cancer Recovery Foundation of America.

What it costs: Between $25.98 and $27.99.

Where it's sold: Eide's Entertainment, 1121 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh; select Hot Topic stores; www.metropolis-mailorder.com; or directly from the project's executive producer Jim Semonik via paypal-djhiem@hotmail.com. Albums also will be sold at a CD release show Feb. 18 at the Rex Theatre on Pittsburgh's South Side.

Web sites: www.electronicsaviors.com or www.myspace.com/electronicsaviors.

Defining industrial music

Allmusic.com defines industrial music as "the most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music," noting that it was initially "a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments and punk provocation. As industrial evolved, its avant-garde influences became far less important than its pounding, relentless, jackhammer beats, which helped transform it into a darker alternative to the hedonism of mainstream dance music."

Adds Jim Semonik, who plays, promotes and buys industrial music for an indie record store: "What sets it apart from all music genres is its strong underground aesthetic. While often electronic, it gets confused with techno, when in fact, it is closer to rock and roll and punk than anything else. It has been called the dark side of punk rock. When you boil it down, it is structured often like rock music and includes in-depth songwriting. Essentially, it is dance music that rocks."

Newstex ID: KRTB-0208-41888245