Artist Interview: ODORBABY

Odorbaby (or maybe its ODORBABY?) is both an enigma and a phenomenon. To date, I have no idea who Odorbaby is, how many people are involved, what gender they might be or where they are. Odorbaby encourages this fact for whoever is there behind Odorbaby pulling the strings is clearly a thinker and a person of ideas. Odorbaby, as a musical act, is powered by ideas and a freeform invention. The work of Odorbaby appears to be bricolage influenced by an interest in noise. I first came across Odorbaby a while ago but I wasn't ready for it. The PR strategy is blunt and in your face and the music is no less so. But, giving it a second chance I became seduced by the complexity of it and the fact that, underneath, there is actually something there worthwhile. Odorbaby is both more and less than it appears and this is probably by design. The music is not a noise wall as it can be with some noise artists. Here a more playful and nuanced mind is at work. I appreciate Odorbaby's music as moments in time. Odorbaby is capturng life, maybe not yours or mine or even Odorbaby's, but somebody's. You could send Odorbaby's music into space as an example of human life. But enough waffle. I was lucky enough to secure an interview from the eccentric and elusive Odorbaby and what follows is Odorbaby's own cryptic answers. The caps are original to Odorbaby and, with a respectful nod towards Odorbaby, I keep them in place as Odorbaby would intend.

1. What is your history in making music? How do you come to be doing what you are doing?

ODORBABY IS ONE OF SEVERAL PROJECTS WE ENGAGE IN SOMEWHERE OVER THE MERZBOW BUT WE WILL LIMIT THIS INTERVIEW TO THE ALMIGHTY AWESOME OF THE ODORBABY DISTORTION PROTOCOL STRATEGY

ODORBABY IS THE RESULT OF TRYING TO PLAY NICE WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THE AMERICAN MUSIC BUSINESS AND REALIZING THAT 

PEOPLE DONT WANT MUSIC THEY WANT MUSIC FLAVORED CONSUMPTION PRODUCT 

PEOPLE DONT WANT MUSICIANS THEY WANT MANNEQUINS 

PEOPLE DONT WANT ART THEY WANT DISTRACTION AND SPECTACLE 

PEOPLE BASICALLY DONT CARE THEY JUST WANT TO SEE MONEY CHANGE HANDS AND HAVE SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT THAT MAKES THEM LOOK SPECIAL 

EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS THE MOST AWESOME THE MOST INCREDIBLE THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO A MUSIC FESTIVAL THEN YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THIS MEANS 

ALSO HIPSTERS

EVERYBODY TRIES TO DO IT RIGHT AND EVERYBODY FAILS THEN GETS USED UP AND DISCARDED AND NOBODY REALLY CARES ANYWAY

THE WHOLE THING IS AN INTRICATELY CHOREOGRAPHED CONSUMPTION RITUAL AND LITTLE MORE THAN THAT

SO ODORBABY IS THEREFORE COMMITTED TO BEING GOOD FOR BUSINESS AND SERVICING THIS DEMOGRAPHIC IN THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY POSSIBLE

ODORBABY LEVERAGES EFFICIENCIES BY SKIPPING STRAIGHT TO THE FAILURE AND DISCARDING STAGE AND STARTING FROM THERE

MOST OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THE ODORBABY PROJECT HAVE MUSIC MAKING OR PRODUCTION AND OR SOFTWARE BACKGROUNDS SO THE SONIC MASTERWORKS OF ODORBABY ARE A REFLECTION OF TECHNOLOGY BASED SOLUTIONS TO THINGS USUALLY

WE ASSUME THAT NOBODY CARES AND PLAN ACCORDINGLY

ITS TURNS OUT TO BE MORE FUN THAT WAY

2. Describe your music style and the aims of the music you make. What is Odorbaby about?

ODORBABY DEVOURS PROCESSES AND REGURGITATES EVERYTHING THAT CROSSES ODORBABYS PATH BLASTING THEM FORTH ALMIGHTILY 

AWESOME

THERE IS AN OVERSUPPLY IN THIS WORLD OF INFORMATION WHETHER THIS INFORMATION TAKES THE FORM OF MUSIC OR NEWS OR ESPECIALLY SOCIAL MEDIA 

ODORBABY IS THEREFORE COMMITTED TO UPCYCLING THIS INFORMATION INTO NEW FORMS OF CONSUMPTION PRODUCT IN ORDER TO RELIEVE THE PLANET OF SOME OF THE BURDEN OF THIS INFOGLUT

THIS IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE ODORBABY DISTORTION PROTOCOL STRATEGY WHICH PERMEATES EVERY ASPECT OF THE ALMIGHTY AWESOMENESS OF ODORBABY 

COUNT ON ODORBABY FOR ALL OF YOUR AWESOMENESS NEEDS

ODORBABY IS ALSO ABOUT IGNORING THE PRETENSE THAT SUFFUSES MUCH OF HUMAN ACTIVITY AND INSTEAD LAYS BARE THE SIMPLE AND SOMETIMES HUMOROUS FUTILITY OF HUMAN HUBRIS AND FOLLY 

WHY PRETEND WHEN LIFE IS WEIRD ENOUGH AS IT IS

3. What do you use to make music? What would you like to use?

EACH ODORBABY SONIC MASTERWORK HAS A SPECIFIC MEANS OF AWESOMENESS PRODUCTION

HERE IS A BRIEF LIST OF WHICH MASTERWORK IS CREATED HOW

- GOOD FOR BUSINESS

RECORDINGS FROM ODORBABY PERFORMANCES AND COLLABORATIONS IN AUSTIN TEXAS ARE EITHER PRESENTED AS THEY ARE OR ARE EDITED FOR A SPECIFIC TYPE OF SONIC EXPERIENCE NOTHING FANCY NO TRICKS JUST STRAIGHT UP NOISE AWESOMENESS

AT THIS POINT IN THE ODORBABY EPIC SAGA A LOT OF PERFORMANCES INVOLVED MICROPHONE AND SOUND SYSTEM ABUSE PLUS SMOKE MACHINES AND OTHER DANGEROUS UNCOMFORTABLE DEVICES

NOT MUCH OF THE LIVE DAMAGE SHOWED UP ON THIS RECORDING

- AMERICAN STANDARD

ODORBABYS POP MUSIC MASTERWORK EVERYTHING IS EDITED AND ASSEMBLED ACCORDING TO POP MUSIC STANDARDS SOMETIMES WITH BEATS OTHER TIMES WITH JUST AUTOTUNE BECAUSE AUTOTUNE IS AWESOME 

PLUS SOME BITS DONE WITH A SMALL MODULAR SYSTEM ODORBABY ACQUIRED IN BERLIN

- CONSUMPTION PRODUCT

YOUR DAILY MINUTES OF NOISE WERE CREATED USING THE SUPERCOLLIDER SOFTWARE PLATFORM AS A MULTICHANNEL NOISE SOURCE 

THEN THE NOISE SOURCES WERE ROUTED THROUGH THE SMALL MODULAR SYSTEM USED ON AMERICAN STANDARD TO CREATE AN AWESOME BLEND OF NOISE 

WHICH WAS THEN CUT INTO ONE MINUTE SEGMENTS AND LOVINGLY GIFTED TO THE INTERNET

- RELAX IT GETS WORSE

THIS HAS A VARIETY OF SOUND SOURCES MOSTLY DATABENT AUDIO FILES CREATED IN AUDACITY FROM AN IPHONE PICTURE OF A TREE OUTSIDE OF THE APARTMENT 

THE AUDIO FILE IS PROCESSED IN AUDACITY USING SPECTRAL MODULATION AU PLUGINS TO MAKE A PILE OF  PITCH AND TIMBRE SEGMENTS 

WHICH ARE THEN PLAYED IN TRAKTOR PRO AND MANIPULATED USING  STANDARD TRAKTOR PRO FX AND SEVERLY TWEAKING SETTINGS

- AVIATION CRAB ORCHESTRA (AN EPIC SAGA)

THIS SONIC MASTERWORK IS BASED ON THE IDEA THAT THE CREATION OF SOUND AND THE RECORDING AND PROCESSING OF SOUND HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER 

THE POINT IS THAT THE MIX IS THE COMPOSITION AND THE SOUND MATERIAL EXISTS ONLY TO GIVE SUBSTANCE TO THIS MIX

RANDOMLY ACQUIRED AUDIO FILES ARE CHOPPED UP AND REASSEMBLED LIKE YOU WOULD DO FOR A WILLIAM BURROUGHS TYPE CUT UP OPERATION INTO A SOURCE FILE NO LONGER THAN AROUND THREE AND A HALF MINUTES 

THEN THE SOURCE FILE IS SIMPLY LAID INTO A PROTOOLS SESSION WITH THE MIX ALREADY AUTOMATED AND THEN RENDERED INTO A FINAL TWO MIX

TWO MIX IS STUDIOSPEAK FOR A STEREO REDUCTION MIX

- NUL FUXGEBEN

THIS IS ALL DONE IN REALTIME WITH MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF THE GENDY INSTRUMENT IN SUPERCOLLIDER 

THERE ARE USUALLY FOUR LAYERS OF AWESOMENESS THAT ARE CONTROLLED FROM AN INTERFACE BUILT WITH LEMUR 

ALL OF THE TITLES ARE IN GERMAN BECAUSE THATS WHAT WE SPEAK HERE

FOR YOUR NONGERMAN SPEAKING READERS THE TITLE ROUGHLY TRANSLATES TO 

THE GIVING OF ZERO FUCKS

THE COVER IS A PHOTO OF THE BACK OF A FOOTBALL JERSEY THAT ODORBABY NEVER HAD MADE

- GET KILLING

GET MEANS GOAT IN SWEDISH AND 

KILLING MEANS KID ALSO IN SWEDISH 

HAHAHA ODORBABY MAKES ANOTHER AWESOME LANGUAGE JOKE

THIS MASTERWORK STARTED OUT AS A RESPONSE TO ALL OF THE GUN VIOLENCE IN THE UNITED STATES BUT HAS TURNED OUT TO BE A COLLECTION OF TRACKS MADE FOR COMPILATIONS

MAYBE ITS LIKE AN REMIX EP OR SOMETHING

MOST OF ITS DONE IN PROTOOLS USING STUFF FROM OTHER SONIC MASTERWORKS WITH SOME RANDOM INTERNET AUDIO BLENDED IN

ODORBABY WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE WORKING ON THE ODORTRON WHICH IS A SOFTWARE BASED THING THAT WOULD MAKE IT EASIER TO CREATE AWESOME ODOR IN PUBLIC PERFORMANCE 

SOMEDAY IT WILL GET BUILT BUT RIGHT NOW THERE ARE OTHER MUSIC THINGS THAT TAKE TIME AWAY FROM ODORBABY

ALSO WORKING WITH MICROPHONES AND PEDALS IN THE OLD SCHOOL HANDS ON METHOD OF NOISE PRODUCTION WOULD BE FUN

4. You have quite a unique image. Is this just your personality or is there more to it?

ODORBABY IS NOT A PERSON 

ODORBABY IS SIMPLY ALL OF THE HYPE YOU CRAVE WITHOUT THE BURDEN OF AN ACTUAL PRODUCT TO SLOW YOU DOWN

THERE IS NEVER AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE ODORBABY BE SOMETHING OR SOMEONE OR HAVE A PERSONALITY 

BUT RATHER ALWAYS AN ATTEMPT TO REMOVE ANYTHING REMOTELY RESEMBLING PERSONALITY OR HUMANITY FROM ODORBABY 

EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS THE MOST AWESOME THE MOST INCREDIBLE THE MOST AMAZING THING EVER

ODORBABY IS PURE UNADULTERATED AWESOMENESS PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE

HOW EASY IS THAT

PEOPLE DONT WANT MUSIC THEY WANT MUSIC FLAVORED CONSUMPTION PRODUCT 

PEOPLE DONT WANT MUSICIANS THEY WANT MANNEQUINS 

PEOPLE DONT WANT ART THEY WANT DISTRACTION AND SPECTACLE

THE MUSIC BUSINESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MUSIC AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH BUSINESS HOW EASY IS THAT

ODORBABY EXISTS TO FILL THAT DEMOGRAPHIC BY REDUCING PRODUCTION COSTS IMPROVING SUPPLY CHAIN EFFICIENCIES AND PASSING THE AWESOME DIRECTLY ONTO THE CONSUMER

5. What are your musical influences?

ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING

MERZBOW OBVIOUSLY IS A REFERENCE POINT BUT ALSO 

AUNTS ANALOG 

DROMEZ 

PEASANT

POWERMONSTER

BREAKDANCING RONALD REAGAN

^^^ THOSE GUYS ARE FROM THE US

IN EUROPE TRY vvv

BEATSZ 2.0

RPT

AMMERORHEA STRAUSS

SUDDEN INFANT

ANYTHING THAT MULTIVERSAL IS CURRENTLY PROMOTING

ODORBABY ENJOYS SITTING NEAR THE TRAIN TRACKS AND LISTENING THE THE TRAINS GO BY ITS LIKE A NOISE SHOW BUT WITHOUT THE NOISE SHOW

ALSO NATURE ITSELF IS AN INCREDIBLY GIFTED MUSICIAN IF YOU CAN LEARN TO SIT STILL AND LISTEN TO IT

6. Where do you see yourself going musically in the future? Any ambitions?

ODORBABY WOULD LIKE TO DEVELOP INTO A MORE PERFORMANCE EFFECTIVE ENTITY 

AND ALSO COLLABORATE WITH OTHERS PARTICULARLY IN A BAND SORT OF CONTEXT

ALSO DOING COLLABS WITH AV/VIDEO PROJECTION ARTISTS WOULD BE AWESOME

FILM AND VIDEO WORK IS VERY ATTRACTIVE 

ALREADY SOME PEOPLE HAVE USED ODORBABY SONIC MASTERWORKS IN SMALL INDIE FILM PROJECTS

BUT WORKING WITH OTHERS SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF FUN SO YEAH MORE OF THAT

THANK YOU FROM ODORBABY

Thanks to Odorbaby for the interview. Merzbow is the performing name of Masami Akita, a famous Japanese noise artist. 

You can hear the awesome of Odorbaby at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/ODOR_BABY/ 

                                 How Awesome Is That?

ETM: Electronic Texture Music

ETM: Electronic Texture Music - what's that then? ETM is something I have just created, something I have decided it is what I do now. Of course, this is not creation from nothing. Nothing exists in a vacuum (except all the heavenly bodies that exist in the vacuum of space) but, more particularly, nothing creative is without forbears and influences. These forbears and influences can often be controversial or a matter of dispute. But they are always there. The story of electronic music is one of such forbears and influences. I am currently making a podcast series about it and, in episodes yet to be published, I intend to suggest some lines of influence and say how, for example, music made by Germans in the 70s leads to Trance and Techno in the 80s and 90s. But this blog is a little piece by me about what I imagine ETM to be as I have been making it for the last 6-8 months. I have come to see it as a style of music but one that comes from certain ways of seeing and being in the world. So I think that not everyone could make it because not everyone would be in the position to do so.

I begin by saying what ETM is not. ETM is not about tempo as some forms of music are. Its not House or Drum and Bass, music which needs to be at a certain speed. Indeed, as we shall see, ETM may not even be about a beat, at least not simply so or as the main focus of the music. (Nearly all music has rhythm, however, even if its subtle and in the movement of sounds.) ETM is not about melody or harmony either. As with rhythm, pitch is not the focal point of ETM. But, again, this is not to say that pitch doesn't matter. What doesn't matter is the conventional use of pitch to achieve conventional melody or harmony. And so this means that, thirdly, ETM is not about making "a song". This is another conventional notion that ETM politely avoids. 

So what is ETM about? Well ETM is fragmentary, its doesn't conceive of itself as created wholes, fully-formed or otherwise. ETM is pieces of sound. ETM is also abstract and this deliberately so. ETM has a need to be amorphous and resistant to fitting into conventional form. To ask of a piece of ETM "What is it about?" or "What is it for?" is to find few answers being given you directly from the music itself... and yet, on the other hand, all that you will ever need to answer such questions is there within it. ETM does not give itself up without a fight. It is music you struggle with to know, experience and understand. For this reason ETM is layered, a spatial form of music existing in a physical universe. This suggests that perspective is relevant to appreciate it and that it can be approached from differing angles. What do you find in it when you listen? Well where are you listening from?

ETM, sonically, is about timbre. It is timbral music focused on the mixing, contrasting and creation of timbres. This is in open distinction to music (which in the Western tradition is the norm) based on tones or pitches. This is why ETM is not tunes with melodies. Its just not the focus. Instead what is sought is timbrally interesting music that creates atmospheres or textures. The texture of the piece is the point and primary musical concern. Texture is what is being exploited here and is the musical interface for a human interaction with sound. For this reason all of sound is taken to be equally valid. There are no good or bad textures like there might be good or bad tunes. All textures are equal if different and nothing within them recommends one above any other. They are all just experiences of sounds. 

ETM, certainly as I have been making it, is often pure improvisation or the disconnected juxtaposing of sounds in an electronic context. It is a non-deliberate, anti-authorial type of music (compare free jazz). Sound is all around us. It doesn't have to be conventionally created and its creation ascribed to a writer for it to be valid. In my making of ETM I have deliberately gone out of my way to avoid responsibility for how things sound, for example, by just throwing things on a timeline and letting them be or arranging them at random and without concern for where they stand or with what. This lack of responsibility, this deliberate letting go, will upset the conventional for they then have no one to blame for the sounds they hear. Consider the uproar, for example, when John Cage "wrote" 4'33". This is a founding piece of ETM. Cage also foreshadowed ETM when he stated that "dissonance is just a form of harmony we haven't got used to yet". ETM is often dissonant, as it must be since it is created to create textures and without conventional melodic or harmonic concerns. In a way, and in one sense, we can see ETM as a kind of free jazz for those using electronics.

Why is ETM like this? For me ETM is about experiencing the world as it is rather than as we want it to be with the comfort of conventions. It is, as a must, anti-conventional music. ETM is based in a way of seeing the world. It is stream of consciousness music that does not look on things as they have been falsified and fixed but as always moving and ever-changing. There is no permanence in ETM (it cannot be notated or directed) and it is not a final word or a finished object. It is a moment that cannot be grasped, something just passing through. ETM is about noises and sounds. These things may only happen once and be forever thereafter unrecoverable. Often this is the point and much of my ETM is things that happened at one time only that I could never recreate again. ETM exists in a world just like this and gives it substance but never permanence. Noise music is an extreme form of ETM in my mind but ETM does not have to be simply noise. ETM is a means to describe the breadth of human experience through the timbrally rich world of sound. 

Where does ETM come from? Musically, I think it comes from John Cage, who I've already mentioned, Pierre Schaeffer and his experiments with Musique Concrete and the German Kosmische musicians. ETM is at its core anti-conventional. All these people created new music that stepped outside of what was expected or accepted. All received ire as "not producing proper music". And they should have. ETM is not proper music either. It is new music, music which eschews the modern day, mainstream conventions about what music should be. It is an experimental music in a world where humans must experiment to learn and progress. This makes it necessary. ETM is the desire to work with sounds and noises in unconventional and anti-authorial ways, to make things that aren't regular or conformist because it is only by not conforming that the falsity of conventional forms and standards is revealed. It is about the experience of everyone who makes it in distinction to a professionalized discipline or notion. ETM is circuit bending, soundwashes, shouting over noise, birds singing in the outdoors, abstract, bland sounds and much, much more. It is a primal connection between sounds and their human apprehension.

ETM is also ineluctably electronic. It is ELECTRONIC Texture Music. Electricity is necessary for it is the power to create (manipulate) the unreal and make it real (or vice versa). Many electronic sounds are not found in nature and yet it is nature itself, our natural world, which makes all sounds and enables us to hear them. In the electricity is the being of the sounds electronic music creates. They are an electronic moment that exists but briefly and, before you know it, is gone again. Electricity, like sound itself, is always in flux, a constant oscillation. ETM is about this natural oscillation. ETM attempts to capture and manipulate this on-going electronic succession of moments. So oscillators and samplers, electronic tools, are what ETM is made with. Electricity and electronics, the means to manipulate it, are the heart and soul of ETM.

These are but preliminary thoughts on what I take ETM to be. It is, of course, not new. Were I to write a historical piece I could flag up many forbears. It is my name for what I am doing and it has some theory and ideas behind it. It is music about embodying ideas in sound and about sound and sounds. It is not for entertainment but you can certainly be entertained by it. ETM is about experiencing what you hear more than about being entertained by it though. It is about realizing that human beings exist in a world of sound and taking each sound seriously... and then letting this tell you something about the world that is always passing away.

ETM is the sound of things constantly passing away, a reminder that things never stop, a testimony that fixity is illusion.

To hear what ETM sounds like you can go my to my Bandcamp at https://elektronischeexistenz.bandcamp.com/ 

Artist Interview: Harsh Noise Movement

Harsh Noise Movement (together with HNM Records) is both an entity releasing music of its own and the music of others. Located on Bandcamp, its the place to go for varying styles of music but with a core of, as it says on the label, harsh noise. This harsh noise is typical of Harsh Noise Movement itself (for example, on the recently released album Harshhorse). However, other albums on the account wander off into other styles but always with an emphasis on improvisation, lack of boundaries by mainstream standards and a "don't give a fuck" attitude. It is no compromise music. I caught up with Harsh Noise Movement to put a few questions and what follows is the answers I got back.

1. Can you give us some background about Harsh Noise Movement and how you come to be making Harsh Noise music?

Well, I have been doing Noise / Experimental work since the early 90's. Recording on cassettes, which were just left in my personal possession. These were various sound collages and synth noises edited together to make various tracks. Unfortunately, these have been lost over the years, which is a shame because there was so much good work included. Harsh Noise Movement started off as a one off remix project cassette in 2013. Remixing the likes of Merzbow, Heroin And Your Veins, Death Grips etc. These remixes, apart from one Merzbow remix project, have been deleted or lost. I decided to keep using the Harsh Noise Movement moniker for all my work, along with a few aliases for work that doesn't fit in with the HNM 'sound'.

I first decided to make Harsh Noise, because of my fascination with various Japanese Noise artists such as Incapacitants, Merzbow, Masonna etc. I first came across Merzbow in 1992, when I heard one of his early cassettes and then became hypnotised by the noises I was hearing. I have always, from as far back as I can remember, always been into the whole DIY Punk thing, but as time went on, I became bored with the same unoriginal sounds and needed something fresh and exciting. Sounds that challenge the listener.

2. What were your musical influences growing up and which stay with you today?

I grew up in 1970's Britain with Punk being a constant soundtrack for me. Bands like Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, Buzzcocks, X-ray Spex etc were always exciting to my ears and the whole anti-establishment stance of the UK Punk scene was something that drew me towards it. Then in the early 1980's it was Dead Kennedys, Crass, Joy Division and DC Hardcore that really captured my attention. 

Dadaism is also an influence, and my work has already been dedicated to Dadaism, in Colombia.  The track '391' on "The Danger of Being Subjective" (the split album with Wayne Rex & Ross Taylor) is named after the Dada periodical published by Francis Picabia. So, there are a lot of varying influences that can be found in the noise I create.

The Beatles were also a band that really affected me as a kid. It doesn't have to be a particular genre, if I like it thats all that matters. It's always been that way fir me, but Punk really did draw my attention the most.

Influences that stay with me today are Alice Donut, Dead Kennedys, Pistols, Crass (especially Reality Asylum) and the Japanese Noise artists I stated in my answer to the first question.

3. What is your music for and what is it about?

My noise is a way to convey aural anarchy to its listener and to destroy conventional delusions that occupy today's popular music. It is about free thinking and bringing back the whole DIY aspect that Punk started out with but gradually morphed into the unoriginal pop fueled nonsense it is today. You could say it is a statement against the corporate bullshit that litters conventional listening today. The type of trash that brainwashes young people into thinking that there is only one way of sounding and rejecting the more adventurous ways of making music. It is also about complete artistic freedom. Do what you want to do. Be original and uncompromising, no matter what you are told is or what isn't the norm.

4. Tell us something about your musical process. How do you get from idea to finished project? What equipment and instruments do you use?

I use an array of equipment, from microphone, various pedals, synths, to even guitar, along with Ableton to make my noise. I usually make short blasts of noise along with a few long blasts. Then I use the laptop to slice up the various snatches of noise and tones, then overlay it with a continuous wall of noise. I will also add samples relevant to the title of the piece I am working on. I will always have the title of the piece in mind before I even start to make the noise so I can find a sample that is mildly amusing (or at least amusing to me) that will fit the mood and add a little dark humour to the finished work. If I'm feeling lazy though, I will just let a blast of harsh noise wall continue for a good 7 minutes or so, but even then, I will hear something in the continuing noise that makes it be a necessary act.

5. A lot of your music and titles that I see running across your Twitter feed are quite provocative and "in your face". What about this aspect of what you do appeals to you? Are you trying to make any point from this, political or otherwise? I ask as I notice that noise music often has artistic or political points to make. Do you have any point to make through the music you do?

Titles of my tracks are usually thought of before I even start a piece of work. Sometimes I will be watching the TV and an old movie will pop up and that will inspire me. This happened with the track 'Lee Van Cleef' and other tracks named after classic actors. This is also a part of free improvisation. Sometime random titles with no meaning other than coming up with something that is dark in theme to match the mood of the piece. I have always been fascinated with the macabre and unsavory topics. I think this reflects in my work and what I name my tracks. 

There will be times when someone I heard mentioned pisses me off and then I will pick a title that reflects badly or insults that person. An example being my track 'Anton LaVey Was A Fucking Posing Cunt', because at the time I was pissed off with the fact that silly youngsters were still looking up to him, even though he was just some guy that obviously loved the attention and milked it.

As for political points, I wouldn't say that there are any political points behind what I name the tracks. There could be one day, but at the moment it is usually just from various things I see and think of from day to day. I tend to avoid political nonsense.

6. Where do you want to go with your music?

It would be nice to have more people interested in the sounds I make. My intention is to make even more challenging sounds. Things that make people really analyse what is going on behind the noise wall. To find different tones, voices, even melodies, trapped in the vortex. I want to make my noise harsher and more difficult. My aim is to fuck with people's brains more, and also with HNM Records, to give artists a chance to get their material out there.

It doesn't matter to me if 2 or 2 million people hear and like my noise. 2 people are just as important as 2 million, and as long as people are willing to listen, then I am willing to be making my noises.

You can catch up with the music of Harsh Noise Movement and the releases of HNM Records, at https://harshnoisemovement.bandcamp.com/  or contact on Twitter @NoiseMuzik

Depression Awareness

Scanning The Guardian my eyes fell on a piece about Depression. Its a subject close to my heart and so I clicked the link. In truth, I was compelled to. I knew that there I would find descriptions of an illness I know far too well and some kind of company in the way commenters below the article would describe their own situations and experiences. I was not disappointed. This week, so the article says, it is Depression Awareness Week. I don't know who arranges such things and I have my doubts about their usefulness but, thanks to whoever, you are now going to become aware of my own experiences and understandings of it. Depression is not a pretty subject and there are many who shy away from it as from some unpleasant, contagious disease and so, if you are one of those, now is the time to stop reading.

So, for those remaining, what does it feel like to suffer from depression, depression as a condition of life and not as a passing moment? The article, and the comments, give some powerful testimony:

"The oddest thing is the degree to which it clouds your judgement, makes you think differently, experience everything differently, even move more slowly, not just 'feeling sad'. Only when not depressed and looking back can you see how truly broken your brain was in that moment."

"I wouldn't wish depression on anybody, mine is frightening."

"At the time you lack the capacity to realize that anything is wrong. Coming out from under it is like slowly waking up, or thawing out. Then you realize six months of your life went by and you did nothing but exist in a wretched state."

"I always thought it was a personal hell, and everyone being different, I found it impossible to describe to anyone else."

"The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment."

"For me, the opposite of depression is peacefulness of mind. Depression felt like the prolonged absence of that peace, a constant sad agitation of discontent."

"When I'm not well, I have to lever myself out of bed, my eyesight isn't good enough to get me to the bathroom without feeling around for the walls; I ache, limping and stumbling, all while feeling disorientated and confused - every night."

"Like being in a dark tunnel where no light can be seen at the end of it. The oppressive nature of depression is tangible, even exerting physical influence as tiredness, headaches and stress. Like being on a futile treadmill to nowhere but you can't get off."

"Sometimes nothing makes sense, even loved ones encouragement and everything becomes somewhere to escape from, to an extent that thoughts are only of methods of suicide. "

"It reduces the world, and the wonders in it, to mechanisms."

"When I'm depressed I'm constantly awaiting the apocalypse - convinced that catastrophe is just around the corner. The feeling hangs heavy over my head and cuts off any fleeting feeling of pleasure."

"The loneliness is really difficult."

"I am in a deep depression because of the situation I am currently in. Pure and simple. For the past 7 days I have barely stopped crying. I wake up and all I see before me is more of the same."

"At the time, I didn't feel sad, I didn't really feel anything but a grim emptiness and bitterness. I couldn't motivate myself to get out of the armchair in my sitting room and do...anything. I barely ate, and as described my memory of those days are extremely fuzzy. I became caustic and angry and hard to be around."

" The condition has all but destroyed who I was, emotions are very difficult to control, and I have very regular suicidal thoughts. I don't take medication as I couldn't stand the way it made me feel."

".. the crushing feeling takes your breath away and curling into a ball does not help. Accompanied by not being able to breathe brings panic attacks and i have had them in multi-storey car parks, shops and out to dinner. Your head feels inactive and not your own, it is hard to capture any thoughts. This can last from a couple of minutes to a couple of hours.."

"I'm struggling. I can't see any positives and I'm a crushed by a terrible sense of guilt."

"My bright, funny, sensitive, deeply thoughtful fifteen year old was diagnosed with depression last autumn. His grades dropped, he found social activities challenging and he became frightened and confused by his illness. We sought help and applied all the usual 'sticking plaster' parenting devices. We tried to make his life as easy and as enjoyable as possible but failed to address those deep, scary thoughts of his head on. My beautiful child took his life in October of last year. Our world is now upside down and we ache with sorrow. Depression feeds off sensitivity and intelligence and needs to be confronted with love and understanding."

"I always thought of it as being enveloped, stifled, constricted in a dense black cloud that would crush one's spirits and sap all one's energy; like the insidious stench that would follow one around and not go away."

"Sometimes when I'm not in it I'm aware of it as a black thing sitting beside me, that I can look at, but it does not reach out and engulf me. Or as an abyss which I know is there but I don't go down."

"I didn't really understand what it was until I experienced it myself, just a thousand days of darkness."

"When I am with the 'black dog', one of the characteristics of my state of mind is a sort of anomie - an utter rejection, a repulsion, of all empathy, all positive relations, with other facets of society. I suppose there's a paradox there: I both want sympathy, and I want to repel any offer of sympathy or support, from another person, simultaneously.

Depression is full of contradictions."

"Depression is incredibly hard to articulate, but for me it just felt like a constant state of nothingness, emptiness, hollowness and pointlessness. I couldn't enjoy or feel anything. I couldn't laugh. I couldn't celebrate when my team or I myself scored a goal. I couldn't enjoy food or music or friendship. It's like I was just existing, but my quality of life was pretty much zero. It felt like I had a constant knotted, churning sensation in my stomach that just wouldn't go away."

That's a lot of testimony but only a fraction of the comments reproduced under the article. I felt it important to replicate some of it because I wanted to try and depict both the variety of experiences of depression and give an idea of its scale. So if you feel I went on at length a little bit then that is why. 

I recognize a great many of the experiences that I have related in these comments. This is especially true of the statement that "depression is full of contradictions". It is. You become locked in a world of your own and the antidote would be to get yourself involved with others. But you have no energy for that and letting others see you in the state that you feel like inside fills you with horror. But, of course, they don't see what is inside you and that is another part of the problem. You may just seem quiet or pre-occupied but in your mind there is a kind of on-going silent scream. Just recently in the last 3 weeks I have begun to endure a new depression-related issue. I now seem to have developed headaches and there seems to be pressure on my head every waking moment. Its a small thing and not acute but its another thing constantly nagging at my troubled mind. When you suffer from chronic mental health issues you try things because you are never sure if the latest annoyance is something once more self-inflicted. When I first got the headaches I thought it might be flu. I have never suffered from headaches in my life before. And now a semi-permanent one. So I took painkillers but they had no effect. And yet, in moments (and they are sadly only moments) when I can step outside my monochrome world of an empty self, they recede. It suggests these headaches are related to my mental health and not to a physical ailment. My life is full of the physical effects of bad mental health from anxiety attacks to being sick, needing the toilet in a desperate rush, sundry random pains in my joints and other things. It comes from being locked in a private world and projecting inwards rather than outwards.

For some, of course, this is all too much and 800,000 people a year are reckoned to kill themselves. This total is startling not least because this is just the people who succeed. How many more don't? How many other people (some of whom will be depression suffers too) live in a kind of hell because they can't kill themselves? A fate worse than death? I admit that death has and does seem like the perfect escape plan. But ask yourself what kind of life you need to be leading first before ways of ending it take up your thinking time. Suicide is never a casual thought or a mere trifle. If you are contemplating it its because you think you have some serious problem. The writer of the article that inspired this blog, Tim Lott, himself someone who has suffered from depression, makes this point when he muses on why some despise depression and fail to take it, or its sufferers, seriously. Its because, he says, that the depressive outlook on life might actually be getting at the bones of a point about life itself. Depressives often feel empty and lethargic, they can find no motivation for things which all seem like so much pointless wasting of time. What if, suggests Lott, this view on life might actually be right? It points a questioning finger at everyone else who doesn't suffer, and at life itself, and says "Is there really any point to any of this? Why should we be bothered?" And that is a scary thought if you are trying to find meaning in something. It suggests that our whole worldview can be invalidated. And not many people want to contemplate that thought. Those suffering from depression get no choice in the matter though.

I offer no cheerful happy ending to this blog. I'm 47 and have suffered mental health issues for probably 37 of those years. They will last as long as I do. I have resigned myself to it. I am trying to nurse myself through the suffering (which is why I write blogs, make music, run up hills and compile podcasts) but its always a coping and never a curing. God knows how many others are in a similar position to me or worse. The only point of this blog today is to say that we are out there and maybe you know one of us. We have health issues and these issues affect us daily, maybe they even change our personalities. No one really knows what goes on inside someone else's head but it might not be pleasant and maybe is even almost unbearable. It can sometimes feel like a constant state of grief but one that seems to have no context or originating point. Its like its always been there, dark and featureless. In the end you have to make the best of it. Today I have sung as I walked, looked at the blue sky and written this blog. All of these things have taken my mind off it to some degree. Of course, there are lulls in between where it must be faced again. This is life for some people. A friend can help too. If you can manage to find one. Its insidious that all too many people with mental health issues are also alone or lonely and this is a vicious circle which often makes things worse.

But what can you do? Life rolls on...

Artist Interview: Famous Breathers

Famous Breathers are a duo from Rochester, New York, who I recently became aware of during researches into the "noise" genre. That said, they describe their debut album, Mosquito Buzzer, as "experimental rock" and I'd go along with that. I found the album to be an always interesting and different ride through 11 songs (singing is featured here from the sometimes Bowiesque David Glossner) whose average length is around the three minute mark. The album itself is always keen to stay fresh and doesn't settle into any ruts and has a few tricks and surprises up its sleeve. Whereas some albums can just deliver one flavor and you either like it or you don't, this album offers a variation of treats and this is good for it means that you keep listening to the end (as I did) and when you get there you are left with the impression of a duo who are happily experimental but also fresh with it. On my listening I never got the impression I'd heard this music before and I was encouraged to listen further by their inventiveness. The album makes use of an extended rock instrumentation that veers off into electronica and this gives a sound as fresh as it is varied. Being encouraged by my listen of the album I decided to invite the duo to give an interview for my blog and, happily, they agreed. What follows is the questions I put to them and the answers I received back.

1. What's the background of the guys in the band? How do you come to be Famous Breathers and making the music you're making together?

We are a duo. I am David, and the other Famous Breather is Brannon. I will start with Brannon's background as he is much more accomplished than I. Brannon is from outside of Fargo, and his first break was being selected to take Page Hamilton's (Helmet) lead spot in Glenn Branca's Ensemble. He recorded symphony's 8 and 10 with Branca and toured the world with the Ensemble. After his time with Branca, Brannon also played guitar with the legendary Am/Rep Noise Rock band Hammerhead. As a matter of fact, I first saw Brannon play with Hammerhead as a fan. I then heard that Brannon was living in my City of Rochester NY, and I was able to meet him and discuss our mutual music interests. We decided to get together and make some noise, and we just clicked. Brannon has also played with other notable musicians like Virgil Moorefield, Elliott Sharp, Tony Levin, Jerry Marotta, etc. as well as his own bands Oblivion Ensemble, Kill Myself on Monday, and solo work under the name Figure. I have been more of an underground musician, with my lo-fi psychedelic folk rock weirdness project To Gaze which was recorded on Fisher Price Tape Recorder, and gained a bit of a cult following. I have also recorded a lot of solo stuff over the years, played in a few bands, and currently have two solo projects Funshine Bear, which is  a noise project and Shiny Robot Face which is an electro-experimental-pop kind of thing? I have a hard time playing in bands, too many irons in the fire. I prefer solo, or duo's. 

2. What are you guys' top 3 musical influences and why?

That's a tough one. I think we both pull from so much. Brannon is a big Scott Walker fan, but he also really loves Slim Whitman. Personally I was influenced a lot by Mr. Bungle. That freedom to just record what you want without sticking to a genre or pre-defined sound was always attractive to me. But I have listened to everything over the years. Butthole Surfers are a big influence too, and early Ween. (One cool fact actually is that Kramer, who played with Butthole Surfers and Ween, and also was behind the famous label Shimmy Disc mastered Mosquito Buzzer.) But I've listened to plenty of pop, hip hop, metal, hardcore, country, punk... just everything. I also spent a lot of time immersed in the metal scene in Rochester as well, so I have a soft spot for heavy stuff and I know my friends and their bands influenced me as well. Some of my friends here have gone on to play in Mastodon, Today is the Day, Napalm Death, Nuclear Assault, Brutal Truth, and more. 

3. What sort of music are you trying to make and what techniques are you using to make it?

Going back to #2, we don't set out to make anything specific. We just play off each other, and build on whatever we come up with, each adding our elements until we are happy with the finished track. Technique wise, we do a little bit of everything... live instruments, programming, effects, keyboards, drum machines, live drums, samples, radio static, vocal sounds used as instrumentation... whatever works. I think you will understand when you hear all of the tracks on Mosquito Buzzer, there is a wide variety of sounds and instrumentation. 

4. What do you hope listeners get from your music, if you hope they get anything at all?

Mostly I just want someone to enjoy what they hear and find it a unique experience for them. I know at times Famous Breathers may sound like this or that, but overall I think it stands out as a unique record. Different. And there is a little humor injected into what we do, so a laugh here and there would be good too. We don't take ourselves too seriously. It's meant to be fun. 

5. What are your creative goals?

I think Brannon and I both would like to continue creating together as Famous Breathers, and at some point we will do another record which will sound entirely different than Mosquito Buzzer. In the meantime Brannon is releasing a new Kill Myself On Monday Record in May, and re-releasing the debut KMOM release "Hit" in June with additional tracks. It will all be up on Bandcamp. I will be continuing to record new solo material for Funshine Bear, and Shiny Robot Face. 

 6. What's the worst band ever and why?

I really hate to trash anybody that's making music that is true to them. And I can find redeeming qualities in a lot of bands/performers. If I had to choose, it would probably be Nickleback or Creed or something like that... its just so run of the mill boring to me. And I guess with bands like too, I don't like it when they take themselves too seriously. Cliche answer I know, but there really isn't much I hate. I'm not afraid to say I like some Katy Perry songs, or other pop tunes that many will see as garbage. I don't really give a shit, I like what I like and I don't care what people think... I don't follow what's cool or hipster. If I like a song, I like it period and I'm never ashamed of it. People like to be Haters for various reasons, but the sad thing is so many Haters deep down like what they are hating on... and just don't have the balls to admit it. Yes, one minute I may be listening to The Cramps, Then Boredoms, then Metronomy, then Eric B and Rakim,  then Glen Campbell, then Roy Ayers, then Bad Brains, then Gary Numan, then QOTSA, then B-52's, then Unsane... and then who knows... maybe Coldplay. Yes, I like some Coldplay so fuck off! 

7. If you can have one musical tool to use and nothing more which do you choose and why?

Brannon I know would choose guitar, he's an amazing multi-instrumentalist but amazing with guitar and can really express anything he needs to with that instrument. Personally, it would be my voice. I can build entire songs around vocal sounds, it's unlimited really. You can hear a lot of that on Mosquito Buzzer too, especially Lemme Know, Lemme Know, Lemme Know. If I had a second choice, it would be my Korg Kaossilator Pro, I just love playing with the thing and its so versatile as well. 

Links for some of David's current and past projects:

famousbreathers.bandcamp.com

funshinebear.bandcamp.com

shinyrobotface.bandcamp.com

togaze.bandcamp.com

Brannon's other projects (some of them): 

Coming soon, new Bandcamp site for Kill Myself on Monday with new releases coming up.

http://www.oblivionensemble.com/