music, culture, vision.

Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Visionaries, Translators, Interpreters.

Top. Image by Julian Hand. Below. Tomaga in concert. Image by Ross Adams.

On a recent visit to the Tate Modern in London I came across a small painting by Wassily Kadinsky, an artist from the early 1900s, I was interested to read that there had been a period when he had wanted his art to be a visual representation of the non-material, his paintings to be of the spiritual (1)-and also of music. Further on there was a room of paintings produced by artist Gerhard Richter while he listened to the music of John Cage, whose ideas on creating music had appealed to Richter (2). In Richter's case there was an interaction between music(ian) and visual art(ist) while Kadinsky went one step further wanting, at times, his art to be the transposing of music into another medium. Visual artists Julian Hand and Ross Adams' work sits between Richter and Kadinsky, albeit in a very different context. Julian's work includes running workshops, live visuals and videos for amongst others The Oscillation, Desert Ships and the recent School of Hypnosis performance at The Barbican as part of 'Station to Station'. Ross is a visual artist who has worked closely with Tomaga, producing their album artwork, live projections and a video for 'Futura Grotesk'. He has also provided live visuals for Orlando. Mesmerised by their work at gigs and intrigued by the creative process I asked Julian and Ross if they would answer a few questions on their amazing work of mediation.

Q: How did you get involved in the visuals of music? Was it something you were 'always' interested in?

Julian: During my years as an art student I started to take an interest in Super 8mm film. I started to develop an intense passion for the medium whilst at Camberwell Collage of Arts studying Graphic Design. I loved the idea of being able to project the moving image I'd filmed and in turn this opened my eyes to the concept of light projection in its broadest sense. In those days I would try to bend each brief to incorporate using film or slide projections in some form one way or another. I ended the course specialising in moving image and focused my passion for experimental film in my final year. Around the same time I began experimenting with 35mm slide projectors, paints, glues and all sorts of house hold chemicals in an attempt to recreate light show techniques I'd read about and seen created by a friend. I was totally obsessed with these tools and methods of exhibiting or displaying imagery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggx_ZdCcq2A – Love Is…

Super 8 film is silent a Super 8 film camera only records the visual. As my projects and ideas developed I found it necessary to start to incorporate sound ideas alongside my moving images. I began to befriend and collaborate with friends at art school who also played instruments or experimented with sound, some even opted for the label of band. During those years I spent a great deal of time experimenting with sound and image with those friends, sometimes for collage projects but mostly for fun.

One project I remember was titled V.L.E.S (Visual Light Experimental Sound). The make up consisted of a friend with a shed load of synthesisers and effect machines spilling out white noise and drones and myself with as many film and slide projectors as I could operate, covering every available wall space with liquid light, melting slides and burning film loops of 1960's Go Go glam girls and pin up stars in a tiny room at the back of the collage to an audience of nobody. We put up posters round the collage advertising the 'event'. Still, no one showed up and we came out of that room feeling pretty psychotic after an hour or so of mind shredding noise and whirling light and the whiff of Amyl Nitrate faintly trailing behind us. It was definitely a one off experience.

Whilst at collage I also worked providing visuals for local bars and pubs in and around Camberwell and Brixton in South London. I'd turn up to a bar with a suitcase full of projectors and set them up on a balcony or high space and sit up there in the rafters projecting films and painting on glass slides all evening. Usually I'd get a little money and some free drinks. It was a great way to hone my skills and figure out what worked in a live environment. After sometime this became a little boring though. There's only so much bar funk you can listen to before going crazy and after a while the projections started to feel more like a kind of moving wall paper with no personality so I decided to stop for a while and figure out the next move. I like mood lighting in venues and in a sense this is what I was doing in the bars. I was providing a pleasant back drop for night club goers to occasionally look up at over the course of the evening, a momentary distraction from the disco floor. I got very bored of this after a while and realised there was no life in this form of light experience for me. I interact with the projectors and create new slide paintings constantly refreshing the liquid light experience. This important aspect of the process was being missed in this setting. I felt I need to take these techniques to a different audience and put them back in to a performance context and leave the decorative or mood lighting to the Optikinetics projectors rigged in up in the ceiling. I wanted to create something the audience would feel they've experienced rather than just walking into a room with pretty lights. I wanted them to wonder what the hell was happening. After all, this was where the origins of the light show began right? It was a kind of alchemy or magic happening? Or so I thought. I started to think about getting in contact with bands and tailor a light show that complimented the sound and brought/elevated the experience of listening to the music to another level, essentially take the audience on both a sonic and sight journey. I wanted that symbiosis of sound and image to be seamless, I want the audience to walk away and feel the whole performance both audio and visual as one entity.

And so off I went looking for the right sound to connect the lights with. It was hit and miss with the bands I started collaborating with in the beginning. I never seemed to gel completely with the sound or the artists. Again it was good practise but hard going in the beginning because around that time I'd also realised that I didn't want to get bracketed in the 1960's psych or punk garage revival scene. As cool as I thought it was I still figured it was all just treading the same old groovy ground. I felt I was doing something more with the visual techniques by incorporating my own personal film works into the light display and this stuff just didn't fit with the bands I'd been listening to. Around that time I did have the honour of performing with Sky Saxon of the Seeds and his new band Lighter for two North London shows back in 2004. He introduced me to the audience as the forth member of Soft Machine which I was pretty made up with at the time.

After a bought of meaningless or uninspired gigs I decided to give the light shows a break for a while and concentrate my creative energies on my experimental film ideas concerning celluloid film and neon sign video poetry.
Then in late 2005 I had the fortune of meeting and befriending Demian Castellanos. We both connected with our similar taste in music and it sounded like he was working on some pretty interesting ideas for his new music project going under the working title of The Orichalc Phase. One night after a gig we were talking and I explained that I was looking for some strange soundscapes to accompany my film poetry project. Dem showed interest and invited me around to his studio to check out some sonic ideas and his new music project.
https://vimeo.com/16852703 - Neon Rendezvous London

We finally arranged an evening to hook up. After a few beers and a few hours of listening intently to a plethora of material ranging from complete works, works in progress and sonic sketches I went home that night with a selection of tracks and sound ideas to work on. One of the tracks was titled 'Respond in Silence' it was an early mix but Dem was sure it was a strong candidate for his first Orichalc Phase EP release on DC Recordings. A few weeks later he gave me a call and told me to put my best efforts into the visuals for the video as it was definitely going to be the first EP release in the campaign to promote his first album 'Out of Phase'.
https://vimeo.com/83716683 - Respond In Silence
https://vimeo.com/83721116 - Violations

Ross: As an 8 year old in 1986 I got stuck in the cassette inlay of Iron Maiden's 'Somewhere In Time' album that a mate lent me. I was fixated by all of the tiny details in the artwork - like references to the lyrics, their gigs and their other albums. It was so different to the other music I had, and it made me realise there was another depth beyond just hearing an album, however basic. It drew me in with rich otherworldly imagery as start points, and encouraged the internal visual experience I have when listening to music. I loved it and started drawing my own tape covers the next day.

I got involved in music visuals in the early 2000’s by putting up live triggered 35mm slideshows for mate’s club nights in east London - a lot of sweaty breaks and drum n bass, but they branched out and started doing some much more left field nights that felt more visually interesting, so my projections got more varied and more prominent. Most of it was based on abstract or surreal analogue photography I had been making quietly by myself for years, but I also handmade slides. Stuff that seemed to fit the attitude of the music got the best response: surreal, colourful, sinister…. in a dark noisy room a bright light is a powerful thing - so don’t shine it in people's eyes, it’s just annoying.

Q: How much collaboration is there between the musicians and yourself over style and content?

Julian: We started to think about what kind of imagery we'd use and types of special effects to employ for the video. I'd previously performed a light show where I'd asked audience members to supply a passport photo of themselves of which I'd paint on and then melt in the projector live. It was an evening of face annihilation set to experimental electronic music. I was keen to take this live idea and transfer it to video. Demian was reading a book on sacred geometry and wanted to incorporate some of these designs in to the video. So I made up a set of slides with these ancient designs on and some with Dem's face. I then spent an evening projecting and disintegrating these images and recording the results. The recorded material was then spliced together with a mixture of my archive Super 8 film experiments and raw footage. After a few weeks of editing 'Respond in Silence' we finally had our first music video collaboration complete. It was a real mish mash of ideas but in the end it kind of came together. This was our first collaboration, the first of many to come.

This is how the process of collaboration began between Demian and myself. I would come up with some new or revived projection techniques we could use for SFX sequences or suggest different cameras or weird types of film stock we could experiment on. Then we'd sit down and together and discuss the image content or if applicable a narrative sequence. Our ideas would usually entail a journey to a forgotten or lesser explored area of the city, places of abandon and desolation.

And so this is how we progressed as collaborators. Dem writes a track and sends it over. Usually in rough form. I listen and advise sometimes. Then over time one track might stick out and I will start to develop images or film ideas. We will discuss these early thoughts and generally digest them for some time. If the idea sticks and begins to grow then that's usually the cue to put the idea into production. Each video has demanded some form of experimental projection technique. So once a video is finished we are always left with some new SFX material we can work into the live show with The Oscillation. And whilst constructing the video from concept through to realisation we bounce ideas and early edits back and forth. Or in the final stages of post production Dem will come over to my studio and we would go over the near final edit. This is always a good move because I tend to get carried away with things sometimes. For instance during the edit stage of the 'From Tomorrow' video I ended putting our green holographic character in many more of the scenes than was necessary. I did this simply because I liked the process of dropping the green screened character into the lush Super 8mm background footage. Demian came over to check out the edit and was amazed just how carried away I'd got. He suggested we drop some of the scenes in order to let the narrative breath. I was initially against the suggestion. Purely because I was counting up the editing time I had put in over the weeks. After making the adjustments I could see he was totally right. I can go blind in the editing vortex from time to time. It's always good to have that second eye scrutinising the work as it progresses. In the end it betters the final outcome. https://vimeo.com/83525286 - From Tomorrow

I believe it is highly important to get to know the musician/artist you find yourself collaborating with. I'm always interested in their background their influences and where they want to go with their projects. I think you really need to get to know these aspects in order to generate the right ideas for the project. The better I know someone then the better and more honest the ideas can be. Break down the barriers and the visions become deeper.

I feel I have my own defined style, visual tastes and aesthetic and a lot of ideas but, it is so important to get to know where the musician is coming from regarding the songs content direction and energies. The musician or band may also have reference material be it literature, photography or art or other video/film influences they'd like to draw inspiration from. All of this is so important in the mix of ideas when collaborating on a project and I am always open to these influences because ultimately I feel they enhance or enrich the project.

Ross: When TOMAGA originally approached me to work with them on the artwork for their first releases, we talked about what we thought fitted their work best and then threw pictures and references at each other until we felt a few elements click. I made something based on those, and we threw it backwards and forwards until we were all happy.

There's always a deeper interaction around the releases and the printed work, cos it's much more of a concrete statement, as opposed to the live show which is a loose ritual that evolves each time you do it. The live visual content stemmed mostly from the ideas in the original conversations we had, as well as Tom (Relleen) using the phrase "psychic conveyor belt" which really stuck in my head.

In a live setting I'm there to add another dimension to TOMAGA's work - they're a great live act by themselves and without my visuals, and when we play together I follow their lead as they aren't there to soundtrack my visuals. It would be good to swap roles at some point and for me to make a short film for TOMAGA to soundtrack. Maybe next year!

Q: In a live setting how much of what you do is an improvised response to the music and how much is pre determined? Or does that balance shift and change according to the gig?

Julian: During a live show the balance between the pre determined and the improvised with regard to the imagery and visual response varies with accordance to who (which band) I'm working with at the time.

For instance my shows with The Oscillation in a sense are a lot more pre determined than one might think. I have worked with the band live now for many years and know the songs and set by heart. I know the pace and structure of each track and am therefore prepared for what's coming up in the set. I have certain techniques with the slide painting prepared for either an aggressive fast moment or a slow spaced out sequence and as I know what to expect from the band I can have these elements ready for the changes before the changes are made by the band. So this gives the live show a tighter feeling overall. Someone once described what I do as a kind of dance behind the projectors because I am constantly moving around either preparing a selection of slides or leaping about the projectors changing images, pulling focus or strobing the light mixing the various projections in time (or seemingly in time) to the band on stage. This level of togetherness I have with The Oscillation's live set has grown tighter over the years.

In turn, if I'm working with a band I've had less experience with live then my work with them is usually a lot more improvised. I have certain techniques that I know work and look good. These will usually emulate the classic light show. If a band hasn't requested any specific imagery then I will usually perform a standard liquid light show. These can be open and a lot more experimental. I feel there's a bit more freedom in the improvised approach and it makes for a good change from time to time. If something works well that I haven't tried before then it will usually end up being incorporated into an Oscillation show.

Sometimes bands will ask for certain imagery to appear within the light shows. For instance I have currently started collaborating with Jim Jones and his new band The Righteous Mind. Jim asked me if I could incorporate imagery referencing Occult, Masonic and Illuminati symbols and other weird magic iconography. I put some short animations of eyes and strange magic signs together and edited them into the pre recorded video aspect of my show. I also made up a load of slides using magic symbols of which to paint on and burn in the projector during the show. So in a sense a show can also be tailored to the band in a bespoke fashion.

Ross: I usually make themed groups of still images or short videos with the music in mind, and use these to make batches of video loops that relate to parts of their set. I play and mess with these to fit what they play, so really I'm VJing using all my own footage. Random stuff and accidents happen in a live setting and that is fun too.

Q: Ego Sensation of White Hills commented that 'There’s also something powerful about the artist actually showing the audience the music' (3). She was talking about the musician playing live but is that what you doing, 'showing the audience the music'.

Julian: I'm not sure that I would say that I'm 'showing the audience the music' via my visual work on stage. I think everyone, if they were to 'show the music' would show something completely different and entirely unique.

Certainly the visuals I conjure are styled to the band and for the band or style of music. In the case of The Oscillation there has been a strong collaborative venture in the production of the music videos and art work styled around the band. Therefore the imagery we use in the live shows directly stem from these visual ideas generated by Demain and myself. We've always tried to keep the light show as abstract as we can in order to enable the audience to make their own connection with what's going on visually in relation to the sound.

The nature of my projection work is fluidity (liquid). Therefore there is a sense that that the projections move or flow with the sound, especially when it's all going to plan. I try to project many levels or layers of movement to reflect a songs structure. I use various household chemicals and products to achieve different speeds or pace. Each has is own character of effect or movement. A certain type of glue when mixed with watercolour ink and boiled moves in a particularly fast and vicious way. I will employ this concoction during an energetic moment in the set. A fast track and a retina ripping slide to suit. The audience will observe and experience an intense moment both sonically and visually. They will see the two elements moving in unison as one. This is the intension and when I achieve this I feel the show has been a success. People will ask me if I have the projectors rigged up to the speakers in someway as they feel the two elements are completely interconnected and moving in time as one. I always enjoy telling them 'no' and informing them that it's their brain marrying the two together. There are so many levels of movement in both the sound and what you are seeing moving around in the light show. Your brain pairs it all up and renders it a whole. The experience is in your head!

Ross: I hope so. It's projecting my version, an interpretation, or hopefully an enhancement to what TOMAGA are playing. I hope it feels interesting, draws people in, and that they connect with another angle in the music. Ideally it would go beyond the performance, get a bit subconscious and they’d have some heavy dreams that night too. ha ha.

Q: Would you see your visuals as interpretation/representation or the transposing of music into another medium?

Julian: The visual techniques I use have a long history with the world of music and have always been seen to be part of the music or its interpretation. The liquid light experiments date back as far as the Jazz scene in the 50's and were seen even then as representing the sound via a projected visual style. I consider my efforts to master these techniques and bring something of my own imagination in style to the history of the light show a continuation of this art form and its will to co exist with music/sound. It's symbiosis with sound expounded the art form to a much wider audience. The two are now intrinsically connected.

Ross: I think my visuals will always be my interpretation, but if people experienced it as a transposition of TOMAGA's music then I would be very happy. Ultimately that's what I'm aiming for - for people to experience the band and the visuals as a synergy, which in turn is greater than the sum of its parts.

Q: When making a music video how do you decide what style of art and what structure is appropriate to a particular piece of music?

Julian: The style of art or design for each video I embark on is usually always discussed in the early stages of the videos concept either with the artist, band or record label.
Each video project will be different in approach, no video is the same and I try to experiment with different ideas or combinations of ideas for each piece.
Sometimes I'm given a list of references to check out and am asked to, in some way, emulate in my own way the special effect or film trick. I will discuss the track with the musicians and get them to describe its essence in greater detail. Usually I have some visual trick I'd like to explore and try to weave it into the structure of the video somehow.
In a perfect world each project will involve Super 8mm or celluloid in some way or form as this is my preferred medium. I get the most kicks out of using film. There's a greater sense of reward when an idea works out well. I love the aesthetic and always will. So when I'm asked to make a video then this (film aesthetic) is usually kept in mind. I have a reputation for this kind of aesthetic or style and am usually asked to produce something using these methods. So in a sense the style/look is already decided.
When making 'From Tomorrow' both Demian and myself where reading a lot of J G Ballard and we wanted to bring in aspects of his writing from a visually descriptive point of view. We wanted to build visually upon his dystopian vistas, our journeying with the camera took us to derelict factory districts and brutalist inner city caves which seemed to reflect the imagery he’d installed in our mindscape. The idea was to set a strange backdrop in which we let loose our holographic future female transmission. I read a lot and this informs or influences my work in a big way. I’ve just read ‘The Rings of Saturn’ by W.G. Sebald and am deeply inspire by his writing. One landscape in particular is now on my list for exploration through the S8mm lens. I now plan to visit Orford Ness and the abandoned weapons testing facility area which is now part of a nature reserve.

Ross: To be honest I really just try to visualise what I am hearing. I go into lots of detail and listen to it repeatedly to really know it, but also to hear it when I'm in lots of different places and moods. That's a good way of checking the inner vision you are growing will stick and is worth pursuing in the physical world. The hardest bit is making it real. https://vimeo.com/108414897 TOMAGA Futura Grotesk.

Q: Do you have a 'weapon of choice'?! A style or technique of art that you really enjoy employing?

Julian: As I mentioned above, I am deeply into celluloid (S8MM) as a medium for generating moving or still images. I love the medium for many reasons. The varying grades, colours and grains of film, the amazing array of different cameras and strange lenses that you can explore, it's home made D.I.Y aesthetic, the use of light to create and view an image, it's ability to paint like the memories eye, it's versatility and tangible aspects, film painting and out of camera effects. My list goes on and on! And that's why film is my 'weapon of choice'.

Ross: Dark. A blank screen. It's like knowing when to shut up. Sight is our dominant perception so it's important to know how to be quiet with it - especially in a dark room.

Q: What artists involved in music visuals have you been inspired by?

Julian: My early influences I guess would go back to my MTV2 days and watching all kinds of weird videos in the dead of night. For instance the video 'Fish Heads' by Barnes and Barnes springs to mind. All that odd low-fi, low budget stuff made by independent bands and labels was always really encouraging. It gave you the feeling that you could go out there and do something yourself. Then I guess at art collage and there after I've been heavily into underground film or experimental cinema, and also instillation art and light show environments have been a big influence.

Ross: I saw Sculpture a few months ago in a studio space and it was the most exciting thing I'd seen for ages - wobbly, swirling madness. I've seen a lot of music visuals that just look like screen savers and that doesn't interest me much, same goes for sampling from 'Holy Mountain' and other films - I mean, why not make something of your own to show?

Friday, 24 July 2015

White Hills; An 'act of resistance'.

Photo by Chris Carlone.

I'm sure you have noticed that in late capitalism much of mainstream culture, including music, is the tarted up results of market forces and the commodification of all things, it cannot help but be bereft of meaning and over arching purpose, it has nothing much to say and no idea where it is going; it operates as a social anaesthetic. In contrast White Hills are a band with purpose, vitality and a desire to communicate their concerns on political and social issues.

Formed in 2005 by Dave W. and Ego Sensation White Hills' music is variously described as Space Rock and /or neo-psychedelic and like Hawkwind during Bob Calvert's phase their music includes social-political comment. Their 2011 album 'H-p1' was the first part of a trilogy looking at structures of control and power with 'So You Are...So You'll Be' (2013)

exploring the individual's agency within those structures (1). While the new album 'Walks For Motorists' (2015) does not complete the trilogy it does continue the vein of social comment so when White Hills kindly agreed to an interview rather than ask about musical styles and production it seemed like a good opportunity to explore these other facets of their music.

Q: Picasso wrote about art washing away the dust of everyday life from the soul (2). Is that something you would aim for with your music, that it would wake people up?

EGO: I think, in general, music and art allow us to transcend the drudgery of everyday existence and move towards a higher consciousness.

DW: I agree with Ego. Art has always been a way for me to dive within myself and ponder issues big and small, whether personal or societal. It has always been a vehicle of enlightenment for me in some form or another.

That said, everyone exists within their own reality. All is internalized differently from one person to the next. How I feel is how I feel. I don't write for others, I write for myself. Creating is a cathartic process that does wash away the dust of everyday life from my soul. I don't feel that my purpose on this earth is to wake other people up. I can only be responsible for myself. I think the majority of our fans are people who are looking for something more than the insipid bland music of the day. They are thinkers. A thinking mind is a questioning mind. A questioning mind is an active mind. An active mind leads to action. Action leads to change.

Q: We live in a physical and social world that is shaped by and for the elite-is your music a comment on that, an alerting of people to it or an act of resistance against it?

DW: I am merely a viewer, listener and thinker. What I internalize comes out in the form of my art. When such topics are approached within our music it tends to be very abstract. It's not pointed or dictatorial. It is the listener whom decides what they see within it and what they take away from it.

EGO: Our existence as a band, and as the people that we are, is a peaceful yet assertive act of resistance. We write music we believe in that comes from our hearts. It's not manufactured after testing public opinion, staying up to date on the newest trend of the hour with the intention of selling as many units of it as possible. My point is that when anyone acts from their gut- according to their conscience and true desires, they immediately become revolutionary in a society that values false appearances, catch phrase headlines, insipid internet popularity contests and E! Entertainment News.

Q: Do you think making the hidden 'visible' is an important aspect of art?

DW: Yes, I do think that is an important aspect of art. In my opinion, people who create true art are making the hidden visible. Whether the artist chooses to be direct or abstract with getting their message across that doesn't matter. Art should make you think. The rest is just bland drivel to numb your mind.

Q: I was fascinated to read that 'H-p1' was in part ,at least, a response to the capture of the US Government by corporate power and the one dimensional top down narrative that blocks space for discussion (3). What aspects of that situation were you confronting on 'H-p1'? Is that a situation you see improving in the US or do you think the corporate state is now established? If so, how do you see the situation being rectified?

EGO: H-p1 explores the rabid consumerism that corporations have infected society with by creating cheaply-made, quickly out-dated, disposable products and the imbalance it creates within the world. To my knowledge the situation is only getting worse in the United States. Corporations seem to have free reign to violate all kinds of laws without ever suffering repercussions. They can even freely and legally hire lobbyists to persuade politicians to rewrite laws in their favour. Money is the only thing that seems to talk in this country though we all have to listen to a load of hypocritical bullshit from the politicians.

I think the system can only be rectified by people turning to a more community based way of doing business- in smaller groups. Corporations initially sold themselves to people by offering them better deals. For instance, Walmart had a technique of opening 2 of their stores on either side of town and then after crushing their local competition, they'd close one of the stores. In New York City, a huge string of corporate pharmacies have opened over the past 10 years. They used to offer discounted prices over local competitors, though now that a lot of the competition has disappeared and people have made a habit of shopping at these stores they can raise their prices without losing the business. People believe they're getting a better deal- either because of force of habit, misleading advertising, tricky marketing techniques or just mistaken beliefs/myths about a big corporation being able to offer you a better deal. We need to stop supporting businesses we don't believe in. We need to buy less and buy right: shop somewhere local and pay a bit more for better quality. We also need to think less about buying stuff and more about connecting with our communities in a way that benefits everyone- for example creating community gardens, forming a childcare share group or a local business owner's association to help encourage everyone's success.

DW: If you take profit away from the corporate structure, it will not have the power it does now. We as individuals have the power to choose where and how we spend our money. If each and everyone of us thought about that and what we are supporting when we purchase something I think people's buying habits would change. If we get the money out of the corporate hand(s) and support local small businesses the paradigm of power will change.

Q: Corporate capitalism’s most brazen trick is to try and pass itself off as natural, attempting to convince us that no other world is possible. The Situationists wrote about this in 1950s/60s referring to it as ‘the spectacle’ (4) — Society and culture dominated by a seamless representation of a capitalist version of the world via the media, state and corporations, the oppressed internalising those values and any dissent marginalised or co-opted. 'So You Are...So You'll Be' considered the individual's response to this situation-what conclusions did you reach?

DW: 'So You Are…So You'll Be' is a meditation for one to think about how they personally fit into this paradigm. As I mentioned before I'm not here to tell people how to think, I merely ask questions and let all who are willing to listen make their own decisions.

There is an underlying theme to "So You Are…" and that theme is change. What is different now from years past? Have we as human kind really changed over the time we have existed? I'm not talking about technological change I'm talking about a higher consciousness. We believe ourselves to be at the top of the animal chain, but we are the only animal on the planet that does not live within harmony with it, so are we really as intelligent as we think we are?

The conclusion I came to is that things really don't change. Technology may advance, but we as the human race keep on running around the same circle. There is always an elite that manipulates the masses and keeps them down. When the masses feel empowered they simply take down the elite power structure and the process starts all over again. So You Are…So You'll Be. I do think that humans have a greater capacity for change, however there needs to be a massive shift in the collective conscious for that change to encompass a new way of existing where we live within harmony with all and we finally see us as an integral part of the universe, not the 'end all' being stuck with in it.

Q: You mentioned that the new album, 'Walks For Motorists', contains social comment and context, could you expand on that?

EGO: The title itself is a comment on how people come to define and pigeon hole themselves. It came from a Welsh visitor guide of the same name that was produced in the late 1950's/early 1960's when it was popular to be a "motorist". Obviously we all have a variety of roles in our lives that we can define- we're pedestrians when walk down the street, we're consumers when we go grocery shopping, we're fans when we attend a concert. No big deal- it's the tedious specificity of our language. The problem comes in when people use words with agendas to define themselves and as a matter of pride or psychological cohesion refuse to consider the complexities of issues. For example, voting for a politician simply because they belong to the party we belong to rather than really examining the person and their views. The danger in the US is there is always some politician blabbering about "family values" to push through some piece of legislation that doesn't have anything to do with so called "family values". But for a huge group of people in the country, the term "family values" is very powerful- so often they look no further than the catch phrase.

The song "£sd or USB" offers an open ended question to people. What will you choose to use to tune into the world or completely drop out? Lately when I walk around New York, especially Brooklyn, there's a lot of iPhone zombies roaming the streets. They stare at their screens while blocking sidewalks or cluelessly walking out in front of traffic. It's as if they can't be away from the screen for a moment- they might miss a text, lose their way on the map, miss out on someone liking their photo. It's worse than crystal meth! But the phone isn't the problem, just in the same way that drugs aren't the problem. People are the problem! So many of us seem to be missing out on the desire and willpower to evolve. Technology is growing so fast and creating so many amazing possibilities for improving our lives and our consciousness- but why is it that so many people use it to just check out mentally, bully others, obsess on old lovers, and consume? We all have the capacity to do much better.

Q: We live in societies that encourage us to derive our self identity from consumption, which I think you addressed on 'H-p1' (1) -how do you counter that? John Holloway argues that our sense of self should be sourced in our collective efforts to improve situations, in acts of collective creativity and community (5).

EGO: The sense of having purpose is lost on many people and contributes to a society of psychologically twisted, confused and/or medicated people that have forgotten how to be useful members of the community. People are so concerned with making money- because it is necessary! Not once has my landlord excepted my musical ability or goodwill in exchange for rent. But from my personal point of view, the optimum goal in life is to spend your time creating something of value to yourself and others and to be able to survive (eat well, have a roof over your head) doing so. I think the problem starts when we go beyond providing for ourselves and just get greedy- valuing money over all else. That's why in the music business it's hard to find a supportive record label. The current model is to sign up a band that has some buzz and then if they don't deliver profit almost immediately to drop them. It's like day trading and it doesn't allow for an artist's growth or anything interesting that's not instantly "trending". It banks on people's lack of focus fostered by looking at too many fucking links on the internet under the guise of becoming "better informed". Many neurologists have done studies that show that focusing on too many items at once weakens the power of the frontal cortex. I think all of us that have a computer and/or smartphone know this from experience. We might turn on the computer to work on an interview, then remember we need to send an email, then while opening up the browser remember to search the internet for an answer to a technical question and suddenly hours have passed by with seemingly no real positive action.

The first real way I learned to counter lack of focus and resist the urge to over consume was through practicing Bikram yoga. It's a very disciplined practice done in a hot room 40º C (104º F) for 90 minutes and it involves focusing on your breath and learning to find comfort and stillness regardless of the heat. You learn to go from maximum effort to complete stillness from pose to pose and you learn to resist the urge to wipe away sweat, drink water or let your mind wander. The practice really helped me identify how consumption is usually a psychological pacifier: I feel sad or inadequate so I'll buy some new clothes or a second cup of coffee. I've learned to think about my purchases in a different way and better understand the difference between NEED and WANT. Ultimately all suffering comes from WANT, of which materialism encourages an endless supply: a newer this, a faster that, bigger, prettier, etc. You have to learn to find contentment now and always- on the day you lose your job, on your wedding day, in the sweltering heat, in the blistering cold and on a perfect sunny cool day. Nothing from the outside can bring you that contentment if you don't cultivate it within yourself.

I like how John Holloway refers to "cracks in the rule of money". These are the things that a thinking person sees in the world that give a burst of hope. It can be music you hear that touches you in a way you can't really explain, a group of people that gather together to protest, or walking through a forest and noticing the beauty of the trees. Sometimes we're get so stressed out about money that we forget it is truly meaningless. I seriously doubt anyone on their deathbed regrets not making more money.

Q: Nic Endo has on her Twitter page that "There is purity in noise, which can serve as a very direct way of communicating emotion..." (6). Is White Hills music sometimes a transposing of emotion into sound or more conceptual? Would you see it as the musical equivalent of abstract art, the transposing of ideas and concepts, experiences and emotions into another form?

EGO: White Hills' music is always a transposing of emotion even when we consciously decide to create something conceptual. Much of our work has started from a simple riff line that has grown organically through playing it live, allowing the separate instruments to take root or bloom as inspiration takes them. I think music and dance are the purest and most powerful languages we have on earth. They allow for a more universal expression of real truths about existence that we can all relate to. Words often confuse meaning more than clarifying it.

Q: Some artists find their work is more complete live-in the interaction of band and audience-does the live setting bring an extra dimension to your work?

EGO: Playing the music live in front of an audience creates the potential for magic and spontaneity. Dave's guitar work on much of the material changes from show to show and I think he often feeds off the energy of the audience so that no two shows are ever the same. There's also something powerful about the artist actually showing the audience the music. It becomes a more active experience for everyone. The audience is never really passive in the way that someone listening to music at home or on headphones is. Your eyes dart around the stage checking out the drummer, the bassist, the guitarist, the singer. You notice new things: the melody that you thought was a guitar is actually played on the bass, the bass player is a chick! who knew?, the guitarist uses a combination of effects pedals to create crazy sounds you might have thought were synthesizers. There's a whole new layer of information that embellishes and enriches the experience of listening. As a player, you can watch the audience and literally see when your music is moving people.

Q: In March this year you released 'I Remain In' on a 'God Unknown' split with Mugstar, how did that come about?

DW: We've been friends with Mugstar for quite some time now. Jason and I have been speaking about doing some kind of split together since both our bands appeared on the Trensmat singles collection celebrating the music of Hawkwind. When Jason approached me about starting up God Unknown, he asked if I would be interested in having WHITE HILLS be one of the releases with Mugstar. I didn't have to think about it at all, I agreed right away.

Q: How about your own evolution! Over the period you have been writing lyrics and music has the subject matter changed as well as your own understandings? What cultural resources (writers/thinkers/musicians/etc) have you drawn on, and been influenced by, as people and musicians?

EGO: Here's a small list of some of the people that have in some way inspired, influenced or moved me: Gilda Radner, Bob Fosse, Jim Henson, Nick Cave, Siouxsie Sioux, Albert Camus, John Waters, Jimmy Page, Pedro Almodovar, Amy Sedaris, Lucas Samaras, Dostoevsky, Fritz Lang, Exene Cervenka, Spaulding Gray, Peter Sellars, Wayne Coyne, Albert Einstein, Freddie Mercury, Iggy Pop, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Wilson, Salvador Dali, Werner Herzog and a million others I'll remember tomorrow and wish I listed.

DW: Buckminster Fuller has been a big influence on me. What a different world we'd live in if the powers that be of his time put into actions his ideas and inventions. Writers; Hunter S. Thompson, Aldous Huxley, Voltaire, Jospeh Campbell, Italo Calvino, Albert Camus are so many others . Musically I've always been drawn to artists/groups that push the boundaries of what is normal at the time. People like John Cage, Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis to bands like PiL, Einstuzende Neubauten and Throbbing Gristle. To be honest there are so many bands, artists, writers and philosophers I could name here it's numbing.

As for my own art, I've always been one that explores what some might see as heavy issues. It's what draws me to create and what keeps me sane. In my early stages of writing, I was more pointed, forceful and opinionated within the subject matter. Now I find my work to be more conceptual and abstract. Why I'm not sure. It's just how I see the way my process, and it's end results, has developed.

Massive thanks to Dave and Ego for their time, insights and wisdom.

Bibliography.

(1) Terich, J. (2013) 'w: White Hills' http://www.treblezine.com/interview-white-hills/

(2) http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/4673-art-washes-away-from-the-soul-the-dust-of-everyday

(3) Hewitt, B. 'BBC Review' of 'H-p1' at http://www.amazon.co.uk/H-P1-White-Hills/dp/B004XKBCMS/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1431020800&sr=1-1&keywords=h-p1

(4) Debord, G. (1968) 'The Society of the Spectacle'. Black and Red, USA.

(5) Holloway, J. (2005) 'Change the World Without Taking Power', Pluto Press, London and New York.

(6) https://twitter.com/nic_endo

Monday, 13 July 2015

Orlando; 'Far Out and Fantastic'

Photo by Kathy Coleman.

Orlando is the musical identity/project of multi instrumentalist Cathy Lucas who adopted the name from a Virginia Woolf novel about a gender-bending dreamer who lives for 500 years! In March 2014 she released 'Earth Moon Earth and Other Round Trips' a split tape with Tom Furse and in March this year came 'Play Time', again a split tape, with Tomaga on Ram Tapes. On this Orlando sounds like the offspring of a 60s Sci-Fi soundtrack and a 70s Cinema advert but live as a full band it feels like you could be witnessing the rebirth of (a very danceable) Flower Power! Cathy is also involved with the School of Hypnosis, an East London collective that re-interprets minimalist pieces at living room parties. They are also preparing a self penned piece 'Sonic Tides' for Station to Station at the Barbican on Sunday 26^th July. Ahead of playing Dalston Music Festival she kindly agreed to an interview.

Earlier this year Orlando and Tomaga released a split cassette 'Play Time: Music for Video Games' on Ram Tapes-how did that come about and what was the concept behind it?

I find there is a special kind of beauty in music that stretches out beyond itself, into some other world, implying it, but not fully revealing it. That’s why I love soundtracks so much, and library music generally. There is mystery there, inviting you in. Part of it is the sounds – far more interesting and un-identifiable than other genres.

So for the cassette music I start with a piece of music I like – in the case of MFVG it was Theme for a Telepathic Amphibian – and that inspires the concept. All the other music was written around that, as a soundtrack for videogames that have never been made. I had been talking about doing a RAM tape with Tomaga for a while – we were just waiting for the right idea that would click for both of us.

For the Round Trips tape, the song Earth Moon Earth became the first chapter in a story about escaping to the moon, enjoying a newfound freedom, but then eventually getting home sick and returning to Earth. Tom interpreted ‘Round Trips’ differently, creating slowly evolving loop-based music on his modular.

You've just done a July tour of Italy-how did it go? Do you find playing live brings an extra dimension to the music?

The last 3 months have been a transition from Orlando being my own solo project into becoming a band. By playing live, it has gradually become the sum, or maybe more than the sum, of it’s members, sprouting heads and spreading out beyond the songs. Although the home studio stuff will always be there in parallel, for our most recent recordings (still unreleased), we went into the studio to record as a band. The tour of Sardinia was our first and really helped to solidify the group. A bit like bootcamp, but with sunshine, beaches and high quality cheeses.

What sort of response have you been getting to the album?

The most common response is “I don’t have a cassette player.”

For people who are unaware of your musical past can you run us through it, you were part of Fanfarlo weren't you...?

I played a lot of music as a kid without hearing much recorded music beyond a few tired Beach Boys cassettes. My family was musical but not that into the culture of music. I got into records as a teen – mostly 60s and 70s rock and pop – and wore flares and flowery shirts, but growing up in Brussels suburbs that turned out to be quite a solitary pursuit. I got my first real education as a member of a psych-folk band called Tanakh in 2004. The guy Jesse Poe had moved over from Richmond Virginia to Italy where I was living. He showed me so much stuff – introduced me for the first time to the idea of violin in a band with stuff like Dirty Three and Ghost, but played me all kinds of music for the first time, experimental, jazz, soul, folk…

When I moved to London I played in various different bands, picking up a bit of this and that, mandolin, keyboards, singing, musical saw. My main squeeze Fanfarlo took off a bit in the states so we toured a lot, and I had so many incredible experiences with those guys. But by the time I was getting serious about recording and production, that was winding down and Orlando was taking shape. I wanted an antidote to the world of serious pop and industry pressure, to indulge myself with something far out and fantastic. And I also wanted to learn the craft of recording, reconnect with music making in a new way and follow something through from sound wave to cassette deck. I started the Association for the Re-Alignment of Magnetic Dust (RAM), a small tape label, as an outlet for that. Each one split with another artist because...why not?

Is there a sense of continuity between Orlando and what you have done before or does it feel like a fresh start?

Orlando feels like a definite break from the past. I’ve always been involved in other people’s visions, and continue to play with various groups, and produce other artists, which I love, but Orlando feels very personal, separate from all of that.

What are your plans? How do you see Orlando developing?

We’ve just been in the studio with Malcolm Catto recording some tracks. The aim is to get an EP out before the end of the year and work on an album for next. RAM will continue to put out quality collaborations with like-minded artists on limited cassette.

At a gig in February you were playing keyboards with The Oscillation, is that a permanent arrangement?

Yes, although The Oscillation has finished touring until the next album is released in 2016 while Demian works on his solo release.

What musicians have you been influenced by?

Too many to count. But Gary Wilson, R Stevie Moore, Bruce Haack and Todd Rundgren are all home recording heroes of mine. Nothing beats a party for one down the rabbit hole with all your gear. That is freedom! Then I’ve got very much into the sound of 60s and early 70s library records (Umiliani/Zalla, Roger Roger, Ruscigan, Nardini, Libaek, Subotnik, Marletta, Perrey, Casa, and many more…). These are so mysterious and inviting to me, and also so free because of the way were made – fast and furious. It gets me into the mindset of recording as a daily practice and process, rather than just a means to an end. But to be honest the biggest inspiration comes from the people that I work with directly. The members of Orlando: Valentina (To)Magaletti, Phil MFU a.k.a. Man From Uranus, Susumu Mukai a.k.a. Zongamin and Elliott Ardnt are a constant source of wonder in how they interact with their instruments. Tom Furse is an insatiable workaholic, font of technical knowledge and voice of reason. Malcolm Catto, who is producing our current set of recordings, keeps it very fucking real. And they all have excellent record collections. What more could I possibly ask for?

For some magical library sounds check out the 5^th Wave Radio Show by Phil MFU https://5thwaveradioshow.wordpress.com/

And also Tom Furse’s forthcoming Southern Library compilation on Lo Recordings

http://www.lorecordings.com/release/digs/

Sunday, 21 June 2015

'Austerity' is Class War Waged by the Rich.

Image by Yvonne Forster.

I haven't been on many A to B marches over the last few years due to doubts about state sanctioned protest but I managed to get down to the Anti-Austerity Demo on June 20th in London, and was glad I did. The part of the march I was in was made up of a wide mix of people and groups; gay people (with a LGSM banner!), straight people, Unions-lots of Firefighters-Green Partyists, disabled people, women against domestic violence, students and lots of 'independents'. They were older people, younger people, parents with children, kind of like wider society really. What we were protesting against has become euphemistically known as 'Austerity' but is really the further implementation of Neoliberal economics disguised as a response to a financial crisis enabled by...neoliberal deregulation of the financial sector.

The hallmarks of neoliberalism are individualisation, an ideology of free markets, deregulation, small state provision (for the working class, though not for corporations), privatisation (the transforming of public goods into private property) and a continual dismantling of workers rights and protections-in short authoritarian capitalism. It was first implemented in the USA and UK under Reagan and Thatcher in the late 1970s and 80s but also became the dominant ideology of the IMF and World Bank in the 1980s and 90s and was imposed on countries struggling with debt in the Global South, these impositions were known as Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs). Some years later it became obvious that the Nett result for these countries was economic stagnation or regression. However SAPs and neoliberalism were not failures from the perspective of the elite because neoliberalism is the politics and economics of class war; the disempowering and impoverishing of the working class and the further empowering and enriching of the elite or capitalist class. This impoverishing/ enriching includes the capture of public goods and services by capital (corporations) which is always in search of something new to turn to a profit. The Tories are a front for corporate interests, a party of the rich and powerful, financed by the rich and powerful, that is why at the same time as pleading poverty they gave tax breaks to the rich and sold off the publically owned EastCoast mainline rail service that was generating a profit and the Post Office that had recently started making a profit. Privatisation is not about efficiency it is about capital/corporation's insatiable desire for new areas to invest in and to make profit from.

In her book 'The Shock Doctrine' (1) Naomi Klein comments that neoliberals will use crisis/catastrophes-either natural or man made- to further impose their agenda, David Cameron and his government did just that. Using the financial crisis of 2008 they, with the help of the corporate media, span a story of how 'austerity' was necessary. Sadly a populace used to receiving their information via a generally right wing media accepted the narrative rarely bothering to seek out alternative voices or explore the history of neoliberal imposition.

'Austerity' is really the continuing of, and possibly the completion of, the neoliberal project to dismantle the social democratic model set up post WWII- a model that included welfare provision, social housing, worker's rights and attempts to restrain inequality. The neoliberal Tories as the political representation of the interests of capital have always been opposed to the social democratic model and now see their chance to finish it off.

When right wing corporate newspapers enthusiastically support a political party you can be sure that party is not going to serve the interests of the large majority of a populace but that simple point seemed lost on the British public-or maybe it wasn't. Maybe that is why the Tories only got 36% of the vote and 25% of the possible vote. Maybe at the start of this next 5 years of Tory rule the British public are realising that they are being subject to the economics of class war and are starting to wake up?

Bibliography.
(1) Klein, N. (2007) 'The Shock Doctrine; The Rise of Disaster Capitalism', Penguin Group, London.

Tuesday, 9 June 2015

Blank Editions-a labour of love.

Image by Ross Adams.

The 2012 film 'Good Vibrations' is set in the late 1970s/early 80s and follows the life of one Terri Hooley, a Belfast record shop owner who suddenly becomes aware of the new vibrant punk scene in Ireland. Having had his eyes opened to the raw talent and excitement of an underground music scene going on all around him the entrepreneurial Terri records and releases singles by various bands from the area, the most famous being 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones. At the core of the film is a 'regional' record label facilitating a new surge of creativity. Fast forward 35 years and two of the most exciting bands I've seen recently, Tomaga and Housewives, have had recent releases on Hackney record label Blank Editions, the brain child of David Blanco and Will Shutes. After a recent gig at The Shacklewell Arms David kindly agreed to an interview.

Q: David, you are both busy people! Will co-wrote a book on Syd Barrett and is now running a publishing house, Test Centre, with a partner and I think you run a design house, originalblanco, could you say a bit about that- the sort of stuff you do?

A: Yes, I do design most days, I run dsblanco.com which is essentially my freelance practice. I work with quite a broad range of people from small start ups, record labels, publishers and do day to day design at Blank Editions.

Q: How did you and Will get together and what made you decide to set up Blank Editions?

A: We met through mutual friends who played in a band we were both really into called Electricity In Our Homes at a Sticks show in Hackney around October 2011.

We are both record collectors and enthused over local bands like EIOH, Hatcham Social, Factory Floor, S.C.U.M, The Horrors, Neils Children, Flats, Disconcerts, bands that were all connected through friendships and had created a community by playing in each other's bands and producing each other. Most of them resided in pretty much the same neighbourhood…we thought this needed to be documented in a beautiful tactile way.

As we began discussing the label and its potential output we found ourselves constantly referencing the very first Electricity In Our Homes E.P that Brandon Jacobs from Neils Children put out on his Modern Pop label in 2008, 'The Shareholders Meeting' E.P. That one record started it all off really, it was incredibly inspirational to us. People were asked to pay in advance for a share of the record, thus becoming a shareholder. You paid £5.00 upfront and you received 0.5% of the 200 records pressed…which equated to 1 record.

We used that one record as a focus for the kind of music we were interested in at the time and the way the actual record was promoted and released as a blueprint for the label.

Right from the start we were both initially interested in documenting off shoot projects from the members of local bands who we really liked. This led into doing the solo record we did with Charles Boyer from EIOH and initiating The Solo Series.

Q: What would Blank Editions mission statement read like?! What role would you hope it will fulfil?

A: To simply document a local and thriving undercurrent, to help illustrate that there is a great community of artists and musicians local to us who are creating really special things and to produce beautiful editions that document these recordings.

Q: The two bands I've seen that have releases on Blank Editions-Tomaga and Housewives-are quite different but both have a dynamic experimentalism and a desire to play with musical form. Is that what attracted you to them? What aspects are you looking for in a band to issue something by them?

A: We were introduced to Tomaga by our good friend Tim Garratt ( Moon Zero) who has produced, recorded and played on several Blank Editions releases ( COP, Niqab, Joseph Coward, Ted Milton, Housewives ) through his recording studio The Moriaki Skyway. Tim was kind enough to recommend Tomaga to us, we fell in love with their debut LP 'Futura Grotesk' straight away and thought they would fit perfectly into what we were doing with the label. Tomaga’s approach to “ambient” music is unique and so brilliantly realised, their live act is just as engaging as listening to them at home and it wasn’t long before we were writing them to offer a recording. Tom and Valentina are two of the nicest people we have had the pleasure of collaborating with too, which is always pleasant.

We were already really into Housewives, we had bought the tape that Faux Discx had put out in 2013 and it was hands down one of the best things we had heard in a long time. When Tim Garratt wrote to us introducing Tomaga he also told us he had recently recorded two tracks with Housewives, once we heard them we wrote to the band and offered them a 7” straight away of the back of these two songs and without seeing them live. Tim had worked with them so the connection was there and fortunately they turned out to be really nice people too. Tomaga and Housewives in our opinion are two of the best bands playing ambient, industrial, post-punk, experimental music right now, the recent Housewives 7” launch show with Moon Zero and Mphahlele was truly great.

A connection to an existing recording we have released is always something we look for when releasing something new, most things are introduced to us by people we have already released so we fortunately find ourselves often surrounded by things we want to approach as opposed to the other way around, although we do welcome demos and of course are interested in hearing things that are not just from London.

Q: Blank Editions includes both 'The Solo Series' and 'The Blank Tapes' Do they have different functions?

A: The Solo Series is purely to facilitate solo recordings from people in bands we really like, It’s not really surprising that these days most bands have members recording vast amount of material on their own at home or in studio set ups, this was of great interest to us as one sometimes find this kind of unreleased material to be the most fruitful and beautiful with its own personality that isn’t necessarily tied to a release or any sort of formula. The Solo Series packages these recordings into a 2 song limited edition one time pressing 7” in a handmade sleeve, as of mid 2015 we have released 6 singles in this series with more being discussed

The Blank Tapes services both bands and solo artists experimental work, development work, demos and small run E.Ps, the nature of this series is quite lo fi and fairly spontaneous in its approach, the recordings are normally sessioned in one or two days and as cassettes are made in very small runs, they are pretty low risk plus quick to turn around, it works as a perfect format for these kind of recordings to be released in. The newest sub catalogue, The Blank Community will be completely open-ended and simply be a platform to document material from bands and artists we both love, we hope to edition publications, super small run recordings, albums and other items not completely related to “music” through this platform too. We have just recently released the debut 7” from Housewives under this umbrella.

Q: What made you decide to go for cassette and vinyl as mediums?

A: I guess they are just formats we find beautiful and collect ourselves we simply wanted to release items that we would want to own.

Q: I was surprised to see you have a couple of releases by ex-Sonic Youth member Thurston Moore! How did that come about!

A: Thurston moved into our neighbourhood in 2012 or so and we kept seeing him around. One day we invited him to the launch we were hosting for the Douglas Hart's solo 7” which fortunately he was going to anyway, we asked him at the launch whether he would be interested in contributing to The Solo Series which he was. He then approached us to release the 'Sun Gift Earth' tape later that year which was Inspired by the comet-chaser Rosetta.

We hope to release more material from both Thurston and Douglas sometime soon.

Q: You and Will have been running Blank Editions since 2011-are you happy with how it has gone so far? What are your plans for the rest of the year?

A: Very much so, we run the label daily in some sort of capacity, but its very far from being a full time job. We have some really great things lined up, we have a new cassette coming out in July by Charcoal Owls and a few other things that haven’t been solidified yet. Hoping to do more stuff with Housewives and Tomaga and also a duo called Mphahlele, Tim Garratt has a few things he is working on too which we are excited to hear. We are busy with lining new things up, its a really good time for this sort of thing. It has been really good fun so far and has solidified many a new friendship which is always nice. We simply want to keep documenting things as and when they happen and make records and tapes you would want to give to your grandkids.

Thanks to David and Will-for more info on Blank Editions visit blankeditions.com.