DDb Interview Series (1013) - Justin Wright (Expo'70/Sonic meditations)

Many thanks to Justin for his time!

1. Well, obviously for those who know your project this question is aimless. However, why ‘Expo’70’? And how did it start?

I wanted to work on more organic music and needed a platform to showcase that. At the time I was in a band, which was really great, I had many more ideas flowing through my veins and needing a way to execute them, this is what become Expo '70.


2. Your project name has a special design that, if I am not mistaken rarely changes. Am I right? Or is it just an optical illusion? Do you feel a certain aura hovering about every record you make (because I do)?

I'd say each record has it's own aura and mysticism in place. I try not to create the album twice, one may think it's going to be the same at first listen, but it reaches further into it's own design.


3. Tell a bit about the local community? What stuff can you recommend for checking out? What gigs you’ve attended lately were exceptional? 

The last show I went to was Acid Mothers Temple, it was part of a local music festival, mostly indie rock stuff. I also played with Woodsman and Dustin Wong, that was an exceptional show. The local community is very sparse for good experimental music, most are just bar bands. There are a handful of great groups here though like Umberto, Snuff Jazz, Vor Onus, Carnal Torpor, Monta at Odds, Goodwillies, Shawn Hanson, Plante, Sounding the Deep, Christopher McFall, Scammers...everyone sounds very different and unique from one another.


4. Since the improvisation is the base of your music, how would you describe the difference between what you feel while playing live and while recording? Do these schemes somehow affect the improvisation approach or technique?

While playing live I have to keep in mind it's for an hour straight, not much room for error. Recording, I can do as much experimentation as I need to get where I am going. Live setting and recording I try to put myself mentally in the same place so the music will flow the same.

5. You run your own label ‘Sonic Meditations’. What was that that pushed you to put out your first release?

I think it was having a lot of great local music with no platform and a way for me to re-release my music on different formats. It has since grown into handpicked music I feel needs to be heard or feel I want my personal stamp on it.

6. You’ve recently released a cassette by one of my favorite artists James R. Moore (Cloudland Ballroom) and it’s truly amazing! How do you decide what to release? Do you receive lots of demos or you rather work with your friends or those who you know?

James and I have been talking for a few years now. I was really impressed with his Black Mountain Transmitter release, "Theory & Practice". So I decided to have him do an album for me. It's a really great release, I think he did an outstanding job on it. I do get many demos, but I try to hand pick things that I search out, it's very rare I will release something someone sends to me blindly.


7. Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series. What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web?

Well, there are less independent shops, more web-based shops, so I don't really have a place in my town to go shop for the music I like. I have to drive about an hour away or just order online. Now, anyone can be heard making music from their bedroom, which isn't always a good thing. I think stores are more competitive and don't take too many risks these days. You can pretty much hear any music on the web now, so for new bands that's great for getting listeners outside of their region.
Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

It's saturated, I'm surprised sometimes how popular Expo '70 still is with so many other great artists out there, but also glad since there are so many new comers to the genre of music I am associated with.

8. Tell about your relationship with vinyl collecting. Do you collect anything?

Well, I used to collect way more than I do now, I used to buy just about everything on vinyl I could afford, but having been down and out in the past, I have sold over half my collection. Now it's only records I feel deserve to be owned by my, my very favorite records or ones that are more affordable. I also get lots on tour from other bands and also with trading.

9. What about your day work? Does it affect your ideas in music? How does it correlate with your music life?

I guess it does, more so that now I'd say. I have too much free time now and think I have more structure it would give way to producing more music.

10. Please share your future plans? What are you working on? And what’s next?

I am making plans now for a European tour with Ancient Ocean, we will head over seas mid September for the tour. I have an album coming out on Blackest Rainbow and Ancient Ocean and I will have a split LP for the tour. I have also been working with a 3 piece band version of Expo '70 and we have a side of an LP coming out on Record Store Day and will be recording early May for a release on Essence music.

DDb Interview Series (1012) - Felicia Atkinson

1.

As a musician you are mostly known either as Felicia Atkinson or Je suis le petit chevalier. Please tell about the originals of both projects and the differences between them. Do you have any else monikers?

I don't know if people know me more under my real name or under my moniker

changing my name was for me a possibility of mutation, like a werwolf would do for example.

I like this idea of having several different names, like bluesmen or soldiers.

It gives me a certain of kind of freedom.

2.

Please describe your most busy day!

my days are pretty buisy everyday: i work in the bookstore, i cook, i draw, i make music, i answer e mails…

what i love the most is when i have free time to do endless walk until the city touches the forest.

3.

Do you like to perform live? What gear do you use in your live shows?

I like to play live. Most of the time I improvise. Those days i am playing with a microkorg and different pedals effects. I used to perform with a guitar. It may happen again.

4.

You are also a famous visual artist. Tell a bit about the directions you move in and the fields of your interest. What inspires you to make your drawings and installations?

My drawings and installations or a way to communicate with the invisible, as is my music too. I call the ghosts and they come.

My installations are more like little reminders of their passage, like little memento mori.

I use watercolor, paper, wood, it is made also with a sense of improvisation in the meaning that they answer to the present moment and the feeling of the space itself.

5.

Some time ago you launched the Shelter Press. What is it? Is it supposed to be a platform for any kind of art or is it rather a mix of label and chapbook publishing?

Shelter Press is the second part of Kaugummi, the publishing house that created Bartolome Sanson a while ago.

We decided to create Shelter Press together to shelter our visions and the visions of certain precious people we wanted to invite.

The name is inspired by a book by Lloyd Kahn, about building your own shelter.

The first book we published was a book of collage of Julien Langendorff, then a re-issue of an LP by Pete Swanson and Renee Hell.

We want this publishing house to be more than that! It will host records, books and art shows. It will be a moving and utopian structure that will be the thresholds of our dreams.

6.

I bet you have lots of plans. However please share a few with us – most secret please.

Well, just right now i am releasing with Shelter Press and La Station radar a new LP as JSLPC, called An Age of Wonder that I recorded in Ohio last summer.

I am very excited about this!

Late a tape on  the great Sic Sic Tapes will be out i think!

Then under my name i will release a 7 inch on this wonderful newzealand label called Cooper Cult.

I am working also on a book of my drawings. Should be ready in for summer-fall 2012.

7.

Describe your most free day.

Well, if it's a completely free day, it should be also a completely secret day! :)

8.

How often do you listen to other’s music? What stuff impressed you most lately?

I listen to music everyday.

I love the last Ilyas Ahmed on Immune. Can't wait to listen to the new Motion Sickness of Time Travel on Spectrum Tools.

I listen to a lot of 70's folk music too, like i love the compilations they put on the rootstrat blog sometimes.

When i am at the bookstore i listen to Sonic Pieces records such as Ryan Teague or Pantone, and some jazz music such as Horace Silver or Ornette Coleman.

  

9.

This question may sound stupid but, what is more primordial for you? Art or music? Image or sound?

LOVE is the most important!

10.

Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.

What has changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web?

Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

I feel intent helped a lot the music! It is easy to discover and exchange music, i love it! I LOVE INTERNET!

the only thing i don't like with internet is when people stalk you and forgot that internet doesn't allow you to bother people or speak theme as they know you wether you never have met them.

It;s just that the words "KNOWING" is pretty vague on internet: it can mean " i haven't listened i just saw a post" or " i just know his name through Facebook" or " i read the two first lines about it on wikipedia".

I guess you need to stay humble about "knowing" something when you consult the internet.

But beside this, it is very very helpful! I have more people supporting my music in the United States, Russia  or Japan than in France where i come Framce! it's funny!

DDb Interview Series (1011) - Bathetic Records

I want to thank Jon for making this great QA session possible.
Enjoy!

1.

From my point of view, Bathetic is now presenting an example of one of the most diverse and unique music publishers. When did you launch the label? Tell about the history of Bathetic and the label’s name.

Bathetic started with just DIY tapes a few years ago when I lived in Arkansas (a small southern state).  I had read about the idea of ‘bathos’ and thought it fit with what I was doing in the DIY world at the time.  During that time, the phonetical sound of the word itself was on point, so it stuck.  I dubbed tapes at home and silk-screened, painted and stamped the covers.  These were mostly Arkansas reclusives doing their own interesting thing in Ozark Mountain basements.  I later moved to Chicago where my good friend William Cody Watson convinced me to re-start the label, this time expanding upon the tape idea. We decided to make it more national and international than it was before, releasing music which we thought was really good, regardless of the genre.  I later moved around the midwest and eastcoast for a while, carrying all the tapes and records with me, using addresses I called home at the time to mail off Bathetic orders.  to I've recently moved to Asheville, NC near the Smoky Mountains where Bathetic Headquarters will remain permanently.

2.

You are quite open in terms of genres and styles. How would you describe your releasing criteria? How do you decide what to release?

Cody and I always have a long sit down with music submissions, or music we find, or friends and friends of friends music before we move on anything.  We listen, think, talk.  Come back to it, listen, think and talk some more.  We don’t like to keep things heading in one particular direciton other than what we can truly dig.  I don’t like to keep focus on folk for too long, or synth/drone, or whatever it is.  In any given day, I’ll listen to all kinds of music, so I’m not sure why I would limit Bathetic’s output to one particular sub-genre of music.  I’m all for contrived genres, and I’m a huge follower of certain labels that put out a specific type of music, but it’s just not Bathetic’s thing to do.  I think if there is any sort of underlying theme woven through our releases, it would be this midwestern/southern feel of darkness.  I love downer tones, I love bedroom jams, I love loner head-space.

3.

Does Bathetic keep a strong connection to the local scene? What projects have you been impressed by recently?

Since I’ve moved to Asheville I’ve been trying to book some solid shows, and this has taken grip pretty well so far.  I have been stoked with the sparks of interest and the potential of this town.  Asheville puts on the Moogfest each year with big acts (Suicide played this year!).  The kids here have arranged the underground offshoot, Foogmess.  This past year was dope, and it will continue to grow each year.  This is exciting.  I also meet or hear of new people every couple of weeks, hiding out, doing their own thing, something very interesting and unique.  I like how they are hard to get a hold of and their shows are rare.  This to me says that what they are doing is genuine.

4.

Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web?
Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

This question sparks a recurring conversation anywhere you go these days.  The web is a necessary evil.  Tons of positive things to be had with it, and tons of negative repercussions.  I always laugh when I think of bands on Myspace who thought they would become more and more famous if they spent all their time adding ‘friends’ and thanking people for ‘the add.’  It went nowhere real fast.  Of course, with the web, theres a ton of movement in interests – everyone kind of moves to whatever is ‘hot’ at that moment, depending on which big blogs post what that week.  It can be exciting and one can easily get lost in it, but it’s just a momentary hype.  I try to lean towards those things which are timeless.  I find myself listening to Black Sabbath, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce’s Nebraska, and Mettalica’s Kill Em All more than anything.  These are timeless works that will never die.  With fast-moving information through the internet, I feel a lot of this aim for timeless quality is lost because, let’s face it, musicians and labels have egos and they want to put out a bunch of releases by a bunch of good artists.  I think it will have a whiplash effect one day, if it hasn’t started already.  I could go on and on, but it’s just a ramble…

5.

Who makes the arts for you releases? As for me, each cover is awesome (especially Age Wave’s 7’’ one)!

We usually have the musician provide some sort of photo, colors or ideas that we can move with.  We are still evolving a Bathetic aesthetic that is entirely open to design, but still has a similar feel to it all.  Omar (who has designed the website) has helped a ton with the art for releases.  Cody always has killer ideas.  It’s kind of all over the place, but we like it to start with the artist, run it through our filter, and then get approval from the artist for finishing touches.  The Age Wave 7” is a great one and has a fun story.  Ren (Age Wave, Container, God Willing, etc) had mailed me some cut out photos (not sure where he got them), paper-clipped together, and had a poorly scripted note with a diagram of how he wanted to piece the photos together for the cover.  It was hilarious.  I then had to piece the info together (the note ended “can you even read this?” !), scan all the photos, send them to Omar and Cody and move with it.  Since then, Ren has bought a scanner, so I’m not sure if projects will be this terrible and fun anymore.

6.

Imagine the music is like fruits and vegetables. How would your catalogue look like then?

Mostly vegetables that are good to eat in the autumn months.  Add a lemon or lime in there for freshness and to keep some optimism, but keep an expired melon in the corner.  Mostly keep around the vegetables that you want to put in a stew that you can eat by the fire.  Warmth is the goal.

7.

Any idea why an intelligent person must be into politics? Is it a myth?

Socrates put a lot of pressure on smart people and therefore set the bar pretty high.

8.

What drives you crazy except for the music?

I love Miller High Life and hanging out by fires and rivers of forests tucked inbetween mountains.  I want to jump, I want to fall, I want to splash.

9.

What future plans can you share with us?

We have the lo-fi bedroom masters Cough Cool putting out an LP with us soon as well as a head trip ambient LP release by Zac Nelson soon, two side-long tracks.  There will forever be tapes, most recently will be Birds of Passage, Angelo Harmsworth, Caroline Park, Dinner Music, Motion Sickness of Time Travel/Listening Mirror split.  Future works with High Auru’d I’m way too excited about!  There’s quite a bit bubbling in the Bathetic office now.

Also, a big focus has been working on starting a bar/music venue here in Asheville… more on that to come… but for the time being, I will work on getting some Asheville musicians on the map and more recognized for their brilliant works.

10.

Please describe the most dramatic dance you can imagine. And what music should accompany that dance? 

One big laser that covers the earth forever.  It is completely silent.

DDb Interview Series (1010) - Inner Islands

I want to thank Braden for his patience and time and cool answers.

Please visit his label's web-site here - Inner Islands.

1.

Your web-site is totally green. Does the color mean anything? Because it is so green, you know…

There’s no real meaning to the color of the site. Green just has a nice feeling to it.

2.

‘Inner islands’… These words somehow remind me a childish feeling when I could escape to my own inner world where I had a wood with a lake and a cave with a monster… What correlations did you originally see in the label’s name?

The name is a reference to Antelope Island, it’s a magickal island on the great salt lake. It’s a special place to me. Inner Islands is also a reference to self-exploration.

3.

How did you start the label? Is it like a family business? What is that primordial thing that pushes you doing things?

Well, I used to run another label called Magic Goat Music. As my life and creative process began to change, Magic Goat no longer felt like the right thing for me to be doing. Inner Islands developed naturally out of my personal changes. In a sense it’s a family business, I’m very close with all the artists involved with the label. While I run the label, Sean (gkfoes vjgoaf, Ashan) has made a lot of contributions to help keep the island afloat. I feel that what we are doing is really unique, I am very careful to only release music that is very special to me, music that holds space for openness and realness with ones self and surroundings. I do this label mainly because it feels right.

4.

Advise us a splendid book, awesome tape and freakiest film.

Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee, Divine Songs by Alice Coltrane, I’ve heard that Klingon porn is pretty freaky.

5.

Let’s dig into the catalogue! Tell about your favorite gems and how they’ve appeared.

Honestly I feel strongly about all the releases on Inner Islands. Each album holds an important part in the catalogue. If I was to single one out it would be the album Presents by Nearone, it was recorded by Sean and Rosa while they were WWOOFing. It super minimal compared to some of the other releases on the island, which allows for a lot of extra space for the listener to sink into.

6.

Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web?
Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

I feel like it’s very easy for people to record and release music these days without being to passionate about it. It doesn’t take much to record an album on your laptop and put it out on tape or bandcamp. Because of this I feel there are a lot of people making music not because they are particularly driven to say or express something from within themselves, but rather just because they can. I’m not saying this is bad, but it just makes for a hell of a lot of albums being released all the time. It’s kind of overwhelming to navigate through all that’s happening. On the other hand the ease of recording and releasing music does help passionate individuals with limited recourses get their vision out to the world. Just like everything else there is pros and cons.

7.

What would definitely put you off in a demo? Do you receive lots of submissions?

I get a few demos a month and I really appreciate people sharing their music with me. I’m looking to work with sincere people, so impersonal submissions turn me off a bit. You can tell when someone knows nothing about the label or if I’ve just received the demo as a part of a mass email.

8.

Describe a perfect party! And don’t forget about the music…

Well, I’m not the best at socializing in a party situation, so dance parties are my favorite. Recently I went to a dance party were my friends Stag Hare and Andy Cvar played tunes for hours. Stuff ranging from house, early disco, hip-hop, rocksteady etc… It’s easier for me to dance than chat it up with strangers. Generally though I enjoy just chilling with a smaller group of close friends over a bunch of people I’m only casually acquainted with.

9.

Seriously, what is the hardest thing you stumble against running Inner Islands?

Getting people to listen to the music. ;-)

10.

What’s next?

The last WYLD WYZRDZ album will be released early next year along with the debut from Ashan. I also have an album finished for my new project Coyote Dreamer that will most likely be released through Inner Islands. Other than that, I’m hoping to connect with some new artists to work with on the island.

11.

Do you see any new music schools in the contemporary independent music world? What is that going right now that could have possible become either a tradition or a poignant reminder in the future? Or do we have a constantly growing chaos everywhere?

I’m not sure really, I pretty much just listen to the Grateful Dead.

DDb Interview Series (1009) - Love Cult / Full of Nothing

I want to thank and hug awesome guys from the WARM Karelia, Ivan and Anya for their help, patience and time!

1.

You have such a pejorative name for a label! Why so? When did you start the project?

Ivan: This one is a mighty and glorious name for a label, I think. "It's true because it can't be". Full of Nothing does not mean absence. It suggests an enormous amount of something. Mystical and sacred micro-world. My mind and my heart belong to that world. The world of 'maybe'.

Then there's the abbreviation "fon" which we use for our catalog numbers, it means both "feedback" and "background" in Russian. And another short name "fono" which connects with "phono" jacks and the general sound term... Isn't that just lovely? Also, there's this kind of music that says million things without a single clear phrase. Sometimes a tape loop awakens more emotions in me that a thousand well-composed symphonies.

The label was launched in January 2010. The name had come to me 5 years before that.

2. 

On the contrary, the name of your music project is really positive. Tell about the history of Love Cult.

Me & Anya both participated in Kawrelia Soul Collective, then joined MAAAA for their "Burning Kukkovka's Cock". But we really wanted to try to make something together, just the two of us. That was in mid-2009.

3.

How often do you quarrel speaking about music stuff?

Anya: We never argue. On the contrary - when we jam we come up with many new ideas. And we always try them out. Usually it leads to moving furniture, opening up the piano and looking for weird sound sources... I always feel this childish longing for adventures! Like building a treehouse or making hiding places.

4.

Why cassettes?

Ivan: We are so tactile, we just need something to touch and feel. Vinyl and tapes have this different aesthetic and exceptional design capacity. One can't put a tape into iPod so there's intimacy to music. Tapes sell well and CDs don't sell at all here.

5.

You guys are doing so many things: Love Cult, Full of Nothing, Novoe Tsarstvo, design, organization of tours and local gigs etc. Where do you find time for all of this?

Anya: There are never too many favourite activities if you are able to organize them in a harmonic way. I've been working with kids in a museum for the past year. Good half of my free time was dedicated to it. It's totally opposite to what we do with Ivan. One needs a recharge. And the resting turns into another activity. That's how we both stay interested and dedicated, whatever that is we're doing.

6.

One could have stumbled across Love Cult show at so many places already in Russia and Europe. Can you tell a bit about some special impressions?

Anya: There are special places. There are warm and giving places and there are those which smell of rot. The last tour with Woodpecker Wooliams and Golden Cup was amazing (the Russian part)! I can't thank Ivan enough for putting it together. That trip changed me a lot. I'm not sure whether it was Luca who said that "you're going somewhere to simply play a few shows but you find yourself coming back with new friends and unbelievable experience which turns you inside out".

Ivan: I was very inspired by Istanbul. Turkish culture, music, language - all was a huge revelation to me. We watched Chris Corsano play in a stellar club called "Bedroom", got a chance to chat, too. What a moment! The show we played was after a few months of hibernation. Semi-improvised, very powerful. I sang and cried.

One-of-a-kind Creepy Teepee festival in Czech!

Gigs in Vinius and Saransk were great, we're happy there are recordings of those on the web. Deep vibes, recpectful audience. And of course, the last tour. The Russian gigs were so inspiring! Woodpecker Wooliams and Golden Cup are outstanding musicians and people. Everything we do is for such people and such moments.

7.

Tell which part of label work is:

The hardest?

Most joyful?

Most boring?

Anya: Ivan takes care of the hard work. He's the manager. He makes stuff happen, handles all relations with musicians etc. I'm not of much use in organization. The rest of the work varies... The most boring part is dubbing tapes. It's funny that we can't listen to the releases after hearing them 50 times. It's always different with artwork. One day the design idea comes in a moment, the other time it takes ages. But all these little things bring me so much joy and inspiration! It's not just about spreading the music - it's an endless chain of relationships with amazing people. The only downside is Russian Post, ha ha.

Ivan: The coolest part of running a label is listening to cool music. The shittiest - listening to shitty music.

8.

Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web?
Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

Ivan: Every music era is unique. I just can't understand all the whining and internet cries about the music industry and all. Anyone can make whatever they want nowadays! We're living in a truly great time!

9.

What music did you like or were intrigued by lately? What would you recommend?

Ivan: Lots of hours worth of listening to my first free psych love - Vibracathedral Orchestra. Also insane amounts of Sunroof! and Hototogisu, and Excepter. The latest Current 93, previously unheard "Jaybird" from Sunburned. Tapes from Stunned. Pretty great noise-rock from Scarcity of Tanks and Sea Scouts. Steve Gunn and Gunn-Truscinski Duo, Suishou No Fune, Velvet Underground, The Beatles. Folk compilations: "Give Me Love: Songs Of The Brokenhearted - Baghdad, 1925-1929" & "To Scratch Your Heart: Early Recordings from Istanbul". Woodsist catalog: Woods, Spectre Folk, White Fence... Many albums from my friends, mainly Woodpecker Wooliams and Ous Mal. Hip-hop and dub. Constantly all Full of Nothing releases.

Anya: Lately I find it hard to listen to music that demands lots of attention, that doesn't have enough images and mood inside. I've been leaning towards more straightforward and accessible music: Rachael Dadd, Woods, Woodpecker Wooliams, Ducktails, Matrix Metals, Egyptrixx, Niggas With Guitars, Big Boi, Games, Grimes...

10.

What should we expect from Love Cult and Full of Nothing in the future?

6 new tapes are coming up on Full of Nothing: M. Geddes Gengras, prayer / Nathan McLaughlin, Preslav Literary School, Polypus Acephalous, Banana Pill, Suburban Howl. There are already some clips at Soundcloud!

Just finished a new tape with Love Cult, called "Averter". Lots of chanting on that one, like we did on the last tour. Slowed down piano loops, kantele. It'll be out in Autumn! Can't name the label at the moment. ;)

Sacred Phrases are going to release our collab with Turkish drone cutie Berk (I Create Soundscapes). The project is called Teenage Magic. The material is similar to Love Cult but with synth, ghostly flute and a pop 'song'.

Working on tracks for several compilations, split 7" with MAAAA and next tape (for Digitalis Ltd.)

Links for checking out:
http://www.lovecult.tihiiomut.ru
http://www.fono.tihiiomut.ru

Photo credit: Woodpecker Wooliams

DDb Interview Series (1008) - My dance The Skull

The new DDB interview serie is coming really soon.
In the meantime I want to share a recent Q&A session with absolutely the most intriguing (for me, of course) publishing house and tape label based in London. It is led by Marco and Bethania who were extremely kind to send me the following answers.
Enjoy!

1.How did My Dance the Skull appear? Let’s dig in a history!

MDTS: MDTS appeared in a dream. We got the call at dawn. Dogs were barking, cats were running across rooftops... and a horse took our thoughts to My Dance The Skull.
When we woke up we ate the dream and the sweet flavor of flutes and clarinets remained in our mouths.

2.If you allow me, I’ll blurt a secret. You’re planning to publish a book of poetry (with illustrations by artist who have already appeared in your catalogue). Are you going to start publishing verse or it will be rather an exemption?
MDTS: We want to publish written poetry from the very beginning. We have recently met some great poets through our dear friend and fantastic poet Matthew Wascovich and we are looking forward to publishing them all.
The book of poetry you mentioned has just been published. It’s called Fantastic Animals, the poems are by Matthew Wascovich himself with images by the artist Aleksandra Waliszewska.

3.What annoys you most?

MDTS: Our mouths full of sand that bury our cries still alive.

4.A huge bulk of MDTS items comes from Eastern artists. Does it somehow reflect your interests as a publisher?

MDTS: To be honest that has been a coincidence. We are definitely interested in Eastern artists, but not more or less than we are in Western artists. 

5.What is that primordial thing that draws your attention in a piece of art or in a song? What makes you nod – “Yeh, I’ll put this stuff out!”?

MDTS: Art that can extract water from the desert. Art that screams humidity in a dry land.

6.Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web?
Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

MDTS: Oh man, we don’t know exactly what to answer to that. Can we skip the question? (Sorry )

7.In terms of geography, where do you get most of the orders from?

MDTS: Mainly Northern EU, US and Japan. But recently we have been getting more orders from Eastern EU as well.

8.You have done a great interview with Love Cult. Do you enjoy reading interviews? Coz’ I’m a crazy fan of interviews!

MDTS: Yeah, that’s a nice one, glad you enjoyed it. We do like interviews, definitely. We particularly love ‘The Conversation Series’, which is a beautiful collection of dialogues between the curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist and different artists - highly recommended.

9.What a dark, strange name you guys have for your label! Where did it come from?

MDTS: From a drawing by Marco.
(please have a look at the attachment)

Here is this drawing:

10.So, there are two of you doing magical things around images in tapes. Do you have some kind of ‘labor distribution’?

MDTS: Thank you. We do everything together, the two of us work as a team… brainstorming ideas, working on concepts, choosing images, design, etc.

11.When I was in London I was constantly catching myself on a thought that London’s tube smells a bit fishy? Is it true? Or I have some problem with my nostrils?
What transport do you prefer to use?

MDTS: hah! Not sure. There is a breath of alcohol in the tube every now and then, specially early in the morning or late at night. We travel to central London by overground though, which is way nicer than the tube. We get to see green leaves kissing grey industrial buildings, old bridges and abandoned car parks.

12.What’s next? I mean apart from the book of poetry?
Can you reveal more secret info about forthcoming stuff?

MDTS: The next Voice Studies are:
VS 03 - Kommissar Hjuler Und Frau/ Mama Baer;
VS 04 – Andrew Coltrane
+
Voice Studies from Thurston Moore, Sindre Bjerga, Architeutis Rex, Mag Resistance (Matthew Wascovich and Mark E. Miller), This is Yvonne Lovejoy (Seymour Glass) and Andrew Klimeyk.

And poetry books by Chris Yarmock and Lauren De Sa Naylor.

________________
Thanks for your time!
MDTS: Thank you for your interest and enthusiasm J

New DDb interview serie soon!

Keep your eyes open for a new batch of Q&A sessions with some great artists and label owners from Ukraine and Russia:  ~taqueOT, Love Cult / Full of Nothing, Ilia Belorukov / Intonema, Edward Sol / Quasi pop, Arabian Horses and more and more!
Check out soon!

DDb Interview Series (1007) - Sangoplasmo records

Here's a nice chat with Lubomir, a nice guy running awesome tape-label Sangoplasmo records.
Please visit label's site for more information about releases.


1.
So how did you come to the idea of Sangoplasmo?

(Продолжить)

Since 2007 I’ve been a netlabel By?em Kobieta records where I release very different stuff, but the most important theme in our releases is randan, which means fun and play. Albums mostly explore varied forms of playing with conventions, often easy-listening nice and shibby music or well-done pop hits but some oft hem are also almost pure conceptual soundworks, a few of them were also released as CD-R’s. Some time ago I was thinking intensively about releasing my friend’s band, a great post-disco polo/hypnagogic pop band Damiano CZ on a tape. I gave up that idea but still wanted to release some tapes.

2.
What do you feel about independent scene in Poland? How are thing going there?

That’s not an easy question. I’m pretty sure we’ve got lots of great harshnoise and related projects here. We also had a few really great labels like OBUH Records or Mik.Musik.!. but they no longer exist.

3.
Tell a bit about Aranos’ release. How did it happen?

It was 2007, the fifth edition of Wroclaw Industrial Festival. I had just seen his show for the first time and I was totally in love with his performance. He was playing for about 2,5 hours, walking on hands and doing amazing things with his violin. Then I met him in Prague last year and decided to write an email a few months later.

4.
It’s a fact that cassette culture becomes more and more popular in experimental music world. However, though vinyl definitely can compete with digital formats,cassette is a completely different story. So, why tapes?

Cassettes sound and look exceptional, everybody knows that. And they are much cheaper than vinyls.

5.
You have two upcoming tapes. Tell about these projects.

In fact they’ve been out for a few days. First one is a tape by FOLJA, a great guy fromWarsaw. His tape was planned to be the first release in Sangoplasmo records but he needed more time. So we’ve just released his EP on bandcamp.com. It’s a long story but then he was leaving his CD-rs in strange places for some time and made a series of films about it. And now, finally we’ve released Pompa Funebris album, incredible sounds of ritual electronica. The second tape is a split by Norwegian duo Bjerga/Iversen and a Polish artist Yellow Belly. The first track is a great ambient/drone recording, the second one is more like a harsh noise wall. Both contain great field-recordings which are mostly bird voices. Now I’m preparing to release two or even three new tapes soon. 

6.
Next question I will propose to every person in DDb interview series.
What has changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of theWeb?
Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

There are plenty of positive improvements. Like uploading rare albums, quick contact witheveryone, easy promotion, or music blogs, just like yours. The only downside is that I’m addicted now, damn.

7.
Can you name some artist you admire most? Maybe those who you’d have wished to see in Sangoplasmo catalogue?

I’m a really big fan of Nurse With Wound and related guys like Andrew Liles or Matthew Waldron. And yes, I definitely wish to see them in Sangoplasmo catalogue someday.

8.
How does the label’s name reflect its motto/ideology? How did you think it out?

Sangoplasmo is the esperanto’s name for blood plasma. Our logotype is the upside down sign invented by Wilhelm Reich and related to his orgone theory.

9.
You have just started Sangoplasmo. What about demos? Do you receive lots of material?

I receive about one demo a week but most of them don’t feel really close to my idea of the label. I mean they’re often great stuff but just don’t fit with Sangoplasmo. To be honest, I really enjoy searching through the internet and finding artists by myself.

10.
Any long-term plans for the future? Can you foresee what will be going on with thelabel in the future?

I hope it will be possible for Sangoplasmo to start releasing also some vinyls in thefuture.

DDb Interview Series (1006) - Datashock

I want to thank Pascal and all guys from Datashock for making this interview happen.
Please visit band's web-site here - meudiademorte and check out their recent 2LP on Dekorder.

1.
Let’s handle with boring question first:
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreading of the Web? Any positive improvements? Any negative repercussions?

(Продолжить)

Wow! That’s a very difficult question to start with! When we started listening to music it was more difficult to come from one band to the next one. We had to find out ways and strategies to learn about music. Finding fanzines, reading mailorder-lists and “thank you”- lists on covers, etc. All that stuff opened new worlds. It was slow, and maybe work…
Today you get everything with one click, and that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? It’s really nice to see, that younger ones know more or can get information much faster, than we did at the same age. On the other hand it’s getting too fast?! People are listening to tons of music on one day. It’s kind of a hyper-active way to handle with music. Is a release a special thing anymore? We don’t know.
What we canenjoy it’s the knowledge that we can listen to all the music we are interestedin, or people recommend…We don’t have to wait, we can satisfy our curiositydirectly…
On the other hand sometimes the quantity and availability can be overwhelming. Being confronted with your lack of knowledge can be very disappointing too. There is a lot of homework to do, haha. Be always hard at work! So are we really ambitious?

In case of so called “music-business” issues, what can we say? You can get every meudiademorte release for free. Of course we hope that some people will buy our record, but at the same time we don’t make really money out of it. We don’tknow anyone who can make a living out of playing music. But maybe that isn’t the goal anymore. What we can is changing our stuff, working together, getting in touch, becoming friends, whatever. Getting in contact with people all over the world, that’s probably the best thing about the web.

2.
Tell about the history of Datashock project.

We grew up together. The most of us know each other for more than 15 years. Pascal founded Datashock in 2003, he is maybe the biological mother of that baby. More and more friends joined in and at least since the first tour we did, it became more or less a modern “patchwork” family. Everyone feels responsible for our little bastard. 

3.
Does the cadre working on the record always vary? Do you have a fixed group of people engaged in Datashock?

At the moment there’s a core of six people (Jan, Sebastian, Christian, Ruth, Pascal and Ronnie). We really enjoy playing in this combination. It feels very good. But it’s still an open union. We don’t really think about getting more people involved. It just grows and shrinks without a master plan. Besides the six, Ulf Schütte and Marcel Türkowsky are still quite close, but they didn’t play on the pyramiden jams.

4.
What about the recent 2LP on Dekorder? How did it appear? How many people have worked on it? When and where did you record it?

We know Mark (the founder of Dekorder) for a couple of years.
After we did a collaboration with him in 2007, he asked us to release something on Dekorder. When you have a look at his releases, it feels quite natural that we can release something on his label. In your opinion we have some interests and ideas in common.

First of all we recorded around 8 hours of “drone-music” together with ulf and marcel in 2008. But max (the guy who recorded the sessions) had barely time to mix that stuff. So in the end it got banned on a hard disc (where it still is)...

Between the years 2009 / 2010 we recorded the “pyramiden” in an old and beautiful villa in Darmstadt as an 8 piece band. The place is called “Oetinger Villa” and it’s used as an independent youth centre, concert-place and as our second home etc.
We played there some shows before, and Jan Kolter (he also played bass on a few songs), who is organizing shows there, became a close friend within the last years. He has a studio in the villa, and we talked a couple of times about doing a record session with his help and in that amazing space. Finally it did happen and it was such a relaxed atmosphere, without any trouble…
Finally we asked Ulf to record an Intro & Outro for the record. So the answer how many people played on the record is 9 ;)

So now the boring part: Ronnie and Jan mixed it for months, haha. After that Pete Swanson did the mastering. Besides the music, the record also includes an exclusive cut-up made by the stunning author  Jürgen Ploog. With Jeffrey Meyer we found the perfect artist for providing the cover and Johannes Schebler brought the layout in shape!

5.
You guys are often called as hippie-style experimentalists. What is that that links you to such a portrayal?
What can we say? We are not responsible for terms of expressions anyone uses to talk about us. The view from the outside will stay strange to us. But everyone can hear aesthetical influences. Psychedelic, krautrock, bands the wire circumscribed as “new weird America”,…all of that means a lot to us! Maybe the connection between all that stuff is, that they represent a kind of an utopian spirit. That’s totally a hippie thing. And we love it!
And we already said it before: Datashock is all about our friendship! Hanging out together, jamming, drinking too much beer and having fun. So if you wanna call us hippies you are maybe right.
And our largest problem is:
MOST OF US ALSO LOOK LIKE HIPPIES! 

6.
Your workings are very much based on improvisation. What about the compositional part? How do you write your songs?

We don’t write any note or part. We are just jamming. That’s the reason why we can play very bad as well, haha. Jam by jam we just try to let it flow, to concentrate on each other, to find a common mood, to find a way to make it sound organic…that works sometimes, and sometimes it can be just awful. It depends on situations, atmosphere, audience, nervousness, self-confidence, personal temper, drunkenness… you can see we are quite the opposite of professional musicians.

7.
What pushes you forward? Tell about some inspirations for your music.

FLEETWOODMAC! Most played band in our tourvan or on our partys! Besides of that:
What pushes us forward to play music at all? Hanging around with best friends and trying to do something beautiful and meaningful besides all day pressure and bleakness. All of us are collecting instruments. We just love to play, to find out new things, sounds… Making music is an important thing in our lives. It’s necessary. Besides that: Getting in touch with lovely creative people, having the chance to enjoy hospitality, etc. are also reasons to keep it going. We are just trying to find a bolt-hole. And to have the feeling that there is an opportunity to make something you can say I’m 100% responsible and proud of it, its just amazing.

8.
Where are you based right now? What can you tell about the local scene?

At the moment we are spread all over germany. 4 of us in the southwest of germany where we grew up (Pascal still lives in Saarlouis, Sebastian, Jan and Christianlive a few km away in Saarbrücken), Ronnie lives in Cologne, Ruth in Berlin and Ulf in Hamburg.
So it’shard to talk about local scenes. In Germany it seems that there aren’t so manypeople interested in experimental music. Or maybe it’s just our personalexperience. Good stuff regularly happens in Stuttgart, Bremen, Darmstadt,Mainz, Krefeld and Berlin of course. There are people who take care! As a band wesee us more as a part of the european / international scene. Because of touringwe got friends everywhere from mülheim, germany to paris, france over brighton.uk.

9.
Whatabout current state of affairs on Meudiademorte? Any forthcoming projects?

Puh, at themoment the status of Meudiademorte is “holiday”. Pascal doesn't have the timeto run a label like he did a few years ago. So at the moment he only releases Datashock or Datashock Side projects as tour or concert editions. But you never now…maybe it will change at one point.

10.
Share your thoughts/plans for future Datashock releases/tours.

Would be cool to tour this year, we don't care where…
so if you wanna do a tour or show or just wanna hang out with us and if you can handle the bill for our drinks:
drop us a line...

thank you very much for the interview!

DDb Interview Series (1005) - Luca Massolin

Here's one more great chat.This time with Luca Massolin. Luca plays mezmerizing electrinocs and electro mandolin as Golden Cup and runs fascinating 8mm records.
Many thanks to Luca for his time and very open questions.

1.
First of all, thanksfor showing up in Moscow.
How was it? Tell aboutyour impressions, about places, about the audience.
Will you come back?
Moscow (together with Saransk) was the besttime I had in years of touring: fantastic venues and amazing audiences. I really wanna come back to Russia as soon as possible. Our first day there was kind of insane actually. Me and Gemma (Woodpecker Wooliams) arrived at Moscow station after a crazy bus ride from Helsinki – St Petersburg, to a nice dinner with Sergej (Bedroom Bear) and the first of a series of fantastic rides into sleepover trains. So beautiful and inspiring my time there. I will never thank enough Ivan and Anya from Love Cult for the great job they did organizing this tour and the fantastic group of people that are the band Arabian Horses including their girlfriends and friends. They gave us such a great hospitality in Moscow, picking us up at the station at 6am, hosting us, feeding us, showing us great sights and finally taking us to this soviet restaurant where I got an amazing borsht. I realized that Russian food can be delicious, which for an Italian is a big deal to admit, believe me.

2.
8mm is not the strangest name for the label but still it’s a bit strange. What does it mean?
When I started the label, back in 2003, I wanted a name that could be easy to remember, not necessary to translate it, applicable to any genre of music. That’s probably the first reason why I picked it: 8mm was supposed to last forever, so I wanted a name that could grow old with me without sounding obsolete or limiting in the future.
The other reason is related to the visual aspect. At the time I was really into underground movies. Studying Cinematography at the University, I got introduced to the work of Jack Smith, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, Ira Cohen, Kenneth Anger…I realized that a lot of underground and experimental directors were using 8mm films, I was totally inspired by those analog rough and visionary artifacts… I thought it could have been interesting to create a link between that attitude towards visuals and the sounds I was going to release through my label.

3.
Tell about your music background. What did you listen to in your childhood?
Did you study music onacademic level?
The First record I ever owned was The Police’s ‘GreatestHits’, on LP when I was8.  Then I got the Cure’s ‘Whish’, bought after hearing thesong ‘Friday I am in love’ on a Tv show. I was pretty disappointed when I discovered that all the other songs from the album were in the opposite mood,super sad… I was lucky enough that my father was into good music, especially folk singers from the 60s-70s, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and this great Italian guy called Fabrizio de Andrè. But the album that really changed my life was acopy of Deep Purple’s ‘In Rock’ that my father used to keep hidden in the bottom of a pile of LPs. That was something truly revolutionary for a 10 yearsold kid! When I listen to ‘Child in Time’ I still have shivers down my spine!At the time I was already studying classical guitar, My first concert was thelast day of school before the summer holiday in June 1993 or 1994… I played some concerts also at the local church during the Sunday celebration, that was great. I studied classical guitar for 5 years, but the seed of rock was already planted and I decided to study with another teacher, who introduced me to Blues and Jazz music, taught me a lot of scales and tabs that I still use when I play guitar today!

4.
How did you decide to launch the label? And what is the difference between 8mm of the time of thefirst release and 8mm now?
When I first started, the main idea was todocument the work of local bands and artists, through releasing records and organizing small concerts and festivals. I come from a tiny village in the north east of Italy there was definitely not much going on there, so after the first three releases I started contacting artists I liked from all over theworld. When I started touring and travelling with my bands more intensively, it became natural to release some of those recordings I was actively involved in as a musician. Now I feel like I am entering in a new phase: I realized that I like the idea of having other labels to take care of Golden Cup’s music, while I am trying to keep the spectrum of the 8mm releases the widest as possible. Right now I am working on 2 series of records. The ‘standard LP series, limited to runs of 300 copies with pro printed album covers and then a more limited one-sided LP series of 100 or so copies with handmade numbered artworks, mostly focused on rare improvised live sets, which is supposed to be an open laboratory for new musical languages.

5.
Next question I will ask to every person in DDb interview series.
What have changed in independent music world with the developing and spreadingof the Web? Any positive improvements? Anynegative repercussions?
Well, I couldn’timagine doing 8mm without the web, it’s hard to figure a more efficient (and cheaper) way of getting in touch with people from all over the world. I can only see this as a benefit for the underground community. That said, I have nothing against the download thing as long as it’s free, in fact I am happy even when people download my releases, or they upload them into music blogs when they go sold out. I think it’s a great thing to be able to share your music with people that are genuinely interested or just curious to check it out.
The only thing I don’t really get is the idea of paying for downloading music, what’s the point in spending money for mp3s files, when you can get them for free (and hopefully save your money to buy the Long Playing format which is more personal and with a better sound quality)? I guess that is what they call the ‘compulsive’ aspect of the internet buying: having things immediately (no matter what they are) just with the click of a mouse. That stresses me out. I think 8mm operates in the exact opposite direction: the friends who support the label are normally patient people beside passionate music lovers, who are willing to wait even a few weeks for their limited edition LPs to show up (this happens when I am on tour, not always of course!)

6.
When did you start Golden Cup project? How did it appear?
Golden Cup startedin summer of 2006. I was about to leave for a tour in Europe with one of my previous bands, but my friends bailed last minute so I found myself alone with these upcoming gigs already set up… I decided to put some tape loops, a radio,a harmonica and a keyboard in a suitcase, and then I flew to Spain to play the firstshow of the tour. That was the beginning of Golden Cup.

7.
What music do you prefer to listen to when traveling?
I normally download digital versions of the LPs from my collection and I put them in the i-pod theday before leaving, in order to recreate the feeling of being at home listening to my favorite tunes…Pretty nerdy, I know. On heavy rotation now I have a lot of old Finnish stuff: Esa Kotilainen, The Sperm, Edward Vesala, Pekka Airaksinen…Perfect for travelling through the forest! And of course I don’t go anywhere without a good selection of jazz albums. I don’t even start making a list because it could be endless…

8.
Tell about the independent scene in Portugal? Is it fertile in terms ofexperimental artists, labels, clubs, fests? Can you advise anything/anyone for checking out?
There is definitely a nice scene in Portugal, especially if you consider that it’s such a small country. Definitely not many musicians and labels, but those who are active are well consolidated, and most important, there is a lot of respect among the music community. My favorite place in Porto is called Culturgest, it’s a cultural center, financed by the government. There is always some great exhibition going on there, and great shows once or twice a month. Lisbon is very active culturally as well, and even smaller cities like Leiria are kept alive through the work of great associations like a9))). Speaking of music from Portugal, this year I fell in love with the work of this amazing musician, Carlos Paredes, master of the Portuguese guitar. I recommend everyone to check his LPs and the great documentary about him called ‘Guitarra cum Genio’.


9.
What are your plans about 8mm and Golden Cup?
8mm is coming up with a new update later this month, with two new albums by Japan’s Suishou noFune (Anya from Love Cult did a great artwork for this), and a new liverecording from my friends France, who already released a tape on 8mm in 2010 and enchanted everyone at last Kraak festival in Belgium.
Speaking of Golden Cup, following the release of ‘Sogno Elettrico’ on Blackest Rainbow this year, there will be two more releases coming out soon. Each record is in fact part of a trilogy, the second one is basically ready, it is a fourtet recording featuring myself, Maurizio Abate, Jeremie Sauvage and Mathieu Tilly. That was recorded last December, it is very different from the first album, but still you can find a certain continuity. The third chapter has been in the works for a year now and is just myself, it is about the future. I hope to have it finished before next fall, because lately it has been a serious strain to my mental stability.

10.
If you had a choice togo to one of the planets in solar system which one would you choose?
I would definitely choose Saturn.

11.
What is the best placefor playing Golden Cup music?
Saturn, that’s why I wanna move there.

12.
What is that thing thelost of which will make the gig impossible? I mean: technical equipment,amulet, cloth, anything.
Nothing honestly. After I forgot my old electric mandolin on a train to Tilburg last year in the middle of a European tour...I think now I can do a Golden Cup set in every kind of situation. Especially lately when I play in trio with Mathieu and Jeremie, we are trying to focus a lot on acoustic instruments in order to be flexible to every kind of situation, even to open air jams!

13.
What country is the leader in ordering stuff from 8mm?
It used to be the United States, right now I think most of the copies splits equally between UK/US/EU distributors….

14.
What do you enjoy most in releasing process and in playing/recording music?
I think the thing that fascinates me the most about creating something is that sense of mystery and that feeling of total uncertainty that invades your brain from the beginning of the process. You know (sometimes) where you are starting from, but you never know where you are going to finish. I love being lost and disoriented, it’s something I would recommend for everyone to experience in life. You go through so many emotions: excitement, anger, joy, and frustration before finding a way that sounds right…