Don't Move Here EP.2:
http://www.wk.com/wke/show/dont_move_here/episode/2

The Black Gumdrop, Audio Dregs and Atole
Episode 2 begins with a visit to the shared studio of Mike King and Guy Burwell, two of Portland's most well-known music poster artists. They discuss their work and some of the bands they have created visuals for. Then we travel to the office of Audio Dregs, a small independent label that focuses on electronic music. The episode ends with a live performance by Audio Dregs recording artist Atole.

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Not Quite 20 Questions with E*Rock of Audio Dregs Recordings

By Hiram Lucke
(photo of E*Rock by Anthony Gerorgis)

HL: How and when did Audio Dregs Recordings start?
E*Rock: I'm not sure exactly when it started, but it's been over a decade at this point. It was a cassette duplication project for music that I recorded at home as well as my brother's music (E*Vax) and then friends with recording projects that wouldn't have left the bedroom otherwise. Later I discovered the cassette labels Shrimper and Sonic Enemy and realized that what I was doing a "record label" too. I was just operating on intuition, inspired by DIY music recording that I heard on college radio growing up outside of Cleveland. The idea that musicians created something outside of normal cultural boundaries was fascinating to me. Step by step I got more serious with it. The ADR catalogue numbers start in the 30's and the secret there is the previous incarnation of the label was maybe 30 or so tapes. ADR is on 76 now.
HL: How did you find the artists on your label? Are they friends, family, demos sent in?
E*Rock: Its still mostly friends and family. I met a few people via demos, but most people are friends that I've made via musical interests. I like to think of it as sort of an artists collective since it was more about cultivating people's craft and growing rather than a commercial venture.
HL: When and why did you start Fryk Beat?
E*Rock: I had this idea to do something more vocal combined with an influence from my interest in dance music. Its also kind of my idea of "pop" whereas ADR is more the "headphone" label-although this isn't a hard defined thing. My friend Eric Johnson was working at a big local ad agency called Wyden & Kennedy and their Tokyo office operated a nice label so he was trying to get something going in Portland and asked me to get involved so I presented this idea for Fryk Beat that I came up with when I was doodling in my notebook on an airplane to play a show at AMODA in Austin. I was hoping for something more collaborative but WK didn't end up biting; we decided to run with it because we were excited about the idea and wanted to get the music out but it is now more of a sub label that I do by myself again.
HL: Do you have a favorite music format for listening?
E*Rock: I like different formats for different reasons. The vinyl LP is probably my favorite; with vinyl download is nice for convenience, especially for traveling, but the clarity of CD sure beats mp3s. I like cassettes too, and will probably release some more cassettes soon of my own music, but I don't miss making them, so it will be on other people's labels! It's cheap but has a totally new context. Once it was about availability, now it's almost more an idea of exclusivity and being a rare, handmade object. I'm not one that sold all their vinyl for CDs, then all their CDs for mp3s because I have a hard time to get rid of any music, to a fault. My room is just crammed with recorded music; its a joke and will some day be the death of me.
HL: How about for your labels' releases?
E*Rock: LP+DVD+mp3 is maybe the ultimate. The only way it would be better would be gatefold jacket with clear vinyl! But I have to be reasonable.
HL: Do you find that you have more sales with vinyl, CD, or mp3 downloads?
E*Rock: Everyone stopped buying CDs near the end of 2009, so that makes the label release schedule slow way down since that was our bread and butter. More mp3s sell now, but its so easy for people to get things free you can't really depend on that either. I don't really want to do a digital only release, but that might be better than doing a couple LP releases a year and waiting for them to recoup before moving on? I have no idea what things will be like in six months from now. I probably won't do many more CDs, so the next release we're doing is an LP+DVD+mp3 download by ROTFLOL (aka Jacob Ciocci from Paper Rad) and then maybe the new Copy album will be CD and LP. I should know by next month, but really I'm winging it at this point.
HL: Do you have any favorite music labels? Ones that you can depend on a quality product when you buy it?
E*Rock: I like DFA a lot. Mostly I pay attention to local friends' labels like Marriage, States Rights, Community Library, Gnar Tapes, UHU, Portland Bad Date Line, Night People... My favorite radio show is still King Loser's Cut Out Bin on WSPN 91.1 every Sunday night. I don't believe in the preciousness of genre and I've always tried to release things that are non-genre. There were tons or genre labels that I followed a few years back, and its nice to know what you're getting, but things are so spaced out now I can't say there are many that I follow for that reason.
I find myself following artists more and a few solid blogs which act as more the modern version of a zine crossed with college radio show. I like the blogs Wave at Night, Disco Delicious, 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Tumblr!....
HL: Is there a label that you've thought of as a model for either label?
E*Rock: I really liked Homestead when I was younger. Puik, a small cassette label that was run by Jelle Crama had the best artwork ever.
HL: Any music right now that catches your ear?
E*Rock: Restless People from New York, White Flight, Delicate Steve... can't wait for Ratatat LP4 (I've only heard rough draft). There's so many great local Portland bands these days, I don't even want to start naming names.
HL: Has there ever been an album that you've heard and thought, "Damn, I wish I would have put that out."?
E*Rock: Not really. If someone else put it out the I don't have to... releasing and consuming are not really an end to a means, its better to put your efforts into sharpening your skills and creating.
That said, I'd love to be putting out another E*Vax album (if he would finish it) or even Ratatat, but they're too popular. If I was doing that I wouldn't have time to do anything else creative. Its more like I hear a song and think, "Damn, I wish I had made something that epic," or "written a song that made me feel that way." Its nice to have things that sell though so you can put more things out without having to worry about finances. Actually, I'm listening to Bobby Birdman remixes right now that we made a tour CDR of and thinking damn, this would have been a nice 12", but it will probably come out later as mp3 release.
Actually, I'd love to re-issue the Springwater LP, some Matt Brinkman mystery synth, more crazy silk screened small runs maybe. I wish someone had reissued all the Super Roots series on vinyl, but I really don't need any more records in my life, so whatever.
HL: Any big projects coming up, whether in art, your label, or music, that you'd like to tell us about?
E*Rock: Yes! This ROTLFOL release, new Copy are next. New E*Rock album? Yuichiro Fujimoto, Dim Dim, Melodium have new albums too. Atole, Bobby Birdman remixes.... We're doing a re-issue of Fantastic Palace, an old favorite of mine, though very obscure. There aren't enough hours in a day.
Also, together with Copy and Manny from Atole we organize a monthly dance party at Rotture called Supernature; a couple live bands and we DJ. Its kind of like "Audio Dregs presents" even though we don't bill it that way.
HL: Any words of wisdom for those who'd like to start a label of their own?
E*Rock: I think keeping local, working with friends is the best way to start, and to stay at this point. Bands these days are their own business, its less about the labels, so the label should be more of a community for ideas and ventures; another way to communicate those ideas. Its pretty thankless and not too glamorous. I never wanted to be a "label guy," but its a good way to create some activity, work some video, get into design, music, DJing, making zines, print shirts, whatever you want to get into... its all part of the bigger picture. I'm still trying to find the bigger picture, but that's the point, I guess. You never reach that point where you "got there," you have to keep experimenting, working and evolving.
"Oh we're famous, we can die now!" What's the point in that?

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Cool Hunting

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E*Rock: An Interview with Awesome
NOT ON THE GUEST LIST:

Behold, he who is E*Rock- most acurately described by Willamette Week as: "Portland's greatest unknown electronic music multitasker, ever."
Emphasis on greatest and ever

If you don't already know him by name, you'll be asking yourself how you don't as his relevance spans several acts and media. Probably his two most visible efforts to enter mainstream territory have been the release of the debut single 'Seventeen Years' from his brother's band Ratatat on his label Audio Dregs as well as the music video for the Gossip's 200K selling single 'Standing in the Way of Control' (not to mention one for Beck as well as the animation for a live action video for the Blow). He makes his own music, releases it as well as others' tunes on CD and vinyl over his two record labels, creates poster art and does so much else that's it's a bit hard to keep up with the chronicles of E*Rock.

Maybe you can follow along. . .
1. What was it like growing up in Nordenham?
Oh, I see you've done your research! Well yeah, it was cool, I guess.
2. a. Did you meet any celebrities while working on the cruise where you met your Fryk beat label partner? Who?
I met the guy from a popular TV show and his infamous wife! I tend to forget celebrity names. I'd like to see that Daft Punk movie that's coming out.
b. Share a story about one particularly memorable and/or strange meeting:
They were despicable human beings. When they weren't looking I put gum in their hair and farted in church and told God it was them.
3.How do the different partnerships in running each label vary?
Running labels is kinda boring business with lots of work for very little payoff. I'm going to take a little time off to work on music and other neglected projects, like music and drawing and video. Don't get me wrong, I'll still keep doing it, but there's less need for it than there was when I started. Everyone has a label these days and no one really has money to buy records.
4.What about the music or the artist makes you want to release their music?
Its mostly friends and sometimes you make a long distance friend and then you're like, hey let's do this! The label is about relationships and ideas, which is what music is about, which is all that life is about. We're all social creatures, more than most will admit. To me a label should be a little more than reproducing plastic discs though.
5.When will you be posting this year's mission statement on Audio Dregs?
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting. Maybe tonight? I'm making a note to myself right now.
-okay-I'm going to abandon the numbered format now-
How do you approach remixes? ie by what you feel the song could be or a desire for it to become a whole new entity, or for it to sound like only you could have made it, or . . .
Well, I usually remix songs that I already like, so I try and just
put my own take on it. I think of what sort of beat I would put in there if I was working on the song with that person. Some of the Panther songs I was working on the original with Charlie, so the remix was just trying to find a different way to approach something I had already thought hard about. I'm trying to finish a new mixtape of unofficial remixes, so I have to take acapellas and start more from scratch. My brother got me into that, and has a new mixtape out like that and I love it! Also DJ Copy is totally got me excited to do it as well. His mixtapes are totally crucial!
-What dictates what it will become?
Its like a puzzle. You listen to the the melody and see where it can go, or if it needs to get more dancey. Usually it needs to get more dancey. My brother sticks really close to the original song structure, whereas I never did, so I'm going to try that method. Keep it pop. Sometimes you gotta force the pieces to fit though.
Were you blogging elsewhere previous to your blog Light and Sound on Urban Honking?
No, though I had kind of a fake blog on the Audio Dregs site, like in 2000. It wasn't very good. I had a "news" part of the site and then I had a hidden "fake news" section, which was blog-like, but the word blog hadn't been invented yet. I was influenced by Mumbleboy's blog- like section at the time.
Did your friends at Urban Honking approach you or did you make the suggestion?
Yeah, when they started Jona asked if I'd like to do one, and I said no. I'm not a writer, and I don't really like writing about myself. I thought the whole blog as diary thing was weird, because I don't get into the whole "this is what I like, this is my opinion, blah blah, me me me..." thing. But then I was dating this girl that was doing a blog with Urho (loves made me do weirder things) and I was getting into Jona's tour diary blogs at the time too. So I realized I could just put up pictures with no text and that would be fine.
Also, as the economy got worse Kinko's made it harder to steal copies (Ed- Seriously, what is up with their pre-pay?) and this caused less people to do regular zines. Blogs sort of
replaced personal zines, and became the new zine.
Is your zine Thumb still active?
Its been dormant, but I'm planning to publish one more issue together with Yeti Publishing. Just as soon as I get some time.
You have a show coming up in June in Tokyo-will there be a theme? Will it be all 2d art or . . . ?
It's at Hanna gallery with my friend Mumbleboy. It'll be video with drawings, and some 3D stuff as well, made out of cardboard mostly.
Has anything (weird fan mail, . . .) resulted from your doing the video for The Gossip's 'Standing in the Way of Control'? When creating the video did you think they were soon to reach the international exposure that they have now? Were they involved in the concept?
The weirdest thing that resulted was a feature/interview for "video of the week" in the NME. Otherwise, nothing weird came out of it. The UK label didn't even like the video and wasn't going to use it at first. Then they used stills for a CD, 12" and 7" singles for the song and never sent me copies of the records! I even emailed them and they didn't write back. I've never seen the records in person even. I think its a good video, and a good song, but I don't think anyone had an idea they'd get so big. They're super stars in the UK and that's awesome.
I still haven't heard the entire record, Nathan said he'd give me a copy of the record on vinyl, so I never picked it up, but I haven't seen him in months.
Before we made the video I got together with the band and Maggie from KRS and we talked about a concept. What we came up with was "gayos", which is gay+chaos. That was all we came up with and I had like two weeks to get it done. So I painted a make-shift green screen, we shot some video, and Ben Jones and I made some animations and put it together in the last 5 days or so after that. It was a fun project.
Do you have a preferred creative medium?
email interviews.
Who are you currently listening to?
Ratatat, Copy, Kavinsky, Suicide, Chromatics, Sarcophagus comp, Boredoms, Eats Tapes, Yacht, White Flight... the usual stuff.
Please describe yourself in five words or less-as a complete sentence or just a jumble of words:
Mirror or window? You decide.
What can we expect in the rest of 2007 (related to you and/or anything that takes your fancy-- alien invasions? a new record for world's largest pumpkin? . . .)
I'm trying to make a book of art, another issue of Thumb, release a new record of some of my own music, a mixtape, a collaborative DVD with Ola Vasiljeva, and move to Berlin for the summer. I'd love to go on tour again someday. Also, there's a bunch of music videos in the works I'd love to finish.
I have no idea what will happen in 2007.
Thanks so much!
YEAH NO PROBLEM!
'Victory at Sea' Bobby Birdman E*Rock remix MP3
Buy the 12 inch here and visit Fryk Beat's myspazz to add the song to your profile. It's been up on mine for the past month.

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Some people aren't happy unless they're doing way too many things at once, and Portland-based polymath E*Rock is definitely one of them. A skinny, good-looking 31 year-old with stringy hair and a sly smile, E*Rock stocks the formidable electronic section at Ozone 3. He also makes awesome music by himself, does design work that's simultaneously slick and ratty, releases rad IDM-ish music on his label Audio Dregs, makes these great psychedelic drawings that I really wish he'd spend more time on, occasionally puts together music shows where he also projects intensely colored and fucking hilarious animated visuals, edits and publishes the music magazine "Thumb," plus he does music videos for the likes of Beck and the Gossip with the newly-assembled Wyld File crew (a recently launched partnership between himself and the insanely talented Providence, RI-based Paper Rad folks). 

The sick thing is how well E*Rock multi-tasks, and there's nothing frantic about him, either. Dude has the friendly slacker vibe of a surfer (or what I imagine surfers to be like anyway). I ask what he's up to these days and in addition to videos, he's headed to Europe next week "to do some art workshops and play festivals, and video projections for a Rhizome event in NYC, and working on new music, and launching a new label." "Other than that I'm doing nothing," he deadpans. "What about the big release show at Holocene next this Friday that's a triple release show for Copy on Audio Dregs, and Bobby Birdman and Panther on the new label," I ask, astounded that I can sound like such a PR-type hack. "Oh yeah, I'm doing that show at Holocene too," he says, eyes lighting up, as if he'd almost forgotten about it. 

Lately, E*Rock's turned his attention towards home. After a few years of releases by artists from Germany, France, Massachussetts and Japan, the next few Audio Dregs titles are Portland groups: albums by the lovely retro electronic act Copy and the woozy psychedelic folk of the Plants. Both these records totally rule. "I like that the Plants melt their pop into a psychedelic brew," Eric explains. "And Copy's music is in between genres, which is what all Audio Dregs music should be about; he's got great, complex melodies, but also it's simple enough to be catchy. I like that his music has a hip-hop feel to its production, but the beats are actually disco." 

Then there's the new label, Fryk Beat. The music on it is sexy, weird and beautiful. I ask E*Rock (who also started the Collective Jyrk label with the kids from Yellow Swans) why the heck he's starting up a whole 'nother label. His reply is, simply, "Why not?" He describes the music on Fryk as "more social music." "It's more vocal, and it's records that you'd put on at a party; Audio Dregs music is more the records you listen to by yourself, preferably with headphones," he says, adding that "you would let the artists from Audio Dregs watch your kids, but probably wouldn't want Fryk Beat artists to." 

A real sense of whimsy pervades the Fryk Beat "stable." Started with Eric Johnson, a member of Pulseprogamming and Riddenpaa, the first four releases on FB are 12"s by PDX-centric acts: sexy motherfucker and aggro dance experimentalist Panther, awesome lap-pop crooner Bobby Birdman, E*Rock's own electronic dance persona 1999, and the lovely experimental pop music of 01 (Pop Music). These are people who listen to all parts of "Trapped in the Closet," because they like it as a groovy minimalist groove, as much as the obvious pleasures of watching an insane person over-narrate a story where a midget poops his pants. Free videos and MP3s of each 12" on Fryk Beat can be found at http://www.frykbeat.com. Rob Whitey's "cardboard" video for Panther is probably the best rock and roll video since that White Stripes one with all the Legos.

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Willamette Week: Localcut
Fratatat: Brothers Eric and Evan Mast have helped shape American electronic music. LC finds out what shaped them. by MICHAEL BYRNE

Ratatat, arguably, has been one of the biggest blow-up cult bands of the past couple years, with its infectious layered guitars and beatsmithing snagging a spot in every hipster’s iPod from Williamsburg to, um, Portland. Before they got “discovered,” their first record—a single for the song “17 Years”—dropped courtesy of Portland’s own Audio Dregs, founded by Eric Mast, a.k.a. E*Rock and older brother of Evan Mast, one half of the Ratatat duo. On Saturday, Berbati’s Pan hosts a family reunion of sorts with the brothers sharing a bill. Last week, I chatted with the two of them about growing up, monkeys and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
WW: Do you guys keep in pretty good contact?
Evan Mast: Eric sends me YouTube links about every other day. That’s our cultural discussion: YouTube links.
Eric Mast: Usually it’s a monkey doing something…wearing clothes, smoking.
Evan: One’s a monkey doing karate.
How big a part of your growing up was music?
Evan: We had a short-lived band together when I was in eighth grade, with like eight of our friends. We did a competition.
How did you do?
Evan: I don’t know. The judges left before the competition was over.
Too bad. What kind of music were you playing then?
Evan: It was kind of a mixture of not knowing what you’re doing and trying to plug in as many instruments as you can find. We’d have a Casio plugged in for some beats, a drummer would play along with that, then someone would beat on a guitar with a drumstick.
Who were you listening to?
Evan: I was listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers religiously at the time [laughs].
Eric, would you have put out that first Ratatat single if you’d just gotten it as a demo from someone you didn’t know?
Eric: Totally.
What appealed to you?
Eric: It’s kind of perfect. It’s a lot of stuff I’m interested in, with something new added. That’s exactly what you want to hear in any situation. The fact that it had those really tight hip-hop beats, but with that layered guitar sound. It was really over-the-top and exciting. “17 Years”—it’s just kind of a bombastic song.
How do you think you guys diverge musically, between E*Rock and Ratatat?
Evan: Well, Ratatat’s still mostly influenced by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Eric: Well, I’m still based on the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but it’s more Uplift Mofo Party Plan, and he goes Blood Sugar Sex Magik…through Stadium Arcadium [both laugh].
Eric: Evan has definitely gotten more into this, like, really good production. Reviewers for a while were calling my stuff lo-fi. I guess hi-fi is where you have real orchestras or something.
Do you think your approach is more experimental than Evan’s?
Eric: Evan’s stuff has definitely gotten more refined. Lately the stuff I’ve been doing has been getting dirtier and dirtier. The new stuff I’ve been doing, I’ve been pushing for this more triumphant sound, and I think that’s a Ratatat influence.
Ratatat and E*Rock play with Envelope and Panther Saturday, Sept. 16, at Berbati’s Pan. 9:30 pm. $12. 21+.

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THE FADER
JULY/AUGUST 2005

Wyld Style

Portland, OR artist E*Rock is an all-round indie renaissance dude, but what we're feeling the most are his videos-cheeky spaz outs influences by 80's arcade uprights and drawing with a fist full of magic markers. With them he is helpingg to revitalize macromedia Flash, teh web medium that once promised to revolutionize cartoon animation but then went out like Lil' Pimp. Recently E*Rock teamed up with Ben Jones of Paper Rad under the name Wyld File to create awhole new style of Flash called Dogman 99 that they premiered in teh Yanni-baiting video for their remix of Beck's "Que Onda Guerep". After watching the clip I leaped six feet in the air to reveal a secret power-up leaf and then jumped out of a 13th story window beacuse I thought I had Racoon Mario powers. It's dangerous. -Eric Ducker

 

AUTRES DIRECTIONS [France]

01/ How did you and your brother E*Vax come to music ? Was it an passion transmitted to you by your parents ?
I don't know how we got into music exactly. My parents aren't overly musical but they've always been really supportive of all our creative endeavors. I was the older brother and got into music a lot in high school and would pass a lot of music on to E*vax. I started playing in bands with my friends and my brother and I would play together in the basement with any crappy instruments we could scrap together or save up and buy. Evan spent a lot of time getting good at guitar and making songs by himself in his room, and I would play in lots of weird bands, making lots noise and playing shows. Once when we were kids we got in a fight over who was a better guitar player. ha ha. He honed his craft more directly and I had a lot of output, but made a mess.

02/ In reading different issues of your Thumb fanzine, i discovered that you were very interested in musical instruments and more generally in sounds. Where does this interest come from ?
I don't know. I've always been interested in sounds, making sounds that I'd never heard before. I've always wanted to collect odd sounds on tape and make music out of it more than using the obvious instrumentation. Once they started making affordable samplers I got into that, and then when I found I could us a computer, I started doing that. After I got my brother into it too stopped making regular pop songs with guitar too, and started using a sampler and keyboards, but he applied his song craftsmanship to his songs. It worked so well with his interest in pop structure so that got me more into focusing in structure too.

03/ Was that interest something that made you create Thumb ? What were your motivations as you wrote the first issue of the fanzine ? Have those motivations changed today ?
The motivation behind Thumb has changed a lot since I started, but I started it over 6 years ago. I got involved in writing about music and music journalism early on, but started doing Thumb because I was more interested in design at the time. It seemed like it would be fun. It was a great way to learn. I still do it because no one is covering exactly what I want to read about in a way I want to read about it. I can interview bands I wouldn't normally get to read about elsewhere and experiment with my own design ideas as well. Of course, it costs a lot and I rarely have time to work on it.

04/ Why do you change the format & design of Thumb all the time ?
I always tried to make one issue better than the last. Early on it was just a matter of what I could afford, not as much a conscious effort to change the format. The next one will have the same format as the last!

05/ How do you decide of the artistic choices of Thumb ? What guides you in your choice of interviews, reviews, etc. ? Is Thumb opened to collaborations with other reviewers and so ? Where does the idea of the "Mum's reviews" come from ?
I just cover what I'm interested in within, though there's a bit of a broad subject, of course. I don't feel the need to write about my favorite mainstream hip-hop artists. People can read a million other magazines about that I don't feel any need to write negative reviews, for the same reason. Why would I spend my own money to criticize something I don't like and spread negative feelings? Mom's reviews just came about because I'd come back from school and listen to CDs, sometimes be reviewing them, and my Mom would always give her opinion on things just like she always would, especially if she didn't like it! I thought it was funny. After I started printing them she thought it was funny too. Her reviews got better though after I started playing her more and more things. She's surprisingly open minded about all the weird music I play her.

06/ It seems that some of the band you met have finally been released on your own label, Audio Dregs, like for example The Sensualists, or Mummleboy who's making animations for audiodregs.com. In a way Thumb could be seen as a kind of talent's discoverer department for Audio Dregs. What do you think ? How do you keep up-to-date with what’s going on on the music scene?
Yeah, interviewing people is a good way to meet them! Some people we jsut got along well and decided to work together later. Mumblebloy and I had worked with for a while before the interview, but I'd never heard his whole story and thought other people would appreciate it as well. I've been a buyer at a record store for almost 5 years, so it's kind of my job to keep up with music, so I naturally want to share what I find with other people.

07/ Do you have any musical training ? When did you start composing your own music ?
I took piano lessons for a few years when I was a kid, but didn't like practicing. I took cello for a year in grade school as well, but wasn't particularly fond of that either. I took a few bass guitar lessons in high school, but it's hard to stay interested in lessons when they don't teach you want you're interested in as far as music. Some of my friends decided to start a band in high school, one played guitar and the other drums, so I bought a bass and we just started playing. The first song we did was "Fire" by Hendrix, but we were listening to lots of punk bands so I thought I decided we should try and write our own songs and I became the singer instead.

08/ Where does the idea of collaborate with Harald Ziegler come from ? How did the collaboration happened ?
After I interviewed him he liked my artwork and asked if I wanted to collaborate on an art+music project. I love his work, so how could I say no? We decided on a kung-fu theme, so I made most of the beats and sent him CDRs and he would play over it and send it back.

09/ Can you tell us about Conscious ? What was the idea of the disc ? Where does its title come from ?
I'd been recording the album for a long time, over two years or so, trying to complete a full album of 100% songs that I was happy with, but had to fit together, sounding like their all from the same album. I couldn't just release a bunch of tracks that I had on my computer. I worked with my girlfriend a lot, getting her to play guitar, flute and vocals on most songs. It gave me more of a direction, other than having all options open. The cover art came from a series of gestural studies I was doing. I was trying to do 500 drawings on paper with these wax litho crayons because I figured if I did that many I would develop my own scribble style, just with the simplest gestures. black and white. I only got about 250 made, but scanned like 10 of my favorites and used those for the covers. I was walking home from work, rapping to myself, and I came up with a rhyme that was like 4 syllables from "spacial places of drawings and people", I forgot it now, but I decided that would be a good title. I later decided it was too long. I thought "Conscious" was like when you first wake up, becoming conscious, but everything is still hazy and distant. But also another definition of Conscious is that you a very aware, meaning to me that I was aware of all the tiny sounds that make up the beats in the album. They're all sounds recorded and collected, then turned into rhythms. You hear it if you play it loud or on headphones, but there's a lot of layers and details

10/ In Conscious you mix analogical and computer sounds, don't you ? Why ? Who's the musician/designer Colleen French ?
Most sounds have analog origins. There's acoustic guitar, flute, vocal sounds, field recordings, toy instruments, electric guitar... even the keyboard sounds are from an analog keyboard. Colleen is my girlfriend for the past 2 or 3 years. She records solo as "01 (Pop Music)", is a chef, and does her own fashion, some collaborations with me as well that we sell at a local boutique called Seaplane. She's like me and tries do too many things at once.

11/ Conscious is not as much experimental as Weekday, the disc you released with Eric Diaz (as Carpet Musics). How did you and Eric Diaz met ? What's Eric musical background ? Are you working on a new LP with him ?
I met Eric at the record store while I was working. He was listening to Microstoria and I started talking to him about these types of sounds and Eno's ambient work. Eric played keyboards in a band called Poolside (Bongload Records) and had a big collection of analog synthesizers. He was selling them all (except for his Moog) to buy this keyboard that was just released (The Nord lead). So I bought my first synth from him, and it turned out he lived a block away from me so I would bring it over and we would record all these analog synth improvisations really late at night. We made a CDR from these recordings, and then decided to try and take it somewhere else. We wanted to make an ambient album that didn't use any of the regular techniques; no drones and wanted to keep all songs under 3 minutes. We had to reinvent our entire sound, s it took another 2 or 3 years to finish that record. He lives in LA now, but eventually we'll finish a second album.

12/ Carpet Musics's music uses sine tones and bleeps. What do you think of those totally artificial noises in musical creation ?
The sounds are very soft on that record, so they feel like natural sounds to me. I feel like those types of sounds aren't very physical at the same time so when i hear them I hear only the sound, we try to create sounds that don't sound like other sounds. Rather than an instrument, they sound only like the sound they are, so you are forced to draw your own conclusions. The sounds become part of your atmosphere and part of life so you color them with your imagination.

13/ Just like your own work, Carpet Musics's music is keeping a pop ingredient that makes the music accessible. Is it a will of yours, not to be only experimental ? Don't you wanna be sometimes more experimental ?
Yes, I've tried to find a balance in the past, but I don't always think about it anymore. I just try and make something that sounds good. I have tons of purely experimental music, but I don't always feel the need to release it, like maybe it's too self indulgent. If people seemed to want it I would let them release it, but I dont' suppose they've heard it. Tom from Jackie-O Motherfucker does a label called U-Sound and asked me to send hims something for that, so I think I will send him some more experimental recordings. It's much harder to decide what is good though, so I want to go back and work on it more, but there's never enough time in the day.

14/ You' re going to tour with Lullatone and Greg Davis this summer. Where does the idea of touring together come from ?
W played together when he came to Portland and Seattle with Hrvatski and they stayed with me and we got a long well. Later Lulaltone heard him on a listening station at a record store in Japan and we were talking bout how good his CD was. Next thing I knew they were friends and did a small tour together. We decided to do another tour, with all three, since we liked each other, like each others music, and thought it would be fun!

15/ What artists do you like to listen to at the moment ?
Oh, so many it's hard to say. Today's recent playlist was PIL, Strategy, Loscil, (I played with them last night and got their new CDs!), Felt, Sean Paul, Sack & Blumm, Cluster, Stone Roses, The Cure, .h, and a bunch of mainstream hip-hop on the radio, like R. Kelly's "Remix to Ignition".

16/ What's on your agenda for after the tour ?
Good question. I would love to have some time to record since I've been so busy installing new software, doing the label and doing freelance web, animation, and design work. Coming out next we have Lineland full length CD and one from FS Blumm. We want to assemble a Mumbleboy DVD. The in October we'll do an E*Rock, FS Blumm, and Greg Davis tour, as Greg will have a new album out on Carpark. Hopefully Greg Davis and E*Rock in European will happen at the end of the year as well. I would like to record some projects I started, one that is a more "dance" band and another that's more like a "psychedelic" band. I want to make my next CD to come with a 100 page book of artwork! I have too many ideas for the amount of time I have.

interview by stéphane

E*Rock next to their E*Vax brother directs the Audio seal Dregs that proposes a peculiar combination of rock and electronics.
E*Rock next to their E*Vax brother is to the front of the Audio seal Dregs that includes/understands several groups of musicians who combine the rock with the electronics, that is to say, Carpet Music, Supersprite, Frank Schültge Blumm and Inkblot, among others. Many of them also record for the German seal Tomlab with which they share some concepts of how to be inserted in the independence of the present musical scene. It is invited then to know the new Audio seal Dregs in audiodregs

As a form of introducirte, you could tell us how went that you began to produce electronic music?

"To begin to produce it was more by necessity. From very young I so on began recording my own music in a table of 4 tracks and. I like the cause that your you can record directly through a tool like the computer, or that this one is an integral part of the process to make music ".

In me opinion your music has a special mixture of rock and electronics. In individual, its relation with the vanguard music; noises and subtle melódicas lines. Which are your musical influences?

"I like many types of music. Sure I like when music has different facets, like the most experimental technique, but also the melódicos aspects, of composition and textures.
Throughout the time I have touched in bands noise, punk, garage, pop and projects that do not fit in any of these styles, as well as I have occupied my time like DJ. Therefore, all these things have influenced to me in which I do now. I distract myself easily ".

Your you handle to the Audio seal Dregs and a called magazine Thumb. Us you could comment these two activities that you make and the ideas that are behind these?

"the magazine" Thumb "is an excuse to interview bands that opportunity would not have to know them through another publication. Audio Dregs is the seal that I take my E*Vax brother along with. There are things that I make because I like music, as well as the design, making objects. It is like a species of obsession ".

What you have in common with the German seal Tomlab?

"Tomlab is a unique seal that always proposes new things. I believe that we have some things in common; we are not interested in making a style of music certain; to both we like to do sounds manufactured in homemade form and we have in addition I interest similars as far as the design.
In its opportunity I sent a unit of my magazine because I liked his seal and after a time she solicitd to me to make the design of the title page for the first CD of Inkblot, since to him it liked the design that I taught to him. We initiated thus our friendship and we decided to make the compilation "For Friends together". On the other hand, with the Carpark seal we made brief tour by Costa-Este of the United States ".

What you could hope in the future near of E*Rock and Audio Dregs?

"the long duration of E*Rock would have to leave the next month June. We will soon have in Audio Dregs new the CD's de Inkblot and Supersprite. We are also in the final process of new the CD's de The Sensualists, Lineland, Lullatone and Dim Dim. Tengo in addition the hope to find something of time to update our page Web.

Interview by Guillermo Escudero

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LEAD STORY / Willamete Week

The New School
These people are changing Portland's artistic landscape. If you don't know of them already, you soon will.

 

photo by Michael Parrish

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What gets you off of your couch? Are you more likely to be drawn to the sunny waterfront for a brew-and-rib fest than to a darkened theater to see an experimental film? What are the chances that this Sunday you'll pick up a comic book about race relations instead of peeking at Family Circus? Have you ever considered trucking down to a small gallery to see an installation instead of window shopping at the mall?