Photo by Rhea Cutillo
Check out the rest of the interview along with more photos and songs after the break or peep the rest of the interview on their website itself @ http://circuitreerecords.com/
Panther God: Seems like some big stuff is happening in the world of Wake as of late. Can u tell us what's new?
Wake: Well, my good friend Sahy Uhns (Charlie Burgin) started a label (Proximal Records) with grammy winning composer producer, Jeff Elmassian. They just released their first official compilation (Proximity One: Narrative of City)! The comp. has been getting a ton of attention-- it was on NPR's "First Listen" and has been reviewed favorably all over the place! I am totally jazzed because Daedelus is on the record and he has been one of my favorite musicians since I was an early teen! Also, TOKiMONSTA (also on the comp) put my tune "Buttabump" in a mix alongside herself and Notorious BIG (downloadhere.) That really made me feel validated as an electronic musician!
I also just got my MFA-- for some reason I keep forgetting that!
W: Man, I loved it! Before CalArts, I was one of a few kids I knew making music with my computer-- it was hard to get better being in such a small group. When I got to CalArts I was placed right in the center of a group of really excellent computer musicians! Everyone was making beats, writing software, designing controllers, and all we'd do was talk music! I learned so much from having a community like that! On top of that, I was able to take really good classes inmax/MSP, Reaktor, Recording, Compsition/Music Theory, Multimedia Art, Javanese and Balinese Gamelan, etc...
Mills was great for similar, but different reasons. For one, Mills has such a history and recognizing that I was about to become part of this history really helped my self confidence as a musician! The Mills crowd was much less interested in drum machines than myself or the CalArts group had been (which was difficult at first) and I found myself really questioning what I should focus on during my two years there. I decided to work on my abilities as a live and improvisational computer musician-- mostly because Mills has such an amazing faculty, all of whom are experts in that stuff! Mills was a really great place to take what CalArts had planted and nurture it...
I guess it's a little too soon-- I probably won't really know what the benefits were, but I definitely feel like I have a much deeper understanding of music and computer music than before (or even without )?
_________________________________________________
________
_________________________________________________
________
Photo by Dan Macanulty
PG: Your father is a poet and your mother an "environmentalist," What's it like to have such cool supportive parents?
W: I don't really know if it was Bob (DennyDennyBreakfast) who came up with TFPP, but I bet it was? We were living together at the time and saying a lot of bullshit! Total Fucking Pizza Party is an internet based collaboration between DDB and myself. When I moved in with Bob, I got him into Renoise Tracker and so now we both use Renoise, which makes it easy to send songs back and forth. We used to make really spastic music (I think we were both listening to a lot of Team Doyobi)-- sending MODs back and forth and just totally destroying/messing with whatever the other had done in it! Then Bob started singing on the tracks and we sort of shifted into a middle ground-- we decided to make pop songs, but we were still way too "IDM"-- most of Phil Spectator (our free album you can get at tfpp.net) was made this way/with these ideas. For our new stuff, we've been really focused on the idea of the pop song and how to make interesting pop music. We had a talk about making hundreds of songs and picking 10 for our next record, and we're moving along on that. I'm really proud of the stuff we've been doing and we're both excited to do a release with Circuitree!
W: Yeah, it's so great! It's an MFB Kraftzwerg-- semi-modular analog synth...3 vco, 2 lfo, 2 envelopes, ring mod, noise, dual amp... For some reason the MIDI to CV won't work with my computer yet-- been talking with the shop about getting that fixed-- but I can just hook it to my MC202 and sequence it from there! I've always wanted a little modular and this thing kills! Now that I have this synth, I feel like I've actually got a good little studio! It's really fun to turn knobs to make sounds-- you can just play around to make tracks! I borrowed a TR909 from my friend Greg (of Eats Tapes and the Pacific Housing Authority) for part of the summer and that really made me want a nice drum machine! It'd be cool to make tracks without touching the computer!
PG: You moved from LA to Oakland not too long ago...can u compare the two for us?
W: I've been in Oakland for 2 years. I love Oakland-- it's a really unique place with a lot of very troubled, intense, and creative energy... It's also very small... LA was unique, and troubled, but BIG! I lived in LA for 3 years and I got tired of the driving! I think that there is a lot of really great stuff going on in that city-- it's just so damn hard to get to! They're hard to compare-- I miss the people a lot and LA has a vibrant electronic music scene, but it actually rains in Oakland (during the winter) and I was really starting to miss that! The Bay Area is full of artists and creative people! AND I've made some great friends here (as well as imported them-- DennyDennyBreakfast, Hydroplane, andKnobGoblin to name a few)! Plus, I've wanted to live in the Bay Area since I was a kid! It's actually really hard to compare the two places though-- they're very different but both are strong in their own ways!
Be on the lookout for the forthcoming Wake EP on Proximal Records, and the TFPP LP on Circuitree. Then there's the Tokimonsta mixtape, with the "Buttabump," as well as a handful of other great releaseshere, and here, and here.
PG: Your father is a poet and your mother an "environmentalist," What's it like to have such cool supportive parents?
W: It's great. I talk to one of them pretty much ever day. When I was studying Psychology and Music at liberal arts college, they sat me down and told me that I really should go to art school. I can talk to my dad for hours about the artistic process! My mom and I talk about any and everything-- from astrology, to relationships, to books, movies, music, and life in general! Plus, they've been exposing me to great, off the wall stuff since I was a baby! Now, it's even more fun because my sister just graduated with a degree in sculpture from RISD and she sends me art books and pieces as presents! I really respect my family and I'm totally blessed to be related to them!
My dad gave me DJ Shadow's Endtroducing for Christmas when I was 11-- that album is totally responsible for where I am right now! Now that I think about it-- I think my aunt gave it to me, but I feel like my dad told her to? I'll have to ask him!
Plus, if my dad had never been your professor, I don't know if we would be friends and collaborators right now (For those of you who don't know: PG and I met at Sweat Records in Miami- when it was in the back of Churchills Pub. I was there with Hydroplane for a show he was playing. My friend and I were talkin' crap about Thom Yorke (which annoyed you, PG, didn't it? yes it did a bit, music snobs! hehe) and there was this totally AMAZING music playing in the store. I asked Paul what it was (because I really wanted to buy it) and it turned out that it was him (PG-13 vs DK1)! Anyway, I gave him my e-mail and a week or so later he wrote and asked if I was related to one of his favorite professors-- my dad...)!
PG: Man, I love that story. Speaking of collaborators / friends...who came up with the name Total Fucking Pizza Party, (or TFPP for short), and what is the project?
W: I don't really know if it was Bob (DennyDennyBreakfast) who came up with TFPP, but I bet it was? We were living together at the time and saying a lot of bullshit! Total Fucking Pizza Party is an internet based collaboration between DDB and myself. When I moved in with Bob, I got him into Renoise Tracker and so now we both use Renoise, which makes it easy to send songs back and forth. We used to make really spastic music (I think we were both listening to a lot of Team Doyobi)-- sending MODs back and forth and just totally destroying/messing with whatever the other had done in it! Then Bob started singing on the tracks and we sort of shifted into a middle ground-- we decided to make pop songs, but we were still way too "IDM"-- most of Phil Spectator (our free album you can get at tfpp.net) was made this way/with these ideas. For our new stuff, we've been really focused on the idea of the pop song and how to make interesting pop music. We had a talk about making hundreds of songs and picking 10 for our next record, and we're moving along on that. I'm really proud of the stuff we've been doing and we're both excited to do a release with Circuitree!
PG: So are we! Hey I heard you have a new toy. It's a new synth right?
W: Yeah, it's so great! It's an MFB Kraftzwerg-- semi-modular analog synth...3 vco, 2 lfo, 2 envelopes, ring mod, noise, dual amp... For some reason the MIDI to CV won't work with my computer yet-- been talking with the shop about getting that fixed-- but I can just hook it to my MC202 and sequence it from there! I've always wanted a little modular and this thing kills! Now that I have this synth, I feel like I've actually got a good little studio! It's really fun to turn knobs to make sounds-- you can just play around to make tracks! I borrowed a TR909 from my friend Greg (of Eats Tapes and the Pacific Housing Authority) for part of the summer and that really made me want a nice drum machine! It'd be cool to make tracks without touching the computer!
W: I've been in Oakland for 2 years. I love Oakland-- it's a really unique place with a lot of very troubled, intense, and creative energy... It's also very small... LA was unique, and troubled, but BIG! I lived in LA for 3 years and I got tired of the driving! I think that there is a lot of really great stuff going on in that city-- it's just so damn hard to get to! They're hard to compare-- I miss the people a lot and LA has a vibrant electronic music scene, but it actually rains in Oakland (during the winter) and I was really starting to miss that! The Bay Area is full of artists and creative people! AND I've made some great friends here (as well as imported them-- DennyDennyBreakfast, Hydroplane, andKnobGoblin to name a few)! Plus, I've wanted to live in the Bay Area since I was a kid! It's actually really hard to compare the two places though-- they're very different but both are strong in their own ways!
Photo by Rhea Cutillo
PG: Seen any good movies lately? Any good books?
W: Yep! Saw and really loved Mr. Lonely-- the Harmony Korine film! I saw Cremaster 3 by Matthew Barney at a theatre in San Francisco, and I'm not sure if I liked it or not... I just got The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky-- which is supposed to be amazing (I havent watched it yet)! Also, The Room by Tommy Wiseau is hilarious-- worst best movie ever. As far as books go, I recently read Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower and it's now one of my favorites! I'm reading St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell and am really into it-- it'll probably score high up on my list once I'm done! I'm also reading The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody, which has been pretty good so far!
PG: Seen any good movies lately? Any good books?
W: Yep! Saw and really loved Mr. Lonely-- the Harmony Korine film! I saw Cremaster 3 by Matthew Barney at a theatre in San Francisco, and I'm not sure if I liked it or not... I just got The Holy Mountain by Alejandro Jodorowsky-- which is supposed to be amazing (I havent watched it yet)! Also, The Room by Tommy Wiseau is hilarious-- worst best movie ever. As far as books go, I recently read Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower and it's now one of my favorites! I'm reading St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell and am really into it-- it'll probably score high up on my list once I'm done! I'm also reading The Four Fingers of Death by Rick Moody, which has been pretty good so far!
PG: What IS the future of girlfriends? (Really)
W: A few years ago I had this dream:
I woke up on the ground in the desert, the sky was red and smokey, there was nothing around. Far off in the distance, I saw what looked like a line of people stretching across the desert and, being as there wasn't anything else around, I decided to investigate. When I finally reached the line, it was made up of gorgeous naked women. None of them noticed me. They were all waiting in religious rapture, looking straight ahead and moving as one being through the desert. I followed the line, walking slowly and investigating the dessert shrubs, the sky, and these women. After what felt like hours I came upon a Mayan pyramid-- the line stretched up the front and then back down the other side. At the top there was an ornate temple and in front of it there stood a sacrificial alter and a half man/half bird priest. The women were subjecting themselves to bizarre sexual acts upon the alter. The priest was dancing and chanting behind them. Strung across the top of the temple was a white vinyl banner with black block text that read "This is The Future of Girlfriends". I woke up.
Later the same week I had another dream. In it, I was in possession of a flying carpet. It was the future and I was in a cloud city in the sky. My robot wife and I took the flying carpet out for a picnic. We sat on the edge of the city, in a park, and watched the clouds roll by from the edge of a cliff (like an ocean below us). The sun was setting-- pink and purple. "This is The Future of Girlfriends" kept swimming through my mind.
Both of those dreams felt really profound-- I was feeling a bit lonely as far as girlfriends go. I wanted to be a part of late night handholding sessions on the beach and all that! Anyway-- I was making a lot of cloud city style music and I just sort of thought it was a great sentence!
That e.p. will probably be coming out on Proximal sometime soon?
PG: Can't wait man, thanks for the interview...keep writing! Beats and stories!
Be on the lookout for the forthcoming Wake EP on Proximal Records, and the TFPP LP on Circuitree. Then there's the Tokimonsta mixtape, with the "Buttabump," as well as a handful of other great releaseshere, and here, and here.
I love this vid... super gangster!
ReplyDelete