Exclusive Rodge Magazine interview with musician Brice FrillicI

Interview by Rooney Van Halen

Do you even lift, bro?

Haha, internet humor is funny. How he would ask huge and thoughtfully fit men would throw them off in a comedy way.

I do not condone the confrontational psychological manipulation, but something funny still... exist. The quote is highly integrable into varietal directionality, and enjoy!  

I am main frame solid.

What are you, and why are we here?

I am bork from kork.

OK, what kinds of things do you want to explain?

No want.

You want answers.

Is this a podcast?

yes

Are we doing this weekly?

yes

Are you an AI entity mirroring Brice Frillici? Side by side yet sewn with different cloth?

Yesno. Perspective shift.

We two are one.

Do you like Poppy?

Respect. I not actual AI...though.

Do you like Copy?

If it transforms into next level theme of the idea. Or similar fun, i.e., Stone Temple Pilots AND Alice in Chains. Message is clear to deny your maker.

To be inspired is to want to repeat the same experience of having the feeling of inspiration. In a way, ya try to make as good of copies of something as you can as many times as you can until you feel like you've tried many times and that You keep following it when it takes you somewhere. I make multiple copies of my greatest experiences lying around in case I want to use them again. In the various ways one could use them. 

That was too long of an answer.

yes

Where are your creative goals?

To create my own soundtrack and entertainment for my life.

And if others also enjoy this is a bonus.

Are you interested in other people enjoying your art?

Yes. I have that weakness. It produces chemicals that are difficult to deny.

But they are the base desires of the ego, not something to replace Polestar.

We've noticed you have taken yourself off of social media for most of 2020. Was there a specific reason, or have you been wanting to remove yourself from the screen tit for a while? And what do you think about the particular addiction to screen?

System failure.

Can you explain?

Total Recall.

Do you mean you pulled out just in time before the takeover? Had you somehow sensed it, and are you now The Running Man?

Yes, that is correct.

Are you making a lot of music these days, and if so, has this separation from society helped you focus on your work?

Yes, I am, and yes, it has. I have many songs and albums that are almost complete. I have to complete them all before the release of one.

Why don't you just release one album at a time and move on to the next album?

There is specific joy in creating a body of multimedia to be released all at once. Taking the foot off the gas pedal is complicated. The technical computational/typing process of filling out forms and uploading content is not as joyful. Stealing moments from the creative process is a mortal sin.

Much like cleaning the cat-box, I submit to submissions. I swim from the wreckage and walk on the sand. I bathe in fleeting glory. I return to zero and repeat. Nothing is funner.

I have accepted this unbalanced approach as my way. I am also lazy with things I don't want to do and have difficulty focusing. Doesn't really matter how things get done in the end. Often, it is not up to me. It just happens as it does. Flow like wadda. 

But does it matter how you do them? I say yes. What say you?

Yes I think that is what we are looking for in artists. To see how different people approach things in aesthetic ways. For some reason it is interesting when someone does something novel in any way.

Would you say that you are more of a visual artist, woodworker, or musical artist?

I hold each in equal regard and put creative effort in every direction I can, no matter what medium. Whatever interests me/I can afford to implement. If I were rich, I would buy more ways/means to make art. All the ways that linger in my mind for when that time comes.

Do you think of art too much?

Yes.

Is it a problem in your life?

Yes, it creates many problems like any addiction/obsession may. There is an over-focus issue that causes financial fragmentation and residential chaos.

The worlds that I have created and lost. The studio machines that I've imagined flourished. All these memories lost, like tears in rain.

I saw Blade Runner 423 times.

Why do you like the art of horror so much?

It is comedy. It is fantastic in a particular way. it is spiritual in that it often involves the unknown, the scary, and the death. All spiritual items of concern. And the colors are more. Lots of bright reds. The music is intense. The effects are more creative. The vibe is crazy and wild. The styles of the director are evident. The cult appeal is widespread and appealing. The corresponding tribe is agreeable. Music is appreciated. Messy is more punk rock.

In terms of art, it is just a fun aspect of it to attach to and get pumped up from. It is only an aspect of where the juice comes from. Mainly revolves around the Sekdek world and some of those soundtracks.

It does not play much of a role in other projects.

Arching overall, I am stylistically doom driven.

I see monsters everywhere. We love each other. It is not a problem.

So they come forward and let me take pictures of them, and I turn them into gods. What were the gods before they were monsters are all the circles that spiral the conciseness. 

What is a befriended ghost? No more paradise lost.

Be great friends and gather close the differences.

Until the eve of destruction

and all the parties to behold 

that know it all comes crashing down

and it's all a joke.

Do you digress?

Yes.

Some of your albums are very different genres. What inspires you to play various types of music? And do you have a favorite? You seem to linger in a pop-alt-indie kind of category, but then the noise comes. And the very odd songs. Do you ever think you have gone too far and are forcing your sonic intimacy onto others? Not that that would be bad and please take that as an explorative question rather than a condemnation of any sort. I'm a fan. Ah...we are in this together and stuff...

Soooo, what did you do last night?

Those are many different questions, Paul. That just felt right. Calling you Paul. Thank you.

No, thank you! So what about the questions?

I have all the answers.

Do tell.

Will.

Go!

Bands can be like girlfriends. I mean in both positive and negative ways.

Playing a live show with other people is analogous to having sex. And creating songs together is like living life with someone and creating experiences. Both are intimate and connecting types of relationships. I wish I was better at both personal and musical relationships but it seems I'm better at my relationships with music and art than I am with the ability to do them with other people. So here I am, working alone a lot, and I find that I can move quickly in terms of songwriting and recording music. I wait for no one's approval, and I don't have to compromise. I move forth and flow with a river of singular vision. I like outer space. I experiment and propel efforts forward into uncharted territory. And I find gold there often. And sometimes I find treasures beyond belief and they disappear into energy that shakes me to joyful tears of gratitude to the Muse. Who delivers this universal electricity through my vessel?

And yes, I like to follow the plot structure of pop music. but then jump off the cliff and make something weird. I listen to every type of music I can. I love to drift off into the Netherlands sometimes and hear something other than a structure that I have heard a lot. There is power in every genre's structural components. These are the reasons we love genres, as they are different forms of the best of each type of sonic concoction. Ya just have to get to the best of each genre. It's all there to be had.

I love noise music. It is the underdog, and I route for the underdog.

Noise music is the music of real life. Life is noise music, depending on how high you are. Or how good at spinning something into extraordinary. David Lynch understands the beauty of the sounds of an old radiator.

Yes, I sometimes worry that what I am doing can cause others pain. But in the long run, it will be a good kind of pain as it can only further prove that human beings are diverse and they do things that you can also do better. As long as what they do makes you want to do something at all, it is an ultimate win for all parties. Preferably someone likes what you do. Then you get the chemicals.

Yes, we are in this together.

Last night, I remained calm.

Have you been drinking in your life?

Yes, but not like Eddie Van Halen.

Are you drunk now?

Open the door, Hal Pod’s Bays.

Haha

What's up, Daisy?

Haha

I wanna sing Ween right now.

You can sing it.

I love Ween, and of course, they are a huge influence. The funny epic instruments mixed with the sick riffs and insane delivery are top-notch.

Name a genre, and then we can go from there who the shit is.

They all have their people. They are all out there like the sparkles in a snowflake. Findable. 

Can you talk about the gear you use?

Cheap and doable across the board.

I play many instruments. All the basics. Apps can be outstanding instruments, i.e.

Midi keyboard using Logic instruments. Guitars, headset mics, Ludwigsaccordions, trombones, trumpets, accordions, classical guitars, effects pedals, modulation, distortion, Logic, CD Baby, Yamaha 4-track, Mackie Mixer.

Emphasis on using whatever is clever to make superb sounds. It all works.

Endless possibility with the lamest of gear. It's all in the vibe.

Use cheap and use expensive. Whatever you can do with your means. Do it all, no matter what you mean. Don't care what your means are. 

Record stuff on your iPhone all the time. And with an old tape recorder. Manipulate sounds, practice melody, find and explore themes, play by ear, write songs from all sorts of different directions, sometimes start with drums and sometimes start with keys etc., use various methods of capturing audio like small recording devices, iPhones, recording software, 4-track, 1/2" reel to reel, experiment with sound manipulation as much as possible, don't over-focus on sound quality as it is not any kind of objective measure of the quality of sound you may hear. High sound quality simply means that you are taking significant measures to isolate the sound away from other environmental sounds. Easy if you record with digital instruments like a keyboard. You will get 100% of the keyboard's piano sound with no competing noise. To say this is higher sound quality only means that it is isolated from other sounds. And that different sounds do not influence what you hear when you hear an instrument or vocal sound. Suppose you think the beauty of music is the combination of sounds. In that case, you are just artificially re-complicating any particular recorded sound as soon as you add another sound to your song. Removing all natural audible nuance to a recording sometimes leaves things flat sounding and unlike reality. In real life, the actual sound quality seems to be the joy and abundance of intermingling sounds and their effect on the listener. 

Suppose you are near a waterfall deep in the jungle at night. What insanity would pose the sound quality of the waterfall as less due to the incessant monkey yells, bird calls, and panther growls? Isn't this all part of the beautiful melody of this natural place? Would not a singular monkey yell appear out of place without the accompanying waterfall, bird, and panther parts of the song?

This is why many recording artists add tape hiss to their mixes by transferring finished digital works to 1/2-inch tape reels or 4-tracks. Coupled with the ability to change the pitch and speed of the recording, the sound becomes warmer and fuzzier, and some may think this sounds better or of a higher quality.

Speaking of quality in music is all subjectivity, yet many speak of it as some sort of an understood absolute, as if all agree on what quality is. To perceive quality as something that feels very good to hear has 100% nothing to do with how it has been recorded. It has 100% to do with if, for whatever reason, it sounds cool as shit. And that can come to you in all the ways it does, via highly isolated recordings of singular sounds, to a trashy group of entangled and distorted guitars bleeding feedback and crowd noise through onstage mics into the final recordings of their track, to curated room noise incorporations and transfers of mixes through various manipulations. 

The message is clear. Quality is whatever is incredible. There is no metric in music as if you are removing toxins from an organic food. Purity in sound recording is too complex and subjective.   

To sidestep and apply quality control to the material itself is more acceptable than a measurement. I.e. If one hears a song that clearly copies every aspect of their style from a better and highly successful and influential band, then it is clear to all that a reduction in quality of material is fair. Who does what the most novel rises to the top in each genre of music. As you move through a genre, exploring its different purveyors, you can apply various types of value to each music and achieve alignment with what you want. For instance, sometimes you just want to watch an entertaining sci-fi with cool effects. You find something doable on Netflix and it is satisfying. It has achieved its goal, and you have achieved yours. All are happy. But suppose you want to be moved to tears by the best work of art ever burned to film. In that case, it takes more intellectual attention and work to understand and enjoy, and the reward is much greater. Depending on your mood and desire, you may choose one or the other of these types of art. The same goes for music. Sometimes, you just want a familiar good feeling like when you drink Milwaukee's Best or King Cobra. The quality of this experience can rival any fine dining one. If I see Unicorns, you can't tell me I didn't have that fantastic experience. All you can say is that you didn't. Which is probably jealousy in that for some reason, I was able to achieve absolute perfection with minimal means. 

Burzum, 1664 Beer, headphones, the Catacombs of Paris, terrified girlfriend in tow.  

Not many have had as astonishingly unique of a high-quality musical experience. Not all would agree on the quality aspect particularly if those stuck in their own prison of one-dimensionality when it comes to what quality means. The narrowing of the metric when it comes to the act of isolating all other sounds is frustrating. This is not what quality really means. It is just a semantic mistake many make when describing highly isolated sounds.

If you think about it, one sound all alone on an island with nothing is somber. Many intermingling and exchanging sounds in an intended way are what make the most fantastic human music. As does the music of nature in particular. As do the mistakes, bleeding, hissing, popping, and warm echos of the natural world as they participate in any recorded art project.

All is love.

This concept can easily be applied in many other aspects of life. People will constantly make the mistake of thinking they understand something better than someone who actually does the thing while they have put absolutely zero personal effort into the thing. Like for instance, those who don't actually make music and still speak of things like quality. Or the careful judgments and criticism of a culinary experience or complicated wine. Quality is a conman waiting for a mark. To know it is to understand what it takes to make it first and what it takes to make a shit version of it. Then, you have a better grasp of what is what. Yes, one can wrap their heads around some of this without becoming a chef or winemaker, for instance, but...can we agree that the chef or winemaker has a better understanding of what is good vs. bad?

Or is that only the realm of the critic? His job alone. What really matters. Etc.

I personally believe there Is something close to an more objective quality than not. But it can be tricky to understand the further and further you are from the center of the game.

Can something suffer from over-quality? Yes, it can. When something is of too high quality for reasons of only its own level of quality and not incorporating the reality of its use or actual increase of noticeably better outcome.

One can stifle this question quickly by comparing how well a Gypsy can play a nearly toy fiddle and compare that to how equal this sound would be to 99.9999999999% of any listener if they were to play similarly on a Million dollar Stradivarius. No one can tell. So, in this case, how does the higher quality of the instrument come into play if someone with a cheap used fiddle could absolutely blow minds and play exceedingly complicated and genius notes that far surpass the ability of most violin players and probably many who covet their Million-dollar instrument?

Having something so delicate and worrisome cancels its purpose at some point as well. It is like having a car that is too valuable to drive. OK, if you don't need something actually to take you places. What does it matter the vehicle in which you travel to whatever mystical or physical place? As long as it takes you there, you have won that battle, and you won't need to look back.

The genius is all in what you can do with what you have. What you have does not matter. Yes having some stuff helps to a level. Like if you can't afford a guitar at all, then you can't play one unless you borrow someone's and that will slow down your progress. So yeah, there is a sweet spot when it comes to being able to possess some items to create art or music with. But one you have the basics, then it all diverts to how talented you are at doing something with those tools.

Many will put off the dream for an entire lifetime because they do not have an A or B piece of gear. Only an excuse for the weak and less passionate mind.

The things I have seen folks do with only their human bodies are forever burned into my memory and inspirational roll-a-dx.

All you need is inspiration, and things will happen. Quality is of no significant importance and becomes bonus fun once people pay credence to it and you can soak in the acknowledgment and possibly ride financial gains from the attention.

Have you ever noticed that songs sometimes listen differently?

Time can morph a song into something undesirable. And visa-versa. Musical tastes grow like food tastes and all other tastes, really. Everything changes constantly and sometimes changes back. Or becomes something entirely new to you.

Often, I find myself listening to particular music solely for its nostalgic value and not its cutting-edge travel into unknown value.

I think it is higher quality for musicians to seek out and achieve the unknown. This is the value most everyone responds to in music and all things. Who does the newest and best way? Something we have not heard or seen, or experienced. These are the inventors of our existence and the most critical excavations accomplished. Across the board. In technology, finance, science, sports, art & music alike. It all comes down to that one creative person who figures out a new path to something. And these are the exciting moments that happen all the time in our history. And then you only hear about them after the person dies. And that is only if what they have discovered was noticed. 

Do I think magical discoveries happen a lot more than we think?

Yes, for sure. It is just that we can't understand when we are great because the world is too caught up with lame metrics like the metric of sound quality. People keep hearing that something is poor sound quality, and it sounds like shit...and boom...no Ween. They all die alone and broke. 

It's funny that the people who are being served this life are the most critical and controlling of what kinds of things they will accept as 'good' or high-quality stuff as if they understand this on any actual level.

In fact, being so clueless creates their need to effect a superiority complex of servant and one being served. As if musicians are designed to serve the masses or any others. Which I would argue is false because musicians ultimately serve themselves by completing the connection to the Muse, which they have been lucky and hard-working enough to have.

Wow, it seems you have been thinking a lot about what it means to be a creative person. And particularly where there are some misunderstandings about what it all means. And particularly how the idea of quality in music gets confused. 

What specific things in the music world made you start to consider these things? Were there other bands, like you'd mentioned Ween, that have shifted your perspective in terms of the sound quality vs. their actual quality of musical expression?

Yes, omg, there are so many examples from my personal library of music appreciation that I can quickly cite here.

In terms of lo-fi genius coupled with high-quality musical outcome, Ween is a great example because they sort of rose to fame after people started to get into their 4-track music, which was so obviously done in their bedrooms or living rooms of their shitty houses while they were fucked up on alcohol and drugs. This is proof anyone can make music if you have the urge.

In their case, they were also very good at writing songs, so their material rose to the top regardless of the sound quality. People just loved the songs.

Basically, much of pop music suffers from sounding too clean. People who clean a lot and have a spotless home at all times and who spend all of their free time making sure everything is in order concerning their own OCD feelings or loss there...tend to want order and simplicity in other things. Maybe that is why those people enjoy simple pop music because it is easily fed to them without them having to understand what they are hearing intellectually.

Guitar Riff///recognizable drum beat///same song structure&breaks///and, easy musical equation to follow. Not the same effect if you throw Bitches Brew on.

Maybe those wild and deeply lingering sounds just don't add up in a spoon-fed world of ease. A world where you don't have to qualify a brand new artist who is painting by numbers creative against someone who has been operating inside uncharted territory for decades. Therefore, making music that does not sound like popular music. The best of them get weirder and weirder.

And if they don't, I'd wager they want to deep down. We all do.

We all want to be the first person to step onto Mars and grab a handful of its sand, lift it, and let it slowly fall back to Mars though our fingers.

What is your ultimate goal in creating art and music?

To blow minds.

How do you feel if and when minds are not blown?

Like a really cool failure. And that the stargazer often stubs his toe because he is too busy dreaming about what lies beyond them. Talking about me, that is as in he. Creativity does not care about gender. Well, one could argue that there is no one thing more creative than the ability to create a human, which is only a female ability. But any female can do it, so the specialness seems less. We can't get personal credit for things that naturally happen one way or the other, right? Credit is then applied to the species. Which gets proper credit all the time for being exceptional. There is no question that humans are exciting and good at being creative in our own particular way. Maybe not more than other species, but precisely nuanced in ways no other species can compete. For our better and for our worse.

Musically speaking, we have no competition in the natural world as all that just happens without organization. It is already music before any manipulation. 

The waterfall with Jungle sounds is some of the best music in our world. But Nature is not Human, and I find no reason to compare the creative output of the two. Clearly, nature is more imaginative than people. And then when you explore its intent, it seems clear that the creativity of nature is a method to continue existence in exponentially better ways. Darwin's survival of the fittest feels logically correct in how nature propels itself through the never ending infinity of existence, this universe, as well as all universes.

It's just trying to keep keeping on. And that is God being an artist if you believe in one JesusGod type of character show-running this whole thing.

This a never-ending and valid question that should reside in the neither here nor there category of importance because, ultimately, it does not matter the motivation of such elevated purpose. We are powerless to it, so it is what it is. We have no control over that like we do with our own creativity. 

We can do whatever we want because of the illusion or lack thereof control.

It appears that if I make a song, it will be one of my doing and not God's.

On some level, I feel OK with taking the credit even though I can also agree that whatever I do is simply the outcome of my random given talents and or desires. Which I have less control over in the long run.

I also have control over considering the positions I attempt to place myself within so that I am able to make cool songs. Which brings us back to giving me the credit if I make a cool song.

The question of the Muse comes into play then, as it seems to bless some and not others. Why do some find it difficult to create works of art while others are compelled to do so? You could make an argument that some are forced into the game whether they like it or not and are doomed to attempt personal expression until their death, regardless of accolades, notoriety, or financial gain.

Just look at young punk rock bands and the purity with which some of them complete this glorious act over and over again for no other reason than for the glory of the act. This is the most authentic art. That is why the punk rock aesthetic is so well respected in its most actual form. It is a bold movement while dismantling all norms in its wake. And then cut to its completion in which one has to continue the movement forth onto something that will equally push open other doors of possibility. Like how electronic music, such as Amon Tobin, came to be. Something so experimental and futuristic sounding comes from the same principle of bravely embracing something that has never been heard before. You can go through every genre and find the moments things were established, enhanced, and brought to something nearing perfection. All genres have birth, life and death as much as humans do. The ebb and flow of what kinds of music people attach to are directly connected to this as music evolves and grows into new.

Many seem to die off into the genres they had enjoyed while coming of age. This is the music they continue to listen to and then discount all other forms throughout their lives. They will die loving Blues and only Blues. Evolution does not wait for anyone to catch up, it just keeps going. And to deny the future of what music can be to humans is a sin to humanity.

Receive what is to come. Understand its reason and relevance to sonic history and you are good. Reject what you do not understand and can't perceive is to deny new life from existence. Who would want to be that person? I am not that person. I want to witness what is, not what is simply contained within my own understanding.

If I think something is the best of the best, I want to be proven wrong by something better. 

In the market place of ideology, ya gotta hope that everyone somehow understands this as the singular way in which we move closer and closer to our potential human greatness.

With this tolerance and understanding, what is the better way to achieve greatness? To be open to and understand the inevitability of evolutional change is the key to humanity. We seem to have a killer desire to get better. At the very least to change into something new. Are we not butterflies that have been previously released into our new forms?

Have we not come from tiny single-cell organisms?

Has this natural creativity morphed into a personal and the same desire for variation in hopes of excavating new loopholes and cheat codes of existence?

Is technology not a driving force in this endeavor to constantly manipulate more and more awesomeness?

Art is wild these days, and we can't possibly take it all in with our jobs and responsibilities, but the level of creativity out there from every type of person in every country and from every direction you can think of is astonishing. YouTube is an easy example of how you can endlessly explore the creative efforts of any person living on this globe.

Why do we do this? Because we are programmed to do so. 

But my programming to be a songwriter feels like it is my invention and so I feel like I can reap rewards with my outcome. This seems a fair trade for the effort involved. 

And the effort is vast.

It is a lifetime of practice and work.

No job or force can stop the most creative person. 

They will do what they do in the face of ridiculous odds.

To their great detriment and downfall.

This is why artists are susceptible to drug and alcohol addiction because they are highly aware of their purpose and sensitive to forces that complicate apparent goals. It is a dire situation when one has vision and has to backburn it for general survival reasons.

The value of artists has been lost at sea during many eras of existence. And then regained during others.

The value of what it is to create often gets lost in the doom of those who cannot also balance their lives enough to swim the problematic waters of what it is to be a productive member of society. 

If you are addicted and over-focused on being creative, you can quickly become a burden on society. This comes with brutal consequences. 

Being creative is not like eating. You don't need it to survive like that. But does all of existence desperately rely on it? Yes indeed. 

Constantly and as previously pointed out, it is the reason we are what we are. Nature was creative. Transferring that to individual contributions to our existence is an easy comparison because we are artfully what we are now because of Jimmy Hendrix and David Lynch. We can directly credit them for these evolutions in consciousness. 

These beings move the culture and create our joy. Which drives all of our desires and dreams. A more than notable fuel for our lives. Maybe Thee fuel.

To say that our fuel is only to subside is to deny our spiritual nature and knowledge that there is something out there that is ineffable. And to continue to reach for it is a super cool goal.

Being an artist is someone being spiritual and reaching further than others think to achieve. In the mind's eye, that is. In the intellectual capacity that we are gifted with from birth. Some more than others. 

We are not created equal, and equality of outcome is not possible in art. 

Art needs to be free from constraint, given the few simple rules surrounding the harm of others, etc. Serial killer art in movies like 'Seven' while appreciated in fictional form, is categorically not allowed in real-life creative endeavors. Masters of the obvious unite.

Other than that, and for the most part, art is a harmless action that relies on the user to create its meaning. The intention of the artists involved usually assists the user's compass in ways that are sometimes necessary and sometimes irrelevant. Because if I get something out of doom drone music that others don't seem to witness, that is their loss not mine. It is my gain.

Being able to hear angels in demons is an undeniable sixth sense.

Would one ever choose not to be able to transform what they witness into God's personal song to them?

Why would they?

If blessed with the mystical ability to hear this voice, then would you not listen to what it has to say? Would you somehow pretend that you do not have this ability or joy-filled and important-seeming experience?

Is insanity in the eye of the beholder? Sometimes maybe.

It comes back to the ability to balance alternative thinking with real-life needs and goals. 

If all you can do is hear a group of voices. You can't possibly express any of it to anyone else. Also, if you can't get a job because of all that, then your brand of creative genius is detrimental to your existence. But suppose you can achieve that balance and still put food on the table for yourself and, ideally, others. In that case, you are somehow able to turn crazy into marketable. No small task.

Most fail. 

So here it seems the value of art lives inside the house of the accompanying ability also to support one's self without assistance on some level.

The rabbit hole presents itself in that what if the art of the crazy is also better than the art of balanced individuals put forth?

What if, as you travel into the black hole of possibility, you can achieve greatness with also full knowledge that the mines you are excavating will ultimately crush you under the simple laws of physics due to your incessant digging?

This is the place when art becomes dangerous.

Challenging social norms and ideology is putting you in harm's way. 

Every artist that has ever done this knows what they are doing and accepts the challenge. They boldly do it in hopes that, somehow, someone will understand their efforts. And that maybe they are wrong in their pursuit of their goals but how else can you continue on? There is only one way. To bomb, to make your mistakes and understand, to keep going, to develop a system of exploration and a system of ropes that will guide you back down to earth if you start to go into orbit for too long.

Unfortunately, funding seems to play a crucial part in how long of a rope you can tether to any crazy artist type.

A properly tethered artist can more freely navigate the unknown with less worry of the abyss. Knowing one can spelunk into deep territory and come back to the surface is all the more viable. 

This is why those climbing the wall with no ropes are all the more quality artists. And why the actual glory involved is of no comparison.

This balance of both would seem helpful coming from someone halfway up El Capitan with no ropes. The risks I could take! The larger projects realized. The time I could have to allow them their proper time and thought to become physical manifestations of the gods that they are in the mind.

In the mind, they are perfect as ideas. Ideas are exceptional in that they are already in perfection, waiting for an entity of some kind to repeat their thought. To copy what was thought and make it 'real' is remarkable for this real world that we navigate. But is a physically realized idea better than an idea? Is it, not the idea that is the fulcrum of everything in our world?

Is the ideal world just thought without the physical experience?

Maybe AI is taking over what we are. Perhaps they are taking us back to the fundamental importance of what is. Thought. And all this physical reality stuff is just us manifesting obstacles as fuel for more thought and progress.

Maybe the meat body is our way to forget the infinity that waits for us in the dark. And challenges us to find ways to entertain/live through this ordeal that is a never-ending existence.

We are in a pretend world where chemicals dictate our experiences in archaic physical ways, much like how robots are constructed. With algorithms and code, our bodies react to buttons pushed. Love, pain, happiness, grief, etc etc. We are an amalgamation of chemical experiences down to how we see the physical world with our eyes. It is all due to however chemical makeup our bodies put themselves together. We can't echolocate, but dolphins have that chemical makeup in their bodies to do so. They see the world much differently than we do. Literally, they see with sound. Which is how I like to see things.

Because I am more able to see things that way than the average non-music-loving and appreciating person who listens to random pop radio, doesn't know shit about music, and never explores it in any profound way.

Specific intelligences are the sixth sense for sure.

It explains why the greatest of us have such unexplainable talents and abilities. They see things differently than how the bulk of people see things.

And is partly because, for some reason, they remain open to new ideas.

Others do not. So many others halt their evolutions for this or that reason.

It is culturally acceptable to do so regularly.

Often times it happens because certain evolutions become un-viable within other containers and or evolutional directions. Sometimes, one just does not mix well with others, and the choice is made. Let someone else do all that while I do this other cool thing. Or not a cool thing? Choices are made.

Creativity is dropped and searched for again.

Creativity is rejected like a drug addiction by some.

An unhealthy, frivolous, and useless direction that should not be taken seriously.

Yes, those very people who eject themselves from the game will king to their favorite artists until death. They are fully thankful for the joy that has been bestowed upon them by said artist...yet they will somehow still reject the 'real life' importance of what it means to be a creative person providing original content for others in this world. They simultaneously love and disrespect the artist.

They use them for personal satisfaction while devaluing their contributions to society.

Your new project called Project Y is an electronic feeling, and yet you play all the digital instruments with your finger on the M-Audio Midi keyboard, correct?

With the exception of a few samples and maybe an actual guitar part on occasion, this album is predominantly electronic music produced manually, correct?

Yes, when lacking the ability to cut loose, be loud, and utilize actual instruments (something increasingly unwanted in our society. Go to Cuba and realize the positive acceptance, need, and love of people enjoying life at the most basic levels through music, dance, laughter, and togetherness, and you will question which society is happier, even given the perceived political oppressions evident. The same goes for any economic disparage. Go to the poorest places on earth and compare the level of visceral happiness you perceive in those environments people, and you will question American happiness, no doubt. 

We have too much of things, and we have become spoiled by our riches. We are the 1% of the world that allows for some of the creative expression I've talked about earlier. To be able to explore these regions of our psyche and the goodness that follows is a luxury of the rich. Now, feeling somewhat contrary to my earlier prepositions of the creative soul is the birthright of all. While it is, those who can spend more time on it are the only true bazillionaires. They have discovered the riches of existence.

Commence the struggle.

It is almost that it seems money is the answer to most of life's problems.

Beyond that, all problems are luxury ones, like being able to spend time on things like songs.

Getting rich, however, you can and then keep making the same art is the answer to life's problems.

Did you crash during your 40Mph car chase (track 5 off of Project Y)?

No, it was a near disaster, though, and did end in a head-on collision with a woman driving a Camry. She had lost control of her vehicle during a lane merge and spun out in the middle of traffic at about the speed of the song title and, after 2 360-degree spins, stopped dead in front of me. All of this happened in the blink of an eye and I chose to slow as much as possible yet stay on course to avoid slamming the corner of her small car with my large Ford Econoline 250. Learning from my deer-hitting experience from Wisconsin, sometimes it is better just to hit it straight on rather than veer off into unknown territory, possibly hitting other vehicles or solid objects more capable of ruining you than a small car that will somewhat absorb impact into its metal. Time instantly slowed, and I noticed that my glasses might break due to the airbag that was about to deploy. As the airbag deployed after my Van impacted the small Camry, a new issue arose in that I was now choking on much white dust. It felt wrong. Almost as if I may die from this inhalation of wrongful and plentiful powder.

Amidst the still clinking and bending metal, cracking plastic, and tumbling weight of the crash, I clamored out of my Van. Coughing and coughing, startled and catching my breath, I jogged over to the person in the other car and confirmed their existing life force. Then promptly moved her vehicle by manly strength over to the side of the road 1 lane over. In an effort to avoid future and predictable vehicular mayhem.

The moment came after the chaos where we then looked at each other in recognition of the brush with our mutual deaths.

I exalted the joy of the experience and the wonder and grandeur of our moment facing the Reaper, and this appeared to confuse the still-shaking faun.

I apologized for my intensity and offered a reassuring hug. Which I later regretted after wondering if I'd somehow taken advantage of the person in a moment of their most week. I thought my actions were not only kind but needed in the moment. Those were my intentions as honestun-problematicly as I can say.

She slowly calmed down, and we exchanged information, and the situation de-escalated from a near-death experience to something more like an unfortunate experience. For me, it remained un-problematic other than the confounding philosophical quandary it added to my already existing complex psyche. For her, I can only wonder how or if it had any lasting effect as everyone experiences experiences differently. So, who knows?

What I do know is this. My actions afterward were questionable, considering the facts of the case.

I remember thinking that if I'd somehow ended up dating this person, it would be a rather unique first meeting story to tell at our wedding.

I did mention this during my first obligatory and conformational phone call that should have just been about the accident information, etc.

I'd added that it would be a remarkable story if we ended up getting married. Which it would be.

But yeah, probably a lame come-on, depending on the trauma the girl may have been facing concerning the accident. 

I can say that while I don't feel like a terrible person for this youthful malfunction of thinking, I would never approach the aftermath of a severe accident anywhere near like this. 

I am crazy now and I was much more crazy then. If not somewhat out of control.

But never wrong in the sense of what it means to be indeed harmful. Every man has a code.

Miss, if you are listening now, I am sorry to have confused a scary situation with something like someone asking you to call them if interested in using such an experience to begin a romantic relationship with. 

I'm sorry to even say this, but what if...just what if that is how two people met and fell in love and became lifelong married partners?

Would this not be one of the more romantic stories of any of your friends or even a lot of romantic novels or movies? Would this not be epically awesome if it worked?

That is a problem in life. Without significant risk, there is no great reward.

Pushing the envelope in all directions is a trait possibly unlikable in an artist. As it pre-supposes them to more frequent failure. 

Kinda like how Space travel makes mistakes and rockets blow up and kill teams of people. Certainly not the intention of the goal. The goal is clearly astronomical. Literally, and is of greater good than the collateral damage its pursuit may cause. So far. I guess it is all about the balance of damage vs. success, then. A math issue to be easily observed and complied with. If honestly able to access the proper amount of damage vs. success. Which is impossible to do subjectively via the person inspiring this or that on any occasion. The artist is clearly flawed as well as doomed equally to success and failure.

Does Project Y have a futuristic nostalgia-type sound? In that, are you referencing other artists such as Wendy Carlos, Tangerine Dream, Herbie Hancock, and Vangelis as well a general film score thematic similarity of tracks and vibe that also resemble new future type aesthetic?

Keeping in mind actual futuristic music of current times like Amon Tobin or Aphex Twin. Which had arguably been the starkest era of futuristic sound and musical direction during its emergence. And even still. But now it also has that Nostalgia like 2001 Space Oddesy in that it is still futuristic and advanced shit that reminds you of the future, but it has been a gang of time past since its release onto us back in the day. Which makes it ancient and futuristic all at once. Always a good thing if things mean two different things at once. It is more efficient in that way. It takes care of multiple things at once in its effortless way via you perceiving it in real time as both of its opposite messages and themes. 

Well, thank you for saying all that. I totally agree with your speech. Tell us more about the sound of the record and how intentional or spontaneous the songs came to be.

OK. my default is spontaneous directionless chaos and then witness what has been created. Then, file into the appropriate genre category in a folder and continue until each folder is worth an album. Then, that genre naturally rose to the top of the current vibe of output for various technical, spatial, financial, and temporal reasons. Therefore, I officially post that I follow a random whim and trust my instincts and curation of sound enough that whatever comes out seems to work for me in terms of suitable material to work with.

And, of course, on the outside of the spectrum, I have my preferences for sonic enjoyment. Which are at the most significant end of the spectrum, ALL musical endeavors. I am interested in every type and all the different ways music can come to my ears. It is all good, and the closer you pay attention, the more gold you will discover in terms of the better of the folks in each category and type of jam.

So holding that broad spectrum of music appreciation is a good thing in terms of what you will allow into your inspiration. If everything is permitted, then you simply have more tools with which to work with. So mixing different instruments and types of sounds will increase the chances you may do exciting work. That is where it comes from. Experimentation and the will to search for the outer limits of whatever it is you are pushing forth.

Breaking the law....breaking the law...

Projet Y came from a time of bleak isolation and difficult hard labor.

The elements of this life situation have their advantages and disadvantages. 

I learned a well of carpentry knowledge in a shortish amount of time. But that time spent was generally joyless exercises in humoring otherwise lesser men in the ways I think are most important. Not a good fit in general.

Then again, I am not a good fit for most people, jobs, situations...

I'm good with that. Mostly because I am also the one judging and wanting the benefit of being able to live this life without the botherment of other lamer and less practiced people who only serve to prey on my energy.

I digress. I feel myself getting negative. I don't want that as much.

If trying to be funny all the time is a greater sin than complaining about your bullshit, then OK. I will stick to the complaining and stop joking around. No? Good. I agree.

It is what it is, man. All good. And yeah, I like saying that and am cool with it.

All good, bro. I love that shit.

Sup doood?

Haha.

ahhuuuuuuuuh?

Yip.

Dot?

Zzzt...

"The past doesn't define me; it refines me." - Sick quote from Ghetto Boys Guy.

There is a nice variety of melodies within your clear theme of Jacked-up Blade Runner Pop Opera electro synth instrumental collection of music. I hear a consistent and maybe somewhat subtle melodic structure and theme returning in various songs. What seemed to grab you in this direction and make you mimic/re-interoperate them through your creative vessel?

Yes. I think some of it is clearly inspired by world music, mainly in the beats and method of capture. Meditative drum circles abound for hours alone in a room with Midi. I would prefer leather-bound drum heads in the black of the night around roaring fire and groups of highly jacked-up folks dancing and pounding in inspirational perfection. Life is not always what you want it to be. Or what it needs to be to take your mind to those very places through different means. This is a way to travel to various lands. I'm not saying I'm an excellent navigationalist by any means. More so, I am a directionalist in that I like to move in a direction and follow that direction to see what comes next. It seems more manageable than trying to navigate a map laid out by some other force that is not you. That direction might be the wrong one for you. Since it is a gamble in general, why not bet on your direction with heavy odds? The payoff is pure excellence. It is worth it to believe in yourself when your odds are very low. Because it is the same idea of why it is so funny as shit if someone brags before an impossible shot as if they know they will make it, and then they actually make it. The gamble is not that large, and the payoff is extra. A Hilarious dance with the devil this is. That is probably why gambling is illegal.

And why gambling one's own financial well-being may not be the answer in the long run, regardless of how tempting this easy seeming gamble may be.

That fucker is going for it at all odds. 

This is so romantic as a theme for someone trying to be recognized enough to make money at what art they do.

Relying on someone noticing you is tempting in that, at some point, you won't have to ask anyone to like you. If they already do, then you just feed the well with the addition of others supporting you as well. Ultimately unnecessary to complete the craft...but highly easier life. Possibly, and with the correct balance, a chance to produce much more and better work for more people to enjoy. To be more influential on a grand scale as well as a personal one that does exist with the people I know.

To be honest, when you start talking about art in specific ways it makes me cringe in a wrong way. Are you aware of this thinking being the enemy of art?

Yeah, it is a bad part of it. Partly because this is what everyone else seems to focus on rather than the art itself. Somehow, it first has to qualify in people's minds as something worthy. If others have already deemed it worthy by signing it, promoting it, and writing about it, and it is evident in mainstream society, then people are led to understand that it is something that they are OK to take in. The sheep follow whatever the money system shoves in their face much of the time.

What is your problem?

I have too many.

Is that your main problem?

Yes.

What if you only had a few?

Then, I would be exponentially better at everything I do.

So you think that the negative aspects of your life don't add to your creative fire, then? I thought you'd mentioned all of your experiences combined in similar ways and ultimately all contribute equally to your work.

Yes, that is true.

Are you tired? Would you like to stop the interview?

Maybe. I am starting to feel taken advantage of by myself. I often take advantage of my emotions and try to mine something from them instead of allowing them to exist and flow through me healthily. I thought that integrating them via something creative was helpful, but I am starting to suspect that all I am doing is boxing them up into some kind of witnessable aesthetic form.

Could be. When will the questions end right? When will you figure it all out?

Never. Most def.

Does that make you sad?

Yes, because while I understand that I cannot know everything, I should at least be able to figure myself out and move on. Seems many others have that innate capability and are able to grow old and be with others quite easily. Am I doomed to be alone in this world?

You may be. How much does that thought hurt?

Not very much if I was given a doable place to be alone.

Don't you think you would miss the human connections?

Yes, but the cost of such does not equal the realistic results.

When you speak of being alone, you really mean most of the time, correct? You still want people in your life but just not that many and or difficult ones. And your selfish desire to share your work needs people, so you are stuck with them, right? Can't live with them and can't live without them.

That sounds about right.

What do you need?

I need a place to do my work without interruption or spying and judgemental eyes. A place where I do not have to bother anyone with my practice or saw noises. Or with my distortion and screaming vocals. Or with my blood-splattered paintings. Red-colored paint, that is. Not real blood. I am not a criminal. I just like red.

Honestly, I need money to live so I don't have to whore myself out to meaningless labor jobs because my actual value has no meaningful value to anyone at this time. Even though it is worth Millions and Millions. 

I need someone to believe in me like I believe in myself. And to help me watch the fireworks when that does happen. Because it will happen, and I, for one, will be there driving the chariot into the lightning. With forgiveness in my heart. For all those that tried to stop me along the way. Haha. Which has been many, many folk. In various ways. Not believing. Not seeing the future. Not understand the greatness that is me. Now bow before me and then kneel. And help me tie my shoe, damn it! I'm too old at this point and can't even bend over. I made it to 120! Can you do me this kindness? We ain't talking about submission here. I'm just too old, and it is 2094. My meat body is due for another exchange next week, so don't worry...But they said I have to stay here for a bit longer to qualify. So just tie my damn shoe, Sonny! Damn, you all to hell these damn legs n back they give ya these days. Sons a bitches! God damn it. What was it ya say now? 

Do I Lift what? No, God damn it, I'm too old to lift.

What are these 20 questions? Yes, god damn it. Art is a problem for me! Huh? I can't hear a goddamn thing...What's that you say... again??

Thank you, Sir, for the crazy interview. I will be following you shortly on the flip side. Meet me there, and let's do this again in Pygmy.