1: Analog or Digital?

oh, both, always … never one or the other – that’s just madness !!! i will admit, as someone who pretty much grew up making music solely on computers (we’re talking commodore vic20 straight on through the powerbooks) that i honestly get less & less excited about using them every day ; the analogue synth is a really great antidote to that – using something that forces me to, you know, actually stand up to use it is nice … i love that it just makes sound instead of also providing email, facebook, etc … i feel like i sit in front of this damn computer for 5 seconds more each day, and when i’m not i’m playing with my phone ; in a few years i’m sure we’ll all be staring at lcd screens for our entire waking lives in one form or another and actually seeing & interacting with each other less & less, but i digress …

to recap ::

convenience and signal-to-noise ratios of digital audio technology – good
simulation of social interaction in digital form – bad
unique, impossible to accurately portray in numbers-alone aspects of analog audio technology – good
weight and size and cost of analog instruments – bad
using analog instruments to make music instead of pausing every 10 seconds to check my email – good

2: What time did you wake up today?

8:28 ; i know this as that’s what the microwave clock said when i went in to feed halbczcsoncz … he’s been getting more & more aggressive every morning, esp. now that the sun is out later suddenly due to daylight savings. it’s worth noting that today is sunday ; during the week if i can get out of bed by 9:45 to meet geoff @ the office @ 10, it’s a miracle … and it’s not like i’m staying up late ; i mean, shit, i’m in bed by midnight most nights. what can i say ? i’m depressed …

3: Last thing you read?

“the san francisco tape music center: 1960s counterculture and the avant-garde (hardcover)” … i would have loved to have dovetailed this right into “canyon cinema: the life and times of an independent film distributor (paperback)” but then i eyed the 2007 new directions “shiny metal” paperback of borges‘ “labyrinths” when i went to the bookstore to get coffee yesterday morning & had to give in … that’s next.

4: Whats your first memory?

sitting on the floor of the kitchen of my childhood home looking out the window as a cloud rolled by turning day into night … when you’re a kid you never think about transitions – you assume that the secret machinations of the world are always going to remain so – but then when you learn how it all works and it’s a let-down …

5: Tea Or Coffee?

i’m like 900% a coffee person, but then i had some moroccan mint tea w/ friends out in western mass a few weeks back & we’ve been rockin’ that pretty hard here in the office (it’s great if you over-steep it then add way too much honey) … but yeah, coffee – definitely coffee. right now it’s barismo’s linnaen street blend ; 65% brazil moreninha formosa, 24% costa rica las lajas, 10% kenya ichimara (peaberry ; this adds the perfect amount of tart sweetness to the finish) … that jaime from barismo can keep an arlington storefront afloat in this economy with just a small selection of blends & a few roasters is a testament to his product …

6: Last thing you cooked?

a jimmy dean sausage, egg & cheese biscuit sandwich. serving size: 1 sandwich (88g) amount per serving – calories: 360, calories from fat: 220 … vitamin a 0%. vitamin c 2%. calcium 8%. iron 6% (i love how they list all of this on their site !!! a great resource !!!) – we’re hardcore evangelists of the micro-bake method over straight micro-waving, but the down-side is that this tends to make your microbes ache …

7: If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?

wow ; hadn’t really thought about that … i mean, of course, i’d love to still be some sort of sentient being, not an object per se, but what sort ? i do envy cats & their rugged individualism, but it’s a hard life, even in the city …

i know ; a waterfall – constant change, beauty, & raw natural power … that or pure energy …

8: What inspires you?

interacting with creative, open-minded, & forward-thinking humans in real, physical space in regular intervals. without that, i’m pretty much doomed …

9: Last record you played?

red horse “red horse” (rel 007) – honestly, if these guys aren’t on the cover of the wire within the year i’m going to cancel my subscription … and i don’t mean that in the staunch, hometown support kind of way (actually, eli’s pretty much a full-time providence resident these days) but more that it speaks to the machinations of the global music “press” pretty much entirely missing out on any interesting, non well-funded & marketed music these days, especially the stuff that’s fueled solely by enthusiasm & ambition & less by any need of financial recoup … it’s all here ; the bleak, reverb-wash of organum, the clattering caterwaul of free jazz, steve’s ludicrously original sound-art lineage instruments … it’s kind of the perfect record.

10: Favorite piece of musical equipment?

right now it’s the harvestman’s zorlon cannon ; at first i was all “wow, great, an atari 2600 module” – but then i started to see it more as a series of digital gates & it just opened up wide … i played at no fun last year pretty much using this module for everything ; clocking, gating, and even the 5-bit pitched digital noise as the audio source … thing screams. we’re at a point now with boutique eurorack modules that even surpasses the boutique guitar pedal movement of a few years back ; it’s beyond pure emulation of covetable era tech & into new realms … every week it seems there’s some new hot module on the ah site, but you always know that these companies are like one guy building maybe 20 of these things in a year …

11: Last movie you saw?

i watched “eli, eli lema sabatchtani” the other day & loved it (come on ; “there’s a virus that’s destroying japan & the only cure is harsh noise !!!”), but, i have to say ; we’re halfway through “life in cold blood” at home (attenborough is a personal hero – plus the chris watson sound-design is outrageous) … there’s something about an 80-year man looking on in utter child-like fascination as he, after almost 50 years of looking for them, finally finds a pygmy chameleon that’s just so … genuine … it kind of trumps any real “emotive” and/or poignant moment in any narrative film i’ve seen recently …

12: Who do you love?

who(m)ever will let me, really … i’m not picky.

13: Do you have any pets?

not really ; wu-halbcz has myself and robyn, to whom he affectionately refers as “pinkies” … when you get down to it he owns us inasmuchas we own him … we’re in league to augment his lifestyle with a feline co-habitant, but thusfar haven’t made anything but baby steps towards reaching this goal. now that nybz & i have left the communal living situation we were in for the past few years (myself for over a decade) we feel bad about leaving him alone with only the heating system for company all day … he’s as neurotic as they come ; i think having someone to bounce ideas off of during the day would help him stay sane …

14: Are you useful?

oh, absolutely, far more right now than i ever have been in the past ; it felt good to go from living solely off of the kindness of strangers to providing some sort of service in life, one that people that use it seem to care an awful lot about … i sleep much better at night than i ever have in the past, if that’s any indication …

15: Biggest fear?

routines, stasis …

16: What do you value the most?

freedom, and change.

17: Famous last words?

nah, you can’t dwell on stuff like that ; when the time comes i’m sure it won’t be very poignant …

Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski, ASCIII, Anonymous) lives in Cambridge, MA and has recorded many fine albums on labels such as Planet Mu, Kranky, Carpark Records. He also runs the fantastic mail-order music retailer Mimaroglu Music Sales.

Picture taken by Seth Tisue.

1: Analog or Digital?
Dialogue.

2: What time did you wake up today?
945 AM

3: Last thing you read?
Nietzsche “The Birth of Tragedy” in progress

4: Whats your first memory?
German shepherds in an autumn field, New Hampshire.

5: Tea Or Coffee?
Double espresso

6: Last thing you cooked?
Brains.

7: If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
Hidden and arcane coniferous giant on the Pacific coast.

8: What inspires you?
Space, time and form. The endless variations and perspectives of each.

9: Last record you played?
John McLaughline & Carlos Santana “Love Devotion Surrender Sessions August 1973”

10: Favorite piece of musical equipment?
Tie:
Travis Bean Standard
1973 SUNN Model T (w/KT90s)

11: Last movie you saw?
Narnia 2 (sorry, hotel room)

12: Who do you love?
Truly: my dear friends. I also have the capacity to fall in love with women easily.

13: Do you have any pets?
Not currently, except my French friend.

14: Are you useful?
I hope not to be useless.

15: Biggest fear?
Burdening with uselessness.

16: What do you value the most?
The love of my people.

17: Famous last words?
“my greatest work”

Raised on Pacific Northwest gloom and doom, Stephen O’Malley is a founding member of Sunn 0))) and a primary member of Khanate, Burning Witch, Lotus Eaters, and KTL (with Peter Rehberg). When he isn’t on tour (which is just about always), Stephen calls Paris, France home and has recently composed for the French choreographer/director Gisèle Vienne.

Check out his ongoing projects/posts over at Ideologic.

1: Analog or Digital?
both

2: What time did you wake up today?
8:15

3: Last thing you read?
JLG’s interview/book, japanese around 40 years old women/article

4: Whats your first memory?
memory that i could walked a bit along a sofa at my grandparents house. the blue carpet and slowmotioned faces of smiling happily adults(otona?)(my family) like monsters watching at me walking.

5: Tea Or Coffee?
both

6: Last thing you cooked?
fired eggs

7: If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
a heavenly body(天体？）

8: What inspires you?
everything

9: Last record you played?
a record of live concerts in power house from brisbane

10: Favorite piece of musical equipment?
mpc2000

11: Last movie you saw?
documentary of andrei talkovsky when he had to make a movie in italy

12: Who do you love?
kids

13: Do you have any pets?
no

14: Are you useful?
no

15: Biggest fear?
i have many universal(?common?) fears, but some people don’t understand that i’m really really
afraid of self reproductive? stuffs /模様（あのいっぱいの貝とか、新興住宅地とか、カエルの卵のあるまりとか）[patterns (those masses of shells/shellfish, developing cookie-cutter housing districts, masses of frog eggs)]

16: What do you value the most?
良い新しいものが生まれること／ところーイケてるフロンティア？
[good new things being born or happening, for example, cool frontiers ]

17: Famous last words?
last wordsって何？？
[what are last words?]

Tujiko Noriko lives and makes music in Paris, France. She has released multiple albums on labels such as (Editions) Mego, Nature Bliss, and Room40 and has directed two films; “Sand and Mini Hawaii” and “Sun” (neither of which are available for distribution yet). She is currently raising her daughter, working on a new record with Aoki Takamasa and planning her third feature film.

Note: My translations of Noriko’s Japanese responses are italicized within brackets. i.e. [text]

1. Analog or Digital?’
Both.

2. What time did you wake up today?
8:15

3. Last thing you read?
Adlai Stevenson’s final delivery to the UN prior to his death in ’65. Amazing stuff.

4. Whats your first memory?
My sister’s blue bike. It was a mystical, pre-semiotic type of experience.

5.Tea Or Coffee?
Tea.

6. Last thing you cooked?
This is getting too personal.

7. If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
Some type of predatory bird. Animal life seems pretty gnarly though; you’re basically always in fear of being eaten, unless you happen to be a whale. I’m not sure I wanna come back. What if I come back as a pile of dogshit.

8. What inspires you?
Everyday social reality — People in line to use Coinstar, stuff like that.

9. Last record you played?
Gina X – Performance

10. Favorite piece of musical equipment?
The mysterious ROLAND JUPITER 8. But I really like my harmonizer pedal too.

11. Last movie you saw?
Rescue Dawn

12. Who do you love?
Who else but the shorties.

13. Do you have any pets?
Naw man. I like dogs, but dogs need space and I live in the city. Those people who keep their tiny dogs inside their purse on the train are mental.

14. Are you useful?
Judging solely based on my unemployment insurance claims, I’m totally useless.

15. Biggest fear?
Fear is for the birds man! Sometimes I get freaked out that oligarchies rule the planet, and free isn’t free etc. etc.

16. What do you value the most?
Chopin’s Prelude No 4.

17. Famous last words?
Whatever Vito Corleone says before he drops dead in his garden. I think he’s just laughing!

Daniel Lopatin lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is Oneohtrix Point Never (and has a DVD-R on RS on the way) and is one half of the duo Infinity Window, who have a new LP out now on ARBOR.

1. Analog or Digital?’
Both, always.

2. What time did you wake up today?
Much later than I was supposed to…

3. Last thing you read?
Godard’s essay on Tarkovsky from his (JLG’s) Maoist period.  I should read that again.

4. Whats your first memory?
Having my shoes tied in Northborough, MA around 1976.

5.Tea Or Coffee?
Coffee and too much of it.

6. Last thing you cooked?
A nice red sauce with chicken sausage.

7. If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
A sloth.  Or Otis Redding.  One of the two.

8. What inspires you?
People who try hard.  Thoughtful execution. Self-reliance. Scott Walker. Burritos.

9. Last record you played?
“Extraterrestrial Live” by Blue Oyster Cult.  Massive.

10. Favorite piece of musical equipment?
When I lived in Jamaica Plain, I found a Epiphone Les Paul copy in my basement  with a lousy ground hum and a terrible bridge.  I play that thing whenever I can.

11. Last movie you saw?
I’ll admit to “Wild Combination”, the Arthur Russell documentary, which I liked very much.

12. Who do you love?
My friends.

13. Do you have any pets?
I am currently befriending my roommate’s cat.

14. Are you useful?
I often get “Do you work here?” when I am in a store, which makes me believe I appear useful.

15. Biggest fear?
That I will run out of ideas.

16. What do you value the most?
Tomorrow.

17. Famous last words?
“Not my problem.”

Brendan Murray lives and makes music in  Cambridge Massachusetts. His next disc is due sometime soon on Students Of Decay and he is scedualed to perform along side filmaker Paul Clipson in 23 Five’s next Activating The Medium festival here in SF this spring. Check him here.

1. Analog or Digital?
both/either – if this is a question about which i think is better… digital – if it’s about what i actually use

2. What time did you wake up today?
about 9 am after not enough sleep

3. Last thing you read?
the wycherly woman by ross macdonald… depressing, because it’s strangely true to life

4. Whats your first memory?
lying about needing to wear glasses to a classmate in pre-school, because glasses seemed glamorous… either that or, sitting in the laundry hamper and pretending it was a ship sailing across the ocean

5.Tea Or Coffee?
tea, but don’t have either one in my life right now

6. Last thing you cooked?
it was so long ago… oatmeal’s the closest thing to “cooked”

7. If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
a teenage girl in latvia who wears crazy fashion clothes and doesn’t care about the past

8. What inspires you?
the rose by jay defeo

9. Last record you played?
common eider, king eider – figs, wasps, and monotremes

10. Favorite piece of musical equipment?
the electric guitar, of course

11. Last movie you saw?
edvard munch by peter watkins

12. Who do you love?
edvard munch

13. Do you have any pets?
no

14. Are you useful?
no

15. Biggest fear?
that’s private

16. What do you value the most?
my brain

17. Famous last words?
hello, goodbye

Christina Carter lives in Austin Tx. She is the co-founder of Charalambides (1991!), and has over the last few years amassed a lengthy discography of rather amazing solo recordings. Her new record, ‘Original Darkness’ will be out on Kranky this fall. Keep up with her rapid output over here. Rosa Guerrero took the very nice photo.

1. Analog or Digital?
2000-2005 digital, 2006-present, analog

2. What time did you wake up today?
7:45am

3. Last thing you read?
Orient Express by Graham Greene

4. Whats your first memory?
4th of july 1979, sitting on my dad’s lap on the balcony, with late
stevie wonder playing on the radio.

5. Tea Or Coffee?
coffee/cortados

6. Last thing you cooked?
asparagus, quinoa, lomo

7. If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
Pegasus

8. What inspires you?
twilight

9. Last record you played?
ustad bismillah khan, le shahnai

10. Favorite piece of musical equipment?
sony tcm-20dv cassette recorder, can play tapes at half-speed among
other features.

11. Last movie you saw?
I am Cuba by Mikhail Kalatozov

12. Who do you love?
family, friends and sunsets

13. Do you have any pets?
7month old wirehaired daschund. Bubbles, you know

14. Are you useful?
I’ve been teaching for a few years, I hope so…

15. Biggest fear?
sharks, i’m from south florida, in my defense.

16. What do you value the most?
my health

17. Famous last words?
pura vida

Gregg Kowalsky lives, breathes and makes music in Oakland, California where he shares a space with his lady and Bubbles the Magic Dog. With a forthcoming Tape Chants LP on Kranky and who knows what else up his sleeve, Gregg is a busy man. Check out his personal website for even more info.

Pic by Ned Raggett from Bottling Smoke Festival, LA.

1: Analog or Digital?
analog with digital appendages

2: What time did you wake up today?
7am

3: Last thing you read?
my bedtime book right now is Borges’ ‘News of a Kidnapping’

4: Whats your first memory?
i remember being lost and alone at a scary carnival

5: Tea Or Coffee? 
coffee AND tea in tandem

6: Last thing you cooked? 
quinoa with asparagus… yum!

7: If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
i’m fairly certain i was a baby seal once

8: What inspires you?
my friends and other natural wonders

9: Last record you played?
gram parsons

10: Favorite piece of musical equipment?
my new synth the “semblance” is making my violin jealous

11: Last movie you saw?
“gonzo” the new documentary about hunter s. thompson

12: Who do you love?
my puppy….

13: Do you have any pets?
Bubbles the Magic Dog!

14: Are you useful? 
i try not to be useful at least one day a week

15: Biggest fear?
unnatural natural disasters

16: What do you value the most?
time spent in the company of loved ones and friends

17: Famous last words?
i’m a turtle today

Darwinsbitch is Marielle v Jakobsons. She lives in Oakland with her man Gregg & their dog, Bubbles the Magic Dog. Her first full length CD, “Ore” will be out on Digitalis sometime soon. It’s good. Really good.
Check her sounds over here.

1: Analog or Digital?
A mix of the two, with a digital predominance. Got a Fostex R8 lying around that we should use more often…

2: What time did you wake up today?
Like every other day: at 4:50 am

3: Last thing you read?
Laura Kasischke’s “Boy Heaven”, a good frightening story; a Lester Bangs Biography; some parts of a book called “The Antipodes of the Mind” by Benny Shannon, a cognitive study of the type of vision you get under Ayahuasca, the Amazonian psychotropic brew; a comic book by Alison Bedchel called “Fun Home”… also reading again “A prayer for the dying” by Stewart O’Nan…

4: Whats your first memory?
Got several ones… I can’t put them in order: I remember seeing myself in a mirror being bathed (in a red plastic little bath) by my mother; being crept out by a dummy dressed in a blue workman suite at the front of a shop then dreaming that this artificial dude came to where I lived and kidnapped me in my baby bed; the very first movie I’ve seen, Pinocchio, I was one year old, I remember only parts of the movie (the nightmarish episode where bad Childs are changed into donkeys on an island (??!), not sure about the island, I‘ve never watched it again since…) and the translucent stars on the ceiling of the theatre…

5: Tea Or Coffee?
Coffee!

6: Last thing you cooked?
A chili, I guess, or some oat/soja milk pancakes… never throw myself in complicated recipes, anyway…

7: If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
With the full conscience of what I was before as a human being? It could not function with animals or stones or trees I think: a human sense of his own body would be displaced in an animal or tree form… It could not function with another human, neither: I guess you can’t inhabit the body of someone else, cause you are your body, if you’re in the body of someone else, you are not yourself anymore. The only way to be reborn is as exactly the same, but you’ve got to wait that all the factors (psychological, historical, sociological, physiological etc…) that makes you what you were happen again so yeah, you’ll be reborn. Don’t know if I make sense here… But ok, if I can be reborn into the form I want, if there’s such things as soul(s) travelling from one form to another that keeps the imprint of past lives, I ‘d like to be reborn as a girl, or an animal such as a whale or a giant wolf, or any form-shifter being!

8: What inspires you?
Places, people, art, movies especially…

9: Last record you played?
Cotton Eyed Joe by Karen Dalton

10: Favorite piece of musical equipment?
Kramer DMZ 2000, Akai Headrush and/or Boss DD-20, e-bow… I like tambourines too, voice… damn, I can’t make up my mind!

11: Last movie you saw?
George Romero’s Diary of the dead, I really liked it!

12: Who do you love?
Solange

13: Do you have any pets?
Yeah, a cat named Inuk. But regarding the personality of His Majesty, I am probably the pet of Inuk.

14: Are you useful?
I guess there are situations where I can be totally of use and others, well, I ‘d better not be around…

15: Biggest fear?
Losing my hands

16: What do you value the most?
Love, trust, dedication, solitude, rebellion, this wild part in anyone that is uncontrollable…

17: Famous last words?
Moose… Indian (Henry David thoreau)

Mehdi Ameziane lives in Vitre, France with Solange Gularte where he makes art and music. Alone he is TwinSisterMoon, with Ms. Gularte, Natural Snow Buildings. A more in-depth interview can be found on the Foxy Digitalis page here.

1: Analog or Digital?
If I have a choice, analog, no doubt. And if we’re talking LP vs. CD, I’ll take an LP everytime. MP3…ungh, forget it. I don’t even have an Ipod. But having said that, I have some digital effect pedals that I love using and I buy and listen to CDs all the time, for sure. And I’ll record on anything that I have access to, so it’s just a matter of what I can get my hands on. Personally, analog is just more fun cause an old reel-to-reel is like driving a Volkswagen—you’re at the helm of a slightly rickety machine, and I like that. I get enough of sitting in front of a computer at my day job.

2: What time did you wake up today?
5:45 am—Ouch, got a toddler in the house so no more late mornings.

3: Last thing you read?
Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen.

4: What’s your first memory?
Earthquake…specifically, running down the hallway into my parents’ bedroom during that earthquake.

5: Tea Or Coffee?
Tea, green…or wine, red….or beer…

6: Last thing you cooked?
Not much of a cook, but one of the few things I can usually pull off is salmon in a little garlic and olive oil which I’m sure I must have done in the last week or so. Everything else I leave to the professionals—my wife, the taqueria, the pizza joint…

7: If you’re reborn who or what would you like to be?
I don’t know, it’s all one big thing anyway. I’ll go for a tree.

8: What inspires you?
Slogging through the day job, the traffic, and all the hassles of daily life and responsibility just to get a spare few moments to play some music…nothing like a good fight to summon the muse, eh?

9: Last record you played?
That mysterious Thai LP on Mississippi records.

10: Favorite piece of musical equipment?
Black telecaster built out of scrap parts.

11: Last movie you saw?
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

12: Who do you love?
My family.

13: Do you have any pets?
Yes, a cat named Blue.

14: Are you useful?
I doubt it, but it’d be nice to think so.

15: Biggest fear?
The direction the world is headed in.

16: What do you value the most?
Being here.

17: Famous last words?
Shit, what happened?

Steven R. Smith is a visual artist & musician who lives in L.A. with his family. He has made many a good record with the group mind known as Thuja as well as in his own name and under the monikers of Hala Strana & Ulaan Khol. Keep up to date with his busy schedule here.