#he would have loved sophie and arca | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rainydawgradioblog · 4 years

Text

a covidsation with august

Max Moore is a Vashon Island based artist, who just released stunningly ethereal album called Trust under the moniker August. Check it out-- ya won’t regret it! Thank you so much to Max for taking time to answer these questions and providing wonderful insight on this crisis and how we can all support each other!

Lola Gil: Tell me about your project. How long have you been making music (as August, or otherwise)? Which artists are you most inspired by? How would you describe your sound?

Max Moore: i started making music under the name august only this year ! for a long time i have been searching for a project and creative space that felt both personal and truthful, it just happened to all come together with the release of my ep, trust, in february ! i have released music under many other names over the years as i experimented and dipped my toes into different sounds and styles, my first releases on the internet were from when i was like, 12 !!! as far as musical heroes, the list is long but at the top would be arthur russell, bjork, brian wilson, arca, nick drake, sophie, elliott smith, autechre, harry nilsson, burial ... i really could go on forever. i think a lot of people try to hide their true influences but i feel there is something sexy about putting it all out there and referencing them as would an author, filmmaker, painter etc. my "sound" these days seems to be quite amorphous, it really is shifting from minute to minute. i would like to think it would sound like some amalgamation of the artists i listed earlier but it's hard for me to tell.

LG: How long was the process of making and producing your most recent album, Trust? How do you feel now that it’s out? Are you planning on releasing any new music soon?

MM: the process was looooong, like really long. i didn't release any music "seriously" for 3 or 4 years ! trust came out of a sudden, brief moment of clarity and surrender, as cheesy as that sounds. i was able to overcome a lot of the blockages i face in my creative process and just assemble this thing, and it just fell together ! i had all of these bits and pieces and sketches and ideas that never fully developed into anything, so i decided to compile them into one continuous piece of music. i was really into this idea of sonic miniatures or vignettes, short and sweet but with a depth that's only barely touched upon before moving on to the next. it was so incredibly therapeutic and wonderful to put it out into the world, so much support from friends and peers all around me. for now i'm still incubating but am hoping to see new music taking form this year :)

LG: As an artist, how have you been affected by COVID-19? You mentioned you had a handful of shows cancelled-- what has your experience been/what are your thoughts towards live streaming?

MM: like many artists in the community, i had a good handful of shows, contracted work, etc. canceled as a result of the virus. i am lucky enough to be in a position currently where i did not have to take a significant financial hit due to this (i work a day job at a record store & cafe) but i know many artists who now are struggling to make rent and stay safe through this pandemic. i think live streaming is a beautiful and special way for artists to connect with fans, especially in a time like this ! but there are so many aspects to a real, alive, performance that just can't exist in that digital space. for example, making friends and connections, selling merch, interacting face to face with fans, etc. though there is something beautiful about people from around the world being able to tune in to a livestream and make song requests, leave a nice comment, confess their love lol

LG: Apart from August, have you been involved in any other creative projects recently?

MM: recently i have been moving into more sound design work ! i was recording and mixing sounds for a play that was to run in june i believe, which just today was postponed until next year. that was my first *official* sound design job, i was really looking forward to it :(

LG: How have you been personally affected by COVID? What has your quarantine experience been like so far?

MM: aside from being out of work, and not being able to connect with friends, i feel very privileged as i am with my family, in my home. i have had a lot of time to do things that normally i am barely able to squeeze into my day like journaling, going for walks, extensive music writing sessions, playing video games. i think a lot of us are facing serious anxiety and depression right now, so i am really prioritizing my mental health, and making sure my friends and family are well. also, this new animal crossing game really could not have come at a better time, i don't know where i would be right now without it to be honest.

LG: What music have you been listening to recently? What has been your go-to quarantine album/song?

MM: in any times of crisis, confusion, sadness, happiness, really in any time at all i always turn to the same album: arthur russell's 'world of echo'. to me it is the perfect record, i aspire to make music that makes me feel the way that album does. it is a great listen if you need some time to reflect, or need something reflected back at you ! another favorite right now is bo en, he's done some incredible video game soundtracks (i'm playing through one right now called 'pikuniku', soooo sweet) and just has the most brilliant ideas. ooo and alice coltrane !!! special music only right now.

LG: Were there any spring shows that you were particularly looking forward to that got cancelled?

MM: i have been waiting to see arca in seattle since i was a sophomore in high school, and she announced a tour only a few weeks before all of this went down ! hopefully there will be a rescheduled date that i will be able to attend ... fingers crossed

LG: How do you think the Seattle/greater Seattle area music scene is going to shift post-COVID?

MM: i think coming out of this time we will see an enormous influx of events as we all recognize how special and necessary these sorts of things are. i know i will be so grateful to be able to run around and dance and meet up with friends, all of that good stuff. i am hoping that we will not forget these times though and can sustain that excitement, we really will need it moving forward. there will be many more bumps in the road and we need to be prepared (as a community) to address them together !!!

LG: In this era of social distancing, how do you think artists can support each other during these weird and difficult times? How do you think social media is facilitating and/or inhibiting connection within Seattle’s creative community?

MM: luckily thanks to the internet there are SO many ways to support our artist friends, if anybody is unsure of how to do so please reach out to me or any other artist, they will be so happy you asked ! whenever i can i try to purchase merch, support on websites like bandcamp where money goes (for the most part) directly to artists, and promote + support bipoc, trans, & queer artists. it never hurts to reach out, connection is so important to sustain any way possible right now. i think social media can be dangerous as far as connection goes, but right now i am seeing a lot of openness and offering of resources as we all wake up every day into the reality that there is this crazy virus taking over !!!!!! the internet and technology are completely shifting the direction of art and community, in some good ways and in some bad ways. we need to remember that social media is a tool and a resource firstly, and also that the people who designed these apps we use purposefully made them addicting, mostly through analyzing our own data and habits ! my hope is that as our brains gradually begin to adjust to these new devices and systems, we can let go of some of the isolation and anxiety that they bring up in us.

-Lola Gil

3 notes · View notes

theeverlastingshade · 3 years

Text

Favorite Songs of the 10s

100. Easy- Joanna Newsom

99. How I Know- Toro y Moi

98. Housebroken- The Hotelier

97. Unto Caesar- Dirty Projectors

96. R.A.P. Music- Killer Mike

95. Lover's Start- How to Dress Well

94. On Another Ocean- Fleet Foxes

93. Oblivion- Grimes

92. Sit Down, Man- Das Racist ft. El-P

91. Replica- Oneohtrix Point Never

90. Turn Into- Jay Som

89. Grief- Earl Sweatshirt

88. Can't Do Without You- Caribou

87. Haircuts for Everybody- The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

86. Take It All- Iceage

85. Betsy on the Roof- Julia Holter

84. Is It Cold in the Water?- SOPHIE

83. Out of the Blue- oso oso

82. The Governor- Nicolas Jaar

81. Mute- Youth Lagoon

80. Nothing to Find- The War on Drugs

79. 715 Creeks- Bon Iver

78. Don't Touch My Hair- Solange ft. Sampha

77. Jenni- Big Thief

76. Troublemaker- Beach House

75. The Ooz- King Krule

74. Side A: Old- Danny Brown

73. Mutant- Arca

72.Sun's Coming Up- Tama Impala

71. Adult Goth- Gang Gang Dance

70. (Me & My) To Bury Your Parents- Andre 3000

69. Garden Shed- Tyler, the Creator ft. Estelle

68. Heavenly Father- Isaiah Rashad

67. Running- Helaldo Negro

66. Blackstar- David Bowie

65. I Serve the Base- Future

64. Never Matter- Toro y Moi

63. Crack Rock- Frank Ocean

62. Lifelike- Antartigo Vespucci

61. Feelin'- DJ Rashad

60. Centurion- Earl Sweatshirt ft. Vince Staples

59. Sorrow- The National

58. I've Seen Footage- Death Grips

57. Sunday Candy- Chance the Rapper & The Social Experiment

56. Str8 Outta Mumbai- Jai Paul

55. gb /ol h/nf- oso oso

54. Incomplete Kisses- Sampha

53. M.A.A.D. City- Kendrick Lamar

52. Honeycomb- Deafheaven

51. Do the Astral Plane- Flying Lotus

50. Helicopter- Deerhunter

49. Cosmic Hero- Car Seat Headrest

48. Gun-Shy- Grizzly Bear

47. Biking- Frank Ocean ft. Tyler, the Creator & Jay-Z

46. Faker- The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

45. The Charade- D'Angelo & The Vanguard

44. Northern Lights- St. Vincent

43. Die Like a Rockstar- Danny Brown

42. Thievery- Arca

41. Fireworks- Mitski

40. Wasted Days- Cloud Nothings

39. Baby I'm Bleeding- JPEGMAFIA

38. Sprawl II- Arcade Fire

37. An Ocean Between the Waves- The War on Drugs

36. Dawn Chorus- Thom Yorke

35. Gosh- Jamie xx

34. Prom / King- Saba

33. Untitled- Moses Sumney

32. No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross- Sufjan Stevens

31. Modern Soul- James Blake

30. Self-Control- Frank Ocean

29. Come Down to Us- Burial

28. Brainfreeze- Fuck Buttons

27. Rave On U- Against All Logic

26. Seventeen- Sharon Van Etten

25. Peanut- Earl Sweatshirt

24. Dive- Beach House

23. Last Night at the Jetty- Panda Bear

22. Really Doe- Danny Brown ft. Earl Sweatshirt, Kendrick Lamar, & Ab-Soul

21. Death- Preoccupations

20. Gifts for the Earth- Deafheaven

19. 9/11 / Mr. Lonely- Tyler, the Creator ft. Frank Ocean & Steve Lacy

18. Galaxy in Janaki- Flying Lotus

17. Only Tomorrow- My Bloody Valentine

16. Full of Fire- The Knife

15. 'Til It's Done- D'Angelo & The Vanguard

14. I Can Be Afraid of Anything- The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die

13. Famous Prophets (Stars)- Car Seat Headrest

12. Never Catch Me- Flying Lotus ft. Kendrick Lamar

11. Distortion- Mount Eerie

10. Gretel- Alex G

9. Glass Jar- Gang Gang Dance

8. True Love Waits- Radiohead

7. The Blacker the Berry- Kendrick Lamar

6. Yesterday/Corded- Flying Lotus

5. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Can Control- Tame Impala

4. Hannah Hunt- Vampire Weekend

3. ...He Would Have Laughed- Deerhunter

2. Dream House- Deafheaven

1. White Ferrari- Frank Ocean

1 note · View note

ipodclassic160gb · 6 years

Text

2017 Year End Music List

Hello and welcome to another installment of my annual album/song of the year lists. It was a rough year! Thank you for reading I love you so much.

20. Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up

I never liked Fleet Foxes. I always thought they were the product of an NPR think tank (just like Wilco or Neko Case). But I gave this album a shot and it really did it for me. The music is just so lush! My only issue with it is that you kind of have to give this album your undivided attention and listen to soak in all of the details. You can also file this one under “albums that sound like their cover art”

19. Colin Stetson - All This I Do For Glory

Every release from Colin Stetson is remarkable in it’s virtuosity and sheer innovation. No other artist on this planet can do what he does with just a saxophone. However, since Vol 2: Judges his work has been a lot of the same. It might just be me, but I felt like this release changed up his formula just enough to make this some of his best music yet.

18. Blanck Mass - World Eater

I think any album by a member of Fuck Buttons has a certain loudness requirement it has to meet to be considered as part of their body of work. While I don’t think they’ll ever match the pulsing wall of buzzsaw distortion that was Street Horrrsing, this album takes me to that same musical realm.

17. Jlin - Black Origami

THIS ALBUM IS BATSHIT FUCKING CRAZY. It sounds like the drumline from the movie Drumline and a West African drum circle playing together but they’re both are performing on computer instruments. These songs absolutely refuse to be background music. There were moments on here that left me with my jaw dropped, just staring at the speakers because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

16. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

Big Fish Theory is a great example of an album where the risks pay off and Vince Staples feels like the only rapper capable of putting it together. The production is pretty out there and not only does Staples make it work, he makes himself at home in it. Even with producers like SOPHIE (if you had told me even a year ago that I would hear Kendrick Lamar rap over a SOPHIE beat I would have called you crazy), this album is West Coast to it’s core.

15. (Sandy) Alex G - Rocket

This album is honestly kind of a mixed bag, but the good songs are great and led me to listen to listen to other a lot of older Alex G. So I figured it was worth including in this list. To me, his music falls into the space somewhere between This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About and Either/Or.

14. Mastodon - Emperor of Sand

Since no one else is saying I’ll go ahead and say it: Mastodon is STILL COOL and this is by far their best album since Crack the Skye

13. Ross from Friends - You’ll Understand/Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes

Lo-fi house gets a bad rep because it’s bandcamp music made by enigmatic producers with funny names and is basically just an offshoot of vaporwave. That being said, lo-fi house is at the very least more functional than straight up vaporwave music and honestly…what’s wrong with funny names?

12. Sheer Mag - Need to Feel Your Love

I love this band. They make such PERFECT and AUTHENTIC sounding 70′s rock. Do you remember The Darkness??? I liked The Darkness when I was A Teen but you could always tell that they were copying from someone else’s playbook. With Sheer Mag, I feel like you could put their music on a playlist right next to a Thin Lizzy song and no one would think anything of it.

11. Thundercat - Drunk

To me, this is Thundercat finally hitting his stride. The shorter songs suit him well and keep the album from getting stale. A lot of artists this year tried to capture the essence what it’s like to live in such buck wild times and a lot of them fell flat . This album captures that essence without even trying.

10. Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

You know how you go back to look at the music you listened to the most over the past year and it’s like...what is this album I listened to like 100 times apparently? And it’s that album you would always play while riding public transit to help you relax and zone out? That’s what this album is and it’s really good

9. Power Trip - Nightmare Logic

Easily my favorite metal album in years. Not a moment of filler. This is music to punch people in the face to.

8. Kelela - Take Me Apart

After seeing Kelela play the side stages at virtually every festival I’ve been to in the last four years I am really happy to see her blowing up from this release. The central theme of this album of yourself apart and putting yourself back together after losing someone hit EXCRUCIATINGLY close to home for me this year.

7. Charli XCX - Pop 2

Turning her back on the Iggy Azalea paycheck money to work with a set of producers who make music that sounds like you’ve wound up on the WRONG part of the internet solidifies Charli XCX as one of the realest artists working in pop music today.

6. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

This album is the last nail in the coffin of every rapper that is not Kendrick Lamar. It solidifies him as the peerless, undisputed heavyweight champion of rap music (honestly…the second half of “DNA” alone accomplishes this). It’s been such a gift to watch Kendrick make his way to the top.The only thing that worries me is that now that he’s at the top where can he go from here?

5. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me

One of the most gut-wrenchingly sad albums I have ever heard. What sets this apart from other albums about death is the specificity. It is an unadorned look into what someone goes through when someone they love dies. I think I’ve been able to make through the album start to finish a total of two times

4. Fever Ray - Plunge

What makes this album great is that it carries the same political themes brought forth on The Knife’s last album into a more refined and structured space without it sounding any less bizarre. No other lyric better summarizes the current global political climate than “THIS COUNTRY MAKES IT HARD TO FUCK”

3. St. Vincent - MASSEDUCTION

I wouldn’t say that it’s St. Vincent’s best work by any means. However, there’s a handful of songs on here that just fucking GET to me. A lot of people seem to view MASSEDUCTION as this fun and sexy album but to me it’s just overwhelmingly sad. Yes there are some fun latex BDSM moments here, but they exist in the context of an album about loss and addiction. I don’t think I’ve ever cried at a concert as hard as I did when I heard this album performed live.

2. JAY-Z - 4:44

This is one of the best albums of Jay-Z’s entire career. The real hero of this album, however, is No I.D.’s production. The "doing everything as big as possible” sound of Jay-Z’s other recent work only seemed to make him sound older. On this album, over slower more soulful beats, he sounds more in his element than he has in years. Jay-Z if you are reading this I do NOT forgive you

1. SZA - Ctrl

If I could give AOTY specifically to the line “why you bother me when you know you don’t want me” I would. I connected so much with the loneliness and the uncertainty and the self doubt that lives at the heart of so much of this music. This is one of those albums that I will carry with me forever because it will remind me of a specific part of my life that was bad. And I’ll go back to listen to it later and I’ll be brought back to that time but I’ll miss it for some reason. Does this happen to anyone else? There’s a lot of music that takes me back to specific BAD moments in my life and makes me miss those moments. Hopefully that is normal.

Songs of the Year:

Lil Uzi Vert - XO TOUR Llif3

(Sandy) Alex G - Bobby

Carly Rae Jepsen - Cut To The Feeling

Anamanaguchi - Miku (NES Version)

The War On Drugs - Thinking Of A Place

The National - The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness

Gorillaz - Hallelujah Money (ft. Benjamin Clementine)

Cardi B - Bodak Yellow

Japanese Breakfast - Road Head

King Krule - Dum Surfer

Lorde - Green Light

Kelly Lee Owens - More Than a Woman (Aaliyah Cover)

Radiohead - I Promise

Payboi Carti - Magnolia

Lizzo - Truth Hurts

Thundercat - Show You The Way (ft. Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald

N.E.R.D. - Lemon (ft. Rihanna)

yaeji - raingurl

Arca - Piel

Calvin Harris - Slide (ft. Frank Ocean and Migos)

(2017 Overall Playlist)

#list

7 notes · View notes

serpensthesia · 7 years

Note

4, 5, 6, & 7!!!

4. First concert you went to?Well… it depends what you mean by first!

First concert ever, ever? God, this terrible high school band called Persephone that everyone at my school loved but I thought they were awful (and they were def awful).

First “real” concert, like at a venue? So embarrassing, but Switchfoot? It was an outing with my youth group?

First concert I was actually really jazzed about going to? Bright Eyes!! I was probably almost 16 but not quite and the concert was in Austin, TX… and the person that was supposed to go with me backed out at the very last minute and I was heartbroken… they had been my ride (!!!), and I had no idea what to do with the other ticket and I was terrified of going by myself.

So my dad came with me! And it was actually a lot of fun! And I definitely recommend going to concerts with your dad because he will buy you sodas and you don’t have to leave your spot, and he will be really super chill when CONOR FUCKING OBERST ENDS UP STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO YOU because he has no idea who Conor Oberst is and he will buy you a jacket that you wouldn’t have been able to afford on your own (and you will still wear it 12 years later even though it is falling apart because you love it and it reminds you of that time you went roadtrippin’ with the most hip dad ever).

5. Last concert I went to?Oh man, the INCREDIBLE second year of the Day for Night festival in Houston (in December 2016). We went the first year and I really didn’t think they would be able to do better, but they DID.

I do not know how because DFN is a tiny/brand new/not very well known festival, but they managed to get Aphex Twin, who had not toured in the US in like 9 years, to headline the show? And I got to see SOPHIE and I am still not over it. Plus so many others: Oneohtrix Point Never, Arca, Thundercat, Travis Scott, Chelsea Wolfe, Ariel Pink, Liars…

And my actual favorite part about DFN isn’t even the music, but that they pair with visual artists that set up beautiful light installations so when you need a break you can go chill and admire some really cool art (this is a (not great) video of one of my faves).

6. What is your next concert?That is a good question. There’s nothing on the schedule at the moment, but you never know…

7. Which artists/bands would you love to see live?It will never happen, but I would love to see Pink Floyd (with both Waters and Gilmour together) play the Wall live.

I would pay an absurd amount of money to see Daft Punk live. My friends and I sort of collectively got our hopes up that they might tour in 2017 (ten years after Alive 2007… it made sense, y’know?)… we were… disappointed (and also relieved because can you imagine how expensive?).

I would pay hella money to see Sufjan Stevens perform Age of Adz. I’ve been lucky enough to see him perform Carrie and Lowell and even tho HGD says C&L is drowsy garbage, his opinion doesn’t matter.

More realistically, I would love to see clipping. do a full set - I saw them at Sound on Sound fest last year but they only played for ~45 min. Would also love to see Aesop Rock (who was also at SoS Fest but on a different day).

Thinking about it, I’m actually really lucky and I’ve had a chance to see a lot of my most fave artists perform, but I’ve never seen the Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros or Kanye West and I would love to see them!

Thank you for the ask (and I’m sorry this was so long)!!answers from these concert asks

#kk replies #music things!#ask memes #phd-mama

1 note · View note

triteicerecords-blog · 7 years

Text

"Shauny's very sad...": A momentary glance into the life of Shaun Hathaway.

About a year ago, I had found myself stumbling upon what would be my partner label, Cavern Brew Records. Of the many oddities that was the label's discography, few truly stood out to me more than Shaun Hathaway. With bassy, underlying drones, harrowing, dark sampling, and loose, yet oddly intricate orchestration, Shaun is one small dark ambient artist, bound to make big leaps in the near future. The following is an interview between the two of us.

What made you want to become a musician, and make ambient music? Have you considered experimenting in other genres?

Well, when I was a kid I used to draw a lot and write stories/small books, then when I was beginning to become a pre-teen I used to act in plays and write scripts for plays and even came in second place in a playwriting contest in 6th grade, then when I was a teenager (high school age) I used to make short films and sketches with my friend at the time, and then after I was about to turn 17 I was starting to write, near-feverishly, lyrics down into various notebooks and I probably have about 4 or so notebooks filled with bars I wrote. My ex-girlfriend actually gave me my first "official" notebook that I used to write rhymes in because I was so convinced that I was going to rap and she was the only person at the time that actually believed in me, so I wanted to make her proud. Soon after I dropped out of high school and we broke up, I recorded a few songs with my close friend and I kind of sort of really cringe looking back at it because it could be a lot better. Don't bother looking for them, though, because I made sure they were taken off of soundcloud. Anyways, the continuation in the storyline I am trying to create is that I was fascinated by how my friend could produce his beats so fast while still being funky as hell. So, he used to try to show me how to use FL Studio and every time I would try to create something, I ended up accidentally creating something hellish so I eventually decided that there was clearly something to it. I think it was a culmination of all of the noise music I was listening to and my generally manic state I was constantly in at that time period, but I very specifically remember hunching over my laptop and making my very first full-length song "Adjustment" in a non-stop 6 to 9 hour production "marathon" and immediately uploaded it to SoundCloud. After I made that song, I was incredibly proud of myself for what I had created and decided to continue making more and more of it and eventually released my first EP "Shaun's Dark Place EP" and was almost immediately contacted by the founder of what became Cavern Brew Records who asked me to release stuff on his new net-label and I said yes. As for the second part of the question, yes, I have considered and have already experimented in hip-hop primarily. I very much plan on creating more and more hip-hop frequently and my end goal to my musical career would be to create experimental R&B and hip-hop, along the lines of artists like FLANCH, JPEGMAFIA, and basically everything Arca has had a hand in producing.

Who are your influences? Or people who you frequently listen to?

My influences for my dark ambient and noise music would definitely be Kylie Minoise first, he has probably had the most direct and notable influence on my harsh noise releases, and others would be Jason Crumer (mainly just Ottoman Black), The Gerogerigegege, and Sissy Spacek, so decently entry level stuff, however I should give a salute/shout out to PURGIST. The people I frequently listen to would most notably be LIL UGLY MANE who is my ultimate production and generally musical idol, Death Grips, Clipping., JPEGMAFIA, Danny Brown, Arca, SOPHIE, another huge production idol of mine, Ratking (and Wiki's solo career too), Machine Girl (mainly just WLFGRL, not gonna lie), ANTWON, Watkin Tudor Jones and his various projects, I know they only have one album, but I fucking love FLANCH so far, Memphis Hip-Hop as a whole has been a huge musical awakening/love for me, especially albums like The World Of A Psycho by Maniac and Demons Takin' Over Me by Nigga Creep, and the whole DJ Sound and Frayser Clique sound, not to downplay Three Six Mafia at all, Giles Corey, and fucking fight me, but I love Spooky Black/Lil Spook/Corbin. I've also really been getting into Xiu Xiu lately.

What are you listening to right now? What would you personally recommend?

I personally try not to listen to music while doing most things except driving and, well obviously, listening to new music because I feel like I'm not giving it my fullest attention and that it deserves better than that. However, I will admit that I will play the albums BBNG by BADBADNOTGOOD, ABSENCE OF SHITPERSON by LIL UGLY MANE, Swing Rocket by Swing Rocket (good friends of mine), and Fashion Week by Death Grips while I am driving in the car with new people or just people I am musically incompatible with, like my mother, most of my friends, or my 7 year old niece. People I HIGHLY recommend would be literally any of the artists I mentioned for the last question, but severely underrated people or projects I would really like to double down my love for would be FLANCH, ANTWON, and JPEGMAFIA. FLANCH for the reasons being that they managed to essentially bring to life a lot of hazy-ish/ballparked ideas I have had in my head for things I would love to both create and hear in a very clear, but by all means strange vision and it is absolutely phenomenal. FLANCH is easily one of my favorite albums of the year. ANTWON being another huge recommendation because of his always incredibly entertaining lyrics, energy, voice, flow, ability to do his thing on just about any beat he is handed, no matter how strange, and his very clear love for punk and black metal which heavily translates into both his aesthetic and lyricism on darker songs. Him and Wiki also put on a 10/10 concert when I saw them both live. And finally, JPEGMAFIA is everything that both music and politics need at this time. He is the best provocateur, both musically and personality wise, of 2016. He has openly admitted to being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian because he believes people should be pushed in the way he pushes him. His albums BLACK BEN CARSON and his collaborative EP The 2nd Amendment with artist Freaky should both be immediate listens for anybody reading this. He is a genuinely amazing glitch-hop, industrial-hop, and just generalized experimental hip-hop artist. Easily one of my favorite newer artists by far.

You chose your real name as a moniker, and many of your albums give a slight description of your personal life in of itself. Do you feel this transparency is a key factor to what makes your music interesting?

I absolutely believe transparency is very key for my releases under my real name, however I would very much like to believe that people would find the music itself entertaining or interesting regardless of personal backstories connected to the albums.

And what possesses you to put out your own personal life? Contextual reasons or catharsis or?

I think it just has to go hand in hand with the transparency I offer by using my real name. I have multiple songs under probably around 20 different aliases out that have no real need for my name to be attached to them, so I leave them segregated from the message, sound, emotion, or point across I am trying to make to people, unlike with my "main" musical releases. But yes, catharsis is very much a great deal to do with it. Like how I used a text message my ex sent me as I was boarding a bus in Boston after we broke up as one of the cassette covers for the album Suicidal Ideation. I am also using the same text message picture to press onto some shirts that should be going on sale relatively soon/before the year is over. My good friend MC 469 and I both are currently the only owners of said shirts. It just works as a grieving method where if I include my personal life into my artistic ventures I just look at it as a part of my art now. Like that text message picture, I barely even look at it and want to cry anymore, I usually just immediately connect it to the aesthetic that I have been trying to hone since I started releasing my dark ambient music rather than the incredibly upsetting amount of personal turmoil it would usually stir up.

Say I’m a new listener. I want to know a short summary of the context that leads you to create these albums. What would you say?

Shaun's Dark Place / thesunshinedieswithoutme: At the time I had just been released after spending a 10 day stay at a mental hospital in Brattleboro, Vermont after being placed in a psychiatric ward for 6 days because I was put on suicide watch for the second time that year (2015), and I had a lot of emotions, feelings, and anxiety to release somehow and the medicine I was on made me feel slightly numb and I was scared of becoming, I guess, normal, so I discovered during that 6 to 9 hour production marathon of the song "Adjustment" was that what I was doing was incredibly therapeutic and I had just discovered a new way to voice my anxieties. Return to Shaun (split album with artist Return to Sender): I had discovered that as helpful as it was to express very morose emotions, it also gave me a pathway to be able to create "fun" harsh noise and just to enjoy myself while still giving my small fanbase what they asked for. Suicidal Ideation: This album began production a little after the previous two projects and I was experimenting in doing much longer, dronier, and more entrancing soundscapes when everything took a really sharp turn for the worst at that time in my life. To sum it all up, I broke up with my current girlfriend at the time because of the multiple unresolved problems and emotions I never settled with my ex, so I went into a full-blown mental breakdown which lasted for about 4 days until my ex, the one I was missing very much at the time, called the police and told them that I was probably going to kill myself that night, which I guess I never thought I would admit it publicly, but I was. I was planning on pulling over somewhere isolated after talking to my ex one last time and just letting the car exhaust fumes kill me. So, the police apparently showed up at my mom's door, while I wasn't home, basically saying "Where is your son?" "He's a danger to himself" "He might have killed himself" and horrible shit like that so I had to stop at the local police station to tell them to stop harassing my mom until they eventually led me under false pretenses and put me on suicide watch for the third fucking time that year where I was held against my will in a psychiatric ward for about 36 hours. In a manic state, I tried to call my ex who called the cops on me and the last words she said to me were "You belong in a mental hospital" and I still haven't been able to contact her since considering she blocked me from her entire life after that, but do not get me wrong, she was entirely within the right to do what she did, I just kind of wish it was perhaps done a little less harshly, but I cannot pinpoint her as "the bad guy". One last "fun fact" about that album was that the song September 22nd was actually made for my mom for her birthday because at the time I couldn't afford to buy her one, so I thought I would try to "make something happy for once" as she would always try to tell me. Cold (single for Stocking Stuffer): I wanted to create an ambient piece that gave the listener a very unsettled and distant feeling of an icy and strangely familiar, but foreign state of mind and or mood. they found him in the forest: I accidentally stumbled upon footage of my father walking through various job sites (he was a forester/logger) and I thought to myself how heartbreaking this was that all the video and audio recordings I had left of my dead father were some 5 to 30 second snippets of him walking through leaves and occasionally mumbling under his breath. October: It's a very self-explanatory project once fully listened to and is easily my most directly personal, and possibly horrifying, album/project to date. It's kind of a hard listen because of the subject matter itself, but I would like to think that it is a very essential listen for any fans of mine who are interested in learning more about my own "backstory". Halloween Split Series 16.2 (Shaun Hathaway x Subversive Intentions): I like to describe my side of the split as a Halloween sound effects/scary stories CD or cassette found in a Goodwill or a similar thrift store, with something incredibly sinister lurking beneath the surface of it all. I'm very proud of this split because it was born out of the most absolute passion and love for my favorite holiday and the collection of old Halloween story and sound effects cassettes and CDs I "used to" listen to in abundance for almost the entire month of October.

When I had a previous had a discussion with you, you stated you would most likely have difficulty having a call as you are “in the middle of nowhere”. Do you think such adds to that isolated feel of your music?

Absolutely. Isolation and alienation are very far from foreign feelings living in New Hampshire, which, in turn, translates heavily into my music. I always had a "joke" that the only ways to die in New Hampshire are suicide, overdose or car accident. Unfortunately the "joke" becomes much more morbid when you start to live here longer and people you used to know start to die faster and younger every year.

If I wanted to show people an accurate depiction of depression through music, you would probably be the first. You do such in a primal and blunt way, something that’s often difficult for your average joe to comprehend. It’s quite an amazing thing to accomplish. I give you praise for such.

Thank you very much! I appreciate the compliment very much! I always think it's amazing when a fan or new listener sends me an email and says almost exactly that, that my music is an accurate translation of depression into music and I take the compliment very to heart because that was exactly the goal I tried to achieve the entire time. It's also kind of a sad awakening in one regard, however. I find it amazing that somebody else out there can empathize and connect with my music the same way I did while creating it, but at the same time it depresses me a lot to know somebody actually has the same feelings as I did while creating it. Nobody should ever have to feel the ways I feel and have felt in the past and it's sad, but on an upturn of it all, I hope it will at least help some people realize they aren't alone as they think they are, as cliche as that may sound.

Do you have a certain thought process to your music? Some of your own songs hit the thirty-minute mark, and it makes me wonder do you have a certain method as to how you develop your drones?

For most of my discography my thought process just consisted of trying to capture the exact feelings I was having right then and there in the most accurate way possible and which samples could really amplify which emotion and etc. However, for a fair chunk of my other stuff, especially on my new album I'm working on (which is easily becoming my favorite album yet. No I don't have a specific release date for it. Probably 2017, though.), I find a main, usually spoken word/vocal sample, that I absolutely fall in love with and I build an entire soundscape and environment around the sample to amplify it. For the second part of your question, yes, I do have some semblance of a method to my madness. As stated a few questions back, when I started working on Suicidal Ideation, I wanted to focus a lot more on the entrancing factor of drone music and in doing so I would develop main, monolithic in size usually, and try to let it seep in and then start tacking on other large and thick layers of loops and generalized ambient sounds. Another must have for me with a lot of my music if you haven't noticed, is thunderous bass lines which, in my opinion, both enhance and add a very unsettling and overpowering feeling to each track it appears on, or at least that is certainly the goal of mine.

Any specific instruments that are key/essential to you?

If vocals count, then absolutely, yes. If not, then not really. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that there is barely any actual instruments, sampled or otherwise, that are in my discography. The only real examples I can think of would be the highly manipulated samples of me playing with my keyboard that appear throughout Suicidal Ideation. However, I will reveal this much, the afformentioned possibly upcoming in 2017 album is going to change that. That is all I can really reveal about it.

I notice you like to use religious songs in your sampling. Some instances, it even sounds like they’re crying or something is bothering them as they sing. Are these personal recordings, or samples you happened to stumble upon?

Oh god, I know exactly which song you're talking about too, 'finalities' off of Suicidal Ideation. That was easily one of the most horrifying samples, in my opinion, that I have ever used. The whole song, especially that intro, was to basically replicate a panic attack I was having while making that song. Almost all of my religious samples actually all come from one place, which I refuse to identify because of how much long it took to stumble upon it and in the vain of not giving away one of my most treasured secrets. But no, none of the religious samples are of my creation, "unfortunately".

Are you yourself religious? And what kind of “weight” does this add to your song, at least in your opinion?

My father was semi-catholic, but his whole side of the family seemed to be relatively devout catholics and my mother and her side of the family all seemed to identify as "spiritual" so I mainly seemed to empathize with my father's religious side for a while when I was a kid. Eventually I just began to lose interest and faith in religion and ever since I was 11 I have been stuck with a strange feeling of loss that I have never been able to fully recover from. I feel like the "weight" that it adds to my music and art as a whole would be that it really envokes a feeling within every once-religious person that can't be fully realized or explained, but is merely a phenomenon that really seems to pique my emotions. Essentially, the samples, themes, etc. are all just attempts to reconnect with a part of my life that has been forever lost. It's basically my equivalent of nostalgiacally looking through old scrapbooks and photos of a dead loved one where the memories you shared with them are both very vivid but also slightly hazy, but the overwhelming feelings of sadness and nostalgia are very clear and direct.

What would you say distinguishes you from other ambient/dark ambient artists?

I would probably have to say my emotional vulnerability. I feel like a lot of (specifically dark) ambient and noise artists are completely obsessed with becoming as anonymous and enigmatic as possible for their whole gimmick, which I completely can understand and respect as a fellow artist and musician, but I feel like the farther they stray from their own identities, the further they distance themselves from their emotions and humanity. In my opinion, a majority of music is created and intended to be an artform in which artists can express their emotions in a very abstract or direct way and when people try to make themselves as unrelatable as possible, it becomes more apparent that the mask they wear they feel is more interesting than themselves which I feel is just being unfair to one's self. Another thing that sort of frustrates me about it is the fact that very rarely do those types of ambient and noise producers ever have fun with it. It's the reason why artists like Death Grips and LIL UGLY MANE will always stay entertaining to me, they play heavily with the elusive act that their fanbases has essentially labeled them as and they seem to enjoy themselves very much doing so. Another thing that would probably be a distinguishable feature of my certain style of ambient/dark ambient is the lack of instrumentation, pedals, etc. and is almost entirely plunderphonics based. I know a lot of ambient artists seem to rely heavily on (albeit distorted and manipulated) synths keyboards, etc. but almost all of my music is 100% sample based. I mean some of it is definitely recorded by me, but more often than not without specific intentions for specific songs and more just recorded for the sake of possible digital mutilations. All of my stuff is just made entirely on my laptop. However, things are going to be slightly changing with that possibly 2017 album I'm working on, but don't worry, it will still be 100% Shaun.

What is the order you recommend your new listeners check out your discography?

Honestly, I don't mean to sound like "that guy", but honestly, I think that chronologically is probably the best bet, except maybe postponing the monolithic Suicidal Ideation until you've listened to everything else, but for certain, you should really start out at Shaun's Dark Place EP or Shaun's Dark Place / thesunshinedieswithoutme.

What albums do you especially recommend, or not recommend, people listen to from you?

Definitely Shaun's Dark Place / thesunshinedieswithoutme, Suicidal Ideation, and October. If listened to in that order, you will probably get a very firm understanding on what it is that I create and who I am. Especially if listened to in that order. The rest of my discography are mainly just considered side projects and experimentations to me. That doesn't mean they should be swept under the rug at all, but they definitely were made more for me to try something new or were for a split or single. However, a huge bonus one for me would be to listen to my split album with Subversive Intentions Halloween Split Series 16.2 (Shaun Hathaway x Subversive Intentions) on Halloween day or Eve or both because that was definitely a passion project that was made entirely out of love, respect, admiration, and general adoration of Halloween sound effects/stories CDs and cassettes I grew up listening to over and over again as a child well before, well after and certainly during Halloween. I was just absolutely obsessed with them and still am.

Have you considered live performances?

Absolutely. Karma Bus and I have been in on and off again serious talks with the idea of a mini CBR/Cavern Brew Records concert with as many local artists signed and or associated with the label to come down and perform at whatever local venue they allow us to book. Another possibility we have talked about is just a dual performance with just ourselves that would possibly feature performance arts and there's even been talks about "distorted reality happenings", as I would like to refer to the ideas as, occuring throughout performances. Nothing set in stone yet, though. It's also very hard to plan concerts for my sort of music because it's not exactly something you can really dance to or even really enjoy in a traditional sense.

What do you think is in store for you in the future?

Well, I am making a lot more hip-hop beats as of lately and have been trying to polish off my skills as a hip-hop producer in order for me to be able to sell my beats or even just give out a few beats for exposure's sake to my favorite active rappers or just ones that I highly enjoy. I feel like I have to be more realistic about being able to make a living off of my music and my art in general and I feel like for me, hip-hop is going to be my way in to a livable career off of my music. I am confident that I have the ability to continue to polish off and work harder on my beats to hopefully make my way into a dream of mine and hopefully meet my idols while doing it. This doesn't mean by any stretch of the imagination that I even plan on retiring from my dark ambient or heavily experimental music as a whole, but if I succeed, it would basically just give me more means to create it.

What is an odd quirky fact about you?

The very first album I ever bought for myself was Jackpot by Chingy when I was about 6 or 7 years old. I would probably cry out of joy if I found my copy of it.

#artist interview #shaun hathaway #dark ambient #noise #small interview #music interview #trite ice records #cavern brew records

0 notes