tag:sound-animal.com,2005:/blogs/music-love?p=3Music Love2023-10-19T20:56:07-07:00Sound Animalfalsetag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/72904472023-10-19T20:56:07-07:002023-10-19T20:57:12-07:00Sound Animal Interviews R Duck<p style="text-align:center;"><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/570365/caaf49fff837b301512785f4fb35e15dbef0e9a9/original/screen-shot-2023-10-19-at-8-53-53-pm.png/!!/meta%3AeyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ%3D%3D.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p><p> </p><p>(Originally published by Cave Dweller Music.)<br><br><span>R Duck is a fantastic experimental ambient musician whose innovative music can be experienced every week introducing his radio show, Sound Wheels, at the Stanford radio station, KZSU. As a DJ, he has a uniquely comforting, slyly playful, always calmly poised personality while he speaks during the two-hour episodes, giving us not only the playlist but other unexpected delights. The colorful visualizers for each show, found on Instagram and Facebook, showcase his immersive music as it sets the tone for each whimsically named musical extravaganza, which is archived on Podomatic and Mixcloud. Musicians Miko Biffle, Ernesto Diaz-Infante, Mean Flow, and Cousin Silas are often included. Let’s learn more…</span><br><br><span>Sound Animal: I come across your music primarily through your radio show podcast each week, as the pieces begin the episodes. I’m inevitably struck by the lit-up beauty of your pieces. Can you tell us where we can find more of just your music alone? Do you have plans to consolidate and of it and make it more easily discoverable?</span><br><br><span>R Duck: Most every Tuesday for Sound Wheels I am crafting new music sculptures and carefully assembling an assortment of other musical offerings which include submissions, hand selected listening and requests I make to performers. KZSU Stanford is very generous to allow so much abuse of their airwaves. It is all in good clean fun though. Local music heavy. Family oriented I guess you could say. If you have a pretty cool family interested in truly heart felt that speaks from and to its creators. The music comes from their own life experiences and creativity. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>I manage to keep a fairly complete archive of Sound Wheels at rduckshow.podomatic.com.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span>Most every show starts with a modest contribution from myself to set the tone of the program. Like the opening monologue on late night TV or the circus barker presenting the evenings offerings and amusements. Using my openings, I create short promotional videos which are offered at </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.instagram.com/rduckshow/"><span>https://www.instagram.com/rduckshow/</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>There is an old archive of programs and improvisations set to video on </span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.youtube.com/rduckshow"><span>YouTube</span></a><span> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>I look forward to consolidating these and other downloads at rduck.com this summer.</span><br><br><span>Sound Animal: You answered that every Tuesday you craft new music for the show. Do you really mean that, that you make your piece on that day? I’d imagine it must take you much longer than that, as they’re complex, long, sophisticated, with lots of layers and ambitious sound design. It must be so nice to create pieces with the show in mind, because there’s a waiting audience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>And that’s interesting that you make requests from performers. Can you give me an example? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Are you asking them for a certain emotion or use of an instrument? </span><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><span>When you say local, do you mean mostly the musicians are in California as a whole?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><span>Your words on the show do create a family atmosphere, though it’s a little hard for me to imagine youngsters relating to it as much as people with developed taste. Do you have a sense of the ages of the listeners?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><span>The titles of the shows particularly show off your playful side. I enjoy the creativity you put into what you say during the show, which is tempered by your calm even keel. I always have the sense you’re having fun and relaxing into the enjoyment of the music. I like how you prompt listeners to get some hot tea and a comfy chair to prepare to settle into the experience. What’s the experience of DJing like and why do you do it?</span><br><br><span>R Duck: I have been performing and hosting on the radio for many years. Several appendages worth of digits of years now. At FRSC, KZSC, KUSP, KFJC and most recently KZSU. The actual role of being a DJ is fairly new and comes from my experience at KFJC. Also from growing up listening to my mom’s radio station selection before school hoping beyond hope school would be canceled for the day due to snow or a hurricane or something. Anything. The DJ’s had such deep classic tone. Measured timing as they would read off a list of the school districts and individual schools that were closed for the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span> I think of them and remember the anticipation I felt. Later I would try to imagine what they thought their role was in people lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Sound Wheels is coming from a background of long form performances and improvisations. The entire program was all performed live in past years. With guests and many surprises along the way. The confined space and lack of ventilation made that impossible for a couple years now, so I started reaching out to performers to provide music. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>It has been a great experience and makes for a show pace I was not used to. I am excited to apply that to live radio performance again soon.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span> </span><br><span>Sound Animal: Do you think you’ll move back to only having live performances on the show?</span><br><span>I’m very curious about your role at the radio station. How did you get that position? I think of it as being for students. Want to talk about your education and relationship to Stanford? Does your show logistically work similarly to the other shows at the station? What’s your relationship to their charts? </span><br><br><span>R Duck: I spent some time at Stanford’s CCRMA as an outsider guest. I thought of Stanford as a place with outrageous music and experimentations in sound spaces, devices and software. I interacted with and had Jordan Rudess as a guest in the pirate radio times. Not long before starting at KZSU. At the time he was an Artist in Residence at Stanford CCRMA. I knew him as the motivator behind synthesizer sounds and his audio-stretching software because of Stanford. However, people tell me I may be a little singularly focused and naive. Apparently, Stanford does a lot of different things. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>I came to KZSU from KFJC. I had DJ’d there for a time as a fill-in wanting to create a live late night radio program. The late nighttime was great. Nighttime is when sound conjures. I felt free there and they have an amazing music department that always had something new I could mash up on the air. But there never felt like there would be a time when I could bring in the guests and perform freely. Regularly. It seemed like a great match, but complications stood in the way.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span> It was at KFJC a fellow DJ (Dangerous Dan) let me know KZSU wanted a couple new DJ’s and there I went! First with my friend and Serge modular guru Doug Lynner. We cohosted Bloop and Quack. Then onto Sound Wheels.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span> Before KZSU I was performing very long programs on a pirate radio station in Santa Cruz, Ca. These weekly shows included performance of many instruments, turntables, storytelling, snacking and sensible meal planning along with guests and surprises. Those programs would run quite late into the night. At KZSU the R Duck Show became Sound Wheels. A Gee Bee Super Sportstar caught on flypaper. Fast paced while still held onto by an incredibly sticky, malleable, flexible and floppy piece of tape. I like to think they make flypaper from the archives of the magnetic recording of Burt Bacharach.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><br><br><span>Sound Animal: What is the live performance aspect like logistically, and is the practice returning now as things are opening up more? Are people jumping on the opportunity and are you embracing it as much as ever? Any wild stories of live shows where things go unexpectedly?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><span>R Duck: Having performances at the radio station was put to a stop until very recently. The radio station is well set for live performance but requires an engineer do the mixing and keep levels within reason. Since that is not usually available to me, I use whatever handy mixing device I can muster that can, preferably, record separately the various signals being sent to me from the performers. I prefer performers to bring their own mixer for all their sound sources. This lets them monitor themselves and I think helps them get the sound exactly the way they intend. Once the signal hits the stations mixing board, I have very little control. Only overall volume. A radio station mixing board is a unique device, very different from the mixers many musicians are used to using at home or in their studios.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span> The finest performances of danger I have had the privilege to be associated with is via MicroHausen, a small offshoot of Woodstock Hausen. In this venue performers are truly free to express their audible and visual dreams. I’ve seen audiences set up in rows blindfolded while children run through the aisles rustling branches and clacking sticks, four audio channel surround sound modular systems, duct tape run rampant and gunpowder lit from audio speakers playing the most ungodly music you can imagine. Much of that mayhem originates from Later Days and his cohorts from the original Woodstock Hausen. If rumor holds true the festival may be reincarnated at Woodstock, NY this summer!</span><br><br><span>Sound Animal: You’ve said so many wonderful things, thank you. I love learning more about how you think… Nighttime conjuring, Bacharach flypaper, running children clacking sticks, wow! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span>Can you describe the process you go through to create your own music that you put on the show? And do you plan on ever putting out albums of your pieces past or present, through a distributor, for example? Even if you aren’t -- care to make up any imaginary album names for them?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span> </span><br><span> R Duck: I will talk, assuming the music selections are not indulging the requests or desires of the majority of music listeners. The performers stand on their own to be experienced on their own merits. To me anyway. The composers and producers are creating music that they want to hear perhaps hoping it will resonate with some others. If the music is on the show, it has at least inspired me. I hope the sounds can reach other people that feel some connection to it as well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span> The music on the Sound Wheels is self-supporting. It does not need a backstory. The music is an experience of listening and feeling. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span> My own music contributions come from a physical connection to my instrument. The processing and effects are deeper expressions about time. The music unfolds and refolds itself as it is performed. It is mostly improvised coming from my own experiences and reflections. The music is a reflective and refractive poem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span> It can start with a note, series of notes or a chord of notes. But sometimes it is a sound or utterance. Rhythm is important to me as well.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><span> It would be nice to have a place to share the music I have made. I am thrilled to create the show and get to share some of it that way and would be tickled if a distributer wanted to help.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span> That may be the first album, Tickled.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><br><span>Sound Animal: Your music is so dreamlike that I’d be curious to hear anything you’d like to say about your dreams at night. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br><span>R Duck: The music is like a waking dream or maybe an auditory hallucination. It comes out of the unconscious and is materialized through a physical process of playing and manipulating my instruments, special effects and dark chocolate consumption. Like a dream, the story lines can be quite jumbled and sometimes defy common natural laws. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><span> In contrast my sleeping dreams can be quite pedestrian. Focused on the days works and events. Sometimes reaching toward new spaces. But then, I usually wake up.</span><br><br><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/rduckshow"><span>Podomatic</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.mixcloud.com/rduck/"><span>Mixcloud</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.facebook.com/soundwheelskzsu"><span>Sound Wheels Facebook</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.facebook.com/therduckshow"><span>R Duck Show Facebook</span></a><span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p> </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.facebook.com/arnold.mallard.9"><span>Ar R Duckshow Personal Facebook</span></a><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="http://kzsu.stanford.edu/">KZSU 90.1 FM</a><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p><a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.instagram.com/rduckshow/">Instagram</a><o:p></o:p></p><p> </p><p> </p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/72149102023-05-24T15:06:49-07:002023-10-19T20:55:52-07:00Russian DJ disco_je Interviews Sound Animal and Creates Mix Based on the Music<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/s:bzglfiles/u/570365/5fe626895c4d80a65effa9603615852d7a8b36c2/original/screen-shot-2023-05-24-at-2-41-53-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><p>Much appreciation to disko_je for doing all this and bringing his passion for music to the make the world dance and feel. </p><p>"первое что хотелось бы спросить<br>- КТО ТЫ? Или точнее даже ЧТО ТЫ?!<br>Когда впервые прочитал биографию на саундклауд.. Роузмэри.. так это еще и женщина.. уж прости мне мой сексизм) Ты играешь на гитаре и на огромной куче других инструментов, записываешь какие-то звуки.. и все это делаешь сама?</p><ul>
<li>Я только недавно начала раскрывать на саундклауд и в других местах, что я женщина, а так я обычно представляюсь как — Sound Animal (звуковое животное). Может быть, из-за того, что я так много пою, все больше людей начинают догадываться, что я женщина. Но в основном многие предполагали, что я мужчина или мужчины, всегда комментировали или писали мне сообщения, называя меня бро, чувак, что я думала - ну и отлично, и их не исправляла….."<br>Read the rest at VK. </li>
<li>
<a class="no-pjax" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CsnNER4tDdj/" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span class="text-big"><strong>disko_je's</strong></span></a><span class="text-big"><strong> newest </strong></span><a class="no-pjax" href="https://soundcloud.com/diskoje/interaction-of-souls" target="_blank" data-link-type="url"><span class="text-big"><strong>mix</strong></span></a><span class="text-big"><strong>, with fantastic music throughout, featuring Sound Animal</strong></span>
</li>
</ul>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/71362002023-01-10T15:58:34-08:002023-05-24T14:58:07-07:00Interview with Kuan<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/e18a35afd41d24bbea6ed8c55463a86963ed47e1/original/screen-shot-2023-01-10-at-3-49-24-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>Excerpt:</p><p>Sound Animal: What are you usually thinking about when you play together? Are you much concentrated on the inter-dynamics between you, the in-the-moment journey of exploration of your teamwork? How about when you play for a crowd? How does that change your mindset? Are you immersed in your own sonic world or checking out the audience? </p><p>L.V.: The beauty of playing loud amps in a small space, with various effects, is that you can dive in the flow of music. So when we play it’s like a voyage where there’s an interplay between us and where we discover the possibilities of the music that’s in our head. It’s very thrilling and exciting, there’s nothing like it. </p><p>Playing for a crowd is not so different, we are not performers. We play for ourselves and we try to recreate the magic of the recordings. We also take risks, trying different paths in the pieces, to maintain a certain novelty in our music. </p><p>L.S.: The real interconnection between two people (in this case as musicians) is improvisation, where your true self comes out and you cannot escape your subconscious, you cannot mask your emotions. Of course, then there is always the thought: "Let's tear this place down". <br>--<br><br>To read the interview, go to <a class="no-pjax" href="https://cavedwellermusic.net/blog-1/post/2173038/cdm-presents-sound-animal-interviews-kuan" target="_blank" data-link-type="url">Cave Dweller Music</a>!</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/70759072022-10-06T12:33:42-07:002022-10-06T12:33:43-07:00Interview with Dead Air Fresheners<p> <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/27c95a5b2bb8c0a63ac3475c97e5f5fc2e4cfb4a/original/unfriended-at-final-form.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The first song on the album, which is long, is probably the least accessible, though its chaotic destroyed layers are typical: the shrill violinish sounds are pretty intense. But people who like innovative noise music who are put off by that initial assault may still find music to like if they check out other songs. The album includes flanged free jazz thrown at a graffitied wall of sound, also well as mysterious field recordings, lots of clanging, and delightfully absurd sampled conversations that are distressed in the mix. Listed as noiserock, the rock aspect is rarely obvious other than in the socially relevant fourth song, which riffs off the “Hanky Panky” to play with the album concept of unfriending. The last song, “Unfriend the President,” the most traditional, with lyrics and everything, bends notes to its will as it explores the idea of taking unfriending to political action.</p>
<p>Sound Animal: Experimental music often veers away from traditional rules to obliquely dramatize a suggestion about the conventional perception of things and doing things. What do you feel musical dissonance indicates about the nature of reality or society? </p>
<p>Ricardo Wang (Dead Air Freshers): Our live show is driven by both shamanistic ritual and costuming as well as outright fun and abandon. This album really has "songs" and they are the product of that live show running head on with a pandemic that drove us to live in our garage studio The Elusive Hangar. We spent the pandemic playing live from our little studio every Friday at 5:15 PM. It became like a weekly TV show. Because the core membership was limited to family by quarantine, it became like a contemporary experimental take on the Partridge Family. We had begun Unfriended. going into this and it was now transformed by all of these live rehearsals in the space we made the record in. </p>
<p>The album does actually look right at the juxtaposition between musical dissonance and the nature of society. The concept of being Unfriended. is a new yet widely pervasive reality brought on by technology. Noise artists have long felt the reaction to their music of being Unfriended. even before Facebook, MySpace, or all social media. Though you can be sure noise artists were Unfriended. even on the very first social network Classmates.com because, get real, we were Unfriended IRL by the very people that network helped early interneters to find! This album has two title tracks "Do the Unfriended" and "Unfriend the President" because it looks deeply into the pros and cons of the concept. Unfriending isn't ALL bad. It may be a process of discernment that can be applied to social phenomena instead of just social media. We are all in this together. </p>
<p>Similarly "Tumbleweed Quarantine" and "Cyclone Unabomber" use the social phenomena themselves to create the musical dissonance. Not that the guitar and other instruments are melodic but it is in the repetition of the plundered words that the songs unfold.<br><br><br>Read the full interview at <a contents="Cave Dweller Music" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://cavedwellermusic.net/reviews/post/2098499/cdm-presents-sound-animal-interviews-dead-air-fresheners" target="_blank">Cave Dweller Music</a>.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/70691592022-09-26T15:54:10-07:002022-10-04T21:13:12-07:00Interview with Sigil of Time and Nyrrah about Their Collaboration<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/b308fde76ee62a87b3a194b3872116f41c674b91/original/sig.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /> -- Sigil</p>
<p><em>This is the beginning of the post up at Cave Dweller Music.</em><br><br><br>Sound Animal interviews Moscow based experimental electronic/folk/ambient act Sigil of Time and discusses their new collaborative album Piilosanoja with Mirocaw. For this one Sigil has collaborated with the obscure doom metal avant-garde band Mirocaw. The album is a return to form with the extreme vocals of Nyrrah Taai providing new and fresh avant-garde interpretation of Finnish folklore. Minimalist ritual ambient industrial evolves the soundscape for this album.<br><br>SA: I’m always excited when you have new work out, and the description of Piilosanoja is particularly intriguing as it involves noise synthesizer, mouth harp, singing bowl and jews harp. </p>
<p>Kanteletar has inspired a lot of arts. Have you found anything that takes those Finnish folk tales in a similar direction at all? </p>
<p>Marja: Here I could find not so much things to compare with or reference to. I found several covers of songs from Kanteletar but nothing alike our work. But also there exists a lot of visual arts dedicated to these songs. For the sound of our album I can name as inspirational influences a project Akkajee (though we did our music in a very unlike way), Russian folk-industrial duet “Noises of Russia” and an anthology of field recordings for Siberian folk songs performed by natives. <br><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/7eece87079605cdb93a400203a94630bef29119d/original/m.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /> --Marja<br> </p>
<p>Anton: There have been bands attempting to work with the same material, yet the approach was much more mainstream oriented. We on the other hand made the macabre and hopefully more authentic version. The gloomy sound is key to all three the participants of the project. Although all of us view it from a different angle. The three points of view make it interesting for us to work together.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/5c054c29c98e2f6d922065ad8948cdaa365427b1/original/an.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /> -- Anton<br><br><br>Nyrrah: Unfortunately no, even though I’m a fan of the eccentric Finnish doom and prog scene. The popular band Amorphis has released an album based on Kanteletar, Elegy, in 1996, but they (intentionally or not) left out the most painful and personal lyrics, as well as those based on ugly and/or tabooed feelings, such as envy and basic mistrust to people. I personally think they left out the best lyrics from the collection. <br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/56a5a1034602d797bab7ef3c4edd3816bc7a59a6/original/n.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /> --- Nyrrah (Paula Modersohn-Becker - Die sitzende Alte)<br><br><br>Of course, I also heard performances of some texts used in “Piilosanoja” by various folk singers, ensembles and choirs. I like them, but I wanted to show another approach to these lyrics, devoid of classical beauty, but more oppressive. I love Finnish sludge scene (for example, bands like Fleshpress and Loinen) and I wanted to add more of this “vile and putrescent” attitude to the record.</p>
<p>It’s obvious the album has something to say in the ever-ongoing worldwide dialogue of innovation, a conversation through avant-garde music, visual arts, literature, dance, etc. that implies new ways to interpret humanity, the nature of reality, and the arts. Can you sum up what your voice in the dialogue of experimental innovation is saying with this album? </p>
<p>Marja: For me as for a musician it was a combination of pure art brut with a sound production, effects and artistic framing that I could provide. My voice holds very small leading part, mostly it is used to support and direct the melodical line (but not the expressive strikes). I could do something else, but from lots of variants this one was chosen. I was looking for something unusual and strange — and even now when this album is already released, I am still puzzled about its possible sound. </p>
<p>Anton: We wanted to use the archetypal and radical lines of this tales to tell yet another deeply existential story. We used the medium of old-school experimental industrial to paint the soundscape for the story to unfold. The deep existential approach hopefully unites the old and the new via merging of folk and avant-garde. The goal is to show people to the authenticity of being which can only be gained through the contact with Death. German philosopher Martin Heidegger had something along these lines. The goal of Sigil of Time and Train to Elsewhere as well as the secretive and deliberately obscure new project Mirocaw is exploring humanity and its contact with its mortality through the lens of time. The archetypical medium of folk culture plays a crucial role in all of this. </p>
<p>Nyrrah: Hm, I’ve never considered myself some pretentious artist who drives "the ever-ongoing worldwide dialogue of innovation." Even the “outsider artist” term would be too flamboyant. I feel more like a playing child experimenting with different forms and combinations. This approach has both positive and negative sides. I feel very desponded and dejected, if I try to create setting the goal to "surpass Ms. Vanderbilt," that’s why I prefer a different path.<br><br>For the rest of the interview, go to <a contents="the post at Cave Dweller" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://cavedwellermusic.net/reviews/post/2070795/cdm-presents-an-interview-with-sigil-of-time" target="_blank">the post at Cave Dweller</a>.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/70426122022-08-20T21:21:29-07:002022-09-26T15:48:53-07:00Interview with Rodion Rosca's Daughter<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/69c2f2cc0aaa5e4cc73b0d56bd8860e7cee96b55/original/rodion-1.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>SA: Hello, Isabella, thank you for kindly agreeing to an interview. I’m honored to be able to ask you some questions about your father and yourself. It’s tragic that Rodion is no longer with you. You must miss him terribly. Can you tell me about something he used to do that you thought was adorable?</p>
<p>I: Oh yes, we miss him very much. He did many adorable things. He was perfectionist, meticulous. The music he composed says a lot.</p>
<p>SA: Could you tell me a story about your relationship with him?</p>
<p>I: I have a very good relationship and I was very attached to my father. My parents divorced when I was very young and I grew up with my father. My father taught me so many things from cooking to how to handle any situation. I talked on the phone every day for hours about everything.</p>
<p>SA: That's so wonderful to hear. He did seems resourceful, and I'm glad he passed that practical quality to you. And great that you had that closeness, is so important for well-being throughout one's entire life. What was the location and community like where you grew up with him?</p>
<p>I: I grew up in a two-room apartment located in Cluj- Napoca and there was always music. My father worked from home repairing speakers, was the best. Many people came to our house. And in 2003 my father bought a house in a commune at a distance of 30 km from Cluj -Napoca. It was my wish to have a house in the country where to have a puppy, a cat, where we moved for a while after which we returned to Cluj.</p>
<p>SA: I'm so glad you got your wish! Do you make music, yourself? What kind of music do you like to listen to?</p>
<p>I: I don't make music: my father didn't encourage me to make music and he didn't want that for me, to be on the road all the time -- rehearsals, frivolous colleagues . I really like the music my father composed and I want to play a song of his in the future.</p>
<p>SA: That sounds like that would be fun to play one of his. Did he ever get you up dancing to his music?</p>
<p>I: No, but I danced at shows where my father sang. Everyone danced and it felt good.</p>
<p>SA: That's great! I saw in a documentary that he said he stopped playing guitar after his mother passed because it made him too sad, since she was such a supporter of his work. Did he really put aside the guitar for a very long time before going back on stage at the end? Can you tell us more about that?</p>
<p>I: My father gave up music from the moment his mother died; he couldn't play at all; he didn't have to compose music anymore, and he stopped from that when he was most successful. There have been many years of pause in music.</p>
<p>SA: That's sad, but that kind of love is deeply beautiful. el a fost un vizionar... He was such a visionary, coming up with unique innovative concepts that changed music forever. Do you think he was innovative in other ways as well? What's something you've done differently than other people around you, something that makes you unique?</p>
<p>I: My father had some inventions that he unfortunately did not register and they appeared a few years later.</p>
<p>SA: Do you think someone took the ideas from him? </p>
<p>I: No, after a few years the idea came to another man. Too bad my dad didn't record his inventions. </p>
<p>SA: Yes it is, though they can be quite expensive to copyright. i'm so glad they weren't thefts. What are your dreams for your own life and what do you find most exciting about your world?</p>
<p>I: I really want to sing a song by my father , to finish the house my father bought. And at the moment I am raising children and I don't have much time for other dreams. </p>
<p>SA: Raising children well is a wonderful thing, and I'm sure you're a delightful parent. Those are good dreams that sound doable. </p>
<p>I: Thank you </p>
<p>SA: Thank you for answering these questions!</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/69701422022-05-13T01:24:48-07:002022-05-13T01:24:48-07:00Interview of Jason of The Idiot Flesh<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/f4fd988bf618516684e0d00acf1ccf1fd5d04b4d/original/screen-shot-2022-05-13-at-1-24-13-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br>I've been remiss about posting here, will catch up, but in the meantime, here's the most recent guest co-interviewer at Sound Pollution podcast:<br><br>You can listen to the interview here: <a contents="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAnoXgETk8A_UA4QQQuqy8Q" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAnoXgETk8A_UA4QQQuqy8Q" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAnoXgETk8A_UA4QQQuqy8Q</a></p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/69701412022-05-13T01:21:54-07:002022-05-13T01:21:54-07:00Review of Weedevil at Cave Dweller Music<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/e0299e26be779867b83a8e76732772804b79292a/original/screen-shot-2022-05-13-at-1-21-13-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br><br>You can read my review of this band here: <a contents="https://cavedwellermusic.net/reviews/post/1751196/weedevil-the-return" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://cavedwellermusic.net/reviews/post/1751196/weedevil-the-return" target="_blank">https://cavedwellermusic.net/reviews/post/1751196/weedevil-the-return</a></p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/68319762021-12-06T13:54:20-08:002021-12-07T08:09:19-08:00TM's Sundae Sauce for Fans of Guitar Reminiscent of Paul Kossoff<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/c25e796a5e866567cd5dc26f8ad915aea343051d/original/screen-shot-2021-12-06-at-1-46-56-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><br>Sound Animal collaborated with TM's Sundae Sauce on the song "<a contents="Before and After Ghosts" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/soundanimal/before-and-after-ghosts?si=0fef08ceb56248a5bf4d23b8e6585c33" target="_blank">Before and After Ghosts</a>." This was a huge honor, as this one-man project is stellar. You can listen for free on SoundCloud to his <a contents="new set of thirty-two" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/tms-sundae-sauce/sets/2020-21-songs" target="_blank">new set of thirty-two</a> songs created or remixed during the lockdown era. There are twenty-three instrumentals and nine remixes of older tracks with vocals. (No, he's not still a child, but that's the image he uses for his music.)<br><br>He's similar to the great<a contents=" Paul Kossof" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/uyle6hZLxRc" target="_blank"> Paul Kossof</a> at times, of the British Blues Rock band Free and Backstreet Crawler from the 1970s, which is as good a compliment as it gets around these parts. He even does it without relying on Koss' signature speedy vibrato. The passionate love for the signature molten gold tone comes through, the sense of the beautiful tragedy of life, the aching longing, the celebration, the warm complex depths of the low notes, the crying out of the high ones, the way he really <em>means </em>it, the ineffable Koss-like quality that can't easily be put into words.<br><br>While some of the songs on the list are more relaxed and jazzy, certain other more intense, emotional songs are particularly Kossish: "Along the Wall," "GTRS," "Wish I Was," "Out on the Edge," "Candescent Silver and "Liquid Suspension" (both titles referencing Koss's "Molten Gold"), and most of all, the heavy "Count Zero."<br><br>However, Sundae Sauce isn't a derivative knock-off in any way but instead an original and complex project giving the world a beautiful gift that shouldn't be ignored. It's its own thing. You may not hear Koss in it, but you'll hear this special voice. Listen to this set if you want to be inspired by the wonderful possibilities of human creativity that balance out the rest of the world. Which we can probably agree is kind of awful, in reality. This makes up for it all.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/67193982021-08-17T09:29:12-07:002021-08-17T09:44:55-07:00Sound Animal on It's Psychedelic, Baby! Magazine and Podcast<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/02a6f09ba8f044be786baec41d6b9ef84cb58796/original/screen-shot-2021-08-13-at-10-06-23-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Ross Beattie (The Night Tripper) reached out to me to interview Sound Animal for the great <em>It's Psychedelic, Baby!</em> magazine. </p>
<p>It's a <a contents="fun interview, " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2021/08/sound-animal-interview-new-album-newsoundland.html" target="_blank">fun interview, </a>beautifully laid out. At the top, you can see my new Psychedelic Doom music video that takes you soaring through the skies.<br><br>Ross Beattie is also in a band, <a contents="The Experiment" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bepartoftheexperiment.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">The Experiment</a>.<br><br>The founder of the popular magazine is <a contents="Klemen Breznikar" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/about" target="_blank">Klemen Breznikar</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/f265292c5150fc387f7444193b0815acdd3b299b/original/screen-shot-2021-08-17-at-9-23-11-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>A humble Sound Animal tune "Bad Hair Day On Saturn (feat. Steve Gilmartin.)" is on the associated radio show, blushing and covering its face amongst the true greats. The amazing idol of mine, Ty Segall, starts it off. </p>
<p>It's Psychedelic, Baby! magazine's radio show run by Ross Beattie. I've listened to a large number of episodes and have never heard a song I didn't adore. I was surprised when he reached out to be me include a song in the mix. It's my favorite show to listen to because I can count on a spectacular time moment by moment. And<a contents=" number 63 " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://Ross%20Beattie%20reached%20out%20to%20me%20to%20interview%20Sound%20Animal%20for%20the%20great%20It's%20Psychedelic,%20Baby!%20magazine.%20It's%20a%20fun%20interview,%20beautifully%20laid%20out.%20%20At%20the%20top,%20you%20can%20see%20my%20new%20Psychedelic%20Doom%20music%20video%20that%20takes%20you%20soaring%20through%20the%20skies." target="_blank"> number 63 </a>doesn't disappoint.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/67104092021-08-08T07:57:35-07:002021-08-08T07:57:35-07:00Official Album Announcement from Kryrart Ambient<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/8ead473f10ed933592dd9949be0494507f6325cb/original/screen-shot-2021-08-08-at-7-26-40-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font_xl"><span style="color:#f1c40f;"><strong>Kryrart Ambient's post:</strong></span></span><br> </p>
<p><strong>Greetings! We are happy to announce a new cooperation with an amazing experimental band from Berkeley, California - Sound Animal! </strong></p>
<p><strong>Sound Animal band's album NewSoundLand is forthcoming from the international <a contents="Kryrart Ambient label." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://kryrartambient.bandcamp.com" target="_blank">Kryrart Ambient label.</a> Guitar, bodhrán, dulcimers and lap steel slide played with bows, silver flute, voice, electric tennis racket. Singles out in Neo-psych, Avant-Garde, Indie... </strong></p>
<p><strong>Check out the band and stay tuned: https://sound-animal.com/</strong><br><br><br>And here you are!<br><br>Kyrart Ambient puts out music that is dark ambient/dungeon synth/dark folk/dark wave/dark electronica, mostly instrumental music.<br><br>The label includes fabulous bands like Sigil of Time, in Russia, which has a new release, <a contents="Motherland" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://kryrartambient.bandcamp.com/album/motherland" target="_blank"><em>Motherland</em></a>.<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/9172d2bf984f242ca66afd716a0eccdc57232cc2/original/screen-shot-2021-08-08-at-7-52-21-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br><br>And Alchon, with the beautiful <a contents="Place of Power" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://kryrartambient.bandcamp.com/album/motherland" style="" target="_blank"><em>Place of Power</em></a> and their exciting new release <em><a contents="Taiga In My Veins" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://kryrartambient.bandcamp.com/album/taiga-in-my-veins?fbclid=IwAR1hxceo_SDzm0-qB4S3-6JM6cKEwEF0LNY9YaLUdXyztfr3SEUqHlWI4dQ" target="_blank">Taiga In My Veins</a>:</em><br><br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/7db1d6ce8b8365d8c3c99d517835e5231a81eb5e/original/screen-shot-2021-08-08-at-7-51-32-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br><br><br>If you like intensely felt Dark Ambient music with potent atmosphere, give these a listen and you won't be disappointed.<br><br>Kyrart Ambient's <a contents="Facebook page" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/kryrartambient" style="" target="_blank">Facebook page</a><br> </p>
<p>And if you like avant-garde music like that, similarly conjuring up a sense of place, subscribe to this site or Sound Animal's <a contents="Facebook page" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/soundanimalmusic" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> so you know when it comes out. Here's the cover:<br><br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/6d48de86072b6e581d790edbab6be86d21b37067/original/add-a-heading-1.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br>The pieces are each a unique explorations of what it means to be a tune, taking nothing for granted, relying on no default conventions, but arising from the moment fresh and innovating with new usages of instruments and non-instruments to transport you to dramatic locations.<br><br>Explore what it's like to sleepwalk in snowdrifts, harvest ice using an old-fashioned ice saw, be in a bell tower in a storm, be caught in a haunted parking garage, and more.<br> </p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/67084102021-08-05T22:07:44-07:002022-09-26T17:16:22-07:00The Sound Animal Pandora Channel<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/821b4cc86115e22b66cdc34f81321d837e1f62ef/original/screen-shot-2021-08-05-at-8-13-27-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>Sound Animal's Pandora station started with Dead Meadow first as the song it played similar to the music. And Megrez' Gordion Knot.<br><br>Then, it played <em>Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light</em> 1 by Earth.</p>
<p>Life is now fulfilled.<br><br>A subscriber to Sound Animal got "Fire Song" by Brian Jonestown Massacre. And Neil Young's from "Dead Man!"</p>
<p>What kind of heaven is this?<br><br>How do you find sound animal's music on Pandora? <a contents="Here." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.pandora.com/artist/sound-animal/ARVl5r6JxV6Jtg4" target="_blank">Here.</a><br><br>And how do find the Sound Animal station on Pandora, which gives you music by other artists that's similar? <a contents="Here." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.pandora.com/station/97038500368483540" style="" target="_blank">Here.</a><br> </p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/67084282021-08-05T20:54:08-07:002021-08-05T20:54:08-07:00Sound Animal Song on The Parish News Radio <p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/105129f3dd13186d65a7c5b21bd90e6b0f00702b/original/screen-shot-2021-08-05-at-8-30-30-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br>If you like experimental, avant-garde music, drone, ambient and otherwise beautiful innovative music, listen to Andrew Backhouse's The Parish News regularly on Mixcloud. You can subscribe and get them sent to your inbox each week so you don't forget, and then go poking around the previous episodes.<br><br>This episode includes "The Haunted Parking Garage."<br><br>Check out this station, which has excellent music. Especially <a contents="this episode." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.mixcloud.com/TheParishNews/the-parish-news-257" target="_blank">this episode.</a><br><br><iframe frameborder="0" height="120" src="https://www.mixcloud.com/widget/iframe/?hide_cover=1&feed=%2FTheParishNews%2Fthe-parish-news-257%2F" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/67056832021-08-03T10:39:41-07:002021-08-05T22:09:16-07:00Interview with Sound Animal<p><strong><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/7077dd7799119771f317b12bf6dd56c5dfb00eff/original/screen-shot-2021-08-03-at-8-07-01-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></strong></p>
<p>(Note the Comacozer tee shirt)<br><br><strong>Thank you for this interview. My readers might not know much about <a contents="you" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://writers.com/tantra-bensko" target="_blank">you</a>. Your career is wildly impressive: author, and <a contents="music" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sound-animal.com/" target="_blank">music</a>. Can you tell us a story about how you got your start in the writing industry and music? </strong></p>
<p>Thanks for reaching out to ask these questions. </p>
<p>I’ve always strived to add to the dialogue of innovation in all the arts. I was inspired when I first entered my teens by the kaleidoscopic perspectives of William Faulkner’s narrators, the Fauvist artists’ shocking use of uncivilized color combinations, and a movie with Merce Cunningham’s dance troupe deliberately moving out of step to John Cage’s Industrial Avant-Garde music around Duchamp’s The Large Glass. </p>
<p>I got my start the way we mostly all have to. I submitted to magazines, studied -- got an MFA, and made money doing so by teaching there. Fun tidbit: I went to the Iowa Writers Workshop Halloween party dressed as Walden’s pond, and there was another Waldon’s pond there. </p>
<p>I submitted to publishers that put out my chapbooks, novellas and collections, sent them to reviewers, did interviews, entered a few contests, did readings, networked with writers, was on panels at conferences, and so on. At one panel, I got most everyone on the panel and in the audience up doing interpretive performance art to one of my stories. A dog was on the floor in the mix as well. </p>
<p>In the meantime, I sometimes lived a semi-feral life, refusing to default to the expectations created by a society that I actively critiqued. I survived in nature straight-up, eating berries, drinking from streams, and at my favorite location, surrounded by bears. I wrote poems out there that appeared in magazines and anthologies. </p>
<p>Another place, I camped in the woods and walked to an elementary school to use one of their three computers for the allowed hour, to do my work as the Art Director of a multi-media magazine. I made some art for them using a boulder by the ocean as a drawing table. I submitted a short story there, and because of my staff position, I could see the magazine founder’s comments online, which were, “She should never write fiction.” </p>
<p>See, readers, never give up. That story later won an award. </p>
<p>I was particularly interested in the Agents of the Nevermind dramatizing how propaganda creates illusions that could be broken through by people like brave indie journalists or whistleblowing agents. </p>
<p>With music, I put out singles through a distributor and did my bit to help get other bands get noticed, which led to me unexpectedly catching the attention of a label. Radio stations either reach out to me about playing my songs, or I submit to them. The same process as with writing and visual art. I’d stayed away from marketing for a few years to focus on teaching and editing, but now, holy smokes, looks like I’m at it again. It’s in my lymph, I guess. </p>
<p>Making music is what I’m excited by now, and the first album is to be released by Kryrart Ambient, which is headed by Proprius, who is core to music like <a contents="This" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://kryrartambient.bandcamp.com/album/chapter-one-and-two-instrumental-version" target="_blank">This</a>. He also is a novelist. The album is called <a contents="NewSoundLand" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://sound-animal.com/" target="_blank">NewSoundLand</a>, includes a variety of influences like Noise and Drone. I play electric tennis racket, dulcimer and lap steel guitar with a violin bow. . . </p>
<p>I see think of the songs as tone poems or stories without words. They each take place in a particular location and portray its drama cinematically. So, for example, there’s a simple culture surviving by ice fishing, lots of them using old-fashioned saws at once, all day long, in this desolate landscape, some of them dancing for a while under the Northern Lights to celebrate the successful ice harvest. </p>
<p>And there’s another one where a sleepwalker shifts through isolating, bewildering, surreal liminal states of consciousness while lurching, lunging through high snow drifts. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Do you have a story you wish everyone knew? Could you share it with us? </strong></p>
<p>What a great question. No. </p>
<p>Just kidding. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Can you talk about your two books? Also, what are they about? Please provide links to locations to purchase them. </strong></p>
<p>I have a whole lot of books. They’re about deception, including deception of the masses by intelligence agencies. There’s a series called Agents of the Nevermind. They’re about deception, including deception of the masses by intelligence agencies. </p>
<p>I’ll talk about the last two. </p>
<p>So, two books ago was a Gothic Psychological/Romantic Suspense set in England, which deeply references actual history of cultural deception and manipulation: <a contents="Encore: A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction. " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HQYNL7K" target="_blank"><em>Encore: A Contemporary Love Story of Hypnotic Abduction. </em></a></p>
<p>An understudy goes on stage to substitute for an actress who has mysteriously disappeared. The hypnotist for the performance troupe always convinces the understudies they’re the stars they’re pretending to be until the final curtain comes down. But this time, the hypnotist abducts the understudy before the curtain falls and takes her to a castle while she still believes she’s the star, who is his wife. Even while gaslighted, she begins to unravel the secrets of the Nevermind through history. </p>
<p>My latest published novel is <a contents="Floating on Secrets" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Floating-Secrets-Tantra-Bensko-ebook/dp/B07PXFWH9X/" target="_blank"><em>Floating on Secrets</em></a>. Can indie music save an Indiana town? </p>
<p>The Gothic Romantic Suspense New Adult novel begins with a young woman in a float tank alone when she’s suddenly touched in the silent dark waters… <br> </p>
<p><strong>What can you tell us about any new books you are coming up with? </strong></p>
<p>The one I wrote last is a New Adult prequel to Floating, which I hope to release one day. I’d long planned on putting it out January 2021, but I could tell ahead of time that, in the US, that wasn’t the time to be doing so. </p>
<p>Buried in Lies features the younger sister of the heroine of Floating. She has dyscalculia, which is like dyslexia but with numbers and spatiality rather than letters. Because of that, she does something I would never do: she cheats in class. I judged cheaters, which is one reason I wanted to write this, to become more compassionate toward them. </p>
<p>She cheats in a class in university because the teacher’s son is in class with her, and she has a crush on him, wants to stay in the class so she can talk to him. She’s in danger of failing due to the number-heavy assignments. The teacher (cringe) invites her to spend the night at their house with the son and is so impressed by her plagiarized paper that he recommends her for a scholarship. A drastic snowstorm throws her and her crushmate together and reveals shocking secrets about forbidden activities. </p>
<p>I have a few other novels drafted that I put lots of time into that I may never put out. I love them all, as they’re the second half of the Nevermind series, including Sci Fi speculations I wrote years ago about the very world we’re now seeing around us unfolding. But the expensive time-consuming process of marketing books isn’t what I’m prioritizing in my life. </p>
<p>Sorry to be the messenger of doom. Try playing Doom Metal. It will help. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Can you tell us who or what inspires you? </strong></p>
<p>I’m most inspired by current bands in genres like Drone Metal. I don’t play like him, but the guitarist who influences me most with the fully committed passionate state I get into, like when playing solo guitar tunes, never taking the moment for granted, is Paul Kossoff, the guitarist with Free and Backstreet Crawler in the 70s. The intensity of love for each note and how deep he dug to express fully – that’s where I like to be. </p>
<p>And Steve Gilmartin, a <a contents="great Literary writer" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2015/03/steve-gilmartin.html" target="_blank">great Literary writer</a> who plays guitar on one of the songs on the album coming out from Kryrart Ambient label, and also in some other songs for later, makes a big difference to my musical life. <br> </p>
<p><strong>You got several writing awards. Can you tell a story about them? And what books they were for? </strong></p>
<p>Some of the awards are the Academy of American Poets Award, Iowa Journal of Literary Studies Award, Oblongata Award from Medulla Review, Editor’s Prize, Punkpen Award, Cezanne’s Carrot Awards, Gold medal in Intrigue category from Readers Favorite Awards, Silver medal from eLit in Romance category, Bronze medal from eLit for Mystery/Thriller Suspense category, Honorable Mention, New Adult category from Readers Favorite Awards, Finalist from Book Excellence Award, One of 12 Best Thrillers of 2018, Golden Book Award from Literary Titan. </p>
<p>So, that’s too much to detail, but some highlights: Encore got the Best Thriller list, which beat out famous major players, though some made it onto the list. And Floating on Secrets got silver medal for the entire Romance category, both big and small press. The Gold medal in Intrigue was Glossolalia: Psychological Suspense, one of the books in the Agents of Nevermind. </p>
<p>A story about them would be way more interesting, good question. I don’t have one, so I’ll make up one using words in these three paragraphs -- Some Silver Carrot, said the big Titan, beat up my Favorite Floating Oblongata, quite the Mystery. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Can you tell a story about your other work, specifically your first book? </strong></p>
<p>The first one published was a chapbook called Watching the Windows Sleep, put out by Naissance Press a long time ago with my art, and mostly previously published poetry, and Literary short stories. I have various Literary books, but you might mean the first of the novels, which aren’t Literary but Suspense. It’s called Glossolalia: Psychological Suspense, and there are lots of stories about it, but they’re secret. </p>
<p>Except, OK, there’s this. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Who are some people you would love to work with one day? </strong></p>
<p>The way I work with people most is by being hired by them to edit their manuscripts or by teaching them in my courses with UCLA Writing Program, Writers . com or my own school where I coach and edit by email. Students and clients and I may bond and play and inspire each other and share our lives, and often they write beautifully. So, whoever I’d look forward to working with is whoever contacts me next or shows up in my class. <br> </p>
<p><strong>Dreams: what project book or script or musician or actress would be a dream for you or your daughter to get to work with? </strong></p>
<p>To be literal, I have a son rather than a daughter, and he’s not super interested in the creative arts. As far as myself, though, well, if I’m simply fantasizing: the author Marisha Pessl, actor Charlie Plummer or musician Dylan Carlson of Earth. Or Michael Gira of Swans. I don’t know, that’s a dangerous question, because my image-projections of great musicians flow toward my brain at once like cerebellum-sperm, knowing there can be only one. <br> </p>
<p><strong> The classic question: what charity do you work with and can you provide a link to it so others can see too please. </strong></p>
<p>I don’t so much as work with an institution as directly try to be helpful to people regularly. For example, I buy music from bands on <a contents="Bandcamp " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Bandcamp </a>to support them, and I suggest other people do as well, especially on Bandcamp Fridays, because all the money goes to the musicians then. <br> </p>
<p><strong>What advice would you give aspiring writers, or musicians? </strong></p>
<p>Writers, enough with the comma splices. Just walk away. <br> </p>
<p><strong>A final question. What question do you wish I had asked? And what would the answer be? </strong></p>
<p>Are you a bot? </p>
<p>Because that would have saved you a lot of time. For myself, I don’t care. Because, yes, I am. Clearly.<br><br><br><br><br>Interview by Clinton Siegle, who reached out for his his blog.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66708682021-06-25T19:49:11-07:002021-06-25T19:49:11-07:00Sound Animal Interviews Russian Doom Band Train to Elsewhere<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/6e023218a6d99093434f152a6dfcc9c422592e93/original/screen-shot-2021-06-25-at-7-45-17-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" />(section of a photo by Makhmud Podzhigay)<br><br>Sound Animal interviewed the Doom Metal band, Train to Elsewhere, published at Billy Goate's Doomed at Stoned.<br><br>It begins:</p>
<p>This is a momentous occasion for people around the world who appreciate Stoner Doom Metal and its hybrid forms. The Russian Train to Elsewhere has been solid all along. Then, on May 21, 2021, they played live at Peak Sound Endless Misery Doom Fest, revealing their new lineup to the public. And it’s absolutely astonishing. </p>
<p>On June 9th they released the audio as a bootleg. Lead guitarist Maria K. “Gerard” integral to the band all along, now debuts the recording of her vocals, which intertwine with the lead vocalist, Anna Utopian, who also plays keyboards and stepped in to replace the previous vocalist. On drums we have M'aiq the Liar, Olga on the rhythm guitar that keeps me going and going with this band, and on bass, Anton “Vargtimmen” Bryukov. Their previous singer, Denis Generalov, is no longer with the band. We’ll miss him and always appreciate his massive contribution to the previous demo and album. I’m glad to see that in the wake of his moving onward, the band didn’t falter. In fact, this new era of Train to Elsewhere is electrifying.<br><br>Read the <a contents="full interview" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomedandstoned.com/post/654998200664588288/traintoelsewhere" target="_blank">full interview</a>.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66671392021-06-22T12:22:14-07:002021-07-25T22:23:14-07:00Second Guest Playlist on Doomed and Stoned Show<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/a50741bee9c217aa37494b1b959a64ee27b8960a/original/screen-shot-2021-06-22-at-8-54-12-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br><br><br>I got to do a another guest playlist for the Doomed and Stoned show, a popular podcast tirelessly run by the great Billy Goate, which you can find on many online venues. It brings attention to Stoner/Doom Metal bands, helping fans find new music. </p>
<p>In both playlist 1 and 2, I was invited to pick my very favorite international Doom to recommend. Think about following these bands if you like them. Links to the songs are found in the link below. </p>
<p>DOOM AROUND THE WORLD </p>
<p>~Season 2, Episode 2~ </p>
<p>And we're on a roll, with now our second week in a row of a brand new Doom Around The World season! </p>
<p>This episode is curated once more by Sound Animal, with a potent blend of Stoner Doom, Psychedelic Doom, and Old School Doom from Canada, France Greece, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. </p>
<p>SOUND ANIMAL MIX NO. 2 </p>
<p>______________________________ </p>
<p>1. Sons of Otis (Canada) - "Trust" (00:40) </p>
<p>2. Lochness (Canada)- "Sea Weed" (07:04) </p>
<p>3. Train to Elsewhere (official) (Russia) - "Northern Summer" (14:45) </p>
<p>4. Domkraft (Sweden) - "Dawn of Man" (18:07) </p>
<p>5. Dopelord (Poland) - "Preacher Electrick" (22:54) </p>
<p>6. Acid Mammoth (Greece) - "Caravan" (31:46) </p>
<p>7. 1000mods (Greece) - "Mirror" (42:54) </p>
<p>8. Mars Red Sky (France) - "The Light Beyond" (50:10) </p>
<p>\DoomOn/ </p>
<p>-BillyGoat- </p>
<p>Editor in Chief </p>
<p>DOOMED & STONED <br><a contents="Doomed and Stoned Show" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomedandstoned.com/" style="" target="_blank">https://doomedandstoned.com/</a></p>
<p>'Bringing you the music and the stories of the heavy underground, the world 'round. By the underground, for the underground, from the unholy year of 2013.'<br><br><a contents="https://soundcloud.com/doomedandstoned/doom-around-the-world-sound-animal-mix-2-s2e2" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomedandstoned.com/" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/doomedandstoned/doom-around-the-world-sound-animal-mix-2-s2e2</a></p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66592052021-06-14T12:05:29-07:002021-06-21T11:49:14-07:00Guest Playlist on Doomed and Stoned Show<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/0204b77dbe77f17d860d2b5852fd6ee114a7a1d2/original/screen-shot-2021-06-15-at-4-03-23-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p><br>Why that image? Well, it's pretty generally Doom-macabre the way he's melting. Also, there's a strong sun theme in the songs, so, well, this character has been out a leeeetle too long.<br><br>It's an honor to participate in Billy Goate's legendary show. Listen here to some of Sound Animal's favorite Doom bands from all over the place.<br><br><a contents="Doom Around the World" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomedandstoned.com/post/653993012889780224/doomaroundtheworld" style="" target="_blank">https://doomedandstoned.com/post/653993012889780224/doomaroundtheworld</a><br> </p>
<div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;">
<a href="https://soundcloud.com/doomedandstoned" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Doomed & Stoned">Doomed & Stoned</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/doomedandstoned/doom-around-the-world-sound-animal-mix-2-s2e2" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Doom Around The World - Sound Animal Mix #2 (S2E2)">Doom Around The World - Sound Animal Mix #2 (S2E2)</a>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66291542021-06-02T12:40:12-07:002021-10-07T22:08:20-07:00Responses to Sound Animal Music<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/25f749137180c771aff40547cf6340a203855765/original/photo-on-5-10-21-at-5-43-pm.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>These quotes are not meant to be used by media without asking first.</em><br><br><br>I love them. They remind me of the American guitarist Bill Horist. Either way, I am a fan of Horist, and now I am a fan of you, too. I wish you every success with your release. -- Andrew Backhouse, <a contents="Parish News Experimental Radio Show" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://theparishnews.com/" target="_blank">Parish News Experimental Radio Show</a><br><br>"I really like the track, your vocal delivery reminds me a little of Marianne Faithful ! Really cool!" -- Ross Beattie It's Psychedelic, Baby Magazine <a contents="podcast and interviewer" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/tag/podcast" target="_blank">podcast and interviewer</a><br><br>The soundscapes took me to a different dimension, a different place. After the ride of "The Storm at the Belltower," I need a cigarette. In "Haunted Parking Lot," the vocals at the end made me cry. It really moved me, got to me, hit something deep. That doesn't happen to me often. -- Kristen Anderson, daughter of symphony conductor</p>
<p>You are channeling something special. Don’t let anyone tell you you are not a Magician. Your music and tastes are revelatory to me. The music you play especially. I listen on headphones while I’m writing or meditating. I can hear your fingers! It feels like I’m in the room, basking in your energy, I am alive! I see the value of metal, especially the vibrations over and over, it’s liberating and freeing and meditative and when your hands are on the guitar, wow- I feel undefeatable . Please don’t stop. -- Ernie Vecchione, screenwriter and author, (<em>Sex Ed, Devil's Catch, The Amish Girl</em>) <a contents="IMBD" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3118745/" target="_blank">IMBD</a> <br><br>You are an amazing sonic architect! ... COOL MAN! That “ Ice Saw” song is WILD! ... I LOVE YOUR MUSIC TOO- <a contents="Lori Bravo" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://loribravo.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Lori Bravo</a>, in <a contents="Hear She Roars" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.hearsheroars.com/post/bare-bones-the-album-that-almost-killed-lori-bravo" target="_blank">Hear She Roars</a></p>
<p>"Sleepwalking in Snowdrifts" makes me feel a 'great' salt flat vibe.... (N. central Oklahoma) -- A Trenary </p>
<p>"Sun and Moon:" Wow! This sounds like a background track to a late '60s poetry reading in a candle-lit squat, air redolent of patchouli oil and weed. -- Ian Gray, musician, married to musician <a contents="Claire Lynch" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.clairelynch.com/" target="_blank">Claire Lynch</a></p>
<p>"We Are Earth:" Lovin' it! The music has got that crunchy stoner vibe, with a dark hue I can appreciate. -- Billy Goate, editorial board at <a contents="Doom Charts" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomcharts.com/" target="_blank">Doom Charts</a>, Editor and Chief at <a contents="Doomed and Stoned" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomedandstoned.com/" target="_blank">Doomed and Stoned</a> </p>
<p>"For Russia" Fitting title - I can hear it as theme music for a remake of Dr. Zhivago. -- C Benslay</p>
<p>"For Russia" thank *you for bringing the good feeling and most of all Surprise! "Do You Not Remember Me, Man" his is so cool (bodhran !) / only thing it even vaguely reminds me of is the Irving Klaw Trio spin.off called Hochenkeit. and your voice really makes it happen, carries the *drone* that you’d ordinarily get by way of a shruti box or something (it’s the sort of thing Van Morrison would do, his voice becoming something like a *horn*).-- P Schwartz</p>
<p>"For Russia" Dark and mysterious, menacing. Makes me wish I was a movie maker, i would use this somewhere. -- E Silberman</p>
<p>"Are You There?" This was really cool. Beautiful. Thank you for posting your music. It's incredible moving. -- K Keats</p>
<p>"Storm in the Belltower" That's really good and I can't think of anything to compare it to. Maybe early Sonic Youth, or Half Japanese -- Rogan Russell Marshall, musician and filmmaker</p>
<p>"Are You There?" Beautiful tune. Those, who listen, get there -- Мария Кашкина of the fantastic Doom band in Moscow, <a contents="Train to Elsewhere" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://traintoelsewhere.bandcamp.com" style="" target="_blank">Train To Elsewhere</a></p>
<p>"Are You There?" This is nice. Sort of ambient, spacy, but then occasionally some energy when it picks up. -- <a contents="Kyle Muntz" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Muntz" target="_blank">Kyle Muntz</a>, genius literary author<br><br>"Are You There?" This is great! very atmospheric sounding -- Брюков Антон of the excellent band, <a contents="Train To Elsewhere" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://traintoelsewhere.bandcamp.com/" style="" target="_blank">Train To Elsewhere</a><br><br>"It’s a great sound reminiscent of Neil Young’s score for Jarmusch’s <em>Dead Man</em>, which I love." --Jonathan Hourigan, <a contents="filmmaker" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1509306/" target="_blank">filmmaker</a>, London Film School<br><br>"Trek to the Edge" Wow, that was amazing. Love it! I don't think I ever get unironic guitar face, but I definitely got goosebumps listening to this. And your vocal drone is fantastic. I could and will listen to this over and over. I think you're a genius.-- S Gilmartin, <a contents="poet" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://fabulistmagazine.com/the-sitting/" target="_blank">poet</a></p>
<p>"Trek to the Edge" Dead C/Luxurious Bags territory, ‘cept *different* : yinz are a quasar of surprise. -- P Schwartz<br><br>Its pretty deep and distinct.. reminds me a little of mazzy star back in the 90s... Its very transcendent. -- A Liccione<br><br>"Trek to the Edge" I'm getting a vintage black and white Godzilla movie vibe here - in slo mo of course...that or Sci-Fi of some sort...nice. -- Tom McCarthy, musician <a contents="Sundae Sauce" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/tms-sundae-sauce" style="" target="_blank">Sundae Sauce</a><br><br>"Sun and Moon" I am enjoying to the deep, bluesy, guitar which has a psychedelic energy. Reminiscent of the 70's yet it also has a really good progressive feel. I like it! -- C. J. Heigelmann acclaimed novelist <a contents="Amazon page" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/C-J-Heigelmann/e/B077RNKLMV/" style="" target="_blank">Amazon page</a><br><br>Music: Your music is so diverse and resonates with the listener's mood. Every piece is like a unique journey. It's great! As a super-empath, I pull a lot from your music. I can ride it, the subtleties, the intended, the voice. It speaks to me. The compilations of selections that I have listened to are multi-genre and some are free from genre or labels. It declares its existence without pre-determined cause and effect which is the most pure form of music, likened to Jazz, Miles Davis etc..without form but yet with form, purpose, and intent.<br><br>In all honesty, your music is in a rare class, almost something that modern day music will become in the future, yet it is here, now, has purpose, and is enjoyable! I do dig it. I'll be purchasing your music, and specifically music to listen to as I write the second Thriller novel in the trilogy. The mood created is something I can tap into. I can write with or without music, but the lyrics get in the way sometimes of the mood, whereas you have works that don't have certain lyrics which help to define the instrumental.</p>
<p>Your music can be used as movie soundtracks, commercial genre-specific, mood music, to name a few. Are there others that do this? I've not been exposed to anything like this. My closet comparison would be a fusion of Pink Floyd, Blues, and a host of psychedelic bands during the 70's, Including instrumentals from the Doors, Cream, Free, Zeppelin, etc. Maybe even some later Beatles instrumentals during the psych period. I don't even want to define it, just experience it. It's good. It's really good stuff. C. J. Heigelmann acclaimed novelist <a contents="Author. " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.mustreadcj.com/" style="" target="_blank">Author. </a><a contents="Goodreads group" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/21977970-can-t-hide-what-s-inside-cj-heigelmann?page=1&fbclid=IwAR23rFW1mBvTbXOZGCr5iqi9mUhXu4Xfb72uHNMnyV4DnrisQM1S7Sc4GgE" target="_blank">Goodreads group</a> about his book.</p>
<p>"Ice Saw" It has a metallic industrial violin wavelength to it, a steady rhythm of work being done and conveys the certainty of the machine and the despair of becoming another gear in the mechanism. The futility of it all.-- C.J.<br>Heiglemann, author<br><br>"Trek to the Edge" It has a psychedelic native American feel and chant to it. I dig it.--C.J. Heiglemann<br><br>"Haunted Parking Garage" It's wicked yet inspirational. Tells tales of the past, yet implies a current struggle. You could read certain genres of fiction listening to this class of music and accentuate the mood. --C.J. Heiglemann</p>
<p>"Haunted Parking Garage" I love the multi-layered sounds and suspenseful buildup! Absolutely stunning and satisfying throughout. -- Carla Wilson,<a contents=" Author" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/Carla-M-Wilson/e/B0139JSPL4" target="_blank"> </a><a contents="Author" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999262203" style="" target="_blank">Author</a></p>
<p>"Ice Saw" Sounds ominous. I love it. -- Colin Turner,<a contents=" Artist" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://colinturnerswork.com/" target="_blank"> Artist</a><br><br>Love the John Cage-y ‘prepared’ ambience of your sound. Raucous but kinda soothing. -- Dan Troxell <a contents="Photographer" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/dantroxellphotography" style="" target="_blank">Photographer</a><br><br>"Mama Forest" Played it after work and immediately played it again : your presentation is Magnificent ! in kinda picks up where Bardo Pond leaves off / dives into Dead C. flavored territory, but is completely and utterly your own! -- P Schwartz<br><br>"Mama Forest" Meanwhile I’ve been listening to Mama Forest this morning and it transported me to a different state, far from my "prison cell" (in quarantine.) Beautiful rich sound with eerie songfulness creeping in. Got even more interesting with your edgy enunciation. -- Harvey Thomlinson, <a contents="Author, Publisher and more" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3044316/how-british-author-translator-and-publisher" style="" target="_blank">Author, Publisher and more</a><br><br>"Mama Forest" Listened to MAMA FOREST a few times now. Tremendous stuff. -- Jonathan Hourigan, <a contents="head of Screenwriting at London Film School" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://lfs.org.uk/staff/556/jonathan-hourigan" style="" target="_blank">head of Screenwriting at London Film School</a><br><br>"Mama Forest" Wow that’s really cool ! I like the solo at around 10mins and the ending is great ! Nice work indeed. -- Billy Goate, <a contents="Doomed and Stoned" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://doomedandstoned.com/" style="" target="_blank">Doomed and Stoned</a><br><br><br>"Mama Forest" Holy crap … I sat with this production today girl. </p>
<p>I’ve decided that I’m going to take this piece into Hades with me. It’s work that I have been putting off for a while. There has been a facet missing from the entrance to Hades for me, and I believe you just gifted me with that. </p>
<p>I’m afraid, but I’m going to go anyway because I have a calling to do so… and have for a while now. </p>
<p>I listen to 10 minutes of it with my eyes closed today, and it took me to a place that exists in its raw energy, and yet I have never explored it. </p>
<p>Thank you?, may be premature is stating so, but I’m confidant I’ll rise on the other side a completely-different-person. </p>
<p>I love you so much and thank you for sharing such a deep part of yourself with me. </p>
<p>Ps - The vocals are awesome -- Tiffany Millerbis, <a contents="Massage therapist" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.thymetounwindmassage.com/" target="_blank">Massage therapist</a><br><br>"Mirage" It’s really great and I like “Anyhow” which just arrived on Bandcamp too. And I really dig Bad Hair Day on Saturn !-- Ross Beattie, It's Psychedelic, Baby Magazine<br><br>"Haunted Parking Garage" Your music compels me to hang in shadowy places at night and seek vampiric transformation . . . just sayin' . . -- E Ferry</p>
<p>"Bad Hair Day on Saturn" Like this. I'm a big Mogwai fan. And to me, this has overtones of Mogwai. -- Ron D'Anena <a contents="Musician" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/mirrorfox" target="_blank">Musician</a></p>
<p>"Bad Hair Day on Saturn" This is cool. -- A. O'Neil, author, guitarist</p>
<p>"Guitar, voice, lap steel slide guitar played with a bow, bodhrán drum." Very interesting and intriguing outcome. Eerie! Thank you very much! -- J Strahl<br><br>"End of Neverending" Love this! -- Rob Sneddon, guitarist/singer for SKY PIG at <a contents="SKY PIG " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://skypigband.bandcamp.com/releases" style="" target="_blank">SKY PIG </a></p>
<p>"End of Neverending" That was HEAVY! -- J. Strahl <br><br>"'End of Neverending" Got a chance to listen to your new composition, and think you're really onto something here! Love the mix of psychedelia and drone. got a chance to listen to your new composition and think you're really onto something here! Love the mix of psychedelia and drone. Been taking in a lot of OM lately, so it dovetails with it very nicely." Billy Goate, <a contents="Doomed and Stoned" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/doomedandstoned" target="_blank">Doomed and Stoned</a></p>
<p>"End of Neverending" I'm really digging End of Neverending. I'll definitely grab that song up. It's nice and creepy droney...like walking through a mysterious magical forest. -- Andre G. Dumont musician <a contents="Dead Harrison" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://deadharrison.com" style="" target="_blank">Dead Harrison</a></p>
<p>"End of Neverending" Just found out about this today, and I'm glad I did. Intriguing stuff! -- Vinaya Saksena, guitarist at <a contents="Critical Mass" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://criticalmassri.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Critical Mass</a></p>
<p>"End of Neverending" It's brilliant! -- Matheus Jacques, <a contents="Bruxav" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.instagram.com/bruxav/" target="_blank">Bruxav</a> music promotions, event producer.<br><br>Love what you're doing with Sound Animal! -- Emma Williams, bassist <a contents="Forgetmenauts" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://theforgetmenauts.bandcamp.com/" style="" target="_blank">Forgetmenauts</a></p>
<p>i went to buy t-shirt , heard your music.reminded me of iron butterfly in the day with across of something i haven't figure out yet good shit ... u are amazing -- R Collins<br> </p>
<p>Finally checked out your piece. great stuff definitely something that would fit in one of those early floyd sets. i'll give it some love great work you're very talented: shine on! -- L. Ibarra<br><br>Wow, I just listened to Botulism Cafe on Soundcloud. I was blown away by how powerful it is, and it put a smile on my face. I would never believe that was a lady in Berkeley making all that ballsy musical noise. -- <a contents="David Soref" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://soref.tv/" style="" target="_blank">David Soref</a><br><br> </p>
<p><strong>And then there's:</strong><br><br>"Is it supposed to sound like that? Lol."<br><br>"Precision slop."<br><br>"Cool you learned how to make 80's Sci Fi music."<br><br>"It's like my friend, he always wanted to be in a movie, and he was in one. It was terrible. He was awful. I mean, he got to do what he wanted. He didn't put any feeling into it. It was all so lame. Um. I forget where I was going with this..."<br><br>"Someone give some kids guitars for Christmas?"<br><br> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Some bands Sound Animal has been compared to include:</strong><br><br>Merzbow, Rodion GA, Neil Young's soundtrack to <em>Dead Man</em>, Acid Mammoth, Acid King, Barbara Manning, Sonic Youth, Half Japanese, Hochenkeit, Dead C, Luxurious Bags, John Cage, Free, Syd Barrett, Bardo Pond, Mazzy Star, Bill Horist, Marianne Faithful, Mogwai, Hawkwind's<em> In Search of Space</em>, Iron Butterfly, Pink Floyd.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66434932021-05-29T16:50:08-07:002021-06-26T09:08:25-07:00Music That Makes Me Make That Face: 1000Mods<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/727becba1c87f3cc97deec188c3471ff5daa6f96/original/screen-shot-2021-05-29-at-3-02-40-pm.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>Album cover Super Van Vacation<br><br><span class="font_large"><strong>You know that face, right?</strong></span></p>
<p>Listening to the explosively popular Greek band <a contents="1000Mods" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://1000mods.com/" style="" target="_blank">1000Mods</a> regularly Makes Me Make That Face. Listening to music is all well and good, but when it<em> twists up your muscles</em>, you know life is at its finest. This series of humble blog posts raises a toast to moments that do that to me. Do they do it to you, too?</p>
<p><a contents="1000Mods" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bit.ly/342dIdv" target="_blank">1000Mods</a> formed in 2006 and tours regularly. Doom and Heavy Space Rock show their influences in this energetic Stoner Metal band.<br><br>The 2011 album <em><a contents="Super Van Vacation" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/Y-hhwhJe87s" style="" target="_blank">Super Van Vacation</a></em> begins with the low stride of that woman on the cover, in my mind, her boots loud as she strides long-legged, towering, determined. Her drum-thigh muscles own the landscape. And as she strides, she keeps picking up a bit of speed and energy through the album so the authoritative drumming remains refreshing again and again.</p>
<p>Those are my legs when I'm striding across the basketball court with complete confidence and panache when I'm retrieving a ball that's rolling toward the players on the other side of the court. So, this album pairs perfectly with practicing shooting hoops and remaining the same person whether I get the basketball in the net or I don't. I'm still that woman on the album cover straight up. I walk that bassline. Whoever is shooting on the other end of the court sees me headbang while shooting, and every now and then, my lips doing <em>that thing. </em>Those drums!<br><br>"Vidage" 21 minutes into the album makes me make that face slightly when the lead guitar's beautiful repeated phrase begins, backed by the velvety instruments. It's a more tentative than the previous strutting songs, appropriate for the lyrics suggesting being lost, numb, driving in a dream, and a collage of situations of being outside and alone.<br><br>In "Track Me," at nearly thirty-six minutes into the album, the band is super tight. There are five descending notes that all the members gang up on together, which <em>will </em>cause headbanging, so watch out if you're listening while walking and don't want to fall into the cracks on the sidewalk. And that guitar phrase comes in nice and high, the beauties of the world are in full bloom, and my face curls up into a flower.<br><br>But it's not until nearly fourty-five minutes in at the moment when "Johny's" enters the scene with guns blaring that my face contortion levels up beyond that subtle nuance of the previous songs. The album heats up nicely.<br><br>When, around forty-nine minutes, "Abell" begins with that delicious bassline, there's no holding back my face. It's gonna do it's thing. When Dani the gritty singer yells Yeah, my pursed lips answer.<br><br><a contents="1000Mods on Facebook" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/1000mods/" style="" target="_blank">1000Mods on Facebook</a>, <a contents="Instagram" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://bit.ly/3qKAWi8" target="_blank">Instagram</a>,</p>
<p>If you want to see something visually stunning, their <a contents='"Lucid"' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/6EPjM9A__tM" target="_blank">"Lucid"</a> video is doing well, having won Best Music Video Award at Best Music Video Awards in London and International Music Video Underground in Paris.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66427492021-05-28T12:10:38-07:002021-08-05T16:05:59-07:00Koss' Guitar-Face Creates My Standard for Guitarists (Yuri Gagarin and Zone Six)<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/3f404777f91f094acbd57350e097f93ba56a2ff6/original/screen-shot-2021-05-28-at-11-13-34-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Album cover <em>Blue Soul</em><br><br><span class="font_large"><strong>Paul Kossoff's Face Was a Force of Nature</strong></span><br> </p>
<p><strong>Watching Paul Kossoff's face on video taught me more than about music than anything ever has.</strong></p>
<p>It seemed no note was fretted causally. Each note had complete presence, letting the full force of a universal emotion beyond words come through it. There was none of the hindrance that that occurs when musicians take the moment for granted. His face showed just how incredible what he played sounded to him. What a giant production it was, how it was expressing something huge, something that traveled from his silent mouth to the edges of the universe.<br><br>Free and the Backstreet Crawlers were great bands who worked well together, all the members with enormous talent. Koss' pal Andy Fraser played bass and keyboards in the 70's British Blues Rock band Free, its music director even as a younger teen than the others. Andy was fifteen when he began with Free and was already experienced, such as playing with John Mayall's band. He and Paul Rogers co-wrote most of the songs. He was responsible in many ways for Koss reaching us.</p>
<p>In his book,<em> <a contents="All Right Now: Life, Death, and Life Again" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Right-Now-Death-Again/dp/190579262X" style="" target="_blank">All Right Now: Life, Death, and Life Again</a></em>, Frazer suggested Koss' main problem was insecurity about musical abilities, especially after Fraser and Rodgers started writing progressive songs that made Koss feel the need need to learn more than the basic chords. Fraser said Koss he felt inferior to the masters he was being compared to like Hendrix. He said that while he was the mind, Koss was the soul of the band.</p>
<p>Kossoff looked up to Hendrix, whom he had met, and his idol's death affected him greatly. And with Hendrix gone, perhaps Kossoff was expected to take his place? Frazer said Paul dealt with the pressure of live performances by using drugs, and though it's hard to say if this is an accurate assessment, he claimed that Paul would rather be seen as unable to do a song justice on stage because of pills rather than poor skills.<br><br>In actor David Kossoff's heartbreaking traveling <a contents="performance art " data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/-snXw3fU1h0" target="_blank">performance art </a>documenting his son, he acted out how shockingly wasted Paul was. Hangers-on were using Paul's house as a shoot-up pad and keeping him out of it so he wouldn't notice they were stealing all of his money.</p>
<p>How much was his guitar-face due to downers and heroine? That probably varied from time to time, and that's impossible for me to guess, especially as I've never taken anything like that. As the drugs wore down his dopamine receptors over time, his expressions captured in photos lack that ecstatic quality. Was he trying to recapture the rush of the sound like <a contents="Molten Gold" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/b3ULusg5SRg" target="_blank">"Molten Gold</a>"? Did his addiction to the riff high make anything else too mundane to bear? And he had to keep trying to get there with drugs? Paradoxically, the drugs kept him from experiencing that. And from living beyond twenty-five.</p>
<p>He stood or leaned in front of amps with a band that perhaps rightly considered themselves the best Blues Rock band in the world (according to Andy's book) in front of huge numbers of people like at the<a contents=" Isle of Wight Festival." data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/a03WOGMYAxE" style="" target="_blank"> Isle of Wight Festival.</a> He loved Paul Rodger's voice. He was staring at Simon Kirke's drum-face, which seemed perhaps largely a product of the mechanical effort. He used heavier strings than normal, so the bending and vibrato must have been some work for a delicate-framed man who was only five foot three inches. His signature vibrato style, faster than other guitarists, would have been physically difficult as well. He also was known for an aggressive attack on the notes. So all these things surely combined to contribute to his signature facial expressions.<br><br>He had to revisit the same painful emotions through the songs each time he performed, and he didn't do it halfway. He was in the moment that caused the pain. Did that keep him from moving on from whatever traumas he must have gone through? The individual emotion that he captures in the songs is powerful.<br><br>But what interests me much more about his grimacing is whatever lies beyond even all that, as admirable as it is. He's expressing something through his face as much as he is through the tones. When I hear his music now, I see that face. I know how much its beauty meant to him. He shows the agony of the ecstasy of the straight-up effect of the gorgeousness of those riffs and the tones he got with nuanced fingering techniques. The notes are worth meaning. He jams down and improvs heavenly riffs.<br><br>Playing <a contents='"Mr. Big" in 1970 (Doing Their Thing' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/uyle6hZLxRc" target="_blank">"Mr. Big" in 1970 (Doing Their Thing</a>)<a contents='"Mr. Big," ' data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/uyle6hZLxRc" style="" target="_blank"> </a>his face shows us how deep he's going with the music, and he takes us into those mysterious depths with him.<br><br>When a cover band plays Free songs and the guitarist doesn't make faces at all when playing Koss' part, it just seems terribly wrong. Inauthentic. Like going to paradise and acting like it's a trip to the corner store. But when Bonamassa does it, he makes faces just fine. Now <a contents="that" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/OmY7IcezBVk" target="_blank">that</a> works.</p>
<p><br><br><span class="font_large"><strong>Koss' Guitar-Face Is a Standard I Judge By</strong></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span class="font_regular"><strong>What current guitarists well-integrated into an excellent band satisfy that?</strong></span><br><br>When I pass by the corner vinyl store and hear guitar, it can be indistinguishable as to who is playing. It can run together, and since I've heard that style so often, I don't necessarily take the crying intensity of those high bends seriously every time. But do they <em>mean it </em>like Koss? Are they as excited about the music they play as he was? Not the fame and attention but the note being played in that moment. Or are they half-hearted or superficial?</p>
<p>When I hear him playing, I think of his face and I know he does mean that note 100 percent. When I hear a player who approaches that sincerity and deliberate passion creating that level of beauty, I care about that note too.</p>
<p>The mathematical relationship between notes could be called divine. I am in awe of it. I play music because I have to live inside that math. I can't be an outsider to it. It's something to celebrate not in a lackluster way but with all one's being.<br><br>Koss' desperate death-defying need to be in that heightened state of ecstasy, musical or a poor substitute, isn't something I'd wish on anyone. His father said he sought out danger all his life, always rode the edge. Of course I want to see musicians be healthy instead. I don't need them to make their guitars endlessly cry. But that orgasmic agony of beauty of sound doesn't require that. The guitar-face acknowledgement of how spectacular music can be goes beyond individual psychological struggles to what I suppose could be called a transcendent realm.<br><br>I don't expect other guitarists to sound like Koss or like anyone else. Unique sounds can thrill me. I most enjoy listening to tunes that gives me guitar-face. I most enjoy making my own tunes when they do that as well, though of course I'm no master. My guitar-face happens because of how good music sounds to me. I like to believe that's what most of Koss's guitar-face is about too, and it shows me the depth of intensity that's allowed. It's saying: music can be out-of-this-world incredible to this degree. It doesn't just sound Good. It sounds <em>this</em> good. THIS GOOD. Feel it. Life is this <em>good. </em>Play it.<br><br>Only certain styles and moods of guitar do I judge by Koss guitar-face standards, because most don't require that same kind of intense sincerity and hugeness of presence. I don't know if most make a guitar-face, at least not externally. But what<em> am </em>aware of -- do I make some kind of face when I hear it?<br><br>Koss was one of a kind. He's often been listed as the best guitarist in the best blues rock band in the world. His playing in<a contents=" this jam video" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/NLk8AtW5tKI" style="" target="_blank"> this jam video</a> of "Time Away," after his near-death experience and rehab, is unlike anything I've heard.<br><br>Still, there are many guitarists who sometimes Make Me Make That Face when I listen to certain songs. Not a Koss face. Just...<br><br>I'll do individual posts about them, their bands, and the songs that do that to me. Maybe they will make you Make That Face too.</p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/2874496a2734ce42e255b87ca7d620dcfac62518/original/screen-shot-2021-05-29-at-10-52-54-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Album cover <em>Outskirts of Reality</em><br><br><strong><span class="font_regular">Yuri Gagaran band is one who lives up to my Koss standards </span></strong><br><br>When I judge guitarists by Koss standards, one that excels is from Sweden, in the fantastic Heavy Psych/Stoner Rock/Post Rock/Space Rock band <a contents="Yuri Gargarin" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://yurigagarinswe.bandcamp.com" style="" target="_blank">Yuri Gagarin</a> in which all the brilliant members work perfectly together.<br><br>If you listen to the album <em><a contents="The Outskirts of Reality" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/fedcEfNCiN4" target="_blank">The Outskirts of Reality</a>,</em> by three minutes into the first song, "QSO," you'll see what I mean about the otherworldly beauty of Crille Lindberg's guitar when the moment in the plot of the album is appropriate for him to fully let go. Or when he returns to that largeness that fills up the vast expanse thirty-seven minutes into the album during the soaring song "The Outskirts of Reality." It seems like he, as the "character" of the tune, lets go at those moments into a large joy.<br><br>And yet, he doesn't feel stuck in an unhealthy addiction to those highs over the course of an album. He varies the levels of intensity and the band shines.<br><br>Yuri Gagarin: lead guitar Christian "Crille" Lindberg; rhythm guitar Jon Eriksson; bass guitar Leif Göransson; synthesizer Robin Klockerman; drums Stefan "Steffo" Johansson<br><br><a contents="Facebook" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/yurigagarinspacerock" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a contents="Instagram" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.instagram.com/yurigagarinband" style="" target="_blank">Instagram</a></p>
<p>I personally love regularly listening to the Yuri Gargarin I bought on Bandcamp while I shoot hoops.<br><br> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/e6d322dc1b886dbc7dc421dd4c72c4caf499fb61/original/screen-shot-2021-05-29-at-10-55-11-am.png/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" />Album cover <em>Untertassen</em></p>
<p><br><br><span class="font_regular"><strong>Zone Six is another band that lives up to my Koss standards</strong></span><br><br>They change roles and members regularly in this German improv band that has been around since 1997, and yet inevitably the guitarists are fantastic.</p>
<p>I'm speaking about only the guitarists purely because that's the topic of this post: in no way should that diminish the importance of all the others involved in the music.</p>
<p>Rainer Neeff, the amazing guitarist listed in the 2011 self-released live <a contents="Untertassen" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://youtu.be/aOEoS4wCOoQ" target="_blank">Untertassen</a> album, continually demonstrates a similar level of extreme radical creativity to Koss' "Time Spent/Time Away," which is evident from the very beginning of the Untertassen album with the song "Apollo." The entire Krautrock/Space-Rock <a contents="Zone Six" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://zonesix.bandcamp.com/album/untertassen" target="_blank">Zone Six</a> band is spectacular together. The bass pedaling the same foundation note in "Apollo," in time with drum, throughout the creates the progressive improv trance sound they're known for and holds it together for the guitarist to explore uncharted territory. But theirs isn't a a fragile sound: the drums become aggressively driving in "Kopfkuchen." "Rollatorcat" energetically propels us into the farthest reaches of space. Though the FX are excellent, the album doesn't rely just on electronic effects but on imaginative uses of their instruments for the psychedelic sounds.<br><br>This German band changes members frequently. Zone Six lineup on <em>Untertassen</em>: Komet Lulu bass, fx; Rainer Neeff guitar, fx; Sula Bassana (Dave Schmidt) drums, synths, founder. Current lineup as of May 2021: Sula Bassana on drums and keyboards and guitar; Komet Lulu bass; Rainer Neeff guitar; Pablo Carneval drums.<br><br>Rainer Neeff also plays incredible guitar on the 2003 <em>Love Monster</em> and the 2017 album <em>Live Spring</em> and 2019's <em>Kozmik Koon.</em> I know I can count on him to bring tones heart-warm as Koss' and give his all to the dramatic rumbling explosions and delicate exploratory nuances, making him one of my very favorite guitarists of all time.<br><br>Other examples of their albums are <em>Live Wired</em> with Julius-K on guitar, <em>Any Noise Is Intended</em> and <em>Psychedelic Scripture</em> with Hans-Peter Ringholz on guitar.</p>
<p><br><a contents="Facebook" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.facebook.com/zonesixz6" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a contents="website" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.zonesix.de/" style="" target="_blank">website</a></p>
<p><br>I'm ready to rock the gym with their Bandcamp tunes loaded in my giant dorky studio headset.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66405662021-05-26T09:18:48-07:002021-07-13T12:37:22-07:00What Is Doom Metal?<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/aac8f3afa3df04c04eb9758c2149d7a283010a9f/original/sigmund-rxqua5mijck-unsplash.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">photo by Sigmund</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"> </p>
<p><strong>What better form of music to express the angst of today than Doom? </strong></p>
<p><br>Interested in exploring the aching shadows of your musical self and listening to, or even playing, music that’s slow, low, hypnotic, and addictive, beautiful, maybe even soaring? Want a different approach to relate to what’s going on in the world instead of doom scrolling? Give Doom Metal a chance. You may want to add it to your entertainment <br>There are many sub-genres, one being Stoner Doom, which can become epic, galloping, and soaring, and doesn’t need to get stuck in one slow dirge rhythm. Many albums move between genres songs to songs, with Doom dominating in some, Stoner Metal, Psychedelic, Space, Shoegazing, Goth-Metal, Sludge, or Drone commandeering others. When Doom dominates one song, it will generally appear to some degree throughout the album. </p>
<p><br>Doom can deepen the range of your sound. If you play Stoner Metal and want to add some darker elements, for example, this article is a handy organization of a lot of resources. </p>
<p><br>The time is right. It could change your life. It lets the dark in. </p>
<p><br>To oversimplify — Doom Metal’s philosophy is that life can be awful, so you might as well fully get into that. Express it. Own it. Share it. Make the awfulness of this world deep beautiful, raw, and powerful. Down tune your damn guitar and Drop your fucking D. </p>
<p><br>Doom Metal doesn’t hold back. Be Doom. </p>
<p><br><br><strong>What are Doom musicians and fans like?</strong></p>
<p><br>Some Doom artists articulate profound existential philosophy, such as in this exquisite interview on Novutrefall by Manuel Knwell with members of the band Train to Elsewhere. “The pagan traditions are an archetypical part (in a sense that Carl Gustav Jung would describe it) part of our collective unconsciousness, our culture. In a way they have been repressed for centuries, thus leading to trauma. Our idea is to free those archetypes.” </p>
<p><br>You can be perfectly happy yet love Doom: it’s an exciting, glorious style of music to enjoy and get involved with and the musicians are multi-faceted dedicated artists. (People have never needed to be depressed to listen to Beethoven’s “Pathetique” or Dvořák’s “Largo.”) It’s artistic, poetic, even meditative, can be introspective or music to listen to as you do challenging work to help you through it without distracting you from concentrating. Or it can make a raucous racket and explode the neighbors. </p>
<p><br>The entertainment and socializing scene is changing, and we need to find new ways of connecting and expressing, finding our intersecting tribes of inclusivity, and working the shamanic connections between us. We find our ecstatic states where we can, even if it’s a dirge celebrating an imploding civilization. </p>
<p><br><br><strong>Where does it come from?</strong></p>
<p><br>Doom is widely considered to have originated with Black Sabbath, arising out of industrial dismal Birmingham, England in the early 1970s, though it wasn’t labeled until a decade later, and then the subgenre labels began to proliferate after another decade. </p>
<p><br>Sub-genres besides Traditional include Stoner and Drone, Death, Sludge, Epic, Gothic, and Funeral. Doom often wafts through Stoner Metal, Folk Metal, and Post Metal music; there’s overlap across genres. Such Hawks Such Hounds documentary describes the world of Doom and similar genres like Desert Rock, Noise Rock, and the history arising from Hard Rock. The Doom Doc focuses specifically on Doom. Sleep The Dopesmoker Story shows the history of a seminal band that also is instrumental in the Drone genre. </p>
<p><br>You can read about it in magazines like Decibel, Yell, Vibrations of Doom, Doom Metal Front, Distorted Sound, Metal Music Blog/Doom, and Secret Histories. </p>
<p><br>Read blogs like Doom Metal. Plus Allmusic. Metalstorm. AngryMetalGuy. All good sites. Plus DoomCharts. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>You don't have to be evil. </strong></p>
<p>In spite of the labels, don’t worry: you don’t need to be into drugs to completely enjoy the music and scene. A large number of Stoner and Psychedelic bands dislike their genres’ labels because the music is about life. </p>
<p> <br>And hey, you don’t even need to become a Satanist if you don't want to! Cool! Black Sabbath members certainly weren’t. Sabbath’s diminished fifth/augmented fourth hit a chord with Doom musicians, and you’ll find it to be ubiquitous now. The flat five interval, E5, and Bb5, for example, is considered Lucifer’s territory. </p>
<p><br>Fascinating: that core interval is called the Diabolus in Musica — the Devil in Music. In Medieval times, that dissonant combination of notes was not sanctioned. The tritone, three adjacent whole tones, was far too lustily dangerous. <br>YouTube’s algorithm is good at suggesting Doom once you get started, and there are various people on it who share music such as 666MrDoom , Stoner & Doom, The Bong Druid of Mammoth Weed Mountain, who has a Stoner Doom playlist, Heavy Stoner Doom Blues , Void Stoner Doom Worship.<br><br><strong>Where can you find it?</strong></p>
<p><br>Pandora has a Doom station that you can customize to your taste, and you can create your own station based on a song, album, or band that you like. And there’s Bandcamp Doom, Doom at Last, The Sounds of Doom Metal on Spotify. </p>
<p><br>Social Media like Twitter and Facebook are great gathering places where people share links. Doom Charts and The Riff Lord are there too, along with lots more.<br><br><strong>What is it like to listen to?</strong></p>
<p><br>Stoner Doom tops the Doom Charts. If you want an example of how Stoner Doom can expand beyond the most obvious simple form of Doom and how it can complete the range of emotions, try the album Refractions by Lowrider. The return of a band favored by many fans for a long time. There are other new albums as exciting, but it’s not a random recommendation: it topped the Doom Charts for 2020. </p>
<p><br>It made the air around my head scintillate, made my heart feel unable to stay inside my chest, made me feel like I was having an out of body experience, living in a miraculous revelation, and riding a mule fast into the sky. It made me cry from being so intensely beautiful in melody and intensely expressive in its voice. The shifting drum rhythms define reality in an authoritative way. </p>
<p><br>You’ll often find music that mixes the various genres even within one song — a tune may go on for twenty minutes of variation, especially once you get into Post Metal territory, which may traverse many soundscapes moment by moment and can even get fancy and Prog. </p>
<p><br>Doom tends to be somewhat minimal and repetitive. Musicians may sink into themselves and play their dissociative subconscious, or they may shout their muscular preparedness to die rather than be subjected to societal slavery. But you can make it as complex and experimental as you like, adding in unexpected folk instruments and psychedelic pedals. <br><br><strong>How to start playing it?</strong></p>
<p><br>If you want to start approaching the sound... focus on aggressive downstrokes. Crunch. Play power chords (root and fifth notes) or even better, inverted power chords. Go ponderously slow. Palm mute. Go heavy on the distortion and use effects pedals if you can. Chug. </p>
<p><br>A guitar and bass are ideal to jam, If your playing space allows the volume, include deep drums. But you can do it with any combination, including just two electric guitars. And obviously, you can play alone with headphones and get inside those compelling riffs from your favorite albums. </p>
<p><br>Dropping the sixth string in a guitar a whole tone from E to D is common, and in that case, D minor is a likely key. You can drop it as low as your instrument can take it. You have permission to bend the strings a lot, tapping, pulling, sliding, punishing them with creativity. </p>
<p><br>A song usually starts on the root note of the key. Doom relies on power chords at the low end of the guitar and on the three lower strings, open when possible. Focus on the power chords and on D, F, G, A, B flat, and C. Dmin is a mournful key popular with Stoner Metal as well. Pedal (drone) with the open D and dramatically return to that root note often, building up to it and drawing it out. The lowness of the note makes a statement about the world. </p>
<p><br>Learning about intervals can help you figure out what the magic is in their riffs that arise out of the jams to make your soul stand up and shimmer. Those incredible riffs are my personal favorite parts, and I’m happy to hear them repeated for many minutes at a time, celebrated for their neurotransmitter heaven. </p>
<p><br>When you find a riff that creates poignancy, the desire to feel that emotion again, and then again, don’t feel shy about keeping it going and playing with endless versions of it. </p>
<p><br>Blues and Minor Pentatonic scales are common, Chromatics happen. Hold the chords and notes as they reverberate, and if you can balance well enough to get good sound beyond power chords, add in breathtakingly gorgeous melodic riffs from time to time. </p>
<p><br>Some Doom features some voice, but that’s not necessary. If you sing, hold in energy so that you have a presence with impressive power backing up your words. You can be righteously strong. </p>
<p><br>When the major or minor third is included when the gain is turned up on the amp, it reverberates in an unpleasant way unless it’s carefully controlled with muting. Power chords sound much better with distortion than regular chords, as the sustain makes everything sound wrong. Really. </p>
<p><br>Relying on power chords that are easy such as in Drop D gives the guitarist a chance to sink into the depths of himself while he plays if he wishes, rather than being too technical and cerebral, especially with the slow speed. You may play the root and the third. </p>
<p><br>Sometimes play major and minor third diads one after the other. And that flat five tritone. </p>
<p><br>The blues scale, which is minor pentatonic plus the diminished (flatted) fifth, will serve you well. The modes (Phyrigian and Phrygian dominant, Dorian, Mixolydian, Locrian, and Aeolian, Lydian) are fair game too. Or, since it’s metal, you can do what you want and forget modes and scales and keys altogether and turn up the gain and use lots of pedals and yell and have a great time. Excellent. </p>
<p><br>Keep the sustain going with the low power chords while playing clangy, bell-like arpeggios around the low power chords’ higher octaves, visiting the dark tritones from time to time. </p>
<p><br>Contrasting with that, the drums are slow, deep, powerful, leading the narrative, and some bands keep them relatively steady throughout. Rhythm guitars and picking speed can be steady for more straightforward Doom that portrays a consistent perspective on life throughout. </p>
<p><br>But other bands, the more Stoner Doom they are, shift the beats to carry you through a journey undergoing heroic struggles, exhilarating desert gallops, and ecstatic expansions into the sun. Doom doesn’t have to stay slow. It can also have multiple rhythms, with one very slow but others super fast. </p>
<p><br>Of course, there’s much much more to the style. </p>
<p><br>Orange amps are traditional; if you want to just play through headphones, you could get the Orange Micro Dark, which has high gain. Doom is doable for just one person alone in a bedroom. Marshall amps are conventional for high distortion as well. </p>
<p><br>Gibson Les Pauls and SGs are traditional as well, but of course, many other amps and guitars work quite well and the masters, journalists, and forum members make many suggestions.<br><br>Of course, there's vastly more to Doom Metal than this, but it's a start.</p>
<p> </p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66402502021-05-26T08:44:29-07:002021-05-26T08:44:29-07:00True Animal Tale : Cellar Spider<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/3e2feaa47292d465e0c88eb2280bfe8379a06627/original/ryszard-paprzycki-sv-9ld04dtc-unsplash.jpg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p style="text-align: right;">photo by Ryszard Paprzycki</p>
<p>I started running bathwater before noticing that there was a cellar spider in the tub. I helped it out but it kept falling in over and over off my hand. I put it on the ledge above the tub, opened the window for it to dry off. </p>
<p>It looked at me with the most intense posture I've ever seen in a cellar spider. Kept looking. I held in my tummy! </p>
<p>When I got in the bath, it came down toward me, stayed there while we looked at each other up close. Then, I lay back, and it came over by me. I sat up later and it moved closer to where I was then. </p>
<p>Fell in again two more times.</p>
<p>I put my face against the wall and it ran toward me. </p>
<p>Reached out a leg and touched me.</p>
<p>It comes to visit me in my bedroom periodically. It gets on my bed, comes over to me, and we stare at each other close up. Then it returns to the bathroom. </p>
<p>When I'm sitting in the bath, it comes down to me and we stare close up. When I lean back in the bath, it follows me back.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66318492021-05-16T11:55:31-07:002021-05-16T20:10:59-07:00Taking Instruments in Unusual Directions<p> </p>
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/78f1a479baf769294398edfc58fe1c2c5317ffa5/original/photo-on-5-16-21-at-10-55-am.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /></p>
<p>I enjoy American Primitive style, and the way just one guitar alone is enough, how it isn't about ego/shredding, is about expressing and innovating using a variety of a person's individual genre influences. I'm happy that some American Primitive players use electric. Some of my riff-tunes are just that, fittingly recorded lofi.<br><br>An older relative in Appalachia made me instruments when I was young -- a balalaika, classical guitar and mountain dulcimer -- inlaying tiny pieces of wood into circle after circle of decoration with his gouty hands. My ancestors played music at the homestead on the mountain, the huge family playing together and inviting the community for salons.</p>
<p>When I still had the balalaika, I took a piece of metal from an exercise machine, and because of the way it was bent and rounded up on the edges, managed a sitar effect when playing phrygian dominant gypsy music.<br><br>I'm not a folk player, but I incorporate some of those kinds of instruments combined with some of my other favorite sounds like British Blues Rock string bending and vibrato plus Psychedelic Stoner Drone Doom distortion, delay and shim pedals with a slow heavy beat. I employ a slide and an Ebow to get unique effects.<br><br>This Strumstick was a recent gift, not something I would have thought of acquiring. Love it. Turns out, it's a type of stick dulcimer! I don't usually play it straight plucking or strumming: besides the bending and vibrato, I get creative tones by going back and forth right on the frets, sliding fast notes, and such. I have lifelong extreme insomnia, so, as I lie alone in bed for several hours a night, I play this thing acoustic in the dark.<br><br>I use a hand drum. Sometimes I amplify it and put through pedals; hands are only one of endless possibilities for striking it with. Fitting it into a guitar stand stabilizes it so I can use a kicker when jamming.<br><br>I like to play the acoustic guitar with a small bow.<br><br>I use lots of found objects too, but we'll get to that another day.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66294662021-05-13T09:17:34-07:002021-05-15T14:05:19-07:00What Genre Does Sound Animal Play?<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/44ce90b3b16cd71742046697b44714984fb5b4d1/original/screen-shot-2021-05-10-at-5-19-06-pm.png/!!/b:W10=.png" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br><br><strong>Hell if I know:</strong></p>
<p>This music lunges and rolls around the genre landscape ground. It slides into mirages and pulls itself out covered in Desert shimmer. It's a noble animal.<br><br>The created music includes such as this: cinematic soundscapes portraying intense locational events like a storm at a belltower; a lone electric guitar tune wafting a man who's packin', walking down a western alley in high heat; an instrumental conjuring a survivor ragtag army forming in the post-apocalyptic woods; lyrics that lope beyond words; an amp-busting celebration of lo-fi mic to lurch around the room to with your friends...<br><br>Little bows, one-off lap steel slide, Gibson Paul 1996, electrified steel string acoustic, electrified Stumstick, electric live edge, percussion. Creeping toward to reach out toward Space Stoner Drone Doom Post Rock/Metal and touch them and scamper back toward the forest of the chimeras.<br><br>Some of the more complex songs and the soundscapes are Experimental though not what has become pop Experimental in the new vernacular. Found objects -- such as rattling a sheet of plastic in front of the mic to get an effect or shaking a container of tennis balls for the beat. Cinematic American Primitive with Power Chords, Drone Avant-Post-Everything.<br><br><br><strong>Musical History, if It Matters for Some Reason:</strong><br><br>Grew up playing Grieg on silver flute (had a flute scholarship). Sang German lieder, Samuel Barber, etc. at state contests, getting first place, was well-trained. Composed all parts for a song performed by a choir, including piano, dulcimer and vocal solos, made the posters too. Mountain dulcimer especially influences the drone. A relative made the stringed instrument presents with his gouty hands.<br><br>Played The Beatles "Within You and Without You," "Flight of the Bumblebee" Shoenberg's <em>Pierrot Lunaire</em>, Shubert's <em>Winterreise </em>and Mazzy Star's "Fancy"<em> </em>on classical guitar back in the day. Holding the electric guitar on the left knee is still natural. Played balalaika using creating an unusually shaped slide from a piece of exercise equipment to improvise sitarish gypsy music on it in the Phrygian Dominant mode of Doom. Played zither, and, like the dulcimer, it's played on the lap, which seems reasonable. Improvised neo-classical passionate longing often, alone on a piano in a chapel built right into a boulder, with the founder buried in rock as well.<br><br>Jammed playing an unruly big ol' flock of percussion instruments, such as with an electric-kalimba-centered band and in the wilderness dirt naked singing, dancing around the flames, banging drums for hours animal. Made hedonistic avant-garde music using entirely found object instruments with three musicians, some of which was in our comedy movies. My favorite percussion was leaping up to kick in beat an aluminum shower door. Made music videos with some of those songs incorporating my art.<br><br>Once improvised percussion with a chimpanzee.<br><br>Mosh, headbang, dance, jump, animal.<br><br><strong>Current Influence Genres </strong><br><br>Drone Metal, Doom Metal, Neo-Psych, Post Rock, Post Metal, Post Punk, Shoegaze, Atmospheric Black Metal, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, Noise Rock, Art Rock, Avant Garde, Space Rock, Krautrock, British Blues Rock, Avant-Rock, Hard Rock, American Primitive.<br><br><strong>But that Instrument!</strong><br><br>One-off three stringed fretless lap steel guitar handmade by Monkeymatic. Especially interesting played with an Ebow, pedaled with distortion, shim, delay.</p>Sound Animaltag:sound-animal.com,2005:Post/66291312021-05-12T23:20:23-07:002021-07-25T22:22:35-07:00Welcome To Your Inner Creature<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/570365/04da6ce5f3c43ea6eb65eaf5db90883d5c5a162c/original/for-russia.jpg/!!/b:W10=.jpg" class="size_l justify_center border_" /><br>A riff-based band begins, and all the creatures in the neighborhood take note.<br><br>Audios will be uploaded soon-- soundscapes, songs and instruments. Found objects, voice, electric guitars, electrified acoustics including bodhrán. Set up on Bandcamp, SoundCloud and YouTube: follow there to track the critter by its droppings.<br><br>Enjoy this site for the new band, Sound Animal, coming to you from its habitat of Berkeley, CA. It is not a shy creature. It wants to hear from you. To know what you play and listen to and love and dance and how you feel most alive.<br><br>Inspired by Drone Metal, Art Rock, Experimental Music, Stoner Metal, Stoner Rock, Post Metal, Post Punk, Post Rock, Neo Psych Rock, Psychedelic Stoner Doom, Noise Rock, Space Rock, American Primitive, Outsider Music, British Blues Rock.</p>
<p><strong>Can't cage me, bro. Live wild and free. We are animals. Celebrate that with sound.</strong><br><br>This art piece was made using a photo of a forest in Washington, a box, salt and soda on mirror, string, and more. The liminal woods are a fitting location. It's also the image that accompanies the tune "For Russia."</p>Sound Animal