Tomorrow night, AUTHOR & PUNISHER will be taking the stage at alongside Axxonn, Mawdryn and Bear Baiting at the M Bar in Hollywood, and this Ear/Splitters and CVLT Nation event will one of crushing darkness that will decimate your eardrums! Author & Punisher is one man at one with his machines, creating chilling tones and feedback with his handmade instruments. Check out Part 2 of the Author & Punisher and Bear Baiting interview below, and see you in Hollyweird!
BB: So you make all your own “instruments,” how much time and planning goes into them? Do you have the sounds/motions in mind before making them, or do you let the final product dictate what sounds are used for the device?
A&P: Yes, most of them (I do use midi keyboards and occasional guitars on recordings and live). Each instruments is usually in the works for a year or so from sketches on airplanes and bus/train rides, to CAD design, to renderings, then fabrication. I work a full time job(s) so it’s really hard to say exactly how long. I have a very good idea of how I want things to sound and how I want to interact with each. I approach each as an engineering problem of: 1) how to create a sonic texture of sorts 2) and how that will physically happen with my body interacting with some device. As I work at my various engineering jobs I come in contact with a lot of equipment and gadgets that I play with, touch, turn, destroy, and those interactions inform my designs for devices at work and more importantly my art.
How do you make sure that the music is as interesting as how it is created?
A&P: Well, it certainly takes awhile to play something that I think sounds good. I usually make the mistake of planning a bunch of shows for the time directly after finishing the fabrication of a grouping of machines and I end up sort of playing a bunch of awkward improv crap. It basically just involves a lot of practice and time to teach my body how to play this new device, but to a certain degree, I design the devices specifically for my body parts and mind, so throughout the design and fabrication, I am learning and getting acquainted with the controls. I also have played music for a long time and even though I am playing new devices, I have a ‘sound’ for Author & Punisher that in unavoidable.
Do you or have you ever used or considered using conventional instrumentation in conjunction with your machines, wether recorded or live?
A&P: I used guitars, bass guitar and synth on all of the albums up until the upcoming release “Ursus Americanus” (Seventh Rule), but lately it’s all machines. Occasionally I will bring a couple midi keyboards along with my machines to play some of the older songs or occasional cover song. I also have experimented with other members but I prefer the freedom of playing alone.
What are you working on now?
A&P: Right now I am knee deep in building a set of masks for an art show coming up in March. Some of these are CNC machined voice modulators, that mess around with your acoustic voice in very simple ways. It’s called Mute/Gate/Dither and it will be a performance of about 5 people with different masks growling screaming and coagulating in a circle (San Diego Art Prize Show, March 31, Athenaeum, La Jolla, CA).
Other than that I have another full set of instruments I am designing, but machining for those won’t start until the summer.
What are your biggest influences, mechanically and/or musically?
A&P: In chronological order, I would say: Sepultura, Melvins, Godflesh, Neurosis, Quicksand, Meshuggah, His Hero is Gone, Nile, Cannibal Corpse, Ed Rush & Optical, Squarepusher, Pole, Deadbeat, Jesu, Rhythm & Sound, Flying Lotus, YOB…
I am not crazy about art (ie. visual art, sculpture, 2D), but I am really into raw dark films and filmmakers: Nicolas Winding Refn, Tarkovsky, Bela Tarr, Bergman, Lars Von Trier. I feel with my music, I spend a lot of time with the designs and details and programming, but what I am really trying to do is achieve an ‘experience’. Before I build anything, in my mind, there is a Utopian environment or state of meditative power where I can grab hold of the sound and emotion and fuck with it any way I want. Even though I enjoy designing, building and messing with sound, in some ways, I am very impatient and annoyed with the whole process because I can only imagine what the final environment is like and this can make you go crazy unless you have done it a few times and then you know you have to wait or else it won’t be as satisfying. This is something I feel that these directors have done with their films to some degree, where you feel devastated, but invigorated by their final product, even though I can imagine the process is brutally long.
Do you sequence anything for live performances, or are all sounds triggered manually?
A&P: Mostly I play things live, meaning if I am not moving or holding a button/pedal/knob, then you don’t hear anything. There are some songs I wrote for Drone Machines (2010), that had sequences, so I am toying with the idea sequencing some of that along with the main drums and bass that I will do live…not 100% sure yet.
Do you record everything yourself?
A&P: Yes.
Not to jinx you, but what happens if an instrument fails during a live set? It’s not like you can borrow one to get through the gig.
A&P: Usually when this happens, and it happens less frequently than it used to, I can fix it very quickly. As long as I am not too drunk, I can handle it.
Mary Ann or Ginger?
A&P: Both slags 😉
When/ where are you appearing next?
A&P: April 19th to 29th there is a West Coast tour and there is San Diego @ Shakedown Bar Feb. 23rd with Dead Ghosts and It’s Casual. And w/Bastard Noise in the Beginning of March in LA!
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