Merdarahta is the experimental alter-ego of Ottawa grindmongers Fuck the Facts. With new release breathe electric out this Tuesday (17 December 2013), project leader and FTF guitarist Topon Das talks about his longstanding interest in the experimental/noise genre and the process-based approach of improvisational music.
Merdarahta – “Breathe II” – A Cvlt Nation exclusive track premiere:
As a Canadian veteran of the extreme music scene, it’s an understatement to say that Das is driven; in a country where the average distance between major cities is ridiculous, it takes determination and vision to maintain a band and tour regularly. Merdarahta may be a reflection of the mindset required to ensure that one’s creative efforts have persisted across vast distances and over more than a decade: sounds develop gradually, moving in and out of the listener’s attention, subtly shifting from point to point with a sense of continual focused movement, like a glacier slowly grinding across a stony landscape. It’s an interesting counterpoint to Fuck The Facts’ multifaceted style of grind (which is equally kinetic but capricious: the landscape can change at a moment’s notice); Merdarahta draws instead on Das’s interest in noise aesthetics, creating a progression of tonal layers in a more open, atmospheric sense of time.
You’ve been a noise fan for quite some time already, what do you like about it? How did you discover the genre? Any favourite artists or recordings?
I got into noise when I first started tape trading in the 90’s. Grindcore and noise were (and I guess still are) very intertwined, so I would get a lot of noise tapes and was always discovering different noise projects. The same reasons I was motivated to play grind are the reasons I wanted to play noise. It was new to me and I related to it right away. I’ve always loved raw aggressive music, but I also love experimental music. Putting these 2 things together is what really makes music fun for me. Some of the first straight up noise projects I got into were Napalmed, Namanx, Masonna & of course Merzbow, but also hearing grind bands like Brutal Truth & Exit-13 have noise on their albums helped put it all together for me. The extreme harshness of Masonna’s “Inner Mind Mystique” album grabbed me right away is probably still my favorite straight-up noise release.
Montreal has a vibrant scene for noise and experimental music (i.e. Alien8 Recordings); how does Ottawa compare?
Ottawa in general has an amazing music scene and I don’t think it’s any different when it comes to more experimental music. Projects like Kingdom Shore are really helping to keep things interesting in the region.
According to the project’s Facebook page, merdarahta is “The act of covering a corpse in the excrement of their master, to provide safe passage into the afterlife” – in other words, transcendence/transformation through defilement. How did you choose the name?
The name itself is taken from a Fuck The Facts song off of our split with Feeble Minded. It’s an ambient noise track, so it came to mind right away when this project started to come together. Four fifths of FTF is involved in Merdarahta and when we got this material together we decided that it would be better to put it under a different name. Even though it’s a different project I wanted it to be connected. I’ve dedicated a pretty huge part of my life to Fuck The Facts, so for me it made more sense to make this project just a different branch off the FTF tree.
FTF is recognized not only for its music but also for the band’s work ethic and DIY approach – for over a decade, you’ve been touring constantly and you release material on a regular basis (and the last four EPs were independent productions) – but Merdarahta is a relatively new project; could it have existed, say, five years ago?
I don’t think I would have been ready to do it 5 years ago, and even now doing something outside of Fuck The Facts is a bit strange and difficult for me. I created FTF as a project where anything goes, but over time I feel like we’ve come into our own sound and even though we’re still always experimenting with new things, there is a sort of “Fuck The Facts” way of doing things now. To do something outside of FTF it had to be very different and it’s definitely more recently that I’m more comfortable with exploring territory outside of my main band.
Previous Merdarahta recordings definitely had a sense of immediacy, even urgency, and their development was very organic in comparison to the more angular attacks of FTF songs; since Merdarahta’s inception in 2012, how has working on this project affected your approach to songwriting for FTF?
The first Merdarahta release was actually in 2011. The whole thing started when we were doing the Fuck The Facts album Die Miserable. There’s a bonus track called “Oct 26”, and this is the first blueprint for what would become Merdarahta. As for how it’s affected my work with FTF, I don’t think it really has or at least not more than any sort of normal development. The projects are very different and really that’s the point. The reason Merdarahta is separate from FTF is because it is its own creature.
The creative process behind this project is essentially improv-based and you’ve described it in a previous interview as, “an unbroken flow of ideas and sense of simply being submerged in the moment.” You mentioned that making noise is something you enjoy doing in your spare time, and Merdarahta recordings have a darkly psychedelic sort of ambience; can sound-making like this be considered a form of meditation?
Totally. When I’m working on Merdarahta tracks or just making noise for fun, I’m using a very different music muscle than what I normally do with FTF. I’m not sitting down and writing out parts, demoing it and slowly putting together a song. It’s all about hitting record and seeing what comes out. What I play on guitar is never predetermined, and the way I manipulate the effects are done in a way that I’m trying to create an atmosphere, but also keep things moving. Since I never really know what’s going to come out and working with a different chain of pedals can produce different results, I’m definitely kept on my toes while also striving for a natural overall ambience that sounds seamless.
The track “Breathe”, from the 2012 release Fault of Air/Breathe, is particularly cinematic – it reminded me of Neil Young’s evocative soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man, which conjures the vast landscapes of North America in a similar fashion as the music of Montreal’s Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Is this a Canadian thing, the expression/awareness of vastness?
That’s one of my favorite tracks as well and I think a great example of just a constant flow of ideas that comes together really well. It’s definitely not perfect and you can hear some minor imperfections, but that’s kind of the idea. I don’t know if it’s Canadian thing, perhaps having all the space that we have has led to some unconscious desire to spread out.
How is this latest recording different from the earlier releases?
This new release is very similar to the first two in sound and even visually, but I do have future Merdarahta releases in the works that head into some different territory. The main difference on the new release is that there’s a different collaborator. For each release we’ve added someone different to the mix. For “Snake Charmer / Towers” it was Leigh from The Sun Through A Telescope, then on “Fault Of Air / Breathe” we added Seb from Mekhaya and now on “Breathe Electric” we added Mike from Black Oak Decline. Collaboration with different people is a pretty crucial part of these Merdarahta recordings and I definitely have plans to have more people involved in future releases as well.
How did you decide on James Plotkin for mastering?
I had handled the recording, mixing and mastering on the previous releases, but I knew I wanted to get someone else’s ears involved with this new one. I think James did a great job on the mastering, really making it sound big without affecting the dynamics of the tracks. I’ve been a big fan of a lot of his work, especially with his band O.L.D., so it was awesome to get to work with him on this.
Let’s talk a bit about Apartment 2 Recording, the studio you established in 2010. Has recording other bands affected your own work (e.g. songwriting, mixing, work ethic, motivation, etc.)? Favourite project/s so far?
It affects my own work mainly in the way that I don’t have as much time for it. I really love doing the studio work and working with so many different bands, but sometimes it can be tough to have to sideline some of my own projects because I have to record another band. It’s the reality of playing underground music I guess; I make more money working on other people’s music than my own. Sometimes I have to give priority to the folks that are actually paying my bills, but I do my best to try and balance it with my own projects and set aside time to get what I need to do done. In general, it is really cool that I get to spend so much time in the studio and gain a lot of knowledge that I can bring into my own band and projects. I’ve recorded Biipiigwan and Alaskan since day one, and I’ve done all of their releases. These are two great bands and it really means a lot to me that they’ve trusted me with their music for so long.
With regular studio projects on the go and a young child at home, will you be touring any less often?
This year is actually the most touring we’ve done since 2008, not that it’s a crazy amount. Over the years we’ve sort of leveled out and we do about 70 shows a year. I don’t think I’ll stop touring anytime soon and the amount we do now really lets me balance the road with home and work. There are sacrifices being made in all aspects of my life, so I can do it all, but really I would never complain. I’m able to head to Europe for a few weeks on tour, come back and work in the studio and then go home and play with my kid. I can’t think of a better life.
Can you talk about your noise playlist a bit, e.g. why you chose these particular tracks and what their significance is for you. If the playlist is sequenced in a specific order, why?
No specific order. The tracks are ones I first discovered (Masonna, Namanax, Merzbow, Tribes of Neurot, Trial of the Bow), others from friends I used to trade tapes with (Napalmed, Insomnia), a couple artists Fuck The Facts did noise splits with (Ames Sanglantes, Fever Spore) and a new noise friend, Orange Annihilator, that I recently did a split with.
TOPON DAS NOISE PLAY LIST:
Like the name implies, “breathe II” is a continuation of breathe I (from fault of air/breathe). Some left over ideas and recordings that didn’t fit with the first song. Unlike the first one, breathe II is more of a constant build up. The mood is set and over the progression of the track is constant until it dies out.
The new Merdarahta album breathe electric is out Tuesday, via Bandcamp here.
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