Podcast 2021.02 Weird and Unusual Noises

I corresponded with Glenn Palmer of Mt. Mountain.
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
MM: Main influences throughout the band are hard to find. We’re usually on different trips at different times. I feel a lot for this record a lot came from playing shows with both Acid Mothers Temple & Moon Duo. We were inspired heavily by their live shows and wanted to inject a bit of that into our sets.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
MM: We are luckily able to play some release shows for the record here in Perth, Australia & hopefully there may be a chance to take it on the road a bit further throughout the year. We’re constantly writing so hopefully we’ll be back in the studio soon too.
TMODM: What’s your sense about the future?
MM: I like the idea that’s been thrown around that we may enter some kind of new version of the roaring 20’s once travel & countries open up. I think great struggles can bring people together and maybe there’s some good lessons in there to learn from.
TMODM: Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
MM: If we can re-evaluate what our values and what our expectations are we can be optimistic about what our future holds for us. I think it’s inherent in our human nature as a whole to be optimistic even if that optimism blindly leads us down a bad path.

I corresponded with Fred Laird of Taras Bulba
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
FL: My main influences are – Syd Barrett, 13th Floor Elevators, Popol Vuh, Rowland s Howard, Crime and the City Solution, 6 Organs of Admittance, Bohren and Der Club of Gore, Flying Saucer Attack, Yukio Mishima, David Lynch.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
FL: I’m just completing my 3rd Album. It’s mainly instrumental and features some contributions on saxophone and female vocals. Its got Jazz, dark noir, dreamy pop and scuzzy RNR. I’m very pleased with it.
TMODM: What’s your sense about the future? Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
FL: I think there are periods in history where its felt that the world is on a downward trajectory. The great plagues, the Spanish Flu, world war 1 & 2. We survived all those and I do think we will again. But we need to be kinder to each other and the planet. This culture of greed, hate and narcissism needs to change. We are spiritually bereft.

I corresponded with Matteo Dossena. Year Of Taurus is his solo project. He’s also voice/guitar in Sherpa.
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
MD: Robert Wyatt, Alexander Tucker, Six Organs of Admittence, Current93, Claudio Rocchi, Badly Drawn Boy. When I think to “Topsoils”, I imagine these artists and their magnetical way to conceive music, atmospheres and circular melodies. I’m totally lost in their music and their way to approach to composition.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
MD: I release my first solo album but unfortunately, in these dark times, I will not have the chance to play it live. So, I’m focused on writing a new Sherpa album, I have just composed some new songs and I hope that in the next months we can be in studio again to play and rec the third album.
TMODM: What’s your sense about the future? Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
MD: I vote for optimism; I speak for myself, but I think that I build my own future everyday and with my actions, with my creations, with my spirit, I can contribute to make a better future for me and people around me. We are landing on a new era, we have to be spiritually ready to entering into it; the first thing to do is to be positive.

I corresponded with Martin Carlsson of Sofielund
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
MC: There’s lots of course, but to keep it concise I’ll say Phantom Payn Daze and Drunk Elk, both of these for their approach to song making and production.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
MC: I’m gonna keep recording new songs and hopefully release more stuff later this year
TMODM: What’s your sense about the future? Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
MC: I don’t have a sense about the future at all, and am not gonna try to predict anything. Just
hoping hoping for things to open up, and to be able to watch live music again or at least have a proper bar session.

I corresponded with Sam Taylor of Psychiatric Metaphors
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
ST: I’m influenced by a lot of different music but for this album I was mainly influenced by a lot of noise rock like The Men, Metz, Destruction Unit etc. I wanted to make it my noisiest album yet while trying not to come up with any rigid sound or song structures while writing it. Most of the album was formed through improv/jamming.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
ST: I have a few other projects I’m working on at the moment. First is an album for my side project called Split-Whig which is like experimental disco/dance music. I also have an album almost finished to be release under my name, Sam Taylor that’s more just straightforward rock and roll (a much more tamed version of Psychiatric Metaphors). And beyond that hopefully another Psych Mets album sometime in the next year.
TMODM: What’s your sense about the future? Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
ST: My sense of the future has been a rollercoaster for the last 3-4 years. I haven’t had much hope at all for the future or the well being of the human race for quite a while. There’s been some glimmers of optimism in the last year that I would like to think are the start of real change for the better, but I don’t have much hope in the way humans treat each other in general, let alone how we treat the earth. We’re all spiraling through space trying to find the right way to make all this work but stepping on each others faces in the process of attempting to make everything copacetic. I think there are certainly people out there working for real change that give me optimism but the overall behavior and lack of just general brain power, compassion and common sense of at least half the population of this county will forever disturb me.

I corresponded with Connor and Cici of Epic Ganesh.
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
EG: Circa Survive, Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson, Rishloo, TOOL, Devin Townsend, Yes, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, The Beatles
TMODM: What’s next for you?
EG: We’ve got the names and concepts of our next four albums, all prog-based with storylines and worlds and sh!t. For the next album we have the song names and their order, and many of those songs are already written. Our next album, ‘Born of the Chrysanthalis’, which we are demo-ing now draws a parallel between a personal psychosis and the “true” nature of reality.
TMODM: What’s your sense about the future?
EG: As far as music is concerned, we think there will be a huge resurgence of live music when the pandemic subsides. People will realize how much they’ve missed it and how much they truly appreciate artists of all kinds.
TMODM: Are we in some kind of downward spiral or do we have cause for optimism?
Connor: I choose to remain optimistic because of new decentralized technologies quickly taking financial power back in the people’s hands, as well as the advancement of medicine. I pray for the advancement of the human spirit as well. (Cici agrees).

TMODM: What’s next for you?
OO: We’re putting out another tape on 2/20. We’ve been playing music together for a long time, this is a reissue of a 2011 release we did under a different name, and we’ve got more new (and old) stuff coming down the pipeline.

I corresponded with Ignatio and Simón of Huillín
TMODM: Who are your main influences?
Ignacio: In Huillín in particular: Aidan Baker, Pocahaunted, Violeta Parra, Lightning Bolt, NEU!, WERL and Faust.
Simón: In the drums, I would say that a mixture between Gabriel Parra with Keith Moon and Bill Bruford.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Ignacio: I should say first that Huillín was active in 2018 only, but the band will exist as long as Simón and I exist. We are close friends. That being said, we recorded quite a lot of material that year, so I will try and assemble another Huillín album soon. In addition to that, I have many new releases planned with my solo project, ihä, all of which will hopefully see the light this year. I hope Simón and I can reunite sometime in the near future.
Simón: It would be beautiful to improvise again someday. For my part, I have several mini-projects with Mucola, but nothing finished. Hopefully I will focus and finish something soon.
TMODM: Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
Ignacio: Rather pessimistic. As long as capitalism is still in place, I don’t see how things can change for the better in the long term.
Simón: I think both. One part of me thinks that the system is changing for worse, but another one thinks that I, nevertheless, have had optimistic encounters in these months of crisis, inasmuch as this global context has brought about a lot of reflections to many, including myself.