Podcast 2021.12 After The Crash

Shirese is from Connecticut.
TMODM: What does your music writing & recording process look like?
S: Well, we write and record everything at home on our tape machine. The cuts go pretty fast and they’re done probably half live and then we do vocals and start messing with tape loops and stuff.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
S: A lot of our material is New Haven/CT at large related. Not to the land mass, but things that have happened here, people we know, stories of the street etc. Product of our environment and all that. Always been a good group of people in town here making stuff and influencing on another. Really good rock n roll here. Noise too.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
S: Ron Asheton. Pigpen. Fifty Foot Hose.

TMODM: What does your music writing & recording process look like?
Ryan: Neil and I write most of the songs and it normally starts with an idea that we bounce off of each other until what starts as a snowball becomes an avalanche. Then we start arranging and sculpting the sounds which sometimes may mean revisiting a track many times and taking off instruments to revisit later with a different idea. As we’re not afraid to write and play other instruments bar the ones we’re known for I think it has developed the music and moved the sound of the band forward. On the new record there’s tracks where I’m playing guitars , keys , synths , samples , drums etc and the same for Neil who even plays guitar on the outro of ‘Cage the masters’. I think this freedom and disregard of ego has made us create our best record to date by far. The process to make this record we had used to create our ‘Monumentals’ side project and that allowed us to really get deep into the whole writing , arranging, producing and mixing experience to the next level. We had total control over every sound on the record and made an album exactly how we wanted it to sound.
Neil: Not much to add really. Since Monumentals (and due to having to adapt to recent limited working practices), Ryan and I have definitely been creating music using a collage of sounds and textures more. It’s a very organic process. It works for CODK as we’ve never had a fixed format to how we produce our music. Time and distance has its advantages… but for the next album I’d like to blend our live jams more with the home studio production techniques we’ve been able to develop during the process of writing UFO. Maybe even a double-album that spans different writing and production styles.

TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
Ryan: In the past I would choose something free form with the likes of Red Krayola or Parson Sound. As for the present day I would choose Liars and early sonic youth and I would love to record a full on kraut noise fest with Iggy Pop on vocals and be amazing to have an opportunity to pick Eno’s mind and make a record with him and create something totally unexpected.
Neil: I’d be humbled to be able to spend time in the studio, or behind the desk – more as a fly on the wall than a collaborator – to begin with at least! – with Brian Wilson, Pere Ubu, Steve Albini, Delia Derbyshire, John Barry, Vangelis, John Carpenter & The Beastie Boys; also Liars, MGMT, Brian Eno, Geoff Barrow, Clint Mansell, Dave Friedman & Godspeed you Black Emperor

Some Pills For Ayala, from Santiago, Chile, is a solo project from Nestor Ayala of At Devil Dirt.
TMODM: What does your music writing & recording process look like?
NA: Since the pandemic began, I have been at home composing, rehearsing and recording. In the laundry room, I set up a home studio where I do everything by myself.
I’m not sure if this has influenced the music directly, but in my case it forced me to do something that was unfamiliar to me, like recording myself. For years I have worked in many bands in my country (Chile, South America), from Rock, Pop, Grunge, Metal, Stoner and I wanted to experiment with sounds a little more psychedelic and that is what this solo project is about.
In the process of writing or creating music, sometimes I spend hours playing guitar or keyboards, until something similar to a song comes out, or something that I like. I record it, and then I work on it into some form.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
NA: I personally seek to escape reality when creating music. Music generates vibrations and exponential moods. I try to capture that idea. I’m going to keep experimenting and uploading songs as they come out. I don’t have anything better to do, and I don’t have pressures of any kind or person or whatever. And if on this trip there are people who like this sound, I feel grateful and happy.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
NA: There are a lot of musicians that inspire me. It would have been amazing to meet and work with Syd Barret for example. Kevin Parker is another musician that I admire a lot. The Doors, My bloody valentine, Dinosaur Jr., Josh Homme. I think it would be an extensive list, but I stay with these musicians.

In 2012 Davi Rodriguez de Lima left Brazil to live in Frankfurt, Germany, to join his then girlfriend – now wife and mother of his two kids.
TMODM: What does your music writing & recording process look like?
DRdL: I actually wrote a master thesis about this process last year, so it is a very profound question for me. I try to approach it very systematically, letting a bottom up logic as well as a top down logic to be equally important. What I mean by that is that I understand that ideas and concepts tend to appear during different stages of producing a song – sometimes through melodies, chords, lyrics or riffs – but sometimes also from timbres, effects, sonic atmospheres or even very abstract concepts. Also the technical issues involved in recording and mixing are very powerful creative tools that can influence composition as well, so, in that sense, I try to approach music as a very special sonic language, where sonic manipulation is as important as being manipulated by sound; trying something and achieving it is as important as trying something and being completely surprised by a different (or “wrong”) result. It makes everything riskier and more organic.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
DRdL: I like to go out and record some sounds from Frankfurt, I like to keep record of those sonic photographs of my lifetime. Everything influences me – being on a country where I have to communicate through a foreign language, bringing kids to and from daycare, going to record stores, having beer or playing football with friends, walking dizzy through the Main margins in a cold night in between concerts or just walking with my family to a park to watch the sunset while ducks are shitting on the grass. Small things, big things, smelly things, sweet things – they are all around you, they have to come out through you sooner or later.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
DRdL: Whoa, man, tough question. So many… I’ll try to stick to the ones I am actually planning on collaborating with sometime soon: Sula Bassana and Electric Moon; Douglas Leal (Deaf Kids); Joe Cardamone (Icarus Line); Becky Lee (& The Drunkfoot); Hierofante Púrpura; Sohrab Habibion (Obits, SAVAK); and I would really love to do something with Dan Melchior someday.

Pseudo Mind Hive is from Melbourne, Australia
TMODM: What does your music writing & recording process look like?
PMH: Normally one of us puts together the skeleton of a song, brings it into rehearsal and we flesh it out as a group. We have recorded both in professional studios and at home, the common theme being that we prefer recording to tape and using analog equipment to get the job done.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
PMH: The short answer is that it doesn’t. Or at least hasn’t thus far. Our music takes influence from eras long passed and our lyrics generally either focus on personal emotional experiences or more abstract, fantastical themes. Although it’s possible that the very dense and oversaturated scene here in Melbourne has pushed us to work harder than we would have somewhere else.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
PMH: There are too many to list but a handful of choices would be Lowell George, Ginger Baker, Jack White and Brian Wilson.

The Silk Railroad appeared on Turn Me On Dead Man Podcast 2020.10 Bad Apples. I corresponded with Zachary Sedillo.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
ZS: We live in Portland, OR which is a beautiful area to live, a bit chaotic at times, but we love it. Not only, Portland, but our surroundings and close places to travel gives us a lot to offer. We feel somewhat free here, and we let that flow through our jams. However, I feel that we would make this music no matter where we’re making it.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
ZS: This question is very easy for us, to work with Anton Newcombe would be tops for us. To witness the genius in person would be amazing, however, there are so many artists we would like to work with if we were able to, Sonic Boom’s genius producing would be a sight to see as well.

Dark Fog, from Chicago, has appeared on multiple installments of Turn Me On, Dead Man. I’ve been corresponding with Ray Donato for several years now.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
RD: Living in Chicago there is just such a rich history of music here, I feel like I can sense it in the air…and there are amazing Chicago soul 45s still floating around here…Mel and Tim, Symtech and Wylie, all the Curtis related, and I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the greats Ruby Andrews and Chuck Bernard of the Zodiac label at my old record store job Logan Hardware(RIP)… and of course a killer 60’s garage psych scene with Shadows Of Knight (technically my first concert as a wee young one was them at a park district harvestfest in like 83ish , I had no idea haha…), New Colony Six, H.P. Lovecraft, and my favorite Aorta… I think there is definitely somewhat of an oppressive midwest-ish vibe also that gives our music that darkness and realness that maybe we wouldn’t have as much of if we were on the coast.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
RD: Well, I’m not much of a collaborator to be honest (though i did briefly collab with David Baker of Mercury Rev fame who is an amazing talented dude with a zillion great stories…) but if I could be Nancy and Lee’s Billy Strange that would be very much up my alley! Also I’d love to put my crazy geetar playing on a Kendrick Lamar record, or if I could have Ozzy sing my songs instead of me…

Mdou Moctar is from Agadez, Niger. “Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar and have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that puts his contemporaries to shame.”

I included a Long Slow Dissolve track on Podcast 2020.07 The Walls Move In A Little Tighter.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
LSD: Ummm… yeah, there’s all kinds of musicians that we individually think we would like to play/jam with, but in terms of collaborating in a way that would enhance our output (or the other party’s output) we pretty much play with people we meet or know that we get on with in real life and feel some sort of connection to. All of our stuff is improvised as we record, so it tends to be more about just hanging out and having a good time playing music together than any sort of expectation as to what might come from it. Sometimes that works really well and we all go “yeah, that’s an LSD track”, sometimes it ends up being something entirely different, sometimes it ends up just a whole heap of nothing. We tend to think of each album as a kind of soundtrack to a film that hasn’t been made yet so maybe for us the most interesting collaboration would be with someone who made a film that needed a soundtrack. After the last year in all honesty the main people I’m personally keen on collaborating with at the minute are the other guys in the band 🙂

Andrew Thomas Jacobs is from Portland, OR, and describes himself as a “Multi instrumentalist, vocalist, interdisciplinary artist and proud member of the Navajo Nation. I have abiding interest in surrealism and surrealistic expression. Stream of consciousness, automatic writing and oblique strategies. Tape loops. Play all the instruments if I can.”
TMODM: What does your music writing & recording process look like?
ATJ: This song is sampled from an actual recorded test of LSD on a military housewife. I write and sing most of my own songs but love to sample marginalia. A boring film of a research project except for the use of chemicals. The major chords and background chorus are counter point to the slightly sinister idea of a “Test Subject”. When I sample dialogue, it’s like sculpting. Chipping away to get at whatever is essential. At least to me. Songwriting to me is much the same. I am less concerned with linearity than the stab of actuality. Music first then lyrics or lyrics then music. I have done both. Always carry a pad and pencil. My early music on bandcamp was recorded on poor equipment and suffered for it. Now that I work in digital I make a point of recording with a microphone on most tracks instead of MIDI direct interface or other direct plug in. The live sounds change subtly or more so my recordings.
TMODM: How does the place you live — your city, town, landscape — feed into the music you make?
ATJ: I live in the Pacific NW. Very near Portland. The rain, the forests, the mushrooms, the stormy sea and much more have had slow but profound effects on my music. I am not going to be famous. No one expects anything. It really is quite freeing. I grew up and played music in a warmer environment. I have made my home into a garden and it feeds my soul.
TMODM: Which musicians — living or dead — would you enjoy collaborating with?
ATJ: Living or dead? Robert Johnson. Hard to be a guitarist and not list him. Edgard Varèse, Django Reinhardt. John Cage, Charlie Mingus, Carl Perkins, George Harrison to name a few.
Living. Brian Eno, Fred Frith, Jon Hassel, Steven Reich, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Pharmakon, Chris Carter. Others of course.