Ducked Tapes

DT probes… Dom Tiberio aka Felt Drawings

Photo by Paul Rodriguez

Felt Drawings is Dom Tiberio from Los Angeles, USA. His music begs, borrows and steals from so many genres - chart pop, hip hop, R & B, dubstep, techno, goth and industrial. What keeps it coherent is the emotional intensity - Felt Drawings demands to be listened to due to the impending sense of urgency in all his tracks. We first heard about Felt Drawings during our interview with Freddy Ruppert of Former Ghosts, so you can see what kind of pedigree we’re talking about.

He recently released the EP Passing, as well as having a number of tracks available for free download on his site.

Felt Drawings has been getting a lot of positive press at the moment, so is definitely one to watch. Dom is releasing a full length later this year, so keeps your eyes out.

We’re hoping there will be an FD tour round Europe at some point, and will do whatever we can to make this happen, but for now enjoy this live video:

Anyhow…

Here’s DT’s interview with Dom Tiberio.

DT: Your sound features unabashed pop influences, the dark melancholy of dance and dubstep, as well as some industrial and goth type moments. How does the writing process work for something with such a variety of influences?

Dom:  Well I’m glad you think it works. I don’t think about my influences as a whole when writing songs, but when I listen to music I do take little mental notes of things I like. Then all that stuff gets mushed around and filtered through my own tastes and sensibilities.

DT: Your music has a real, and genuine, emotional core. How do you capture this on record?

Dom: I appreciate that. When I write the songs it’s during the time when the content is fresh or relevant in my life so maybe that has something to do with it. I’m not sure. As far as the sounds I use, I tend to use sounds that are damaged and that fluctuate because it gives them a tiny life of their own.

DT: Whilst it’s a very dark record, there’s a definite sense of dance to your sound. Has this been informed by any particular artists or labels?

Dom: I do like a lot of dance music. Growing up I used to listen to the deep house mixes that DJ Enrie would put out. Then later on I got into house and techno and all that stuff. I think the biggest eye-opening moment for me was when I first heard New Order. Right now I’m not even very familiar with all the artists’ names but I like a lot of the stuff Hyperdub and Kompakt put out.

DT: Does the way you play live reflect how you work in the studio? Which do you prefer, and which is more ‘honestly’ you expressing yourself?

Dom: The way I work at home is pretty much me sitting at my desk fiddling around on my drum machine. Then I play the song live before I record it, just to see if the arrangement seems fitting. I think in the studio it is more of a cerebral sussing out of things and emotions, where as playing live is more of a physical release. As far as which is more “honestly” expressing, I think they both have their importance. The emotions are fresh when the song is written, so that is the initial expression. There is no substitute for playing live though. It’s like being able to scream underwater. Plus that’s the only time I get to hear the songs super loud.

DT: There’s a lot of press about lo-fi at the moment, but I feel you somehow stand apart from this, with your own sound and aesthetic. How much of a role does technology play in your music making?

Dom: Technology plays a huge part in the way I make music. Being able to record on a computer opens up so many possibilities to the way the songs are written. It is really easy to cut and paste a part and change the whole arrangement of the song. It also makes it possible to get ideas out without knowing how to play any kind of traditional instrument.

DT: You’ve released several individual tracks online, as well as the EP ‘Passing’. Where would you like your sound to be as you move towards a full length?

Dom:  The full length is almost done. I just need to finish a few more tracks. So far the pop arrangements are more prevalent. Hopefully I’m able to mix it well. I want the production quality to be pretty good.

DT: You recently moved back to LA from San Francisco – how has the change affected your music? How does living in such a musically rich place affect you?

Dom:  I don’t think the move has affected the sound of my music much. I kind of felt out of place in San Francisco and that lead me to stay inside a lot of the time and just work on stuff. I didn’t feel too separate from the music going on in LA because I would talk to my close friends everyday that make music there, and we would send things we are working on back and forth. The cool thing about LA is there are a lot of shows going on every night of the week. And going to shows gets me inspired to keep producing.

DT: Which artists are making music that’s exciting you the most right now? 

Dom:  Right now I’m into Kevin Greenspon. He makes these awesome ambient guitar pieces. I also like what How To Dress Well is doing. A new band I’m really excited about from LA is Continues. We are doing a 7” split together that is going to be out in September.

DT: Do you have a day job? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?

Dom: I do have a day job. It’s a 9 to 5 office job. They fired me a couple weeks ago but they called back and asked if I could stay for a bit longer. Maybe the best kind of job to have when trying to make music is one that you don’t take home with you. Unemployment? I don’t know.

DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?

Dom:  Oh man. Umm. The only thing I can think of is that I was really into the Ninja Turtles and Raphael was my favorite one. I don’t even remember why he was my favorite but I remember having an affinity for his character. 

DT Probes… Lucky Dragons - an interview with Luke Fishbeck and Sarah Rara - Part 1

Lucky Dragons are Luke Fishbeck and Sarah Rara of Los Angeles. Their music is as accessible as it is complex - it gives the listener equal spoonfuls of awe, wonder, beauty and engagement. What draws you in to Lucky Dragons is that you recognize the sounds - not as particular instruments but more as vague memories of tones you’ve heard somewhere, sometime. Using ‘found sound’ and software written by themselves, Luke and Sara arrange pop songs at the most ethereal edge of the synapses - but the crucial point is that these songs are pop - they are fun. Most recent in their catalog is Rara Speaks, a record that’s infused with honed melodies and dizzying percussion. If you want a taste of their spooked out sound check the blissful noises of Open Melody.

Lucky Dragons have a short US and European tour starting this month, and are playing some really unique events. The shows are completely interactive - if you want to be part of the show you will be; I guess in many ways you could call it performance art…

There will be a video here, but embedding doesn’t work right now.

Anyhow…

Here’s the first half of DT’s interview with Lucky Dragons - the guys are very busy at the moment, so we’re still awaiting the last half, but they’ve kindly given us plenty to go at here.

DT: Your back catalogue stretches all the way back to 2000. How have you kept yourselves motivated and inspired to keep creating new, innovative sounds?

LD: A lot of the motivation comes from our live shows… playing participatory shows in a wide variety of situations, from house shows to museums to schools to DIY spaces, and keeping things open and playful and meeting people on an equal level means we get as many new sounds and new ways of doing things as possible every time we go out into the world.. meeting an audience that is all ages and coming from super diverse backgrounds brings new interpretations to what we’ve been working on up to that point, new ways of playing, new ways of thinking and doing… it pretty much comes down to considering the audience an equal partner, whether through listening and reacting, or physically getting involved and making sounds with us… we find there are still so many ideas of what music means and what it is to be used for that we haven’t considered before.

DT: I know you guys use Max/MSP in a lot of your work, and that you build patches yourselves. What kind of things do your patches do? Do you use any written by other programmers or are the exclusively your own?

LD: We use MaxMSP and puredata and also any other programs that are around—supercollider, chuck, processing, etc—always with this attitude of testing out an idea… most of the software we build is extremely basic proof-of-concept kinds of things—one patch will listen to small changes in an electrical system and translate into control data for a software synth, one patch will work as a 512-band graphic equalizer, one patch makes any sound appear to be speeding up or slowing down continuously (an auditory illusion known as a risset rhythm), one patch serves as a very clunky homemade autotune… basically we will read about something, or notice something happening, and try to see if we can model it or reproduce it, usually very quickly, and then go out and use it in a show!

DT: Consistently your work’s featured intricate patterns of beautiful and organic sounds. What’s the writing process behind this kind of music? Do you work in a studio context in a conventional sense, or something more abstract?

LD: It’s a very casual process—we’ll be sitting around eating dinner and start to think the clacking of forks on bowls sounds very nice and drag out the recorder to sample it… or sit under a tree full of birds for 45 minutes trying to record their singing to one another… we wind up with a sprawling library of sounds, and then spend the bulk of the time editing, building up little constructions from the field recordings… treating little memories as materials to be woven together. we’ve visited studios to record things for our friends, but the process of repeatable actions—play one thing and then play it again until it’s right, building up the layers gradually—requires an attitude about time in music that we don’t usually find useful in the writing process… that it must always flow forward, and loop backwards on itself in order to form a rhythm. when constructing things, we will look at the bits and pieces of recorded material visually, how it forms patterns on its own, or mathematically, how different relationships between rhythms and tones can be made to poke through… often we find ourselves editing backwards and forwards, up and down, or coming up with a process and letting the sounds squeeze through it… there is a joke that some of our songs take less time to make than they do to listen to.

DT: Your live shows feature some intimate and intense collaboration with the audience. Have you got any plans to release collaborative records with anyone?

LD: Well, we do have plans to release a live record soon… although it’s very difficult to present something on record that when it was experienced live was truly felt to be self-organizing.. that is to say, in a live setting, all of the materials, all of the people present, all of the context we are all in together, these things are made a part of the experience… nothing external is needed or referred to—we make up the rules as we go along, and at the end the rules dissolve. a straight recording still feels like a recording, something passive and remote—a better document is something more enclosed and self-sufficient that you can come up with your own (collaborative) opinions toward in a very direct way! on the other hand, all of our records are very much collaborative things, as there’s kind of no clear boundaries on who’s in the band and who’s not… anyone who’s around and taking part at the time we record or edit is given a voice that ideally cuts through to the finished product. we’ve been meeting so many amazing musicians recently, i think the next lucky dragons record will be all the richer for their voices being included…!

DT: You’ve stated an interest in unconventional, sustainable forms of distribution and exhibition. What kind of things are you trying out at the moment? What would you like to try in the future?

LD: Well, essentially put, music should be free—it’s packaging, material things, that wind up costing us money to distribute, and to buy and take home. coming up with free packaging is a nice thing to pursue… we’re working on a label now with our friend brendan fowler that has no money involved: newotherthing.com. as for the sustainability of these things, there is the global way of thinking about it—less packaging, less money involved means it’s easier to keep going, and more scalable, more transferrable… and there’s the selfish way of looking at it, i.e., how can i pay rent and eat food through this—

DT Probes… Former Ghosts - an interview with Freddy Ruppert

Former Ghosts are Freddy Ruppert, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Nika Rosa (Zola Jesus) from various locations around the United States. Their music is an emotionally raw juxtaposition of dense synthpop and reverb straight from the heart of St. Paul’s. Sure you can hear Joy Division in there - but there’s so much more to Former Ghosts than post-punk throwbacks. Their debut, Fleurs, is as much about moments of ecstasy as it is about repetitive, stabbing percussion. It really works - whilst you can hear Freddy’s at the center of Former Ghosts, the individual influences of Jamie and Nika make for something really special. If you’d like to hear what we’re talking about check out Hold On over at Upset the Rhythm.

Former Ghosts have recently been touring the US in the guise of Freddy and Jamie. But Europeans don’t worry - when DT spoke to Freddy he assured us there’d be an EU tour in May.

Check out the below to see what’s in store…

Anyhow…

Here’s DT’s interview with Former Ghosts.

DT: Former Ghosts is made up of yourself as principle songwriter, Jamie Stewart and Nika Roza. How does the writing process work, given that all three of you are such prolifically creative people?

Freddy: We all live in different cities so it mainly takes place online and through the mail. Jamie and Nika are really busy with both Xiu Xiu and Zola Jesus, while Former Ghosts is pretty much my main focus. I usually will write the majority of the song and then send it to Jamie and Nika, who will then record their parts and then mail them back to me. Then I will piece it all together into a collective whole.

DT: You released debut Fleurs in autumn last year. For such an intense and emotionally dense record, there are moments of clarity and utter ecstasy. How difficult was it to capture this kind of pure expression on record?

Freddy: I’m not sure, it isn’t really something I thought about while recording it. The songs weren’t even recorded for a record in the first place, they were written and recorded for a person I was involved in a relationship with during tumultuous times of our relationship and then posted on a blog. It wasn’t until later that it all got pieced together for a record. So I think maybe those moments of desperation, ecstasy, heart ache, whatever, in that relationship got kind of captured as it was happening.

DT: Whilst it’s certainly has dark moments, Fleurs has a definite dance element to it. Has this been informed by any particular artists or labels?

Freddy: Probably things on the dark minimal techno vibe such as Dial Records, of course New Order and early OMD. I think our “dance” element is definitely toned down though, I like distant kick drums.

DT: On your bio, it quotes you as being particularly excited by the amount of reverb on the album. Can you tell us a bit more about this?

Freddy: I love reverb. I think it conveys a lot of the heavyness of the record and the heavyness in the emotions on display. I love the This Mortal Coil albums and all three of those are just drenched in reverb that creates a certain atmosphere. It just weighs down on everything.

DT: I’ve read that you’ve already made good progress on new Former Ghosts songs. How do they sound compared with what we’ve heard on Fleurs? Have Jamie or Nika heard them yet?

Freddy: Jamie and Nika have heard some stuff. We are working on some things together. I think the new stuff contains a lot of that pop element that was found on Fleurs and blends a lot more of the new agey type synth tones with more textural percussion elements. I think pop. Yeah, pop.

DT: When playing live your setup seems to be quite straightforward, allowing the power within the songs to come forward by itself. Does your live setup reflect how you’d work in the studio? If not, how does it differ?

Freddy: I think it maybe kind of reflects how I work in the studio? Since I am mainly an electronic/laptop musician the song basically is getting recorded at the same time that I am writing it. The live presentation isn’t something I think about a lot. It is interesting to me to add different textural elements to the live set up and for the most part work with laptop based tracks. I have no interest in trying to hide that a lot of what is going on live isn’t really “live”. That isn’t what I really care about. I care more about where the song is located emotionally as opposed to what is going on technically.

DT: You live just outside Los Angeles. At the moment LA is the source of such diverse and exciting - you’ve been involved in one of the key venues, The Smell. How has living in the LA area affected your sound and musical outlook?

Freddy: I have recently completely fallen in love with Los Angeles all over again. It feels great to be a part of a music community and to just have so many friends that are doing so many amazing things. I’m not sure if the actual city reflects my sound as I’ve lived here my whole life. But it’s great to be in a city where you can go out just about anywhere and run into people who are making inspiring things.

DT: Which bands are making music that’s exciting you the most right now?

Freddy: Los Angeles based band Tearist is the best band on the face of the planet at the moment. Another Los Angeles based act that consistantly destroys my boundaries of music is Felt Drawings.

DT: Do you have day jobs? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?

Freddy: I did have a day job up until December of last year. I lost my day job because of doing too much touring. I think for me, it has been easy to balance a day job and music because I never thought of music as a career more of just something I do/create. I’m looking for a new day job because at the moment music is definitely not coming close to paying any of my bills.

DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?

Freddy: Three months ago I would have said Eeyore because I was such a pathetic, depressed mess. Now I would say Tigger. Why would you not want to live your life like Tigger?

DT probes… High Places - an interview with Mary and Rob

High Places are Mary Pearson and Rob Barber of Los Angeles. Their music is a collection of noises both familiar and unnatural - what stands out is the warmth within each carefully glitched melody or percussive interlude, understated but at once at the forefront of their tracks. High Places are set to release their second long player High Places vs. Mankind in the spring. As the title suggests, Mary and Rob are set to explore the existential on the new record. If High Places’ 2009 single I was born is anything to go by, being in touch with your humanity is a very good thing.

High Places have an extensive European tour planned throughout the United States and Europe (dates below) starting in March. If you’re not convinced yet, check out the below - it should whet your appetite.

Anyhow…

Here’s DT’s interview with High Places.

DT: Your new record is going to be called “High Places vs. Mankind.” Does this confrontational title have a particular meaning? Can we expect a more provocative album?

Mary: The title is pretty tongue-in-cheek. It’s also a bit of a nod to all those great dub records like Scientist vs. Prince Jammy - Big Showdown, King Tubby Studio vs. Channel One Studio, etc.
Rob: Yeah… I also sort of like to interpret it like as a little more based-in-reality, human-condition interpretation of “Fearless Vampire Killers” by the Bad Brains.

DT: I read you guys don’t use laptops. You still manage to create very complex, yet careful and organic sounds without using well-known software like Max / MSP. Was this a deliberate choice for you?

Rob: Well, some REALLY crazy recordings have gone down in history, pre-computer. Electric Ladyland, Les Paul, Bebe Baron, King Tubby, Schoolly D’s first couple of 12”s. We aren’t against all these great tools that are available, but we certainly don’t want to be reliant on them for us to get out there. I personally HATE reading manuals. I just want to start hammering our the sounds that I foresee in my head. To record myself, I personally use a 13 year old program that really only captures the sound, and allows you to simply just cut it up, and move it around. I mostly like to experiment outside the computer, then just capture it and arrange it. That being said, we did actually get more comfortable with more traditional instruments on the new record. For example, on the first track, when you hear the first snare hit, it is just a simple 808 snare, through a bunch of spring reverb. I like to sometimes reference a really specific sound, because it is familiar and just makes you feel good. I also missed playing guitar. As far melodic brainstorming, guitar is the most direct way for me. We used tons of guitar in the past, but heavily shrouded in overdubs, which we had to rely on sampling in the live show. This record, I wanted to be more immediate and live-minded, but still hopefully lush and enveloping.

DT: Your music features abstract qualities in equal measure with beautiful pop moments. What’s the writing process behind this kind of sound?

Mary: Thank you. We pass a lot of small ideas back and forth. Those ideas eventually build into a bunch of layers, and then we edit them down together into a song format.
Rob: On this new record, we would both work separately, in very different ways, and then get together to take all these little pieces of recordings and trying to arrange them. It makes for interesting results sometimes when we come together with each of our parts, not having heard the others, and cosmically enough, they will fit together in an interesting way.

DT: You’ve toured with some really great artists such as Deerhunter, No Age, Lucky Dragons and Dan Deacon. Have you got any plans to release collaborative records with anyone? Or is there anyone you’d like to?

Rob: Well we have done a few splits, with Soft Circle, Xiu Xiu, and Aa. But as far as combining ideas with another person/group, that has only really been done live, with Lucky Dragons and Hisham from Soft Circle.
Mary: We’re always up for a good collaboration. I’ve always wanted to play bassoon with Antony or to make some beats for someone like Rye Rye.

DT: You guys recently moved to Los Angeles – there’s so much exciting and varied music coming from there right now. Did the music scene there play a part in the move? How do you think it is affecting / will affect your sound?

Rob: Well, it definitely is awesome here. I love so many people, all the rad stuff they make. But I have to be honest, if all these rad people lived in a place with humid gnarly summers, and rainy-just above freezing winters, and land-locked, nowhere near and ocean, I think we would have maybe not moved there. In other words, the weather, and the Pacific and the mountains and the desert, and all the wildlife and nature in CA definitely seduced us. The awesome stuff happening here is just the icing on the cake!

DT: You both have independent projects you work on alongside High Places. Has it been important to you to do other music outside the band? How has it affected High Places’ sound?

Mary: Our solo projects have been around longer than High Places, so it’s important to us both to keep them fairly active. I tend to use my project Transformation Surprise as an outlet for short recorded sketches and videos. Rob performs pretty frequently under the name The Urxed. The High Places sound has really always been the sum of our two parts. The more we work on music, be it for our solo projects or the band, the more we figure out about composition and recording, and I think that can only be positive for us.

DT: You both have artistic backgrounds, but from different perspectives. Rob yours seems more visual, and Mary you were classically trained. How does this affect the working dynamic of High Places?

Mary: I can’t tell if it’s the difference in our schooling or in our temperaments, but I do seem a bit more left-brained in my approach to art and music, and Rob seems more right-brained. One weird thing that can happen during classical music studies is that you find you’re not really listening to yourself play. You get so robotic sometimes playing off a sheet of music. Rob has taught me a lot about listening and thinking about music in terms of textures and colors.
Rob: But at the same time, I have learned a lot about proper music ideas from Mary, which helps in our song craft. Prior to HP, my music theory was like a purely aesthetic but in a gut-instinct-cave-person- banging-on-a-log approach.

DT: Which bands are making music that’s exciting you the most right now?

Mary: I can’t wait to hear the new Awesome Color record. That band is so talented, I know it will be great. I get really inspired by prolific musicians like Will Oldham, Beck, Jack White. They clearly have that creative impulse to release song after song, and to take on lots of projects.
Rob: Yeah Will Oldham for sure. We saw him randomly get up and play last night in this tiny tiny bar, and he just owned the room. He is heavy. I love music that is weird, but still makes you feel something inside, makes you move or it can make you feel intensely comforted. Javelin, Silk Flowers, Infinite Body, Hecuba, Lichens. I am really excited to hear what No Age is cooking up in the studio right now. Frankie Rose is totally doing pop music right.

DT: Do you have day jobs? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?

Mary: We don’t have day jobs anymore. I had a steady babysitting job for awhile when we lived in New York. I was really close with the family and they were super supportive of High Places. They never gave me a hard time for going on tour.
Rob: We are very fortunate, that being only two people, who are also both totally frugal, that we can get by on HP. I was teaching printmaking at an art school in NY, but then touring took over and I couldn’t commit to a whole semester. Best life change I ever made. It gets a little dicey financially, but we at least have our freedom. As far as tips…I know this might come across as a bit tuff-love, but I would have to say I definitely sacrificed my comfort and financial stability for my creativity. If I didn’t make that change, I think my brain would have severely melted down.

DT: What’s your favourite children’s character and why?

Mary: Ramona Quimby from the Beverly Cleary books. Pesky little sisters who love cats are the coolest.
Rob: So I guess that makes me Superfudge? “Flat” Stanley and Lamb Chop were pretty rad too. Charles Schulz circa 1950-54 was amazing. Oh, jeeze, there are just too many! We can’t forget most Jim Henson characters. Sid and Marty Krofft characters are pretty much the most bizarre creations of all time. OH! and DEFINITELY Charles Nelson Reilly as the evil wizard on Lidsville.

High Places full European tour schedule for Spring 2010:

03. 19 Los Angeles, CA The Echo
03. 24 San Francisco, CA Rickshaw Stop
03. 27 Portland, OR Berbati’s Pan w/Bear In Heaven
03. 28 Seattle, WA The Crocodile w/Bear In Heaven
03. 30 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
03. 31 Denver, CO Hi Dive
04. 01 Omaha, NE Slowdown Jr.
04. 02 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club w/Tobacco
04. 03 Chicago, IL Schubas
04. 05 Columbus, OH The Summit
04. 07 Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
04. 16 Madrid, Spain La Casa Encendida w/Javelin
04. 17 Barcelona, Spain LA2
04. 18 Valladolid, Spain Espacio Joven
04. 20 Paris, France Point Ephemere
04. 22 Milan, Italy Amigdala Theatre
04. 23 Pisa, Italy Fosfeni Festival (Citta Del Teatro)
04. 24 Dudingen, Switzerland Bad Bonn
04. 25 Prague, Czech Republic Bio Oko
04. 26 Zagreb, Croatia AT
04. 27 Graz, Austria Explosiv
04. 28 St. Gallen, Switzerland Grabenhalle
04. 29 Dijon, France Kill Your Pop Festival (Atheneum)
05. 01 Antwerp, Belgium Trix
05. 03 Brighton, UK Freebutt
05. 04 London, UK Cargo
05. 06 Glasgow, UK Nice & Sleazy
05. 07 Sheffield, UK The Harley
05. 08 Leeds, UK Brudenell Social Club
05. 10 Amsterdam, Netherlands De Nieuwe Anita
05. 12 Berlin, Germany Spex Festival
05. 13 Copenhagen, Den03.k Rust
05. 14 Stockholm, Sweden Debaser
05. 15 Malmo, Sweden Debaser
05. 20 Lisbon, Portugal ZDB
05. 21 Porto, Portugal Plano B