Ducked Tapes

DT Probes… Ecstatic Sunshine - an interview with Matt Papich

Ecstatic Sunshine is the project of Matt Papich and a revolving troupe of minstrels, based in Baltimore, USA. Their music defies description - it’s an intricate mix of looping psychedelia, noise and offset timing; it’s as subliminal as it is sublime. 

You can get an idea of the loose direction sound by looking at some of the fellow travellers on their label, Carpark Records - Dan Deacon, Beach House and Toro Y Moi to name just three. ES released their latest album Yesterday’s Work in December 2009, and it’s arguably their most accomplished and coherent to date. Here’s a suitably tripped out video for one of the tunes, Conch:

Ecstatic Sunshine are doing a full US and Europe tour this summer, and are playing at Ducked Tapes’ own night at The Basement, York on July 21st 2010.

Anyhow…

Here’s DT’s interview with Matt Papich of Ecstatic Sunshine.

DT: Your songs have such intricate texture to them, so much delicate, and, for want of a better word, psychedelic stuff going on - yet it all feels very deliberate. How does your writing process work for something like this?

Matt: I think what your hearing is the amount of attention paid to individual sounds. At every step of the process - from building loops, to tracking, to placing the sounds and recording them in rooms - I’m trying to stay tuned in to each sound, to keep hearing it, and to reduce it to it’s most unique form. This is done with nearly every sound in the songs; guitar, percussion, melodic synthesizers, and discreet synthesized sounds all get equal attention. It’s a way to build something that is hyper-real, or at least attempts to be, and I think hyper-reality and the psychedelic are related in some ways.

DT: The songs are instrumental, but I do still feel that there’s something definite being communicated in each track. Do you have something certain in mind when you’re writing or playing, or is it more moments of ‘free-expression’? 

Matt: No, I don’t really have something certain in mind when I’m beginning, but I’m looking for something specific or definite. I’ll generally mess with an instrument, like a synthesizer let’s say - work on a patch and develop it until it pops or resonates and forms a kind of identity. Its about hearing some realness amongst abstraction, which really isn’t a fresh idea - you could say the same for a lot of modernist painters..

DT: I’ve read a lot about your gradual picking up of more and more technology as ES progressed. What gear’s really getting you going at the moment?

Matt: Recently I’ve been lucky enough to get to use an old Lexicon Prime Time delay. Its has a very cool early dancehall kind of sound when you route percussion through it. I also think Korg Kaoss pads are a really amazing cheap tool that is poorly used a lot of the time, but can be so good, and very simple. 

DT: Do you think that it’s been important that you ‘grew into’ technology rather than start at a technologically advanced point? I guess what I’m getting at is, do you think if you’d had access to all these computer programs etc… at the beginning, ES would’ve turned out for better or for worse?

Matt: Well, it’s hard to say. I’m just using the technology that has been arousing. Our recordings may have sounded better, or maybe they’d just be kind of flat. Either way, its all about finding the sound that is most relevant at the time, for the shows or for the records - working with what is available, exploring it, trying to make it contemporary.

DT: Do you have any particular ethos about recording in terms of analog or digital, or do you just go with whatever sounds right for the particular record?

Matt: No real ethos. A lot of times I’ve used both analog and digital. It makes sense to use a mixture of those qualities - because we’re always hearing all the types of recorded sound, we don’t listen to just contemporary music (hopefully), and we don’t necessarily listen to just one format of music. I hope to produce recordings that are flexible enough to reflect this.

DT: You’ve often spoken about your love of photography and taking pictures on tour. Do you think work in other artistic media has influence, and perhaps helped, you as a musician?

Matt: Completely. In part because if you keep a diverse practice, you also keep a diverse lexicon. Ecstatics as a project has been very heterogeneous, sonically, aesthetically, and also in terms of players. I think most importantly, ES started in a completely conceptual framework, as part of a class at the Maryland Institute College of Art called Parapainting, taught by the poet Jeremy Sigler. So, if you look all the way to it’s inception, the project has always been in bed with the better sides of the arts.

DT: You’re from Baltimore, a place with a rich musical heritage (Ian MacKaye, ‘nuff said) and some really exciting contemporary artists such as Dan Deacon. How has living in Baltimore shaped ES’s sound and musical outlook?

Matt: Baltimore is one of the more reality based cities in the US, unlike New York which is market based, or LA which seems primarily imaginary. If you live here and are tuned in you can have a very actual life. It is a city in a basic form. So it lends a kind of primary and minimal environment. I think that environment is the one that is most important to me now, whereas in the past, the influence was mostly coming from the scene and peers.

DT: Which bands or artists are making the music that’s exciting you the most right now? Is there anyone you’d really like to work with or do a split with? 

Matt: New electronic music from the UK is getting a lot of play for me right now. Mount Kimbie and James Blake are making really gorgeous and contemporary sounds to my ears. I also like the new To Rococo Rot record, in terms of the gestures it makes towards band dynamics along with loop based composition. I’d love to work with Vladislav Delay, I’d really just be watching the working though.  

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

Matt: It just takes time. Ultimately that is what is valuable, and if you can increase the value of your time, or the time you own, whether it is by making music or art or otherwise, then you’re really beginning to acquire more or better time, which is all I think of really wanting anyway.

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

Matt: Charlie Brown for sure. He’s like the John Cage of cartoons.

DT retrospective… Daedelus @ The Basement, York

In a bid to make absolutely zero content ourselves, DT is to feature reviews of shows by the artists themselves. They’re constrained to one word - it’s kind of like the worst Thesaurus in the world.

Today we have Daedelus telling us about his show at The Basement, City Screen, York on 26th October 2009 - yes it’s been slow getting up. He used more than one word, but he’s just so lovely we’ll let him off.

DT: Can you sum up your gig at The Basement, York in one word?

How else but “Fantastic”, or perhaps “Intimately-Rollicking” but that sounds a bit dirty, let’s just say it was a fun surprise all around.

Thanks to Jade Blood for her photo from the show.

DT probes… Daedelus - an interview with Alfred Darlington

Daedelus is Alfred Darlington of Los Angeles. His tunes have an infectious groove that make you want to dance and be merry. For the uninitiated and the devout alike, the only real way to do Daedelus justice is by seeing him perform live - DT can’t give you that, so check this…



There’s also a slew of very pretty videos to his tracks, one of the most popular of which is this little ditty.



Daedelus is currently working on an LP, Bespoke, for his own Magical Properties label, and an EP for Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder.

Daedelus is currently plodding round the United States with Nosaj Thing and Jogger in tow, and will be completing a European tour in the Spring (we’ll get the dates up when we find out!). Alfred also graced The Basement in York for a very special small-scale gig promoted by one of DT’s own in October 2009 - see his reaction above.

Anyhow…

Here’s DT’s interview with Daedelus. We find out what inspired him to set up his label Magical Properties, how pirates gave him a helping hand and why being hungry is sometimes a good thing…

DT: You recently set up your own record label, Magical Properties, releasing some rather wonderful tracks by Jogger. What inspired you to set up your own label?

Like so many others I am passionate person when it comes to music, and it is frustrating to hear good musicians who are hording their sound. The duo Jogger certainly fell into this category, having worked with them on some of my previous recordings, I was frustrated by their quality of music, but lack of output. Of course they were just trapped like many a young artist in the old conundrum of “you can’t release music unless you’ve had a release”, so at certain point when push comes to shove you have to bite the bullet be part of a solution. And I would have started Magical Properties for this reason alone, but of course there are other more esoteric reasonings as well; I don’t need to bore your readers with.

DT: You’ve released some great collaborative records, such as with your wife as The Long Lost and as Adventure Time with Frosty. Do you have any other joint records or tracks in mind or anyone you’re particularly keen to release with?

I do have dream collaborations, most I should not speak on or like a birthday wish they won’t come true. But I can say I have had the good fortune of working closely with some talented emcees, and I’d like to delve further into a LP in that context someday, or perhaps a talented instrumentalist, like a piano player or stringed instrument. All hopes for the future to have another LP released much less such wonderful options.

DT: Playing live your shows are really intense, centering around your interaction with the monome. When you’re working in the studio do you have in mind how the track will work live or do you just focus on the mood you’re trying to communicate?

Over time it has become more difficult to separate the two situations. I try to be true to the song so to speak in the studio, but the thrill of what might happen live has me thinking about combinations a lot. Hopefully it is all expressive enough to have room for lots of different ideas or else either or both will become boring and stale.

DT: Your music is an intricate pattern of sounds, noises and samples not quite like anything else I’ve heard. How do you go about constructing a track in the studio?

As in the above question this idea of paying the song’s due, being somehow true to it (as silly as that sounds) is paramount. So whatever sample is needed, however frivolous or complicated it’s worth pursuing. This might not sound so very composerly an attitude, but I think this prevents corruption by my own frequent doubts.

DT: Los Angeles is so rich with music at the moment. How do you feel that living in the LA area has affected the development of your sound?

Not immune to the pushy beats and bass that Los Angeles has become so well known for, but of course it dates back further when LA’s Central ave. Jazz scene was hot, or the Sunset Strip rocking so hair-metal hard. LA is quite a musical heritage to try and ingest. Like a deal with the devil it offers so much but often seems to require a lot as well. The city does eat people on occasion.

DT: The Low End Theory is famous worldwide. Do you feel that you’re part of a ‘scene’ there? Do you think that this has affected your sound at all?

LET is an incredible night, certainly a focal point for this “Beat” scene, and quite a crazy collection of people celebrating bass and beats. Just having those wonderful 800 or so ears listening changes things, you can’t go play there without stepping it up. It probably singlehandly change my sound for the harder. That is weird to write, but it’s true.

DT: You spent some time in London in your youth and were exposed to rave music - did this change your music in terms of your goal or the creative process at all? Or did it have a different effect?

In 1992 I spent a very brief two days in London before for Wales with my family. At that time I accidentally tuned into some pirate radio and the sounds completely captivated me. I had been previously exposed to Rave music, but if you can imagine this, totally unmixed tunes and without a voice toasting across the top of it. So it was like hearing it anew and wonderfully so. All I wanted to do was make those feeling I had for that sound, but at that time I thought I was going to be a jazz musician, quite a different mix. So eventually those feelings won and I stopped trying to play jazz and start making my own pursuitful electronic sounds.

DT: Who are some of your favourite artists and bands at the moment that we should be checking out?

Some real talents that are beginning to get some notice (or deserve far more) are Nosaj Thing, Teebs, KidKanevil, Illumisphere, Dibiase, Ras G, Mr. Gasparov, Baths, Samiyam, but there are so many more…

DT: At what point were you able to give up employment to focus solely on your music? Do you have any tips on how to effectively manage music making when faced with having to work for a living?

Best piece of advice I’ve recieved is prepare to be hungry. Be so singular in your focus not to care if money is made and you’ll have a sucessful career no matter. Things sometimes work out, and around 8 years ago I made music my full time employer and have been ok or better ever since. Sometimes there will be a lean month but it is good to be hungry in this music game.

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

My Neighbor Totoro is a good one. That insane grin is Alice In Wonderland without the menace.