song: lancelot
song: final (mille neuf cent)
age ten
by mikrosopht. photos by trevor hoff.
hello hello and what is your artist name and what is your agenda if you have one
my name is agent n and i like to make noisy bits
what attracts you to the noisey side of the audio spectrum precisely
because it makes people think you are dangerous. and in fact you are.. you know, Audio Terrorism and all that.
what sort've emotions exactly do you put into the tracks, and what do you want the listener to get out of it
emotional content of music is very important to me. but often i like to trigger it without the use of melody. if i do use melody it usually isn't very intricate or complex. instead of expressing emotions i like to provoke and experience of an emotion. so in a track i will construct the form so as to surprise the listener or lull him/her into a trance. i think minimalism is a very emotional music because it gives the listener a false sense of security through repetition and then knocks it all out from under their feet. i like to evoke emotion through techniques like that instead of through melody (which is not to say that melody is not important).
what do you think of music that relies heavily, if not entirely upon melodic forms
i have alot of respect for it, but it is kind of hard to figure out how much the music is relying on melody. i think it is hard to determine how much the melody of a song affects you as opposed to the form (like that whole thing about separating the message from the medium). i think it is harder to make really interesting music that relies heavily on melody. like plaid, for example, is mostly melody and rhythm.. very musically complex and conceptually simple. and yet they consistently come out with tracks that hold my attention (even though they are not my favorite).
then there are cats like bogdan, who can drop a melody that will just kill me. however, the melody by itself would not have nearly as much power as the melody in context of bogdan's music. like his whole persona changes the way you think about his music.. and combining beautiful melodies with 250 bpm superhard beats somehow affects the melody. so i don't really think bogdan relies heavily on melody.. more like melody within that bogdan-context.
what about beats,, you use simple beats then or are beats beside the point
i love beats. our generation was raised on beats. they don't have to be crazy complex, but they can't be too simplistic. i feel similarly about melody and beats. i believe they can have the same amount of emotional content, even though beats are more about energy. i usually make the beats first when doing songs, so they are important to me. i use hard beats, mostly drum n bass/idm inspired. i usually have a separate track for each drum part and just make like 12 tracks each with one sound doing something different. then i switch between them all throughout the song, changing the texture and whatnot. but yeah, beats are key. like imagine the rdj album without beats.
so what other artists that u havent already mentioned do you enjoy listening to the most
other than bogdan and aphex, kid606, nobukazu takemura, squarepusher, suicide, datach'i, muslimgauze, ovuca, velvet underground, cex, sonic youth .. loads of others
if you had only one choice of sandwhich that you had to eat for lunch every day of the year, one choice of cereal for breakfast, and one dish for dinner, what would they be, respectively
turkey / bacon / meltedmunster / cranberrysauce / sheddsauce / spinach / tomato / onion / salt / pepper on rye, cracklin oat bran, and mako grilled on my george foreman cooker
you have the time ? let me know when is good.
i got time right now
cool. how about a recap then..
wait. let's both make some tea. so it can be like we are having tea toegether and doing the interview
i *am* making tea.
haha great. i can talk about glitch-core too
tell me about glitch core if you will
recently i have been interested in screamcore/screamo/noisecore bands like black dice, the vida blue, inkwell, and other bands like that who use real screaming for vocals. so my friend sings in a screamo-type band, and so for a recent piece i recorded his vocals and worked them in with some noisy bits i made on a Serge modular synth from the 50s or something. and so my new project is to combine the aesthetic of screamcore and noisecore with the aesthetic of glitch, idm, and electroacoustic music. i think it could be really powerful. and pretty brutal as well.
do you usually go into writing music with a plan as yo what youre going to write or do you just start writing, and is that track by track or album by album or artist by artist, etc..
i have been taking this class on electroacoustics, and so i am learning all about the early electronic composers. people like vladimir ussachevsky would compose and prepare the entire piece before even touching the equipment, and after he knew what he wanted to do he would go construct it. i myself could never do that, however. most of my tracks start by me messing around in soundedit making fun sounds, and eventually making some sound that i think is interesting or capabale of forming the base for a song. so then i just take that one sounds which i happened upon and add sounds to it until i get a full track. i rarely get an idea for a whole track without actually being at my computer working on some sounds.
the early electronic guys like ussachevsky were disgusted when the moog keyboard came out because it allowed people to mess around with electroacoustic sound without planning ahead. before someone attached a keyboard to a synthesizer almost all electronic music had to be planned out before it was executed. and i would have a real hard time doing that, i think.
have you played (m)any live shows ?
my dog just got sprayed by a skunk. i can barely breathe. i have to get out of here
ok i am still writing my answer, but i will send it in a sec
well send it when youre done. yeah. and then we will continue another time. civit cat maybe.
no, actually vent.east is the only live electronic show i have played, partly because of laziness and partly because of lack of interest. i enjoyed vent.east very much, and i would like to perform more, but it always seemes kind of silly to actually perform electronic music. at vent i tried to do something else than just mixing between the sound files. so i tried to have sections where i would construct soundscapes by layering audio loops on my computer. and then i would fuck with my radio and microcasette and microphone and effects etc. and that was all fun, and i was pretty satisfied with how it came out, but i still much prefer just creating a song to exist objectively, outside the realm of performance. but i am still going to try to play more shows soon, so i can give away my demo cds.
We
Me
The
Le
Pay
Neigh
Odelay
Slow Relay
great auntie fay
Gradient Decay
applebitsouped up smokin onna j
Torchbearer Janet Whitesell! Torchbearer Janet Whitesell! Torchbearer Janet Whitesell!
so whats up with this new fangled demo cd im hearing about from all corners of the earthen tribal nations
I've just finished my first demo, titled 'Staple Pie'. It's 10 tracks, 30 minutes, has some experimental stuff, some noise, some beaty-type tracks, and a track endeavouring into 'glitch-core' with my friend Trevor contributing some screamy vocals. I will have the mp3s posted at http://www.columbia.edu/~ned20, and I will be selling cds for, like, a dollar, to cover shipping costs. If anyone wants one, they can email me
why did the chicken cross the road
Maybe it was pressured by the other chickens.
do you feel like you have to fit in at all
in what sense?
sight and sound
Well, I fit into my eyes quite comfortably, but I wish there was more room in my ears.
do you use q tips often? how many times a week
Everyday, in order to hear sounds clearly.
how many times a day then
Depends on how much sound goes on.
if you had a line what would it be
It would be infinitely long, drawn with black pen.
that's deep or shallow
Both, my man.
do you enjoy monotonous variability or bad english use or substantial linear crooked cop abusing chimpanesian acne ridden ballsac wack macs of cheese and boards
You are viewing this project through a million eyes. A deer's head on the wall, a Bible on the shelf.
what about laurence fishington. i think
Graves are drinking humans. Don't despair despair.
i am having trouble digesting said ingredients. did you know
Maybe? Did I? Did you?
whats a takataii or katachii
Katachi is the Japanese word for, I think, 'form', 'composition', 'space', and other concepts like that. And I may be completely wrong on that, but that's what I vaguely remember. I got this fantastic book of black and white photographs of Japanese design, from wooden combs to rock gardens. It is called Katachi.
if youre wrong will it bother you at all
what if it means dog pooping out small potatos
zez
If only I spoke Japanese.
do you speak latino
No, man, I speak English for some reason.
do you like to abuse english
Yes! More than anything. Except for reading abused English.
< or >
Seeing abused English?
eat beans or rice to make shivering timberly fnuk nice
Oil paintings, coffee, milk, rice, leaves, tin, cardboard, electric lights, water, ink, protein, alcohol, oxygen, mahogany, fruit, glass, pulp, bread, love, soap, herbs, bass, leather. That's what I meant to say.
if you had applesuds all about your infirmary then would they resonate increasing geometric swivel chairs
Listen to this: "The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough." That's from Ezra Pound.
thats nice. are we friends
We are so much.
dollar dollar bill yall or hayeyeyayyyy cjsojs osfj moneayyyy
Aw shit. You know it.
is your name dj applesud? whats wrong with your voice are you sick
No, I am just afraid. Wait, feel my head, do I have a temperature?
i dont know, do you have a head ?
It feels like it.
so when youre 67 are you gunna write a dollar
I'll give you a dollar if you take those videos outta my interview.
they were never in it
alright fresh
are you ready for ninja class
My friend, it is nearing ten o'clock and I have to go find a plan in the night air and execute it. I failed ninja class.
bye
no, wait, want to finish the interview?
what happened
I grew old.
the end
I'm still old.
bloody nose bb
We will never know less. I would like to thank Ben, for giving me the chance to be a big star, and my mom, for having me. age ten wants to send file DSCN0989.JPG.
mikrosopht received DSCN0989.JPG.
age ten wants to send file DSCN1035.JPG.
mikrosopht received DSCN1035.JPG.
age ten wants to send file DSCN1043.JPG.
mikrosopht received DSCN1043.JPG.
age ten wants to send file DSCN1123.JPG.
mikrosopht received DSCN1123.JPG.
ok, do with those what you will. and can you put
photos courtesy of Trevor Hoff
i have applesuds
you do know that my name is Age Ten, not Agent N, right?
now i do, and thats half the battle.
note: now under the alias knifestorm
knifestorm website