Monday, June 14, 2010

EIC'S10Q'S w/Lovesliescrushing

"..the only thing disappointing about this band is the fact that they aren't immortal. I don't ever want this music to stop.."


Lovesliescrushing
Immersed Milieu

Lovesliescrushing Bio:
In the winter of 1991 Scott met Melissa, after she stalked him for a month. They went out on a date on suggestion of a mutual friend and became a couple immediately. Tired of borrowing everyone else's 4 track, Melissa bought Scott a 4 track, reverb, and a delay pedal. He helped her by convincing her to drop out of law school.

The early material consisted of instrumental guitar pieces, a continuation of early experiments Scott had been doing since '89. Melissa did not consider herself a strong vocalist, because of this she did not sing on the tracks. Scott had a few friends attempt to sing but was frustrated with the lackluster results. Melissa finally volunteered her services, she added one pass of vocals to a new song, the track was "Valerian", it was perfect. The band was born proper. Months later Melissa and Scott left the cold climes of Michigan and the burgeoning Space Rock scene to drive across the country in search of a home. they stopped once they got to the desert expanse of Tucson and started anew.

Debuted in April 93 at the beautiful noise festival, met Sam Rosenthal and signed to Projekt soon after.

The seminal debut album, "Bloweyelashwish", was recorded in a cramped Tucson apartment, a useless mini-fan blowing on a half naked body drenched in sweat. The music was a mix of polarities, delicate crystalline notes, light blurry swathes of sound, slathered in thick slabs of fuzzy distortion. guitars deconstructed to emulate tiny Chinese music boxes, and jet engine roar. Spinning swirls of melody, loops galore.
lovesliescrushing became notorious for crafting beautifully strange music using only a 4 track, voice, guitar and effects.

One of the largest misconceptions about Lovesliescrushing concerns their music itself. People mistakenly assume that they use keyboards or synthesizers to create their otherworldly sound, the music is created with just voice and guitar.

Scott uses a combination of techniques, both lo-fi and digital, to create a unique sonic palette. he is fond of mutating the guitar till it is barely recognizable, regarding it as a mere tone generator. He also utilizes various methods and materials for preparing the guitar. Scott has been known to abuse his guitars with chopsticks, rubber bands, nails, knives, forks, vibrators, paintbrushes, or metal rulers to bow strings,anything to change the timbrel quality. The digital methods are a recent development and are used primarily for arranging tracks and minor treatments, most of the sonic alterations occur before it is committed to the hard drive.


Hello again, how have you been?
I am doing well, this is a good year, off to a great start, working on several releases at once.

What are you currently listening to?
Natural Snow Buildings

You rarely do shows under the moniker Lovesliescrushing, but you recently did one at a smaller venue in Michigan. Why there? And how was that show?
We played the show because it was in Melissa's hometown, so easy for her to perform at. Logistics is the thing that sort of limits our touring ability sometimes because she has small children.
The venue was terrible in a musical sense, but great in a brewery, drink alcohol, sense. I think it would have been a better show if it was just us drinking beer, mic that and process it. We sounded good and there were 5 people there to see us play, so one of the worst places I have ever played, it would have been better to play in the subway. I am still glad we performed for those 5 though.

Girl Echo Suns Veils”, your “b-sides/unreleased” LLC material has FINALLY seen the light of day. Was that a constant struggle to put that together?
Yes, it was a trial to get going, the idea for it has been around since 1999. The music has been done for years, but just couldn't seem to get the right things lined up to make it happen. That seems to be the problem with all Lovesliescrushing music, we have hours and hours of music but the releasing part, the getting it out there part, that is the problem. I will try the Aidan Baker approach and just get everything out, he is a music machine. I had the art done in 2007 and then that fell apart and I had to redo the artwork. it actually turned out better than I thought, the new artwork I mean.
The music is culled from old tapes, material that wouldn't fit on the past discs and needed a home. So most of it was recorded between 1991 and 1995, the most recent was 'Aviatrix' which was started in 1997 and then finished in 2000. So yes most of this material has been waiting years to finally come out. I like how contemporary it sounds, was rather surprised by that actually.
I am really happy with the musical climate now, I mean when llc started there were only a few labels that I was sending stuff too. Now there are tons of labels doing this sort of ambient music, I mean tons, I remember when punk broke, but when it did ambient/drone break through like a flood.
I sent a demo tape to SLUMBERLAND and PROJEKT records in 92, and I was going to send out more when PROJEKT responded, so I stopped sending out demos. I would have sent something to KRANKY if they had been around in 92 but they weren't, so that makes me sad. I hope to still get something out on them in the future because a lot of my friends and favorite bands our on there. Low, Bowery Electric, Lichens, Windy and Carl, Jessica Bailiff...

I love that the whole project was handmade, not only have you poured your heart into the music, but the artistic packaging as well. Why “birds”, visually what do those symbolize?
I am a visual artist first, drawings, paintings, collages, films and videos. I have been making large collages for some time now and I have been incorporating bird images into my own new works. The art on the CD was an extension of that. I can't pin down a singular meaning to the bird imagery because the birds are rich with many possible interpretations. But if i were to say one, I would go with their natural primal musical characteristics and how they suggest the spiritual as well, the soul.
I also liked them for the design aspects, they are a good analog for the music, simple, beautiful, minimal and then abstracted through process, classic.
Another thing, it is very different from anything we have done before and for PROJEKT as well, I wanted something that would set us apart and I think we accomplished that very well, although we are already pretty set apart. I am thankful to Sam for seeing the potential with that, he is very supportive of the craziest ideas.
The whole aesthetic of our style is lo-fi, handmade, not very polished, grown, collaged, noisy, dirty, and I think the art reflects that. The original art was lovely abstract photographs but that would have been the typical way for us to go. I am glad we went in this completely new direction.

What’s your favorite track on the album and why?
It would have to be a track that represents us the best, hmmm. At the moment "Crwth" and "Chorus" are my favorite because they are so iconoclastic within the whole LLC bliss canon. It doesn't remind me of anything else except for maybe Eno's "Music For Airports", or Jehn Cerron/Eyelight, she does lovely ambient voice stuff.

I heard a while ago that you were going to re-release “Chorus” through the label 12K, is that still happening?*
"Chorus" was re-released on 12k/LINE on March 15 and has been generating a great deal of positive buzz. I think people are finally getting us. They have almost sold out of it and I am happy with that too. Sad that it was finished in 2005 and took so long to come out, but it needed the right label for it. We needed to be seen in a new way and we achieved that thanks to Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree.
I have been a fan of that label for years, so when Richard Chartier contacted me asking for a copy of "Chorus", I freaked out. We then talked on the phone and I asked if he would like to release it domestically and he said yes. Awesome. This has turned out a lot better than I had expected, it gives LLC a credibility that it was lacking.
*Editors Note: "Chorus" was not out at the time this interview was conducted.

I have to know have, have you ever just sat alone in your living room with the lights out and watched a movie on mute while adding your on score/fx?
Yes, someone wants me to score a documentary soon, and I am also talking with someone about getting on a motion picture soundtrack.
I am also working on a project where I redo the soundtrack to David Lynch's "Dune", the Toto music is bullshit, worst thing I have ever heard. Brian Eno's parts are great of course, but TOTO? Please, who dropped that ball there?

What’s next for LLC?
Re-branding. I think the next step is better exposure for us, and the end to obscurity. We are sort of like dark matter, we are there hiding in the fabric of things and have had influence and pull despite the fact that we have been invisible for the two decades. I just hope we have left an impression on music, on other bands, I hope we have had some influence.
It is funny, because all the new music that I am releasing is being pulled from tapes that go further and further back, I am almost to the stuff I did in high school.
Well, I spoke to Melissa the other day and we both came to the conclusion that LLC was like outsider 'Shoegazey' Ambient/Drone. Things have made us invisible, we don't have a real website or strong Internet presence, we are obscure. People thinking we were GOTH really hurt us, it almost broke up the band and made us not release anything for years. there are a few people who said as much in reviews and I will punch them on sight. I think people have finally figured it out, which is why we are enjoying better critical praise now.
Back in 93 we didn't really fit in anywhere. Now, there are about 20 labels that I can think of that want to release our music. The terrain has changed, and I am really happy to be in these new lands, to be cartographers of dreamscapes. Sometimes I feel like LLC went on a intergalactic journey at light speed and when we returned two decades later music was more amicable to our ears but we hadn't really changed that much.

Thanx Scott & Melissa!

Lovesliescrushing are currently scoring films and possibly (hopefully) releasing a new album soon...

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