Saturday, December 31, 2016

The Mystere in Aggressive Aesthetics: a discussion with Heather Gabel of Chicago's HIDE

Chicago electronic/industrial duo HIDE shatters the air like glass. In their live shows, with freeze-frame strobe lights shuttering the stage and obscuring your view, Heather Gabel stands tall and shrouded with layers of snug-fitting black clothing, with her gritty lower-tone vocals alongside Seth Sher, who dominates his synths and drum machines performing clandestinely in the stage fog. Like a dangerous liaison, we want to participate — with anticipation and a little bit of fear. This is her first personal musical manifestation as she is known for her graphic designs for bands such as Rancid and Joan Jett. She also was married to Laura Jane Grace- formerly known as Tom Gabel, of the punk rock outfit Against ME!.  So she's not exactly new to the scene, just with this project. 

1-2-3-4 Go! Records show 2015 photo courtesy Ben Sizemore

The pair has only played in the Bay Area a handful of times thus far: Two years ago at Slim's and at at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records in Oakland and earlier in 2016 with the local ethereal noir duo Silence in the Snow at the Elbo Room followed by a second appearance in the east bay. Micah Danemeyer, one of our community's beloved mutants who was lost in the Ghost Ship fire, described them to me as "hard as nails" and said that their live show was "something to aspire to" when we were discussing HIDE at one of his own curated experimental dungeon raves, Obscura Machina. I interviewed Heather Gabel over the phone early this fall of 2016 while I was house sitting in Oakland.  I sat in the living room with walls decorated with hand painted portraits of zombies and shelves full of horror films. Gabel had just returned to Chicago from tour a few days before our phone call that afternoon.  




So you got a chance to perform at the Cold Waves festival [in Chicago] this year alongside Front 242 and Meat Beat Manifesto. That seems like an incredible fest to be at, let alone perform at.  

It was great! We played first … there were no other girls on the bill, which I thought was weird.


There rarely is.


It was a good time. I felt like I was in rare form. I was glad to be representing females, but also it was kind of annoying. [Cold Waves] do a good job of mixing new bands with old bands and they're picky, in a good way, about the curation of the sounds. So I get that if something doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. I don't know why I even noticed! Chicago has a rich history of industrial and there is always cool new shit going on. It never went away. 


I can see that. In the industrial realm, it's often a boys' club. 


I feel like in the underground there's a pretty strong queer presence, but I guess it's not like that everywhere. 


It seems like in the Bay Area there is definitely a resurgence of the darkwave/industrial genre. For a few years it was on a sort of garage, lo-fi, indie kick, and then this undertow of post-punk started taking hold. Needless to say, I was pleased about that!


Yeah! I used to live in Oakland and I would go to Dark Sparkle, but that place is gone now! I don't remember what venue it was at [Ed. Note: It was at Cafe du Nord], but it was great: you would go downstairs and it was like you were going into this French living room. I grew up in Detroit mostly and moved to Chicago to finish art school and then I moved to Oakland in 2003. Then I ended back up in Chicago about three years ago, just when the band started. 


How did HIDE start?


Originally it was three people: myself, my current bandmate Seth, and Brett Naucke. Brett is an electronic musician who was doing modular synth stuff and he was rad. Seth originally was a drummer, so this is his first band not doing drums. Seth wanted to do something different. He had just moved back here from Providence. Brett wanted to do a project and I wanted to do a project. I had never been in a band before. I'm a visual artist mostly, but I wanted to sing in a band, so I started singing in a band with them! Hahaha! Didn't know what the fuck I was doing! It was hard for all of us to get together to practice, though. Brett was getting really busy and it was easier for me and Seth to make the time, even though I had a daughter on top of that. The scheduling got kind of hairy, trying to get three people together. Brett had an album coming out that he was focusing on, so we sort of parted ways with him, and then Seth and I put out three singles and just started practicing and playing way more. A year later we did our full U.S. tour. 


photo courtesy by Carm from HIDE's Facebook page

So the Elbo Room was a part of this tour?


Yep, that was the last part of the tour. We had our EP come out. That was released in April. We toured a little bit in the East Coast. Then took a little break because I have a daughter. Then we went out again for the West Coast part. That tour was to support the EP called Flesh for the Living on the label Midwich. Jim Magas put it out. 


I really loved your show at the Elbo Room. It was really interesting because when you came out and did your first set, I thought about what my friend Micah (Obscura Machina) had said about you guys: "Hard as nails!" Your vocal style is kind of androgynous and your presence had this whole mystery. You were visually and emotionally captivating.


Thank you! It's pretty common for people to not know my gender when I'm performing. It's not something that I set out to do consciously, but a lot of what I am writing about and a lot of my inspiration comes from my own relationship with equal rights and gender identity and the way that those two things define who you are in society, the ideas that people have about you based on your gender. I'm pretty tall and I do have a deeper voice. I'm pretty into it. I think it's pretty interesting that people can't gender me. Not that I am interested in people trying to, but I do think it's cool that they can't right away, because it really doesn't matter if I'm male or female. I feel some sort of success in myself that my energy is not specifically female or male, because that isn't exactly how I feel — either female or male. I think that what a lot of people are responding to is the aggressive nature of the performance is maybe not energy that would readily equate with a woman. There are tons of powerful frontwomen, but I think maybe (the performance) is the throw off. 

photo courtesy Brooklyn Vegan

People are left in this suspended state of judgement … you came out with this sort of shroud, this veil over your face, and you're very tall and I couldn't tell if you were a she or a he but then I thought, "Oh, right, who cares? Why am I even wondering?" Maybe I was thinking it because you had such a mysterious persona.


 We're defininelty playing with (that concept) with the band name, the veil, the strobe lights; giving you "snips" of what's going on. Definitely trying to put the viewer in a place that is a little bit disorienting. 


Yes! Exactly. It's very cinematic. When did the strobe lights come into play? Have they always been there?


That's always been there! I'm kind of an insane person when it comes to the aesthetic because I am a visual artist and that's what I do. From the get-go I had this "black and white" vision, this stripped down thing that leaves more up to the viewer. Seth is a fog freak. I saw him play before and him using so much fog that I couldn't even tell that he was in the band. He over-fogs! But sometimes it works!

From the beginning — and knowing what we were and what we wanted people to get out of the live show — this is what we came up with: very minimal and something that we can easily control and it doesn't take up a lot of space and we don't need someone else to do it for us. We tour in my car and the light fits in the car and it's all good! We opened for Marilyn Manson for a couple weeks on our first tour [in 2014]. It was cool because we were playing really big places and [could] totally control the space and draw it down. In a basement or in a huge theatre, we can still sort of take people out of the space with the space that we are creating. 


Plus, you don't have to get anxiety about some guy trying to pull off this "look" for you and then you're getting distracted and all of that dumb avoidable stuff!

Our second or third show someone put a spotlight on me and I was so horrified! All the lights were up and the strobe was on, too, and I just turned around. I didn't know what to do. I had my eyes closed most of the time anyway, but I could definitely still tell the light was on me.


What were some of your musical influences for HIDE? Were you listening to something that sparked this? Have you always been into the industrial/darkwave scene?


 A lot of it has to do with it being Seth's first electronic project. First it was really about the drum programming, and I don't really like melody, so it became really stripped down. We figured out some sort of formula that works for us. Our first song we wrote and we really loved we realized, "Oh, shit, this is a CURE song already!" So we scrapped it and made something different. 

We have a lot of the same influences, Seth and I, but he's also really into high production and perfect sound and I like stuff that sounds like garbage. So we sort of have to come to our sound by accommodating and controlling (each others passions so to speak). He listens to everything! Metal, techno, all sorts of shit. He doesn't really like the stuff that I grew up with, the more traditional goth-industrial stuff. I mean, he does, but it's not what he grew up with. The common thread between what he likes and I like is aggression. There's some sample Seth wants to use and it's a Pantera riff, and then there's a Sisters of Mercy kick drum that I really like and we've sampled from. So we're coming from all different places. 


Well, it seems like coming from two opposite spectrums might make for something really interesting. Rather than just putting out another Ministry ripoff or Siouxsie ripoff. We want something new, but still in the same vein. 


Same spirit, but it's not "throw back-y" … that's just what we do and we play with all sorts of bands: punk, noise, whatever!

So I picked up your EP last time. Do you have other recordings in the mix? 


Yeah, we have a full length that was recorded in L.A. in February and we just finished the art for that LP. I'm pretty excited about it. I mean, this is my first band, so everything is pretty exciting for me!


I figured you were seasoned musicians!
 


Seth has been in bands for a long, long time, and I worked for touring bands for a long time. So we both have experience in that world, but it's new for both of us in a lot of ways. We don't really have expectations. We just say, "Let's make this song, let's play this show." And plus we do other creative things on the side. 


It's like a labor of love rather than banking on it as a sort of "career move" or putting these super high expectations on what should become of this project. If something happens, great! If not, well, at least it's something you enjoy doing. 


Yes, yes, exactly. Honestly, I love touring and I would love to go to Europe and I want to keep touring in the States. If this was my full time job ... I'm just not sure if I am interested in that. 


It seems a little gnarly. 


Yeah, it can fuck everything up, I'm sure. I did it throughout my twenties, touring nine or ten months out of the year. It was rad, but it is also a fake world, a non-reality. You can't really integrate healthy relationships into it. When you are touring, (your tour mates)  become your family. I don't feel that that life is rewarding for me, also that was me working for somebody else. If it was my band then I might feel differently about it, but I know how it can fuck with your head. 


Random people everywhere, no showers, sleep deprivation. Who knows! 


I do love the part about planning a few days off in-between shows to for some crazy hike or just go and do what we want to do. It is really enjoyable. 


There's lots of symbolism in the band's logo. Tell me about it! 


It is the eye of Horus, this ancient Egyptian evil eye sort of concept. I incorporated it into the letters of our band. If it you look at it closely, it spells out "HIDE"! 


So you're looking for a label to put out your full length, when is the next time you're coming to see us in the Bay? 



We're going to be back sometime in the summer, regardless if the record is out by then or not.



Keep on top of their tour dates for 2017 via Facebook!

Here's their Bandcamp  and their label Midwich for more info, music and merch!

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Leave the Drums, Add the Violin: Emilio Zef China and his tour life with Peter Murphy


                                                     

        I always go to see Peter Murphy. No matter what. It has become a kind of tradition for me — to bask in the ephemera of Bauhaus past and the more mystical, melodic routes that Murphy's solo career has taken. I love Peter Murphy and I love all the other projects that have stemmed from the Bauhaus collaboration sans Peter (i.e., Tones on Tail, Love and Rockets). Of course, it was fun to see Daniel Ash wail on the sax alongside Peter in Bauhaus back in the day. But it's also cathartic and exhilarative to see Murphy and his current lineup today with its variance in delivery.  

       Peter, Emilio Zef China (violin and bass), and John Andrews (guitar) performed their last West Coast show of the semi-acoustic "Stripped" tour at the Chapel in San Francisco on December 5, 2016. There were many eras to sample from as the mirror ball created a sparkly sky on the vaulted wooden ceiling of the Chapel. Prominent songs included "A Strange Kind of Love" (off 1989 album Deep) as well as the bass-driven "Indigo Eyes" from Love Hysteria  Revisiting some coveted Bauhaus moments with the stark and haunting "Bela Lugosi's Dead," the underdog single "King Volcano" from Burning from the Inside, and a rhythmic seduction of "Silent Hedges" from the 1982 album The Sky's Gone Out, he also ventured into some of this later works off the 2011 album Ninth, such as the heartfelt "Never Fall Out." 

      Emilio Zef China has been touring with Murphy as his accompanist on violin and bass for his solo work and his  "Mr. Moonlight" tour since 2011. As if Peter didn't already conjure feelings of nostalgia, pained romance, and darkness, Emilio adds to the emotional complexity with his instrumental mastery. Emilio and I got a chance to talk about his extensive musical past, his other collaborations — including his time with Genesis P-Orridge & Psychic TV — and what it's like to work with a man who, according to publications and fans alike, has been called the "Godfather of Goth." 
        

Emilio at The Chapel 12/5/16 photo courtesy of Todd Billeci


You've been touring for a while now with Peter Murphy. How does the "Stripped" tour   compare for you to the "regular" tours?  

We've been doing this all year, so this would actually be the third or fourth leg of  "Stripped." We recorded the New York shows this past April. Peter mixed the tracks in Turkey this fall, and from there will be releasing a live album of "Stripped" with John Andrews and myself. 

[The "Stripped" tour] is an opportunity to take the songs, old and new, and re-interpret them as a trio with acoustic and electronic elements. As there is not a percussionist, the drum role is often provided by acoustic guitar and other percussive elements in the music. It can be deep ambient and even symphonic, but it still rocks out when the song calls for it. For me, it is a lot more "viol-heavy." I use extended range violins with electronic treatments to create space in the songs.

How did this opportunity with Peter become available to you?

After working on Peter's album Ninth, a dear friend and producer/engineer, John Siket, called me up for a session in Woodstock with Peter, [The Dresden Dolls’] Brian Viglione, and John Andrews. I jumped at the chance. That was at the end of 2011 and at that time I was on the road with Nicki Minaj as a production manager.

A few months later I played acoustic guitar and violin with Peter on some radio shows in New York and an underground club show at the Delancey. Soon after that I was to join them for a tour when the bass player had to leave unexpectedly. I learned all the bass parts in three days and flew to London and joined the band. That was five years ago. 

Performing "Bela Lugoi's Dead" The Chapel 12/5/16 photo courtesy of  Peter Murphy's site

On top of working with the legendary Bauhaus figure, you also worked with Psychic TV. How did you get in touch with that project?

Psychic TV is through magikal connections. Always has been intentional. There are no accidents. Alice Genese [bass player of PTV] grew up around the corner from me in Hoboken and she is one of my best friends. The drummer, Edley ODowd, is also an old friend from the New York scene and his band Toilet Boys. Many roads have led me to Genesis. I'm on the album Hell Is Invisible... Heaven Is Her/e. I've toured with them on and off for a couple of years and nowadays I get to make appearances when possible. 

Did you grow up listening to Bauhaus? 

I grew up listening to lots of music. I didn't fit into any particular group stylistically, [I was] kind of all over the map. I remember hearing "Bela Lugosi's Dead" for the first time and really listening to it. I was stuck in traffic in a car and my mind was blown … [and then] of course, at 14 years old, one of the girls in our freaky high school crew rented The Hunger and that was the big event.

When we did the "Mr. Moonlight" tour in 2013, I had to learn most of the Bauhaus catalog. This had me basically studying their music, and David J in particular, for about a month. I studied and learned everything I could about his particular bass style, sound, and nuance. There is a particular psychic space and emotional charge to that music that is more than simply playing the parts. It is a bit like method acting, You need to find that place deep inside of you and use it, or what you're doing on stage is insincere. 

The Chapel 12/5/16 photo courtesy of Todd Billeci

You have been playing the violin since you were a wee lad,right? First time I saw you perform with Peter I was blown away! You really bring such an emotive edge through this medium. I think I probably watched you more than Mr. Murphy that night myself!

I started violin when I was 6. It was all I wanted to do at that age. Picked up a guitar by age 12 and I wanted to play rock 'n' roll. Fortunately at that time in my life my mother, who was a visual artist, had a lot of jazz musician friends and had parties at the house that included jam sessions. Meeting some of those guys helped me to realize that I could play the violin in a cool way as well as playing a guitar whatever way I was interested in doing. I just happened to be in a place where there were some great great improvisers and artists around. 

My oldest friend and partner, Mike Ill Kilmer, and I grew up together in Hoboken and I think we started a band at age 13. His mom was a piano teacher, so I think we first played music together at around 8 years old. We always wrote songs. Like everything else, stylistically it was all over the map. It was the '80s. We were listening to a lot of hip-hop (which was brand new at the time), Talking Heads, Blondie, Kraftwerk, reggae, classic rock, punk, R&B, and jazz. We got into recording, synthesizers, and technology early. We used play in the street in Times Square. I was doing violin through effects pedals and Mike was on synths. We were 15 or 16 years old, wearing ripped army jackets and we painted ourselves. [We were] playing improv/noisey/soundscape music. I met Grand Mixer DXT (Herbie Hancock's DJ from "Rockit") when I was playing on the street and went in the studio with him. I also played in the NYC kids’ jazz ensemble and at 16 got to perform with Herbie Hancock and Philip Glass, and I met Keith Haring, who painted my violin case. It was an amazing time to grow up in NY. We were exposed to so much emerging music and art (and everything else!).
      
We played every single instrument we could get our hands on. I'm better at some than others, but I like to think I can get some type of music out of whatever materials are available. I dropped out of high school at 16 and managed to go to Juilliard for a year and then the New England Conservatory for almost three, basically until we had a band (Sweet Lizard Illtet) and a record deal and we started really working. I was sharing a rehearsal space with Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, and Dinosaur Jr. Sonic Youth was always a major inspiration.

What locations have been the highlights for you this tour? Any favorite cities for you?

So many great cities and I get to return to some of them quite often. We played Tel Aviv recently and spent a day exploring the ancient city of Jerusalem. That had to be the highlight of this tour for me, historically and geographically.

How do you deal with the touring schedule? Seems intense! I know you've mentioned before you don't have a "normal" schedule
                 
Don't know what the fuck "normal" is. There is no normal, is there? Is weird the new normal? Tour life causes one to feel lonely, homeless at times, or just without foundation. It can drive you mad. Your tour colleagues become your family, with all that that entails. May be cliché to say, but it's really not as glamorous as it looks. Exhaustion, monotonous toil, day after day, all for that 90 minutes or so where we have the privilege to do what we love. The rewards are worth it, it's pure communication and light. It takes discipline to do this for a long time. It can be very taxing on all other aspects of your life. 

The last studio recording for Peter Murphy was Lion, right? Any other plans for future recordings?  

Of course. If you look at his career, he is very prolific and constantly doing new and beautiful things. I was fortunate to work on Lion with Peter and with Killing Joke's Youth. You can definitely look forward to the next chapter coming soon!
  


OK, so I must ask you what is "The Boss" like to work with? (You know we are all wondering!)

He's funny, spontaneous, quick-witted, and also quite refined, a mercurial being. We joke around a lot and have fun. We're a family and have seen each other through various highs and lows. He was there for me at the hardest time in my life when my mom passed away suddenly and we were deep into a European tour, loving like an older brother or a father even. 

One funny story I recall was when we did a show with Public Enemy in Mexico. Peter didn't really know them. Chuck D and Flavor Flav came in the dressing room, turns out they are huge fans. Flavor was very engaged with Peter, totally in character, clock around his neck and all! I couldn't stop laughing. They are heroes of mine. After they left, Peter turned and asked, "Is that Public Image? I thought John Lydon was in that band."

What an image! I noticed at past shows sometimes when that you don't always play "Cuts You Up" and showgoers are always sort of grumbly about this. Is there a reason why you don't always play this song? Burned out? Holding out? What are some of your favorites to perform? 

Hard to say, there are so many great songs and "Cuts You Up" is among them. He often decides in the moment what to do and what not to. A master of the stage. We do play it fairly often. I suppose it keeps you guessing, keeps you in suspense, and keeps you coming back.

(Some of my favorites are) "Strange Kind of Love," all the Bauhaus stuff, "Lion," "Your Face." I still get chills every time we play "Bela Lugosi's Dead." I have a blast playing all of it!

Outside of Peter Murphy, what do you enjoy doing in your off time? I know you also have many other music projects past and present you're working on. 

I live in NYC and in Los Angeles part time. I write and produce my own work as Zef Noise. My girlfriend and I bought an old dilapidated Victorian mansion in the forest about an hour outside of NYC ... it's a huge project and right now that's what I am most excited to do on my so-called downtime. 

Other bands and recordings include Sweet Lizard Illtet, Illness, Firewater, Moe, Backworld, Mad Happy, Psychic TV, Voltaire, Spy, J. Ralph, FAFU, Karsh Kale, Haunted Echo, Resident 51. Also, I  just finished a yoga/electro drone/gypsy Kirtan record called Bhujanga Sangha, which should be out soon. 

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For more info on Emilio's sounds check out his sound cloud here!

For more Info about Peter Murphy check it out here!



The Count! photo courtesy Todd Billeci


The top photo of Peter is also Todd Billeci of Noise Art. He takes beautiful photos and the caption on that one was so distracting. Check out his site! 
Again thanks to John Graham, Master Editor. 

Saturday, December 10, 2016

The Star that is just out of Range: an Interview with Edward Ka-Spel of The Legendary Pink Dots

         You are in a club — in an altered state of consciousness. Suddenly, a recognizable dance single penetrates the blur and haze. Colors vibrate as vintage synthesizers pulse. Overtaken by movement, for seven minutes you are lost. The song is from 1989 — a subversive cry against Thatcher’s England — and while you’re listening to “Blacklist,” you may not necessarily know that that is The Legendary Pink Dots, depending on which of their many albums you have been introduced to. 

      Their name is derived from the pink dots on one of the band’s keyboards and their stylistic range is beyond broad. Starting out in 1980, their albums experiment with everything from demented English acoustic guitar storytelling and gothy neo-psychedelia to abrasive industrial montages and avant-garde museum-core, with their early output tinged in post-punk essence. Sometimes this variance in genre can happen all on one album. The latest addition to their 40-record-plus discography, The Pages of Aquarius, was released earlier this year on Metropolis Records and induces more hypnotic and bizarre states of consciousness. 

    As you can see, the muse of singer, chief lyric writer, and keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel is never exhausted. In addition to LPD, he recently completed an album with Amanda Palmer, and in the past he has also collaborated with cEvin Key from Skinny Puppy (for their mid-’90s side project The Tear Garden) and many others. 

Edward Ka-Spel at the LPD show 10/15/16 at Thee Parkside (SF). Photo courtesy Todd Billeci

We interviewed Edward as he traveled through an unknown California desert during the western portion of the Legendary Pink Dots’ U.S. tour. 


So you’re touring for your new album. What’s going on with that and how did The Pages of Aquarius come about?


The album we just put out, The Pages of Aquarius, actually began about two years ago, when we started working on it. It was a whole process. That’s actually how long it took for us to finally decide earlier this year that it is finally there. Some songs are re-recorded. This is not one of those [projects] where we were extremely perfectionist about it dotting all the i’s and making sure it’s totally right. What do we get right after 35 years???! [Laughs.] But the theme is change, transformation. It’s starting in one place, a very earthly place, someone looking in the mirror and not liking what he sees and in the end basically ascending to nirvana. It’s very loosely combined but makes sense as a whole.


                                               "Mirror Mirror" from The Pages of Aquarius 




I understand the perfectionism side to creating your projects, but has this method (of not dotting all the i’s) been a new route for you?


I can’t hardly explain why it felt so important to us to go this way. I think we were all pretty excited about the advance in technology, the palette of sound that we can have access to. We can access difference shades that we never had at our disposal. Its kind of like going in to an ice cream shop and you want to taste it all. That’s basically what it felt like. We felt like we wanted to give it all because we felt like we never had such a choice. What is important to me, as the Pink Dots evolves, since we have been around for as long as we have, we never could stand to put out something that was merely “O.K.” — it would have to go a step further than the one before and of course the one before that would be our ultimate goal. You're always aiming higher. You always have to be that star that is just out of range. 


I heard that you did move from the U.K. because of all the political ugliness. I heard you live in Holland now? Society does look pretty ugly right now. 


Yes! It does look ugly. No, I moved back to the U.K. in 2011. I’m sad to say that the U.K. is in an uglier state than the U.S. right now. At least the monster that you have in the U.S. has to go at some point, but the monster that we have here we’re stuck with! It’s a very xenophobic, very harsh society and it’s promoted by the government. They’re borderline Nazis. [This] world is changing drastically, on an incredible level at an incredible rate. If you look at the big picture, it’s not in a good way, either. But I’m also an optimist at heart, though. I believe the world is still beautiful and it will always be beautiful — at least until I depart the planet, which hopefully won’t be too soon. 


OK, so you're back in the U.K. for now. However, you have been touring extensively forever. Do you ever get a break from that?


To be honest, it has slowed down in the recent years. For example, last year we only did a handful of European shows. Not so much, maybe twenty or something. It’s a choice. We wanted to step back and do some actual recording. There’s a lot of projects going on.


You have created a vast library of sounds with LPD: psych-rock, acoustic, minimal electronic, darkwave dance. Is this all based on your moods? Feelings of the day? Year?


Well, that’s the Pink Dot world. It is all of those things you just mentioned. and it’s a very tasty cocktail that just might blow your mind. I think it’s about presenting all the shades and all the moods you might have. It’s about looking deep into yourself to see just how much there is there. It’s not so much the mind as it is the soul. There’s a lot of humor in there, a lot of sadness in there, and a lot of joy. I suppose it’s all nuances, all shades and all the questions. It’s always about questioning. It’s always about exploring in one’s self. 

More Edward at the LPD show 10/15/16 at Thee Parkside (SF). Photo courtesy Todd Billeci

You cater to the dimensions of the spirit. That’s probably why you’re so prolific — because you have that range of emotion.


For instance, this set that we’re playing right now is probably the most confrontational set we have ever played. It’s quite extreme. Basically we start off with getting people in a nice mood and then we [chuckles] go off in a very interesting direction. But we have been getting good reactions! It seems to have been getting people talking. 


How is the U.S. portion of the tour going for you?


I would say it’s been the best part of the tour of the year, really. More people are showing up, they're enjoying it, they're taking it well. A lot of good feedback. The plan for the rest of the tour is to finish up the U.S. and then I’m going back to the U.K. and the rest of the guys are going back to Holland. I’ll take a rest for a little while. I still need to have time with my wife and my little girl. We have a few European Dots shows, then doing a few shows with Amanda Palmer. We will probably play in San Francisco for that show next year. It’s probably the most exciting place for us to play on the whole American tour besides Portland!


For more info on The Legendary Pink Dots you can go here to their official website for the latest updates. Here's their Facebook page too!

Photo Courtesy Todd Billeci LPD 10/15/16 at Thee Parkside





A big thanks to Todd Billeci of Noise Art for his revisions and photo contributions as well as John Graham for his editing skills. 

A Message to you, Greenday

 Hey Dudes. I started listening to you when I was fifteen when Dookie came out in the 90’s and you blew up. You became a household name practically overnight. You were an anomaly that developed out of the small warehouses and dejected, lovely little punk community venues.  You started out in DIY spots in the East Bay. I’m sure places like the Ghost ship. So I think at this time you should use your resources just like what we have been doing to help our subculture scene that is so vital to making the bay area such a desired place to live and thrive. Just the other night I attended a benefit dinner in which they raised nearly 10,000$ that night. That was just from us banding together no matter how broke we were and doing something about this whole tragedy.  Use your resources that you have TODAY that was born from the nooks, basements, attics, warehouses of yesterday BECAUSE the bay allowed you to be who you wanted to be. Go get yourself in a big ass arena and sell all the tickets and take ALL of that money and donate it to helping us keep these sacred spaces of music and art forums safe places for us to find friends and inspiration and outlets. Play the fuck out of your music and take all of that money and help get our places up to code so none of these fuckers from the city can shut us down. Leave them with no excuses for giving us the boot. Take all that money and throw some sprinkler systems in one of our warehouse sanctuaries. Because it’s no sweat off your back right? You love playing music. You've been doing it all your life, beginning here in the bay. The absurd rents are already oppressing the creatives in this community, leaving them working two jobs and living in some renovated garage just so they can REMAIN in this community. Because where are we to go?? Greenday, get your ass to the closest coliseum and sell the shit out of it and give it back to us, your people, so you when you get older you can look around and see why you were so inspired when you first started playing music here to begin with. It doesn’t have to fade away. Stick to your fucking roots!  









Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Look How Beautiful They Are: Remembering In Letter Form

       Peter Dosanjh parks his car on the north side of the lake. “This seems like the right place,” he muses.  

We walk to a weathered green bench. We have cashews and a bottle of Rioja. To our missing friend, we cheers with our red cups. The sky is gray, the humidity weighs upon us, the wind sweeps in. 

In shock over the sudden loss of In Letter Form lead singer and friend Eric Miranda, we sit and look over Oakland’s serene yet choppy Lake Merritt, trying to find the right words. So sudden and inconceivable that this is actually real.

For bassist Dosanjh and the rest of In Letter Form — including guitarist James Levis and drummer Andres Lopez — the San Francisco post-punk band has been shown nothing but support through hugs and heartfelt messages. But as one of our friends, brothers, lovers, conduits, and healers, Eric Miranda cannot be reached at this time. His absence is felt throughout the community.



          In homage to Eric, In Letter Form is hosting a collaborative tribute this Friday, Oct. 28, at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. The band will perform chosen songs with the vocals presented by varying artists from the Bay Area, including Charlemagne Charmaine (Drifting House/Catharsis for Cathedral) Don Bellinger (Tremor Low), Davey Bones (The Ink Bats), Dean Tomihira (Tomihira), Gabriel Maciel (The Trims), Stephen Salit and Scott A Campbell (Thrill of the Pull) Daniel Knopf and Casey Castille (Roadside Memorial) and the original drummer of In Letter From, Marlowe Kent. San Francisco’s Roadside Memorial and Night Nail from Los Angeles provide support in the opening slots.

       “After [Eric’s death], we cancelled all our shows,” Peter says. “But this one we thought, ‘This is one of Eric’s favorite holidays. It would be a shame to not do it.’ So we decided we would do the show with people who were connected with the band. These people would come in and sing his songs. Even though he’s not there, they can bring his songs alive by singing them. This is more for us (as a band) to let it go. I hope there’s a lot of tears that night. It’s going to be totally emotional and I want everyone to have some sort of closure with it and something to remember him by.”

       In Letter Form started six years ago in the small bars and clubs of San Francisco, where initially “no one wanted them.” On remembering their first encounters, Peter says fondly, “It was thick, heavy, and completely beautiful. Inviting. Invigorating. It had all the markings of what a genuine experience is all about.” 





           Before they knew it, more people were showing up to their gigs. The band, in turn, rose up to support established post-punk acts like The March Violets, Modern English, Clan of Xymox, and Peter Murphy. They were getting ready to go on a tour through Germany (after discovering their popularity in western Europe via Rolling Stone) and had signed on to release their second album with influential goth-industrial label Metropolis Records. So why does something so fortuitous just end like this? How does it? How does one deal?

    “We’re trying to find ourselves in the darkness, looking for light, to get to where we need to go,” says Peter. “You must live every day like it is a gift. When something resonates with you, you keep a piece of it with you. You go back and you look at it.” 

He gazes upon Lake Merritt’s white skeletal trees. 

“Look how beautiful they are.” 



In Letter Form performs with guest vocalists on Friday, Oct. 28, at Bottom of the Hill (1233 17th Street, San Francisco), with support from Night Nail, Roadside Memorial, and DJ Adrienne Scissorhands. Doors 8:30 p.m., music at 9:30 p.m., $10 advance, $12 at the door. 21+.