Silber Blog

So there’s a nice big article about Silber in my local weekly (The Independent) here.

There’s also an article about Environmental Aesthetics that I was interviewed for in The Weekly Volcano that you can check out here.  & I figure maybe some of you are interested in reading the actual interview I did for the Volcano article, so I’m posting it below.

– How’d you get hooked up with Environmental Aesthetics?

They actually contacted me about the project, I think they were interested to see what an electro-acoustic drone band might sound like in the space.  So I wrote up my proposal of what I wanted to do & it was approved & I flew out to do it.

–  Why did you want to work in the Satsop tower?

Lately I’ve been getting less & less interested in studio recording & studio wizardry & more interested in live performances & hearing how the sounds I make interact with a particular location & how I can sculpt sound differently based on microphone manipulation in an individual room.  So the idea of using a fairly unique space that I would never generally encounter was phenomenal.  The sound of an empty church or warehouse is the closest the average person might get to that acoustical environment.

–  What was it like visiting it for the first time?

It was a lot larger than I expected.  I didn’t really grasp its scale even from seeing photos.  It’s like seeing the Great Lakes for the first time or something.  You need to experience it a bit to really grasp the scope of the space.

– Talk a bit about your interest in sound.  What do you hope to learn or create or experience?

I try to convey emotional ideas with sound that I can’t express with words.  The more I learn about sound, the more I’m able to express these ideas.  I do have a little bit of a background making more melody & song based  music, but I feel there is something special & more honest when you are making non-traditional music just based on sound.  That it conveys something that has no basis on western musical traditions or pre-conceived ideas.  Small Life Form is meant to be non-thinking music & just wash over you like a wave, but sometimes my brain does get in the way of the sound.

– In the bio Paul Schrag sent me, it says “Sit back & relax whether you think Small Life Form is the soundtrack of a world tearing apart or one that’s just forming.”  There seems to be this paradox at play in both the physical structure & in your recordings — it’s sort of brutal & industrial, but somehow also warm & natural &, like, religious.  Care to comment?

I think I gave Paul that quote actually.  Small Life Form generally does have this overwhelming feel like something is about to happen, something big & life altering.  It’s meant to be both soothing & exciting.  It’s calm & destructive.  I think maybe part of it has to do with how full I make the sound spectrum & that it kind of alters your consciousness a bit because there’s so much information coming in for your brain to process & try to organize.  But I take the religious element as a huge compliment, because in a way I look at what I’m doing as a lot more appropriate praise music than contemporary christian music is.

– How do you recommend listeners approach your work?

They need to be willing to listen to it as a long form.  There’s no hooks to grab you in other than just the sound itself.  A listener is just supposed to absorb it as sound more than trying to figure it out & dissect it.  If someone is familiar with the idea of long form drones it would be helpful to them.   I think anyone who’s heard a drum circle perform for hours or heard gamelan music might have a good idea of where to start & what to expect.  The main thing is not to expect pop songs.

– What, if anything, do you hope listeners will take from your work?

I would like people to either come away more calm about the problems of being alive or more excited just about the idea of being alive.  To feel less alone.  I think at a certain point that’s what all art is oriented towards.

– What are you up to now?  Touring?  Recording?  Where?

Right now I’m on tour with my guitar project Remora (playing Pittsburgh tonight) in support of the Derivative album released by Gears of Sand.  I recently recorded a Small Life Form versus slicnaton album that we are shopping around & we plan to tour in the summer or fall with that.  I put in for a grant to finance a Small Life Form tour this fall, but I won’t find out until July if I get the money.  I’m going to be recording some more stuff in a couple weeks when I get home.  We’ll see what the future holds.