Interview with Pierre Catholix

We interviewed Pierre Catholix, member of one of the best current garage bands on the alternative scene, Catholic Spray. But this French doesn´t comply with having only a band, he prefers 4 o 5. One of this bands is La Secte Du Futur, about what we have asked too. This guy is an example of hyperactivity.

 Well, first of all, maybe not everyone who reads this interview knows about Catholic Spray, so could you tell us how and when the band was started up?.

We can say that the band has been existing since June 2010. We were all playing in different bands at this time but we always went at gigs organized by our friends of Inch Allah label, so that's where we met.

Maybe we can say that since the appearance of Black Lips, among other bands, the American scene, as well as the European one, has been filled with great garage bands, such as yours, what do you think about this boom on garage music?.

I guess it's often dangerous when any boom is happening, but whatever, if garage music means to record a bunch of songs in your bedroom through cheap stuff, then it can't be bad that a lot of dudes start to make it.

In the case of France, there is an important emerging wave of garage bands and with some of them, you share the record label. What is your opinion about these other bands?.

We don't know all of them but a bunch are friends of us, we especially enjoy to play with Crash Normal, JC Satàn, Yussuf Jerusalem for example, or White Ass which is a brand new one with members of Pierre & Bastien and Teenage Moonlight Bordeliners, you really should take a listen to this one, it kicks ass. It's cool France scene can be appreciated, it makes things easier to tour through foreign countries.

Great! I take note about some bands that I didn't know.
In 2011, you released your first album, Amazon Hunt, but we found some songs that were already known such as: "Ghost from my grave" or "Waiting for the sun".Why did you decide to rescue some of the old songs from Fruits Of The Moon and include them in the album?.

Well, our debut album is kind of a compilation of our first recording sessions. We mixed three different ones and then we wanted to have some from Fruits of the Moon, what has been only released through split tapes. We thought people who would buy the 12" perhaps didn't know the split tape with Zyklon Beach. Our second album that we've just started to record will be only composed of brand new tracks.

We just mentioned a split for which you collaborated with Zyklon Beach. Are you planning any more collaborations? Who would you most like to work with?.

We'd be okay to collaborate with a lot of bands, that's always a good way to have a new release. Since a fucked up party we had with JC Satàn, we have some good reasons to make a split with them, hope sooner or later. We all got stoked when we saw the Rent Boys from Leeds, that's an awesome band we'd be happy to work with too.

We'd love to see a collaboration between JC Satàn and you!
Side projects are something which you obviously know about, but how do you actually set about playing with Catholic Spray along with other bands such as La Secte Du Futur?.

From my point, it's pretty much the same process, I try to compose one track, then I share it with either one band or the other. Within Catholic Spray we have more a team process cause every member is making his own composition, but anyway we could all be making music all day long. Some of us are involved in about 4 or 5 bands.

Especially one of the bands where you collaborate and get our attention is La Secte Du Futur and it´s precisely with this one that we find another sound, maybe more psychedelic and quiter than Catholic Spray, but keeping on the garage lo-fi style. Is that the genre where you feel more comfortable?.

I feel comfortable on the lo-fi style indeed, it's cool to record stuff on your bed. Actually, except the lyrics i'm doing almost the same composition with Catholic Spray, the thing that changes is that every other band mate adds his own touch and that turns the song into something maybe more nervous or trashy. La Secte Du Futur is more switching from pop songs to calm ones though you're right.

At La Secte Du Futur´s bandcamp we can find differents demos of what we suppose will be your next album. What plans do you have with this band?.

Our first plan is to flee the planned end of the world of course, we know the good people... But we're also recording our debut LP, songs from the bandcamp will most be on it but we're trying to make something less lo-fi this time. It must be released on our favourite Parisian label XVIII records, what has already released the Catholic Spray 7" split. We hope it'll be out this coming spring.

Maybe many people, including me, are wondering when we'll see you in a Europe tour with some of the groups that we have discussed...

We're going for a new euro tour with Catholic Spray, we do it with Fag Cop (Kansas City). We start on the 17th of February and we'll go through eastern and northern countries. Can't wait to see again people we met on our last euro tour.
We'd plan to play in Spain this summer, we have a couple of plans to go there and we have already some gigs booked here and there in France and close countries. Also maybe we'll tour a bit through Europe with La Secte du Futur in July. We're travellers.

We hope to see you! Finally, could you recommend some of the bands that you are listening to?

Yeah, random mix from band mates, Lenguas Largas, Tonstartssbandht, Ratas del Vaticano, UV Race, Cccandy, Bazooka, the LP of Iceage is awesome too... And France finest, The Dreams, Sida, Human Pest, Pierre & Bastien...

Gijs van Lith, Dutch Abstract Painter Interview

Im thrilled and happy to post the interview with Hertogenbosch based Dutch Abstract Painter Gijs van Lith . I found Gijs paintings for the first time in a random Art walk in Amsterdam, first just by a simply glimpse from the gallery window i could see the massive canvas with abstract structures couldn't resist the appeal and was overwhelmed with the deept and intensity of the paintings.

Gijs van Lith was nominated for several awards and prizes, won the Amsterdam Young Art Talent in 2009 and his nominated for the 2012 Royal Dutch Painting, Gijs paintings can be seen in several exhibitions in the coming months and in private collections like Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.



How do you define abstract art ?

well, personally i don’t see a difference between abstract or figurative art.



But your paintings are mainly abstract ??

Yes my works fall in that category at the moment, but I prefer not to think in those terms and cubicles.
Abstract art for me, is most of the time more pure, clear less distractions. There is more space/room for depth and its more universal. The image is sometimes more dominate and can distract the viewer. And affects the story of a artwork. But sometimes it comes together in the right way.
I’m painter, and currently my work falls within the category ‘Abstract’. But my latest works are both abstract and figurative. They’re called ‘A paintings womb’ and are the remains of painterly actions on a wall, of a artists studio. So some people will recognize this display and some won’t. But that’s oke.

I have two subjects that interest me; but my main focus lies on the paint it selves (the matter its selves, the act of painting, how color and form work, mainly the way the give depth)
The second subject is ‘painting’ it selves (the medium and ((art))history). Where do you place your selves .

So that’s why i show in the personal and introvert studio, no finished museum art piece but its womb.



Is Abstract Art a secret language of the senses?

No but maybe obscure one or language of a very few can speak. Maybe because we people have a more of a ‘you-tube mentality’, a concentration span of 3minutes. So it takes a bit a time, effort to truly see/read a painting and appreciates what the work is about. So that means you (the viewer) understands what decisions where made in the making and thinking--process till how it compare to the oeuvre and other works of the artist. And how it will position its selves with in art as well.
Because most people are used to look at a artwork, and see a more in a direct translation that represents the story. But I believe that it is more interesting to make work that doesn’t react or connect with directly to a situation within society or what is typical for a certain ‘time-geist’. I like that in a work or a series you as a viewer can see a personal development and read the steps a artist takes and appreciate the new things the artist is including in is work. And that maybe later on that symbolize as a mark for that specific time.



what do you think of the concept Abstract being " Everything and Nothing" ?

Willem de Kooning sad it best, I think.
he was looking for a form that could hold anything, nothing and something. And i believe that I’m getting closer and closer to my form that can hold anything.



How can you define that concept that your looking for ??

well, its a certain necessity, and longing urge



that sounds like Philosophy and Psychology in one sentence ?

Well making is thinking…after making, thinking and analyzing a work again and again is sort of a physical dialog with a work.
The work needs to feel right, like given the right answer the a question. It’s all in there and when you have enough right and wrong answers, you'll figgere out the question(s). But of course you have a starting point that involves your personal interest and fascinations. I’m really interested in the matter it selves, the paint. The way shape and color give depth. Also themes as mentality and time I find very interesting. In my latest two series ‘Skin’ and ‘A paintings womb’ becomes more clear. I see sometimes some similarities in my work and the way ledger is made in a shoe or coat or the rings of a tree. And I’m busy with more general and universal questions like; what is today’s position of painting?



Do you want to express and analyze yourself at the same time in your paintings. Sort of a scientist of the canvas?

No I don’t, I do recognized some parts of me, but in the process I don’t preserve the canvas as a mirror of me when I’m making.



Mark Rothko masterpieces were thought over and over as a mean to awakening of the social triviality of the daily live no to please but to shock

yes he's one of my favorites



What do you like about his work ?

his shows with great extravagance the plus-value of paint and the choice to only act as a painter. There is no other medium that he can use to represent and feel his message. Here painting is irreplaceable.
Why paint and why use paint if there are better-suited media to get your message better across.
Rothko shows that his work speaks to the soul of persons, and at the same time it symbolizes that if you paint and act only in painting, show the necessity of that specific choice.
He sometimes compares his work with a visit to a play in a theater, he sad something like; you could go the a theater but if you really wanna see a great play come and see my work.



what's you fuel ? what makes you feel wild and start painting ?

Sometimes a great show/exhibition. Sometime a good text I read, or a minder-wonder. But mainly it’s in the small things, a glimpse of a visual phenomena, when i see something out-side or in town. Colors/shapes that interest me, i see them for what they are to me, without what they represent to the rest of the world.



what is you biggest ambition as a painter ?

oeh! thats a difficult one, I ll have to call on the fifth amendment ;).
biggest ambition is: when i can say that i found the perfect answer to my question and then I’ll stop painting probably

i work normally 5/6 days a weeks
and i find about 80/90 'answers' a year, and probably about ten/twenty right ones.



After every answer is a new bigger question, so you will paint forever ?

yep;) I found some answers down the last 3 years. But much bigger ones came to follow. Which is nice and interesting how that evolves.

you have a creative and inquisitive mind that is the trade mark of a great thinker :)

Dustin O'Halloran Interview‏

"A self-taught pianist from the age of 7, Dustin O’Halloran’s personal histories give us some clue to the thickly-woven tapestries of his music: he has lived in LA (where he studied art at Santa Monica College and formed the much-adored Devics with Sara Lov), Italy (in the depths of rural Emilia Romagna) and Berlin. His arresting, heartbreaking music is as much an elegant exercise in nuance and grace as it is a pure, intuitive, personal expression – and here is where we see some explanation into Dustin’s quiet rise to notoriety and his continued ascension."

"Lumiere is a superb addition to O’Halloran’s growing catalogue and reputation. This release sits neatly alongside some great career highs already ticked off, including writing music for Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette (2006), William Olsen’s An American Affair (2010) and Drake Doremus' 2011 Sundance winner Like Crazy and performing at New York’s Guggenheim Museum’s Kandinsky’s retrospective for their 50th anniversary gala, and of course the two Piano Solos albums released by Bella Union in 2004 and 2006 respectively."

Listen | Dustin O'Halloran - Lumiere 2011 / Buy



Witch of these styles is Dustin O'Halloran, Neo Classic, Modern Classic, Classic and why ?

well I think its difficult to say some people call it Neo Classic but I prefer to call it contemporary music. I think its hard to define what classic means so I prefer to stay away from that term. But I guess people can call it what ever they want its the music that matters.

When did you started playing the piano ? was by influence of someone close or you just felt naturally attracted to it ?

I started with just a few years of piano lessons from the church organist when i was young. There always was an attraction to the instrument when I first heard someone play Chopin, that was the moment i think I knew I wanted to play and even compose. I started writing simple pieces pretty early on and even performed one at a recital when I was your. didn't play the piano much during my teenage years as I was moving around and didn't have access to a piano. I came back to it much later when I started my band Devics with singer Sara Lov. This is what brought me back to music and the piano.

What were the dreams of a childhood playing piano ? Did you had fantasies of becoming so famous and playing in big theaters ?

No not really Maybe my mother did, hehe? but I was very interested in playing when I was young actually I was pretty petrified to perform the piano live, its so different than being up there with a band, I felt completely naked and its not until just a few years ago I really felt comfortable to perform piano live.

Who were your heroes ? Name someone that had a deep impact in your live and why ?

I think I have always been wary about having heroes they can always disappoint you in some way. But I do have tremendous respect for some artists who I think influenced me by their singular visions. People like Stanley Kubrick, Brian Eno, Mark Rothko to name a few..

How you would describe your style if you would compare it with other composers like Sylvain Chauveau and Max Richter ?

I think what we all share in common is our sense of space and minimalism. But other than that I think we are quite different. But I do have a lot of respect for them both.

Would you say that "Lumiere" is on the borderline between Modern Classic and Classic and why ? Who are your major influences from the classic world ?

Perhaps this record is the closest I have come to the classical world. I had a really amazing and accomplished quartet that recorded with me ACME, and also its the most composed pieces I have done to date.
Some composers that have been an influence have could be Arvo Part, Gavin Bryars, Debussy, Messiaen, Bach, Erik Satie..

How far did your moving to Europe affected your compositions ?

I dont think I could ever have written this music with out my move to Europe. It effected it in so many ways. First because I had the time to focus on the piano compositions and also I found people that were inspiring around me, fellow collaborators. I think Europe is a better place for composers there is more support here for new music and you have so many amazing players and places to perform. The US is still really dominated by folk and rock music ( which I also love) but it makes it difficult for anything else to exist and thrive. I feel very at home in Europe.

You have collaborated with many musician and composers all over the years, witch one would say has influenced you the most ?

I have been lucky to work with some amazing artists working with Johann Johanssonn really made a strong impression on me and I truly think he is one of the great composers of our time. I also really enjoyed working with Mark Lanagen and Soulsavers on the last record his voice has this amazing lived in quality and to be able to create music with such a soulful singer is such a rare thing. I also had the chance to do a double piano concert with Hauschka in Berlin last year. We wrote some pieces for 2 pianos and performed it together. I think he is really wonderful and important artist right now he is never afraid to experiment and try new things.

For the simple fact that "Lumiere" is released in a record label like Fat Cat will always make "Lumiere" an outsider from the classical spectrum ?

I don't think so actually as this record is the first record that HAS been recognized by the classical press. So maybe there are some barriers starting to fall and more experimental labels are becoming important to the classical world. I think in general the classical world does not recognize composers until much later in their career even Philip Glass is still a bit of an outsider. But I think the most important thing is to just compose and let time decide.

"Like Crazy" the movie you have composed the OST has recently won a prize in the Sundance Film Festival, what are the main creative differences on composition between "Lumiere" and "Like Crazy" ?

Yes this was a big surprise for me to win this award as its a small independent film. Its very different writing for yourself than film. Perhaps the main difference is time. I really take my time with my own compositions and with film you usually only have a couple months to finish so much music. Also with my own work its a blank canvas everything you must start from scratch and really find something deep in yourself. Film work can also bring out things you would never do, which I like a lot as well. Its more of a collaboration so its just a really different way to work.

” A Winged Victory For The Sullen” with Adam Wiltzie from ” Stars of The Lid” is one of your most recent collaborations, What can we expect ?

Yes I am very proud of this record. We recorded in some amazing places Italy , Brussels, Berlin. The record will come out in late August on Kranky in the US and Erased Tapes in Europe. I would describe it as a mix of what we both do...and a study in minimalism. We recorded strings in the old DDR radio studios in Berlin, and piano in the west berlin at an old church. We really wanted to try to capture some real beautiful large acoustics its one of my favorite pianos I have ever recorded and Adam has this really amazing way of working with guitar. I think we compliment each other a lot musically and we both have a love of fine food and whiskey so a collaboration was inevitable!

Supakitch and koralie

Awesome, super cool documentary and interview with the French street artists Supakitch and Koralie, last year they were hyped out of this world with the amazing wall they painted for the Gothenburg Museum of World Culture in Sweden !!!!!

Watch | Supakitch & koralie

Margaret Durow Interview

Its with immense pleasure that im posting the interview with the fascinating and super talented photographer Margaret Durow .
Margaret is a 20-year-old photographer from Wisconsin, she portraits dreamy landscape and captures emotional moments of her life and memories with friends. if i dare to say this but she is probably one of the most importante and adored photographers of the "Flickr" generation not only for her work but also honesty and humility



Why and when did you decided to become a photographer ?

I never decided to become a photographer. I had taken photos with my family, like on birthdays and such, and I always liked taking a lot of pictures of our pets.
Then when I was about 14 I had my first digital camera and started taking it everywhere to remember things happening with my friends.



Are you natural talented or just hard work ?

I definitely work very hard – I’m always thinking about whatever I’m in the process of creating, and spend a lot of time on photo related things.
I’m also going to school and am not studying photography, so I always have a lot of work to do besides photos. It helps me to get away from photos for a while, I care so much about everything that I feel like only when I take a step back and not care too much that I can create something with the right feeling.



What inspires your work ? Did you had any mentors ?

I am inspired by everything, especially my feelings, and these are what always push me to photograph
– trying to capture them in a photo so I can remember them. My feelings are most affected by light, music, the weather, my environment, my close friends and family, and water.



When do you know that a picture is finished ?

When I look at it and I can feel how I felt at the time



Do you have a special sense that tell you "This is the right moment" ?

No I don't think so, I just take pictures



Most of your pictures have this gloomy and dreamy world attached to them, do you recreate your dreams ?

Yes I often do! Like I said, my photos are most inspired by my feelings and my dreams can make me feel things just as real life does, so I like to put those feelings into my photos.
For example, one of my recent photos of me lying in the snow with a pillow was inspired by a dream I had where I was laying in the snow and it felt crisp and cold yet amazing and fluffy like laying on a cloud.



From your perspective what makes your photography so special and appealing ?

I think anyone can find an audience for what they do, and I'm so happy to have people tell me they like my work. I hope people like my work because they see that it is honest, important to me, and close to my heart.
I hope that maybe they make them feel something just by looking at them – maybe people can understand how I was feeling, and get that emotion for themselves, or maybe they experience a new emotion from the image.



There is a subconsequent tense and tragic event related with your pictures, does is reflect the way you see what surrounds you ?

My whole life has been affected by having “back problems” / “medical condition.” My spine curved because of a vascular malformation entwined in it.
One of the most important parts of a body – the backbone, was so different in me than anyone around me. I could mostly do whatever I wanted growing up – I had to be careful of the mass inside my back, but I didn’t know my spine was curving until just after becoming a teenager.
By the time I was 17 I needed surgery to stop it from curving worse. The recovery was very long and hard. All these things were often very hard to go through, but it’s made me realize that everything is always up and down, and that I am so lucky for where I am now and everything that has brought me here.



Being so young and getting so much attention will this bring pressure on your future work ? Do you have any upcoming exhibitions ?

When I take photos it is mostly for myself – to remember and look back later. If I continue to photograph because it is what I am inspired and driven to do, I don’t think attention will put too much pressure on me. My goals have never been to get the most attention or money and haven't tried to do this. Any attention I have gotten has been online, and it has come to me without me pushing my work on people. When I’m making new photos I hope they will like them, but I try not to be too affected by other people’s expectations.
I do not have any upcoming exhibitions.



What would be your favorite dead person to photograph ?

John Muir



5 records you would take to the grave ?

The Beatles – White Album
The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
The Black Lips - Let it Bloom
Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan
Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors

Anneke Wilbrink Interview

"Anneke Wilbrink
graduated from the Frank Mohr Institute, MF Groningen in 2004. Since then she has exhibited widely in a variety of European galleries and museums. In 2004she was nominated for the Prix de Rome (drawing), and she received the Royal Dutch Award for painting in 2006."

By pure accident i discovered Anneke work two years ago in the Young Art Gallery in Amsterdam, i was walking by and i saw this big paintings that looked liked abstract structures and i had to get in, what i saw was stunning, labyrinth landscapes that could either be the remains of an ancient civilization that was swallowed by the ocean or waking up after a beautiful dream with the eyes blurred and thinking if this were clouds reflecting a secret dimension. Anneke lives and works in Zwolle, capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands



What is art in your perspective?

I can only tell about my own art. It has everything to do with my consciousness and the way I live.
There is not much difference between the things that I feel and think when painting and when travelling or having a good time.
I try to put my visions and feelings in my art in a way that the visual creation can communicate with the viewer.



How would you define your paintings ?

I have a DVD at home with Irish music and images of the country which is called: Visuals for your Body and Mind. It is a very commercial and common piece, nothing artistic on it Yet I like it. Once I was thinking to give an exhibition that title.
I also define my painting often as landscapes, because while watching a painting, one like to see where one is standing, I mean a point of view from which everything is in the right perspective.
Well, that is not the case in my painting of landscapes. I do play with points of view while I am painting. The result is sometimes clear, other times it is fuzzy from which point the painting can be seen when looking for something like perspective.



When you were young did you intend to become a professional artist?

No , never i did not know what a professional painter was. (i thought painters lived in the past)
I must have been in my early twenties when I discovered contemporary art. The moment I discovered contemporary art is something I still feel as a second birth .



What type of art were you making in secondary school?

In secondary school , I did not have any idea of what to do in my life. On university, I studied half a year on theology. But I was thinking more of doing something with music. When I went tot the academy of art, I liked to make large pictures, which i filled with strange building structures and fiction buildings.



While you were attending college were there any professors who influenced the building of your career?

I liked art history a lot. When they taught about artists from earlier periods, I could imagine I was doing the same in my lifetime. I admired all those painters..



Was it difficult for you to develop your own style?

It is just something that grows while working. For me , it began on art school.
While I am working, I let go of thinking about subjects or something as ideas. I totally depend on my instincts and intuition. The style is an outcome that I am not interested in while working.
Everything just happens. But I am very much aware of the fact that my art studies, which took 6 intensive years, are always somewhere hidden in the background while I am working.



In 2006 you won the Dutch Royal Prize of Contemporary Painting. How important was it for your carrier ?

It was very important for me. It put me on the map. Suddenly, a lot of persons got interested in my work and bought it. As a result of the money I made, i could work intensively for new shows…



Who are the artists who inspire you today?

I have a strong bond with the well known painters who are presented in museums like the impressionism, the Modern Abstracts. A lot of the work of now-a-days artists that I see all over the world gives me a boost that drives me back to my studio. It is not about picking up ideas; it has everything to do with the energy they give me, Seeing art is great. Talking about inspiration, I have to say that I can experience music very intense. Sometimes i compare my work with several types of music..



How important is it to remain true to yourself and your individual vision as an artist?

On one hand, it is important to remain true to myself and my individual vision as an artist. But to renew myself and my art, it is important to leave my opinions and every now and then I have to surprise myself.
A new painting has to be an adventure and a surprise for myself.
In painting It is the same as in live…when you are not honest it does not work and it feels bad.



You have had many exhibitions, which one did you enjoyed the most?

Vegas gallery london…
Bright new work in a nice place.



How do you feel about people reaction to your work?

I do react on that. I like to communicate and i still feel it as a miracle when it works, I mean, when my art communicates as I hope it could do.



What are your futures plans when it comes to your paintings ?

Recently, my artbook has been published; it contains work over the last 8 years,
It is a sort of time-travel to look back what i have done.
So i am very curious my self to see and start with making new work.

Anneke paintings are now in exhibition in the Kasteel het Nijenhuis untill the 10 of October, for more information please visit The Museum Foundation

Gavin Russom DFA Records Interview

Gavin Russom is a psychedelic electronic music producer known for is brilliant releases on DFA Records and for making his own synthesizers.
The first time i heard is music was on one of the first DFA compilations, its was totally different from what i was used to hear and i became captivated with the sound by Gavin and Delia Gonzalez, it was like a mind trip full of psychedelic elements, you don't know exactly how to react to it, if lay back and enjoy the ride or just jump with no direction.
Gavin is also known by is side projects like Black Meteoric Star, The Crystal Ark and Black Leotard Front.




Do you see yourself as a soundsculptor, artist or musician ?

If I had to choose one word that categorizes the way I approach creativity I'd say I'm a composer.

Your interest with music instruments, where does it come from ? Runs in the family or was something of your own ?

It's something I've been interested in since I was a child. There are a lot of musicians in my family but the interest in building musical instruments has just been something important to me. A lot of the ideas that I developed in terms of instrument building came out of conversations I had with my cousin Mike Kelley (Kelley Polar) during a period of intense musical collaboration we had in our teens.

Why and when have you decided to start building your own synths ?

When I was studying composition in college I reached a creative impasse where I had been so involved in high level ideas about creating music that it became difficult for me to approach musical instruments anymore. The only thing I could relate to were modular synthesizers and percussion instruments because each achieved the direct approach to sound that I was searching for. I began building percussion instruments in college because I didn't have the resources to build synths. After I moved to New York I had the resources to begin synth building and began to teach myself.

where did you learn the skills ?

I began with books and reprints of manuals from the 70's. I taught myself with a lot of trial and error. Later I worked with Jeff Blenkinsopp at EARS NYC and learned a great deal more.



The pulse, sizzle and raw electric charge are some of your creations, could you tell something about these machines ?

My interest in synths grew directly out of my interest in magic and the idea that creativity and channeling have a lot in common. I think of the machines as instruments that directly translate electricity into sound based on the interventions of a human user. I wanted to make machines that would allow me to work with sound in the fluid way that I experience it.

What have you discovered in hip hop that made you interested in electronic music ?

The use of machines to make sound that sounds like it was made by machines.

Which albums/artists wave influenced your music the most ?

A partial list: David Tudor, Supermax, Jack Frost (and all of his other pseudonyms, Adonis, Sleezy D etc.), Henry Cowell, Conlon Nancarrow, Meredith Monk, Bukkah White
Guy Picciotto, Darby Crash, Albert Ayler,



Where did you meet and how important was DFA and James Murphy in your live and music ?

I sent out a mass email to everyone who had ever emailed me and forgotten to Bcc's mailing list that I could fix and design analog synths. I had taken a year off of work to learn how to build synths and was unbelievably broke. James Murphy is the only person that wrote back so I went over to his studio where there were piles of vintage gear which I started to repair. I moved from that to designing mods and new circuits for James and Tim Goldsworthy. They came to see Delia and I play and offered us a record deal and things grew from there. That meeting is certainly very important because they got what I was doing at a time when most people weren't even close. I'm not sure where I'd be if that hadn't happened.

You've built some "Gavin Made" synths for Lcd Soundsystem and Black Dice, how did this happen ?

That grew out of my work in the DFA studio.



Delia Gonzales and Gavin Russom are both musicians and sculptors, where does the collaboration begins and what was the concept ?

Delia and I met in 1998 almost immediately started working together. We both had a lot of things we wanted to do and had a vision of building an alternate universe. We worked together extremely intensively until 2007.

"Causal Friday" by Black Leotard Front is a track that i still like a lot, Who were they and what happened to that project ?

Black Leotard Front was a dance company that included Delia, myself, Artist Christian Holstad and gallerist Daniel Schmidt. We made dance performances and sculptures and recorded 2 singels, "Casual Friday" and "Hey Coach! (I Read Your Diary)". The second of these was lost before it could be pressed. At some point in 2006 we went our separate ways.

Black Meteoric Star and The Crystal Ark are two of your side projects, what are the separating lines ?

Black Meteoric Star uses a very specific set of gear. The Crystal Ark is a collaboration with Viva Ruiz and also includes contributions from Alberto Lopez, Matt Thornley and Lizzy Yoder.



You have two nicknames, "Wizard" that is related with your creation of synths and interest in magic practices and "Bad Boy", this have to do with the fact that you do the music you want, the way you want ?

I guess that's what that has to do with. I think it's something a journalist invented. None of my friends call me "bad boy". I personally find it hilarious.

You moved from New York to Berlin, Did it changes your music perception and creative process ?

Certainly the 5 years I spent in Berlin influenced my creative practice. It reawakened my interest in dance music among many other things. Berlin was a great place for me to go into a creative cocoon and transform a lot of the energies that grew up in New York. A note, I moved to New York in November of 2009.

where does you and your music fits better ?

New York. I am a New Yorker.

What are you listening to these days ? You have some recommendation ?

Man Recordings in Berlin is doing great things as is Nation records in Chicago. Laurent Garnier's new Alaska production is fantastic.

Anna Taratiel aka "Ovni" Interview

Barcelona artist Anna Taratiel aka "Ovni" pushes the limits and creates Stunningly beautiful unreal installations unique street art and illustrations , she uses her life experiences and reshape them into abstract multidimensional worlds full of energy.



Who's "Ovni" ?

Ovni is me, and in spanish means ufo.
was the first artistic name that i used to explain my concept.
as a metaphor to interpret my designs as spaces and abstract landscapes.


Like a burst of energy where abstract landscapes meet "Outer" dimensions that defy our physic laws and get brushed by an ocean of intense colors , could these be "Ovni" trade marks ?

Yes, it is. My objective is transport everyone to another place, new spaces, different dimension and perspectives.


What's the center of your creativity , where does it come from ?

The structures of the city, arquitecture, the industrialization, the art noveau, the amusement parks, the kids fantasy, the astronauts and space movies, the robots, the colors...


You are both Graphic Designer and Street Artist , is it Street Art your rebel side ? something that Anna Taratiel couldn't show indoors ?

Maybe is a bit chaos but I always like to differentiate from my free side from the more professional. I suppose yes, ovni is rebellious and friendly because i used this name on the streets and the collective shows; and Anna taratiel is the artist with names and surnames for my solo shows.


Considering that around the web your name is praised everywhere , what do you think is so appealing in your work ?

i don't know exactly the reason why, but maybe is because i have a singular style and i can adapt it for all kind of projects from graphic design, to illustration, structures, walls... and my work has been created by my every day experiences and landscapes.


"Dynamic Equilibrium" , what was the concept behind that installation ?

I enjoy doing installions and structures because is a different way to show my concept in 3d dimensions.
Dynamic equilibrium was a commissioned work in Milano "design fair". The brand works in different kind of surfaces, and i had to create a big structure inside a room with its materials. The experience was really interesting, this work got me to improve myself because i designed all the pieces and the dispositions.


"Squared Squared" is one of my favorites , where did you get the idea/inspiration ?

This work was also a commissioned buy a collective that work basically by digital
printing on fabric. They proposed me to do something for interior design fair. The wanted something colorful with light and cubes using their product. i just designed the structure and the compositions getting the inspiration from the 80's aesthetics.


How much barcelona is in your work ?

well, Gaudi is a really inspiring figure in my organic work,
like all the modernism forms and concepts that appeared in the early 19th century.


Our childhood experiences have a huge impact in our lives , do you see some of your early memories in your work ?

since i was a child painting has been a joyful activity which i really like.
Nowadays i still take children's world as a resource for my work.


A normal day in "Ovni" live ?
Sorry, have not a normal day in "ovni" live


5 records you would take to the grave ?

- no P. or D. _ Ms john Soda
- Koop islands _ Koop
- Finally we are no one - Mum
- Silent shout _ the Knife
- Beams _ The presets


Your favorite hang out in Barcelona ?

The barceloneta, the old fishermen's area, which is a place where it still remains the identity of Barcelona. Is a real Place where live emerges; there you can have a nice paella or seafood (for a relatively low price), or you can see hanging clothes on the balconies or just have a bath on the beach.


What's your upcoming plan/project?

Right now I've just started a art direction master degree in barcelona.
And I'm preparing to move to Amsterdam at late july
where I'm going to start a new phase of my life... let's see!!