Monday, December 7, 2009

Geared Up To Get Down

I was going to do a post about Micro-Mini Tour #1, complete with pictures and even videos or audio... but I don't have any of that just yet... so let's do another picture-less entry...


Over the years I've gotten many a strange question, and many questions that I've answered dozens and dozens of times.
One question that's come up a number of times is not as simple to answer:
"WUTS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UR PROJECTS ANYWAY"

Or the more eloquent and profound version:
"Why do you impose restrictions upon your artistic self with multiple projects with a set boundary? Isn't your purpose as an artist to express yourself unfettered to set rules?"


The answer is long and drawn out, but I'm going to do my best to finally explain myself accurately on a project by project basis....



You have to understand, first of all, that multiple solo projects is not because I want to appear to be in more bands or anything.
I play in my solo projects, Ultra Death Men, Frame House, Mercury Syringe, Giggle The Ozone. (live only), and various things that may or may not have staying power.
Those alone are enough to boost my TOO MANY BANDS ego... if that were my goal.

The reason for multiple projects comes from several factors:

1. The order in which they started and the circumstances that I started them in
2. Goals for the project
3. Ideological concepts behind each one
4. Desire to re-invent myself in certain ways
5. To present challenges to the artistic self


Number 1 is long to explain in a chronological, case-by-case basis, and until I fix the format of this thing, I don't really enjoy the thought of losing readers with the monotony.
The gist of it is that Black Clocks, Fork Sister, and c@ were never guaranteed to stay entirely solo though.
Perhaps that brings some light to the situation.

2 is also too long to explain case by case, but remember that some projects were started in a joking manner (First Aid Squid, I Am A Hexagon.) While I like what I did with them, they are intentionally offensive to the listener to a great extent, and they were parody centric.





3 - 5 will take some time now.... this is really what I wanted to discuss here.

Each project has it's own set of aesthetic and ideological concepts behind it.
At the core, everything I do is the same:
I express myself as I see fit, I make music I like, I pursue what I see to be the correct level of perfectionism/mawkishness, and I do it without apology or perverted outside influence because it's my art.

There are some key differences that change within each project though.
I'm going to go through each project now and explain what makes me decide to categorize it as a certain project.
It's most often just gut feelings if I'm not within the boundaries of a certain project entirely.


Bubblegum Octopus:
While most of the songs fall safely into the category of chaotic, cutesy, electronic, video gamey pop music, often with noise, grind, and/or punk elements, that's not really the binding factor anymore.
BgO is an expression of the forced suppression of childish feelings, a tribute to my past, discussion of the loss of innocence, and light-hearted (even during the more vicious or serious sounding songs.)
The color palette is also important to me.
I'm a synesthetic and how I write is greatly influenced by how a song looks in my head.
BgO songs are the most color-cohesive of my work.

I think one thing I should also mention about BgO, is that the project intentionally lives in the clouds.
Just like how Pokémon episodes after a certain point stopped referencing real animals and pop culture, BgO songs have stopped acknowledging things that live outside of the alternate reality it lives in.

While BgO songs will never leave certain sonic aesthetics, I can't really explain them.
For example, the first album sounds pretty consistent throughout... saccharine falsetto, offensive screaming and growling, super fast blasting, poppy melodies juxtaposed with chaos, blippy electronic sounds with occasional super-saws and distorted walls, and the occasional guitar and my "real" singing voice.

The second album I'm releasing however (hopefully out in March) delves more into noisy elements, cut-up drum parts, weird sounds, and original samples being mutilated, with more guitar, more analog electronics, and less of the deliberate sounding "trade-off" style vocals I've been so known for.
It may also be the first to include real drums, acoustic elements, or horns, but that depends on how I feel in the coming months.

The split sits nicely between these two, which is why I've decided to do Bad Happy next, instead of one of the 7 other albums I wrote before it.

One thing that you can always bet though, is that all BgO songs will sound like they were written by that octopus... and you will almost always be able to find that cute/bothersome (however you feel), untrained falsetto within the songs.



c@:
This project is the more about preventing the really fucked up side of my brain from blowing up.
Just like BgO (and like myself in general), it's an absurdist type project that openly, and joyfully embraces meaninglessness and being generally too unusual to be considered normal.
c@ songs are obviously more noisey than anything else (it did start as a straight noise project, even though I've lost many of those recordings), but that is not a defining quality.
The subject matter of the songs is generally anything that comes out.
I try my best to not censor what I say or do with the project in ways I do not with BgO.
BgO's lyrics have self-imposed censorship laws to them...
"don't mention company or product names unless necessary, don't talk about video game or anime characters unless necessary, don't be overtly sexual unless absolutely necessary, don't mention celebrities" and a number of other things*

*NOTE: The first album and the demo are in violation of two of those rules to some degree.
I don't regret saying "Pokémon" or "semen" in the songs, because it was appropriate at the time, but I probably won't be writing either of those in future songs.
I allow myself to discuss anything in BgO songs, I just don't like to do it so overtly anymore.
I barely even like mentioning people's names in songs anymore.

In c@ however, anything is fair game.
The commercialized, sexualized, media stimulated, and anything else part of my brain I consider to be somewhat garbage infested is meant to be embraced and expectorated into the songs.
Again... it's about all the things in my head that need to get out getting out... not about getting out the emotions while trying to preserve things I'm losing.

Sonically the songs will always be strange and will always incorporate non-instruments, broken instruments, toy instruments, electronics, and atypical vocals.


Fork Sister:
Yes, I don't do too much with it, but I still consider it a loved child.
The project is much less an ideological place than it is a sonically conceptual place.
It's a further dedication to my love affair with utilizing digital artifacts.
I could contend that it's about intensity through simplicity...
... ora weird way to show my love of real hardcore, power violence, real screamo, noise rock, and grindcore...
I could say that it was just my way of avoiding turning c@ into a punk band.... or that it was just my way of avoiding turning BgO into a noisey project back when it wasn't at all.
I could say that it was just my way of allowing myself to effect vocals in ways I wouldn't let fly in BgO.

I think the only truly defining factor is the short songs, the processed screaming and yelping, the digitally damaged guitars, drums, and synths, the gabber beats, and the abandonment of musical theory and intellectual (ha... very funny m@.)



So then... what about your work under your own name?
Matthew 'm@ the c@' Morden:
None of it is out yet, but I've talked about it a bit on the internet.
It begs the question, just what the hell will it be?
The project is basically just for [mostly] songs that do not live within the realm of BgO.
Guitar/bass/drums/keys/horn/whatever songs, solo fingerstyle guitar or bass, piano things, acoustic and voice, collaborations...
The best way to summarize it is how I advertise it on the myspace "insider music from an outsider."
I'll also probably release some of the un-c@-like weirdness songs (some 'brutal prog' I wrote for 11 people, spoken word and found sound, strange cut-ups, and incidental recordings) under my name, but I am not thinking about that yet.

I don't know when I will get some of it released, but it will hopefully be in the near future!
BgO album 2 and splits 2 - 5, the Frame House album, and the Ultra Death Men album all take precedent at the moment.




If you're curious about Black Clocks... just remember that it was an old project, and will never release anything again unless I find the unreleased songs I did....







So there you have it... the best I can do to explain the ideological differences between Bubblegum Octopus, c@, and Fork Sister.

So don't be scared when I release a BgO song with a brass quintet and vocals, a live band with no electronics (hey, I did I'M SO MAD! already. The only fake thing on that was the drums), all circuit bent electronics and wall noise with ambient singing, or an a'capella song recorded on a busy street.

BgO will continue to shift, but it will never change (it will always have silly, spazzy, electronic pop songs regardless of the change anyway. Hold me to that as long as I live!)

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