ninehertz

Well, I joined Gnod, initially as a drummer, at the end of 2012. Manatees had seem to become kind of 'stuck', well, for me anyway. Legal and financial problems had stopped us releasing our fifth record, which is now coming up five years since it was recorded and still remains unreleased. We'd been touring solid and playing the same music for a long time and as time moved on, I felt there were much more avenues that I wanted to explore creatively, sonically and just in the way I was living my life that just weren’t achievable where I was. Ten or so years later, I was no longer the 19 year old person I was when I started playing music with my manabros, you know? And I don’t think to be in that situation is good, for body or mind.

I'd been into Gnod and what they do since I first saw them play with Damo Suzuki of Can, in a forest (!) back in 2008/2009 or so.

Just this huge multi-limbed beast, which seemed alive in itself, they were like a proper gang of misfits or something, making this relentless groove that seemed to go on and on and on, forever and ever, not in a bad way, but in a kind of, sucking you into a vortex, into their gravitational pull, you know, the kind of roll your eyes into the back of your head and let go...the best way!

It Completely floored me. Years later, When the offer and opportunity came to be involved with what they do, I had to take it, so I moved down to Salford where they are based, and have been here since.

Music is pretty much all I do. Whether it be in Gnod, or our various other outlets. We all live in a great space, Islington Mill in Salford, a Victorian Cotton Mill which for the past ten years has been a sort of Arts Hub, with artist studios, a venue, gallery and an arts academy. Its full of all kinds of creative disciplines, designers, musicians, painters, film makers and a really great place to be creatively. I feel very privileged to be there. I actually played there a lot previously with Manatees. As far as solo stuff, I basically live in my studio here, so I just work on music and tinker with sounds for most of my time. I'm constantly working on it, with whatever I can use around me. I usually tend to keep it to myself, as I'm my worst critic, but I'm making a conscious effort this year to be more proactive with it. As for time... it's more like the other way round, I find it difficult to find time for anything else other than music, like eat or sleep or make money, ha! But it's what I love doing.

Luckily I doubt any recordings survived! Haha. He moved over here to Manchester as a photographer some years ago and although not musically inclined enough to pick up an instrument, he's musical. Know what I mean? He's got the soul.

Last year he started applying that musicality in a way that works for him. Visually. He uses controllers and filters to manipulate the visuals live and has done visuals for Gnod a few times. He even got flown over to do his visuals in New York for a big event there! All that in the space of a few months, so as good friends it kind of made sense for us to get together. The very few solo shows I've done I always had some projections going on. Partly to distract from my usual nerves (playing solo is much different to having a band with you!) but mainly I think music and visuals go hand in hand, they compliment each other perfectly. As a musician or artist it's not just sound I’m after, but atmosphere too. You know, vibes. To evoke some kind of emotive response, why limit that to just sound? Besides, watching someone behind a table, twiddling buttons, isn’t always as riveting as that sounds.

Anything that's going to add to people getting into a certain headspace is welcomed by me. We recently performed a commissioned piece together for Manchester based events group Video Jam at Manchester Art Gallery as part of Turner Prize winning artist's Jeremy Deller's 'All That Is Solid Melts Into Air' exhibition.

Also I'd say stuff like Coil, and avant garde long form music like William Basinski, Kevin Drumm and Elaine Radigue, especially her Triloge De Mort recordings. But I think mainly it's less music that influences me and more a need to shut off from the real world. We live in a mad world, and the older I get the more disconnected I feel from it. My mind seems fried most of the time with anxieties and worries from it, so I need to just lose myself, and I find I can with sound. Just tune out and let it take me inward. Its Something more spiritual to me. To kind of achieve altered states of consciousness with sound Head music.

I never felt happy with the 'metal' tag you know. I mean sure we were loud and aggressive but Manatees always had those weird bits and long drawn out repetitive sections, real hypnotic vibe and quite cinematic in scope, and it was that over the aggression that always appealed to me. And finding weird sounds. With the first Manatees album we did a lot of rhythmic and percussion parts with like junk that was lying around. I think I was listening to a lot of Einstürzende Neubauten around then!

I think the older, you know the more the aggression just naturally dissipated for me, which is very natural, but the need to lose myself in repetition and the weirdness only grew. So in that sense It does feel like a natural progression to me, though it might seem like quite a distinct change from the outside.

We released it under the name Aufklarung last year which came out on Tombed Visions label. That label is run by a guy called David McLean, who I've also collaborated with a couple times. We also did a tape under the Macarte/McLean Moniker, its a live recording from an improv set we did opening for Oneothrix Point Never. David's amazing actually. REALLY good at improvising. Serious inspiration. He plays anything from free jazz to industrial bludgeoning beats.

I'd love to do some more collaborations with him, but I fear he's getting a little TOO good now! Haha. I also did a few live collaborations, with fellow Gnod member Druss (Paddy Shine) and a great sound and visual artist down here, Callum Higgins, who goes by the name of Yes Blythe. Callum uses cassettes of field recordings that he loops till they're beyond recognition. Like a lock out groove of a record that he'll make sound like a building collapsing over and over.

We all love each other and its nothing personal at all between one another, just, that whole episode for us as a band, the last four years or so, have been a massive strain on us all. Through some pretty poor decisions on our own part and on our then label's part, we were left with a huge debt, no label support and no means of releasing it or anything else on our own.

We should have probably took a break a lot earlier, but we ploughed on, constantly touring the UK and Europe, and while we had fun, it just left us in financial ruin while the record just stayed on a shelf collecting dust.

It does kind of feel as though its coming to an end. We're all working on different bands and projects so time is limited. Stylistically and musically, it's just not where I am any more. I mean its like putting on your favourite t-shirt you used to wear as a teenager. It represents a time and a place the three of us were at, at that time, but its just not representative of where we are now as artists and people, you know? I mean I'd love for the record to still come out, there's nothing more frustrating as an artist then leaving something unfinished, and its a good album, we worked hard on it, probably some of the best stuff we did, but it kind of became a ball and chain for us in a way, that album. We've learned so much from the last ten years of playing together, and I feel like we achieved a lot to be proud of, those musical bonds are special, we grew up playing music together, influenced each other in our playing, and lives to become who we are today. Brothers. But I'd rather we all use that to move forward to new avenues.

You know, not be sad that its ending, but be excited about what comes next. Greg is recording some demos at the moment, which I can't wait to hear, that guy's guitar playing is insane. His guitars on our second record, man... amazing.

To me he plays heavy music but with that weird 'je ne sais quoi', you know, Like Roland S Howard from the Birthday Party or something, or Dylan Carlson, these weird nuances, very much their own identity that you cant quite pin point, that no one else can imitate. Especially for me, his clean tone. I think he's got a lot he can expand on with that. And I know that guy has some real soul. Really interested to see where that goes.

Really using Soundsystems as an instrument almost. Raikes Parade (Andy Blundell), who does our sound, he's incredible. He's up there with us all at the trestle tables with his mixing desk, literally playing the desk and steering the ship. It's been a great year with Gnod actually.

We pretty much spent the year taking the Soundsystem with that set up on the road through the UK and Europe and often playing spaces rather than venues. It may seem like a complete swerve stylistically for Gnod, but again to me it just feels like a natural progression. I think it ruffled some feathers for some Gnod heads who've really dug the guitar driven stuff, but fuck it, its got to keep moving, if your heart stops beating you’re dead!

Whatever, to me personally it feels like the most interesting music I've been involved with for a long while and I find it very exciting to be a part of. We're constantly jamming and recording things and there's been a few Gnod releases here and there, a few compilation tracks, rereleases and a great tape for Blackest Ever Black.

There's also been a Gnod tape label, Tesla Tapes, releasing amazing new music from people we meet on our travels, a club night we started, Gesamtkunstwerk, putting on some real ground breaking artists in the electronic field in a our own warped take on a club night! We even went to Ibiza as part of Residency with Islington Mill. And of course all the Gnod heads have all been working on solo output respectively (Dwellings, Druss, Negra Branca, Raikes Parade, 2 Koi Karp).

Also looking forward to David McLean, who I mentioned earlier, releasing his new material as Punctum. Beat driven heavy vibes. I've known David a while, and been great seeing him evolve musically. Really inspiring.

As far as guitar music goes... I dunno, I think Drunk In Hell just destroyed any need for me to check out heavy guitar music.