Jester: How did you meet Martin Atkins and eventually get signed to Invisible Records?
Dave: Well, first met Martin Atkins at one of our shows. We were opening up for Sheep On Drugs here in Tucson, Arizona. I don't know why, we're not too hip on the Sheep's sound - but our friend was promoting the show. After our set Martin walked up to us and introduced himself. Very friendly guy and very supportive of our music. From that we talked on the phone and I started sending him our back catalog and unreleased material. Soon after...
Jester: When can we expect the release of record on Invisible Records?
Dave: Febuary 18th, along with a slew of all new Invisible Products. It's titled Sangre Azul and is 74 minutes of material recorded in the year of misery 1996. The same day Invisible is releasing a 2CD set of live material from the Xtacy Under Duress tour. We have a 20min track on there. Also included is Dead Voices on Air, Test Department and Sheep on Drugs. Should be very cool.
Jester: You mentioned a stylistic change on the debut album. What type of change do you see your music taking?
Dave: Well, our sound is always evolving. Our first CD was not very representative of our overall sound. The label that released 'Time Music of Quazars' was a TECHNO only label. They pretty much told us what tracks they'd release. Was weird. Invisible has given us a lot more room to explore more ambient stuff, but still want us to keep it very beat oriented. I have hopes that our upcoming releases following Sangre Azul will be much darker and much more rounded to our other styles.
Jester: How did you first get involved with music? Why do you still compose music today?
Dave: Well I've always been involved with painting,
drawing, etc... one day I just got really sick of it all and bought a guitar.
From then it's been constant evolution. I compose music today because it's my
only true form of expression... It's one of my main vices for living. take it
away I'd probably off myself! It really cures boredom. I live in a shit hole
town.
Jester: What kind of musical training have you had, if any?
Dave: None really. I just fool around with instruments till I know how to play them. I took a music class at a community college, but I dropped out a few weeks later. In elementary school I was 'taught' how to play the sax, clarinet, etc... but thats all gone.
Jester: In your free time, what types of music/artists do you listen too?
Dave: Hmm, I listen to a lot of music... a lot of types of music. for the sake of dropping names in an interview I'd say Nurse With Wound, Current 93, Coil, Aube, Can, Zoviet France, Robert Rich. I guess I listen to a lot of what people call 'noise'. I also listen to a lot of fucked up tekno, but no one too famous. For the most part though, I like to listen to music done by friends, collaborators, pen pals and other folks in the noize 'scene'. same with tekno. having some connection with a band makes them all that more interesting to me.
Jester: Where do you see your music progressing in the future?
Dave: Well, always evolving. I see it just becoming much more complex and incorporating more styles of muzak - like jazz, or muzak. I hope to see the next few albums exploring darker noize/ambient and mixing a bit of old electroboom boom in the background, rather than the foreground.
Jester: When you sit down and write a new track, do you use any formal compositional method?
Dave: Different every time. Never do anything the same way twice. More often than not we do complete Improv. we'll get so many people in the studio, hook them up and hit record. thats where the best stuff comes from. quite often we will remix and remix and remix and remix pieces that come from these improv sessions. then those appear as recordings. the straight improv is usually available on tapes from us.
Jester: Can you describe what your live performances are like?
Dave: Also varied every time. We usually do shows once
every other month and these are completely different from one show to the next.
Quite often we show up, fog the venue out and will do improv noize and tekno
till we're done. we've also done shows involving live dancers and all our
'drama chick' friends that included very 'planned/orchestrated' music. On our
last two tours though we did stick to a 'set' - but did it different every
night and incorporated musicians from the different towns we visisted. The main
thing about of live shows is that we DO NOT play backing DATS, ADATS, tapes or
anything. We do it all on the instruments we have on stage.
Jester: Where do your biggest musical and political influences come from?
Dave: They all come in forms of void transmissions from the dog star. The owls are not as they seem.
Jester: What other musical projects have you worked on in the past IF any??
Dave: Hmm... where to start. I've done studio collaborations with with many other bands including Crawl Unit, YAU, Then Tingari, E.H.I., AA23, Blazen Y Sharp, Exteriror Mirror, Dogstar Communications, Scot Jenerik, Hal Mcgee, Planet 6, Seofon, Pirate Audio, Gravitar, Tekachi, Macronympha, Crucifiction Machine and several others. Have done LIVE collaborations with the bands Banishing Point ( a collaboration of NB and AA23 - 2 shows), Instagon ( 2 times), Tekachi, John Sharp, Then Tingari, Mason Jones, James Boring and Inboil. Before Not Breathing I did a tekno project called Microdot that was horrible, I was 17 at the time (I'm 22 right now). Before that I was in a gothic/ebm band with friend Hans Waggoner called Innerfearence. Was pretty silly... not so bad for being so young.
Jester: Would you be interested in collaborating with other artists in the future? If so, which ones?
Dave: Always interested in collaborating with interesting
folks out there. I wont name any off though... whatever happens happens. I'd
very much like to start 'remixing' other bands... hopefully start with the
Invisible roster!