INTERVIEW

How did your adventure in psychedelic trance music begin?

I've been into electronic music since I was 12 years old, when I first encountered Prodigy's "Music for the Jilted Generation." Very shortly after that I also discovered the band Skinny Puppy. From there I jumped off into many different directions, and throughout middle school and high school I listened to a lot of electronic and industrial music. My main influences from this era were Skinny Puppy, Autechre, Coil, Mulimgauze, Orbital, Underworld, Meat Beat Manifesto, The Legendary Pink Dots, Can, Kraftwerk, Platikman, Swans, Angels of Light, Download, The Tear Garden, Plateau, Dead Voices on Air, Aphex Twin, Low, Calla, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Orchid, Bucket Full of Teeth, The Clash, Nine Inch Nails, Nurse With Wound, Einsturzende Neubauten, godspeed you! black emperor, Throbbing Gristle, Sigur Ros, and others that I'm forgetting at the moment.

I also got into making electronic music less then a year after I started listening to it. I acquired a cheap synth and a 4-track cassette recorder. When I was 14 I got my first analog synthesizer, a Sequential Circuits Pro One, which I still have. I mainly made experimental noise music, and droney stuff, both with and without a beat, also occasionally featuring vocals. Throughout highschool, at least until my senior year, I was strictly drug and alcohol free, and I consider my psychedelic understanding of music to be innate, not learned (future consumption of certain things served as "confirmation" of this belief).

Around the age of 16 or 17, an online friend decided to send me some trance albums. These were X-Dream- "Irritant," The Delta- "Send in Send Back," and a handful of singles from acts like Midi Miliz, Spirallianz, and a bit of Texas Faggott. He also would send me his own tracks, which I loved (Stupid Octave Cat was his artist name, he makes electro, techno, and other styles these days). I remember thinking that part of my philosophy with electronic music was that I didn't like the ravey, "cheesy" stuff that wasn't designed for in-depth, repeated listening, so I hadn't really paid attention to trance music. But this "techier, darker" style that my friend had sent me really turned me on. It had a very powerful sound and some of the best low-end I'd ever felt. I was by no means hooked, but I liked what I heard.

Finally in my first year of college, after having moved to California from Massachusetts, I attended my first outdoor trance events. I met a couple of people who were insistent on bringing me to parties after discovering my shallow knowledge of trance. The parties were cool- I loved the remote outdoor locations, the big sound system, and the genuine freaks who were in attendance, but in general, I found most of the music to be annoying. It wasn't until I attended a Mojave desert event thrown by Mindfull Productions that I made my deep connection with trance.

At this event, Ghreg on Earth performed. This music blew my mind- it sounded like Skinny Puppy twisted up into futuristic dance music in a dilapidated castle. I danced hard, and became very curious about trance. I found Ghreg's music to be quite experimental compared to the other stuff at the party, but I noticed people were really into it. This lead me to believe that the trance scene was extremely open minded, and that I could maybe present experimental music in this setting. This later proved to be far too reductive of an analysis, but nonetheless I have always been an experimental artist, and have always scoured for venues to perform in, and this experience excited me a lot. I started discovering other "dark trance" artists like Derango, Kin Dza Dza, Psykovsky, Procs, Jahbo, Grapes of Wrath, et. al. I slowly developed a taste for this music, until I was completely hooked on it. I remember thinking of it as "synth porn music"- splurges of pure synth tones and atmospheres everywhere, awash a constant beat that was also synthesized. I loved that most of this style did away entirely with melodies and basic arpeggios, and instead focused on arrangement, structure, and sound design.

Why are you called The Dog Of Tears?

The Dog of Tears is a character from a Jose Saramago book called Blindness. In it, the world is suddenly struck with an epidemic plague of blindness, which is spread by any simple social interaction, even making eye contact with someone. Everyone goes blind, except for one human, who travels with a group. They discover a dog and adopt it on their odyssey. The dog is crying, it is the Dog of Tears. The implication is that the dog sees, and the dog does not like what it sees, so he cries. As an artistic metaphor, the idea is that the Dog of Tears (me) has processed certain data that brought him to the point of tears, and the music is an attempt to present that data. It is my psychedelic vision.

The name was initially thought of for a noise project I was developing in 2003. I made three noise albums as the Dog of Tears, which were given away at Burning Man from 2004-2006, and included hand-painted artwork. The albums were titled Visions in a Toilet Bowl, Residual Self Image, and Goggle Dub. I also had a noise band, which was called the Dog of Tears Orchestra. The members of that band were Adam Somers, Sean Price, and Wylie Cable. We played shows around Los Angeles, and had some degree of notoriety, at least as far as noise bands go.

When I first started writing trance music, I never bothered to change the name, and my initial attempts were in-fact "noise trance"... very challenging stuff. Later I realized maybe "the Dog of Tears" wasn't such a trance-friendly project name, but it was too late!

In which festivals have you presented your Live Act The Dog Of Tears?

I have not really played at a lot of festivals outside of California, at least compared to my peers- in general I have found it extremely difficult to get gigs over the years. I find the festival scene, especially in Europe, seems to be much more socially influenced then musically influenced, and I am terrible at "pimping" myself in that way. I also find that most festivals like to spend more on deco then they do on artist fees.

I have, however, managed to make appearances at:

Freqs of Nature in Berlin

a small fest in Sweden that I think was called "Hur Ga Djur" or somesuch

Midnight Sun in Norway

some festival in Montreal that I forget the name of which was mostly terrible

World Bridge outside Atlanta, Georgia (2 times)

Universo Paralello in Brazil (incredible)

Eclipse Festival in Oregon (also incredible)

Red Marines Festival in California (3 or 4 times)

and a few other fests in California

All other live appearances have been smaller one-night events that I either headlined or was a guest at. I much prefer these smaller parties, where I can essentially choose my timeslot and set length, get paid properly, and everyone there is excited to hear my music. I do NOT like feeling like I'm supposed to be "honored" to have any timeslot at all, like I often do in festival settings.

Tell me about your project A.C. Lyon

In the beginning I made very experimental, noisy trance music. It downright offended some people. Over the years I started filtering what I would "allow" to happen musically in a trance track, until I started making stuff that was slightly more likable amongst trancers. That was cool, but I still wanted to create all out experimental music, so around 2010 I started working on some "side-projects"- namely A.C. Lyon and D.C. Offset. A.C. Lyon explores experimental beats, it is somewhat Autechrian and could be classified as IDM (I like to call it "weird-beat"), while D.C. Offset explores mostly ambient, drone, and otherwise completely freeform music, not necessarily with a defined tempo.

These projects are very important to me, and I probably spend more time on them then I do on tDoT. That's because those styles come more naturally to me, and there are less "rules"- I feel a certain freedom to do whatever I want, and I can make 1 or 2 tracks a day, easily. There is a huge amount of unreleased music from both projects, although I did finally manage to release 2 A.C. Lyon albums over the summer. They are free and available at my website-

https://xexify.com

I've also done a fair amount of A.C.L. live and DJ sets, which are always great fun. Unlike trance, which leaves very little room for a performer to actually improvise or play "live" in any kind of real sense, this weird-beat music gives me the freedom to do a true live set- I almost always haul out some combination of gear from the studio and perform something that is legitimately 50% improvised, or more. I find that the audience pressure is much different- people are down for anything and remain more open minded, as opposed to a trance dance floor, where people are waiting for, almost demanding, specific things/edits/sounds/events to happen in an order that satisfies their predictable expectations. Go and play a "real live" trance set and observe as everyone stands there and stares at you without moving a muscle- they need their maximalist structure, and it's only possible to achieve that with a computer and layers and layers of software edits/fills/overdubs.

One day I hope to abandon the tDoT project and focus on A.C.L and D.C.O. exclusively. Although I love trance, and I love making trance music, the overall artistic reward is quite small- amongst the trance community, there is only a tiny subset of freaky freaks who actually like my music. People often try to tell me that my music is not psytrance. I have to beg and claw for almost all my gigs, and it's always a highly socio-political battle. In California, I cannot tell you how widespread the impression of my music already is. People who have literally never heard me play insist that they know all about what I do and basically treat me like the boogie man. I HATE all this. I perform my art as a gift to the community around me, a contribution that I consider valuable, perhaps priceless. I am extremely egotistical and believe very strongly in the value and power of my music and art, and therefore find it insulting that people so consistently react in such an incredibly ignorant and negative way. With A.C. Lyon, which I think is much more experimental then my tDoT music, the reactions are so much less polarized. People almost universally agree that it's good, even if they're not into the style. There is much less questioning of my validity as an artist, and as mentioned I have infinitely more freedom with my performances.

Please check out the 2 FREE A.C.L. albums, available at https://xexify.com

(How) Do you define your music?

I don't. I adhere quite stringently to the semantic philosophy that music has no implicit meaning whatsoever. This is a very important concept to understand if one wishes to develop a deep appreciation and understanding of music, especially experimental music.

Basically, there is no such thing as a musical device that has a 1:1 literal meaning. I cannot say "the wall is red" with music. In this way it is fundamentally different from language. Language attempts to connote exact literal meaning, or else one can use further language to argue their point. This is called communication. Music has no universal meaning- it has an individual, highly emotional meaning to each listener, which can change on a day to day basis even within the same listener. Put quite simply, music does not communicate- if you have an adverse reaction to a certain aural experience, it is not because the DJ is trying to crush-fuck your soul and eat it. It's because you the listener are trying to crush-fuck your soul and eat it. All reactions to all music are 100% personal and unique.

I can't tell you how many times I have been asked, after a live set, "why were you trying to steal our souls with black magic?" or some variation thereof. I always look at them with bewilderment, wondering how it could be possible to build soul-stealing black magic into my music in a way that would universally steal every listeners soul. Surely if I were capable of this, I would obviously do it, since souls are worth good money on the black market. But I can't- no one can. I cannot make music that is universally soul-stealing, just like I cannot make music that universally makes the listener feel like they're getting a hand-job from the cookie monster. If I could I would. But I can't. 'Cus it's impossible- music, as a medium, simply does not function this way.

If you think you disagree, I challenge you to think of a musical device that has a 1:1 literal meaning that can be described with simple language. You can't, because it doesn't exist. So stop thinking that I'm wrong about this.

What do you contribute to music?

When I make trance music, or any kind of music really, I do not just compare it against other trance or similar styles. In my mind I am competing with the entire history of recorded music, not just the flavor of the week. To that end I am always trying to create something that is uniquely stylized and has a certain quality of sound and production. Actually, I find it really difficult to make stuff that fits more conveniently within genre boundaries. Whenever I try, I eventually get bored and start mucking it up into rusted beat-putty. I recently tried to make hip-hop and just could not do it, a part of me won't allow a static beat to simply loop with no development, no matter how fat it is.

I like to think that in 10 or 20 years, my albums will still have relevance. I put a great deal of effort into each release, I don't rush anything. I'm sitting on nearly a dozen unreleased album-projects, and everyday I think about which ones are actually worth putting out there, the truly good ones that will stand the test of time. I make all my sounds from scratch, kick and bass is from scratch every time, synthesized. I like to synthesize my own drums and percussion, sample them, and have completely unique kits to work with. The sequencer is my favorite instrument, almost every track is based around some concept of sequencing, using a specific setup of gear. I have a lot of hardware gear- modular analog synths, tabletop stuff, loads of effects- but I rarely use it all at once. Most tracks bud from an idea of using 2 or 3 pieces together in a unique way. Everything is essentially based on process, but without the specific details of the process having any intended relevance to the listener (see above- music has no meaning). The processes used are for my own artistic edification, and I often fantasize about new process-based ideas. That doesn't mean a curious fan can't glean more insight into the music by discovering more about my process- but it is by no means required. My processes are unique and inimitable, most electronic musicians would find them obtuse.

What has been the transformation of the project from its creation until today?

I've already talked a bit about this above, but I will elaborate:

The Dog of Tears was originally an experimental noise project. As I got more into trance music, I naturally started wanting to produce it, and never changed the name. I've used modular synthesizer gear since early high school, and so when I started making trance my inclination was to do it all with my pile of random analog gear. This was kind of a big deal in 2005, and other producer friends would make fun of me- "don't you know you can do all that with softsynths?" they would ask. Well, I wanted to use my gear- I like modular synths. I feel at home on them. I can design specific or totally experimental sounds very quickly with her, much faster then mucking about on a screen with a mouse. That's just because I've used them for so long, and starting at a young age- it's like a second language for me. I also have a prime directive while making music: have fun! Working with the modular, and knobby hardware in general, is fun. For me, it's more fun then video games or other unproductive stimuli.

People did not like my trance music at first. It was disturbing, distorted, disgruntled. Looking back on my music from that era, even I find it quite unsettling. I had come from a background of industrial and experimental music, and I was in a noise band, I had never really listened to "rave" music up until that point, besides my smattering of trance, some choice techno, and big-beat classics. I did not understand the priorities of the dancefloor, or that trance was essentially non-performative. It took me years to learn these things. In 2006, I played an infamous set at the first Xexify Mojave Desert event, which garnered me a reputation that I am yet to fully live down, at least in California.

Slowly, I changed my style, but I never changed the name. I was going to tough it out as the Dog of Tears. Bookings were still very rare, but finally in 2009, a beam of hope shone itself on the horizon. I had sent the latest tracks to Goa Gil, there were 3 of them. I felt these tracks were a turning point in my production, they felt like real trance tracks with a unique style. He played all 3 of them at our annual Memorial Day Meltdown party, at various times of the day, the first coming around 1 in the afternoon in the form of a 147 BPM track called "Emulsive Gestalt". Later, we got "Lizard Mammals Exists" and "Moisture for the Dead". The power this had was unparalleled- it was like Grandpa Gil was giving the trance-world permission to be down with my music. At the next party, I sent him more music, and this time he played 5 of my tracks. At this point, I was very inspired, and started writing a ton of music. For the next Gil party, I sent him just a ridiculous pile of tracks, not expecting him to play more then 4 or 5 of them. He played all of them- 18 tracks in all. He played them in the night time, the day time, and the night time again. It was known- and he was doing it all around the world on his tour. He put me on his Divine Dozen lists starting in October 2010, and in 2011 I released a track on his compilation, "Shri Maharaj".

This got things going in a good direction, and I finally started getting some gigs and releasing some music. It was still an uphill battle, and is to this day, folk's natural inclination is a strong aversion towards things which are different or challenge them, and my music remains both different and challenging. But I feel I have refined the style greater and greater over time, still remaining experimental while somehow being infectious. The pinnacle of that so far was my album dogspiral1, which was developed out of a live set I toured with and worked on for over a year. I will discuss that, and a bit about the story of the live set, below.

Tell me about your album Dogspiral1

First of all, there is already a brief essay about the making of ds1  here: https://store.xexify.com/dog-spiral-essay

It answers most of the questions about process.

Dogspiral1 is one of my favorite accomplishments as an artist. The entire way it came into existence was very organic, and the fluidity with which it formed itself into a cohesive album was reminiscent of some of my most unconscious artistic moments. As described in the essay, it was borne out of a live set I had been developing for over a year. The problem was that it was a complete pain in the ass to carry around this live rig everywhere- I had no roadies to help me carry it, I had to lug it around the airport, pay ridiculous luggage fees, and it was worth thousands of dollars, so gig fees were not making it worth the risk. In addition there was this odd double-standard that would take place when I hauled the rig around- on one hand people claimed they wanted to hear "live trance music" and were really into what I was doing. On the other hand, because truly live trance music has a more minimal overall feel without the intricacies of DAW edits and effects, people would not really dance. They want live music but they want computer edits and overdubs and glitches as well. Well, folks, you can't have both- don't claim you want live trance music when what you really want is predictable computer music that barely deviates from everything you've heard before.

By the end of my Europe tour I was itching like hell to make some music. I missed my studio a lot. In general I seem to have this problem with traveling, after 1 or 2 weeks all I can think about is how badly I'd like to get in the studio, and when I'm abroad no one ever seems to want to jam out, and additionally I am really uncomfortable in their studio spaces. By the time I got home all I could think about was getting this liveset "down on paper"- meaning recorded in some way- so I would never have to think about hauling this rig around again. The studio was a mess and I just sort of pushed things aside, stuck the live rig in the middle, and started in on it, recorded each pattern of the set individually and editing it all together into a cohesive whole. It was one of most fun recording sessions I've had. By the 3rd or 4th recording I could tell I was on to something pretty good, really dancey and infectious but totally different from the norm. The whole thing took me only 3 days to record, and a few additional days spent doing edits and automating levels.

Although it was recorded in a short period, the liveset itself was developed over the course of literally many years, essentially since the day I got the Elektron Octatrack. For a time I was really obsessed with making a "real live trance set"... now I kind of don't care, honestly. But at that time I was constantly trying to figure out the most effective combination of tabletop gear to do a fun and dynamic live performance with, and I settled on a setup with 2 Elektron pieces and a single row of Bugbrand modular. I spent over a year writing patterns for this setup, editing them, rehearsing them, playing them out and editing them a bit more, so by the time I got to the studio post-tour, I was really ready to perform each pattern perfectly and succinctly. I actually challenged myself to be as succinct as possible with each recording.

Then I made a really cool limited edition CD release, with beautiful hand-painted packages. This was pretty successful, people were into the idea, and I sold the CDs quickly. For a few years the album was unavailable, until I finally released a digital download version on xexify.com a little over a year ago. The funny part is that the album seems to be well-known, but I only ever sold 200 CDs and about 20 digital downloads, so I have no clue how people are so familiar with the material (okay, I'm not an idiot, I know- this is just a subtle message for all you pirates out there to SUPPORT MY FUCKING MUSIC PLEASE!!!!).

Meanwhile I changed my priorities about what I was looking to accomplish with my live trance set. My idea was basically that all I need out of a trance live set is to be able to play back my finished tracks in the highest quality possible, with the ability to beat match them and do nice mixes. Unfortunately, I found that all the available DJing software- whether it was Traktor, Ableton, etc.- they were all simply not fit for the task for various reasons. So I came up with the concept of my own DJ software, and my friend Adam Somers (ex-member of tDoT Orchestra, discussed above) helped me develop this idea in Max/MSP, an object-oriented music programming environment. Our software plays back 24 bit audio in high quality, and does all the beat matching calculations based on pitch-shifting, like on a CDJ. There is no time-stretching compression whatsoever, and no artifacts. At the root BPM of any track, all pitch-shifting is turned off. Playback occurs on a 4-bar count for easy cue-starts. After a lot of research, I settled on the Metric Halo 2882 soundcard. This is the only "portable" soundcard I've heard with half-decent sound, and I prefer it to similar offerings by RME or Apogee. A simple Faderfox midi controller controls everything, and the whole setup fits conveniently in a small backpack. Oh, and it sounds really good- inevitably better, punchier, wider, more detailed then whoever was playing before me.

Tell us what a common day of Dog Of Tears looks like.

I wake up around 6-7 AM and drink a very nice cup of coffee, usually something Ethiopian, and brewed in a vacuum extraction pot. I usually read a book or check internet stuff while drinking my coffee. Then I exercise for 1-2 hours, either running, basketball, or strength training. After that is work time- if I have mastering work to do, I focus on that, otherwise I focus on my own music. I only like to work on music during the day time, when my ears are fresh- I am not a late night guy. I also try not to drink any alcohol while working on music- it changes my perception of sound too much.

Sometimes instead of mastering or making music, I'm working on resin sculptures, or running errands, or doing some driving work (another job besides mastering). In the evening I like to watch sports, mostly basketball, mostly my beloved Boston Celtics. I often have folks over to watch the game with me. Once a week I play pickup basketball with my friends. I consider physical activity to be very important in my life, it keeps me sane and in shape, and my energy level is higher when I'm constantly active. I go to bed relatively early, usually around 10 PM. I have totally outgrown staying up late just to binge on some TV show or whatever. I'd rather use my time more effectively, which means waking up earlier so I have more daytime hours to do more artistic work. I do not play any video games.

What are your favorite record labels?

END..

LINKS

Soundcloud, where you can listen demos, songs in progress and some realesed music:

Webcite: