White Rainbow Interview

1) As it is very fitting, you are a part of the Kranky family, sharing the stage with phenomenal groups such as Cloudland Canyon, Stars Of The Lid/The Dead Texan, Labradford, Deerhunter, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and many others.  What draws me to this label is that it is inundated with so much talent that all seems so related to each other, yet each and every artist creates music and projects itself in an entirely different way. How is it being a part of this label.

I mean i've always loved kranky, since the hey-day of 90's space music or whatever you want to call it. as a younger man i loved and was deeply influenced by jessamine, magnog, tomorrowland, windy & carl, stars of the lid, and labradford. That music like that could exist within or in relation to my DIY/independent/punk understanding of the world of music was a huge inspiration to me. so it's like a dream come true, really, for me to be releasing music with them. i appreciate their careful curation.
they actually listen and give sound advice and appreciate and care deeply for every thing they put into the world. its a deep honor to be working with them.

Also, what label mates are you really into?  

ALL OF THEM. i'd say maybe look out for the one of the newest projects coming out on kranky JONAS REINHARDT.

2) Upon meeting you this year at SXSW, I found out that you are originally from Monterey, CA, a place that I'm very fond of and familiar with.  Though the area's beauty, scenery, and climate are unparalleled, there doesn't seem to be much of a music "Scene" there.  Did this have anything to do with your move to Portland?

Oh hell yes. it was 1994. i was 18. the grunge explosion from the northwest had just happened. i think i read in, like, maximum rock and roll about an all ages club in portland called The X-ray. people were talking about Reed College as this totally coool place to go to school. all i wanted to do was be in a place where there was a cool DIY/punk/underground music culture. i came up here to go to college at Lewis and Clark, which is sort of removed, out near the edge of town.
Portland was a lot different back then. It was more run down, gruff, industrial, dirtier, sloppier, smelled different. it was cheaper. there was way more of a punk/drunk/freaker culture than the sort of internet and indie rock thing we call 'indie culture' these days. it wasn't trying so hard to be so 'inviting' like it might be now. i quite enjoyed it. It has definitely changed in the last 14 years, but i still enjoy it. i have a lot of friends here and together i guess we make our own little world.
but portland is kinda cleaned up now, there are more fancy people here now that have in turn made the place more comfortable for themselves with fancy places that didn't exist 10 or even 5 years ago. i think im a bit sensitive to that sort of thing coming from such a fancy place like Monterey, where pretty much everything past 10 yards from the shore is incredibly fancy and only geared towards dull affluent luxury. it was a turn-off then and it is a turn-off now. its what i moved here to get away from.
but portland is still pretty rad. and as the city has grown so has the music scene, which, ultimately is interesting, even if it means lots more middle of the road indie rock.

3) What do you think of Portland as a whole?  How does its surroundings and its music scene influence you?

i guess you could say im pretty deeply ingrained here. i have a lot of friends that make music, art, poetry, run little labels, do cool stuff on a regular basis both locally and beyond and we all sort of support eachother in our various efforts, like a big extended family or something.

portland labels:
marriage records
states rights records
jyrk/freedom to spend
supertapes
gnar tapes
cherried out merch
u-sound archive
imp
road cone
etc

music:
valet
rob walmart
adrian orange
white fang
yacht
dirty projectors
jackie o motherfucker
tunnels
acre
brave priest
eternal tapestry
savages
etc etc

poet:
tom blood

streets:
stark
oak
morrison
belmont
MLK
grand
washington
division
se ankeny

businesses:
the shell/jacksons one block south of stark on mlk/grand
my fathers place
the acorn cafe
sheridan fruit co.
exiled records
roadside attraction
burrito cart on 34th and division
red bike cafe up in st johns

venues:
artistery
valentines
holocene
sk8 and rhone

4) You seem to to be given opportunities to play many interesting and non-traditional spaces like the Henry Miller library in Big Sur for instance.  Do you prefer to present White Rainow at these places or does it just so happen to work itself out that way?

i prefer anything over a shitty bar with a half broken PA and drunk people talking and or just staring waiting for me to do something.
i really like the idea of music happening outside of that circuit, so i actively seek it out. my music doesn't work so well at regular rock and roll venues.

5) On Prism Of Eternal Now, there is a song entitled "For Terry."  Assuming that this is a homage to the minimal composer Terry Riley, What are some other artists and possibly even specific works out there that you'd urge listeners to hear to better understand and appreciate your music.

i dont know about better understanding my music, but i guess for context you could start with the stuff on states rights records, marriage records and kranky records, (the three labels i've released stuff on) to know where im coming from as far as contemporary stuff

as far as the history of minimal/space/experimental/ambient/psychedelic music i would say start with:
la monte young terry riley steve reich brian eno robert fripp john hassell, ravi shankar, miles davis, alice coltrane, cluster, can, ash ra temple popul vuh, javanese gamelan, various african musics, dub reggae
but also james brown, sly and the family stone, jimi hendrix, pink floyd, the grateful dead, joni mitchell, neil young, keak da sneak,  r kelly, lil wayne, stuff on sublime frequencies documenting cool current folk musics of the world and how some things stay raw and really singular and some things mix with western pop music influences and create awesome things....
i dont know, i listen to a lot of different things. i guess i just feel like there is a time and place for all musics in the world. listening to only one type of music seems kinda sad and lonely to me. i think no matter what you listen to the key is knowing that there are all sorts of different styles of music that are all awesome all over the world and there is more stuff to dig into and learn about and listen to all the time, from a variety of sources. i like to let it all wash over me.

6) "Mystic Prism," to me, is a song that completely encompasses all the elements that make White Rainbow a unique entity.  Organic and tribal-like percussion, dreamy ambience, psychedelic/progressive influenced guitar, and the use of vocals as more of an instrumental tool.  Can you tell us what this song means to you and if you recollect any memories of its creation process?

it actually started on my computer at a show, back when i used a computer as part of my live set up. i think that's where the bass line and drums came from. things i recorded on the spot and improvised on top of. it grew in the computer for a long time as i added parts and sculpted it into more of a "song" with movement. i'd say that song and 'pulses' were the two songs i spent the most time laboring over on that album. nowadays i can make music in a similar vein much easier, but they were the songs through which that particular aesthetic side of white rainbow really got developed. so what you are hearing is the start of that stuff, with the hand drums, shakers, vocal chanting, etc. i guess i have always loved Music for 18 Musicians and the John Hassel concept of "4th World music", syncretic music that fuses avant experimentalism with a collage of sound and rhythm ideas taken from africa, afro cuban, indian, south east asian, etc... also 70's Miles Davis
 explorations of groove, funk, spiritual modal jazz and fuzz guitar, and 70s german electronic music. i've always had the idea in my head of the mixture of like, the world's tightest funk group, maybe fela kuti's band or king sunny ade's band, with totally deep ambient float fuzz clouds of sound drifting on top of it. and maybe a few weird fuzz solos. i dunno, could be good, right?

7) "Sky Drips Drifts," your second full-length, seems to have much more of an improvised feeling than Prism.  It seems to be much closer to what you do in the live environment.  How much differently did you approach and execute the recording of Sky than Prism?

well i guess its just as you say, as it is just a recording of one live improvisation. so like i said above, its a recording of the continuation of the ideas behind compositions like "mystic prism" or "pulses", but shows how that sort of approach had changed and developed up to the point when i recorded it (mid 2007)... and how i do what i do live, which is a newer development. i still make all sorts of different styles of music at home with the aid of the computer and multi tracking and weird proccessing that can't be done live, but for the last year or so i have been delving more into what i can do at one sitting with the various devices i have in my chain of non-computer proccessors (fx pedals, etc)

i have about a year and a half's worth of recordings which document my development since SKY DRIPS DRIFTS, but none has been released yet. i have a lot to sift through. i would say the new stuff is a continuation of Sky Drips Drifts, but with a bit of multi-tracking and computer created music as well....

8) You seem to keep yourself busy by delving into a lot of various musical as well as non-musical endeavors outside of White Rainbow.  Can you elaborate a bit on the life of Adam Forkner outside of this project?

4 days a week i deliver wine to restaurants and bars and shops around Portland for a small wine distribution company. so i basically lug cases of wine around in my car, drive around, find parking, interact with business owners. like any sort of delivery job. but that doesn't take up that much of my time.
i live in a nice warehouse space with my 2 cats and Honey Owens who makes music and art as Valet. i hang out a lot with my homies within the Marriage Records/States Rights records extended family and beyond that into all the other cool trippers in town and we get involved in all sorts of crazy projects together, from playing organized sports and/or rock band video game to making weird music to building stuff to going to pizza. sometimes i help my friends with their records, either help record or mix or play an instrument or whatnot.
i feel lucky to have so many amazingly creative friends, and we all emotionally support each other's projects. it seems like many times a month friends from out of town come through, and i enjoy showing new people around portland. so i have a lot of fun here.
sometimes, too, i go on little tours around the country and beyond, but not that often. that is fun too.

9) Yourself, as well as Honey Owens from Valet helped Bradford Cox play some shows as Atlas Sound during the Spring of 2008.  How did this friendship come about and what did you think of the whole experience?

i first knew their band mom kristin from touring through atlanta years ago. she is like one of the most amazing vibe guides ever. then, when i heard that deerhunter was going to release stuff on kranky, i thought "woah those crazy atlanta kids?! awesome" so honey and i hung with bradford and kristin the first time deerhunter came through town, and we made friends and the idea to make an atlas sound 'band' came about. all in all it was an amazing time. it was fun to see the mixture of kranky heads coming out for the space trip and the pitchfork-type "general indie consumer" type people and those who only came to see if bradford did something "blog-able". hopefully everyone left happy. i know we had a lot of fun doing it.

10) White Rainbow seems to be a very loop-based project.  Do you prefer to have complete control of all the elements of sound or have you considered bringing in others for live performances?

i like the challenge of trying to make something that is potentially, dangerously boring not boring. with the proliferation of loop pedals, looping itself has lost a lot of its initial 'wow' factor for most people. so its fun to challege and push the form and find new ways to keep myself and others interested. i've been working this way a long time now. i've sort of created my own universe from my sound pallet to the way i work with loops, delay and sampling to everything else. and everything i do live is improvised. it would be hard to introduce other players into that equation. i love playing with others, and i fantasize about jamming with, like,  an afro-cuban percussion ensemble or other groups of percussion. or like i said, the idea of a tight afro-funk group ala kuti or santana or 70's miles or something... with deep trips over the top of it. but i haven't tried that yet. if i were to collaborate with others, it would be sorta starting from
 scratch. maybe even a new 'band name'... its a lot of time, effort and commitment to play with others. so ultimately the ease and
 freedom of doing things by myself wins out for now. so that's what white rainbow is, i guess: me.

11) Lastly, tell us all a little bit about the Billboard Top 100 White Rainbow Remix Project.

i thought it would be funny to do quick, dirty, uncompromising and possibly brutal 'remixes' of billboard hot 100 songs...so far i did a harsh gabber coldplay destruction, a pretty bad chris brown fucked up anddirty one, a rhianna ballad and a longform ambient piece made up of sounds from a jonas brothers video on youtube and rain outside the window

• White Rainbow - "MYSTIC PRISM" From The Album Prism Of Eternal Now
• White Rainbow - "SUN SHADOW DRIFTER" From The Album Sky Drips Drifts
• White Rainbow LIFE LOG

New Martin Rev

Suicide's myspace posted news that Martin Rev is coming out with a new album, titled "Les Nymphes" to be released September 30th. He's released a number of solo albums following and during his intermittent involvement with Suicide, all ranging in style from prototypical electronic no wave to bubblegum pop, the latter dominant on his 1996 release, See Me Ridin- which is linked for download below. See Me Ridin is an odd collection of poppy love songs, but it retains his trademark synthesizers, drum machines, and half-spoken/sung vocals. Interesting listen for those only familiar with his work in Suicide.

Download

Marumari - Supermogadon (2001)

Marumari
Supermogadon
Carpark Records
2001

Style: Abstract, IDM, Downtempo

01 Rocket summer
02 Yila
03 Baby M
04 Indigo florist
05 The golden people
06 A green morning
07 Way in the middle of the air
08 Holograff
09 The mutated wisdom
10 Red
11 Put me in my habitrail
12 Super botany (mazar)

Download

Origami arktika

As the sun shines low and the evening skies illuminate, with the night birds circling and mosquitoes nipping at your legs,the record starts to unfold before you. a living breathing piece of work that takes on such depths before your very ears that you begin to watch the world melt into it. with quiet movements of the most organic and natural instruments,it becomes apart of you, slowly skipping down the sidewalks with both hands swaying at your side and the winds carelessly carrying you far off into the night.


Listen To
Ny Stein

Clipd Beaks Interview

1) First off, who are you, where do you live and what is in the forefront of your current musical horizon?

We're Scott, Ray and Nic, and we live in Oakland, California. Making the new Clipd Beaks record is in the forefront of our current musical horizon. Specifically, we're putting the finishing touches on a new single that should be out around the new year.

2) What one piece of equipment, if removed from your possesion would most alter the sound of Clipd Beaks?

We definitely don't have a "magic box" that is integral to our sound. We've gone through a ton of equipment--but through all the changes it always ends up sounding like Clipd Beaks to us. We think the only things that have changed our sound significantly is when the we lost Aric and then again when we lost Greg. (Aric was our original bass player 2003-2005, Greg was our synth/guitar/sampler guy up until early 2008). It's attitudes and personalities.

3) What is the intention of different websites with different music ie. Clipd Beaks vs. Clipd Boys

Our idea was to have a separate myspace page where we could post clips of new stuff we were currently making, while keeping our original Clipd Beaks page dedicated to our entire history. At the time it was really amazing to be making new shit for the first time in over a year. And we all had the same feeling of wanting to share it right away. That feeling hasn't subsided, but we have all grown really tired of myspace, and we've become lazy with keeping it updated. But also we've exited the "free jazz" stage and enetered the construction phase.. and there's a certain pleasure and excitement in keeping this phase like a secret.

4) Can you (if so will you please) clearly define each others roles in the band?

Nic sings, plays guitar, sampler, loops, Ray is the drummer, and I play bass and synth.

5)I know there was a fall '07 tour for Clipd Beaks, anything in the works?

We are going to play some California dates w/Genghis Tron in early October. Other than that, we'll probably play some random local SF Bay Area shows. We gotta make our new record before we head out on anything lengthy.

6) To what degree are your live sets and or song writing process improvisational?

Our live shows have elements of improvisation, to what extent really depends on our mood and the setting. But our song writing is pretty much all improvisation. Every song is written in the moment; we usually record every time we jam and then go back and listen and extract and construct.. The only things we wouldn't really consider to be improvised would be some of the overdubs and transitions that we do, which tend to be more calculated and thought out.

7) One thing that attracts me to Clipd Beaks is the raw emotional aspect to your presentation. Emotion seems to go through few processes from mind to instrument to create what feels to be a genuine expression, what in everyday life influences you to do what you do?

We have all been doing this in one form or another for over ten years now, and we're at an age where we often ask ourselves how much longer we can do it. But that question and the related feelings usually become irrelevant when we see or hear stuff being made by people who seemingly overcome whatever burdens they have to find the time, resources, and will to keep on doing what they do...And also people that have a never ending appreciation for any artistic medium and are able to communicate their appreciation and shed light on things... People that can put their ego aside and really give something a chance. We find that many of our friends have these qualities and are always main source of inspiration...Jonn Anderson and Jacob Stoltz are two amazing individuals that come to our minds.

8) Conversly, what musical artists influence you?

There are a ton... Scott can't get enough Arthur Russell....Ray gets into Pow Wows. Can changed Nic's life.

9) Hoarse Lords plays like the most consice and thought out Clipd Beaks release, do you have a personal favorite release for any reason?

For all of us, we feel that 'PREYERS' is when things really came together. It's the original 5 piece Clipd Beaks, and we hear so much of each of our personalities coming through in different ways. But this is the record where the sounds and our personalities finally became a whole. When we listen to it now, it's like portal back to a time when we were all living in the same house and growing up together...Precious memories! It really was an amazing time...We all love it, and it's on a very personal level. We cannot separate our lives and the times from the music...
We also love all of our live jam documents like the Robo Gnomes "Majik Moments" disc. They really show a different aspect of who we are and that is important to us

10) I think what attracts me and many others to Clipd Beaks is the way the records sound. They are not big and booming overproduced tracks at all, but rather natural, organic, and layperson. Would you care to briefly discuss how a Clipd Beaks record is approached and executed

Well, we just work with whatever we have, equipment and material wise. Sometimes the recordings are only stereo recordings and there's not much room to change the sound. Up until recently, we didn't really have the means to execute a good multi-track recording. They were just a short step up from the stereo recordings...But they worked for us. We have come to operate from the feeling that if something sounds good, just go with it. You can fuck with sounds forever, add a million plug-ins and edit away etc. And sometimes in the end, the difference is so minute that it isn't worth the time or so drastic that it's lost it magic...It's easy to lose sight of the big picture if you get too wrapped up in production. At the same time,
production quality is also a matter of personal taste; things that sounds technically "bad" or "wrong" can at the same time be perceived as beautiful or "right", such as when a performance transcends production. And we acknowledge an appreciate that...

11) There seems to be a theme behind a lot of music emitting from LA and the bay area right now (Clipd Beaks, Anavan, Indian Jewelry, HEALTH)... do you feel a part of a scene per say?

Every band you named are friends of ours. Friends that definitely fit into our previous answer about what inspires us on a day to day level. But other than that, we don't know what the theme might be. We recently read an article that included us in a list of bands that are part of L.A. The Smell scene, and then another one that described us as hailing from some Oakland warehouse scene...The article about the Smell painted it as a place where like-minded bands and fans come together and support each other- basically as this cohesive music scene. And it's cool that they included us in the list, but the extent to which The Smell or Oakland warehouses are a part of our musical and even our personal experiences is very, very small. To be honest, every time we have played the Smell, we have easily spent more time in the Latino tranny bar around the corner than inside The Smell. Anyway, we definitely don't set out to be separatists from any scene or any band, but we don't think it's accurate to say that we are part of scene.
We have always kinda felt like odd ones out, even though we know there is a mutual love or at least appreciation for almost every band we play with. We're very aware of how this answer could be perceived as snide, but we hope it is not. We're just giving an honest answer.

12) Recently, Clipd Beaks lost one of its members. Do you care to discuss the departure and how it is possibly benefitting and/or hurting the band?

It was a personal decision, and we all understood where he was coming from. As mentioned before, it's altered the sound, but we don't see it as benefit vs. hurt situation. It's just different.

13) On the Clipd Beaks myspace, a few albums have popped up in the discography that I haven't seen before such as Gang Caves, Winterfucking, Hobo Droves, and Robo Gnomes. Is this all self-released material and can fans obtain copies of them?

Well, the original artwork for most of that stuff was limited. Gang Caves, for example, was spray painted with glow in the dark paint and had holes burned through the cover...We don't think we can go through that again! But we're working on making those releases available for digital download from our myspace page.

Questions Formulated By Metroid Crime & Wwwwizard

Principles Of Geometry

with swirling hypnotic loops and orchestrations, principles of geometry manage to throw all their proverbial cards far off into the skies, never ceasing to encourage the most interesting of listens.
with golden hints of showering reverberated vocals and slight reminders of our musical yesterdays (think fleetwood mac meets boards of canada) the band continues on down the wilderness road of weird-and beyond.
Out In November on Tiger Sushi.

Song For Sunday

"Dead Mans Point Of View"

By Ester Drang

From the album Infinite Keys 

Released on April 1, 2003

Jade Tree Records 1082

Recorded at The Echo Lab in Denton, TX

PURCHASE