Interview with Jay Gambit of Crowhurst

Crowhurst Logo

Jay Gambit does a lot of really cool stuff. Any given day, you can see that he's been immersing himself in medi, stories, and art - this may come in the form of a grindhouse film or a book on whatever psycho-philosophical facet is interesting him. In short, he's got a lot on his hands at all times. And yet he still manages to constantly put out noise records under the name of his music project Crowhurst. You can get any of his records on his bandcamp, which can be found HERE. It's a bit overwhelming, so I'd suggest checking out THiS BLACK METAL RECORD and THIS NEWEST FULL-LENGTH

In a live show, Jay will use his know-how of media to incorporate a visual show along with all other sorts of stimuli to make the viewer enjoy his or herself. It helps that he's a visual/graphical artist as well, as you can see from his official website found HERE. 

He's put out around 16 records so far this year, so it's a bit hard to keep up with him at all times, but the overall aesthetic and insane work ethic, make Jay and his Crowhurst music project truly incredible. It's an honor knowing him and I can't wait to see where he goes in the future.


Listen:

Jordan: So Crowhurst seems to be you, but also a bunch of other people collaborating. How do you end out choosing who helps? Are they friends, acquaintances, or people in the noise music scene?

Jay: It's one of those things where I'm really grateful for anyone who's there and wants to join the group and go with the vision. I have met a lot of incredible and talented people by just openly asking if anyone wants to play on a track. The great part about this is that I get to see a lot of really creative strengths of individuals that I can call upon to play to those strengths that work for the benefit of more ambitious tracks and projects.

The Cover for Aghoree

JR: What is Crowhurst?

JG: Crowhurst is an perpetually evolving collective of artists head up by me, dedicated to delivering a unified set of visions.

JR: How did you get the name Crowhurst?

JG: Donald Crowhurst was a british amateur sailor who risked everything he had to try and win the first round-the-world yacht race. He got in way over his head and essentially went insane and committed suicide in shame. His body was never found. There's a few films about this, but I'd suggest Deep Water for those completely unfamiliar. It's on YouTube.

JR: How did you first get into noise music?

JG: I've just always loved sound and psychology behind how it impacted people. 

JR: Do you or have you ever had projects not based in noise music?

JG: Oh yeah. When I was a kid, I was in a band I'd rather not name because we were awful and we went on to inspire a lot of really bad music. When I was in college, I put out a record with a bunch of guys under the name "Drug Ring" and it's still one of my favorite non-noise records I've ever made. Really heavily inspired by the Melvins and the Jesus Lizard. I was actually on vocals and had little to nothing to do with the production, but it was a great chance to actually work as a lyricist and do what I wanted to do as far as vocally with it. I've also been in a bunch of other little side projects doing grindcore and metal related stuff that were just bedroom things and I've guested on some tracks as well.

JR: How did you first know that you wanted to make noise music? Did anything inspire it?

JG: I don't actually remember how I started making a noise record. I know that I started it with my friend Corey Fruin (Al Borland, WerewolfWerewolfWerewolf, Heavy Breath) who came up with the idea of calling it Crowhurst. I just kind of ran with it and he's one of those very frequent contributors to records. He was on Aghoree and There Is No Hope Here.

Jay Covered in KITTENS (Sorry I'm not Sorry,  Jay)

JR: How has your sound evolved over time? Is there something that you have gone for in terms of an aesthetic or is something else driving the progression?

JG: I mean, our sound has progressed in the sense that every day I feel like I kind of know what I'm doing a little bit more. With each record I kind of figure out a little piece of the puzzle. Now there's kind of a routine of how things go in order to work in the way that benefits the record the most.

JR: You seem to make a lot of music. How does your production of music seem to go? Does something need to set it off or is it a more organic process?

JG:  I've got this thing in my head that doesn't let me stop making records. I just have ideas and feel like a jackass if I have all of the tools and the help in the world and I don't get off my ass and make things happen. One idea spirals into two new ones, and I make commitments to things I am truly dedicated to and am happy to take as much time as I can physically take to fulfill those commitments.

JR: Do you feel that there is a need for noise music? What role does noise music take in the life of someone like you or me who likes pop music as well? Why would someone want to make noise music?

JG: Well, I don't think there's a real difference in what noise and drone are, conceptually of course, than what someone like Vivaldi and Bach were doing when they were writing their pieces. It's only been for the past few hundred years that we've started to define what we consider to be "musical instruments" and "standard songwriting". I'm just looking at things from a different perspective, but my influences come from albums like "Kid A" and artists like Brian Eno, Alain Goraguer and Miles Davis just as much as they come from artists like Whitehouse and Swans.

JR: I've seen your clips and videos of shows and there seems to be a lot of visual incorportion. Do you see that as a necessity in terms of a performance? Why use a video?

JG: Just from my own experience, the more you immerse your audience sensually, the more willing they will be to open their mind and also enjoy themselves. Cinematic music has used drone based compositions for centuries, but there's a certain aesthetic that heightens the enjoyment that I feel a lot of people get from experimental audio.

JR: How do you play a noise show? Do you mix on stage or just hit a button or a few or plan it in advance? What is the chronology and how does the symbiosis work during a live show?

JG: A live show usually starts with establishing the audio setup of the venue and planning accordingly which musicians will be playing. We have a pretty regular LA lineup of Bryan Schuessler from Opacities on guitar and laptop, Chris Ortega from Dive Signals on organ, Brian Reis from Yuggoth on guitar and myself on my laptop. We usually practice a few times before a show, just to tighten up and figure out what works before the show. 

JR: How would you differentiate your music from someone else's? In short, (this is a totally loaded question) why listen to Crowhurst?

JG: I like to joke that there's three or four different "bands" inside Crowhurst. There's the stuff I put out myself which is usually my experiments, which are sometimes well received and others not so much. 'Bone Fragment Grenade', 'In Event Of Moon Disaster', 'Come Find Me' and 'Thriller' are like that. There's the powernoise stuff in the "Fuck You" series, which is usually just myself. There's the stuff I do in collaboration with other artists that stretch the boundaries of what we usually do (Glacier Dream, Crowhurst with Yuggoth, etc) and then there's the ensemble records like 'There Is No Hope Here', 'GrimGrimGrim' and 'Aghoree' which are what I'm personally most proud of. 

The Black Metal Album Cover

JR: What releases are available now and what is coming out? What can we look forward to in the vein of crowhurst?

JG: Spirit Throne has Fuck You Bono which is almost sold out (if it hasn't by the time you're reading this), Fuck You Morrissey has one or two tapes left and that's it. One or two copies may be in Vacation Vinyl in Silverlake or Touch Vinyl in West LA. Come Find Me is out from Santos in Italy on tape. The Pho King Mixtape has an unreleased track from Aghoree on it and that's on tape. Aghoree will be out soon from Greh Holger's (Hive Mind) Chondritic Sound label very soon and GrimGrimGrim will be out soon from DIY Noise recordings. We'll also have a tape release out from Feral Fang Media as well for There Is No Hope Here somewhat soon. I think we're also going to have a really short song on one of these 7" compilations that's coming out.

Brian, Bryan, Chris and I are also going out to the desert to go make No Life To Live. Definitely going for a newer, fuller, more expanded and experimental yet accessible followup to Aghoree exploring some newer and darker themes. We'll also have some more cool details about that soon, but the art is already up and on our official Twitter account. We're still working openly with a lot of our previous contributors and some new ones as well to make this different yet hopefully as enjoyable record any of our others.

JR: Anything else you'd like to say or add?

JG: Thank you for your support, everyone. This is been a rad ride.  I hope I can make you more stuff that you enjoy.