Interview with Rain Drinkers

I was fortunate enough to hear an advanced copy of Rain Drinkers' forthcoming Wood Violet album on the consistently great experimental label Tranquility Tapes. A mixture of classically-influenced instrumentation, field recordings, drone, and other sonic sources, Wood Violet is an effective condensation of the natural and anthropocentric worlds. As an individual interested in both music and sound, it sticks out as a synthesis of what is actively heard and what should be. Where does music come from? Why does format matter? Is music necessarily manmade? These are big questions that don't need answers to be important, but they are questions that can profoundly affect both the listening experience and sonic creation.

Rain Drinkers are a curious band in the sense that they seek knowledge, answers, and further meditation. Their music is a reflection of this and can be used for external pontification and internal dialogue, which raises the next question, which is "what is the use of music?" Rain Drinkers create exceedingly pleasant music, though both Joe and Troy involve themselves in other capacities too in an effort to explore the role of sound in our lives. Needless to say, Rain Drinkers is music for the sonic adventurer and for the questioning listener. It can be both a passive and an active auditory experience.

Follow the band on their Facebook Page and give them a listen on Bandcamp.

Jordan: Where did the name Rain Drinkers come from?

Troy Schafer:  The name as code, as words tend to be:

“May your pure steeds, rain-drinkers, bring you hither, swift as the tempest, your celestial coursers, Rapid as thought, with fair backs, full of vigour, resplendent in their native light.”

The Rig Veda, Book 1 as translated by Ralph T H Griffith

The name as breathe, sonorous form uttered between new friends, is something different altogether.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQfJXRj9yrk

Joe Taylor: We struggled to find a name that was fitting to us. Mainly because we hadn’t yet found out who we were as a collective. In that respect we have become the name. Its funny how often it works that way. For me the name speaks mostly to one feeling and one truth.

The feeling is that of youth and freedom. When I was a child, there were storms where the windows were closed and the family was confined to the basement with rations.  When the worst had past we’d run from the house to splash and turn our heads to the sky and drink. That is an ability music and nature share, to one moment draw fear and the next moment bless you with a release of joy and freedom.   

The truth is that, as an existence, we all; plants, animals, land and water, consume the rain in the most absolute way. I feel that music can share this same acceptance.

Jordan: Do you guys like Rain?

TS: Indecision of the sea, manifest? What’s not to like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIegoQAayFs

JT: yes. What Troy said.

J: Your Facebook page says that you guys are from Madison but Xavier, don't you live in Chicago? What's the deal, fellas?

TS: Xax Mane Krass resides in the outer reaches of the Milky Way upon the teat of a colossal mole rat.  He comes to me in certain states.

Troy is biding his time in Chicago for academic purposes. Wyrd Wisconsin beckons him home as yearned thoughts alter his blood. Forward!

J: When did you guys start making music or recording?

TS: Joe and I first crossed paths as newly hired valet runners for a birthing hospital in Madison during the summer of 2009. There, we got to know each other through long rambling conversations about electromagnetic radiation and music selections blasting from the cars we parked.  We spent a substantial amount of time analyzing the smooth jazz being piped into the hospital lobby. Initially, we set out to create a collaborative portfolio of jingles. I became a bit overzealous about the jingle writing process and so we settled on scoring a soundtrack to the memories created between the two of us then and there.

My jingling spirit lives on. Hear here, one of my earliest attempts, during the first days of Rain Drinkers (credits à la fin):

http://breeze.fvtc.edu/did-you-know/

J: Rain Drinkers seems to have a lot of acoustic instrumentation combined with electronic production. It's an impressive combination, and an underused one in my opinion that emphasizes beauty. Are you guys classically trained?

JT: You’re right, it seems people sometimes choose a side between acoustic or electric, analog or digital. For me there is a balance to be found between these two spectrums that is beautiful and vast. In the special moments when that balance is found, I’ve realized there was never two separate spectrums to begin with, there is just music. If it makes a sound, it can spark an idea and be used as a vehicle to deliver the listener to a place. That place can be reached with any medium with the right intention. A simple african drum holds as much if not more mystery to me as the most complex program and I love what they both enable me to do.

I am not classically trained. I have been taught what I know from improv with others and a life of ever evolving practice. I have the utmost respect for trained musicians. It is a special treat to play with someone like Troy who is both classically trained and an exceptional improvisationalist.    

TS: Well thanks Joe!

J: Do you find that there are any sounds in the natural world that are especially interesting to you guys? Do you employ found sounds or field recordings in your works?

JT: Thanks for asking. I like this question. One sound that comes to mind is the constant  movement upon a glacier. Years ago I was hiking atop the Kennicott glacier in Alaska. The sounds it produced were so immense and humbling. As it cracked and large rocks and ice continuously fell off their perches I felt comfortably small. I was pleasantly reminded that this earth never needed humans to survive. This amazing garden has never stopped moving and never will.

I do use found sounds and field recordings. One of my favorite to date was capturing the sound of bare legs rubbing against crisp bed sheets in an attempt to evoke a sense of comfort and safety.

TS: Very romantic! On a purely sonic level, my glacier is the sound of three black cats chewing food from glass bowls while I lie in bed.  I fall asleep to their crunching every night, tickling my subconscious.

While I tend to separate my phonographic practice from my musical selves, certain field recordings do find their way into my musical compositions. However, almost all of the sampled natural sounds on Rain Drinkers recordings have been collected by Joe. I always incite him to demonstrate agency and a conceptual link between those recordings and our music.  As you can hear, he is extremely successful in this endeavor.  Drones rarely exist in the natural world. Organic, naturally occurring sounds are brimming with texture, tone and rhythm that constantly evolve in form. Machines are the source of the majority of drones we hear in our daily environment. Taking a cue from nature could significantly reduce the heavily reproduced and cliche happenings within contemporary drone related scenes, resulting in more diverse and expressive sounds.

J: You've put out a bunch of recordings on a few labels predominantly in the cassette and CD realm. Do physical formats mean much to you guys? What determines how you release a piece of work?.

TS: Absolutely.  Audio recordings fix something already inescapable. The physical material on which music is written is an extension of the recording and an overall part of the sound phenomenon. Each format transmits it’s own audible peculiarities, signing a mark on the story of the sound event. Long before the artifice of our recording process begins, we thoroughly consider how our sonic material will take to any particular format. Duration and possible symmetry of the record, product availability and playback accessibility of the format, fidelity, cultural association with contemporary or antiquated technologies, life expectancy and intentional decay are but a few of those considerations.

J: You have a cassette coming out soon on Tranquility Tapes. I've listened to it and really enjoyed it. How did you guys write and record that?

TS: Our most recent album, Wood Violet, is a tribute to the great state of Wisconsin. It is our first time collaborating with Tranquility Tapes and we’re thrilled to have that work included among the quality tunes being released by Franklin and his accomplished label.

http://tranquilitytapes.blogspot.com

Aside from the track Live At The Wisco, we recorded Wood Violet in two or three takes of long form improvisations which were then condensed and sculpted digitally in post, with a few overdubbed embellishments here and there. It’s a fairly simple, straight forward approach that lies at the heart of all of our recordings.

J: Is there a piece of music that has been particularly important to you from your back catalogue, maybe in terms of personal resonance?

JT: One track that has a lot of meaning to me is “Nemuri” from Bore Upon The Breath of Dawn. Something clicked for me while recording that song. I should mention that it is not my favorite track but it was responsible for changing my approach and put me on the right track towards positioning myself musically in relation to space and time.

A similar thing happened to us as a project during Springtide. There is nothing I have been a part of musically that makes me feel the way that album does.  

TS: Side A on Urthen Web is by far my favorite RD track. It’s clear that I am not alone in this, as that tape sold out faster than any other. I openly invite any label we work with to release it on vinyl.

J: Do you guys play live at all?

JT: We have and it is a great change of pace from the studio. The final track on this upcoming tape is an example of our life work.

TS: A lot of our studio recordings are structured as a kind of live performance except that our only audience is ourselves. As Joe mentioned, the last track on Wood Violet was recorded in a dark, dingy little pub in Madison where I’ve seen some of the most inspiring shows of my life with only a handful of people there to witness them.  

J: Do you guys have any plans for the future?

JT: Nothing was ever planned and still is not.

TS: No sir. Zero agenda.

J: Doesn't pertain as much to your music, but I was an English major so I'm gonna ask. You guys have any book recommendations or any books that have been important to you?

TS: It does pertain to our music. Literature is all the more integral to my sound practice.  

A short list that anyone interested in music, film and/or sound might benefit from:

Abbate, Carolyn. In Search of Opera. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001.

Agamben, Giorgio. The Coming Community. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1993.

Altman, Rick. Sound Theory, Sound Practice. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Arnheim, Rudolf. Radio: An Art of Sound. New York: Da Capo, 1972.

Barthes, Roland. The Responsibility of Forms: Critical Essays on Music,art, and Representation. New York: Hill and Wang, 1985.

Barthes, Roland, and Stephen Heath. Image, Music, Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.

Böll, Heinrich. The Stories of Heinrich Böll. New York: Knopf, 1986.

Cardew, Cornelius, Michael Chant. Treatise Handbook, including Bun No.2 Volo Solo. London: Edition Peters, 1971.

Chion, Michel, Claudia Gorbman and Walter Murch. Audio-vision: Sound on Screen. New York: Columbia UP, 1994.

Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1987.

Derrida, Jacques. Khôra. Paris: Galilée, 1993.

Hellström, Björn. Noise Design: Architectural Modelling and the Aesthetics of Urban Acoustic Space. Göteborg: Ejeby, 2003.

Schafer, R. Murray. European Sound Diary. Vancouver: A.R.C. Publications : A.R.C. the Aesthetic Research Centre, 1977.

J: Anything else you'd like to say?

JT: Thank you so much for allowing us this dialog. We are very grateful for your interest.

TS: In relation to other projects and releases:

a new Kinit Her record is in the works this summer with a very special surprise guest.

http://kinither.bandcamp.com/

Consider gripping the new Untitled No. 1 7” released under my birthname this summer on the mighty Signal Dreams label run by my muffin man Joel Shanahan.

http://signaldreamsseries.blogspot.com/

For all other plugs and name droppings, visit

troyschafer.com

Interview with Caroline of Imperial Topaz

Photo Taken by Jennifer MacDonald

It's no secret that I've been recently into a lot of synthesizer-driven music. Having recently read the 4AD book Facing the Other Way, I've found myself covering a lot of gaps in my electronic music knowledge. This has given me opportunities to learn about a lot of artists I hadn't heard before such as Bill Vermette or given me cause to reperuse Hausu Mountain's Mugen cassette series. In addition, Light in the Attic put out a great New Age compilation called I Am the Center, which I've been listening to lately.

The point is that hearing Imperial Topaz could not have come at a better time for me. Caroline Teagle and Zachary Zierden make rhythmic, synth-driven music overlaid with ghost-whisper evocative vocals. The duo began in 2012 in Brooklyn, New York, a veritable breeding ground of interesting musicians. Since then, and after a lineup change as well as two cassette releases, Imperial Topaz has released their first full-length 12" record titled Full of Grace,  a powerful record sometimes reminiscent of a slowcore Cocteau Twins. I'm not going to say too much about the record now, since Caroline elucidates the subject matter and nuances later on and we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.

I have yet to see these guys play, though I have a ton of interest in doing so. If you find yourself in the greater New York area, I would highly recommend seeking out a live show by these guys.

The album is out on the consistently great Tranquility Tapes label and can be streamed at their Bandcamp Website or on the Spotify streaming service. In addition, you can keep up with the band through their Facebook Page.

Jordan: Imperial Topaz is a type of mineral, right? How did you choose to name your project after it?

Caroline Teagle: It is, yes. I wanted a name that sounded geological. I always liked the idea of precious stones because they’re these beautiful, otherworldly-seeming objects that are completely of the earth. I was also fond of the word “Imperial”, and it’s the name of one of my favorite songs by the great band Unrest. Everyone who is reading this, go listen to that song right now!

The Album Art for Full of Grace

J: When did you start making music? Your description on your Facebook page says that you met on a rooftop in Bushwick and liked each others' music. Was it really that simple for you all?

CT: Imperial Topaz actually started out as a collaboration between myself and a fellow named Jake Pepper in 2012. He and I were dating at the time, and had both been in a few “guitar bands” prior to recording the songs that ended up being our first release, Imperial. Our personal relationship fell apart pretty soon after that release, but Imperial Topaz was my brainchild and I was determined to keep making music under that name. I had met Zach at the aforementioned rooftop party a few weeks before the break up happened. It was there that he heard Imperial and he must have liked it because when he caught wind of my situation he reached out to me. It turned out he had just recently moved to Brooklyn from Minneapolis and was looking to make music. Meeting him was just one of those serendipitous events. We work really well together, and we’re also roommates now.

J: What came first for you guys recording music or playing live?

CT: Recording came first. When Jake and I first recorded songs together we had no idea how we were going to execute them live. There were a lot of layers of sound happening and only two people to pull them off in real time, and I don’t think either of us knew much of anything about creating live electronic music then. When I started working with Zach, he opened me up to the world of MIDI and sequencers, so now it all seems much more practical. We dissect our recordings and find the most sensible way to recreate them live. I think it’s nice for the live version of a song to have it’s own unique personality in a way, too.

J: At a live show, is there room for improvisation? How much of your live show is part of mapped out songs and how much is spur of the moment?

CT: We don’t have much room for improvisation currently. It’s all sort of sequenced and mapped out with very little room to stray. It’s a vulnerable place to be when performing live, if one piece of gear fails us then we’re toast. That’s happened a time or two! I think as we continue to play together and develop our live set it will allow for more impulsiveness. At least I hope so, to me that’s what makes live music great.

J: A few adjectives that often describe your music are "drone," "ethereal," "ambient," "new age," but there's also an element of pop. How did you arrive at this mixture?

CT: Ha, I actually dislike the word “ethereal” just because of how overused it is in music journalism, but maybe it’s appropriate? I think what we’re doing is applying “new age” and “ambient” textures and sounds to a pop music format. That doesn’t necessarily have to adhere to the traditional verse/chorus song structure, but frequently it does. I think often times when music is anchored by vocals then it’s pop to anyone who hears it. The human voice is pop. I love to sing. I love melody. Imperial Topaz music is rooted in that.

J: What, to you, is the role of pop music? Is there a reason to listen to pop music?

CT: Pop music, traditionally, reflects the human emotional experience. I think we all crave that. It comforts us in times of sorrow. That’s powerful. I also think we’re entering a post-genre age where pop music can have an experimental nature, and experimental music can disguise itself as pop. It’s getting more and more difficult to make these distinctions.

J: Conversely, what do you like about ambient or new age music?

CT: I believe in the healing power of music. Pop music can soothe a broken heart, and ambient or new age music can be balm for the soul. It can ease anxiety and physical discomfort. I listen to Iasos when I feel overly stressed and he helps me maintain. I would say just as we crave the smallness of human emotions, our minds crave the expansiveness of experimental music. If pop music is our guts then experimental music is the air around us. Although I have to refer back to my answer to the question above.

J: Are there any artists who have particularly influenced you?

CT: I listen to music constantly and I could gush about my favorites for paragraphs on end. But to the point, I spend a lot of time working on improving my voice and my vocal delivery. As corny as it may sound, I go to my practice space weekly and try to sing like Karen Carpenter and Dionne Warwick. I’m so moved by a succinct, emotional vocal performance. When I hear a song like Walk On By or (They Long To Be) Close To You, it brings tears to my eyes. That motivates me to become a better singer. Musically, I’m always inspired by one of my all-time favorite bands, Young Marble Giants. I’m so attracted to their subtlety and sparseness. I love the idea of stripping away the excess and making these sublime, minimal pop compositions. I’m inspired by the austerity of it.

 

J: There are a lot of emotions on your new album Full of Grace. Were there any experiences that affected or led to certain lyrics or themes on the album?

CT: Around the time we were starting to write songs for this record, I received the news that an old friend of mine had taken his own life. That was something that weighed heavily on me while I was writing lyrics for this album. A lot of the songs are about him. I wanted to remember, and meditate on that particular kind of loss. There’s real-life sadness in there.

J: What was your experience like creating the album? Were there any stand out moments for you?

CT: It started out easily enough. Tracking all the synths was the fun part. A lot of that stuff is done in just one take. Often times the first take is the best take, there’s a sort of energy you can’t recapture when you’ve been playing the same line over and over. Recording the vocals was laborious for me. I started out by spending hours and hours on each song, deleting take after take that I thought wasn’t good enough. Towards the end I was doing less takes per song and trusting myself more, something that can only come with time and experience. Feeling your confidence grow is one of the more joyful aspects of making music.

J: I know you and Franklin from Tranquility tapes are siblings. Was it easy working with your brother? Do you guys enjoy similar music?

CT: Working with my brother is totally easy. In fact it doesn’t feel like work at all. When it comes to Tranquility Tapes, our roles are clearly defined. He runs the label and decides what to release and when, I provide the visuals. He pretty much let’s me have free reign, so it’s fun for me because drawing is something I love to do. And yes, we do enjoy a lot of the same music. Although I think his knowledge of music is much deeper and more extensive than my own. Our tastes are similar though. We go to shows together sometimes. We’re siblings, but we’re also friends.

J: I know the album just came out, and don't want to totally bombard you, but do you have any plans for the future?

CT: Another release is already in the works. We’ve done a good amount of recording already, but there are no plans so far in terms of releasing it. We’ll figure that out when the time comes. We’re focusing on shorter songs this time, which has been fun. It might be too early to say, but this release is feeling a bit more light-hearted than the full length. I really like the direction it’s going and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all takes shape. I’m excited about it!

J: Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob? (I personally am Team Edward mostly on behalf of Robert Pattinson's cheekbones) 

CT: Definitely Team Edward. I’m not into the whole sweet, baby-faced thing. Give me chiseled and moody every time.

J: Was Courage the cowardly dog really that cowardly?

CT: I’d actually never heard of this show, I had to google it. I’m going to go with yes though.

J: Anything else you'd like to say? 

CT: I love Todd Rundgren.