Can you give a brief introduction to the very few who don’t Assemblage 23?
Sure! Assemblage 23 is basically my solo project for making danceable, electronic music. Those who haven’t heard us can check out song samples from every album and single we have ever put out on: http://www.assemblage23.com/hear.html
You just released “Meta”. How are the first responses on the album?
So far they have been almost uniformly excellent. I can barely keep it in stock for my webstore, and I have been getting flooded with emails from fans who really seem to enjoy it. Thanks to all the fans out there reading this!
Almost every musician is searching for progression. What progression did you make with this album compared to “Storm”?
“Meta” is a more expansive album that covers a much wider variety of styles and influences than I would say “Storm” did.
When I was working on “Storm”, I knew I wanted to expand the sound of A23 in some different directions, so I wanted to make “Storm” sort of a ‘last hurrah’ for the more ‘classic’ sound of A23. So that album is almost uniformly dancey and upbear. With “Meta” I revisited a lot of the influences that got me interested in music in the first place, and this pushed the different songs in various directions, making for a much more varied album.
In the sonic seducer you were talking about getting older. In what way does this influence your music?
I think it changes your priorities. You come to see what is truly important, and that a lot of the stuff you worried about when you were younger really wasn’t worth the stress it caused you. I think it pushes the music in a bit more of a mature direction too.
What inspires you in writing music?
Aside from every day life, for me, doing music is sort of an internal drive I have. Just like the need to drink water, eat, or breathe. It’s kind of hard to explain unless you have experienced it yourself, but it’s something I don’t even think about much. I just need to do it.
You are also running your 23db label, why did you start with this and what are the goals of the label?
Originally, 23db was just going to be a label I could use to release my own side projects, namely Nerve Filter.
Because I knew that Nerve Filter is more experimental and wouldn’t have as wide an appeal as A23, I thought it made more sense from a business perspective to just release it myself. However, it came to be that there were some bands I had done production for that I thought were really really good. The market isn’t real supportive of new acts these days, and a lot of other labels are hesitant to takes risks signing stuff, so I decided I would release the stuff myself. Thus, 23db mainly became a label for me to release some lesser-known stuff I thought deserved exposure. We’re obviously a very small label, but things have gone very well so far!
You’ve toured a lot with A23, what is your fav. country to play in?
The US is a lot of fun… the crowds in some cities are REALLY enthusiastic which is a lot of fun. The UK and Sweden also have really fun, energetic crowds.
In what country, you haven’t played yet, would you love to play someday and why that country?
I’d like to make it to Russia and Australia eventually just because we haven’t been there yet, but I think ultimately, it would be really fun to play a show in Japan. This kind of music is virtually unknown over there, but I think it would be a really interesting experience.
I was talking to some people and they talked about you as a kind of superman on electronic music. If you could be a superhero, what superpowers would you like to have and what costume?
Haha…My utility belt would have MIDI outputs and I would have the powers to turn villains into useful plug-ins. Not sure what the costume would be. Hopefully not something like Wonder Woman’s. haha
What can people expect from the summer darkness show?
A mix of old and new stuff, possibly with some new versions of older songs, and lots of energy!
Any last words for the readers?