The following is an interview with Nicole Elmer (AKA Neutral), an artist who is both
individualistic and groundbreaking. She’s currently listed in Urb’s top 100 acts to watch
and has an upcoming album on Mad Monkey and Hymen. She discusses with Igloo Mag,
the snobbery of IDM, the the joys of grocery lists and why an accordian works
so well with electronic music.
Igloo: How would you describe your music?
Nicole Elmer: Hell…I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter though because someone is just going to find someplace to stick it so they can relate to it, even if I straight up called my stuff something like Country Dance Swing for Happy
Cajun Alligators.
I’ve been thrown into the Industrial-Revival gang a lot, which I guess I can see since I listened to a lot of Industrial when I was a teen. But I don’t think I am always that dark. Or that hard beating. And definitely not on this next album.
Igloo: Do you feel that there is any particular scene that you identify with?
NE: Hell no. I think I spend too much time trying NOT to identify with a scene. That can be just as problematic as trying to identify with something.
Igloo: What other projects have you been involved in besides Neutral?
NE: Let’s see. I’ve released a CD under the name of Squab Teen. The first release we have is called Dance America. It’s a nice alternative to Neutral since it is more playful and a bit goofy like a Japanese fighting fish on nitrous gas. I’d like to write more Squab Teen stuff but Neutral seems to be occupying most of my writing time.
I’ve also written under Searchwoundinfinitus. (Yeah, it is a mouthful. I call it SWI for short.) It is a very dark, experimental, cinematic sort of canvas of sorts. I dig it. Most of it is stuff I wrote a very long time ago. But it some of my favorite stuff.
Igloo: Do you think that you will write any more Searchwoundinfinitus tunes in the future or is that a project that has ended?
NE: No, I don’t think it has ended. I might be writing the same sort of sounds but end up throwing them under a different name or putting them into Neutral. The name might end, but the project and the mind-set or mood that creates that sort of music certainly don’t end.
Igloo: Who’s voice is that at the start of ‘Beef Boulion’?
NE: That is my sister’s. She called me up about three years ago, drunk. Left this message on my machine. She is basically reading off the grocery list that my step-mother used to use when she would go shopping.
The person who helped me write “Beef Boulion” (Charlie Cooper) and I thought it would be hilarious to use this in the song. So we did.
Igloo: Are you going to be doing anymore tracks for Planet Mu?
NE: I don’t know. I think that my style as of late has become very different and will alienate some of the more electronic labels out there, and will probably not really be suitable for Planet-Mu. It puts me in a “bad spot” in a lot of ways because as I get older, I tend to write more
individualistic music and I become less categorical and less marketable. I may just have to keep my tracks for myself at home.
I mean I understand where labels are coming from, having attempted to run a label myself, and I know that in many ways they cannot take a lot of chances if they expect to see some profit for their efforts to stay alive. But it really makes it hard to sort of follow one’s heart as an artist and try to
do different things, things that challenge and confront. Because usually, that shit doesn’t fly with the label. They want something more like the last release was or something more like what everyone is buying. It sucks.
Igloo: Have you had any direct problems with the labels you work with interfacing with your music?
NE: …not terribly so. I’ve had some problems with the labels having problems with distributors and things of that nature, which ultimately also effect the artist. But the labels I have dealt with have been primarily driven by the want to expose good interesting music, which brings a different energy around than, say, a label driven by the desire to make money, in which the uniqueness of music tends to suffer as a result.
But I have not had to deal with a bunch of labels either, not on a long-term basis. Mad Monkey has been the only one thus far, and they have been wonderful, and now Ant-Zen/Delicatessen which seems to also be a promising relationship as well.
Igloo: What exactly is Chromosome 57?
NE: Chromosome 57 WAS a record label/collective of musicians that used to be based in New Orleans, where I lived before I moved here to Denver.
We began really as a group of friends back in 1997 when I first arrived in New Orleans. We all were bonded by a love of electronic music in the styles of Aphex Twin and Autechre and Squarepusher, the Warp Crew basically. That
was what we were listening to back in 1997. Obviously things have exploded since then, but we were so stirred by this kind of music called “IDM”. We all had studios for music, varying in sizes and spent the next few years learning each other’s production techniques and sharing ideas and even
collaborating a bit.
At one point, I was just so happy with all the music that was coming from this group that I started up a label. Well, we had one release and then I just got tired of trying to run the label, write music, have a paying job, and everything else that was going on in my life. I was experiencing burn out and just hung the hat up on the label. We all decided that it would be
better if we remained as a collective, but even at that point, we were all growing away from each other.
Some people had moved, some were going to move, and a sense of resentment had sort of been left over from a lot of us as there were some money problems with live show payments and the like.
I think the group helped everyone on to reach other turning points in their lives. I don’t think it really serves much of a purpose today, but we ultimately all really benefited from the C57 crew forming.
Igloo: How is your new album going to differ from Font Translation Errors?
NE: Hell. Well, for one, I am not too sure how it is going to go over this time around. It is very different from FTE.
I did not do this purposely, but most of the songs average about five minutes, and that is different for me. For the longest time, I was writing some very long epic songs. I even have one that is 17 minutes long! Hell!
Another different thing, well,.I sort of went back to the way I started writing music back in the day when I had only a four-track tape recorder, a few guitars, and a Mac Plus. I’ve simplified things. I have tried to make things sound a little less busy. Meaning, I’ve slowed the tempo down on almost all the songs, and used less percussion and drum sounds. I wanted
the beat to be there, but not be so damn thick. I had tended to layer track after track of drums on top of one another on the last album, which had its effect and purpose, but I don’t want to do that this time around.
And seeing as I’ve become extremely disjointed and disgruntled with the whole electronic music scene in general, I’ve been gravitating to listening to more singer-songwriter based bands. Listening to a lot of the Posies and Sunny Day Real Estate, Cocteau Twins. This is all effecting me a lot.
I brought in a lot of “live” instruments. I hate using the word “live” to describe a flute or guitar, because synth’s are “live” to me too, but it seems to make people understand that the instrument is played, and not necessarily programmed.
I used flutes, and guitars (both electric and acoustic), bass guitars, and recorded a drum kit as well. There is even one song with an accordion and a trumpet which is really quite funny. Working more with “traditional” musicians in this regard is also different for me, but I really enjoy it.
And, the biggest change is the fact that I decided to use my voice in the songs this time around. I have been listening to less and less “vocal-less” music, and have just been drawn to including that more personal element of lyrics and vocals in my music. It’s been challenging and quite personal. But because I have thrown in a very sensitive element of vocals within the music, it also makes it a lot harder to be critical and analytical about the songs. I really just have to let them go and see where they fly.
Igloo: Are you handling most of the conventional instrumentation or are you using outside players?
NE: Most of the instruments that are “live”, I play myself, like the flute and guitars and piano. There are a few areas on songs on the new album where there are live drums, which I do not play, and also a trumpet and an accordion. All of which are played by my sister’s husband, Bryan Stacks. He’s really a talented musician and he blows me away every time I hear the
songs he makes.
Igloo: Why do you think that you have become “disgruntled” with the electronic music scene?
NE: I think I’ve gotten a bit grossed out by most of it because of the various areas of categorization being done to types of electronic music being made. When this shit happens, it makes it really hard to acceptably do different
things within the same genre you’ve been classified, like putting an accordion down on a track lead on by a drum machine!
There is also a lot of snobbery running amok. The IDM heads that look down on the four-teen year old candy ravers who get a hard on just thinking about their favorite techno DJ. But this is what happens to all areas of music. People like to get protective and snobby about their tastes and it feels a
bit alienating to me.
I think the invention of the home computer and its evolution has opened a lot of doors for inventive musicians who were looking to do different things than kids were doing in the 60’s up until the 90’s really: following their favorite guitar idols. I mean, the possibilities that lie within a computer and a sound file are astounding! But since those opportunities aren’t just
left for the rich, and since most of us can afford a computer, there are lots of kids making their music sound the way they hear their idols’ music. I remember for a while just being so aware of the way everyone was sounding like Autechre, and everyone was on this “technology is the god” battle of
sorts: who ever can make the most glitchy, most fucked-up sounds will win the race. I think music got lost somewhere in that competition. I think it has become very redundant and somewhere in there, the heart got lost too.
Igloo: What’s the most interesting reaction that someone has had towards your music?
NE: During a live performance of Squab Teen, we were having a “cooking class” on stage, Squab Teen style, involving a food processor an old turntable that held a birthday cake. At one point, some members of the audience came about and started contributing to the performance by pouring their beer into the
food processor to make the mix a disgusting stinky concoction of vegetables and about every condiment ever known to mankind.
Igloo: What’s your favorite part of writing music?
NE: Finding that time, during the writing stage, when somewhere in your heart you know what you need to do to get that song done. I spend a lot of painful time looking at a song and scratching my head and beating my fist on
the desk going: “What the FUCK does this song need!? WHY can’t I find it?” Then something just happens, and something clicks, and things just fall into place, although you would never be able to tell where the hell you are going with that instinct, it just takes you along.
That is my favorite time…finding that “groove” to lock into.
