(02.04.04) Matthew Jeanes, Chris Burnett, and visual artist Bryan Meng form the (long-distance) collaborative trio of Larvae. As a unit of individuals with an ear for harsh electronics, Larvae’s recent Fashion Victim (Ad Noiseam, CD) breathes life into the cold, combustible rhythms of time while it unfolds layered warmth inside an atmospheric shell. Going beyond traditional classifications, Larvae sculpt infectious and rigorous sound-escapes not unlike an unusual mesh of Gridlock vs. Scorn; a transformation of sound that is inspiring and mysterious.
Igloo Magazine recently spent some time with Larvae to conduct a Question and Answer email interview session exposing the depth of Larvae’s electronic transformations.
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Igloo: Tell us about Larvae, it’s name origin and reason for existence.
Larvae: Larvae began as a side project for me back in 1997. I was working within the scope of another band and I wanted to explore something as more of a solo project that didn’t involve instruments and vocalists, so I started working with some ideas on my own. Over time, other people came and went and added bits of sound, ideas, etc to the mix. The name was inspired by Mothra in her Larval form from the old Toho company movies and just seemed like a good name for a then budding, new project: Larvae-a new life, etc.
Igloo: Who is involved with Larvae, and how do they contribute?
Larvae: Currently the music is being produced by myself and Chris Burnett, and
Bryan Meng is handling the visuals for our live shows with some of my direction. It’s a strange not-quite-a-band, not-quite-a-solo-act kind of arrangement. I tend to act as a producer and I try to pull interesting bits out of people. I write most of the music alone, but it’s written using sounds that Chris sends me, and things that I make or sample myself, so it’s a kind of long distance collaboration that works for us.
Igloo: How would you describe your sound-scape, besides being on the darker side of experimental electronics?
Larvae: I’d say the music is dark but hopeful and balanced. The best art to me in any arena, at least the art that touches me most, is the stuff that tries to get at the hopeful spirit that underlies a lot of the darkness. It’s a shame to focus solely on the negative, but it’s equally limited to focus only on shiny happy thoughts, so I like a balance in there. I think most of the music comes from a place of anger or frustration, but you can only be angry for so long before you redirect that energy into a solution or an escape.
Igloo: What are the plans for the future of Larvae output?
Larvae: I hope to work on some collaborative projects this year with Horchata and Miles Tilmann, and to begin work on a new album of Larvae material sometime in the fall. We also have a history of non-album related kinds of projects like site-specific performances, films, art installations, etc so I’d like to get back to doing something like that this year as well.
Igloo: Your (upcoming) collaborative projects with Horchata and Miles Tilmann sound very interesting. Would they join the Larvae chain, or would this be an entirely new direction?
Larvae: Miles and I have known each other since we were in college and Sub:Marine put out his first released music so we’ve had a good working relationship for a while. We are going to approach a handful of songs in a couple of different ways, trying to expand on the idea of the split 7″ from last year. We were both quite happy with that, and with the way his style and ours compliment each other, so we’re going to work on some remixes, some new songs, and maybe some mutations that can fit together and we’ll see what comes out of it. With Horchata, I’ve known him for quite a while too and we’ve traded sounds before for remixes, but never worked on a complete release. I’m really not at all sure what will come of that collaboration, whether it will be a series of remixes of each other’s work or a set of all new songs composed jointly. At the moment, we have a couple things that we have worked on together by sending each other source material, so a Horchata/Larvae release is shaping up. Horchata has a nice history of working this way with the Horchata/Twine, Horchata/Ocosi, and Horchata/Zenopede releases, so we’re just going to apply some of that collaborative spirit here.
Igloo: How is Submarine Records involved?
Larvae: Sub:Marine records is my label, but it’s now almost entirely defunct. The interest of the label was not to promote my own work, but the work of others like Miles Tilmann, Magicicada, etc so I never had large plans to release a lot of Larvae material through Sub:Marine.
Igloo: Tell us a little about Fashion Victim, and how it differs (if any) from your previous material. Is there a particular theme associated with the album, and if so, can you describe its process?
Larvae: The theme that kind of guided the whole creation of the record was one of frustration with culture. Everywhere I look there are bad movies, bad music, bad writing, bad television programming, and it seems like the bad stuff is disproportionately successful. There’s a real problem I think that many people have with actually facing serious questions and challenges to their beliefs, so most of what passes for entertainment or fashion is spoon-fed to people to satiate their need for easy resolutions and answers: “Wear this and women will like you.” “Eat this and you will be happy.” “Be like these people on this TV show because that’s how people should be.” These are the kinds of messages that I was writing about. Songs like “Refuse,” “I Owe You” and “Unbranded” all have pretty specific targets or sources of inspiration.
Igloo: Where is the Larvae crew located, and does this influence the bands musical direction and/or mission?
Larvae: I live in Atlanta, as does Bryan, but Chris lives in Birmingham, Alabama (about 2 hours away). I wouldn’t say the location of Atlanta or the South really has much impact on what we do other than the fact that a lot of the work is a reaction to the surroundings. I don’t think different surroundings would make a tremendous impact because I feel like most of the ideas we are approaching are fairly universal. Still, a song like “Redline Version” that was written after sitting in 2 hours of Atlanta traffic might not have been written if I lived somewhere with less congestion, so there are always things like that. Being separated from Chris would be a problem if we needed to jam in a studio or something, but since we both work better alone, it works to just send files back and forth via FTP.
Igloo: Were there any releases that came out after 1997’s birth of Larvae?
Larvae: The first Larvae release was a 7″ titled Near Miss that was actually the first Larvae song ever written. It was remixed in 1999 and we had it pressed up on a 7″ but because we knew very little about the manufacturing process for vinyl, the pressing was not something we were happy with so we never pursued getting the record distributed in any way. We sold a few and gave some away, but I still have 200 copies in my kitchen! After that, we had an appearance on the Low End Recon compilation from HedNod/Empty Light also in late ’99, and we then worked primarily on a film project called Transmission for quite a while. In 2003, Sub:Marine released the split 7″ with Larvae/Miles Tilmann and shortly thereafter, Ad Noiseam released Monster Music and Fashion Victim.
Igloo: Does the long-distance collaboration hinder Larvae’s opportunities for playing live, locally?
Larvae: Playing live is always a challenge because it means that we have to collapse the distance between us and learn to work together in a room. Chris is much more of a tinkerer than I, so he likes to wing it a bit and see what will come of it, whereas I prefer to have very clear structures to the songs and I like to execute something well over and over, so our approach to live shows is to bring those elements together somehow. I’ve played Larvae shows solo, or with several people playing drums, guitar, keyboards etc, so there’s really no set way to approach the music live. We’ll be getting together soon to start mapping out the live show for the tour and to make sure that all of the technical details are out of the way.
Igloo: How did you get involved with Ad Noiseam?
Larvae: I sent Ad Noiseam a demo of three songs that I felt like indicated the direction Larvae was heading in. We had recently completed some remixes for people that I was quite happy with and with Chris coming aboard in 2002, we had some new sounds and new energy injected into the Larvae situation so it was time to stick our necks out and send out some demos. The first one I sent was to Ad Noiseam, not really with the intention of getting signed but just with the idea that Nicolas seemed to like a lot of the same music I liked and I thought I might get some good feedback from him. I had very small aspirations for the demo in fact, but as it turned out, he liked it and liked the Monster Music EP so we were glad to do some recordings together.
Igloo: Do all band members enjoy a similar taste in music, outside of Larvae? How did you all meet?
Larvae: Bryan and I have known each other since we were in high school, and have been in a band together in some form or other since 1991. He and I have pretty similar tastes in music, but I probably just listen to more different things because I review records for Brainwashed and I get sent a lot of things because I have a label. Chris DJ’s fractured beats, drum’n bass, and glitchy hip hop and is definitely the one who’s most interested in highly processed sounds. He is also more connected to the vinyl world, so he knows of lots of little one-off releases that I’ve never heard of. I met Chris when I played a show in Birmingham and since he was looking to get involved in making music and there was no one in Birmingham for him to collaborate with, I suggested he just send me some sounds. That’s what we’ve been doing ever since. Bryan has since moved into working on video more, especially with a tour coming up, so everyone has a nice place to work and I just pull it all together into something that hopefully makes sense.
Igloo: Can you describe the visual aspect that fans can expect to see during the (upcoming) live shows?
Larvae: We are working to create something other than the typical, abstract video for our live show. Since we have actually produced a short film (shot on Super 8 and video) in the past, we have some background in putting together visuals with some sort of narrative. Without too explicitly narrating the songs or tying them down to a particular story, we do want to bring out some of the ideas in the songs visually rather than just provide interesting wallpaper. We’re working on some shorts now that should compliment the themes on the album and give people something to look at beyond fractals and random found objects.
Igloo: Are there any plugs, theories, comments or shouts you’d like to tell your audience?
Larvae: I think www.illegal-art.org is a great place to start expanding your brain if it’s not already there. There was a Philosophy grad student at Florida State who recently had a webpage centered around the idea of simple living that I found to be quite inspiring, although the site seems to be gone now. The basic idea was that each person should examine her/his life and see what things are unnecessary or wasteful and what things are needed and valuable, and then that anything extraneous shouldn’t be focused on or kept. It’s a difficult lifestyle to embrace in the world we live in now, but it’s something to work towards and think about. Anyone who hasn’t yet read Naomi Klein’s book No Logo should definitely pick it up, and local Atlanta activist and video artist Frank Lopez has a cool site with a mailing list and lots of ideas: www.submediatv.com
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Fashion Victim is OUT NOW on Ad Noiseam. Larvae & Needle Sharing will be touring North America in April 2004 (Click here for more information).
