Greg Stomberg & Dan Susnara
Prequel: The 1st Annual Trips Festival

Jeremy Gluck & Dave Fuglewicz
Sleep on the Edge

Various Artists
godspunk volume ten

Interview by Bryan Baker on 8/16/2010

Where do you find your voice samples? Are they purely atmospheric or do they also have a meaning behind them?
A lot of different places. I get asked this question a lot and usually tell people it is easier to just ask me about a certain sample because the sources vary so much. To generalize though, my favorite samples are from personal sources like home videos or recordings of my friends, but I also use stuff that is from outside sources if it means something to me (which gets to the next part of the question). Every speech sample I have used to this date has a lot of meaning for me. Sometimes the meaning is direct, but a lot of time the meaning comes from when the recording was done and the memory involved or just sentimental value that I have attached to the particular clip at some point. I try not too explain them too much because I don't want to tell anyone what any quote means, it is open for your own interpretation.

Tell me about your recording setup.
When I record my own stuff, it is super basic. Old Songs/New Songs was record directly into some random software using RCA to 1/8th inch cables. For beautiful wave though, Corey Salts, who runs Messy Life, recorded a large majority of the album. I think his setup is one or two rack mounted processors going into a protools setup. I like to think that if the quality of the music is good enough then the sound quality isn't as important.

Tell me about the album artwork.
The artwork was done by a great artist out in California named Jolie Ong. She painted a big watercolor of another band I was making songs with and I knew I wanted her to draw my cover, so I came to her with a very poorly explained idea and it came out better than I pictured it. At first it was just the screen print, but Corey Salts suggested we add some color to represent the album better. I don't remember exactly how the initial idea came about for the shape of the paint arrow but it just felt very right when we first drew it on and still feels perfect. My original idea fir the cover was the kiss scene from Karate Kid pt.II.

Go into detail about the recording of "ghost riding the whip".
Ghost Riding is an interesting song. It is one where for a long time I just called it "new song" and never played it or released it. I really loved the tune, but was worried the minimal beat would bore people live. Now I usually use it as a closer when I have my friend Zach Inscho play live drums and we add a really heavy loud ending with this crazy drum beat. Anyways, basically it started with the intro loop which is one of my favorite loops ever but also one of those loops that are painfully short and beautiful where every time it ends you wish it was longer and want to hear it again. After that I got the little chime sound from one place for another, maybe an old keyboard, and pitch shifted it into individual samples so it could be played like a keyboard. the main background guitar loop in the faster part of the song was made by chopping up three chords I played on guitar and then looping them in the order you hear it. After that I more or less just added more things, the lead guitar chords, the bass, and the cymbal and rim beat. I always really enjoy using a sampler to play chords recorded from guitar because I can switch between them in ways you can't on the guitar which makes for whole new sounds.

What is the beauty in happenstance?
I'm not sure if you're asking me in relation to music or things in general. In music, I don't know how I'd get by without it. Too many songs have been written by recording a loop of a sound I really like from wherever then going back and finding old guitar I recorded in the same key that fits perfectly over it. It saves a lot of frustration and makes me feel like the song was meant to be. Probably 80% of the album is happenstance. Black Friday is one of my favorite songs on the album and it was recorded in one take with one microphone in Jack's living room for fun after staying up all night to find all the hot deals on black friday. Same goes for things in general, probably even more so. If you're not finding beautiful coincidence everywhere then I don't know what you are doing.

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