When I first ventured in to this sound project I had a defined idea of what I wanted to create. However I was determined to experiment first of all and this experimentation process has stuck with me. I still enjoy tweaking sounds in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions and it has also helped to redefine the initial thought. Over the past couple of years I have been aiming to transform classic sounding drum beats in to what sounds like a factory at work. Snare drums become angle grinders, kick drums become pistons, cymbals become pressure vents and so on. The thought process behind this was following traditional or folk music which borrowed the sounds and beats from the environment in which the composers were present. Folk music would imitate the rhythm of workers in the field and borrow sound from the waves of the sea or the wind through the trees. The imitation of environment and way of life became the muse for sound creation.
For the most of us we live in a mechanised world where electronics signal various sizes of mechanics in to motion. The past century has seen giant coal fuelled beasts of iron replaced by leaner, meaner alloys powered by electricity. This industry has been our environment for over a hundred years and has not finished overpowering silence. I hear its sounds everyday and night. From the mobile phone to the steel workshop across the street. The air conditioned buses rumbling down the road and the cooler fans on the computer I am using to write this. It is so that the rhythm of our lives is set by modern industry.
Yet this industry moves so fast that the high tech of today will be the relic of tomorrow. This again makes me reflect upon folk music where songs sang about what once was in the ever changing seasons. Disused factories are grounded like Autumn leaves as the cold air of a new era sweeps through their decaying walls. Our seasons are called economics and we dress mother nature in concrete and reinforced cables. So I have added strings to the beats of my factory and adoped a story telling approach to the voice. All as a reflection of this time in our lives.
