Slingsby &Errant Monks/ by black dog bone
Slingsby &Errant Monks: England/ by black dog bone
From what I heard from listening to Slingsby and Errant Monks, it like hard industrial noise but it has some songs have these real melancholy melodies. its so cool. the sound is so brutal, its like punk, electronic, hip hop, tribal, heavy metal, it like noise music. its all there. is that the way you see your music.?
The music that is made as Errant Monks is definitely a deliberate mashup of various noises and influences. I would describe it as the soundtrack to a war or natural disaster or, at its best, the end of the world as we know it.
Slingsby is a new project operated by the individual. It deals in less brutal audio outputs with no real allegiance to any one musical type or genre. The music is free and there is plenty of it to come and even after the process, in music as well as in literature, there is always potential for improvement. Nothing is ever truly finished. I might change a title or add a new song 3 months after something has gone out. Nothing is too sacred for afterthought. It is the constancy of change that keeps me excited.
Both projects make good use of shortwave radio, either recorded live or sampled and added to the music later down the line. Picking up brief glimpses of different transmissions, from the news in China to clandestine government bleeping straight out of Cyprus. This, sandwiched between slabs of static radio, perfectly mirrors the random chaos of life, the fleeting shards of information we are bombarded with every day along with the confusion of the varied emotional reactions we feel upon consuming them.
The Errant Monks album was recorded live almost entirely improvised over a period of 3 months before being cut up and loved a little and then being released. At our shows we improvise heavily with the performance in general evolving into an emotional, musical and visual shortwave radio; switching rapidly between hysterical laughter and guttural screaming, utter disgust and sheer delight. Lyrically I improvise but may use certain ideas that were laid down on the album at times. These lyrics centre on many subjects, from paedophilia at the heart of the British Establishment, to the future prediction of the world’s eventual demise. As you can imagine it is quite a cathartic and exhausting experience. I believe catharsis, musically or otherwise, to be the best experience on earth.
Your sound has a primitive feel like tribal music, its so mysterious. I fell like its tribal music made with guitars and noise. it disturbing and brutal. and it seems like you don't use much vocals. the way the vocals are its so animal like. Screams and yells.
I think it is very easy, if you are paying close enough attention, to see and hear the world wheezing toward its end around us. The more we learn the later it gets and the later it gets the worse it is for everyone. I am lucky to be in a position to work on things without fear of total persecution. The only way to convey these observations in their purist form is to be very fucking loud and very fucking angry. I am both of these things but by expressing these feelings through music and art I am also at my happiest. It is therapy and it makes me able to continue.
your from UK? and your from Manchester? how was your childhood spent? were you happy, were you sad, were mischievous?
I am from a long list of different towns and cities in Northern and Southern England but I would call Manchester my home if anywhere. My childhood was fun but very traumatic. I was definitely on the cusp of being part of the last generation of kids who weren’t brought up in front of screens, so I remember playing outside in all weathers, and lots of fires, footballs, fishing, smoking and fighting. Life was traumatic for a number of reasons; mental illness, violence, alcohol and death being the most damaging. Creating art makes me able to deal with these things. what is your saddest and happiest experience in your life?
The saddest experience is the day my uncle died. He was a great writer and brought me up on amazing music and literature. I would not be doing the good things I am doing now if it wasn’t for him and the tribute I pay to his life can be found in the detail of a lot of my creative outputs. Slingsby sir, I salute you!
are there lot of artist in Manchester doing what your doing.
I wouldn’t say there is anyone doing exactly what I am doing, I don’t think they would want to be really.
is there a word that describe the scene that's going on in Manchester. or is it everyone is doing there own thing.
Manchester is a strange city, it is haunted by the ghost of its former Hacienda days. There is definitely enough music going on of the same boring ilk that a reactionary vision can be formed. The antithesis of apathetic ego machines. That being said if you look hard enough you will find some truly amazing artists working very hard without compromise. Check out www.maybles.bandcamp.com
are their any other artist that you realy respect? that you really like.
are there are certain artist that you are influenced by. or that you really like?
what other music do you listen to. I listen to a lot of different music from across the ages and all over the world. It would be hard to name any one, two, three, four or more that influence my desired output. I feel like there is a conveyor belt of sounds and words and ideas in my head that keeps getting added to at all times, I obsess over some of the things that I find and those repeated listenings or readings undoubtedly make their way into the sounds I transmit.
Having said that I would suggest Daniil Kharms for breakfast reading. He sets the day up nicely.
and some of the sounds you make are angry, also melancholy and very moving. they have a violent feel, very harsh?
I put everything I see, feel, hear, say and do into my music. In this way they are self-portraits. On a good day I’d rather cook food, ride my bike or have a bath than sit in a dark room writing or making music. I guess if they are dark it is because they are the extractions of my demons in the moment I stop playing outside, made up of the experiences I have when I am outside, as well as memories of the past and predictions of the future. Dystopia is now as far as I am concerned and that makes for an interesting time to be alive and creating.
a lot of pain and confusion. where does that dark sound that angry, harshsound come from?
The bath, the stainless shovel, the mask, the cat, the bastard and the brothel
The sloth, the slowly sinking, the dogman in the doghouse drunk and slowly drinking
The cot, the dripping tap, the cobra and the bairn with cradle cap
The nag, the reigns of brass, the hands retracting from the chance to clasp
The mole, the focal point, the oil slick and dripped drawn to anoint.
The eldest, dead and dying, the trier God would love giving up trying
The prayer, the prongs of forks, the damsel in distress popping the cork
The window, the tubby fucker, the golden punishment for copper suckers.
The world, and all its raging wrong, the sorrow in the truth of every song.
The tape, the worm escaping, the lacerated shapes, the plates that Greeks be breaking
The sand, the flooded earth, the man, the battle and the bloody birth
The heart, the tumour clock, the startled pecker pecking and the strangled cock
The news, the bloated leader, the reader of bad blues, the filthy minded bleeder
The grass, the meadow strung with deaths own tinsel, the tooth, the biter of the bitten pencil
The fruit, the guardian of all unknown, the beauty bought and battered cloaks a clone
The worms, the worms that guide us to the core, the claws that burrow, the bully come a bore.
The gas, the flame, the poisoned budgies feather, the world that went to war over the weather.
The world and all its rarest rights, the joy found in the truth of every fight.
A poem to sum that answer up.
people feel like its negative when they hear words like darkness or gloomy or sad. what do you feel about words like that.
All emotions are as valid as each other. They are all fleeting yet they all linger. We must be careful of people who don’t seem to flinch at this world. Anyone who thinks this is paradise is obviously very lost and anyone able to function without wondering why the world is the way it is, well I suppose ignorance is bliss, but I don’t trust those people. I think most people are scared of conveying emotions or they see sadness as a weakness. I don’t agree.
have you been playing music for a long time.
I have always written. Poetry and song lyrics without the music were my first escape. I began making music when I was 14 but have never learned any instrument to a high level. I am not trained and I do not really consider myself a true musician. A lot of my time in life has been taken up by many other different things that ultimately hold more importance than making art so I haven’t done as much as I have wanted to. I suppose the balance is sometimes out of my hands.
when you first started was the scene different and did it keep changing. how is it now.
Things have changed a lot since I started making music, I continue to grow and learn new things and that is the best thing about it.
9 years ago it was gypsy folk with a band of friends, before that it was grunge and punk in high school. My attitude has remained a constant throughout, and that is one of independent thought and a zero tolerance for both apathy and authority. As long as the creative output is expressed with passion and conviction and no compromises are made, it is true and it has succeeded.
are there a lot of other artist doing similar music to what you do.
I don’t know if you could hear it in their work but there are definitely a few people that seem to come from at least one of the places I am coming from. If I don’t do what I am doing I really do end up in hospital or worse, so my output isn’t really something that can be placed alongside other people’s work. Sure other people need to create just as much as I do.. But the consequences are very different for them if they don’t.
how are you different from the other music that’s happening in Manchester?
Aside from the above.. I am probably not that much different. I think mine is the most important, they think theirs is the most important. I feel like an outsider because I behave differently to a lot of the people around. I don’t try and hide my mistakes or emotions and that intimidates a lot of people. People don’t say much for fear of saying the wrong thing, they just look pretty and try not to seem uncool. It all feels quite ridiculous to talk about it because it is really quite ridiculous. I am no more or less an artist than anybody putting stuff out in Manchester but for good or for worse I seem to have a lot more stories to tell. I’d still tell them if nobody listened because I have a need to, a real need. Like I said, if I don’t do this it all falls apart. what made you go in that direction. I mean what made you do that kind of music.
I think I’d come to a point where I didn’t want to be in a band that made conventional songs in a certain style with practices and meetings and general organization. Errant Monks was born out of 3 good friends wanting to play together but not get too deep into band politics or commitments we knew we wouldn’t keep. So we just improvised and made things as fun and as free as possible.
do you make all your beats. do you make all the tracks? or do you collaborate with other people/
Slingsby is my hand. Errant Monks is a combined effort of different skill sets built together to make one megalith of music. I have collaborated a lot with many different people in acoustic and electronic projects in the past and will continue to do so. do you play shows a lot. like in clubs?
Errant Monks recently came back from a tour of Eastern Europe where we played in a long underground tunnel, an illegal secret basement gig, a boatyard and a squat. I was lucky enough to come across some truly innovative DIY scenes in Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade. We left them gloriously stimulated and they left us totally humbled. I look forward to getting back out there ASAP.
Slingsby has yet to perform but will have its day soon enough.
do you perform mostly UK or outside of UK.
So far we have performed more gigs outside the UK than in it but that is because the project started off as a side project and has had many transformations and stopping and starting. I prefer playing outside of the UK more. The people don’t seem to have that same competitive attitude. Maybe I am wrong and was too busy stomping about to realize it did exist but they definitely seem more receptive and hospitable to artists.
when you perform is it just you. are you more like DJ?
When Errant Monks perform we are more of a punk band really, a trio with a front man and two noisy bastards at the back. We make use of strobe lights and sirens and as the front man I release a burst of energy that undoubtedly has its roots in punk as well as absurd comedy and abstract physical movement. I often can’t stop moving and contorting for days after I have performed. We all reach a natural high.
I am still not sure how I feel about just playing songs off a computer or DJing. Maybe the stuff that is created on the computer will stay on the computer and the live shows will continue to be about pushing the boundaries and experimenting with many different ideas and improvisations. In both projects.
you have two different projects, one is slingsby, the other is errant monks. are they both really different from each other? is it that in each project you work with different people?
Errant Monks is a band that occurs when the right people are in the right place at the right time. Other members of the band have other projects and duties.
Slingsby is the constant humming of my arrival and departure to and from the planet.
what made you name your first project Dead Lawrence?
Dead Lawrence is the name of a character in a short story my Uncle wrote, I will be publishing it soon through The DAP whose work I cannot discuss at present.
how do people get in touch with you. do you have a web sight. face book.
People can find information on how to contact me via the Facebook pages and I encourage them to do so -
https://www.facebook.com/errantmonks/
Errant Monks | Facebook
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Errant Monks. 132 likes · 3 talking about this. Musician/Band
www.facebook.com/fandangohack
Slingsby | Facebook
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Slingsby. 39 likes · 4 talking about this. Dead Lawrence
and bandcamp
www.fandangohack .bandcamp.com
www.maybles.bandcamp.com/album/errant-monks
and via a website I run full of photography and writing –
www.fandangohack.tumblr.com
I also release a zine under the name Fandango Hack, this includes writing from local Manchester writers as well as artwork and audio experiments. do you have a lot of cd’s out. where can we find your music.
Cassettes and C.D’s as well as publications and zines can be made and shipped out to whoever wants them.