. . . / Interview black dog bone
. . ./ Interview black dog bone
From what I heard when I watched your performing, it was so exciting. Real brutal and jarring sounds. It's like punk, electronic, hip hop, tribal, heavy metal, it's like noise music. It's all there. I'm wondering how you got into all that. First of all thanks for actually listening to my work ! Music or sound art is the only way I could find to express deep feelings or emotions that no words could ever describe. It's like I have this schizophrenic being in me whom, for some reasons, I can manage to keep deep down by using music as therapy. It has as many political as aesthetic aspects to it and of course I highly dislike being frustrated while making music and I do love so many different things, I decided to make a music that will include almost every influence I have had no matter how tricky it can be to produce or even to listen.
My sound is based on the "no input" idea meaning all the sounds come from the amplification of the background noise each electrical gear has within. The feedback (larsen) process is definitely my string, my drum, my way…
It's real primitive sounds. I feel like it's tribal music made with electronic sounds. And there is no pattern or structure. It just keeps going everywhere, and I feel like you let the sound take you where it wants to go. Is that so?
My work is focused on live performances, so you're right ! Sound is truly guiding my way to interact with it and I do have to deal with different parameters every time. The acoustics of the room, the quality of the sound system, my perception of the place, the mood of the staff, the politeness of the sound engineer, the mood of the audience, the quality of local drugs, foods and beverages, all of that will also have a strong influence on my so-called "style", but definitely sound is guiding my creativity in a live process, so I try to freely include any aspect I need and want depending on the situation. Even though there is no vocal I feel like there are vocals in the sounds that you make. Like how you use noise. It's so primal. It's almost like a animal howling or screaming. Like someone is in a lot of pain and grief.
The first time I could hear a noise music live was at LUFF in 2004. I felt like nothing else before ! It was so loud, no rhythm, no melodies, the mixer almost always in saturation, I remember I thought "what the fuck is that guy doing ? Is that even allowed ??? It's so easy... too easy... so messy..." Took me quite some time to digest this gig as it really felt like being abused in my rights.
I am an angry being getting more and more used to it... I feel a lot of anger towards the way we got fucked into neo-liberalism even though I am too young to feel really guilty about it, I feel ashamed that so many people are still afraid of what they call “foreigners”, about the post-colonialistic world, about the industrialized system of production. I definitely need to make art and smoke as much as possible to avoid a deep depression due to how much I feel unconnected to the mass events and what seems to be thoughts and morals of the so-called majority of people. A good thing is that the more I visit the world through my art, the more I understand the obvious: everywhere there are people who do not fit into this mess, no matter how idiotic and corrupted the system is, we are many suffering in silence and yet working hard to keep the world of humans a less ugly place despite the endless challenge it represents with the morons we dare to call leaders, politicians, whatever. If it was not for art I would be definitely in a different type of trouble than just being poor, homeless and behind the recognition of the capitalistic sphere.
You use a lot of laptops and electronic pedals and stuff like that. Is that how you create your sounds? I needed the cheapest but yet most efficient instrument, so I use a laptop and an analog mixer connected to each other. This hybrid (digital+analog) set-up allows me to work in many fields and be pretty much free to do whatever I feel like. But it is true that I do use a lot of laptops (not at the same time though!!!)... My sound is based on the "no input" idea meaning all the sounds come from the amplification of the background noise each electrical gear has within. The feedback (larsen) process is definitely my string, my drum, my way... People feel like it's negative when they hear words like “darkness” or “gloomy” or “violent” or “brutal”. What do you feel about words like that, feelings like that ? Cause I see that a lot in the sounds that you make.
Negativity and positivity are too simple concepts to express the complexity of the human psyche... Words are so limited, their meaning changes depending on time, location and cultural background... So to be honest I don't really care about that. Still audience often feel the need to share their emotions after a live performance and it is very impressive to see how different each reaction can be at the very same event ! From the "running naked in the forest" feeling to "the train arrival in the death camps of World War II" imagery, I really feel that once unleashed, your artwork is not yours anymore, which is obvious, I agree, but a refreshment is never a bad thing.
Music or sound art is the only way I could find to express deep feelings or emotions that no words could ever describe. It's like I have this schizophrenic being in me whom, for some reasons, I can manage to keep deep down by using music as therapy.
Some people will just freak out to the effect the sound had on them, others will enjoy it and who knows where those endless possibilities of understanding and reactions stop ? Once, we dropped a cheese fondue on our laptops (with Overload Collapse), some people were really harsh to us, mainly because we used such an important symbol of Switzerland, but most of them ended up eating the damn fondue !!! So definitely I have no clue about what the fuck is happening in this world...
Are there any particular artist that you are influenced by? Or that you really like?
Yes, so many !!!! Where could I even start ?
Did you start in Japan? Are you living in there now? Where are you from? My mother came from Croatia in the sixties but I was born and grew up in Montreux (Switzerland) and then lived in Lausanne for more than 10 years. I am now what I like to call a professional homeless since the blessed year of 2009 and live everywhere I can play music or do something related to the sound world. I've been spending quite a lot of time in Japan as I go there every year since 2008 and stay as long as possible each time I manage to end up there.
I am an angry being getting more and more used to it... I feel a lot of anger towards the way we got fucked into neo-liberalism even though I am too young to feel really guilty about it, I feel ashamed that so many people are still afraid of what they call “foreigners”, about the post-colonialistic world, about the industrialized system of production.
Mainly I am between Lausanne and Tokyo, touring as much as possible everywhere my music is welcome. I played my very first show in FRI-SON, a fairly big rock livehouse in Fribourg, Switzerland, and since then I tend to never stop doing it. I keep coming back to Lausanne because I am involved as a volunteer at LUFF - Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival - since 2004. This festival is definitely one of the highlights in the year for me, and hope I can continue to spend my time in between places, for the sake of sounds and all underground/independent/call-it-what -you-want Arts !
How did you spend your childhood ? Were you happy, were you mischievous?
Nothing special that needs to be shared here... just a kid getting disappointed in adulthood little by little. Of course many events happened in my life and forged me the way I am, but since it is the same for anyone I do not need to go further into details here. What are the saddest and happiest experiences in your life?
Tough question ! I guess they are both related to my birth day...
I definitely need to make art and smoke as much as possible to avoid a deep depression due to how much I feel unconnected to the mass events and what seems to be thoughts and morals of the so-called majority of people.
Are there any other artist that you really respect? That you really like? Sorry to take the easy way out of this one, but again I will say a lot !!! So many great people out there.... so many great minds destroyed too.... life is really weirdly random. What else do you do besides music? Do you like to travel? Do you like nature, do you like to read? What about art and poetry? I organize events, do crappy jobs for cash, sleep as much as possible, get high whenever possible, tend to keep my head on my shoulders, always think ahead, have sex or masturbate when I feel the desire, eat/cook good food when I have access to a kitchen and I really try to keep as far as possible from this nonsense we call neo-liberalism. But that is the hardest thing I've ever tried to achieve.... I love nature, walking/wandering around and witnessing the beauty of everything. Watching movies (a lot !), reading (not as much as before though), playing video games (same as reading), going to exhibitions, plays, etc. are part of my activities. Every aspect is an important component of life, therefore I try to keep doing all of those things as much as possible..
Have you been doing this a long time? You mean the noise part ? Since my twenties, I started to seriously challenge eardrums back in 2004 and played my first gig in May 2006. Do you perform a lot? Where do you normally perform? As much as possible, but booking and touring in DIY mode can be highly time -consuming and really bad for one's budget. So it's really hard to do it all year round. But I keep my hopes up that this sad system we are living in will just collapse one day, like a strange nightmare where you're only a witness despite all the efforts you put into controlling what is happening. Anyway, the only truth is that we are all (ok, almost all...) in the same mess. We have to do it, no matter what!
More than three decades that noise music has been around and still when I say "noise music" I can see very funny faces and people wondering what I am talking about. But even noise is a corrupted word as music is just sounds and no definition of style can apply perfectly.
Do you collaborate with other artists? Have you been doing this a long time? From time to time it happens that I'll play with someone new. I do have several collaborative projects such as Overload Collapse with Nicolas J. Fasnacht, Harsh Burlesque with Miss Harley Quinn and Charlotte Aebischer, Les Enculés with Les Belles Noiseuses and used to have some others but stopped for different reasons or just some people quit making sound/art. When you first started was the scene different and did it keep changing? How is it now? I don't feel so much change since I started, maybe a bit better conditions (like getting food/drinks + bed for the night), and a few more places open for free music to be performed but that's it. I highly dislike people saying "it was better before"... fuck them! My interest is to make things now and tomorrow, I don't really care about how awesome the good ol' days were.
What made you go in that direction? I mean what made you do that kind of music. I think making sounds was deeply in my blood since always, as a child whenever I could I would buy a CD instead of using this money for something else, even food. But I am a citizen, a human being living in society first of all so my political sense that came straight from my teenage years was my engine to grow and build my artistic research. Before I encountered noise music idea, I was really into electronica, braindance, acid techno, breakcore, contemporary music, nothing really popular amongst my friends, but that was a good thing ! I loved feeling apart, like there were only a few of us who knew there was a better, a secret kind of music for the curious and open-minded.... The first time I could hear a noise music live was at LUFF in 2004 (my first year as staff there as well). I felt like nothing else before ! It was so loud, no rhythm, no melodies, the mixer almost always in saturation, I remember I thought "what the fuck is that guy doing ? Is that even allowed ??? It's so easy... too easy... so messy..." Took me quite some time to digest this gig as it really felt like being abused in my rights. But eventually a few month later we started with friends to make noise instead of a sad attempt of so-called music. Looking back then, I think noise music was exactly what I was looking for without knowing how/where to look for it. A pure creative energy that even capitalism does not want in its mist.... More than three decades that noise music has been around and still when I say "noise music" I can see very funny faces and people wondering what I am talking about. But even noise is a corrupted word as music is just sounds and no definition of style can apply perfectly.
Before I encountered noise music idea, I was really into electronica, braindance, acid techno, breakcore, contemporary music, nothing really popular amongst my friends, but that was a good thing ! I loved feeling apart, like there were only a few of us who knew there was a better, a secret kind of music for the curious and open-minded....
How do people get in touch with you? Do you have a website, Facebook? There is my website, soundcloud and tumblr, people talking or complaining about it, meeting me at live gigs or even random luck... Facebook, I don't use it for promotion, mostly to keep contact with people as many stopped using old school e-mails but sometimes it happens that I simply meet new people, like you!
Still audience often feel the need to share their emotions after a live performance and it is very impressive to see how different each reaction can be at the very same event ! From the "running naked in the forest" feeling to "the train arrival in the death camps of World War II" imagery, I really feel that once unleashed, your artwork is not yours anymore, which is obvious,
Do you have a lot of music out? Where can we find your music? I don't release my solo works. Studio recording is such a different type of process than live and, to be honnest, I really enjoy being like a ghost. Still we did some self-releases on mini-CDs from 2004 to 2007 on our [net]label MERJ.CH which has evolved into MEOVCO.com, a platform to release USB keys (2015) with Overload Collapse and art gallery, flea market, apple's computer art recycling project, live event organisation. Regarding my solo project I upload raw live recordings from time to time on archive.org or soundcloud but not very regularly as I don't focus on recording myself. I highly dislike the cult of the individual, but I really hate principles as well, so once I'm dead, I will probably use my hashes to press my only vinyl ever, and it would be a lecture about my thoughts on totally unrelated matters, because fuck it ! You should come to listen to my work live ! And I find it funny to try the impossible and and to try to see if anyone remembers you, otherwise, have you ever existed at all ? http://ooo.meovco.com http://nikolahmounoud.tumbrl.com http://www.soundcloud.com/nikolamounoud http://www.youtube.com/nikolamounoud https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009897738498 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009897738498