Mr. Projectile

Written by Liz McLean Knight Sunday, 07 September 2003 06:26

Talking with Adam Johnson has put me in a silly mood and I'm giggling about ridiculous things more than usual. Matt Arnold is taking it all in stride. With an easygoing manner he's smoking and finishing up a White Russian while discussing his musical history with me before he takes the stage for the first date of his tour. Under the alias Mr. Projectile he's released albums on Toytronic and Parotic, with appearances on compilations by Benbecula, Six Records, Topscore and others. A new one, slated for release on Music Aus Strom and Merck is
forthcoming, called Sinking.

"The first record I ever bought was Safety Dance when I saw that shit on MTV... the sample-heavy, really synth-based stuff, ...I think its always been ingrained in me ever since before I even knew what the hell electronic music was." In 1992 he was introduced to the club/rave scene of the early 90s and immediately fell in love with it. Matt started by collecting electronic music compilations, and since then has only bought electronic music. Eventually he decided to have a go at making the music himself, starting off with varied gear arrangements until finally ending up with the setup he has now, involving a Nord Modular and a G4 laptop. From the beginning he had the intention of both composing and DJing live.

As for his compositional process he tells me, "The best thing to do, for me, is to just sit around and to allow accidents to happen as much as possible, then sort of turn those accidents into songs.... That doesn't mean that my songs are created completely randomly--I'm very
into having themes and emotions rather than some weird sounds and some crazy shit going on. I definitely want something that’s been thought out and something that’s catchy. You cant just say, "I want a weird noise" and just make it; you kind of just have to let things happen accidentally to get those weird sounds. I'll base the song around that sort of weird sound, and then sort of make it melodic and pretty and catchy, you know? Have some sort of human feel to it.

"And humans have certainly begun to congregate on Danny's this evening. As we've been speaking, people have been filtering into the back room, chattering loudly and taking up residence on the seats around us, so I slide closer to hear Matt over the din. He explains to me how his label affiliations came about and suggests that its more permissible in this kind of genre for artists to have more creative control over the sonic fingerprint of an album than in other sorts of genres.

Like Adam Johnson, he's looking forward to the tour with Adam Johnson and Miles Tilmann [see his interview in issue #4] and is especially excited about the Seattle date with someone he particularly admires--L'usine.

As for the approach he takes to performing his music live, he says he plays songs from the upcoming album he’s promoting, but finds that its hard to get excited about listening to his own songs repeatedly, so he incorporates different software, such as Abelton Live and CamelToe. He
says “I’m much more interested in Djing these days,” which he does digitally with Traktor and traditonally with vinyl.

Living up in Minneapolis with Adam, the two of them began working together and hosting events at clubs and promoting their music. While the “scene” may have left a bit to be desired, he gushed about the local music store with an entire room devoted to edgier electronic
music. Most recently he's been spending time in Santa Fe, and he's eager to get on the road to promote his music, and even more excited about visiting Europe with Adam in September.

His favorite city on previous visits was Hamburg, Germany, "It's so awesome, the people are fucking beautiful. My own theory [as to why] is that there's so much shame regarding their history that they've ended up producing music that's the opposite. People just want to have fun
and be loved. ... Germany is just really, really cool."

I break form to agree with him and relate my experiences at Love Parade in Berlin a few years back. We chat for a while until we notice that Adam has started performing. I thank Matt and then enjoy the rest of the night, involving superb Pinot Noir and excellent music the rest of
the night from the 4 boys (including a lovely set from Dave Olsen (Parotic)).

----

It’s Friday and Darkstar 7 (a showcase featuring Adam and Matt as well as Aparat, Velocette, Todd Sines, Matt Mercer…) is winding to a close. Miles Tilmann enlists me to schlep gear to the car and we decide to head down to Smartbar, but not until Adam attempts to breakdance on
asphalt in the parking lot. After wrangling with our available communications technology, we decide to equally distribute ourselves among the available cars, and so Matt and I head towards my car on the other side of the campus.

Matt seems to enjoy the goofy miniature stuffed animals that litter my car and we both relax a bit and begin casually discussing what albums we're into lately and such things. Matt confides in me that he's been analyzing how change is made in society. The US is at a strange point where its' possible to make a change in the world. People don’t really have faith in the politicians and a positively minded change can step in and change the structure and it’s easy for people like us to make a difference. After a bit of conversation he tells me how he's begun to notice a lot of coincidences happening since the tour started--though it may just be that's he's more aware of it now that he doesn't have the structure of a daily grind to distract him.

"I know what you're referring to..." I tell him "I've noticed the same kind of thing when I'm really focused on something that I want to have happen. It seems like the world is conspiring to help you do it..." This whole tour, he says, is helping him remember that life can be magical. Its inspiring, he tells me, to meet up with other people who are into the same sort of music, but who are from different parts of the world.

The postcard for the tour has a decidedly psychadelic 60s feel to it and one cant help but think “magical mystery tour.” The tour should definitely be exciting, all three have mad talent and high aspirations and the tour will assuredly convince a larger audience of the fact.

http://www.toytronic.com
http://www.affectrecords.com/projectile/

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