The Flashbulb

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

The Flashbulb, aka, Benn Jordan, has been busy promoting his latest album, These Open Fields. He was literally on his way out the door to join up with Zod Record's midwestern tour when I cornered him into an intense, instant-message follow-up interview to chats we had had in person and over email. How has your previous musical projects/bands influenced where you find yourself today as The Flashbulb? I guess it's your natural example of progression. My first real musical endevour was playing lead guitar and vocals for a metal band when I was in my early teens. I still feel like a prick about that. I wrote everything and was the only truly active member. Not that they were any less musician than I was, I just took over. It was like me with a few of my friends onstage backing up my showing off. When I was about 16 I left for good to make industrial type stuff by myself.

That slowly progressed into what I do now I think. I can never think about the future because every good track I finish I'm thinking "I can never get any better than this". Then the next week I'll do the same thing. My mother actually thinks the quality of my tracks have declined over the last 3 years, and a lot of people probably agree. It's just a matter of what I want to listen to and say "Wow. This music is mine."

How important is software/hardware to you?

Has the evolution of your tools influenced your sound? I have a really hard time adapting to anything as of the last couple years. It seems like the technology that I was writing with in 1998 is nearly the same as it is now, with both software and hardware. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of innovative tools out there now. But when I sit down to write something or fill out an idea that's been ringing in my head all day, they're useless to me. I could spend a week making a neat noise with Reaktor, or I could spend an hour making a tight track with a workstation and sampler. In a way it doesn't bother me though, as it taught me that I'm going to progress whether or not the tools have.

What kind of "dream instrument" would you create if there were no technical limitations?

A dream instrument. Hmm. I've always wished for a machine that would record tracks straight from my mind. I'm almost always making them in my head, maybe 1 out of 100 get brought into the physical world somehow.

Have there been any people or situations that have been impetuses for certain tracks, albums, or, more generally, the development of your career?

Definitely. You can hear a drastic change of style just from Drain Mode = On to These Open Fields, and those were released just 10 months apart. That probably has a lot to do with the death of my grandfather(who raised me) last September. I definitely dealt with that externally through my work.

Can you give an overview of your composition process?

I'll have an idea in my head that'll stick out, and I'll sit down and try and work it out. Sometimes I'll hear a sound that'll immediately make me run into my bedroom and make a track. I try to make it a point only to work on 1 at a time, otherwise I end up coming back to it in a different state of mind, making an inconsistent track.

How important is your physical environment/ surroundings to your work?

Definitely important, but not necessary. I've made a couple tracks on my laptop in some pretty noisy and stressful areas. It depends what I'm forced to do I guess. If I'm getting bothered somewhere that I can easily slip out of, I'll usually go home and finish it there. But if I'm on tour or something I usually just stick it out. Having a window open is also a key component in making me "feel more".

Could you explain what you mean?

Well. I'm pretty weather sensitive, I even spot for the National Weather Service. I always was that way, could be my race.

Well... how does the weather affect things?

It just does for me. I can't explain it really well. For example, I'm much more prone to be inspired by the weather when it's 75f and raining than if it were freezing cold. The smell, the humidity...etc. It all adds into how I'm feeling.

So, what's the perfect day, weather-wise, for you?

Good question. I'd have to say 65f after a week of hot and humid conditions, with a severe thunderstorm warning and a supercell in the distance. There's just so much going on out of the ordinary and out of anyone's control. It's the one thing humans can't adapt to.

What is your favorite way to relax?

When I'm really stressed out I usually spend a couple hours just playing the guitar outside somewhere in the middle of the night. The time sort of melts away and I feel renewed afterwards. No matter what I do music is almost always involved. I'm constantly doing it, stressed or relaxed, it's my entire life. I play the guitar while watching movies and I make tracks on the computer while eating or talking on the phone. About 18 hours on an average day I'm in some process of making music. Whether it's writing, recording, mastering, or just looking at the clouds daydreaming about what I can do with a track I'm about to work on.

These Open Fields has a continuous, narrative quality to it, accomplished with interludes of sounds from different environments, like children playing, water, forests, etc. What do these sound-environments mean to you?

I think they add another dimension to the music. Maybe even another abstract resource that helps define what emotions are being displayed. I don't just add whatever is sitting on my hard drive, hehe, I picked them out carefully so they'd multiply the feeling of the track. Sometimes the atmosphere sounds inspired the music actually.

"I Wake Up Clueless" is pretty moving in its.. creepiness, it sounds like cops or paramedics investigating a crime scene... what is going on with this track? It's actually someone getting interrogated and busted with heroin on Cops. That show is an absolute gold mine for samples. I think it was playing on the television while I started working on the track, and it fit extremely well so I started recording.

You mentioned that there is something hidden in the way the cd is encoded... could you give a hint?

Sure, it's going to be subtle though: "11Ways To End The Pain" contains more than meets the eye.

Eye? are you suggesting spectral analysis?

[laughs] I wish I was well-spoken enough to construct a sentence with hints like that...Ok here: right before the last track there's a big chunk of data. It's up to you kids to snoop it out!

What is your take on live electronic music performance?

Well, I don't think it's a big secret to anyone anymore that it's not truly live. A good portion of artists in this genre simply load up Winamp and play Solitare until their sets are finished. I've done that a couple times, and I've cheated myself more than anyone else. I don't have a big problem with "faking" as long as the crowd is digging it. I just don't choose to do it anymore because it's a complete drag. I usually just split up track portions and DJ them on my laptop while doing the effects externally. This way I can truly get into the music and that makes a HUGE difference. I like to bottle up all the stress I endure before the show (as it's usually hectic and something always goes wrong) and then spew it out during my performance. I just figured out this miracle. I used to softly say "thank you for coming out", now I scream "get off your fucking asses and dance you fucktards!" or something of the like. Not very composed or professional, but it really gets the adrenaline flowing on both sides of the stage, and I tend to enjoy myself much more.

What has been your best/ worst live performances?

My best live performance was probably in November of 2000 at a Chicago event called Techxotic. There were maybe 30 people there tops, and I played the Spanish guitar while Karl Sacksteder (world's best didjeridoo artist) hummed along a bass melody. It was one of those most fulfilling experiences of my life. I completely forgot I was in front of people and just lost myself for about 3 hours up there.

My worst performance would have to be at the "Big Day Out" event in Bridgeview, IL. Some guy contacted me through my mother while I was on the road and asked me to play this huge event, offered decent money as well. I had roped along a local band for an opening act that turned out to be very rude and pretentious about the situation when the time came for them to perform. There was about 10,000 people there, most of them senior citizens and children. Nobody had even heard electronic music before aside from the 10 friends I had up in the front row. I was plugged into a gas generator that drowned out the music, and had a very atonal and hardcore set prepared. So obviously it sounded like crap even to my friends. Then my synthesizer died from the moisture and I had to finish it off with mp3s. It was just a nightmare.

You had mentioned earlier that you had no problem with MP3s and digital filesharing, provided that people who enjoyed your music bought your non-shared albums. Do you want to expound upon this?

Well. A majority of the music I put out, I put out for free. Whether on my website or just sharing it on P2P networks. It disappoints me to see extremely high numbers in the downloads and mediocre numbers in the sales, and then finding out 90% of my consumer distribution of pressed material is illegally transferred. I'm not completely against people downloading pressed material, but if it's on your playlist buy it. This problem grows with every album I put out, and it frustrates me more and more. I honestly think the end of my public career will be caused by that. I could easily get a job as a computer tech or editor and make twice as much money as I'm making now, and still write music. I make the choice to share my work with others expecting support from those who enjoy it. Without that support why should it go anywhere beyond my car's cd player?

How has your video work intersected with your music?

How do you plan to continue in these two directions? I did a couple short films based on my music so far. I don't ever see it happening the other way around though. I've never had any luck writing music inspired by one of my films, it's always vice versa. I always picture stories going along with my tracks, and sometimes they're so vivid that I have to bring them out into something physical. I've actually recently been hired to direct 2 other artist's videos, and I'm pretty excited to do work that isn't completely based on my own past projects.

What work by other artists are you listening to now that you're really impressed with?

I've almost completely stopped listening to electronic stuff lately. Luke Vibert is probably one exception to that though. I never paid his work too much attention until after I had the chance to hang out with him about a month ago, and I sort of went home and re-listened to his work. Now it's like audio prozac. It just puts me in the best mood regardless of what's happening. I've definitely been digging Dave Pike, especially his sitar work like Mathar. Other than that I've been listening to a lot of Eastern and African folk music. It's really foreign to me so it's fresh and interesting.

What would you like to see as the future of the internet and personal computers?

Where is music in this picture? Just the other night I saw Minority Report and was complaining to myself about how technology hasn't done anything impressive in the last 10 years. Then just today while eating dinner I was scrolling through the news with my index finger on my Palm and it dawned on me that 10 years ago I wouldn't be playing live shows using the free movements of my hand to shift effects and speed or taking professional quality digital pictures that I can browse through on my Dreamcast between games.

I'm pretty excited to see what becomes in the next decade, especially with nanotechnology on the verge of revolutionizing our world as we know it. Did you know that patents already exist for fingernail polish that you can videoconference with? That's so exciting because it means I'll be able to write music with my wrist watch and record everything I hear with a device in my ear and go through it at the end of the day for samples. I could go on forever.

On the other hand, as far as the music industry and piracy is concerned, I couldn't give you an honest answer because I have no idea. Business experts can't even give a clue. All I could say is that eventually it'll work itself out. With no money you'll cut out a lot of great music, and people will start offering money again somehow. Maybe by donating up to a certain amount for an artist to make another album, or maybe morals will finally kick in and people will buy albums again. Time will tell.

These Open Fields is available from http://www.theflashbulb.net. Previous albums are available from http://www.suburbantrash.c8.com and http://www.rephlex.com.

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