Enduser

Written by Tim Gideon Sunday, 07 September 2003 06:26

Darkness fell over the Chicagoland area and smothered our cherished moonlight.

A dark warrior was invading our beloved town. Lake Michigan was raging with the power of a Poseidon pool party. It was January 15th, 2003. Suddenly I heard a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping on my bedroom door. As I opened my door I found someone gazing at me in the dark. This mysterious figure’s presence chilled me to the bone. I believe he was the reason my pilot light went out in my stove. As I greeted this figure in my hallway, I pondered if death had sent a messenger. A being that was going to whisk me off to hell. I must admit, I was slightly horrified. I am a sexy young guy with a lot to live for and I wasn’t ready to go. The time had come. The mysterious figure cautiously stepped into the light. The man cringed as if he thrived in the shadows of our decrepit society. This man was Lynn Standafer, also known as Enduser.

As I talked to Lynn, I learned not to be afraid. I found he is a fine gentleman with excellent table manners. Lynn and I shared an intimate dinner together. Sure, laughs were had and maybe a couple tears were shed. But on the whole, he’s good people. Lynn has artistic integrity and focuses all the chaos around him into something tangible; which is design. He is a web developer for Clear Channel. They own radio stations, venues, billboards, you name it. So as you can tell, Lynn has the power to blanket the world as a professional, entrepreneur, artist and musician.

Tell us about Sonic Terror Records.

It started in 1998. We put out all kinds of shit like hard, dark, jungly IDM I guess. breakcore. When I lived in Indiana with my roommate in 1999, we wanted to start an artist collective kind of thing. We used to do shows and give out CDR's. We didn't think of it as a label then, just something to do for fun. Later, I talked to Tek-Mind and Line 47 about putting out vinyl, so I came up to Chicago and we (Tek-mind and I) got the first record together. The first one we put out was a 7" split with just two tracks [Enduser on side A and Tek-mind on side B]. We had no idea how to distribute it or anything, but it worked out. Then I hooked up with Line 47 back in Cincy and he knew this kid down in Lexington, Kentucky who made tracks as Rusuden They put out a split 12" as the second one. I had been talking with Gair, (DEV79) from 215 Noise in Philly for a couple of years, so for the third record we put out a 3-track 7" of his stuff.

Then Scott, (Line 47) and I started doing a lot of shows in Cincinnati. We did a show with Tek-Mind in Chicago in 2000 at Deadtech. I don't think it's there anymore.

How was your music received by the crowd?

Back then the music sounded so much different than it does now. It was flat and wasn't produced very well. While we had fun doing it, its quality was undeveloped and sounded nothing like our tracks do today. You know, when you first start doing something you find where you're coming from. [Now] It doesn't sound as confused and sloppy.

When you would get a crew together where would you play?

In Cincinnati there are a couple of venues that let us do shows there whenever we want to. One of them is an old metal bar called Never On Sundays.(We both laugh) CD stores too.

How did the people at these shows react to your music?

Deer in headlights. In Cincinnati when we first started doing shows, not a lot of people were making electronic, weird stuff that we were.

I fuckin' hate raves, man. I used to have fun when I was younger, but I was never big into dancing and all the happy shit. Most of the music drives me up the wall. I can't stand it. I don't know. just goofy motherfuckers,man. (laughs to himself)

 I used to be into industrial music. When we first started doing shows.it would be me with a couple of drum machines and samplers. I wouldn't even take a computer [on stage]. I would open up for an industrial metal band or something like that. Some of the crowd would be into it. But some of them would be like, "What the fuck is this? Get outta here! I'll fuckin' hit you."(we giggle)

That's the thing. If you're not playing a bill that's just electronic shit, like with a band, and all you have is a bunch of equipment, some people from the crowd are gonna hate you right off the bat. They're like, [imitating a Ted Nugent-like metal head] "Where's yer guitar man? Where's yer haircut?(we laugh)

It's just not cool. Those people can suck it. I don't care.

Where do you draw your influences from?

When I was little I played the saxophone because my Grandma wanted me to. That didn't last long. When I was in junior high school I started getting into hip-hop. When you're a kid, you don't know how people make beats [or] how all the sampling goes on. You wanted to be a rapper. You wanted to live that life. You wanted to be gangster. As I got older I got into metal and industrial music like Skinny Puppy and Ministry. That's when it changed, I guess. [Later in high school] I got into harder kinds of music and then the electronic thing came in from that. When I first started going to raves I was getting a gist of the whole electronic thing. When I was into industrial music I thought it was cool, but I found out there was "industrial" stuff with electronics but no vocals. It was hard electronic music, but it was cheesy for the most part. I thought a lot of it was fuckin' lame. I thought, "This sucks. It's just like techno". I hated that tag, "techno music".

But when I first heard jungle, I was blown away. It was aggressive, but it wasn't cheesy at all. At the time, some of the lame industrial bands were experimenting with beats like that, but they would never pull it off right. I knew it could be better than that. I started to really get into jungle. I eventually found Alec Empire (destroyer) and Panacea (low profile darkness). But, I still wanted more. It's like that heroin cliché; the first time you shoot up it's like you're God. After that, you're looking for the same high over and over again and it just doesn't hit you the same.

I don't like a lot of IDM. I think it's boring. This is probably gonna piss a lot of people off but, a lot of the music I hear, it doesn't feel like people put a lot of themselves into it. Sure some of the tracks I make just sound like dark jungle tracks with ragga vocals and stuff like that, but it's what I wanna hear. It drives me, and it's what I want to do. Then I hear some people who are all into this "experimentation" and all that. It's like, "hey man is this fun for you?" I hear their music and, I don't know. it's just not for me. I like hard music, funny music, doesn't matter. But, if it doesn't feel like they're comin' from anywhere then it's just like, fuck this.

What's the future of Sonic Terror?

This month, (Line 47) and I are releasing a split as MACHINE GIRL. An ENDUSER remix album contributed by VENETIAN SNARES, XANOPTICON, SOCIETY SUCKERS and others will be released in the near future.

We're touring this April from the Midwest to Canada to the eastern seaboard and back. It'll be a short tour, just ten dates. On tour we meet people along the way that are fuckin' cool and want to help us out.

Records of ours are selling in decent numbers. Not bad for a couple of guys sittin' around working out of their house in Cincinnati. We get a lot of help from our boy Bob Otis, he's been working really hard sending out all the orders, promos, etc.

Is your goal to be able to make music and be supported by that?

The only reason I have a job is so I can make music. Making music to me is a priority and I wouldn't want to do anything else. Some people play baseball, some watch TV, and some ride horses in a field on a Sunday afternoon with a flower behind their ear. That's their thing. I like to make beats.

Be careful what you wish for, because ENDUSER definitely brings the pain with his Pandora’s box, which is his laptop. So, if you go to any of his shows or listen to any of his tracks, be careful what you wish for. Try not to let the terror overwhelm you.

enduser: http://enduser.sonicterror.net label: www.sonicterror.net

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