Interview: Chad VanGaalen
Under his own name, Chad VanGaalen has released three albums of inventive and eclectic folk-pop, each one gaining him more attention than the last - his most recent, last year's Soft Airplane, is nominated for this year's Polaris Music Prize. This month, however, sees him releasing his first album as Black Mold, "Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz", an entirely instrumental album which sees him giving free rein to his experimental tendencies, ranging from far-out cosmic soundscapes to glitchy, madcap improvised electronica. Here he chats to us about the making of the album, EPROM chips, and why he doesn't like touring the US.
This is your first album as Black Mold: was the process of creating it different? Did you write the songs differently, and did you know how they were going to turn out beforehand?
No, I had a lot of songs to choose from, so I didn't really know what the album was going to sound like. I just wanted to put out a record that really had nothing to do with folk songs or any of my other solo stuff, especially when this is what got me into music in the first place: really I started off just making noisy soundscapes and then every now and then I'd write a song, I compiled some songs and then that kinda got popular, so what really got me into it in the first place was this noisy experimental stuff. So I just thought people should eventually know that's where I started and that really what I do most of the time is kinda make sound experiments...not that I'm forced into songwriting or anything, but it's nice for people to understand where your roots are, I guess.
I mean I don't know whether this record was really that successful, as far as representing that idea in my mind about what I was really trying to get across, but I dunno, maybe the next one will be better that way. I guess in my mind it kind of ended up being more awkward for fans of the songs & stuff.
You mean awkward within the record itself or just the fact that it's so different from your usual work?
I think a little bit of both, it's just kind of a crazy transition; I mean obviously the Black Mold stuff is just linked to me, there was just no way that I could avoid it being linked to the name Chad Vangaalen so it's kind of for better or for worse.
Even within the record, it's really diverse, although I would say that about your albums anyway. It's futuristic and sometimes very cinematic - is it influenced by old sci-fi sounds?
Yeah, I get inspiration off a lot of old movies - like Apocalypse Now has a lot of old modular stuff - movies where they've tried to disguise modular synthesizers as some sort of orchestral score. I'm really into that, where they thought like “hey, this is a cheaper way, instead of hiring an orchestra we can just get a modular synth to do the job", but obviously they totally – I mean, maybe it was tricking people in the 60s, but now it sounds totally dated. So yeah, I'm pretty into emulating that.
So I was feeding off that, especially the Dr. Snouth stuff (Track 2 on "Snow Blindness..."). I was circuit bending this keyboard, just as a reaction to the doctor on the old Andrei Tarkovsky movie, Solaris. There's a scientist called Dr. Snouth on the ship, and that was kind of a reaction to that – and like Blade Runner too, like Vangelis and a lot of like stuff from the 60s and 70, and Delia Derbyshire and stuff. I'm totally into synthesizers, so I mean, a lot of it is just sort of geeked-out retardo land for me. I mean, I don't know if anybody really gets off on it.
The album manages to sound retro and futuristic at the same time - is that just the result of using analogue synths? Also, I read that you're a fan of circuit bending; you're obviously more into hands-on electronic music production rather than digital?
Yeah, I mean I'm not totally committed to analogue: I have a lot of digital things as well, like most recently I've been getting into circuit bending midi drum machines, just because they can speak to each other. So it's really interesting to have a lot of these drum modules that once you circuit bend them they're not even necessarily drum modules anymore, you can get quite a lot of tones out of them, especially if you pitch shift each drum tone, then you can start programming kind of chromatic melodies - after you've bent that drum tone it might just turn into a sine wave or something, so and then with the midi capability then you can plug it into another drum machine and they can both sync really easily, so I've been really getting into that. And a lot of the drum machines that are midi controlled are digital, and they're programmed with these things called EPROM chips, which are really highly circuit bendable, so once you start they give you a lot of access to sort of rearrange the sounds and kind of cross-modulate.
(Note: in the audio recording of this part of the interview, I am heard repeatedly murmuring "yeah" and "mm-hmm" in a transparent attempt to pretend I understand what Chad is talking about.)
But yeah, circuit bending is certainly one of the things at the core of the Black Mold stuff. I mean, it's a really cheap way to get interesting sounds and you can bend whatever you want, from a kid's toy to a really nice synthesiser, you can modify it. Originally I just got into it cos I couldn't afford to buy expensive instruments and I wanted some sounds that were pretty abrasive, and not very welcoming. Also, it's really easy: Once you kind of understand where things are, you gradually can get the hang of it. I mean you don't need to know anything about electronics other than that when you start out doing it you should start out with a battery powered keyboard or drum machine or whatever, cos you don't wanna be plugging something into the wall and then licking your fingers and sticking them into a circuit board.
Thanks, I'll remember that if I try it myself. I suppose it's also a cool way to get sounds that are not the same as everyone else's...
Yeah and that's the other thing too, like you hear these sounds maybe in nature and you think god, I want that sound but I want it to be digital. So that's kind of what I'm reacting too, like that Solaris/Dr. Snouth thing is like, I really want to prepare a keyboard that sounds like how a schizophrenic mad scientist would.
Would you be interested in playing this stuff live, and would it be possible?
Yeah. I've played a handful of shows live, I mean the compositions on the album are probably like 90% improvisation anyway, so when I perform I usually just haul a bunch of junk out onstage and then let it kind of self-oscillate and make noise by itself, a lot of the stuff once you get it going, it'll start kind of glitching out and making random kind of stuff, so I just usually programme drum machines live and let all the circuit bend stuff kind of have its own way.
I also read that you prefer analogue recording to digital; is that still the case?
Yeah, I mean when it comes to actually recording stuff, analogue is just the easiest way to get these sounds. I have a pretty modest studio compared to most studios so...for me it's just a quicker way to work. It's really hard to get good drum sounds, I find, digitally. Cos you gotta start compressing and doing all sorts of weird stuff but with tape it just overdrives and distorts in a really nice way if the mics are too close, so regardless of how much patience you have you'll always usually end up with a good sounding drum sound. That was the biggest difficulty with me when I moved to digital, I was like wow, suddenly my drums sound like shit now, so I just moved back to analogue completely.
That's funny, cos in theory digital recording should be a lot quicker...
Yeah, it might be quicker initially, but to get a good sound out of it - I mean, I find I'll get an ok drum sound and then I'll try and live with it by tweaking it with after effects, you know? Like well, the bass drum doesn't sound that good, so maybe I'll EQ it and then compress it a little bit and then you come back to it 2 days later and it sounds like sound mush and you're like, what, I've been tweaking this for days and it still sounds like shit! So, I just find I get caught up in sub-menus and all the effects you can use, whereas with analogue, if it doesn't sound good the first time you just re-record it until it sounds good.
Honestly, I think a lot of people can move really well through it, I've heard so many digital recordings that I'm envious of because they sound so great, but just personally, I got too used to analogue early on and it just depends on what you know, what you learn. I'm more of a knob twister, I mean all of my outboard gear – I'd rather have a compressor in front of me than a screen, it just gets so dense and complex in the digital realm that I can't really, my brain isn't big enough.
You're a visual artist as well as a musician (VanGaalen draws his own album covers, and animates his own videos) Do the two feed off each other or happen simultanously at all?
Yeah, I think a lot of the time I'm responding to a visual stimulus when I'm making music, or that it's like an actual story that I'm imagining in my mind , or if it's just colours, you know. I think I'm sort of a visual artist before I'm a musician, so it's pretty natural to be responding to that stuff, you know I'll be walking my dog in the field or whatever and I'll see something and think oh yeah, that's a good idea, I can use that.
That reminds me of something I saw Neil Young say in a documentary, to the effect that he sees pictures in front of him when he's writing his songs.
It seems to me like there's a similarity there with his music and yours; there's a dreamlike quality to his songs and lyrics, and like yours they make a kind of artistic sense rather than logical sense...is that something you've heard too many times by now?
No, I take that as a compliment. I used to be like “what?” cos I didn't really know who Neil Young was, I mean of course I know who he was but I hadn't really been introduced to his music, but now I've listened his music and whenever anybody says that I take it as a massive compliment cos he's obviously a wicked songwriter.
You played in Dublin last year with Women: any plans to play again? I've read that you're not that fond of touring...
I like touring Europe (laughs)...I just don't like touring the States. But yeah, I'll definitely be back, I mean I guess compared to a lot of people I don't really tour that much, but I mean I'll always be back to Europe, that's for sure, I love it all over the place there.
What's the difference? Are the audiences better?
Yeah, it's just like, I dunno. You just get treated better all round. I's better, just nicer people, I don't know. I've just been to the States too many times and had too many weird experiences. It's just you know, America's just weird, man...really perverted and strange. And that's not to say that – I mean I love the people, I just – and maybe it's changing now a little bit, I just feel like in certain parts of the States especially I just feel a little bit uncomfortable.
During your shows or in general?
Just in general...I just feel like I could get busted at any moment, you know, it's weird. I'm like a paranoid pothead or something like that over there, imagining getting locked up and like...you know they have the death penalty there, man! It's crazy. That's fucked up. There are states that will actually kill you. It's a little bit arcane.
I guess Canadian society is a lot closer to European society...
Oh, Canada, for sure! I mean it's like, gay marriage is legal here, you can smoke pot here, there's no death penalty...we got free healthcare: actually that's one of the major issues for me, if I fall off a skateboard in the States, or suddenly end up puncturing my lung or something, or even get in a car accident, I'm fucked if I haven't bought health insurance before I go down, there, and all of us are pretty haphazard about that stuff...it seems like suddenly you'll be waking up in a hospital with a $250,000 medical bill, like that's crazy. I feel like I've injured myself enough times in Europe and been fixed by doctors for free, I mean that's the way I'm used to living. In Canada, if you hurt yourself it's not, like, you don't even think about paying for it, that's ridiculous. It's kind of a dangerous situation cos we're close to the States we're like, dancing across the border like a bunch of idiots, and suddenly you get injured and you're like what, I've gotta pay for it? I mean that makes no sense. That's actually one of the big reasons, when I do think about it.
Well, I'm glad you get looked after ok here. Also, I saw you're nominated for the Polaris prize, good luck!
Oh yeah, thanks man, that's like 20,000 bucks if you win it so keep your fingers crossed for me.
It's a surprisingly prestigious award, considering it's limited to Canadian acts, it's very well known even outside Canada...
Yeah we used to have this thing called the Juno in Canada, and that used to be the big deal, but nobody but Nickelback wins it, so everybody kind of forgot about it and nobody really cares about it any more, so the Polaris is a bit more representative of what people are actually listening to. Like Fucked Up is on there, and there's a bunch of other really good bands.
One last question to satisfy my musical curiosity - what's the instrument that comes in on the third verse of Willow Tree?
Oh, that's a Vibraphone.
Thanks, I was wondering...when I'm listening to your music I often have that experience of wondering “how the hell did he get that sound?”
That's good, that's what I want.
In your words