Over the past decade, Atticus Ross has collaborated with Trent Reznor on many projects, including several Nine Inch Nails albums and the score for the new film “The Social Network.” When I interviewed Ross back in 1998, he was focusing on his band, 12 Rounds, which features his wife Claudia Sarne on vocals. 12 Rounds had just put out an album, “My Big Hero,” on Reznor’s Nothing Records. They supported the album by touring with Marilyn Manson, and recorded a Reznor-produced follow-up� (which was never released.) Most recently, they scored the Hughes Brothers movie “Book Of Eli.”
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Archive Spotlight – 12 Rounds
September 19, 2010 by adminCategory: Archive highlights, Music InterviewsComments Off
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Bjork Lends Her Voice to Moomin Song
September 8, 2010 by adminBjork’s “The Comet Song” is now available on iTunes, with all proceeds going to UNICEF to aid flood victims in Pakistan. The song is from the new Moomin movie, “The Moomins and the Comet Chase.”
If you’re in the US, you might be asking yourself – what is a Moomin? They are a family of ‘trolls’ who some people say look like hippos, and the central characters in a series of books and comic strips by Finish author / illustrator Tove Jansson. While they are collectively referred to as “Moomins,” the main character is named Moomin, with his father referred to as Moominpappa and his mother Moominmama. The books are available in this country, but the characters have never been as well known as they are in places like Europe and Japan.
“The Moomins and the Comet Chase” is based on the book “Comet in Moominland” and is compiled from episodes of the 1977–1982 Polish stop-motion Moomins TV series. This material was restored, re-voiced, and converted to 3D. The film was released on August 6 in Finland, but so far I have not read anything about it coming to the US. There IS an English language version, though, with Alexander Skarsgård (Eric from “True Blood”) voicing Moomin.
The see the Moomins in action, check out the video below!
Category: Books, Film, Music NewsComments Off
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Mark Spybey collaborates with Gnome for “At Willie’s Place”
September 1, 2010 by admin“At Willie’s Place” (Tourette Records) is a new ambient electronic collaboration between Mark Spybey (Dead Voices on Air, Download) and Gnome (aka Tony D’Oporto). Here is a live video, shot back in March in Denver, Colorado, that provides a good taste of what the duo has come up with.
Gnome & Spybey – Live in Denver, CO / Larimer Lounge – 06 Mar 2010 from dBom on Vimeo.
Over facebook, we did a short interview with Mark to get some more info on the origins and future of the project.
1) How did this collaboration come about?
Tony approached me to act as my booker in the USA, having also worked with cEvin Key. We got along and he sent me music he had been making which I loved. We just started to collaborate and then we toured together for a week in the States and played some of the songs live. We then went back to the record and finished it off. Very naturally. It all came together remarkably easily.
2) What was the creative process/working relationship like?
I think on this project, the lead author of most of the tracks was Tony. I interpreted what he did and had to say to him, “I’m going to make this dirty, is that OK?” It was great music but I felt like I needed to kind of throw it into a dirty puddle, pick it up, dry it out and clean it up again. A lot of electronic music makers just couldn’t tolerate me doing this I think. So when I added real drums to a track, Tony said something like, “it’s great but some of the beats aren’t exactly hitting the mark,” and I said, “that’s how I like it!” He said, “cool.” Perfection can never be attained but for those who think that they have to try to create something that is as close to perfection as possible, my sense is that this is a stagnant landscape. An empty bottle. Devoid of any possibility. I think this record leaves holes that the listener can explore and as such, it’s deeply evocative to me of the landscape of Texas, especially the Texan night skies. Which is where it was partly gestated. Tony knows when to stop and he knows when NOT to do something. That economy is the mark of a good listener. So, for me, this is as stripped a record as I have made and the process of making it was also tightly restricted by place, by time and by equipment. I think that really helped us. I also enjoyed being the second fiddle a great deal, I feel as though I can listen to this cd, without me feeling uncomfortable. I can rarely, if ever, listen to my own music without feeling a little irritated with myself.
3) Beyond the 400 copes of the limited edition cd, will the album be available for purchase as digital files?
The album is now available via iTunes for download I believe.
4) Do you have any plans for more live performances?
We are all touring again in late September and early October as part of the Subcon Beyond Fest, with Download, Otto von Schirach, DVOA etc. mainly mid-west to east coast. In January of next year we hit the west coast and Tony and I have spoken about doing Gnome and Spybey then. The film maker who made the concert video Allie Lane from Denver is coming on the tour and she did some wonderful work for us. I think Gnome and Spybey is filmic music.
Category: Feature Interviews, Music Interviews, Music NewsComments Off
