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HEDNOIZE
Hednoize are the perfect answer to anyone who plays a 'real' instrument and thinks electronic music makes things too easy. In making their debut album, "Searching For The End" (Wax Trax!/TVT), the duo was obsessive about pushing their electronic equipment to the limits. Using any type of standard or preset synth sound was not an option, as Hednoize were going out of their way to not take the easy way out.
"It's important, but mainly a labor of love, tweaking sounds, and we generally do a song by making all the sounds first," explains vocalist/keyboardist Free. "We make a musical bed which we set lyrics and melodies to later."
The band is comprised of Free and Psykosonik founder Daniel Lenz. Psykosonik , who are also on the Wax Trax! label, have not split up. Lenz chose to take on a side project after meeting Free and finding that he shared many musical ideas. Previously, Free had been conducting electronic music workshops for elementary and high school kids.
Rather than just program sounds from a synth, Hednoize often started off with piano, guitar, or other real-world sounds, processing and shaping them with various pieces of Macintosh audio software. When they did use synths, they would still try to alter the sound as much as possible to listeners wouldn't identify it with a particular piece of equipment. The result was a natural, yet challenging creative process.
"We were pretty much a slave to the sounds, as far a song-writing," explains Lenz. "The sounds that we made dictated the mood of the song, we kind of followed it, experimenting all the time about what Hednoize was going to sound like. And that made it very hard, and it took a long time to do because of that."
While wanting to be different was big motivating factor in Hednoize's production technique, they also benefited by trying to sound like other people. Early on, the band found that they were trying to emulate music they liked but "just absolutely, completely failing". In the process, they came with things all their own.
"Some things were exercises in doing a certain style, or doing a type of drum programming but we never we able to really do it," says Free. "We would just totally do what came out of us."
Despite Hednoize's highly experimental nature, the songs on "Search For The End" avoid falling into the trap of style over substance. Lenz and Free both admit to being fans of such bands as U2 and Depeche Mode, and as a result use their unique sounds within traditional song writing structures.
When they play live, Hednoize expand to a four-piece, adding an additional keyboard player and a live drummer. Daniel plays guitar during performances and when the group goes on tour they're planing on adding a fifth member to the live line-up. The group is happy with their live incarnation, but said it took "like 7 months to figure out" because Hednoize started out as an entirely studio-based project. As a result, they might approach things a bit differently on their next album.
©2000 Bob Gourley