Bleach For The Stars
A rather morbid solo project of multi-instrumental weirdness. Quite a few peaceful little bits and bobs, but there are some really quite depressing and slightly unnerving ones too.
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
3 years altogether. Sealed away for days on end fiddling around with various soundwaves, buttons, sliders, and assorted instruments, then stumbling out to deal with an extremely random set of circumstances that, if anything, continually provided more inspiration. 4 full (concept)albums recorded, plus 5 tracks on one that got discarded when I drew the project to a close to bugger off and do another band, this time actually involving other humans!
2011 - Album 1 - Moonpieces: Mainly abstract sound and lots of sculpted noise, kinda music concrete with the occasional power electronics edge.
2012 - Album 2 - Cross: Electroacoustic classical pieces with quiet little minimalist electro bits, progressing into harder, gloomier territory.
2012 - Album 3 - Therapiss (13 tracks): More elements of folk and punk introduced, and some dark ambient thrown in. More liberal use of film samples, plus my voice in some parts. Getting more industrial too.
2013 - Album 4 - Wholes: Extremely bizarre psychedelic electronica in various sub-genres, all maintaining an industrial edge. Whirlwind of strange film samples, some remarkably grim.
2013 - Album 5 - Sweatheart (5 tracks): Somehow manages to combine the sound of the other albums. The most old-school industrial one yet. Stripped down and skeletal, with a real melancholia and anger to it, even by the usual standards. Never actually got finished.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
Not with this particular project as I couldn't carry everything around, let alone play it all at once!
Your musical influences
A huge heap of stuff on Mute Records, plus just about every 70s-80s industrial band I've ever encountered. Greatest similarities to Nurse With Wound and perhaps TG. I know I don't sound like him, but Nick Cave plays a part too. A certain element of Bauhaus and Death In June. A few years spent on the alternative club scene seems to have left a small imprint. I was initially classically trained. A streak of hideously bad luck in life also helped!
What equipment do you use?
I can't find the will to hunt down all the manufacturing makes at the moment but here's the overview: piano, keyboard, drum machine, bagpipes, violin, jawharp, kazoo, stylophone, home-made percussion, harmonica, sampler for movies, my friend's guitar, a massive amount of white noise, feedback and ambient found-sounds recorded here and there, the occasional rips from a free sample if I couldn't synthesise a note (although it's no fun doing it that way), software sequencer (Goldwave actually - I defy people who tell me it can't be used anymore), plug in mic, dictaphone, my voice on occasion (unfortunately). There's probably more but I lose track after a while.
Anything else?
I decided not to actually give names to any of these songs beyond their ordering, as I didn't think a title would suit them. Having synaesthesia sometimes makes it irritating for me to actually decide on an appropriate name for a composition as I like to be precise and aesthetic.
