TechnologyNI
We were formed in Helen's Bay, a small village outside Belfast, in the late 1980s. We've been recording and releasing music, as duos, a trio or individually, since then. All duo and tio work is released under the Technology name (or TechnologyNI for Soundclick purposes) or in the case of solo works, our own names. We are Bill Long, vocals, tapes, effects, sound processing: Andy Gorham guitar, bass, keyboards, tapes: Phil Anderson, drums, tapes, effects, keyboards
Tell me about your history? How did you get where you are now?
It started as a school group, went weird along the way and we somehow ended up plugged into an avant-garde underground in which we've constantly sold CDs. It's not a living wage, by any stretch of the imagination, but it has been satisfying. We've only played live once, although there have been offers to do experimental music festivals. There's an offer on the table from America, again, quite recently, but it doesn't seem that attractive a proposition to get up on stage and show off, despite the free air fares and hotel rooms and a performing fee. We just develop what we're doing all the time. It started out with sequences made on cruddy Commodore computers, and now it's the Ride of the Valkyries on a laptop, with lots of shouting and squelchy noises on the top. World War Three, nuclear disaster, general strikes and a stag party all locked in a notebook, trying to escape.
Have you performed live in front of an audience? Any special memories?
"I can't stand the thought of live performance. We did it once. The special moment was when it ended" (Andy Gorham)
"I'm a performance artist as a day job. It's all a performance. I enjoy it, but I can't see the band doing it again, to be honest" (Bill Long)
"They'd done their live gig as a duo before I joined. I've never been on a stage, not even as a 'third cloud' in a kindergarten Christmas play" (Phil Anderson
Your musical influences
Merzbow. Einsturzende Neubaten. Philip Glass. We released albums that were an hour long and had the same sequence going all the way through. We based another one on a single syndrum sound. It's all about challenging perceptions about what is music. We'll readily go from doing Blixa to Kylie in the drop of a syndrum, if it shakes things up.
What equipment do you use?
The world! If it makes a sound, we'll use it. Not necessarily sampled, either. One piece on the Spanish tapes was built up of sounds we were able to make from kitchen implements in our apartment, all heavily treated.
Anything else?
Yeah. No one rocks anymore. The Who rocked. The Beatles could whip up a storm. Now you get Oasis, who plod, mid-tempo. Traditional rock is just dreary. No one cares. Or, at least, they shouldn't, because it all sounds so dreary. I can think of nothing worse than to be Alan McGee, the man who foisted Noel Gallagher on the world. What a claim to fame!
