hi all. Is anyone actually on this group????? you're all prety
dormant...i must admit i've been neglecting thios page a bit but
man,,,,this one feels like a ghost-town..

this interview is going to be printed in Real Groove Magazine in May
2007 . This is a sneek peek.


starts_

carter - how many records have crude put out ? you done a lot of songs
buster...

crude - I think a good round-about figure would be 70. That's the
entire self-released lot. As far as actual 'proper' label releases,
well you got your Inner City Guitar Perspectives on the Flying Nun
backwash/backlog, Refute a Myth Society on Ecstatic Yod, a string of
7" singles both acetate and vinyl..but my deal now is self releasing
Cd-rs through my web-site (www.crude.co.nz) and it looks like thats
how it's a-gonna stay. Full artistic control - only your own control
issues to deal with, no-one elses.

carter - what have been your avenues of distribution ?

crude - It's varied. Earlier vinyl releases made their way into
obscure indie collections the world over - especially in the US of A.
Inner City traversed the western world via Flying Nun. These days I
use the mighty internet for pretty much all of it - well, setting up
buyers, approaching stores, radio etc. I've used viral direct
marketing to bandy the name and sound about and I've deliberately
penetrated the borders of whatever strange little country I can (eg :
China). And now I've embraced the future too soon and have made Crude
100% downloadable as high quality album sized mp3s, direct from my
server. And that stuff really does get in. Everywhere, anywhere, anytime.

carter - what side projects are you involved in ?

crude - Lil' bits on the side eh? Well.....I'll mention The Aesthetics
- who are now over (sorry boys) , but that was kind of an equal first
priority project at the time so....I always had the Rock thing and the
stranger Crude thing going. I've got a free jazz Trio, 'The Anomie
Ensemble' that performs biannually (busy) - core playas there are me
on Tenor Sax and Duane Zarakov , now proud new owner of Records
Records, on Drums. Wha' else. Space Dust. When I lived (well, existed)
in Auckland I had a synth duo called 'Southkill' going with my friend
Duncan Bruce.
Rumor has it Duncan is now a practising Muslim - i wish him well -
he's walking the straight path. I always enjoy freelancing my talents.
I try to 'write' too.

carter - what is your recording set up ?

crude - Initially it was all cassette 4-track into stereo system -
cassette mix-down and thats it. I feel confident enough now at 32 to
say that I got a good, ballzy, rich and punchy sound outta that thing.
Over the last 4 years or so I've upgraded to software multi-tracking
systems and editing suites..still keep it really basic though. Don't
usually go over 4-7 tracks. Just how it is. Computing allowed me to
release Cd-rs and now the reviled/adored mp3. My hard-drive is the
inner-inner- core of the Crude recording legacy.

carter - how much time do you spend on music ?

crude - As much as it takes, man. There were periods in me 20's where
I'd commit huge chunks of time to a project y'know. I tend to record
an album in a compulsive, furious, single-minded spasm - the album
completed, the latest self-nurtured neurosis dealt with . If I have a
project, or a commisioned piece to do, or have a sound/motif I need to
realize, I'll simply spend as much time as necessary to get it done. I
guess its a kind of unconscious work-ethic or something. And the work
ethic - i haven't been able to apply it to anything else quite the
same as with my music. So yeah...of course, I've been 'unemployed' for
,,hell,,14 years now...plenty of time to 'do' my 'work'. Pity it just
dosen't cut the mustard in the so called real world or at WINZ or
whatever. I feel I'd have more status if I bloody well dug holes - i
mean..thats a REAL job.


carter - do you get disillusioned and feel like sometimes you're
squalling in the wind/ yelling into a big empty canyon etc? i only ask
cos i think a lot of people feel this
way...

crude - Every now and every then. I actually have a couple of tracks
that smack of those images...These days doubts pass pretty quick
though. It's like this:experimental ( in the broadest possible sense)
music simply dosen't have an abundant fan-base. I mean, relatively
speaking. It is a specialist music - as is Jazz apparantly. It's taken
me 13 years to truely realize this. How deluded i have been, thinking
i can 'make a living' eh what? Playing the USA did it for me. I was
briefed on the state of the avant garde nation by a local indie
booking agent and yeah - its the freakin same there too. I mean I
don't want to destroy any dreams or pubescent hearts but that's just
how it is. I'm just going to keep recording and realizing my own
vision regardless. I think thats the only way to be.

carter - 'songs' or 'noise' ?

crude - Songs and noise. I tend to churn out short, simple but spooky
songs. Little ditties, retarded rock stuff, little synth numbers. They
come and go. I'll always craft songs.
My 'noise' stuff, the formless , gurgling, purring, dark ambient or
whatever the hell it is - that serves a purpose. I love sound. I guess
my songs are the abstract, noise and experimental electroinc Crude is
the full publication as a pdf.


carter - are you a 'difficult' character ?

crude - It depends on who you are, what we are doing and where we're
doing it. Sure, I can be difficult, opaque, seemingly acting according
to some putrid set of internal rules...but most of the time I'm
compassionate, easy-going, friendly and generous. Eh. Yeah. I used to
be way worse than I am now. Unfortunately its those frequent episodes
in my early 20s that people seem to tag to my name. Pity I didn't
realize that's like rule number one of small town social psychology.

carter - do you find it easy working with other people or would you
rather do it yourself ?

crude - If you are easy to get along with then I am easy to get along
with. I think the mark of a mature musician is their ability to work
alone, to craft ones own songs/sounds to a high standard, and to be
able to work in a group. And to be able to adapt for a duo, trio,
quartet, quintet, sextet, septet etc etc. Doing it yourself allows you
to tap in to an internal dialogue and problem solving process that you
can bring to the table when you're in a group. Ultimately it enhances
the aesthetic evolution of a group.

carter - i had a weird experience recently. i was asked to go back to
my old high school and talk to some kids there which is odd as i
tended to polarise opinion back in the old days. anyway...the teacher
who'd invited me there asked me if i thought the rigid conservatism of
the place had given me something to kick against in my 'formative'
years and whether it had some influence in the way i turned out and
what i did.. you know what ? it did. with this in mind what kind of
influence did growing up in invercargill have on you ? it's the bottom
of the earth.....

crude - Long pause and sigh. Invercargill seems to produce some odd,
genuinely unique talents. Why? I have no idea. Those of us from
Invercargill with something 'special' to offer the world are usually
strangely 'driven' people. For me Invercargill was somewhere I just
had to leave. Thats about it. Even a 'zero fee scheme' can't tempt me
to live there.

carter - is revenge a good musical motivation ?

crude - Hell yeah. But to a point. I mean you can't stab someone 23
times with a song.
I guess I often spike my lyrics with a vengefull spirit. I hate alot
of shit. Corporate greed. Supression of dissent. Right wingers, in all
degrees of intensity. Revenge is always a very personal affair. I
don't think music is the ideal forum for revenge.


carter - did going to the states open your eyes in any way ?

crude - Absolutely, it made me realize that in essence, we're all in
the same predicament wherever the hell you are on Earth. Streets are
streets whether its Gore or Paris. The USA opened my eyes to the fact
that we are extremely priviledged to live here though - to be able to
draw a welfare benefit if needs be, to be able to get free medical
support occasionally, the beautiful lush native bush...when i arrived
back I could taste the beauty. I guess thats a first timers cliche or
something.

carter - musically what do you NOT want to be ?

crude - Bono.

carter - what experience do you hope to give the listener ?

crude - A rich, subjective, mind-expanding, subversive dose of raw
fuckin energy. Even the punk stuff. Even the stupid stuff. I want the
Crude listener to be empowered. I use strange, alien timing to instill
a sense of superhuman possibility in the listener. Crude cuts and
drops, clicks and spatters, screams and whispers, is retro but not, it
creates a gentle tension - i'm certain it encourages new neurons to
form. Oh no do I sound like a hippy here?


carter - here's 2 questions i asked girls aloud when i interviewed
them for pavement last year - what do you think about when you're
singing ?

crude - I think - oh my god did I say that in public?!

carter - and ....does any kind of music make you sick ?

crude - Shit , right.....sick. Goa trance.


carter - what is skronk ?

crude - Have I used that term? I initially caught the term through a
King Loser song title (?) - i think it sorta means any kind of
horrible noisey din...? The word was first coined by the rock
journalists Robert Christgau and/or Lester Bangs..
I always intuitively felt it to be a type of dirty, swampy, fuzzed out
synthesiser sound. I guess its dangerous to just throw half understood
terminology around.
Or maybe thats how it should always be - intuitive guess work.


carter - a lot of people don't seem to understand that instrumental
music can be just as evocative as a book full of words. would you agree ?

crude - Well, this depends on the imagination of the individual.
Instrumental music evokes feelings...moods. Moods lead to the use of
adjectives. Your mind tends to wander when you listen to instrumental
stuff too.

carter - and if so what do you think your instrumental stuff is saying ?

crude - It's saying - 'Feed. Feed on the internet, load up, transcend,
subvert, deconstruct,
time does not exist'. It's saying - 'What have you done for me
lately?' it's saying -
'wait a minute - maybe Marx did have a point..' oh yeah..and 'drink
more' .

carter - i can remember someone saying when they heard crude that it
"was the sound of mental illness". comments please.

crude - Fair enough. Indeed alot of it is. I know how to encapsulate
fear with my music.
The sound of mental illness is something S.P.K strove for. When i
record I tend to create a real tension. Some stuff is paranoiac. Some
is paralysis. Some is
obsessional. I'll tell you one thing though - the sound of mental
well-being is
pretty damn BORING!!!!


carter - what would you do if you didn't have music ?

crude - Well, if I lost the ability to play music now, yeah, I'd be
destroyed. But I'd eventually get over it I guess and maybe I'd try my
hand at writing. Maybe some science subject. I'd develop web-sites.
Poetry. I'd become a monk. I'd eat comfort food and become obese.
Who's to say. Its a gift - and i DON'T take it for granted!

carter - do YOU think you deserve more recognition ?

crude - Depends what you mean by recognition. Yeah, quite often I do.
Especially if the recognition comes with a dollar sign attached. Ha! I
dunnow - I've contributed alot to New Zealand's underground and I'm
basically supressed. Maybe the companies don't want someone like me to
be seen as doing well, because I'm doing it myself. Maybe I angered
the person I should have been sucking up to. Maybe I've been labelled
a fascist, when in fact I'm the opposite. Is it because of my
'unreliability??'. Do I represent an un-marketable and undigestable
paradigm?
I just do what I do, I try my best, I do what I can with what i got,
and at the end of the day I'm happy to have the support of those
courageous sonic explorers who I call my friends. Thats all i can ask.
I don't have a huge following - but the one I have is very enthusiastic.

carter - have you been influenced by any of the following bands
a/ joy division
b/ the gang of four
c/ the strokes

crude - Nah not really. Maybe a bit of Joy Division. Haven't actually
heard much Gang of Four. And the Strokes...naah. sorry.

end of questions.