Vymethoxy Redspiders
“My own theatre”
Why did you use the moniker Vymethoxy Redspiders for this release (and not your own name)?
This is the default name I have been using for years now unless I come up with a special name for a specific band I am in. I am 100% against using my real name in any kind of artistic endeavour, for a lot of different reasons, but mainly just because it is more interesting, fun and in keeping with what I feel is the fundamentally performative nature of music. Characters in a theatrical work are not named by the bodies who portray them, and so it is with my own theatre.
What is the Siverspore Expanse?
The Silverspore Expanse is an imaginal location which recurs in my psyche and has an otherworldly geography similar to very remote places in the corporeal world we inhabit that have remained relatively untouched by humans- alternatively it is a dream-zone situated in a time long in the past, perhaps even before humans arrived, or another world/dimension entirely where we never existed. It has vast plains and a shimmering jagged skyline underscored by metallic vegetation and life resembling that which dwelled in the Silurian period of Earth’s history.
What is the link between the poem and the music?
The music is a direct result of a psychic journey through the microcosm described by the poem. It is a transformation of the emotional-synaesthetic complex of images and sensations evoked by the language into sound, as best as I was able to enact this transformation, which is not always easy for me.
Can you tell me, in your own words: what am I listening to when I listen to ‘Perspectives from the Silverspore Expanse’?
Prosaically: Korg minilogue synth + cheap plastic soprano recorder run through modulation effects and a granular synthesis program. Poetically: Perspective One is an exploration of the environment in the day. Perspective Two is at night.
Did you have any goals in mind before you started recording ‘Perspectives from the Silverspore Expanse’?
I suppose I had the vague notion of making something in the spirit of the kind of mystical ambient I like – O Yuki Conjugate, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, that sort of thing… But honestly it was very improvisational in nature, beginning with a spontaneous re-reading and meditation upon the poem, followed by some experimentation with the synth + granular software, then finally the recorder, which I have been playing a lot recently but not really in this sonic context. I was exposed to a whole lot of fantasy/sci-fi stuff when growing up which made a big impression, The Dark Crystal, Dune, Studio Ghibli stuff, Playstation games like Abe’s Oddysee and Final Fantasy… Then also in my adulthood the film Stalker, one of my all time favourites, has a soundtrack which I can certainly hear echoes of in this “black hole new age” (thanks Michiel Klein for that descriptor!) thing I’ve ended up making. Also I should probably mention that I have been making ambient music for a long time so this is just the latest installment.
Is this your first solo release? For how long have you been making music on your own?
Gosh no! Haha my god… I’ve been making solo music at least since I was 14, so 13 or more years. I just haven’t released that much of it because I am a perfectionist with ruinously high standards and a tendency to criticise myself far too harshly, which is not exactly an uncommon story in the musical community. I released a bunch of my solo music through my currently “on-hiatus” tape label Arcane Pariah Records… I’ve made harsh noise, dub techno/ambient, dream pop, black metal, a whole lot of very stupid absurdist “comedy” music/sound art, all on my own, mostly on very limited tapes and CD-Rs… I’ve planned and started many more things but I begin a lot more ideas than I finish. That’s how it is with the knockout team of autism and ADD – obsessive, over-detailed, conceptually dense ideas but combined with freewheeling impulsivity and very high distractibility… My longest running solo project is my experimental ethereal project The Ephemeron Loop and I have been working on the debut record for about 10 years now, which was almost finished and then fully aborted twice before…. This year I finally caved and decided to bring in a friend who is a professional studio guy to help me finish it, so keep an eye out for that sometime around December or maybe January 2019. I have really made a ridiculous amount of solo music and I am trying to release it slowly, but that is a real long conversation to understand really why it is so complicated….
Why did you choose for synth and recorder (and not for the guitar) for this recording?
It just happened to be what I was trying things out on in the moment and it worked. The guitar really isn’t my “main” instrument in any way really, sure it’s one of my favourites but I’m just as happy playing drums/bass/keyboard or making stuff on my computer or my MPC. I’m pretty new to woodwind though and I certainly wouldn’t claim that I could really play it haha! The recorder is pretty easy to play though so it suits me well.
Catherine Plenevaux called this music ‘very Brittish’, very ‘north of England’. What does she mean by that?
Hahaha, oh Cat. I suppose it’s pretty desolate which is certainly what British people do best and the further north you get the desolation gets more intense for sure. The sky is pretty much always grey in Leeds. I’m not really sure I could draw comparisons to many of my musical comrades here in Leeds who actually seem to generally pedal a pretty joyous form of psychedelic noise/experimental soundscapes, although there are certain friends like Hawthonn, Anna Peaker and Gloomy Planets who make this kind of mysterious and dreary music, but it isn’t really “depressing”, it’s a sort of wistful feeling like being immersed in nature, kind of a fairytale thing almost, which yeah, I guess is very British. I should probably mention though that I grew up in rural north Wales which has a particularly magical and sad quality all of it’s own within the British isles.
Could you compare what you do solo to what you do with Guttersnipe?
Hmmmm, it depends. Certain things I’ve done on my own for sure but this sort of thing not so much. It’s one of my many different personalities… And I don’t mean that in some sort of boastful way. Also I don’t mean I literally have multiple personality disorder… Again this is kind of an esoteric issue which best suits a long conversation – anyone who has met me knows that I’m always up for a long conversation though (even though it normally ends up being pretty one sided haha!), you can’t shut me up once I get going!
– Joeri Bruyninckx
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Nice interview, sure is an interesting person and so is the music.