"An Interview with San Francisco Industrial & Noise Artist, I Am Not" by Griffin S.
"An Interview with San Francisco Industrial & Noise Artist, I Am Not" by Griffin S.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Griffin S. is a writer, visual artist and noise musician. You can probably find him manipulating samples, reading James Ellroy or Philip K. Dick and smoking. He lives in Los Angeles.
I had a chance to interview friend and musical collaborator I Am Not. We spoke about personal philosophy, the noise and techno scenes as they currently exist, the city of San Francisco, literature and more.
You can find I Am Not on any of these platforms:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ianreactor/
Bandcamp:
Griffin S: Before we begin with the interview, how would you describe your music for those unfamiliar with it?
I Am Not: Pretty eclectic these days. Started with industrial and experimental, branched out to harsh noise, and then techno. I now have a bunch of upcoming projects in more super focused sub-genres: death industrial/power electronics, industrial techno, and an EBM/cold wave project that I’ll be launching soon. But I still work with all aforementioned genres, and am working on some straight up traditional techno inspired by Detroit techno, dub techno, and minimal.
GS: How do you approach the process of creating a track? Do you have a set way of approaching different musical genres you work within?
I Am Not: It always starts with the intention of opening one of my 100s of existing project files in Ableton Live or my Elektron Rytm so I can actually finish some of these tracks. But more oft than not, I start a brand new one. From there, depending on the focus of the track, I’ll start with the kick, a drone, or a looping sequence and begin sculpting an initialize patch in a synthesizer for original sound design. I try to make as many of my sounds from scratch as possible. I really love using a lot of these unconventional synthesizers and sound processors to make wild sounds. This past year, most of my hardware and software seem to have been getting updates to include a Euclidean sequencer function, which has been an amazing way to start a new idea. But I’ll usually make the sequences and progressions much more static and better thought out as I draw closer to a track's completion.
Sometimes I have a sample I recorded on my phone and want to manipulate it into something unrecognizable with warping, time stretching, granular synthesis; and this new synth I’ve been using by Madrona Labs, Sumu, which lets you convert sample files into these high res resynthesized partials files and do some really wild additive/FM/vector spatializion stuff to recorded audio, it’s really cool shit. But 80% of the time, I always have the genre I want to mold the track into in mind, and I’ll work around set boundaries to make it suit that style. That’s the fun with the industrial and noise stuff, as there’s usually a lot more freedom to break out of those confines, as much as I enjoy the structure and loose rules of other genres.
Lately I’ve been working more and more lyrics and vocals into a lot of to-be-released tracks throughout every project I’m working on, so that’s been a fun new aspect of music production to delve into. I’m having a blast trying to get the processing perfect for all my songs.
GS: How does your own personal philosophy factor into your musical or artistic endeavors?
I Am Not: It’s definitely an outlet for my anger towards society and the countless constructs that have been forced upon all of us. I’m trying to work more vocals into some of my upcoming tracks, and a lot of the lyrics I’m writing deal with my optimistic nihilism and relief in attempting not to let any external forces dictate how I live my life. Hopefully that stuff can help others that have had years of existential anxiety in their lives find their own ways to let go of all the mental baggage we all carry. I’m also writing a lot of edgy shock value lyrics for my death industrial/power electronics project. Because creating anxiety for others is also fun, and also fuck you! Nothing like the contrast of blasting Whitehouse, Prurient, and Deathpile full volume during a quaint nature walk. The elation of my physical self enjoying the sensations of reality mixed with the loud abrasive anxious inducing music turns out to be very soothing for me.
GS: You are a San Francisco native; the city seems to have changed a lot since you grew up there. How would you describe the changes San Francisco has undergone as it relates to the city itself and the artistic scene there?
I Am Not: The gentrification and injection of wealth has definitely pushed out a ton of creatives. The cost of living is way too high to be able to do a part time job and afford living for those that want to focus on their fringe music projects. It’s no longer this haven for artists spanning all mediums. We used to be known as a city that cherished and encouraged weirdness. Now it seems to be a sea of beige and gray, both figuratively and literally. Luckily there still seems to be a few havens harboring creativity. But half the time I go to a concert, and I’m one of 10-15 people in the audience, for bands that are relatively popular in their respective global scenes. Maybe I’m OOTL, but the noise scene is as good as dead here. Industrial, dark wave, post punk, and EBM are definitely doing alright at least. As for local bands making that kind of stuff, it’s few and far between. Oakland and Berkeley still have some really good output in a lot of these genres at least.
GS: Almost every music geek can track their evolution from tasteless mainstreamer to where they are today. If you don’t mind, tell me about your own musical journey and how you ended up at techno, noise and industrial?
I Am Not: Electronica, and by extension techno, was my earliest independent discovery as a youth via the film Hackers and it's amazing OST. I was 6 when that movie came out and it was one of the first CDs I bought, and the rabbit hole began. The Prodigy, Underworld, Orbital, Leftfield, and Massive Attack are still huge influences to me today and some of my favorite music acts of all time. Snowballed into IDM and breakcore, the former of which I’m still very much a big fan of. Can never go wrong with Aphex Twin, Autechure, and Clark. But that was all a gateway until I started getting really into Detroit techno in my 20s with legends like Carl Craig, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Dopplereffekt. Some other random techno acts I’ve been really into forever include Ken Ishii, Andy Stott, Surgeon, Orphx, JK Flesh, and Vatican Shadow.
Rewinding back to when I was about 12, I remember stumbling upon industrial music on websites like mp3.com and other random websites that no longer exist detailing all these crazy acts like Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, Cabaret Voltaire, Front 242, Foetus, Godflesh, etc. I was obsessed, and my thirst and love for the genre has been a constant in my life since. I honestly don’t even remember how I first stumbled on noise and harsh noise. But Japanoise acts like Merzbow, Masonna, and Government Alpha really stuck out when I stumbled on them around the age of 14. I remember being intrigued how much I genuinely loved the feeling noise gave me when played absurdly loud. There’s beauty within the overwhelming cascade of clashing sounds, distorted and clipped beyond conventional means. It remains the closest I’ve ever gotten to a feeling of enlightenment.
When I released my first official EP, a harsh noise two track album: Threatened // Emptiness under my I Am Not moniker, it made me realize I could take what had been a hobby of making music to taking it much more seriously. That was 8 years ago, and I’m more serious and ecstatic than I ever thought possible to release a litany of albums I have planned.
Link to Threatened // Emptiness: Threatened // Emptiness | I Am Not (bandcamp.com)
GS: With the acceleration of social media and technology, it is well known that scenes and subcultures are in their death throes or have been subsumed by one another, especially with shifting attitudes towards alternative music and the bar for entry into once obscure scenes being essentially non-existent. How do you feel about this cultural shift to every niche being easily found within minutes and the idea of subculture being one that is really outdated at this point?
I Am Not: There’s been many examples of this happening in our lifetimes. Dubstep (or what it really has become: brostep), grunge, gabber, electronic music in general via “EDM”, or idiots calling any electronic music techno without understanding what techno actually is. But I still feel like there’s a lot of genuine interest from people trying to keep scenes alive. Some of this globalization has done a lot of great things to strengthen scenes and inspire others to create more cool music. Social media is a double edged sword in this regard.
Some days I’m really irritated with the manipulative nature of the algorithms and clout chasing of vapid individuals. Other days I’m really thrilled how easy it is to go down these massive rabbit holes in music discovery. Wikipedia, last.fm, YouTube, discogs, and even instagram have been indispensable tools to enrich my musical knowledge and appreciation. As I mentioned earlier with mp3.com and the internet, it helped me discover industrial music when I was but a youth. If it wasn’t for the internet, and by extension, social media, I doubt my music tastes would be as enriched as they are today. As unfortunate as it is when a scene gets bastardized by cringe fuckwads that want to change the identity of a genre or a subculture, I feel that there will always be another alt scene to look into and get yourself involved in. Or even just standing your ground and trying to keep an existing community thriving. And let’s face it, at the end of the day, if there wasn’t horrible music to make fun of and talk shit about, life would be much more dull.
GS: How do you feel about the infiltration of this new wave of “hard techno” into the techno scene? Do you think the EDM-ification of techno is imminent or has it already occurred?
I Am Not: Bruh, don’t you know, that’s gAtEkEePinG!? And I’m here for it. Cause techno needs to be gatekept from this fuckin hard techno bullshit. There’s been a bunch of times techno has come and gone out of the public spotlight, and I feel like this trend will eventually die out. This is just the most recent in shite trends that claims to be hard, and techno, but it is neither. The lack of groove, and the focus of these stupid uptempo kicks at fast BPMs, and the horrible sampling of pop music, it’s just an abomination. Ughhh and the fucking drops dude. Techno is not a genre focused on the EDM douchecore drops. And yet, here we are with “hard techno”. It’s been really frustrating as a technohead because it gets put on the bill with actually good techno acts, or it gets promoted on social media at me because it’s calling itself techno. So as an outlet, I’m actually releasing a single under my new industrial techno moniker, Ian Reactor. It’s called Feigning Hardness, and it’s available on Bandcamp now!
Link to Feigning Hardness: Feigning Hardness | Ian Reactor (bandcamp.com)
GS: Does the noise scene even exist in the way it used to? Is there even a scene for this kind of music anymore? The genre seems to thrive in obscurity and because of the changes in alternative music towards more accessibility, do you believe that noise might seek to strike out against widespread circulation in an even more extreme sense than it has since its inception? Will lyrical themes get more niche and extreme to stop the influx of outsiders and tourists?
I Am Not: I’ve never known a noise scene in the physical space aside from a handful of shows I’ve been to, so I can’t really speak on that aspect of it. But as far as I’m concerned, it is only getting better with a plethora of sick labels pushing the stuff like Ant-Zen, Phage Tapes, Deathbed Tapes, Hospital Productions, and Brutal Forms to name a few. I think the extreme nature of the genre is always going to alienate the masses, and I hope to continue that fringe niche with my upcoming death industrial material!
If I may, I’d also like to promote the harsh noise split EP we have together! Very proud of the work we achieved together on this release and I’m stoked for a super secret upcoming second split we have planned together for the near future!
“I Am Not/ Garden of Wound” split: I Am Not / Garden Of Wound Split EP | I Am Not (bandcamp.com)
GS: How important would you say physical media is to you? Do you find yourself collecting vinyl and tapes or are you cautiously optimistic about the priority being on streaming?
I Am Not: Streaming is convenient and I’m still a fan of being able to access my massive library any time, anywhere. But having had my music on streaming for a few years, I decided recently to remove it because I’m not making what I pay into the privilege of keeping it on these platforms back. With that piece of shit Spotify CEO constantly making changes to how they deal with independent artists, and screwing us out of our dues, my disdain has grown. With Bandcamp, I’ve made quite a decent amount of money off my music, and I try to pay it forward and buy music from my favorite artists too. I wish there was a better alternative to Bandcamp though, one that gives independent artists 100% profits, but similar visibility in promoting and platforming their works.
As for physical media, I avoided collecting vinyl for years, but gave into my impulses about 5 years ago. It’s been really fun supporting my absolute favorite artists and curating a small, but physical library of colorful records I can fully immerse myself with.
GS: I find that in more obscure corners of music like noise and post-punk, a lot of artists are heavily influenced by different literary figures. Nut Hole is a literary press, so I have to ask you, who are some of your favorite authors and have any of them informed your creative process?
I Am Not: Mostly cyberpunk and sci-fi authors like William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, and Philip K. Dick. Can’t forget my main man Friedrich Nietzsche. Oh and Descartes cause fuck that dudes unpunctuated run on sentences about his certainty of a determined existence where he completely alienates the idea of free will sucking all fun out of this short life we ants aka humans get to experience amirite or amirite. My disgust in his ramblings has become a life long mission to debunk and spite his assertions, also punctuation is important!!
GS: Favorite records of all time that the good readers at Nut Hole need to put into their ears ASAP?
I Am Not: Ima make a list of albums, both new and old that I really fuckin love and are constant inspirations.
Lebanon Hanover — Tomb For Two
Jessica93 — Rise
British Murder Boys — Active Agents and House Boys
Robert Hood — Mirror Man
Control x Geneviéve Pasquier x Kommando — Cold War, Hot Love
Spike Hellis — Spike Hellis
Foetus — Love
S.C.U.M. — Again Into Eyes
JK Flesh — Depersonalization
Ken Ishii — Möbius Strip
Haus Arafna — Butterfly
The Horrors — Strange House
Riotmiloo — Blackout
XTR Human — SCHRANK
FTR — Manners
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