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Smack talin' in print. A compilation of interviews of Jason Snell.
SIGNAL ZERO
AUDIKT
GROOVES MAGAZINE
JUNGLE VOODOO
CITY PAGES
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BOMBARDIER
Interview by kLeM
Signal Zero
02/2005
Signal Zero: Why this name Bombardier? In french it refers to a war aircraft.
Jason Snell: Bombardier also refers to the person who coordinates the dropping of
ordnance from the war aircraft. Originally the idea came from the old
Heavy Metal cartoons, where a crew of skeleton soldiers were flying a
WWII bomber plane. I was drawing skelton soldier faces around the time I needed to come up with a music pseudoname. It was a persistent theme in my artwork at the time, so it led to me choosing that name for my music work. Other names I thought of, but ultimately didn't choose, were "The Exorcist" and "Hostage." I was working with samples from the film "The Exorcist" but didn't believe the name would have longevity. As for "Hostage", it seemed familar and popped into my head. I liked the name, even to the point where the first art comps for my first scheduled release (Crapshoot #5) had "Hostage" as the artist credit. However, thankfully, my brother Nate reminded me that "Hostage" was the name of a local glam rock band in my hometown in Iowa. That was why the name seemed familar. I immediately dropped "Hostage" and went with Bombardier instead.
SZ: How did you come to hard electronic music?
JS: The first time I heard hardcore gabber was a few days after New Year's 1995. I was driving to Chicago with 2 friends and they put in a Delta 9 demo tape. I was floored when I heard how fast and aggressive it was. It was shocking, so blantantly propagandistic for evil, I thought it should be outlawed and censored. So of course I was immediately drawn to. I bought a drum machine within months and began trying to make my own hardcore.
SZ: Which were your main influences?
JS: Delta 9, obviously, since this was the first hardcore gabber I had
heard. Also, I was exposed to hard acid from tapes coming out of the
Milwaukee area. Mostly Drop Bass artists and DJs, Jethrox, Jeddiah, Mr. Bill, as well as other hardcore artists such as DJ Tron and Mark
Newlands. Also in early 1995, I heard jungle music for my first time,
again in Chicago. I was very impressed by the complexity of the rhythms and presence of the bass. This clearly was a influence on the large basslines in my music. My next major influence was Low Res labelmate, Marty Frank, who was producing music under the names of Davros and Abelcain. The first time I heard his music, I saw immediately that he understood the vision I had in my mind. He was already making music that I was just beginning to conceptualize. He is one of the most brillant minds in making dark music. Not just DJ tracks, but real music, songs with complete movements and presence. I can't say enough about his long term influence on my music.
SZ: Could you talk about your differents music plans?
JS: I plan to continue work with Low Res Records and D13. Also, I've done a lot of work with Eupholus Records, musically and artistically, and will keep that up. Recently I've been taking what I've learned from hardcore and applying it to techno (130-140 BPM), in terms of using the hardcore aesthetic (dark and menacing vibe, screams, etc.) and using that within a techno format. It makes for a very aggressive techno.
SZ: How would you define your own music? Something between hardcore, breakcore, industrial and noise?
JS: I make music within several genres, depending on the particular track.
I've made gabber, hardcore techno, industrial, ambient, drum n bass,
breakcore. I usually try to define my overall sound, which I would
describe at hard, dirty and electronic.
SZ: What kind of music just make you sick at the moment?
JS: Very clean, glitchy, software-generated IDM.
SZ: How do you feel when you're making a live show?
JS: Angry and numb, if things go well. It's a wonder I keep doing them.
SZ: Do you always scream into a mic during a live show?
JS: Not always. I often bring a mic and then decide at the show whether or not to use it, based on the vibe of the party. My 2 favorite sets that had screaming in it were the TRUST festival in the summer of 2002, and the SIN festival in the summer of 2001. I recorded both of these sets and mixed them together to make the 5th D13 release, "Bombardier Live."
The photo on the cover of the disc is from an earlier show in Iowa,
summer of 2000.
SZ: what gear do you use for making music?
JS:
Roland R8 mkII drum machine
Novation BassStation and Super BassStation synths
Roland MC-50 mkII sequencer
Roland JV-880 digital synth
AKAI S01 sampler
A plethora of Boss and Electro Harmonix effects pedals..
SZ: So you appear to be one of the last Mohicans resisting to the use of a computer? Are you reluctant to using computers in music, or do you simply feel that hardware gear is more adapted to the way you work?
JS: Hardware is in line with the sounds and process of making music that I do. The hum of old pedals, sketchy cords, feedback loops in mixers. These things could be replicated by a computer, but there is an opening of a door to chance and accidental sounds when using hardware. Plugging in the wrong pedal, leaving the mic on during a session that picks up a great room noise, those types of things. Also, the experience of twisting real knobs, plugging in real cords, it's a hands-on experience I wouldn't want to give up for clicking and dragging on the computer. Also, I do a lot of multimedia work on the computer, so the idea of spending more time in front of a computer screen is a nightmare. If anything, I'm heading any further away from computer-produced electronic, as I've starting working with live insturments and vocals.
SZ: I just listened to VII, your album on Eupholus records. Can you tell us what you aim at when referring to the Seven Capital Sins? I mean, what is the hidden idea behind that?
JS: It started as a 3-week long jam session with the Novavation BassStation and Roland R8 and was inspired by the addition of several Electro Harmonix analog pedals to my studio. The result was these eerie and hallucingenic electronic sounds and each one became an aural exploration of a Deadly Sin. There was no hidden agenda or meaning when I first sat down to make the music. I later applied the theme of the sins to give a context to the sounds I was making.
SZ: With this album, you played it much calmer than usually. Is it more personnal a work than the others?
JS: It is more moody as a result of the Electro Harmonix pedals. The way they changed the sound of the BassStation was terrifying. Once I heard just a little bit of what it could do, I spent days putting all sorts of synth and percussion signals through them. The bends, screams, twists and depravity of the sounds completely inspired me.
SZ: What musicians/composers really kicked your ass recently?
JS: Tarmvred. Best producer I've heard in years.
SZ: It took only a few years for the USA to become the first country for the production of hard electronic music? Why is it so? Is the american youth so wild and traumatized?
JS: Do you see the US youth as angrier than European youth? I didn't realize that they were. There's plenty to be angry about here, politically, but I'd guess there is just as much to be pissed about over there as well.
SZ: How does the audience generally react to your live PAs?
JS: After I did a show in Winnipeg, a guy came up to me and said "That's the angriest thing I've ever heard." I think that was a compliment. Maybe just an observation.
SZ: Is there any political dimension to your music?
JS: Usually there isn't. It's more about general human themes. The song titles sum it up: "Sickness", "Betrayal", "Hated", "Schizophrenia", "Bleed". They aren't specific enough to be one politcal event or statement. However, after September 11th here in NY, everything was politicized, whether the artist intended it to be or not. That's when I did the artwork for "Hiroshima", the 3rd D13 release. The music has still not been finalized for that, but the original theme was set into motion by September 11th and the air of war here in NY.
SZ: What are you projects for the near future and, more generally, how do you think your music will evolve?
JS: Live insturments and vocals seems to be the direction music has been taking me this last 6 months. I bought a guitar and did the soundtrack for an online film called Forest Grove. We just got into Sundance, so that will be great exposure. There is nothing electronic or hardcore about the music. It's just meloncholy guitars. It's a completely new avenue for me. But I'm still working on hardcore material with a vocalist Laura Morgan under the name From Nowhere. She likes the beats I produce and I dig working with her vocals, so we've started making industrial tracks together. Rarely do I find someone who wants the music as distorted as I make it, so she's a gem to work with.
SZ: Can the European audience expect you to play some day in Europe?
JS: Probably yes. What music I'd be performing, I have no idea.
SZ: What do you expect, and what best wish can one make for you for the forthcoming years?
JS: More work with From Nowhere. Hopefully more music and scores for film. And more experimental electronic. The most I could wish for is to keep experimenting and being open to new sounds.
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AVARICE
Interview by Danny Franzreb
Audikt
09/2004
Interview with Jason Snell of Bombardier and John Dretzka of MK12 Studios.
This is sort of our intro question, I guess it's good starting point. How did you guys get two know each other?
John: Before we met up at Detroit International I was already familiar with the Division 13 CD that we received from Justin Ivey. I listened to it really loud a few times and thought it would be cool to do work for the Low Res kids. At the DEMF, or whatever it's called now, it was really fun to meet everyone. The generic 12" sleeve that we did had already been completed, so it was a cool kind of closure. They also taught me how to play craps.
Jason: It's an absolute requirement, a hazing, to learn craps when hanging out at the Low Res HQ. It's the Detroit trademark.
Could you tell us some details about your work especially the one you have done together and this collaboration?
John: I do a lot of digital montage work outside of my day-to-day stuff for MK12. Most of the visual and conceptual ideas that I have are usually not appropriate for client work. As a result when I get a chance to do random print projects it gives me a chance to exorcise some ghosts. I studied printmaking for a bit while I was in school, so I really enjoy working in black and white or with a limited palette. Lately I've been trying to create "internal psychic landscapes", illustrations of our most animalistic thoughts or lowest desires. I've been very influenced by the work of Francisco Goya and Hieronymous Bosch. Jason and I have not worked together before but I think it would be interesting to continue the dialog and make more work.
What would you describe your style as?
John: post-911, post-punk, post-post-modern, post-ziptone, post-rave, post-atomic age, post-paper, post-office, post-Yugoslavian "design for designs sake" art fodder.
Jason: Dark, lo-fi, and abrasive.
What are your sources of inspiration and main influences?
John: I am influenced by old textbooks, medical illustrations, pre-renaissance christian painting, soviet constructivism, Tibetan Thangka painting and other peoples vacation photos.
Jason: Musically, I have been influenced by a number of producers and groups, including Delta 9, Tron, Abelcain, cDatakill, Panacea, Tarmvred, Laurent Ho, Noize Creator, Skinny Puppy, Pailhead, Front 242, Metallica, Slipknot, etc... However, my best inspirations come from arts other than music, such as film and literature. Interesting compositions in other media inspire me to experiement with new arrangements. "Illuminatus Trilogy" was a book that really inspried me to push my music arrangements. The way it would juxtapose complete new information made me realize how much of a jump I could make in a track and it still be coherent simply because of the proximity. It's like applying Gestault principles to music.
How did you start creating music and to design?
John: I've always been making art of some sort. It's really one of the only things I've ever been skilled at. My interest in design sprouted directly from my hobbies and lifestyle. When I was in High School I got pretty hung up on rave culture and all it's trappings. That movement, as cheesy as it was, inspired me to want to participate in something, anything. Although I was an outsider, I really responded to the romanticism and image of that electronic culture. However, like most of us, I gave it up so I could actually take my life seriously. When I was in art school I thought that I could be a "fine artist", but judging from my work during that period, that was a bad idea. Digital art and design ended up being the right outlet for me.
Jason: I started making music after I had heard a Delta 9 demo tape in 1995. I was so shocked and amazed by how aggressive his music was, that I felt compelled to try the same thing. Initially, I wanted to have that same shocking effect on my listeners.
How do you think your work has evolved since you started?
John: It used to suck pretty bad in a strangely unique way. Lately, it's gotten better.
Jason: The music has become less abrasive, but more dark. It's slowed down some as I get older and have less angst to fuel the speed of the music. Instead, a lot of the work comes out in the theme of sadness rather than rage. I've also become more interested experiementing with all sorts of music, rather than just hardcore.
Could you tell us something about your music-label?
Jason: D13 is a sub-label of Detroit's Low Res Records. Initially, I started it as a crew to contain several pseudonames (Bombardier, 13th Hour, Kamphetamine, Useless Generation) but it eventually became a record label. It's not an open-label, that is, accepting music from other artists. Rather it's a closed experiment that acts as a canvas for my music and art explorations.
Do you believe in the importance of formal education in music and design, are you self taught?
John: Even though I have an art degree I still consider myself to be a self taught designer. Unless an art school has a decent professional practices class, a designer has to learn everything the hard way, by making mistakes and pissing off clients. Going to school is mostly important because of the people you meet. MK12 would not exist if it wasn't for everyone meeting and collaborating at the Kansas City Art Institute. So for that reason I have to endorse getting a formal education.
Jason: I actually had a formal education in design, but not music. With design, I often struggle with the rules I've learned. It can be difficult to access my intuition on what looks right because my mind is filled with theories and rules of design. I prefer to work on fine art instead, because there are, or at least I know, fewer rules. With music, I have no training and feel very free to try new things. Even technically, a key part of my sound is having cross channel distortion (i.e. where the drum rhythms will cut into and change the synths or samples laid on top of it.). If I was trained in music production, I would have started with cleanly seperated channels, and that wouldn't be a part of my sound. Also, when it comes to playing the keyboard, I strictly rely on what sounds good to me, or what sounds good with the rest of the sounds in the track, rather than knowing what chords or keys are theoretically potent.
Could you give some insight on what your work, music and design means to you?
John: It's my job and I love doing it. It puts food on my table, a roof over my head and a little purpose in my life.
Jason: It's a means of expression, an aural art form. Songs reflect where my head or psyche is at during a particular point in my life. My overall body of work has become an audio-based history of my adult life.
Could you tell us something about the music and design scene in your region?
John: Kansas City is a funky little city, there is always something interesting going on. Believe it or not, the art community is thriving. Lots of people are making interesting work. Things aren't really happening on a "hype" national level yet. But it's something many of us are working towards. The music scene is unfortunately pretty limited. There are really talented people here, but they either leave town or don't get the attention they deserve.
Jason: Well, there is a bit of everything, since it's New York. The hardcore scene is probably larger in the Midwest, because of all the labels that have been in Milwaukee, but New York has a dedicated gabber scene, stemming from the Industrial Strength era. There is also a consistent experimental and noise scene with Broklyn Beats parties at Sub Tonic.
Give us some rock and roll story, whatever you think that is.
John: Once I had lunch with Ry Cooder. My dad was interviewing him and I got to sit and listen. he had dome good stories about Cuba and the making of Buena Vista Social Club. When I was 10 or 11 I got to see Megadeth at the Cabaret Metro in Chicago. It was awesome because Countdown to Extinction had just came out and I was stoked. One afternoon I was hanging out with Jacob and Dapose from The Faint, I took them to the Farmers Market in downtown Los Angeles. Jacob Bought a new belt and we ate Mexican food. It was pretty fun.
Jason: There's so many bizarre and weird stories. My second time tripping on acid, I was chased by miltary police through a national guard base and out on to an active helipad, climbing barbed wire fences to freedom. I once watched a best friend get transdermal implants surgerically implanted into his penis in a filthy tenement apartment in downtown New York by a "doctor" who was smoking pot and cigarettes during the operation. My first job out of college was flying to Reno to place bets on 49'er games for a pedaphile in San Francisco who was busted by the FBI for pandering a 12 year old. Umm... that's enough out of me.
What do you do besides music? Any other occupation?
John: I read, download Mp3's and wash dishes.
Jason: I do multimedia developing, usually with Flash. I love motion design and programming. I enjoy using both sides of my brain, art and music on one side, and math, logic, and engineering on the other.
Is there anything that you would like to explore, but didn't find the time to?
John: Leading some kind of monastic life in Southeast-Asia sounds good to me.
Jason: Europe. I was going to move there in 2000, but ended up New York City. I'd also like to see more of the South, perhaps an armed tour.
What music are you currently listening to, any recommendations or all time favorites?
John: Old techno/ house stuff, electro from Den Haag, Stevie Wonder, Plastic Ono Band, Classic Warp Records stuff.
Jason: The latest in the CD player has been "Subfusc" by Tarmvred, "Dusk" by The The, Led Zeppelin III, and the entire Jane's Addiction collection, pre-Pornos For Pyros. My iTunes claims that my top 5 played mp3s are:
1. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division
2. "Love Theme from Muholland Drive" by Angelo Badalamenti
3. "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star
4. "Every Day is Like Sunday" by The Smiths
5. "The Living Dead" by London Suede
iTunes don't lie. Apparently I'm a goth sap.
What do you think are the most important skills a musician should have?
John: Patience, imagination, resolve and humility.
Jason: Open mindedness and a commitment to keep learning new things.
What are you currently working on and what can we expect from you in the future?
John: I think I am going to be riding my bike a lot this summer. Outside of that, I'm not too sure. There's so many books I want to read also!
Jason: I've been taking the styles I've learned from hardcore, breakcore, and gabber and applying the sound to more dj-friendly hard techno.
Where would you like to be in ten years from now mentally and physically? Do you have some sort of aim in life?
John: I want to be happy, calm, healthy and balanced regardless of whatever situation I may find myself in. Even if I end up paralyzed from the waist down, in jail or both for that matter.
Jason: I'd be happy to still be in New York in 10 years. I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be, personally and professionally. As to where I'd like to be mentally? I'd be happy to have the emotional maturity of a late teenager by 2014.
Anything you would like to answer that I forgot to ask?
John: Oh yeah, the opinions and ideas expressed are not necessarily those of the entire MK12 collective. We are not a hive-mind, but real and honest hardworking Midwesterners.
Jason: I'm a Leo.
Thanks John and Jason, it was a pleasure!
Jason: Fantastic!
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BOMBARDIER: WAR IN HIS MUSIC
Interview by Carlos Pozo
Grooves Magazine
12/2002
Jason Snell is one of the most distinctive producers in the American electronic hardcore underground. Using a multitude of project names, the most well known of which is Bombardier, Snell has created a sizable body of work that blends hard beats and monstrous basslines with dark industrial textures.
Raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Snell first began producing tracks as accompaniment to video projects: "I was banging on garbage cans in empty corn silos and pitching down ambient noises to create low drones." His audio projects gained momentum after hearing a Delta 9 demo tape in 1995. "I was incredibly impressed with the strength and violence of the sound," he says. "I realized that producing music in the underground electronic scene was accessible. The music was made by an individual in their studio, not a big-budget record company. I bought a used drum machine and began making experimental hardcore tracks."
His first 12-inch, the Biomech Warfare EP, is a blueprint for the Snell sound and marked the beginning of a close relationship with Justin Ivey's Low Res label. A strong feature of each track is the huge-sounding distorted basslines -- something that has come to typify Snell's productions. "I run a bass melody from either my Roland R8 drum machine or Novation Bass Station through the Boss Hyperfuzz and Boss Bass Synth pedal," he says." It takes a combination of finding coherent basslines in the distortion and fine tuning the settings on the pedals."
A chance encounter with Miguel De Pedro (Kid 606) led to a release on the Vinyl Communications label. "Miguel knew my friend Heather, and so we all hung out one night," he says. "I played him a track where I sampled the song 'Ex-Mutant' by Tit Wrench, a music project of VC label head Bob Barely.
"Through Miguel I started a rapport with Bob, which led to my CD on the label. I was sampling VC music before I knew who they were, and it was that music that got me the release on their label."
As Bombardier, 13th Hour, and Kamphetamine, Snell has gone to release vinyl on such labels as Ghetto Safari, Eupholus, Dyslexic Response, and his own Division 13. Titles such as "Jealousy Kills," "Violence," and "Psychosis" indicate a preoccupation with the darker side of life. "A war has occurred in my music, with all its violence and its aftermath, regret and reflection, and desperate search for redemption."
Strictly gear-based, Snell has yet to make the leap into computer music production, being comfortable with the apparent limitation of his machines. "Using the Akai S01 has certainly been a challenge at times, because the maximum sample time is 30 seconds," he says. "It's pushed me to get the most out of any particular sound, doing a lot with pitching and layering to create complexity. I like real objects, with real knobs and real hit pads and buttons. There is a random element of error that can occur when synthesizing a sound that can lead to a great discovery."
Currently based in New York City, Snell does freelance design and media work to continue his own musical projects as well as promote the Low Res and Division 13 labels. His new tracks continue the eclecticism and genre-hopping that has marked his work up to this point. "I just finished an experimental ambient track called 'Evacuation' which has a 400 bpm bassline that sounds like an oscillating helicoper," he says. "Next week I'll be doing a remix of 'Murder was the Case' for a Eupholus Records CD release. I also plan to make some hard acid tracks in the next month."
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BOMBARDIER - RIGHT ON TARGET!
Interview by Sharee
Jungle Voodoo
02/2000
Jason Snell, recording artist for the likes of Low Res Records, Hangars Liquides, Ghetto Safari, and Vinyl Communications, is making a lasting impression with his own brand of noise-meets-hardcore with breaks thrown in for good measure. Yet the evil sounds he creats hardly mirror the man himself. Pretty low-key on the ouside, Jason speaks of his music as an outlet for everyday anger and frustration. I recently caught up with Jason, who now resides in Minneapolis, and got to speak frankly about music, art and higher consciousness.
Jungle Voodoo: Do you think that if you'd have come at electronic music from a background of, say, listening to Top 40 or something, you'd be making different stuff?
Jason Snell: In a way I did come from normal pop music. When I was young, I always heard the Beach Boys playing on my dad's stereo. As I grew older, I followed MTV, watching it's conception (remember the guy on the moon with the flashing MTV flag?). From there I got some underground culture exposure from my brother, including early rap (Public Enemy, NWA) and rock and roll (Ramones, Clash, Nirvana, Mudhoney). I left the rock-n-roll mosh scene for the early rave scene (it came to Iowa in 93-94) and got into techno/rave music.
JV: I guess what I'm getting at is - do you think that the aggression of the punk and indie rock influenced you to get into hardcore electronic music?
JS: Not right off the bat. The rock-n-roll I listened to when I was younger was not too hard. I didn't get into harder punk or heavy metal until after I was into hardcore techno. My induction into hardcore techno was done by hardcore techno. I think I would have been drawn to it regardless of my history, whether it had been listening to 60's pop or Drop Dead as a child. I have always been drawn to dark things, which has been apparent in my art and illustrations since early high school. I have been fascinated with the darkside and seek to possess it in my art in attempts to deal with its existance. By attempting to capture and possess it in my art, I give it a form I can understand and deal with emotionally and psychologically. If I didn't get into hardcore electronic, I'm sure I would have gotten into hardcore punk or heavy metal or industrial/goth. If it is dark, I'll run across it. It just happened to be electronic first.
JV: Are you into any of the pure noise artists like Merzbow?
JS: Somewhat. I don't get that excited for noise. Upon moving to Minneapolis, I have been introduced to the long standing noise scene here and have heard some very quality music. However it does not resonate with me as much as the drive in punk or the mental abandonment of darkside.
JV: Plan on doing any pure noise (or have you already)?
JS: I have done some ambient, but it still has a structured song composition. I would not classify it as noise, but I have heard an ambient track of mine on a noise mixtape by Franjo and it worked in fine with the rest of the noise.
JV: What is your take on "noise"? For instance, I am a big proponent of using particular frequencies and sounds to evoke emotional responses and reactions. Ever get into any of that?
JS: Tones are very powerful, down to the core of this reality. One take on it is that the universe was created with tones, starting with the base tone of "Om". On a more day to day level, tones and the composition of tones (i.e. music) can evoke powerful energies and memories in me. Nothing else can make me cry on the spot on any given day like certain songs. Also keys into memories and associations I've had with old songs. I can pick up an old mixtape I haven't heard in 3 years and be flooded with memories of the last times I heard it. My take on noise.... for personal music, my present inclinations are with rhythm oriented music. I use noisey sounds, but within a controlled structure. My music is a tug of war between control and surrender until the balance is struck. In the electronic scene I was in, techno was the focus. The music was functional in evoking movement in the listener. That has stuck with me in my music. The beatless ambient I do use are usually intros or segues between harder/faster areas and functional as a mental/physical break. If the ambient goes too long in my sets, I get bored, and assume the audience would too.
JV: When did you decided that just going to parties and dancing wasn't enough? When did you cross into the shadowy netherworlds of the "producer"?
JS: (laughs) Netherworlds. That is fairly accurate word considering how much I've given up timewise to produce. I started producing spring of 1995. In January of that year, I heard Delta 9 for the first time in a long weary road trip/car crash between Iowa and Chicago. It set a seed deep and I realized from the demo I heard of his that a person can be independent and produce music. I didn't need expensive equipment to make music. I bought a drum machine for $200 in April and began by making beat tracks, experimental hardcore for lack of a better definition.Ö
JV: Do you have any musical background (as far as instruments or taking lessons, being in a band, etc.)?
JS: "Never took one lesson" I fucked around with a guitar during high school, using a Hyper Fuzz pedal and feedback. I was never in a band. I used my guitar/feedback solos as musical accompaniment to the video work I did at the time.
JV: What is some of your favorite equipment that you use when you're making your musical creations?
JS: The R8 mkII drum machine. Having started with a drum machine (my first one was a Yamaha RX-7). I learned how to get the most of a rhythm machine. Later, when I did get more gear, such as synths, I still preferred the drum machine interface for sound generation. Most of the sounds in my music are from my R8. I make all my own beats, I don't sample them from anyone else. Also most of my baselines and synths are either straight from the drum machine or sampled from the drum machine through FX.
JV: Do you draw on any current life experiences (otherÖthan "aggression") when you're creating music?
JS: I can't say I have a lot of aggression. I don't fantasize about violence or anything like that. However I can have a lot of anger, and sometimes sadness. The music is great for helping me possess these energies and deal with them. This would also include dealing with loss and desire/attachment. Other life experiences.... I would say other *elements* in life, such as the dynamics of the life machine. Such as the passing of time, in how events reveal themselves, first often with hints or parallels, then coming on strong, waning, then exiting as they came. This easily translates to music. Music can be reflective of life, and life I feel is reflective of the perceiver, so creating music is holding a mirror up to the mirror, creating the infinite illusion of mirror in mirror in mirror ad infinitum. The song is temporal and can capture some underlying dynamics in reality as it joins up with the passing of time, even if just for the 5 minute length of the song. The music can take the listener to what that particular flow of reality was when the track was captured. Of course, the music can never reflect the present as it does when it is being conceived. Tracks always sound best to me right as they are being made. That is why I make music. It gives me the opportunity to see where life currently is, in what sounds and compositions it sends to me at that moment. Listening to it afterwards, whether it be days or months, gives me a glimpse of what I was feeling at the time of inception, but I can never fully recapture those moments past.
JV: What do you think about the "bad rap" that a lot ofÖthe hardcore (ie. gabber) has received - as in, everyone from critics to candy kids saying the stuff has "a negative vibe"?
JS: I think it is the same thing that the rock-n-roll fans had to say about techno. It is a different genre and needs to be perceived and judged by different standards. A rock-n-roll fan finds fault in an amazing techno track because it has no guitar or vocal chorus. Does that make it a poor song? No, it simply isnt being judged by the fitting criteria. Same with the rave scene judging hardcore. It isnt going to have the PLUR vibe or great female vocal harmonizing because that is not what it is trying to achieve. If we as a hardcore community look to rave/techno or critics for our standards, we will never a healthy sense of self worth. Sure, the hardcore community can continue to curse and rebel against the rave scene, but if we continue to define ourselves based on the rejection of another scene which is quickly dying via commercialism, our scene will die with it. We make our own standards based on what we are trying to achieve. If someone is intending to make a speedcore song, and it is 300 BPM, I cannot criticize that track for being too fast. That is what is supposed to be. I dont think of my music in relation to rave music anymore. Im on a different path. I am not judging the rave music by any means. They can do whatever they want. I am simply doing what I feel is right for me, and that is hardcore electronic.
JV: Do you think hardcore can be likened to the "death metal" of the electronic world or do you think that a lot of the people out there just can't handle the emotion and force inthe music?
JS: I have heard Hardcorps defend hardcore by saying others cant handle the emotional force. I dont see anything deeply emotional by saying "FUCK FUCK FUCK" at 250 BPM. That type of hard music seems more mathematical to me, mechanical and stiff. I have done that music, and may very well again, but it isnt my trip now. I see no point of barraging an unwanting audience with that music. They will tune it out and it wont affect them .That music is very effective for a hardcore scene who wants to hear it. I feel the most effective music is that which keeps a listener intrigued and by listening is taken to a new perceptual set, and new view of things. I dont think that people cant handle the emotion or force in gabber. I think those not interested simply dont care for it. It doesnt resonate for them and I dont see any value in attempting to force them to like it. Those who like it will find it.
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JV: So now you're composing more of a "song structure" than a dancefloor friendly number?
JS: Often. I certainly have tracks, like Syn (low res 003) and a lot of my gabber is more dj friendly. However at this point I'm in interested in making songs, in their entirety, as the song wants to be, without unnaturally stretching things for the sake of dj's. If the music doesn't change and continues to cater to the whims of dj's, music and spinning will become stagnant. By no means do I want to make anti-dj music (purposely fucking with the time signature or whatever), I simply intend to make the song for what it is. To cater or fuck with it's structure in cooperation or battle with the dj mentality is destructive to the song, and I place the song's sense of entirety first.
JV: What is your take on the whole "dancefloor" friendly brand of jungle?
JS: 2 step, tech step? It is fine for what it is worth. It is very dj friendly and has gotten a number of people into jungle who were once intimidated or uniterested in the chaotic beat structures of yesterday's jungle. There are some interesting songs out there in tech step, but I'm not too intrigued by most of the watered down tracks I've heard. A fine example of a good idea copied too much and losing its heart. Tech step as a beat structure is a solid thing to use and grow with, push to the next step. I think there is a lot of potential in the structure and have been using it as a basis is some jungle tracks. I feel the important thing for me to do is make sure the song goes somewhere on top and with the tech-step.
JV: Any sound you're really sick of at the moment?
JS: Minimal techno. Doesn't do a thing for me anymore. Too boring. Again, a good idea of minimalism abused by hordes of producers seeking to kick out a track in minutes.
JV: Ever thought of doing any tribal stuff?
JS: I've done a number of tribal tracks. Some were tribal techno, very distorted and warping. The groove was created by the sounds fighting for the bandwidth. I have some older, cleaner tribal techno, and more recently I have done tribal stuff in jungle tracks (such as Perpetual Darkness). I often use tribal sounds, but they are distorted to the point of taking up different character.
JV: How 'bout on your own paths to enlightenment (that don't include music) - or anything else that contributes to your life experience?
JS: Sure. I practive Tai Chi twice a day ... keeps me limber and (gives me) some exercise, which is gravely needed since I work a computer job. Also I do Tibetan stretches in the morning - very similar to yoga. I also meditate twice a day - some misfit hybrid of TM, buddhism, and anything else I've learned along the way. The mediatation is especially key in helping me keep tapped into something larger than myself. This channel flows in the music, keeping it in a larger perspective than my limited world.
JV: Oh and as far as your artwork goes, are we talking the same driving forces that go into your music?
JS: My music and art are extremely similar for me. The creative process of control and surrender, the intrigue with the dark. Art and music go hand in hand for me ... (working on both) helps to balance the mediums out.
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BOMBS AWAY
Interview by Michaelangelo Matos
City Pages
08/1999
Noise artist Bombardier drops some of electronic music's fastest and hardest beats--and waits for the explosion
Noise annoys, as the Buzzcocks put it, but used musically it can also clear the head, elicit laughter, or scare the subconscious out of its shell. No one understands this power better than the practitioners of gabber, that most punishing of hard-core techno subgenres, with its blender pace of 200-plus beats per minute and oceans of static. No one, that is, except the makers of gabber's still unnamed weird uncle, a genre of post-rave noise music whose local innovators have gotten some play in these pages. More than anything else that could be tagged "electronica," this stuff seems to exist in a vacuum. Its fans are legion and worldwide, but its creators are ignored in the mainstream press.
Snell, a mild-mannered web designer and recent immigrant to Minneapolis, moonlights as a one-man aural car crash called Bombardier. A more apt alias can hardly be imagined: Snell creates music with all the slow-burn subtlety of a napalm drop. Of course, you'd never guess as much from meeting him. "Bombardier has no specific agenda other than as an outlet for my anger, frustrations, and negative emotion," he says flatly over tea at the Cyber-X Cafe in south Minneapolis. "A lot of people who meet me don't believe I make that music, because I'm such a calm person."
Actually, "calm" doesn't quite nail it. Snell is low-key but radiantly intense, a friendly, if reserved, guy who also takes his music quite seriously. Born near Omaha to parents working in academia, the musician grew up in Cedar Rapids, where he spent much of his early teens in the basement practicing punk and grunge guitar riffs before discovering rave culture and becoming a dance music zealot. "I was a purist for a while," he says. "I went through an anti-rock phase where I only listened to techno. Luckily, I wised up after a few years and realized you can like more than one kind of music."
His own introduction to the hard-fast-loud gabber sound came in 1995 during a rave road trip to Chicago, listening to a demo tape by a noisy Chicago-based DJ called Delta 9. "Before that I was really into jungle, but hearing Delta 9 changed everything," he says. "And the fact that it was a demo was really important. It made me realize that this music was accessible, that you didn't need an expensive studio or a lot of equipment to make it."
Inspired, Snell began gathering drum machines and sequencers, attempting to replicate the sounds of his new hard-core heroes. He attended college at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where a surprisingly large rave scene thrived, and he began giving tapes of his original music to classmates. After earning his degree, Snell relocated to San Francisco.
Snell found himself sleeping on the couches of friends and relatives for ten months in the high-rent city. His break came when he met Kid 606 and came into contact with Vinyl Communications in Chula Vista, California. Vinyl is one of the most respected hard-core techno labels in the world. After hearing his homemade music tapes, the company signed him as an artist, a backdoor break somewhat akin to a hip hopper getting a deal with Rawkus or a blues guitarist signing to Alligator. The result was Violence, his debut and one of the most listenable records in its genre--which is saying more than you might think. With its neck-snapping breakbeats, caterwauling screams, distorted guitars, and pogo-worthy, four-to-the-floor electronic boings, the album never stops erupting.
The album is economical (20 cuts in 43 minutes) and its shortwave broadcasts from hell are more varied and less grim-faced than you might expect. Like all good hard-core from any genre (hiphop, punk, techno), Violence is the sound of an artist soaring with the velocity of his creations. The best example is the bristling "Expatriot," which features a hyperspeed skank anchored in industrial-strength guitars and sampled Tit Wrench vocals screaming, "All standing by the water cooler, mildly shaking what used to be fists... welcome aboard!"
Bombardier's Minneapolis debut on July 9, 1999 was opening for San Franciscans Matmos at the Foxfire Coffee Lounge. Several young crowd members--gabber fans?--maniacally shadowboxed to Bombardier's blitzkrieg bounce. Hovering intently over his homemade mixture of analogue and digital samplers, synthesizers and effects pedals, Snell cued up a famous Pink Floyd lyrical sample: "Welcome to the machine." That's as close to a political statement as you're going to get from the noise of Bombardier.
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