aids wolf and night wounds back-and-forth

members of aids wolf and night wounds discuss their thoughts on collaborative music, accessibility, noise, experimentation, etc.

excerpt:

I think the internet does make wonders for weird music by making things that would be hard to access otherwise available to more people, it actually made us able to connect with bands we like in almost every city in the US, and play shows with them on one tour, something that would have probably taken years to build up in successive tours before the nineties. It seems that there is at least one person per city that would come to our show, something unthinkable before, especially because of the genre we are into. I doubt the audience actually widened, I think it rather revealed this music to other people playing it or people interested by it, solidifying the collaboration between bands, making the nerds come out of their cubbyholes, stop worrying about keeping their mailorder noise tapes collection in alphabetical order and finally go out and see shows. So I guess it became also partly alienating the audience and playing alienated sounds for the already alienated.
...
I feel like we are completely stuck between wanting to play tight songs and be a complete free-form mess. I think the contrast between the two, when placed together in one song, has not gotten boring to me yet. I used to be under the impression that anybody could play in this band as long as they could pluck two notes on a bass or bang something. That is somewhat true, but it relies completely on how I and people I play with connect. I think I'm over trying to control this band... it was always about having people who had no idea what they were doing... total "I could be in your band if you teach me how to play this instrument" sort of thing, but in recent months of playing with people who kind of finish my thoughts for me musically, I have realized this was a form of denial. Music is very sacred to me... finding someone that I can play with (in any band, not just Night Wounds) is like finding a boyfriend or girlfriend. Years and years ago before this band even started I had played with a few people who came from the same world as me, and when those projects broke up or people moved on (myself included), I remember being left with a very bittersweet taste in my mouth, like I had been dumped or broken up with someone. I think that scared me away from being in a fully working band where everyone contributes equally from that point onward till a few months ago. I don't like losing people I connect with.

interview here

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