Pissdead interview

Date

LACKLUSTER INTERVIEW http://www.angelfire.com/on/pisd/intlack.htm

http://www.defocusrecords.co.uk
http://www.m3rck.net/lackluster

is your music a hobby or a profession now?
hobby, because at the moment i'm in an all-time-low and can't seem to finish up anything that i could send to anyone.. too busy getting nothing done

anything forthcoming on focus/other vinyl?
when suitable tracks exist they'll be put out thru deFocus.. the frank bolero & lackluster track 'intro1 (frank bolero construct)' on squadron ( http://www.m3rck.net/squadron ) (merck, miami, usa) and the 'haloaw' track on the soon-to-be-released 'neferiu sampler' ( http://www.neferiu.com ) will both feature on the merck SA 12" which should be released this year too. hopefully my entry to the thug internet remix challenge will be put out on cd, and the surgery records compilation 'initial release' will feature an old track ('11/11/99') which was released already on the rikos records ( http://www.rikosrecords.com ) compilation 'rikos001 - a beginner's guide to rikos'.. other than that, nothing is cooking. but i do have a few labels i'm supposed to give tracks to. just nothing worth giving.. after giving out basically anything and everything remotely proper to focus, i don't think i should put out such mediocre stuff anymore. i'm sure all my releases from now on will contradict what i just wrote and ppl will go out of their way to call it mediocre, but hey, it's all lackluster.

i've noticed there's more effects on recent tunes. is this because you've just got some effects or is there a style change?
which recent tunes?

the mp3 stuff on kahvi in particular.
for the past year i've been using other programs (than trackers only) to do tracks with, and this has resulted in the usage of effects, mainly because now i can do them. obviously. i'm slowly trying to build up a studio.. but the pc still reigns over everything.

do you have some aim in mind when making your tracks? eg accompanying certain narcotics?
it's music to listen to, no matter what state you are in. i haven't thought about my music as accompaniment for narcotics.. does it require that?

well, certain narcotics only get on with certain types of music, or seem to. is the listener in mind yourself or who or what? do you make music for the listener or are you saying that music ends up being listened to?
i make music for myself, for my listening purposes.. whoever wants to listen to it in whatever state of mind is free to do so as they wish. just as long as you enjoy it and don't freak out on it, it's ok.. if it starts to mess up your mind it's time to press stop and throw out the cd.. 'music ends up being listened to?' isn't that bound to happen?

so do you care if people listen to or even like your music?
i care if people listen to it.. it's nice to hear if someone likes a track i've done, cos then there's proof that someone else enjoys what i've done apart from me.. i'm more interested in negative feedback tho, even though it can be a bit depressing..

where are you? whats it like there?
kontula, eastern helsinki.. suburbs suburbs suburbs. lots of unemployed people, alcoholics on their third bottle at 8.00am.. it's been getting better in the past 10 years..

do you play live?
in the process of doing a gig on 16.7 at kaaos, which is held in jyvaskyla, finland. it's going to be the first and at the moment i'm selecting tracks and changing them for live alterations. don't really have any idea how it'll work .
later, after the gig...
yes, i have done something comparable to a live gig. i performed at the Kaaos afterhours ( http://www.scene.org/~esa/kaaos.html (flyer) ) (the actual Kaaos ( http://kaaos.niitty.org ) featured jori hulkkonen & jeff mills) chillout-side. basically a 70 minute long chillout session of most of my newer tracks.. tried to muck around with them but it was simply knobturning and toggling sequences.. very basic. it was a first gig so in a way it worked better than i thought it would at first.
now that the session is done i don't really feel like doing another mainly because it'd only be repetition of the first one.. i.e. loading the same tracks, doing the same things to them, etc.. i'll wait a few months and hope to emerge with tracks that i could perform live before i say yes to another request for a gig

still tracking or are you using some other seq now?
trackers are nice, very smooth interface. i'm using buzz, audiomulch, impulsetracker nowadays. i've been trying to get around to doing stuff with midi, but have been turned off by the programs. it's all very sample+pc-based.

mp3 vs. the record industry. what do you think?
have recently discovered fake lackluster albums on napster and unreleased snippets which were intended for friends only too. not very happy with it. nothing will beat the feel of a 7" or a 12" on your hands. the packaging, all of it. mp3s are nice, but so very computer-oriented. just files on your harddrive. no real history. but obviously, mp3 has it's uses from sending tracks to labels doing compilations to just releasing stuff on netlabels like monotonik ( http://www.mono211.com/ ) or kahvi ( http://kahvi.stc.cx/ )

have you had alot of press eg reviews/interviews? what do you think?
people are content with too little. could be that it's mainly because not a whole lot of truly good music gets released nowadays and that's why people lower their standards, or then some ppl just don't listen to music properly.. i'm guessing it's all marketing anyway.. would a magazine get promos from recordlabel A if they always beat the shit out of said A?

whats the stupidest thing anyone's ever written about you?
apart from the factual errors (luckluster from norway) (esa ruoho, the u.k. producer) there's always the 'the ambient electronic genius' stuff that's just plain wrong.

and on that note, thankyou and goodnight.
be good NOW.