Anaphylaxis
(All Questions Answered By Jason Coffman)
How did Anaphylaxis get started?
I'm not sure where or how it started, really. When I was a kid I got a short-wave radio built into a big boombox and used to scan the channels-- somewhere I still have tapes of the stuff I recorded looking for messages or alien signals or whatever I was listening for back then.
Back in 1994 I borrowed a friend's four-track and recorded what I usually consider the first Anaphylaxis tracks, Casio MT-45, guitar, short-wave radio and some weird stray samples I had on tape. I recorded some more Casio stuff but I really liked layering four tracks of short-wave sounds, so I kept doing that, and then I got an old Casio SK-1 keyboard and started using that.
Eventually I found out about the tape-trading and noise scenes (I grew up in the middle of Indiana before the Internet was widely available!) and put out some cassettes over the course of a few years. After a while I upgraded from using short-wave and Casio to software, but it's still kind of the same thing.
What made you get into the sort of unique sound that Anaphylaxis has?
I guess it's just a mess of disparate influences. I count pretty much everything I see, hear, or read as an influence. So maybe it's smearing all of that stuff together and playing it at once! I think that's probably a good description of what a lot of my work sounds like.
Who are your influences?
All over the place. When I was a kid, I listened to the short-wave and lots of top 40 and oldies radio and my parents listened to country. When I got to high school I started listening to a lot of metal. I met some friends who introduced me to Einsturzende Neubauten and I was floored, especially by their cover of the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood song "Sand," which is amazing.
I think maybe the last piece of the puzzle was hearing "Loveless" by My Bloody Valentine. After that I started seeking out anything even vaguely related--Boo Radleys, Lush, Ride, all those old shoegaze bands. I listened to that stuff, Flying Saucer Attack, and eventually found out about lovesliescrushing. I still think that lovesliescrushing is maybe the best thing I've ever heard.
I was a huge Nine Inch Nails fan in high school. Guess that was par for the course back then. After I got back to listening to the stuff I listened to when I was a kid (80s pop radio), I started to get excited about Erasure and Pet Shop Boys again. That sort of led to me getting into more electronic stuff like Joy Electric, who I count as a major influence although that seems to confuse people.
And I found my way back to listening to old country music (Patsy Cline most notably) and classic pop again (Leslie Gore, Connie Francis, girl groups), and I think all of that informs what I do with Anaphylaxis in some way.
I've noticed a lot of the information on your site and on MySpace is written more using "I" than "we," is Anaphylaxis more solo or group oriented?
Well, like I said until recently it's been pretty much just me doing everything as far as recording goes. I've been lucky to have some friends do shows with me in the past, and my friend Andrew Horton has joined me as the first official standing member of the live band. He's also helping out tremendously with work on material for the next record.
For the first however many years, I never even thought of doing live shows since a) I had no idea how to translate what I was doing into that sort of environment and b) I was sort of terrified of asking people to help out with it. I've done a few solo shows, and on the records 99% of that material was done by me. I had some help early on-- a vocal bit or guitar line here and there-- but it wasn't until 2002 I started getting others really involved with the recordings.
Even now it's hard to think of anaphylaxis as a "band," so sometimes I still use "I" when "we" would be more appropriate, just out of force of habit! It's getting better, though.
How did you meet the other group members listed in your MySpace page? (Andrew Horton, Teresa Santoski)
The Internet, like any good nerd. We frequented some of the same message boards. I've known of Andrew for the better part of ten years now. Teresa and I used to chat online a lot and I was able to convince her to send me some recordings of her singing, which I used pretty thoroughly on the most recent album. I finished "Noise for Lovers" back in 2003, and we've fallen out of touch since then. I usually hear from her every few months or so, there's always the possibility she'll help out with the next record. I see Andrew all the time now, we ended up both moving to Chicago and now live within blocks of each other.
Do you work with many other people or is it mainly just them?
My friend Mathias from Hollydrift did mixing and production on a track called "They Know Nothing" on the "So Now Then" album, and Mike Langlie from Twink played some prepared toy piano on a track called "Tines" from the same album. Way back, my friend Michael Nolan did a guitar part that I used on a track for the "Reverb" album back in 2000 and my girlfriend at the time recorded a short vocal for another track on the same CD.
I'm not really sure about the new album, it's probably going to be mostly me and Andrew. Hard to say, I've lately met a ton of really cool people who I want to work with in various ways, so we'll see what
happens!
Do they have any influence on your musical creation process?
Teresa really helped out with the last album in that I knew that I wanted a really romantic, almost melodramatic atmosphere. She sent me recordings of her doing vocal exercises and singing songs from a few different musicals, and they were perfect. Just exactly what I had in mind. Andrew has a lot of the same influences as I do, except multiplied by about a thousand times, and he's doing a lot of arrangement and writing in the new stuff. I have no real musical talent, so pretty much anything resembling actual music on the next album is probably going to be Andrew's!
Speaking of which, how do you go about writing and making a song?
A lot-- and by "a lot," I mean "the overwhelming majority"-- of my work is sample manipulation. I'll hear a small bit of a song on the radio and take that piece and just tear it all apart and put it back together. Mostly female vocals, which I'm sort of unhealthily obsessed with. That probably comes through very clearly on the records.
Again, I've used a lot of different software. When I first moved up to recording on a computer I used Mixman Studio Pro and Steinberg Wavelab, which I still use sometimes. I've used Audiomulch, which I think is amazing. Lately I've been using Adobe Audition and learning Cubase. The basic formula is pretty much the same though: take a few seconds of female vocals, timestretch the hell out of it, and throw as much reverb as possible on there. Again, this probably comes through very clearly on the records.
It's obvious that you don't use "standard" instruments that are found in most bands today, and you mention a long list of them on your website. What instruments or devices do you tend to use most, and which ones are your favorite?
For live shows, I've had all sorts of different setups. Solo shows with short-wave and Casio, laptop, pitch and optical theremins, band shows with synths, percussion, guitar/bass/drums, organ, microcassette, turntables, vocals, on and on. Until last year, the shows didn't really sound anything like the albums at all. I got tired of doing that, though, and we're still working out a good way to represent the albums and also do something different for the shows.
I guess my favorite equipment is my Hello Kitty pitch theremin. I ordered a theremin circuit board from Chuck Collins back in 2000 and built it into a clear pink Hello Kitty pencil case. I've used it at nearly every show since then, it's really fun to play and you get such great sounds out of it. I also built an "optical theremin"-- it puts out a higher pitch when more light hits its photocell—into a Hello Kitty jewelry box. I use that for all the louder shows, as it's basically impossible to play as an actual instrument. Although the last couple of shows I've finally started to get the hang of it a little!
You mention "long periods of inactivity and disappearances" on your MySpace page, what causes these disruptions to Anaphylaxis?
Personal stuff, just life. The best example is back in 2001 when I was on the verge of trying to set up a lot of shows and doing recording projects when a series of pretty awful things happened and Anaphylaxis just kind of fell way, way down my list of priorities for quite a while. I'm really trying to make up for lost time now that things are a little more stable, and hopefully I can keep focusing on it and getting things done.
Are you focusing more heavily on creating music lately, or is it on the back-burner for now?
I'm really trying to do shows, trying to set up a lot of different shows and kind of do what bands do for a while. Play shows, hope people like them and want to come to more shows, maybe buy a cd or some buttons, repeat. We're working out the arrangements of tracks at the shows, so the next album (whenever that is) will probably have actual live playing of instruments on it.
We have a good amount of material, but I really want to make the next record count. This is the first time since I started releasing my work that I've thought of it as a band, and I want to start doing it right, especially now that Andrew is helping out.
Can we expect any new releases in the near future?
The next full-length is going to be late Winter at the very, very earliest. There are a few other projects that are in various states of development, and I don't want to discuss anything about those until things are confirmed.
You also say that you're "working on fixing things" in reference to previously released material, does this mean you're working on bringing them back for public purchase?
Kind of. There are only maybe two of my previous albums that I think really deserve a reissue on CD, and the rest of it I'm planning on releasing for free as net releases. Eventually I'll be uploading quite a bit of material so people will have some way of getting it.
Hopefully I'll have a reissue of "so now then," the album before "noise for lovers," before too terribly long. Everything but "noise for lovers" is completely out of print now, which is unfortunate but mostly my own fault. Like I said, I'm working on it.
Are you still with Parasomnic Records and Mannequin Oddio Media?
I'm still in contact with them pretty regularly. I'm pretty amazed those guys are still supportive and excited about my work, and I really appreciate them. They're both working on a lot of great stuff coming up, too. I'm always anxious to see what they're doing.
How did you get hooked up with these labels?
I guess Geoff (Parasomnic) and Andrew (MOM) both saw my sets at Cornerstone 2000 or 2001, and they were really excited about them and wanted to work with me. I'm incredibly honored they even remembered those shows-- I barely got any feedback on them at all—and even more so that they led to such good working relationships.
How would you describe the sound you create? (In more than one word genres please)
Yeah, I usually just use a string of genres or adjectives. Experimental ambient ethereal electronics noise was a good one. Although I don't know how "experimental" the project is at this point, we pretty much know what we're doing! I like to create lush, ethereal sounds. Strings, voice, maybe like something you've heard before but played through a long pipe sticking out into an empty concert hall and you're behind heavy velvet curtains. Underwater. And blindfolded.
You write on your MySpace (sorry to keep yanking stuff from there but you have a lot of interesting stuff written) that "headphones are strongly recommended." Would you say its better to hear your music live or in a recording?
Lately I think our shows have been pretty damned good places to hear it! We played the Elbo Room here in Chicago and it was just ridiculously loud, but very clear. For the CDs, though, I think headphones are a good way to go. For the previous albums, I've recorded all of them with headphones, so they were really meant to be heard that way.
The next one will probably be less so, although we've been doing final mix-downs with headphones. It's always going to be a different experience, though, because there are always things we won't be able to reproduce live. And I HATE laptop shows, where it's just guys sitting at a table checking their e-mail. Or that's how it looks, anyway, and no matter how good the music is that gets really boring. So we'll have a laptop at the show, but we'll also be playing synths, theremins, guitars, whatever else we feel like including. There is a distinct possibility that a saxophone might be involved at some point.
In general then, which way is better to hear music? Live or recording?
I listen to a lot of music at home, but lately I've started to fall in love with concerts again. A little over a year ago, I saw Starflyer 59 at Schuba's. I hadn't seen them for years, they've been one of my favorite bands ever since their first album, and their set reminded me why I love music. Why I love going to shows and hearing bands play live, and it made me want to finally really DO it myself.
I think they both have pros and cons, obviously, but if I can get a chance to see a favorite band play live I try to jump on it if at all possible. I finally got to see Guitar Wolf last year, and it was unbelievable. All the years I'd listened to their albums didn't prepare me for what that was going to be like, and I'll never forget it.
Are you close with any other bands in Chicago?
Well, we've only been doing shows for a couple of months, so we're still kind of working on building up relationships with other bands. Mark Solotroff from Bloodyminded has been a huge help, I see them whenever I get a chance. Scott Cortez from lovesliescrushing has a band with Shannon Roberts called STAR that's really good, we're trying to work on getting some shows together (fingers crossed). Firelight Rising are awesome people, they played and set up the Elbo Room show with us and 0+1=Everything and I hope we can do it again sometime. Dan from Beast What Squeaks is helping us get some shows together, he's really cool.
There are a ton of great bands here, and hopefully we eventually get a chance to play with them. We're working on it!
How would you describe the music scene in Chicago at present?
I don't know if I'm really the person to ask about it, I'm still very much just on the periphery of
things and now that I have a job it's hard to keep up with everyone. The experimental/electronics scene seems really fractured, lots of little groups and not a lot of direction. It's frustrating when two or three local shows are going on at the same time on the same night, and that happens fairly often.
That said, though, it's kind of complaining about too much of a good thing-- there ARE a ton of great bands and artists here, and there's something going on somewhere every night of the week.
Is the band self-sufficient finance-wise or are day jobs required?
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh out loud at that question. No, no. God, no. The band makes basically zero money-- we've gotten paid a little bit at a couple of shows, but it's tough to get people to come out to see some band they've never heard of. We're working on getting more people out to the shows, so maybe that will help with getting paid now and then, but we definitely have day jobs and certainly will keep them for the foreseeable future. Good one!
What direction would you like Anaphylaxis going in the future?
More collaborative, more structured, certainly. I think the stuff I want to do for the next record is kind of the very edge of what I want to do and still call it Anaphylaxis. I've started a new project that might end up being the weirdo side project to Anaphylaxis' pop band, we'll see how that goes.
I've typed Anaphylaxis several times now, and each time I fail to spell it right the first time. So I gotta ask, what does the name mean? Does it have any other significance besides a name that fans will look twice at?
Well, anaphylactic shock is a state of violent allergic reaction to some stimulus, often peanuts or bee stings, etc. I chose the name long before I started recording anything, which is the way I usually work. How and why are incredibly boring, so I encourage anyone who is curious to make something up and you're more or less guaranteed a better story.
I've noticed that you have a theme of vintage artwork on your website, any reason for this choice?
Early on it was for a few different reasons--first, because I love that sort of artwork. The Magnetic Fields' record "Holiday" was basically THE blueprint for the look of the website and the CDs. I just love that look. I also chose it partially because the noise scene was (still is) plagued by this obsession with crime scene photos and pornography that always worked on my nerves.
I understand that noise is more often than not inherently aggressive-sounding to many people. Just the act of creating noise is often used to provoke. However, the noise-- that is, the sound itself—is actually completely abstract. Branding noise with ever-more-extreme porno packaging and gore imagery just seemed like ridiculous one-upping, a pissing contest. So I picked imagery that I was obsessed with, this innocent Americana advertising-type look from the 20s through the 50s, and used that as a sort of response.
Could you explain the "cross promotional sponsorship" concerning Andrew Horton and Synthesizers.com?
That's just sort of a joke I put on the MySpace page. Andrew really is building a modular synth from Synthesizers.com-- you can see it at bleepsandbloops.livejournal.com-- but there's not any sort of official sponsorship going on. We're just big nerds who like stuff. And, for me anyway, I'm looking for my opportunity to sell out for that corporate money and I'm on it.
Would you still want to be doing this 20, 30, or 40 years from now?
I'm not sure I have a choice. I feel compelled to record this stuff, and I do truly enjoy it, so yeah, I hope I'm still doing something like this years and years from now.
What has been the best experience for you with Anaphylaxis?
I've had a lot of really good experiences with Anaphylaxis. I think the first real high point was when Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric remixed an Anaphylaxis track, that was incredibly exciting. The second Cornerstone show was great, me and six friends up on this big stage making an enormous racket. I've met a ton of amazing people I might not have otherwise, and a putting on a really good show feels awesome.
So, yeah. Good times.
Has it all been worth it up to now?
Absolutely.
(Published at LosingToday)
posted by Michael Schmitt
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