∆AIMON Interview
https://soundcloud.com/aaimon/seraphim
∆AIMON, to me has always been on the forefront of what I consider the first wave of the witch house movement. With the release of your first full length album on Artoffact Records, do you feel that you have come a long way in the genre?
It's difficult to place the ∆AIMON project within any definitive genre label for us. We absolutely came into the scene through the witch house movement and are still very grateful for the incredible friendships and creative allies we've made within that circle, however we've always fought against confining our sound within any appointed limitations. We are extremely happy with the direction our musical career has gone and especially with how receptive everyone has been of us doing things our own way. A lot of the early witch house artists have gone to efforts to distance themselves from the witch house name for various reasons, so I feel it's important for us to say that we don't find any conflict in whether or not we're considered witch house as long as it’s clear that we aren't tailoring our music to any preconceived ideas of how it should sound.
How do you think the internet has shaped the possibilities of new genres such as witch house?
Our own personal experience has shown us that it's absolutely necessary for the growth and cultivation of new scenes and genres. A lot of the criticism with witch house revolved around it being a re-hashing or trending of older music that has been around for years. That's definitely true to an extent but rather than it being a negative aspect to us, we see it as artists recognizing like-minded individuals sharing in an enthusiasm for and re-appropriating of dark electronic music within the larger context of wide-set influences. The internet gives us access points for these artists to find each other and plays an extremely pivotal role in these genres even existing.
What inspirations did you draw from for the self titled release?
Most notably, we were greatly inspired by interactions with our fans at the live shows and festivals we've performed at. It gave us a new perspective on how intimately we want to connect with our followers. That has had a large impact on how personal the record became, thematically as well as the production elements (less reverb, more distinct drum sounds, etc.). The mood of the record was also very inspired by visual media such as Lars von Trier and Tarkovsky films. Musically we've been re-exploring our noise, experimental, and trip-hop interests which have definitely shaped the style of our new material.
Would you say that this album has a general theme?
There's definitely a cohesive aesthetic to the album, though not so much to where it's a full concept. The songs themselves all work individually as their own pieces, but we developed them within the framework of the album so that there's the appropriate amount of dynamics and theme within the over-arching flow. We always try to keep a consistent imagery or style within each release to tie everything together and I feel we did a decent job of keeping to that with the album. If I had to describe the theme, I'm not sure I'd be able to properly nail it down, but overall we really wanted a more exposed and honest portrayal of ourselves. This includes the dark and the light, and the importance of balance between both.
Can you describe your writing process for a new track?
We usually start with an idea of what sort of impression we want the track to have. If it's a darker, slower song we'll build it up from drone and ambient layers to give the track the mood we're after. More beat oriented songs will start with the main structure and drums mapped out. The two of us pass ideas back and forth and will give feedback until we land on something we both like. Often-times we'll have a melody or piano piece that we will structure a song around as well. After that we usually record vocals last so that we can experiment with what vocal delivery style fits best within the emotional context of the music.
There has been a wave recently of new and impressive hardware synthesizers released over the last few years - are you excited about any of these and how do you think that the new push for analog synthesizers will change the direction of music?
We're always excited about new gear but our music tends to be extremely methodical. There's a certain level of unpredictability with analog that we shy away from, but at the same time we really love exploring new ways of creating sounds and evoking emotions. With hardware we usually have a workflow that involves recording a lot of textures and samples or full parts that are then resequenced through our DAW (Logic) into a structure that fits our interest. With that in mind there's definitely an appealing tactile interaction with hardware that lends itself extremely well to experimentation. We've been really satisfied with the addition of the Moog Minitaur into our set recently and would love to play around with the Arturia Brute series as well.
Do you have any plans to take ∆AIMON on the road?
Unfortunately we don't have any specific plans outside of one-off shows. It's definitely a goal of ours to promote the new record by doing some touring though, so hopefully we'll get to play a few cities in 2014. It may end up being a lot of single shows here and there where time permits, but we definitely want to travel and meet our fans and online friends as much as possible.
If you could choose anyone to go on tour with, who would it be (from any point in history)?
That's a great question. The artistic side of us would love to tour with artists like Throbbing Gristle, COIL, or Ulver because of the depth of expression and emotion they carry, but we've had such great reactions from house-parties and DIY spaces that I think a tour in that vein would be really amazing. So maybe a group tour with our artist friends who are more in touch with the current underground would have the really intense energy we like. Something sweaty, dark, and overwhelming with waves of anxiety. We’re open to suggestions…
If someone gave you 1 million dollars to use only on music related business - what would you do with it?
Hmmm. I think we’d have to build ourselves a hide-away studio retreat filled with all the appropriate gear for immersive recording. We dream of isolating ourselves with art and collaborators in a space designed solely for creating. Perhaps opening it to the public for special events. I imagine it a bit like Warhol’s Factory… Otherwise, we could easily spend it traveling to perform all over the world wherever our fans request. As we said earlier, we would love to explore further and meet our amazing supporters and friends from online.
As 2013 draws to a close there is no short supply of brilliant releases, what have been your top 5 favorite albums of 2013?
This year has indeed been an amazing one for releases. Almost to the point of feeling it too daunting a task to try and select favorites. We’ve also spent a huge portion of the year working on our own album so we’re definitely still catching up on a ton of releases we missed earlier. A few we’ve had on play quite a bit that immediately come to mind would be: Corrections House - Last City Zero, Chelsea Wolfe - Pain is Beauty, Bestial Mouths - Bestial Mouths, Ulver - Messe I.X - VI.X, and CREEP - ECHOES.
Pick up the album now: http://www.stormingthebase.com/aimon-aimon-limited-2cd/