ANNOUNCING HVR-103 RECORDED BY PLAKE 64 & THE HEXAGRAMS
AND THE SODDEN CIRCUMSTANCES OF AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ALEX HOMAN
by Jingle Brggnheimendal
PR Special Correspondent
HVR founder Matt Lewicki was expecting me at an agreed-upon cafe in Washington, DC somewhere around 10:30 pm on the 9th of January, 2016, however, following the unexpected addition of heavy rain, and further, an infuriating juxtaposition of exceedingly timid and exceedingly arrogant drivers with whom I was forced to share wide highways, my arrival timed out around 11:05 pm, whereupon I had the pleasure of lingering in said cafe whilst the employed duo cleaned up and closed. I was leveraged following my insistence that I transport Matthew home a dry space to wait: this was the front of the cafe, as well as the 1 by 2 foot dry space outside the door where I leaned against the window, smoked a bummed Camel, and talked to a young woman who was attempting with manic persistence to guide her driver to our location. She stood in a thin sidewalk-cover of rainwater supported by a pair of kids-yogurt-colored flip flops. She explained that she’d been drinking mimosas next door during the application of a pedicure and asked me whether the cafe was open, eying the dry tiled floor of the elite side of the glass. “No,” I said, and slowed the smoking of my cigarette, knowing that now I couldn’t rightly return inside until the woman’s ride came. Soon, she hailed a woman via mobile phone and slogged off in the direction of a silver SUV pulling up in front of the salon next door.
I was then flipping through the contents of the closing cafe’s bookshelf—a lush selection selected by the psilocybin champion who owns the place. It was a selection of encyclopedias of the mythical and the occult. Some of the books were less objective than others. Then before I knew it, Matt Lewicki and I were parking and approaching on foot the HVR Global Headquarters in Dupont Circle. The HVR Global Headquarters (currently not open to the public, though private tours are not unprecedented) consist of one (1) concrete staircase for cigarette smoking and heart-to-heart discussion, one (1) vestibule where a front door may be unlocked leading into one (1) lobby complete with mailbox and security portal….upon passing through which one will discover the high ceilings of the Main Office—a multifaceted work/think-place—among other things, some of the things found here include a sticker trunk, an eagle wingspan record collection, drum machine, synth, homemade workbench with printouts and bone folders for HVR packaging, a picnic-style thinktable, several screens for web communication, video games, promotional band posters, and state park maps. Matt and I arrived here at something like 11:30, and split a six pack of Beazly beers courtesy of Brewer’s Art in HVR’s home city of Baltimore. There was talk of strategy and preliminary planning, but the main meeting would take place on the following day—
10th January, 2016—WASH. DC
A number of local haunts were shown to me by the HVR staff and I sampled empanadas and black coffee up and down the streets surrounding the Global Office. The early morning had passed in a blur of tap water, many glasses. The proprietor of the liquor store near Dupont Circle was happy to see us again when we returned, dodging anxious football watchers pre-game. When we received the message via mobile phone that the Baltimore faction was approaching, we met them in the street and on the stoop of the Global Office. Alex Homan and And Scotti embraced us and the HVR Gem started blinking. We transformed and headed into the office. Following several years of work, Alex has completed his new album entitled “COMEDY” and it is now available on his website for PLAKE 64 AND THE HEXAGRAMS as well as the HVR website. I lingered for a time in the white-walled bathroom, and then took a long nap on the turquoise armchair. When I woke up I poured a drink and sat down with Alex Homan to learn about his new album “COMEDY.”
Stream or Buy Comedy
Interview below
Alexander Gregory Homan: British Tar~ I’m just kidding. So uh….
Writer: Are you ready to discuss…?
I’m ready to begin. Lemme know your questions.
Let’s drink to your new album here.
Here we go. Cheers. I’m drinking gin. I’m drinking his froth mixed with that.
Hair of the dog.
Hair of the. Well in my experience, Hairy, it’s been Dog of the Hair that bit me, not the Hair of the Dog. That’s just my personal….
I’d like to read a quote here now from your new album entitled Comedy: “Comedy.” Would you care to comment on that quote from your new album, Comedy?
Well, yeah. It’s actually the quote upon which the album itself in its entirety—as a complete item—in a singular-unit sense—is named after, but it’s actually part of a longer quote. Much longer quote. There’s actually four more words, I think. Or more. Four or more words. They’re: “Comedy Is About Timing, Son. You gotta,”—and then it proposes a twofold plan—“You gotta get em,” followed by “You gotta tell em.” To which you reply, “No, I…,” and then the loop resets itself. And that’s basically what the entire tape is. On repeat. With some other shit sprinkled in there.
And can you tell us why you chose to name the album Comedy?
…. Comedy contrasts to Tragedy. That’s the traditional spectrum, on one sides it’s comedy and the other side tragedy. A lot of times tragedy can appear… can have many forms. And one of the most interesting forms of tragedy to me is comedy. It can appear as comedy in this really interesting, sort of roundabout way. Something that could be a complete tragedy could be funny in a cosmic context. In the sense that we’re fuckin worried about this person calling me back when… certain destruction is around the corner at all times. There’s a meteorite or there’s climate change or there’s terrorists…. Because that’s the reality of earth. Because it’s gonna be our own prejudices that destroy us. And that’s kinda funny. In a fucked up way. The only thing that I’m aware of…. And I’m not guaranteed car insurance, or health insurance, I’m not guaranteed shoes….. The only thing I definitely have coming to me in my life… is my death. So that kinda makes it funny if you use those words to describe it, because you can call it funny or you can call it sad, but it depends on the words you choose, yknow, and the words you choose are probably based on your perspectives on life and stuff like that, but. Comedy is almost a neutral thing to me, in that it’s neither funny nor sad, it’s neither comedy nor tragedy…. And since I had this massive accumulation of all these sounds, I decided, hey wouldn’t it be funny if I put it on a tape? Comedy. It timed out well. And that’s why its two hours long, too, that’s the other…. it wouldn’t be funny if it was 30 minutes long but it would be funny if it was 2 hours. So, it is. So there you go.
What do you do when you’re in the studio and the tape does not reset itself? When the loop doesn’t loop?
The tape actually doesn’t loop itself. It’s really interesting the way it worked out is that a lot of what you’re hearing on the tape is kind of a cumulation. I have this little device that records. It’s like a little lawyer…it’s a little pocket…it’s like you put it in your pocket when you’re in court to record your opponents fucking up on tape. Except it’s digital; there’s actually no tape involved in the recording process. Some of it was recorded on an iPad that was not mine—it way my ex-girlfriend’s. Also recorded some other shit—I used to work the door at The Crown and I would record comedy sets and music sets and noise sets and dumb sets and good sets…. All kinds of sets is my point. And then have it be. So when the tape doesn’t respond or when the tape doesn’t do the thing that you said it’s because there is no tape. It’s all digital. The only time the tape comes into it is when I put it on, I play the tracks. I loop them by hand. I hit play and record at the same time, and stop, and then rewind it, and hit record and play at the same time and loop it like that. So i kinda had to force it to work, and it did, because it’s a tape and I’m its master.
In some ways it seems like that’s one of the main themes of the album; sort of the stripping away of the seeming power of electronic music devices by showing them used in a comedic setting.
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s certainly. There are no conventional instruments, all things considered. Now there are conventional instruments on the actual recording. Like I’ll be sitting at the door and I’ll be collecting seven dollars or six dollars or five dollars from people coming in. And I don’t do this anymore, but at that time…. And again these are all sounds that are accumulated over the past four years. So within the last four years I’ve like worked the door and I’d be sitting there with absolutely nothing to do and wishing that some like really beautiful person would like start flirting with me and when that doesn’t happen—good news—I got my handy dandy recorder. I can whip it out and record the bands…. I recorded Lexi Mountain, that was included on it. So if a band was playing an instrument I recorded it but when I actually made this tape—when I sat down to collect this tape together—and the sounds for it—there were no actual instruments just recordings of instruments kind of accumulated over a large span of time.
The final track is one of my favorites, it’s entitled “Plake Radio,” can you talk about what inspired you to record this Plake Radio?
I can, yeah, absolutely. Plake Radio was actually probably the oldest element of the entire tape. I technically posted it online, nobody listened to it, it was cool. [chuckling, laughing] People are still not gonna listen to it but that part…. That was recorded at the same exact time that I recorded two other things, when I was living at my mom’s house…. I made one grouping of songs called “Experimental Babies at the breast of the psychedelic mother” and the other was called “Happy Happy Cult” and it was very sound-collage-y and I was using a very similar process that I repeated for this but the Plake Radio aspect was kind of something that was born out of making those recordings years ago. I wrote kind of minimal scripts and came up with characters and ideas…. And so I was really fucked up and made these comic… the idea is you’re switching through the channel, even though it’s all on the same station. It’s all the same station it’s just like different points in time. So you’re switching through time, not actual bandwidth. So it kind a works in a more warped version of reality. It was all kind of the same programming. At one point a black point opens to valhalla and sucks down Delaware Dan and everyone. Delaware Dan’s a spokesperson and he makes a lot of appearances on the album actually, believe it or not.
Do you have any news to share with your fans who might’ve become familiar with you and your work with the Noise Detective radio program?
Well…we were just talking about that on our cigarette break not too long ago. [coughs] You always have to have a pivotal cough in an interview for it to be an interview. I’m interviewing. [coughs] But—Yeah, I do have news: Season Two’s coming out. It’s like on the fuckin charts. 2016. It’s happening. Not sure when, not sure how, not sure why, other than that it needs to happen, I been talking about it for too goddamn long. Spent a huge amount of time being sober this year and wasting my time as a result. Not getting anything done. I got some stuff done like being able to afford shit. That was dope. Gonna go back to that in that regard but I’m not gonna stop gettin fucked up because we need Noise Detective in the world and there’s no Noise Detective without getting fucked up, I’m just gonna be blunt about that. Noise Detective was a lot of fun. it’s something that could go on, just gotta be a little more disciprinned with it and use some disciprin and precision, as Sun Ra says. Really get the tip on the mark there…. Put it down in the dirt.
I’m sure there’ll be some middle school kids who’ll be really excited to hear that when this airs.
I would hope so, more for their sake than anybody else’s. Its kind of… uh… yknow… you’re missing out on something you should be missing out on. So.
And of course there’s the Alex Homan Plake Impersonation videos are pouring in from all across the world, every corner of the internet….
4Chan…. Reddit…. Tumblr…. Fuckin Facebook now…. There’s a Facebook group.
They say that Zeni Optical’s stock is rising faster now than ever before.
It is. It actually is. Funny because I stopped buying Zeni Optical on account of unknown reasons. Unknownst even to myself. Or I so to speak. So, yknow, thats one of those interesting things. The main thing is that Delaware Dan will also be making a lot more appearances henceforth. for those who aren’t familiar with Delaware Dan he’s a guy and if you live in Delaware the radios on at the liquor store, or in Acme, or in any kinda grocery store, or at the liquor store, if, they don’t sell groceries and liquors together, but, they do have a radio that you can hear and it’s like anything…. It’s the same radio you hear in your car or your house and it’s playing everywhere at all times and theres this guy supposedly named Delaware Dan and he’s supposed to be selling you and your family a used car for a fairly decent…. I mean a fair deal, not like the best deal but yknow, like…. Most of the people got laid of from DuPont they can’t afford the next lexus so they have like last year’s lexus for like a little bit less and…. It’s chill. But you and your family need a new car. So the thing is this other Delaware Dan popped up confronting the original Delaware Dan as an imposter. And I happen to know this guy. Because he’s me…. But I don’t know that. So in my sort of delusionaly world he could just walk in the room and be like,
Howdy fokes ahm Delawee Dane. Due yinyr family suffer from lacking beer awna Sunday during the hours of six and nine when the traffic is reversed on the rude going in towards the monument? That kind of looks like a codpiece that your brother used to portray his penis while hitting on a girl who took his picture selfie on Facebook… in 2013… because he was on a field trip and had nothing better to do? No problem! Delaweh Dan we’ll help yur fame lee get through this struggle. Call 302420666-666-6669-20-420- EXT. CALL NOW
And I’m sure we all saw the headline today that Delaware Dan has announced his candidacy in the GOP 2016 presidential race….
Yeah. His cannabicy will be added to the GOP. Um. I don’t have details about it but it’s also going to coincide with Delaware Dan’s conversion to Islam…. So its gonna be really interesting seeing Delaware Dan running as a GOP candidate as a GOP cannabis but also to be Islam…. I think he’s going to propose some kind of act of some sort…. Not really sure what it is… I think there’s some references there to shows like “Homeland” or “911 World Trade Center” starring Nicolas Cage. And other kinda stuff. We’ll just have to see how it goes because you know how the GOP goes. Is that they don’t really. They hate Islam. Just puttin it out there. I I I don’t think they would disagree. Their religion is to say, “I hate islam, and let’s make TV shows like ‘Homeland’ to support this viewpoint,” and that’s why we’re in the heart of capitalism. We’re in the heart of capitalism here, and you can’t really ignore what you see. And when shit is like being filmed and they can’t shoot it in DC cause they have to shoot it in Baltimore cause it’s less law-like, then it makes sense if you’re trying to cut costs on production because, at the end of the day you got the numbers in front of you and there’s, there’s your numbers and their numbers, and whoever has the higher numbers wins, and that’s basically how that works. And my understanding of commerce and you know, moving the funds through the accounts and you know, vacations and shit, and pensions, and 401ks, it’s…. Running a corporation is not the easiest thing in the world! So… I totally get it. But I also don’t hate Islam, so. I don’t get that part of it. But Delaware Dan will be running as a GOP candidate, and you know, we’ll see how it goes. I think he would make a better candidate than Trump, my personal opinion, and, yknow, some people disagree, like my dad…. My dad believes that Trump is saying all these really good things, all the things that people wanna be saying but can’t. I’m saying, that Delaware Dan is saying, “Fuck you, you and your family need help, and here are some ways, and I don’t know where to start, so I’m gonna start at the bottom, GOP, and maybe next year maybe he’ll run independent, and then the year after that he’ll go Democrat. So I don’t know. We’ll have to find out. I’ll have to be in email correspondence with him. He texted me yesterday but it was an inappropriate thing I’m not gonna repeat right now, but it was good.
Well thanks for joining us today, Mr. Plake and Alex Homan….
And behind me I got all the hexagrams…. There’re 64 of them, so. Actually I copied myself 63 times so there are 64 Plakes and the Hexagrams are like the 3 extra band members. So there’s 67 band members in place 64 and the Hexagrams at any given moment. It’s crazy. If you add 6 plus 7…. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. You get 13. Which is a lucky number actually. Contrary to popular belief, that’s a good number. It actually works out really well, for everybody. So yeah, that’s where we are now. So stay tuned. Enjoy “Comedy.” It’s technically 4 years in the making, but who’s counting?
