The Feeder - "Locus of Variation" (Terra Australis Incognita Volume II)

- What led you to playing this kind of music?
I guess I’ve been playing music in some loose form since I was about 12. It wasn’t until I was 16 though that I really began to even like music. I started out as a metal head. This led to an appreciation of extreme sound. It was at this point that I started recording music with the intent to be as inhumanly extreme as possible. Lacking in vision perhaps but it suited me at the time. From the age of about 19 and up I started exploring other styles such as free jazz, noise, country, blues. In the last few years my interests have been primarily aimed towards Electro-acoustics, free-folk, improv and sound art. The music I’m making now can be seen as a result of the stew of influences mentioned above.

-What equipment/instruments/software/set up do you use?
The Feeder is primarily made using manipulated field recordings. So I guess my main piece of equipment is a microphone. These field recordings typically get edited then manipulated in some way using a program such as the wonderful Audio Mulch. I also utilise samples that I find on old records. Tracks are usually constructed in a simple wave editor. I use Cool Edit for this purpose.

-With Locus of Variation, what effect were you intending to have on the listener?
I should be careful how I answer this because I could go on for pages. Locus of Variation is the first The Feeder recording made using new methods. Briefly speaking, I was trying to implement a more textural approach. With LoV what I was trying to do was create a very deliberate environment for each track. Each sound was used as a character or object within the sound environment and worked toward the "total" sound. So essentially, the intended effect was to transport the listener into these invented locations. I don’t want the individual tracks remembered so much as I’d like the way the listener felt during the tracks to be remembered.

-The earlier Feeder recordings I have heard are more noise/electronics based. You seem to be taking a more subdued, sparser direction with Locus of Variation and also your impressive Ghost CD. Can you tell us about this?
Most of The Feeder output to date worked toward telling a story, or more accurately, toward conveying a message. It hardly seems original but the earlier sheer noise-oriented material was the result of anger and frustration. It wasn’t originally intended to go any further than perhaps a 3" CD or two. The message begins with As Your Deathweed Blooms and continues via Pipe and Failure to Act, ending with Ghost. The first two 3" CD’s were simply a way of explaining that the world that we’ve created for ourselves can’t support us in any meaningful way. Failure to Act is just that, the Failure to Act in any way to better anything. Ghost is the result of the first 3 albums. A cold, dead recording haunted by the shadows of our former selves. The sparser directions seemed like the logical conclusion to what had taken place before it. I’m also a huge fan of Electro-acoustic music so it was just a matter of time before it was incorporated into what I was doing.

-What’s next for you musically?
It’s hard to say. I’m working on another full-length album for Smell the Stench due out later this year. I’m hoping to also get some live performances down the hatch. I don’t know where I want to take my music at this point. I know that I want to devote more time into what I’m doing. I’m actually wondering if perhaps I should drop "The Feeder" moniker. To be honest, I’m just not that angry! Time will tell. I view Ghost as a conclusion and any recordings made after it as something completely new and not tied down to some "grand idea". Locus of Variation is the first step in a rebirth.

Discography

As Your Deathweed Blooms 3"CDR (2004)
Pipe 3"CDR (2004)
Split with Gemini - Storms CDR (2004)
Split with SCREWTAPE - Failure to Act CDR (2005)
Ghost CDR (2005)
Split with Goodbread - s/t CDR(2005)
Scrapings from a Lucid Layer EP (2005)
Locus of Variation EP (2005)