Your music sounds amazing and captivating. What or who inspired you to create Shining Fields?
Thank you! I've been amazed with the feedback and responses I've been getting for the new release. The idea for Shining Fields comes out of my other recording project, Proud/Father which I've been releasing music and performing as since about 2009. In 2012 I released a tape called Hearu Shi no Proud Father which is a really incorrect translation of The Glorious Death of Proud Father. That album has a track named Shining Fields on the first side. The album was supposed to mark the end of PF and my shift into Shining Fields, but PF became a bit more active the year after its release and I put off changing the name.
During 2019 I finally committed to recording and performing as Shining Fields doing music with vocals and more structured songs as opposed to the purely experimental and drone music of PF. I did a few shows of more shoegaze style songs, but when lockdown occurred I decided to make Shining Fields my main project instead of an offshoot of PF.
The creation of Honey Locust was very inspired by Bristol bands of the 90’s, especially Flying Saucer Attack, Crescent, and Movietone. I always loved how this community of musicians very separate from London and even the Trip-Hop explosion in their city created this very intimate psychedelic music with modest means and heaps of creativity. Tascams, cheap mics, used guitars and pedals creating a psychedelic sound that pulled from their record collections but also sounded extremely modern in approach. I wanted to record two tracks inspired by that music and time period without trying to be too nostalgic, paying tribute in one sense and exploring my own songwriting and atmosphere creation in another.
Your first release as SF, “Honey Locust”, is definitely a lo-fi shoegaze masterpiece, I’d say. It creates an impressive atmosphere. How does your creative process look like?
It definitely came out better than I expected! I have to credit Sharon, who mixed and mastered the album, as she really brought the tracks to life. She was familiar with the music and understood what I was going for, giving the tracks a clarity and depth I was hoping to achieve. Her studio Punctum Stans is in CDMX and they do amazing work. My creative process varies depending on what kind of music I’m recording. I usually start with guitar loops or synth sequences and drums, process those with effect pedals and lexicon boxes, and then lay that down as a track on the Tascam. I usually work up from there, adding manipulated samples, tape loops, synth textures, bass guitar, and field recordings. If the track requires vocals I add them last. Creatively I take inspiration from movies, books, and music I'm listening to but mostly day to day experiences and the atmosphere of New Orleans and Southern Louisiana.
It's not always transparent in my music but I regularly try to recreate feelings I have moving through the city, where there is a certain meeting point between the dilapidated architecture and vividness of life and colors. I take field recordings in the city often with the intention of manipulating them later for recordings which serves as a sort of audio record, although they're often unrecognizable by the time I'm done mixing. Honey Locust took major inspiration from the tree of the same name which is found in Southeast Louisiana and much of the eastern United States. They grow giant pods and thorn clusters that look out of time next to other trees, almost prehistoric in their size. As it turns out, these thorn clusters were most likely an evolutionary defense against the American Mastodon to keep them from putting their bodies on the tree to reach the pods high up.
Even with the Mastodon and other megafauna extinct the evolutionary timeline has been relatively short enough that the Honey Locust has not lost its defenses. It's just one theory about the trees but I was deeply fascinated by the concept of the vestigial thorns and after I was able to find one in the large City Park by my house I started taking photos to match the music I was writing and recording.
How do you create your music? What kind of tools or methods do you use?
Since I started recording music as Proud/Father the creation process has always revolved around cassettes. I acquired my first 4-track in high school and used it for the next few years putting down songs and ambient soundpieces and became obsessed with capturing audio through microcassette recorders. I was playing traditional instruments less and was fully immersed in the linear element of tape recording where the entire song or song series can flow together like a narrative. When I was putting out the first PF releases I was mostly working with a mix of softsynths, tape loops, guitar pedals, and a few noisemakers. The Korg Kaoss Pad and an MFOS Minisynth became essential parts of my setu. I used the Kaoss Pad for sampling and sample manipulation for many releases while pulling samples from interviews, movies, field recordings, and shortwave radio.
Recording as Shining Fields follows a lot of the same patterns as my recording for PF but I've fleshed out the electronic elements which have always been present. The upcoming releases will most likely display more drum machines and synthesizers albeit in the vein of early Cabaret Voltaire or Kevin Harrison than modern music. Everything is still recorded to 4-track and then mixed and mastered digitally, if needed. Sometimes I'm lucky and the only thing the tape needs is a tiny bit of limiting once it's converted.
Honey Locust was a different process entirely utilizing live drums, guitar, bass, and vocals for the title track. The drums were recorded with a zoom recorder at a practice space I was using with no close miking, only the room sound. After that I overdubbed the guitar, bass, vocals, and feedback at home straight to tape. I wanted to explore songwriting a bit more with this release and do something inspired by the guitar music from Bristol I admire while still having it create a total soundscape of feedback and ambience in the same way FSA and Crescent were able to do. It was somewhat of a one off experiment but I hope to record a full album of similar material in the future.
When was the last time that music history changed significantly? What is your opinion on that?
I feel that there is an ongoing change in music occurring now that's drastically shaping many musicians and artists' approach to creation and distribution. Being able to hear new music online and distribute your own music through the internet was a major shift for all independent musicians, somewhat of a spiritual successor to tape trading and independent magazines for finding out about independent artists and acquiring their music directly. This model has worked so well that its superseded traditional forms of distribution and industry models. Finding like minded individuals all over the world to connect with about music and share music with felt very natural and approachable until it didn't. For the most part blogs, forums, and independent music websites have been replaced by social media platforms and uniform structures of sharing and promoting music. Even the album format seems to be secondary now to the cycle of digital singles and EP’s which to me seem part of an outdated mode taken from music charts and major labels. Social media, video, and music platforms initially seemed very open to any type of creation and communication but now feel homogenized and linear. The youtube algorithm is a great example, where it seems designed to suggest content based on revenue rather than similarity which unintentionally but accurately filters out any videos straying too far from what is “approved”.
I meet a lot of musicians who still have a DIY approach to creation, distribution, and performance but I also meet many who see releasing music and acquiring a fanbase as a formula based around content creation with generic music videos and social media posts. Even outlier musicians and strange music feels commodified in many ways. I think of artists as more than “content creators” and try to experience art and music outside of a timeline of technology and advertisement, but this is also the reality of contemporary music and the exchange of expression
Besides music, what are some other topics that interest you or inspire you?
Besides music I’m very interested in history and movies. When I read fiction or nonfiction I always contextualize it through history and add more details to the map of time in my head. Sometimes I think my internal understanding of time and reality is very much like the linear path of tape which I roll back and forth to add more details or connect different events. I enjoy watching movies and that's another way I connect dots but I'm not a cinephile by any means. I have phases of trying to find movies of different directors or specific genres and rewatch horror films I enjoy. I've been getting back into graphic design which is something I picked up when I was younger and mostly developed as a companion to my music and performances.
How do you balance your time as an indie artist?
It can definitely be a struggle! I just finished grad school and that had taken precedence over recording and releasing music for about two years although I was able to resume performing after lockdown and pre-vaccine Covid restrictions. Being a solo artist certainly isn't an oddity in this day and age but it does leave me figuring out all elements of my music and art including videos and flyers for performances. I tend to book most of the shows I play here in New Orleans as my friends on tour come through the city. I try to dedicate a little bit of time every other evening to working on music, going over old recordings, mixing, and editing but it can still be a struggle as other much less expressionistic parts of my life take precedence. I take music creation and performance seriously but financially I still think of it as a hobby and try to be as thrifty as possible in terms of gear and physical releases. I'm currently splitting my time between working in a record store here called No Pulp and teaching music lessons at a shop, so luckily I'm able to still take inspiration and discover new music and ideas on the clock sometimes! I always try to make sure there is time dedicated to sitting in front of my equipment and channeling something new.
...and finally, what are some of the projects or plans that you have in mind for the near future?
This year I'm hoping to finish a few music videos for the two tracks from Honey Locust and release an LP as Shining Fields with some tracks I've been working on for quite some time. The album is going to be called Graveyard of Memories and have a more abstract and experimental feel.
I'm hoping to finish another release for Proud/Father called Tower to Surpass the Clouds which is fully electronic with tracks of drone, industrial, and synth sketches with a non instrumental tracks for good measure.
There will be more shoegaze recordings as well but those are still in the writing stage. I have more live shows coming up and I'm hoping to possibly play a few out of town in July and August. I also have a short film called Old Way I made with my friends in Empty Model that I would like to finish editing and release. I performed it with a live soundtrack several times earlier in the year but I've put off adding the final touches and recorded soundtrack, but hopefully for not much longer.
photo credit: Christa Ougel (pic1)
