ATEX: You’ve been at this project a number of years now. How did you get started playing music? Were there other instruments before synthesis?
Mic Finger: Yes, it’s been 10 years, at least jamming together, as of this past August or September, but we didn’t deter mine how to approach this as a project for a while. I didn’t play any other instruments before working with electronics. I got a Roland XP-60 synth when I was 17 followed by a Korg Electribe ES-1 a couple of years later, and I didn’t really work with any other instruments or equipment (apart from some effects units, radios, and various objects) until over a decade later. I still sample and rebuild old sequences that I’d originally created on the ES-1.
Ariel Johannessen: I started playing clarinet and drums in Jr. high, the latter on my own. The neighbors didn’t really dig my stabs at trying to play along with my faves of the day. Drum solos aren’t something I seek out too much, and rank amateur hour is asking a lot of those within earshot. I got better but eventually realized that it’s rather difficult to compose on a trap kit, so I eventually got a synth. Took a bit to translate what was in my head, but I fairly quickly learned to how to program, so that helped, as did an electronic music class I had in college, which had an old, old Moog, an early ARP, a DX7 and some horribly designed sampler that even the class professor didn’t know how to program.
ATEX: How did you wind up playing together?
MF: I had been posting Craigslist adds looking for a percussionist to potentially work with my project at the time, and, one morning, Ariel responded. We met up for a couple of beers that afternoon, and he brought various hand drums and, I think, his AN1x (although it could have been the DX7?) over to my studio a few days later. We started improvising these ephemeral, sort of murky, densely-textured pieces that informed the direction we would gradually pursue over the next year or so. We never really investigated the percussion angle, and, from the beginning, it was clear that if we were going to work on something together it would be its own thing and not connected to my previous project.
AJ: Probably the DX, but I’m a bit fuzzy, to be honest.
ATEX: Did you have a lot of musical influences in common, or did you both bring different things to the table and make it work?
AJ: I would say that we generally align with any number of electronic artists of the past 30 or more years. After that, it’s pretty much open season for what we listen to and enjoy. I think we both have broad tastes, and there’s enough common ground that we rarely hit a rock or have to debate much about the musical direction of a piece of music. Sometimes things drop by the wayside, but usually we lose interest or it doesn’t feel quite right, and we just move on.
MF: Or, more often, we take that piece and strip it down for parts and rebuild it. Yeah, we did have a number of the same touchstones. When we first met, I remember that we talked mostly about early 70s experimental German rock and that sort of thing, probably. We disagreed about the extent to which “Computer World” by Kraftwerk was actually a great record. I’d always found it overrated next to some of their others, but I’ve come around a bit since. Still, it’s no Radioactivity. Ariel reminds me that I was into a lot of French pop and Bossa Nova at the time, but those were like the final days of a half-decade or so blip on my radar, basically. We don’t talk about influences now, really. We sometimes get a laugh out of something we’ve done that ends up reminding us too much of something or someone else – especially if it’s someone that we’re not particularly into.
AJ: At times we’ve dismissed some established or critically acclaimed artists based on a song or two. I thought it was just Mic reaching such conclusions until I looked in the mirror and realized I have done this as well.
ATEX: What’s your writing process? Are there Mic pieces and Ariel pieces? Or do you start with a rhythm track and build on it, or something like that?
AJ: Early on, there would be rhythm patterns that we’d built off of and sort of work from there until we found something we liked. Or there might be some melodic sequence I’d have, and we’d work from that. Both manners of track were often used for our live performances. Now we’ve either written pieces quickly, on the fly (on my end at least) or I’d send Mic something which he could then work on. Either way, sequences, phrases, found elements are mixed and rearranged in ways similar to before. The pandemic changed our usual methods of working together, and we benefited from having to adapt, in as much that we developed pieces that expanded, overall, our palate at least. It was and is an evolution of sorts given the circumstances. The live element is not what it used to be, and I’m not sure when that will change, but it’s likely not as much a detriment for us, fortunately, as it might be for others. I like that the approach altered our sound. We also also have some older pieces in various stages that we quite like and will probably go back to before too long.
MF: Yeah, we don’t abandon a lot of material anymore. I think that’s informed in part by the nature of collecting sequences. Why throw something away when it’s stored right there on your hard drive, and you can mess around with it endlessly? We’ll change something radically and even sometimes jettison elements that we really like when they don’t work anymore for the overall piece. It’s a bit like David Cronenberg has always said about needing to be willing to cut your favorite scene if it doesn’t suit the film’s objectives. There are different starting points for tracks. Typically sequences from one or both of us. Sometimes, though, I’ve even written vocal parts that I sing to him, and then we flesh things out together after he works out how to accompany whatever little fledgling song that I’ve held in my head. The pieces that are appearing on the series of EPs that we’re working on right now definitely have less collaborative inceptions than what we’ve written for live performance and “albums” in that our work together on most of these current tracks begins after a solid foundation has already been laid by one or the other of us, which is different from how we’ve historically begun pieces together and then, maybe, fleshed them out individually. Bit of a reversal of method. So now, yes, there are “Mic pieces” or “Ariel pieces,” in terms of how they begin, at least.
ATEX: Cool. So what’s going on with the upcoming EPs. You mentioned?
MF: We started remotely working on a series of miniatures in the April of last year (during the first days of Covid-centric isolation), and four of those very short pieces became, initially, a micro-EP sort of thing that we called 4nineteen. One of the songs, we later split into two, which we included on a 6-track release called Object or Entity, finishing that last fall – roughly a year before its release through the Triangle-based Moroderik Musik label back in October. The next in the series, The Longer Morrow is coming out via Concrete Collage in Lyon, France (who released our album, Gai Lan earlier this year). Probably sometime this winter. There are two (possibly three) unfinished EPs in the series that we’re currently working on, building on many of the same ideas (musically and thematically). We also have a follow-up to Gai Lan that we were finishing last spring (2020) that we want to get back to in the new year.
ATEX: Are y’all back to gigging yet?
MF: Yes, kind of. We’ve played a few shows. Our local label, Moroderik Musik put together a couple of features in Raleigh (late July and late October, respectively). We also opened for a touring group, Activity, at Cat’s Cradle in late October. We don’t anticipate playing any conventional shows in the near future as we wait to better understand exactly what Omicron’s contagiousness and virulence represent.
ATEX: Well, I hope this all settles down to a point where shows happen again. I’m glad we did this. Thanks and keep us updated about releases and shows.
AJ: Thanks! We will keep you informed on our future plans as they develop.
MF: Yeah, thank you! Thanks as well for all of your support / attendance back in your Triangle days. It’s always been a pleasure talking with you.
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