So, I've read here and there that you are somewhat of The Residents' sound engineer?
"Not exactly" to "sorta". I have done a lot of sound work, primarily with recording gear. I call in professionals when a project requires professionalism, though. I am amused by sound. Does that count?
I suppose. Do you partake in their studio endeavors? And what's your function?
I don't have a traditional role, but lately I am really pushing for DVD development and expanded surround. But by the time this gets published I will probably be off doing something else.
You would shop around for gear, like investigate into things and suggest perhaps different technologies?
Yeah, but I can't say I'm the only one who does this because there are probably dozens of people who help The Residents with gear ideas, including lots of companies who stay in touch... in terms of what they're working on and developing.
Software and whatnot.
... software and hardware. The thing with the Residents is that they're ill-defined, and actually everything about them is ill-defined. Sort of a controlled chaos situation, I suppose. But it's also a very creative chaos. Companies wonder what the Residents will do with their products.
So with albums like Eskimo or Mark Of The Mole — in which, musically, they're more about using sound to tell the story instead of using words/lyrics — would they develop albums based off of whatever new equipment was around?
Yes, absolutely. Just like any new toy — you figure out new ways of playing, so the instrument is a new toy, the camera is a new toy — so quite often that's a new driving force, a way of coming up with new ideas. Sometimes people are new toys, too.
Certainly, and they're the most complex one. In the past fifteen years or so, [with] the advent of new accessible technologies in terms of high-quality home recording like DAWS and such, have the Residents taken refuge in the home studio scenario as opposed to the commercial recording studio? Is that a preferable thing?
They do both. But the commercial studios tend to be less formal and more like working at home... comfortable. A lot of times they'll prefer working in a professional situation. The home studio might be just for sketching or it could be for completely other reasons. But it is true, home studios can be quite sophisticated. The Residents don't just record at home... never did. It is all a mix of everything from cassette location to 24- track digital. But they prefer the time freedom of working off the clock.
I suppose even at a well built-up home studio one can create ad infinitum, but one might never meet a deadline, if one exists...
Well, not the Residents! The Residents believe the amount of time it takes to create is part of the project. They consider the amount of time that something is worth having put into it.
How does that manifest musically then?
You may think you have a really great idea, but if the time allotment for it exceeds the quality of the idea, then it's not a good idea. You just thought it was a good idea! But it might be a good idea for another time because technology makes it possible. Time is really important to the Residents.
That's right, because a lot of time has elapsed since they began making music over thirty years ago and the concept of mortality seems to be a theme throughout their music as of late. So now it's about "Let's get something done."
Right. They're aware of their ticking clocks. They have a certain amount of time to get do what has to be done. And they do believe that they have more ideas than time to complete them. Therefore, you can't spend too much time fussing over an idea.
But then there has to be a balance found over not just getting something recorded/produced just to get it done. In other words, not half- assing an idea.
Well, one has to determine how much time an idea is worth. An idea in which too much time is spent becomes a half-assed idea. It's like if you would want to have a concert on the moon, it could possibly be accomplished in time, but that becomes a very bad idea. You have to keep sort of a reference. When you start off, you don't have that reference. You start working on it, and the ideas expand, and you start to get a sense of what the requirements are. They just believe that time is an element to be factored.
Okay, you're on the scent of a trail and you have seen it come to fruition. You got the idea, you see the golden pearly gates, it's tangible, but it could take x amount of time — but you're on the trail...
The quality of the ideas go up so time allotment goes up, as you start sensing the motivation it takes to accomplish. It is not an objective science.
But has that happened?
Many times. A lot of times you have an idea but you don't realize what the idea is until you're kind of halfway through it. Then you have to calculate what it takes. You should never build a house that you won't live in long enough to actually enjoy, no matter how fantastic it's going to be. The point being that all projects have to be finished in a timely fashion unless they weren't good ideas to begin with. Once you get the feeling that it wasn't a good idea to begin with then it can just be abandoned and you accept it. It's like reading book that's no longer good but it started good. You don't have to finish reading the book just because you started it.
Then that unfinished idea can end up on a compilation disc or as an added feature, like being deemed a demo or something like that.
It goes into what we call 'the shelf'. An example of that would be the Eskimo Opera — that's on the shelf, but the Eskimo DVD has happened.
Have you abandoned authoring multimedia Residents projects with CD-ROMS?
Yeah, technology has changed so much. Also DVD is a real consumer technology whereas CD-ROM was a computer technology. So it makes more sense. It has more limitations in some ways but it has better picture, better sound, and in some ways [is] easier to work with. Usually with CD-ROMS you'd have to have a bank of programmers all the time. You couldn't do it all yourself.
So back to Residents albums. Have you been to every recording session since you joined the fold?
Well, not every single one, but more than enough to be a 'yes' answer. Certainly the more important ones.
When they are recording an album, how much are you involved in it?
I have been involved as much as completely and as little as not at all.
So would there be one or two 'leaders' who sort of guide or steer the direction that an album is going, as an authority who would say, "Yeah that mix is better'"‚ or is it completely a collective?
There is no collective. It becomes a collective only on a large scale. In any particular facet, being a collective doesn't work. Recording sessions and normal life are not as separate as this, this or this. When there are no rules, you can't do anything wrong.
...the roles are not cut and dried...
Right. There are no roles, and when roles happen it's a fluid situation. And it varies so much because there is no way of believing that the next time it's going to happen the same way.
Have there ever been 'outside' engineers or producers that have expressed interest in working with the Residents on one of their albums? Perhaps someone who wanted to add their own 'sheen' to their musical wares?
There have been many engineers and some producers, but more about adding their own thing... like they could make a Residents dance record or something like that.
What project took the longest to do?
Do I count ones still in the works...?
... well, the shortest then?
They all take way too long. I don't keep any records about things like that. I guess it would be something that was a live recording.
So what are they using now, recording- wise? Software?
You can only ask what they used on a specific project. It's rare for them to use the same from project to project. They aren't really big on repeating themselves.
So each album is like, "Let's do something completely different across the board..."
The albums generally tend to be conceptual-based, so it tends to launch the bigger picture of how it's going to be done and how it's going to work — the process.
So if they do albums that are based on, say, emerging technologies that have still have a lot of bugs, what would be an album that had become a really big challenge that they had problems making?
Eskimo.
That involved the Emulator II's?
No, that was before those were invented. It was hard to come up with the 'ideas' for Eskimo. Because, the basic concept of it was to exploit an ethnic group that had not yet been exploited.
Ah, right — people and ideas are 'equipment' as well, which is what you were saying before.
It was really difficult to figure out how to do that. Eskimos aren't that interesting, so it took about four years to record.
