AUTO1 fall 1995
broca's area interview
Broca's Area is an electronic duo: John Sosnowski and Mike Delaney
WHO DOES WHAT?
Mike comes up with all this really cool stuff and I just sit back annoy the
hell out of him. When I'm not doing that I play keyboard, guitar, the crappy
sounding drums, tapes of movie dubs and various other forms of ear piercing
noise. I also usually remix, edit and torture the master tapes until they
sound really bad.
WHAT WAS THE GENESIS
OF BROCA'S AREA?
Genesis? You make it sound like people should take us seriously! I guess it
started after I ate that chick en pot pie. I was having this severe diarrheic
bowel movement… No, wait, that was something else. Before Mike came along,
I was just doing guitar oriented stuff by myself. That started with the purchase
of my r-track. When I moved to Buffalo NY I got into a band called Static,
in which Mike played drums and I was on bass. After Static disbanded, Mike
and I decided to do some recording together. We had similar tastes in music
but we weren't' really sure what we wanted to do as far as our own stuff.
Once we got into it, I started getting pretty excited because some of it was
turning out really good. That's when I asked Mike if he wanted to make this
into a Broca's Area thing. And, for some strange reason, he said OK.
HAS THERE EVER BEEN
A LIVE PERFORMING ANGLE TO THE GROUP?
Ummm… Not consciously. I've always envisioned what a live show of ours
would be like, with props and backdrop films and whatnot. Very excessive.
A lot of the stuff we've done would be really hard to reconstruct for a live
show anyway. I would like very much for us to do a live show, but I'd also
like it to be similar to the ideas in my head and that could be pretty costly.
Besides, we both live in different states. That makes practicing a real bitch!
DO YOU ASPIRE TO WORKING
WITH A VOCALIST "LIKE A PROPER BAND," OR IS YOUR CURRENT LINEUP
SITUATION THE BEST ONE FOR BROCA'S AREA?
I would say we don't really aspire to having a singer, but if opportunity
knocks… you never know. We've done some collaborating with a vocalist
and some other musicians in the underground, but we haven't asked anyone to
join up with us yet. Mostly because we're already separated by distance as
it is. Once we get together ourselves I think it would be more plausible to
ask others to join us. There are a lot of musicians and vocalists I'd like
to work with or join Broca's Area. There are also a lot of bands I'd like
to work with not necessarily as Broca's Area. The possibilities are astounding!
WHAT'S THE MOST POPULAR
BROCA'S AREA RELEASE?
Hell, they all suck! I guess it would be SO, WHEN DO WE EAT? It's more
accessible than what we've been doing lately and it got a really good review
in ALTERNATIVE PRESS. Thanks Jim! But for as much exposure as this tape got,
I've found that we're straying further from the structured, guitar-oriented
stuff. I personally like the stuff we're doing now, although there seems to
be a very limited audience for it.
DO YOU RECORD EVERYTHING
AT HOME OR HAVE YOU BEEN TO A PROFESSIONAL STUDIO?
Everything is recorded at home. All of it up to RANDOM ACTS was recorded
on my 4-track. For RANDOM ACTS we recorded on Mike's brand new spankin'
new Sony tape deck. Just 2 tracks, but boy does it sound nice! All the remixing
and whatnot is also done at home. I don't really think the way we record warrants
a professional studio. I mean, if we're going to spend the cash on a pro recording,
I'd rather have something ready as opposed to just going in and winging it,
ya know?
THE NEWER STUFF SOUNDS
LESS GUITAR-ORIENTED. COULD THIS BE A TREND FOR FUTURE RELEASES?
No, I wouldn't say it's a trend. I'm just a shitty guitarist and I haven't
been able to come up with anything good! I don't know, I still play guitar
a lot at home, but when we get together to record I would rather play keyboard.
It's not like there's no room for guitar parts. Actually, when I get my 4-track
fixed, I might see if I can come up with some guitar parts to add to RANDOM
ACTS.
SAMPLING PLAYS A BIG
ROLE IN YOUR WORK. WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR SAMPLES?
Most of the samples come from my own personal collection of videos. Although
I used to work in a video store for about a year, I've always been an aficionado
of horror movies. Mostly really bad b-movies. I'd like to try using sampled
sounds as opposed to the old dialogue thing, but without a real sampler, I'm
not sure it would be very interesting. All the sampling I've done thus far
has been with tape and can be quite frustrating at times. My new effects unit
has a five-second sampler on it, but it's not very useful as far as manipulation.
WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS
FOR BROCA'S AREA?
My goal at the moment is to do a live show utilizing all the ideas in my head
and to have it work perfectly. I think I'd like to get into scoring movies
also. One thing I like as much as music is movies and it would be nice to
work within the two worlds. That was we could use samples from the movie and
not get into any trouble! We've had quite a few comparisons to soundtrack
music already, so maybe we're headed in the right direction.
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE
HOME RECORDING SOUND SCULPTORS?
In no particular order: Dave Fuglewicz, Oliver Squash, Strange Desire, Samarkand,
Shock Box Studios, 666 VBN, Geoff Doner, Eyelight, Okinawa Fumihiro, Histatic
Chage, Glitz and tons of others I'm probably forgetting. My most recent favorite
is Mind Skelp-cher. They're from Canada and they're incredible. Very organized
samples and sequences.
WHAT'S A TYPICAL WAY
OF WORKING FOR YOU GUYS, BEING SEPARATED BY STATE LINES AND ALL?
One of us comes up with something and the other tries to screw it up as much
as possible. Hey, it works! Sometimes. Usually we just plug everything in,
occasionally we check levels, then just hit the record button and play whatever
comes to us. The backward parts on RABID AMBIENCE were totally accidental.
One day I was listening back to some stuff we did on my 4-track and I left
all 4 tracks on so that the B-side was playing along backwards. Some of it
went together so well that it was scary. I mixed those tapes down for Mike
to hear and we decided to continue recording that way. It was kind of like
driving at night with your headlights off. For RANDOM ACTS, Mike made
up some really cool drum patterns and we just improvised over the top of them.
When I get my 4-track back we'll see how the backward guitar parts will fit
in.
HOW BIG A DEAL IS THE
PACKAGING OF YOUR TAPES?
It's not a big concern for me. If I don't have a cover available for a tape,
I'll just write out the titles on the old j-card. I'd like to have impressive
packaging, but it's not something I can take care of on my own. I'm a big
baby with stuff like that. "Oh, I don't want to go to Kinko's, waaaaaaahhhhh!"
I usually leave that stuff up to Joel Menter the art god. He's done all the
cover art and layout designs for the tapes that have covers. It's not as easy
now because we live in different states and he's had his hands full lately.
We might try to do something high-tech on Mike's computer.
WHO IN THE CASSETTE
UNDERGROUND DO YOU ADMIRE, AND WHY?
Bob. I really admire Bob. He's the coolest. Actually I admire anyone who's
ambitious enough to put their stuff out there. Musicians or otherwise. I have
great respect for all the zines and radio stations that support the underground
also. Integrity is something I really admire too. I'm trying really hard to
get out of naming names on this one!
DO YOU DUB YOUR TAPES
AT HOME, OR DID YOU SEND THEM OFF TO A PRO PLACE?
All the copies are done at home. I don't know why. I was going to say that
it's because it's more cost effective, but I've never really checked into
it. I'm lazy that way.
ARE YOU INVOLVED IN
ANY OTHER MUSICAL PROJECTS?
We just did a live improv radio show in Flint, Michigan with Michael Absher
and his band SSG. The first half was just Mike and I and not too impressive.
For the last half we joined SSG and that was a lot better. It was a really
great experiences for our first "live" performance. Even though
we were quite obnoxious. Did I mention the tracks sent to Don Campau?? That
won't be ready until next year. We hope to do more with Joshua Peck and we're
currently working on some tracks from Dick Metcalf. That's all I can think
of offhand.
DO YOU THINK OF YOUR
TAPES AS DEMOS OR AS FINISHED PRODUCT?
I never consider anything finished. Anyone who's gotten a tape from me lately
will tell you. Of course the 4-track dilemma has a lot to do with that. I
guess EAT was the last really finished tape. Shortly after that my 4-track
shit the bed. The only reason I don't consider RABID AMBIENCE finished
is because I keep finding other songs I wish I had included. I think there
are a total of three different versions of that tape all with songs re-arranged
or replaced or whatever. I'm very indecisive.
PARTING WORDS?
Don't work in retail if you can help it. Never be intimidated by anyone. Don't
be overly concerned with what others think of what you do, as long as you're
happy with it. Try not to get aggravated, and if you do, smoke. Ummmm…
if you can't drink and drive, why do you need a driver's license to buy liquor?
Here lies David St Hubbins… and why not?
BROCA'S ARIAS
POLITICS IN WONDERLAND 1992, 90 min
TRANSMISSIONS FROM WONDERLAND 1993, 60 min
CONUNDRUM 1993
SO, WHEN DO WE EAT? 1993, 60 min
INTERIM 1994, 90 min
RABID AMBIENCE 1994, 90 min
SLEEPING WITH THE ANOMALY 1994, 90 min
WHAT WE HAD IN MIND 1995, 60 min compilation
RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE 1995, 60 min
