![]() ![]() Interview with BILL T MILLER in Swedish Fanzine KISSAN PAIVAT (2011) ![]() It depends on how one defines "NOISE MUSIC" ...like everybody I was exposed to the rhythms/sounds of the universe from the womb onward. I first made noise by banging on a red toy piano that I got on my 2nd birthday (May 1958.) Over the years I had fun with toys, AM radios, pots, pans, garbage drums, tennis racket and rubber band cigar box guitars. I remember always striking the low keys on my grandfather's grand piano and stretching to push the sustain pedal and plucking and scraping and muting the strings (later on finding out that it was similar to John Cage's prepared piano.) As I mentioned, on my 10th birthday (May 1965) I got an AM radio that I made noise with. ![]() 2. When did you discover circuit bending? ![]() 3. Is there any special circuit bending creation that you are extra pleased with? ![]() ![]() ![]() Boston is great. In many ways Boston is spoiled and there is more music and other art being created than there are people with time and/or money to consume it all. I have lived in Boston for the last 27 years. Don't dig the cold of the north, but don't really dig the brutal heat of south and southwest either. I spent most of my life staying up until dawn in studios with no windows, so my view of the universe is abnormal. I mostly just go to NYC and sometimes the Carolinas to visit my family. I haven't been on mega USA tour since the 80s when I was a live soundman. I grew up in small college towns in Virginia and Carolinas and then when 18 I headed out to California to go to recording arts school in San Franciso and later ended up in LA. Then after a six years in California, I ended up back on the east coast. There is a parallel of Boston to New York City and San Francisco to LA. Those four places along with Atlanta and New Orleans are my favorite USA cities, but most of my perspective is from memories. It some way the smaller cities are probably more welcoming because they are hungrier for entertainment. BTM's SMILEY FACE COOL CITY GUIDE: BOSTON - flat line (just too cool or too cold to show real emotion) NYC - sneaky grin (you know you're gonna overpay, but it's all cool) SF - knowing wink (if you're in the know, then you are pure cool) LA - big smile (you know you're gonna be used, but it's all cool, man) In the end it is all about the PEOPLE wherever you are. I would luv to do an mega Orgy Of Noise concert tour and loop around the USA and visit friends and fans in England, Germany, Sweden, Japan and experience more cities and people. 5. You were the recording engineer/co-producer for most of the band Disrupt's recordings, what do you remember about those recording sessions? ![]() When they got the big record deal with Relapse, we cut Unrest at the huge studio (One World) that was next door to mine. The studio was equipped with my favorite audio combination, a Neve mixing console and Studer 24 Track tape machine. The budget seemed decent for a thrash record, but a bigger studio with top notch gear, meant triple the rate and more tape costs for two inch tape. So there wasn't anytime to afford to do anything more than just set up and cut it live and mix, edit, master it super quick. Since the CD more time than the normal 40 minutes per album we really ended up tracking one and half records worth of songs. Jay brought in a tapes with sound bite samples to be added during mixdown/editing. ![]() L-R = BOB & PETE & RANDY & BTM Since I grew up in the 60s, by the time I was 12, I had a complete distrust of government, religion, corporations and was pro human & animal rights with a "live and let live" sorta thinking... so the messages in most of the hardcore/punk songs fit right in with my thinking. Vocalists Jay and Pete wrote the Disrupt lyrics and they had a passionate political view of the world, but for the most part the others seemed to be more about the music and a buzz and didn't seem to care that much about all the causes either way. I use to tease some of the lyric writers of some of the hardcore bands I recorded about how they were: "just like the 60s hippies with their great ideals and causes, but most did nothing." I would challenge them by saying that if they really wanted to help they should spend some their beer and smoke and instrument and recording money on helping feed people or teaching kids or old people how to read or something that actually helped the local community. Screaming in cookie monster grunts that nobody can understand without the lyric sheets was never really gonna change things that much. Really just taunting them a bit to get them to put some action behind their words. I think some of them listened and reflected some insights on future songs and a little bit of action, but most just let me rant on. All the sessions were so quick that there wasn't a lot of time to talk about lyrics and later when the records came out I would really read what they were saying. Four of the members (Terry, Jeff, Randy, Jay) of Disrupt started a side-project called GRIEF (with Disrupt drummer Randy switching to bass and they added a new drummer.) Grief was slow motion downer Sabbath... pure misery, no real politics... just pain. I called it SLUDGE. I remember the very first Grief session was on a Sunday and Disrupt had played a show in New York City the night before and had been up all night. Disrupt guitarist Jeff was now doing the lead vocals and when he started to sing and his normally deep thick crust heavy voice was even more destroyed. A reviewer of the first Grief record said the singer "sounds like he gargled with drano" (plumber chemical used to un-clog drain pipes.) On later sessions I would sometimes joke about getting that killer drano death throat sound again. In addition to Grief, I recorded several other bands that featured members of Disrupt... like Noosebomb, State of Fear, Chicken Chest, Disabuse and Subjugator. Plus, lots of other bands that loosely were part of that scene like: Dropdead, Discordance Axis, Nightstick, Monster X, Devoid of Faith, Coniption, Scapegrace, Dissension, Deformed Conscience, HellChild, Coleman, The Mind Parasites, WarHorse, The McVeighs, Disfuse, World War, Defcon 4, Melee, Toxic Narcotic, August Spies, Out Cold, Inflatable Children, Puzzlehead, Arise & more. Some are on the Heavy Hardcore Headroom compilation CD [ http://billtmiller.com/hhh/ ] that Profane Existence and my ExtraTerrestrial Discs label co-released in 1995. All were tracks were recorded dirt cheap at Headroom, but relatively high quality in that pure BTM anti-productions raw live style. Everybody in the same room, sometimes without headphones, all first or second takes with very little overdubs, except some guitar bits and vocals.... just nail it. [ http://billtmiller.com/disrupt ] 6. How do you view the current noise and circuit bending scene? ![]() The NOISE scene has subdivided into so many different zones... experimental & industrial & harsh & library drone & jazzy & synthy & 8-bit & dance beat laptopers & etc. I tend to mix up all of those styles and shift constantly. Others are more purist and just focus on one zone, which (just like in pop music) makes it easier for the audience to grasp. I always find it funny when people think they have invented a completely new kind of music, especially when it sounds sorta like something I heard decades before they were born. A decade ago the cost of stock vintage toys was more reasonable, but they supplies seem to have dwindled as more people get into bending. One of things I noticed that if one bender bent a toy in a certain configuration, many would just copy that exact layout, instead of exploring new designs. I think it is great that some benders are very open source and share their knowledge, I just hope that after learning the basics, benders will forge their own style. I have linked some of my favorite benders at: http://circuitbending.com/links/ 7. You have had a lot of different projects going over the years, which one of your projects would you consider to be most active? ![]() In 1989, after 15 years of me mostly recording other people's music, I created Out of Band Experience (OBE) - the idea being to have a core rhythm section with a bunch of guest stars. OBE had so many layers and people on it that it never played out live. OBE is the root of all my bands of the last two decades. There is a song on the first OBE album called: "Kings Of Feedback Present The Wall Of Noise" that was a spark for two spin-off bands. Wall Of Noise eventually was renamed ORGY OF NOISE (in 1995) and has always been the space where I would stick my too weird for OBE experiments. In 1991, Kings Of Feedback mode kicked-in as a vehicle to play out live and give me and my old friend VERNON (from when I was a teenager in North Carolina) a space where I would create the riff rock music and he would come up with most of the words. It was a basic raw stripped industrial blues slack sludge noise rock (with me on bass & guitar & samples and a few key drummers and guitar players.) We played eight live gigs and released several singles, albums (live and studio from 1991-98.) Then when I needed more SLACK than Kings Of Feedback could handle, I went out solo as KING OF SLACK with a living keyboard of slack sampler and ranted away live at various SubGenius Devivals (from 1994-1998.) I tracked a pure percussion album on full moon sessions in 1991 called "Drum Army - Wants You" that was finally released in 1998. That year I also released the last KING OF FEEDBACK CD and the ORGY OF SLACK compilation. With all those other bands sorta wrapped up (in 1998) I focused completely on ORGY OF NOISE. The roots of go back to my fun as a 60s kid and my 70s experiments with my ARP Odyssey synthesizer and Fender Strat guitar doing sound on sound recordings with my Revox A-77 tape recorder. The last fourteen years have produced four studio and four live albums and several DVDs by Orgy Of Noise. Plus, there is enough footage already shot to do several more DVDs that I am in the process of editing now. [ http://btmtv.com ] ![]() Out of Band Experience (OBE) - Call Now! [ http://OBETV.com ] Endless exposure to experimental music over the decades while working as engineer/producer recording others band's (sorta) normal music lead to me doing my Out of Band Experience (OBE) project starting in 1989 (which lead to the spin-off projects: Kings Of Feedback, Wall Of Noise, Drum Army.) When I dreamed up this concept OBE album I got a who's who of my favorite players to join in. Although OBE is cynical satire insanity, that era of my life and music in general was a bit more innocent and I was more excited about the future and present. OBE's 25th anniversary is coming up in 2014, so I am already in pre-production for a making of OBE un-classic album DVD and maybe some reunion OBE recording sessions. The original OBE drummer and I are doing some tracks together this spring for the first time in almost twenty years. 9. What is your personal relationship with DIY culture in general? ![]() ![]() Of course DIY has become easier with the internet. It is so great to have overnight international distro so I can connect with people like yourself and the readers of your zine in Sweden. I love how artists and fans can easily connect directly theses days. I got into doing live webcam broadcasts as another way share with people directly. Hope to crank up even more live BTM TV web broadcasts soon. [ http://BTMtelevision.com ] THE ELECTRIC ONION - L-R = GREG & JOHN & CLIFTON & BTM ![]() 10. What did you listen to growing up? I was born in 1956, right as the rock-n-roll beat was taking off. Despite all the noise I make, I have pretty normal mainstream tastes. Hendrix & The Beatles are still my all-time classic favorites. On X-MAS 1964 (at eight years old,) I scored The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" record and proceded to devour everything in sight. I'll try out anything from various types of rock to blues, classical, jazz, punk, electronic, country, soul and so on. In the 60s, I was mainly into lots of english rock (Stones, Animals, Kinks, Cream, Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Jeff Beck, Humble Pie, Free, The Who) ...then into early prog rock (Pink Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson, Yes, Can) which I dug, since songs were longer and the singer got out of the way so the band could play. At the same time listening to american rock (The Monkees, Zappa, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and much more.) It seems like 1964-1974 was really the golden era of rock, and by the time I turned 18 (1974) the biz had destroyed most of what was left. Growing up in small towns without an older brother or sister or much cash to buy stuff it was harder to find out what was going on. There was just a little bit of rock on television and very few concerts or places to buy records, which made each record or show even more special. Today with the internet, kids can dial in the world from their bedroom or from their phone, they are bombarded and spoiled. As far as specific early "noise" influences.... tons of songs like "Revolution 9" collage by The Beatles, "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict" by Pink Floyd, and many of Jimi Hendrix's songs "And the Gods Made Love" and "EXP", and assorted jazz and classical music albums (that my Dad had) all helped destroy my perception that a "song" had to have a verse/chorus with a melody and a 4/4 beat formula. The first mega concert I witnessed was The Monkees with opener Jimi Hendrix (on his first tour, two weeks after Monterey Pop) who mostly played songs, but at the end of his set with his guitar squealing he held it up and the tossed it high into the air and walked off leaving the teeny bopper's minds blown. Later on, records from radio sound fx masters Firesign Theatre and Lou Reed's "Heavy Metal Machine Music" four sides of pure noise opened me up further. By mid 70s, I was a professional recording engineer still seeking out new sounds. ![]() SEE 360 Panoramic of previous HEADROOM v5 It's always funny when a new generation thinks they re-evented the world and they are the first to discover something new. I remember when punk kicked in seemed like it was gonna be just what was needed to stir up the bloated excess. Johnny Rotten would jump all around putting down Pink Floyd acting like punk was the new future, but when i first heard it I was like, who are they kidding, this is just wound up Chuck Berry rock-n-roll and classic 60s garage rock with more hate. I thought a lot the "angry young white boy who can't get a break" was more of a clown-like marketing fashion persona that had been sold to us before. I dug the energy of a lot of those "punk" bands, but when biz came in and added a skinny tie, a new haircut with a punky disco beat and called it new wave, it was over. Sad truth is, people don't want their bands or actors to change or evolve. A person's tastes seem to be formed in the teenage years (or earlier) for life. In the end I still love the stuff I heard a kid the most, but at least I am willing to try out new sounds or rediscover old ones. Variations of the (guitar bass drums keyboards vocals) rock combo are almost 60 years old... I attempt to play all of those rock instruments, but I still kinda love/hate the 12 tone note scale, 4/4 beat formula of civilized western man and crave more adventures in music. ![]() 11. What bands do you think are worth checkin out these days? I tend to love and support the people that I have recorded, photographed, and played with... way too many too list here, so poke around my sites and blog for more. [ http://billtmiller.blogspot.com ] * some of my favorite bands that I have shot photos/video of: Neptune, Magik Markers, Chris Corsano, ToyDeath, Silver Apples, Wolf Eyes, Lightning Bolt, Major Stars, Dreamhouse, John Eye, Secret Diary, The Mars Volta, NIN [ more at: http://billtmiller.com/photos ] * some friends (who have active bands) that have been part of my band's adventures: Deftly-D, Wisteriax, Ajda the Turkish Queen, Melt-Banana, Roger Miller, Axemunkee, Michael Knoblach, Rich Gilbert, Reeves Gabrels, Reg Bloor, Glenn Branca, Ed "Moose" Savage, Glenn Jones, Burnkit 2600, Joker Nies & more * favorite not so guilty pleasures: Can, Einsturzende Neubauten, Hawkwind, Rush, The Residents, Small Faces * classic vintage Boston bands: Think Tree, The Zulus, Bentmen, Mission Of Burma, The Slaves, OBE * and of course, my bands: Orgy Of Noise, Out of Band Experience (OBE), Kings Of Feedback, Slackbangers, Drum Army, King Of Slack, The Electric Onion, Racquet Band, Zonkulator ![]() ![]() I love CATS, so I am really into the name your zine.... KISSAN PAIVAT (Finnish for CAT DAYS.) My cat TIPPI CAT (R.I.P.) co-produced on my studio tracks (for 15 years) and these days ZIGGY CAT is helping out. I really dig handmade cut and paste old school hard copy paper labor of love fanzines like yours and really appreciate you and your readers being interested in what I am up to. The paper version is a limited printing, so if you have one of these, please save it or pass it on to your friends. Readers of KISSAN PAIVAT can snail mail/email me directly via: http://billtmiller.com/contact/ and/or BTM - PO BOX 1045 - ALLSTON, MA 02134 usa. THANKS ----> BTM ![]() * Questions for interview by ALEX OLOFSSON of KISSAN PAIVAT fanzine. * Photos by Sheri Hausey, Marlene Miller, Jon Strymish, David Ackerman, Disrupt, Twink, BTM. back to: billtmiller.com ![]()
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