Interview: Thisket

For its super-special first interview polytree got in touch with a Mr. Daniel L. Williams of Louisiana, a man who is perhaps better known to the electronic world as acid-provocateur Thisket. Or at least he should be.

“Most of the music I make is kind of a subconscious nostalgia…”

What’s your situation? As in where do you live/what do you do? And how do these factors affect your creative process?

I live in two places – at a house where I grew up and at a college campus. All of my “gear” is at school (and there’s a lot of it), and I’ll go home without it on the weekends. It’s pretty annoying going back and forth, and I don’t really like either place at the moment. I hate school, but like the city atmosphere, and I hate being home, but like the familiar area and all the memories and walk routes/daydream time I have. I can get a good break on the weekends and bring it back to school and make music, sort of. Earlier in life I moved and lived all over the US and I have much fonder memories of then. Most of the music I make is kind of a subconscious nostalgia and desire to be somewhere else or in another time. It may or may not be accurate, but I’m probably just a melodramatic that overemphasizes his memories with tons of nostalgia and then makes music indirectly. Also, I loathe employment.

Describe your creative process. Where do the sounds come from? When is a track ‘finished’?

I’ll get an urge, and either make something blindly, try to make a mood, or build on a melody or concept I might play up/have stuck in my head on one of my synthesizers. I might spend two hours or so playing with things, building it up, getting it all right, and then I’ll hook up the mixer’s stereo out to my computer and record it over and over until I get all the movements/steps/etc. right. That’s usually when it’s finished, unless I add a second layer or it sucks and I shelf it. I put the best (around a third) of my music out and then get a few opinions and trim it down for releasing. Also, it’s all hardware (and mostly analogue) I work with.

Your most recent album, Trytry (released last month on Custom Music Records), takes the sound you established with The Golden Afternoon into darker, somewhat noisier territory. Is this a trend that will continue with future releases?

I like making music that has strong emotions, or is good for getting emotional with. Something like that. It all relates to my over-dramatic nostalgia and violently self-important memories (ha ha). When I released The Golden Afternoon, I just compiled the best music I had made over the past few months before its release that I had made recreationally at home before and shortly after I moved to school. For Trytry I got an urge to make a more aggressive/moody and direct sound. I like the idea of and will be making future releases more focused on some sort of feeling or whatnot. My ultimate goal is to make music where I can lay down and cry for hours to while remembering the way a certain place smelled. Really – I’m just terrible. Sorry.

What are your feelings about acid (the chemical and/or the sound)? What records in particular have influenced your sound aesthetics?

I really love most acid. I had to discover most of the music I like (and make) on my own from the first weird noise to the next growing up. It’s really hard for me to think I make acid, however mixed in with another genre I do so (I don’t own a 303 yet). My first records were the Titanic soundtrack and a lot of Weird Al tapes. I found Björk through the Weird Al show, then Richard James (and the rest of the scene) through Björk. A lot has influenced me, but most likely those first listens to “new and exciting music”. Or maybe the subsequent 100 listens. It’s really hard to say which ones in particular influenced me the most.

Does Thisket play live? Is this something you’re interested in?

Yes, I have twice, actually. Both were pretty mild and uneventful (and slightly embarrassing), but I hope to play live a lot more. I get incredibly nervous and have to pop a few dolls beforehand, but the experience is always unbelievably fun and exhilarating. I probably won’t lug out all my stuff (which is a slightly uncomfortable issue) until I have lots more insurance and a bunch of bodyguards.

What are your thoughts on the net label scene?

It’s really neat, but it hurts my head to think of it all. First and foremost, I get kind of grossed out by being on the internet, and I get so confused looking at all these people. How much goddamn music IS there? However, I’ve found and met some really cool people. I find it a really nice concept that people from across the world can transfer music and others distribute it freely.

Do you see Thisket as a hobby necessarily? Would you be interested in releasing material through record labels?

I consider it to be part of me. I’m so into it now that I’m well-acquainted with things that it makes me kind of sick sometimes. I’ve had a track laid down and ready to record before, and I went through the house turning all of the lights and stuff off because I was paranoid that the power might brown out! As far as a record label, I’d be all for it. I’d want nothing more than to do what I do for a living and be able to afford a bunch of modular synthesizers, a Pomeranian, colonics, and big, expensive sunglasses.

When can we expect the next album? What will it be called?

Probably around the end of summer. I got absorbed into the summer heat recently and want to play on that dimension. It’ll probably be called “Thisket’s Summer Revue” unless I end up making songs about Kool-Aid or feeling sorry for myself.

Is there anything you would like to add?

I hereby apologize for any damage I caused with this interview.

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ALBUMS

• The Golden Afternoon (CMR, 2006)
• DOWNLOAD

• Trytry (CMR, 2007)
• DOWNLOAD

LINKS

• Thisket
• Thisket MySpace
• Custom Music Records