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Artwork by
Archer Creations
broca (at) skyenet.net
Original TV Guy By:
Joel Menter
431 Rhode Island St.
Buffalo, NY. 14213
ViziZero (at) aol.com
Last Edit/Update
29 March, 1998
INTERVIEW
WITH
John Sosnowski
Michael Delaney
OF
BROCA'S AREA
This interview took place via email on March 16, 1998
and consists of questions sent by Last Sigh to Mike Delaney and John Sosnowski who comprise Broca's Area. Here are their responses. Last Sigh: Where are you located? Have you lived there most of your life?
JOHN -- We’re in Niles, MI. I’ve been here about
4 years now. Most of my life was spent in Olean, NY. A backward little city about 2hrs.
South of Buffalo [New York].
Last Sigh: What is the underground scene like in your area?
JOHN -- Well, I’m kind of a recluse so I haven’t
really found an "underground" scene yet. What I get from the local rags is,
basically, if it isn’t classic rock, it’s not accepted. I’m sure
there’s something more interesting around. There’s a little café in South Bend
Indiana, (just over the Michigan- Indiana border) that seems like it might be worthwhile.
We’re thinking about maybe getting a gig there, if they’ll have us.
MIKE -- There is very little underground activity around here. Or maybe we’re just
out of touch! Since I moved in with John a year and a half ago, we’ve been scouring
local music papers trying to find something innovative or different than your average
classic rock cover band or band that can’t play so they decide to form a "garage
punk" band.
Last Sigh: How old are you? Do you have any formal
training in music? If so, where, when? How long have you been interested in this type of
music? How long have you been recording your music? Was there anything you remember from
the past that influenced you to create this music?
MIKE -- 25. I've had a little more [training] than John, taking drum lessons from
age 12-18, and your token high school Music Theory and Concert Band class for easy credit.
JOHN -- I’m 33. I don’t have any formal training
other than a few guitar lessons from way back when I was 12. I’ve been into
electronic music for …oh, about 10 years now, I think. I’ve been recording my
own music for maybe 12 years. At first, when I was doing stuff on my own, it was just
instrumental, guitar oriented, prog-rock music. My first electronic interests were bands
like Ministry, Front 242, PWEI…
and then about a year after that, I got into Skinny Puppy and that pretty much blew it
wide open. That and Doubting Thomas. Even though I was listening to bands
like that, my own music style stayed pretty much the same. It wasn’t until Mike and I
got together (in 1993) that Broca’s Area started sounding more like
an electronic band.
MIKE -- Well I guess I really wasn’t [influenced] until John let me borrow The
Infidel by Doubting Thomas. I was very into gothic and indie music
which incorporated a lot of electronics, but not really aware of the more experimental
side of things. That album tweaked me pretty hard and opened my mind to a whole new genre.
Before Broca’s Area I had done
recordings with other bands from small four track efforts to larger better equipped studio
recordings. John had been hammering away for some time also on his four track, so we
started recording as a band from day one together.
Last Sigh: You sent a number of tapes to us, one was titled, Broca’s Area: Works in Progress. Could you tell me about the history of Broca's Area? Where does the name stem from? Could you describe the sound of Broca’s Area. When was it produced? Who worked on it with you if anyone and is it available to the public, if so, how can they get a copy of it?
JOHN -- Broca’s Area is the band
name. The members of the band are Mike and myself. I got the name from a book I read
(Congo). Broca’s Area is a part of the brain that controls the
muscle movements that facilitate speech. I’ve come to think that it’s actually a
very appropriate band name on a more personal level. Being the taciturn introvert that I
am, I don’t communicate with other people very well. I have a hard time expressing
myself (emotion/gratitude /appreciation, that kind of thing) with words. So I like to
think of music as my form of communicating with others. Christ that sounds dopey. The
sound of Broca’s Area? Um… improvised electronicambient noise.
That’s Mikes word, "electronicambient". I don’t know, I hate
pigeonholing, but I’ve come to think of our sound as kind of a poor mans FSOL.
We’re a fairly low budget
operation.The sound didn’t come about until Mike joined the band. I don’t even
consider stuff done before that as Broca’s Area anymore. Mike added
the technological side to the band. All the tapes from that point on are available.
Anything before that I refuse to give out. To get copies, just get in touch, give us your
snail-mail add. and we’ll get something out to you asap. But please understand that
it might not have a proper cover!
MIKE -- Actually Works in Progress happened mostly after I moved in with John.
For some time before then we had worked together while we both lived in buffalo and later
tried to work through the mail while he was here and I was still in buffalo. A lot of that
material was done on two vacations we had taken together in Chatauqua, New York and
Wilmington, North Carolina. We’ve never met joshua in person, but doing Merigars
was a real treat. The lyrics Josh wrote added a whole new dimension to the material that
was sent to him, and took it in a fresh direction.
Last Sigh: You have worked with Joshua Peck on a tape titled: Broca’s Area: Works in Progress. From what I understand, this was/is a long distance collaboration. How did you get in contact with Joshua Peck? Have you ever met one another in person? What were/are the highlights of working on a project like this? Downfalls?
JOHN -- The Joshua Peck/ Broca’s Area collaboration was "The Merigars", which released the tape entitled "Language of Now". The "works in progress" tape was Broca’s Area with poet D. Michael McNamara featured on a few songs. "The Merigars" was done entirely via snail-mail. We sent Joshua (who was living in Oklahoma at the time) some tracks and he added his original spoken word poems. I had been writing to Joshua for some time. How we got in touch with one another I can’t remember, just through the underground mail network, I guess. We’ve never met in person. Just letters in the mail.
The highlights of doing something like this, for me, are hearing the inspirations someone else gets from your music, the ideas they have. It can give you a different perspective on your own music. I think I get a bigger kick out of mangling other peoples stuff, though. Doing that can give you a lot of inspiration as well. I always get some good ideas from working on other peoples stuff. Especially the Hurtle Blue collaboration with Rotcod Zzaj. I got a lot of really great effects patches from that project, but the downfall (for that particular project) was my effects processor blew a gasket and I had to initialize the damn thing. So I lost all the patches I had come up with. Ugh. I guess the only other downfall would be degradation of the sound quality. Passing a tape back and forth, taping and re-taping, mixing and re-mixing… it can take away some of the initial tonal quality. Even so, I think this tape came out fine. It still gets the point across.
Last Sigh: Are you still working on creating music together? How many songs were done? Any chance they will be released on cd? What is Joshua Peck doing these days, do you know? Were they in any other projects in the past or current? if so, what and with whom?
JOHN -- There might be another musical collab. between Joshua and Broca’s Area in the future. We still keep in touch regularly and have some ideas for stuff. "The Merigars – Language of Now" tape is available (I doubt there will be a CD) through us or Joshua at: INKLAB WORKS, P.O. Box 4126, Seattle, WA., 98104. E-mail: HYPERLINK dustbowl (at) scn.org. Joshua has a number of music endeavors of his own and also puts out the zine "Unpaved Road". The D. Michael McNamara songs are available on "Works in Progress" which is available through us. And there is a tape of a radio show available through us also. I got in touch with a DJ, Michael Absher, in Flint, Michigan, who used to do a radio show of entirely improvised live music. We traded tapes for awhile and he eventually asked us to do a show. We did one where Broca’s Area played for awhile and then we just jammed with Mike Abshers "in-house" band SSG. The Broca half wasn’t very good in my opinion. Surprisingly, Mike Absher asked us to do another one. We had done the "Works in Progress" stuff with D. Michael which turned out really good so we asked him if he wanted to do this show too. He was kind of nervous about it, but the show turned out pretty good. Even though his voice gets drowned out in a couple places.
As with Joshua, we will probably do more with D. Michael in the future. You can check out some of D. Michaels works at: http://www.geocities.com/paris/leftbank/7419
Right now I’m working on a second Against the Sky collaboration with Dave Holusha of Strange Desire.
Last Sigh: Another tape you recently sent us was by a
band called: Cystem. Could you tell me about Cystem too,
and describe the sounds created for that project. When was this band started and who is in
it, anyone else other than yourself? Why the change in tempo/sound? What if anything
influenced this change from the softer more ambient feel of Broca’s Area
to the more driven techno beats of Cystem? I found it to be quite good as
well. It sounds a bit on the techno end of things...
MIKE -- In the course of writing material for Broca’s Area, there a
been quite a few tunes that have just spilled out of us. We’ve often stood back from
those songs and thought "is this really Broca’s Area?"
sometimes the answer is no, but the song is good and sometimes worth exploring under a
different moniker. Cystem is one of those spinoffs that occurred after
John wrote "a severed head" and didn’t feel like it belonged with Broca’s
Area’s other songs probably because of the more upbeat feel and the sort of
"silly" sample.
JOHN -- Cystem is just me for now. It wasn’t really a conscious thing, it just kind of happened. I came up with this goofy song that I really liked, but thought it was a little too much for a typical Broca’s Area song so I came up with a band name that I thought fit and …well, there it is.
Last Sigh: The title to the four tracks from the demo tape of Cystem are called: A Severed Head: A Severed Head: (rhythm track), svrd hd:(ffwd), and svrd hd:(ffbd). What is this song about? You have one male vocal/sample(?)on this track that shockingly states: "Jesus Christ, There’s a severed head on the TV!" Is this your voice or a sample? Where did you get the sample from if it’s a sample? Is there a message you are trying to get across with this music?
JOHN -- It’s a sample. No, it’s not my voice. It’s from a cartoon, but I’d rather not say where I got it from exactly for fear of copyright infringement complications, yadda, yadda, yadda… What’s the song about? Nothing, really. I just thought the sample was amusing. I suppose it might not be as amusing to others since I took it out of context. There’s no message, I just hoped other people could see the absurd humor in that exclamation. It’s slap stick techno, electroni- comedy. It wasn’t intended to be shocking by any means. The only reason for the 3 extra "versions" is because I hate blank space on tapes. I like to use up as much of the tape as possible.
Last Sigh: Are you going to be doing more with this project/band? If so, what are the goals you have, if any for Cystem?
JOHN -- It was going to be an anonymous side project, but… well, that obviously isn’t gonna work! I’ve been referring to it as my evil twin. As to what else will come of it, I don’t know. Since it came about by accident I’m not sure I’ll work on things for it specifically. If I happen to come up with something else I think fits that particular style then I’ll consider it progress!
Last Sigh: What are you using for equipment to create this music? Where do you record? Do you have a studio?
"John's Rig"
JOHN -- Ugh! Let’s see… a nord lead keyboard, Roland studio-M sequencer, sequential tom drum machine, mackie CR-1604 mixer, Alesis ADAT-XT, Tascam 302 dual tape deck, Roland MS-1 sampler, a bunch of effects processors and a newly purchased E-MU ESI 32 sampler. Everything is done at home. Our living room is our studio.
"Mike's Rig"
MIKE -- Hehehe……studio? Well, yes we have a
"studio" in our living room. Without getting too specific, my rig is mostly
computer driven with a drum module, sampler, a couple of keyboards, and some effects
units.
Last Sigh: What drives/inspires you to compose, if anything? Do you have any message
you are trying to get across with your music in general, or is the music itself the
message?
MIKE -- I think that’s an interesting question. There are many ways people feel when
they write songs but usually they can be divided into positive and negative forces. I get
inspired by negative feelings personally, but because there are no words to the song to
slap you over the head with -- sometimes people feel uplifted by something that was
written out of a depressed state. I think that is the strongest point of Broca’s
Area, that people are allowed to draw from it what they want, kind of like a
Rorschach ink stain.
JOHN -- I don’t think there’s one particular "thing" that drives me. Sometimes it’s from other peoples work, sometimes a good movie inspires me… mostly I get inspiration from just noodling around with sounds. It’s just a mood I get into to. I’m not sure what triggers it. As for a message, I’m one of those people that would like others to get their own message from our music. Is that pretentious? I mean there’re certain songs that mean certain things to me, that I get certain images in my head when I hear them, but I don’t think I could relate them to others with words, you know?
Last Sigh: What if any goal do you have with the music you create? Would you consider signing to a [reputable...] label if someone heard your music and you deemed them worthy of representing you as professional musicians?
JOHN -- If we deemed them worthy? Sorry, that seems really
funny to me, but yeah, I’d consider signing to a label. Although it’s not a
major concern for me. The only goal I have is to get the music out for people that want
it. That and keeping the world safe for democracy! I know that signing to a label would
help get us out in the open, but… I don’t know. I think I’m too much of a
control freak. The only thing I want out of life is to work on music full-time, but
I’d want it to be our music.
MIKE -- I guess I’m a little wary of a proposition like that, but it would definitely
be one step toward what our goal is. We’re not into starving for art (we both have
day jobs!), but we’ll know when we’ve reached our destination when making music
IS our day job and we still have a pot to piss in.
Last Sigh: What did you listen to when you were
younger? Did any of those artists *obviously* influence your choice of music to compose,
that you can remember? Could you name a few bands you enjoy listening to? What was the
last really great band/cd you have heard?
MIKE -- I’ll take the Fifth Amendment on earlier influences and I think john would
too, since we both came from a similar (embarrassing) backgrounds in music. I like a lot
of different styles of music and I find that they have little to do with my contribution
to Broca’s Area. Right now I’m big on the Brian Setzer
Orchestra, U2, Download, Einsturzende
Neubauten, Reverend Horton Heat, Peter Murphy,
and Brian Eno/Jah Wobble, but I’m sure I’ll be dusting off my Laurie
Anderson and Front 242 soon. I have no focus……
JOHN -- How much younger? The biggest influence on me to create electronic music is (still) probably Skinny Puppy. And, of course, Doubting Thomas and Download. I’ve been listening to Download III a lot lately. And FSOL. I picked up a Photek CD recently that’s pretty good. My listening habits have gotten pretty narrow the last couple years. Luckily, I have some friends that send me mixed tapes with really good music.
Last Sigh: If you could spend a week in a studio with your favourite contemporary composer/musician, who would that be, and why?
JOHN -- Cevin Key. I truly admire the work
he’s done. I also would’ve liked to have worked with Dwayne Goettel.
Same reason.
MIKE -- I think that would be Brian Eno. He’s a chameleon that is
able to add the perfect vibe to anything that he produces while still maintaining the
artist’s identity. I admire that in a producer, and I think that if there were anyone
who could augment Broca’s Area’s sound, he would be the man.
Last Sigh: Do you perform live? If so, where have you
performed and when? Was anyone working with you or was it a one man act? If you are a one
man act, are there any challenges for you in doing so? Are you open for booking
arangements now?
MIKE -- Yes, we’ve played live a couple of times. There is an obstacle that we would
like to overcome in our live performance, and that is to be able to give the audience
something visually engaging as well. This is one thing I feel must be done for our live
show to succeed. Who wants to see two gearheads up on stage behind walls of equipment
perform when they can just take the tape home and get a similar effect? And why the hell
do I want to move all that crap to the gig if we can just roll a tape? We’re not
flashy showmen, or even remotely interested in that aspect, but I think our show would be
successful if we were able to incorporate elements of multimedia (video, lights, stills,
dance, text) either created by us, or put together as a collaboration with other artists.
JOHN -- We’ve played in front of an actual audience twice. Not including radio shows. All the shows we’ve done were with Mike and I. The first show was at the W.E. festival in Wilmington, NC. 5/25/96. The second was at a bar in Flint, MI. (5/9/97) sitting in with the SSG band from the radio shows we did. I personally think we suck live, but I’ve been told I’m very self-effacing. As much as I’d like to play more live shows, I have a really hard time doing them. I get too up-tight. Mike says I’m anal! It’s just that I expect things to go a certain way, which they usually don’t. When that happens I get depressed and angry. I’m a whiner.
Last Sigh: If you had a day off to do anything you wanted to do, what would that be?
JOHN -- The one thing I’d really like to do is get the live show I imagine in my head out into reality. And have it go smoothly!
Last Sigh: How do feel about musicians work being uploaded/downloaded in MP3 format on the internet by their fans, and given away free (oftentimes without permission from the artists themselves) and most likely taped or burnt to cds for private or sometimes commercial use?
JOHN -- Well, of course I’m against something like
that, especially if someone is making a profit from it, but I’m not sure how it can
be avoided. I shouldn’t comment too strongly on this because I’m still not clear
on the specifics. I mean, people tape CDs all the time and send them to their friends. I
do it myself. I don’t sell them, but there’re people out there that will. I
don’t think you can get away from it. Opportunists exist, what can you do?
MIKE -- I think it may be a problem in the future, but internet distribution would be a
boon to bands like ours. I predict now that a lot of people have access to CD burners to
rip copies of tunes in full Red Book format, soon (this next year) record companies will
go to legislators to mandate serial copy management schemes in all CD burners, just like
they did with the advent of digital audio tape decks in the 80’s. they have no case
with MP3 format since it is not a bit-for-bit copy of the original and is suffers from
sonic degradation due to compression (however small). I don’t see it being a bigger
problem than it is now with CD to tape copying, and for personal enjoyment I say "go
nuts man!"
Last Sigh: Thanks so much for doing our April Feature Artist. Is there anything else you would like to say in conclusion?
JOHN -- To any aspiring musicians, don’t get discouraged. Just keep doing what you do. Someone out there is going to like it.
MIKE -- Thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!
John Sosnowski
Michael Delaney
Email Broca's Area