Last Sigh: First off tell us where you are located. How long have you been there? Is there a scene there for the music? Any clubs, radio or other bands? Have you played live?

CharlesO: I live in glorious Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. That is the dead centre of this country. It is in a void between our two major cultural and musical centres, Vancouver and Toronto, making it difficult to do anything. Saskatoon is great if you're a rock band. I've lived here all my life except for one year in which I was in Vancouver. That year was probably the biggest event musically for me. Until then I'd never really listened to anything I liked before. I was always interested in film and in odd sounds for soundtracks and such. A friend from Vancouver introduced me to some crazy music and that made me realize that anything can be music, I don't have to add a rhythm or melody. My tastes expanded from there.

The "underground" music scene in Saskatoon is made up of me and my friends. We all made weird music that no one wanted to book for shows so we raised the money and did it all ourselves. We regularly rent out rooms at the University here and are lucky enough to have free access to P.A. and mics and other equipment for shows. We've gained quite a large local following, and have about 100-200 regulars for our shows right now. There are plans to rent or buy permanent club space but that's in preliminary places/phases right now. Our live shows are hectic and crazy with usually over ten bands/artists ranging from space rock to violent breakbeat to noise to ambience to whatever we can fit in. I co-host a radio show in town called Feeding Little Pants. It's on 90.5 FM on Tuesday nights from 11pm to 1am local time. It will soon be broadcast over the internet and when it is I'll be sure to give Last Sigh the URL. On the show we plug our local stuff a lot as well as play a wide range of music like Coil, DVOA and other stuff.

Last Sigh: How long have you been creating your music? Could you tell us how you describe your sounds? Does anyone work CharlesO with you, or are you a solo project? What about side projects?

CharlesO: I've been making music for I think 5 years now. My music is a snapshot of my frame of mind at the time of creation, which is built upon by constant remising and reworking. CharlesO is a solo deal although I do work with other local artists often, like Theta, and lots of other people in December Fifth Productions, which is our local musician's co-op. I still work with friends in Vancouver, mainly Matt Anderson, who own Deadpan Records, I think I'm going to be on their next compilation.

Last Sigh: Is there any philosophy to your music? Why the name CharlesO?

CharlesO: hmmm...I categorize my music as Inactive Audio, which to means that it captures what sounds are occur in complete inactivity. There is always sound and music, if you pay enough attention. Everything has a natural rhythm, whether it be the wind or children playing tag, and everything creates its own music, just like musician's do in a studio. CharlesO is a spliced up name taken from people in a biology textbook, one of which was a complete disgrace to the field of Biology.

Last Sigh: How about a gear list? Do you use any software in your music creation? Do you enjoy doing live improv or studio work best?

CharlesO: A Radio Shack Mixer, tape deck, Yamaha CS1x synth, Roland TR-66, CD players, and many many effects processors and pedals. since its a one man show live, I play synth and mix in sounds from CDs and randomly grabbed tapes. I mix beats from CDs and the drum machine, usually off beat on purpose. I use lots and lots of freeware and shareware software, nothing expensive. I love to improvise live but I'm too much of a perfectionist to release recordings of it. I like both studio and improv for different reasons. Without a set plan for a performance one can play to and mold the audiences mood. Make people relaxed and then slowly build to a panic and they won't even know what hit them. It's a lot of fun.

Last Sigh: Are you looking to get signed to a label or will you release independently?

CharlesO: In short, I'd like distribution but, I don't want to be signed exclusively to one label. It would be a nice solid grounding but, I've heard stories. Besides, I think my music covers too many genres to be accepted by labels. But you never know. I haven't had too much luck so far....Sony hasn't gotten back to me.

Last Sigh: Who has inspired you in your music? If you could chose one person to work with either live, or in the studio, whom would that be and why? What do you tend to listen to now on your free time?

CharlesO: The people I'd love to work with are not people that most would expect. I love Rage Against the Machine. I want to perform for a cause. I'm very politically involved, both in my day job and in my spare time. I think Alec Empire is a genius, someone I compare to John Cage. Mr. Empire is one of the most innovative and interesting personalities in the industry. Also, Bjork, Cevin Key (who hasn't been inspired by Cevin Key), Asian Dub Foundation, Foetus, U2, Coil, anything da da, Tom Petty....oh and most definitely Cabaret Voltaire. These are all people I love and listen to a lot. As well, I'm inspired by movies, especially anything Twin Peaks related, and especially David Lynch's movie Hotel Room (his most brilliant work to date). Surreal artists like Magritte are a great source for ideas too. If I were to have to choose one band or person to work with though, it would either be Moby or Rage Against The Machine. Both have amazing amounts of passion in their work, and both aren't afraid to take a strong political stance, something which I view as a virtue. I also like sharp contrast so, those two would make an interesting combination with my music. I think those two names are too big to be able to ever talk to though.

Last Sigh: Do you have any thoughts on Napster/Metallica issue? Do you think Mp3s are helpful to you and the music scene in general or do you see Mp3 technology as being a Trojan horse for future legal battles or both?

CharlesO: Metallica are self centered fuckers. I've read interviews where they would talk about how good they were and how they would trash bars and do really dumb shit like that. I hate them. If they didn't want their art traded as a commodity, they would never have signed a contract with a record label. As bad as it sounds art is a commodity, that's how artists make their living. Never mind the fact that internet piracy is free advertising and it actually increases sales. Morally I do think it is wrong to steal art, I don't, however, statistically and financially internet piracy has its benefits. I see many lawsuits in the future but, just as what happened to sampling in music, its not going to stop, people are just going to get more creative in finding ways around it. As far as MP3s go, they make music more accessible but, I'm not fond of their sound quality.

Last Sigh: Where can we get hold of your music?

CharlesO: http://www.mp3.com/charelsoparin and http://members.home.net/jake.hardy/index.htm the December Fifth co-op URL is http://altern.org/dec5/ and from there you can reach all of its artists.

Last Sigh: Do you have any advice to other aspiring musicians who are new to this music scene? Any viable complaints about the industry you'd like to see changed?

CharlesO: I'm new in the industry and so I don't think I can give advice yet. My major complaint is in the lack of variety on most labels, it's sad when a compilation CD from a label sounds like it was all one band. But I guess people have their style they're into and I wouldn't sign someone I didn't like, but people really need to boost the variety on their labels and in their listening habits. I am really impressed with some labels in that respect though. Scratch Recordings has an amazingly huge variety in the stuff they release and distribute.

Last Sigh: Thanks for taking time to tell us about yourself and your music. Do you have any further comments?

CharlesO:hmmmm I guess that I could go on about my feelings on lots of issues, but that could take forever. ummm...everyone support independent music...there is a lot of good stuff out there, and its worth hunting for.

Read our review of CharlesO -- They've Gone Past Zero