Last Sigh: Where are you located and how long have you been creating music? What are
your plans for future releases? Are you looking to be signed by a major indie label or do
you feel you can continue as a true independent?
Jason: Currently located near Boston, Massachusetts. I have been drumming for over 20
years and creating electronic music for about 13 years. Currently, the C2 "initial
control" album is out there. more below...
By the time this is read the control.org full length "manipulator" will have
been mixed down and mastered. Whether it will be released on our own label control freak
records or by a more sizeable independent is in consideration. Newly mastered control.org
material as well as new C2 material will be shopped around to independent labels as I am
quite uninterested in taking my own label much further off the ground. I keep coming up
with new music and don't really have the energy required to keep my day job, make the
music and act as label manager, promotion dept, tour manager, caterer, secretary, field
team etc...
Last Sigh: Could you give us a brief about your projects? What do you have completed
to date in terms of releases?
Jason: control.org - is my main project, concentrating on electro industrial dance music.
In the past a few e.p. and demo releases. Right now, a full album of 13 tracks is ready
for pressing. It is entitled "manipulator".
C2 - was created to catch the undefined stuff that came out of the studio. The focus of C2
is harsh, rhythmic, industrial, noise, drones, juxtaposed with crazy distorted beats. The
"initial control" release represents this variety rather well. For the most
part, response has been good, even being likened to a really cool compilation. I quite
like that. Future releases will be a bit more focused, but I haven't any interest in
labeling the sound. "initial control" is available as a CDr release in a limited
quantity of 150 from our own label, control freak records. Both the CD and sleeve art are
numbered.
Mindstalker is an electronic dance, techno,
trance, euro-house project that is often dark but melodic. djco2 is the newest project
that is just plain attack drum and bass the debut EP "carbon attack" is ready
for pressing. I've also been doing a decent amount of remix work lately that I absolutely
love.
Last Sigh: What moves you to create the music and sounds that you do? Do you have any
philosophy behind your music? What if anything is a pet peeve of yours in the music
scene/industry?
Jason: My philosophy is generally to make fun dance music. I don't care much for trying to
interlace a truckload of my own meaning into the music I make. Often, in retrospect, I can
hear the emotion or inspiration I had in mind while creating a song and that is cool. But
that is just me. Seems to me rather arrogant to say things like, "this pile of noise
represents the rise and fall of menudo in the united states 1984-1986 and if you think
otherwise don't listen to my stuff". Whether it be my dance oriented stuff, or my
harsh noise stuff, if it even happens that it triggers any emotion or thought in a
listener then that is awesome. If not, that is fine also. I'm not going to try and tie a
bunch of perceived political or emotional baggage to what I do. Most of my stuff is meant
for dancing. As for lyrics, there isn't much to say that hasn't been said 10 trillion
times. If a vocal track will act as another instrument and enhance a song, then I am all
for it. I don't want to hear everyone whining about their significant others so I extend
the courtesy. If you hear a control.org lyric that sounds like it's about a woman, it's
probably about my television. I like to write in the shower, usually not with the
television.
Last Sigh: Have you played live anywhere? What type of gear do you use live? Who plays
with you in these performances? Do you have any favourite places you have played our would
like to play in the future?
Jason: Various iterations of control.org and its techno and synthpoop predecessors have
played in dirt bars, universities, small and large night clubs. Get your bass frequencies
to rattle the light up Busch Beer sign off the wall at your local redneck establishment
and you may get an unexpected rally of hoots and cheers as we did. r0ck!
Live, we enjoy the possibility for more improv than most of the peter Murphy karaoke disco
acts so we use as little backing tape as possible. The current live setup is a 3-man
electronic percussion station with 2 men on drums and percussion and one on
bass/synth/percussion all via pads. Everyone has rhythm parts and loop triggering duties
as well as open pads for improv. (GEAR PLUG ALERT!) Pads are S&S and Pintech
triggering Alesis DM5 drum brains midi to E-mu samplers. After 2 years of avoiding them
completely, the coming tour may even have a keyboard on stage cause we know everyone loves
to watch people twiddle knobs in person.
control.org live has a rotating crew of myself (jas0n), my brother (ryan, a.k.a. 'the
congressman') he has quite a fan club, my cousin (j.p.) and for the August tour my
"adopted" brother (wilk of biofeedback and re:lentless). Everyone has his own
projects and we don't get together regularly. Everyone is so professional that I just send
a CD of the live arrangements and in a week they are ready for a show. Additionally, being
family that actually likes each other we have a fucking blast live. We have all had shitty
band experiences in the past that makes music a drag and I think we all enjoy just going
out and having fun. Everyone pitches in, does their shit and laughs. This has really
brought me back around to enjoying playing live.
Last Sigh: Do you have any plans for touring USA or Europe?
Jason: A 2-week tour of the northeast and Midwest United States is set for mid-late
August, at time of writing this a few dates are already confirmed. Check
http://control.org
I spend a lot of time in Europe pushing demos of my various projects and checking dance
floor reaction. Late fall 2000 into winter I'd like to get all of control.org and C2 over
for a European tour.
Last Sigh: If you could work with one artist live or in the studio, who would you
choose to work with and why?
Jason: Weird Al Yankovic. Why? Have you ever seen the movie UHF? The man is a fucking
genius!
Last Sigh: What inspires you to create your music? Do you have any formal training in
your background with music or are you more self-taught?
Jason: Sometimes I sit sown to specifically craft a tune and that generally ends up in the
rubbish bin cause it sucks. Usually I will just lay down a simple beat or a melody when I
have an idea. Normally I leave it and don't come back for weeks. When these pile up I
often take little bits from all the
fragments and create one song from them. I would say that accounts for 75 percent of
control.org / Mindstalker / djco2 material. So finding little lost bits of songs kind of
inspires me. Singing in the shower inspires those little bits I suppose, as do
environmental rhythms and tribal percussion.
C2 is much looser. Often improv based. Just getting a bunch of sound source hooked up and
capturing the result. This noise bed may get beats over it at a later time.
I was tutored by Zamfir, the master of the pan flute. Because of this I am an expert kazoo
player. Other than that, I have no formal training. Growing up around my dad's bands gave
me the opportunity to just absorb. He just gave me drumsticks and off I went.
Last Sigh: What gear do you use in the studio?
Jason: In the studio I am rather computer dependent for composition. In terms of
sequencing and hard disk recording, the computer runs everything. My new philosophy in the
studio is "less is more". So for sound source I have an E-mu Morpheus rack synth
and a Yamaha Cs2x as my controller. Sampling is all done via PC and any sounds required
for the live show are dumped via scsi to the hardware samplers. If I have a chance to play
with a new piece of gear and sample it some, I'll do that and pass it on through so I
don't feel cluttered with too many pieces of gear. I used to look at big bands and say
"man if I only had all that shit..." but as I get older I seem to be reverting
to sticking with what you got and making the best of it. So I guess that's my word of
encouragement for all the kids and ramen eatin bastards like myself.
Last Sigh: Where can a person get hold of your music?
Jason: The yardsale section at www.control.org lists product and info on mail-order as
well as links to our secure online store at punkassgear.com where CDs, promos, stickers,
shirts etc can all be purchased. Please help put our kids through cosmetology school.
Last Sigh: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule. Any last comments?
Jason: Just want to say thanks to the all the radio folks who have supported us so much
recently. Say hi to us during the upcoming tour.
Read our reviews of
control.org -- Manipulator
and
C2 -- Initial Control
View photos of Jason Taylor live.
Visit Jason Taylor over at http://www.control.org
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