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| 5/6/2009 11:15:00 AM Email this article • Print this article |
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Live-looping sonic vigilante Elijah B. Torn will visit this Ithaca for a performance at the Lost Dog Lounge on Saturday, May 9. David Ezra Brown and DJ Laika to open this Deep beatZ-sponsored evening. (Photo provided) |
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Sonic Adventures
Lisa Mance
Elijah B. Torn, otherwise known as the "one and only live-looping sonic vigilante," will headline electronic music event organizer Deep beatZ's final concert of the semester. The son of renowned guitarist, composer, and former Ithacan David Torn, Elijah took a bit of a different sonic approach with his music, although he remains equally idiosyncratic in sound and curious in nature. In a live setting, Torn has utilized any combination of the follow items: a bass guitar, walkie talkies, various electronics, cassette tapes, field recordings, computer software like Abelton Live, and computer-triggered lights, all of which contribute to his characteristically playful and invigorating approach to the electronic music tradition.
In addition to his solo work - which includes his latest album, the excellent You Are Lucky I am Not a Vigilante, as well as his debut, Sarge's Shukar Rough - Torn runs the recording studio MassiveMusic, remixes tracks for other musicians, and works on other compositional projects.
David Ezra Brown - better known as one-half of the local hip-hop and electronics group, D.A.M.A.G.E. - will also perform, as will Deep beatZ founder DJ Laika, and VJ Philosophia.
The Ithaca Times recently spoke with Torn about the future of electronic music, his approach to live performance, and growing up in a thriving musical household.
Ithaca Times: So, what are your roots to Ithaca?
Elijah B. Torn: I was born in Ithaca in the middle of a blizzard. My father was in the infamous Zobo Fun Band and my mother was part of the Moosewood Collective. Not long after the blizzard ended we found ourselves in New York City and then on tour throughout Europe. We eventually landed in a town named after animals in Upstate New York.
IT: Growing up, how would you describe your exposure and relationship to music?
Torn: My exposure to music was heavily influenced by all the musicians my father was playing with. We always had a rotating cast of extremely talented characters from around the world visiting and rehearsing, and they would bring through totally new and bizarre music. We listened to everything from Miles, Hendrix, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Captain Beefhart, King Crimson, Japan and Sun Ra. My taste was also strongly influenced by mother's taste - everything from Prince to reggae, Parliament to Motown - all with a serious groove and bottom end.
IT: How would you characterize the local electronic music community in NYC?
Torn: I have been in New York City for over ten years now. I absolutely love and hate living here. It's filled to the brim with everything and everyone you could possibly think of and it never stops surprising me how much it changes constantly... Having regular events like the Warper Party and an electronic music production school like Dubspot have really helped organize and get people together to form a really cool, eclectic electronic music scene.
IT: In a club setting, are you attempting to exactly replicate a recorded track's sound? What do you see as being the different between a recorded document and live performance?
Torn: I find they inform each other a lot, but when I play live I try and keep it interesting for both the audience and myself. My albums are pretty relaxed but I tend to bring a more frenetic energy and distortion to my live performances. I mix different drums in, different bass sounds and I chop [it] up a lot more.
That being said, on Vigilante, most of the songs were written and recorded from a live standpoint. I would write something on the bass or keys and then create a beat (or vice versa) and then control both with a foot controller to change sections, create fills, change bass fx. This way I could hear what I thought sounded good and what didn't work structurally - rather than just moving "bricks" of midi and audio or pushing numbers around in the computer machine. This was a less visual way of composing than sequencing in the computer but ended up feeling more natural to me in the end.
IT: In terms of your approach to live performance, how much does it allow for spontaneity or improvisation?
Torn: I definitely want to bring a live performance. I don't sit there and check my email. I don't just hit play and let the song play. I change it up and it's unquantized. If I play something out of time - it's out of time. If I play a wrong note, it's wrong, but to me that's exciting and new every time. If I wasn't there, it wouldn't keep playing without me.
IT: How would you characterize your relationship between live instrumentation and computer-based technologies?
Torn: I keep myself busy looping the bass on the fly, playing synths and samplers and have even been making some of the beats on the fly too. I use bass as the main sound source for most of music and a lot of my songs are based on loops of my bass. That coupled with the endless need to tweak sounds in the computer pretty much go hand in hand for me... Computer technology is so intertwined with music in almost every form we hear these days.
IT: How important is the performative aspect itself to you?
Torn: I try and make it clear that I'm not DJng my own music. It's instrumental music, so I try and create an atmosphere to engage the audience. I bring the lights, I wear my jumpsuit and I try and get the audience involved... Sometimes it backfires into a sonic-weapon and sometimes it totally works out in my favor, but each time it's different and there is something to be said for that I reckon.
IT: What do you consider to be the state of electronic music today?
Torn: It [has] way more edge and heart to it. I do think that sometimes electronic music performances can fall on the sterile side. The amount of things that people can do just with a laptop is outstanding...
So often performances end up being just about the tools. There are a bunch of sterile futuristic THX1138 space performers - that's totally cool if that's your thing. But I'd much rather see a more gritty and raw Blade Runner aesthetic. The original rock and punk ethos - just jump in a van and go play loud shows. If you meld that with technology, it speaks volumes to me. I think that will probably change as laptops reach the price where the laptops become more durable and the average musician can destroy one on stage.
IT: The ubiquity of Internet culture has certainly helped with the globalization of electronic music culture. Have you been felt the effects of this paradigm shift?
Torn: There are definitely benefits for a musician in the digital realm and culture. We can book tours from our bedrooms, put our albums on iTunes and we can work musicians around the globe...
I think we will see more and more that a great use of the technology is to help connect different local scenes and to set up more indie acts from city to city and country to country. The fact that I can come up to Ithaca and play with an awesome local musician like David Ezra Brown at a Deep Beatz event is amazing to me.
IT: Do you sense that you're a product of the current music environment (i.e., a different version of musicianship from when your dad was your age)?
Torn: It's difficult to say if I see myself existing outside of where my father was at my age. For one, I have his experience to guide me. Secondly, music is like quicksilver. Distribution and the technology and tools are always changing but it's always the same end goal of trying to express oneself.
We are always coming across new technology and business models than the musicians before us. One of the biggest differences I see is how fast the changes are coming now. As we get closer to the proposed Singularity, I think it will be interesting to see how it directly affects music, art and culture as a whole. There may be an even stronger divide between digital artists and those in the physical analog world but I hope to have a foot in both!
IT: What else do you have planned for the future?
Torn: I have a new EP coming out shortly as well some videos, one of which will show off this wireless midi device called the MIDI_EXP by SourceAudio. It's crazy. It's like a Midi Theremin, but I can control anything I assign it to.
I have also been talking with the Rob Spence from the Eyeborg Project about possibly scoring the film. Rob is a photographer who lost an eye and is working with engineer Kosta Grammatis to replace the eye with a camera. It won't be "wet-wired" but it's really, really badass. I look forward to wet-wiring myself in the future too. The idea of being able to create music with my body and directly with my thoughts seems like the logical next step!
Deep Beatz presents Elijah B. Torn, who will perform at the Lost Dog Lounge this Saturday, May 9. For the full interview with Torn, visit our arts blog, Popcorn Youth. (www.ithacatimesartsblog.com)
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| |  | | Posted: Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Article comment by:
teethmcgee
sawe that dude at warper once radness!
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