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It’s rather seldom, that a release musically based in the wide and intricate field of rhythmically Powernoise/Industrial can reach applause from all related as well as different electronic music genres. The official full-length debut of the US one man act Endif “Meta” out on CA-based Crunch Pod Media label surely falls into this and can be called a genre-overlapping release by mixing Powernoise with Electro/EBM, IDM and Electronica. Remarkable textures and well included details are pushing this release to the forefront of harsh and rhythmic Powernoise/Industrial music. So here we offer an introducing interview with mastermind Jason Hollis... Chain D.L.K.: Hi Jason, I think you’re active with Endif since several years. Would you like to tell us a bit about the past, about how, when and why you’ve built up Endif? Endif: I've been mutilating sound since '92, under such names as Winterlong and Epilogue, as more of an obsessed hobbyist. I finally chose Endif in '00 when I decided to get serious about building the project into something more than just me endlessly tweaking with my machines in my basement. Chain D.L.K.: You’re also an active member of the Thirdwave Collective, which still seems to be around. How is it with this collective, has it still influence on your work? What has your membership brought and meant to you? Endif: Thirdwave Collective started as a cluster of hard electronic musicians in Chicago that decided to work together in order to get and play gigs and scratch out a presence, and evolved from there into an international effort from over a hundred artists. I was one of the founders, and eventually took over most of the, err, “leadership roles” for a few years, spearheading projects such as V/A compilation CDs, stickers, etc. I still admin the content for the site, but no longer have the energy or time to put into, well, cheerleading and babysitting. The site is still up, and news/events are still posted, but for the most part the organization itself is dormant. Maybe that'll change, maybe not. Chain D.L.K.: It took some time until you got picked up by Crunch Pod Media, your current label. What are the reasons that it needed almost 3 years to bring out your debut? Why the decision to go under the wings of Ben Arp’s fine label? Endif: What took so long was me being a neurotic perfectionist control freak, endlessly tweaking and refining and mutating before I deemed a collection of tracks worthy of shopping to labels as an album. Once that coalesced I footprinted the many excellent labels out there and determined that Crunch Pod was the best place to start. And that's where it ended - no other demos went out. The actual process of getting the CD out on Crunch Pod was entirely painless, swift, efficient, and I got exactly the deal I had hoped for. Crunch Pod is a happy little family of like minded hard electronic artists that are not only dripping with talent, but who genuinely “get it”. It's what Thirdwave should have been, in retrospect. Go figure. Chain D.L.K.: Some words to your collaborative release “Meld” with Caustic aka Matt Fanale. Tell us a bit about your relation to him and the idea behind this release. Endif: Matt is a total mench. He works his ass off DJing, promoting shows, and making Caustic, as well as helping out his friends any way he can. Matt, Josef Ferraro of CTRLSHFT and I all sat down together in a Taco Johns shortly after I moved to Madison and committed to help each other out in any way we could. Sort of a mini-Thirdwave all over again: cooperate, crosspimp, live support, etc. “Meld” was a way for us to keep the buzz going while we put together our initial full length releases, to have something to sell at the Los Angeles Industrial Festival and other upcoming gigs, and as a way to scrape some money together to enable us to play some California shows. We each put on four songs, plus one remix of each other, plus one remix of each of us by CTRLSHFT. Three hundred hand assembled signed and numbered units, professionally duped screen printed CDR's. I think there's still maybe ten copies left between us, the rest are sold. Chain D.L.K.: Collaborations with other artists seem to mean a lot for you. Also on “Meta” can be heard some mutual works with people like J. Conley of Saemskin, M. Rigdon of Polluted Axis and Siren313 of Apraxia. Why these collaborations and how does this work technically? Endif: In each of those instances the artists credited contributed a sound or two to the tracks in question save for Siren313, who wrote the lyrics and sung the vox for the existing Endif track “Totenplatz” after I played it for him one evening. I feel very strongly about crediting people for their work, as well as cross-pimping good artists, so no matter how small, everyone gets credit if their bit gets used. There are a few true collaborations that haven't seen the light of day yet that will likely find their way onto the next CD, which is about halfway done right now. Chain D.L.K.: Related to releases of some colleagues I appreciate the details and textures and you obviously try to build up something different on “Meta” compared to the usual rhythmically Powernoise formula. I guess it takes a lot of time by starting from scratch up to the final mastered track. Please give us some insight into your composition process... Endif: I approach music primarily from a sound design/experimental paradigm. The actual process involves freeform experiments that are recorded and stored, then edited, sometimes years later, to extract useable sounds and riffs. These components are then assembled as sampler instances in a sequencing program. Sort of a “mulch/edit/assemble/refine” process. There's a constant re-combinant experimental process stretching back 15 years that I both add to and draw from, like sort of a sonic genepool. Any given coherent song usually starts with a single hunk of sound. I let that “tell” me how it needs to be used. Rhythms or tonal elements accrete from there, and by that point the track has “legs” and pretty much builds itself. Not very traditional, and the output is frequently genre-irrelevant, but tradition and genre are both highly overrated in my opinion. Chain D.L.K.: How is it with the technical side of your music? In times of a growing evolution of computer-based software-synths, which kind do you prefer, the hard- or the software-based solution?
Chain D.L.K.: You’re doing live performances. Please give us some info of your live show for all of us who haven’t had the chance to see you acting on stage... Endif: Given that this project is very much based around a “studio as instrument” gestalt, a conversion process must happen between writing a finished song and playing it live. Songs are rendered out as .wav files and chopped back down by hand to individual loops and sounds, which are then loaded into a maxed out rackmounted Emu e6400 sampler (often run through an Electrix MoFX) and then triggered/played by means of an Korg Kontrol49, a Roland SPD11 drum pad, and a Moebius sequencer via an M-Audio MIDI merger, plus I play live analogue drums from an eighties-vintage Simmons SDSV. For shows I can drive to, I'll occasionally add a Moog Taurus II or Chroma Polaris or mutant reel to reel and effects rig for that nerdy live tweakage factor. The whole thing is submixed through the same Firepod I use to record audio into the computer in the first place. This simple hardware based platform enables a ridiculous amount of tweaking over a solid substrate of self generated sound - without the benefit of a laptop. Total control. Very quasi-neo-retro. Or something. Why go through so much trouble and lug so much gear around on top of it? Because frankly, however amazing the music may be, laptop-only shows are both boring to watch and technically lazy, and I have this crazy notion that when someone comes out to see a performance they should get one instead of the disappointment of watching someone scowl at their powerbook and chain-smoke for 40 minutes. But maybe that's just me. And everyone I've ever talked to. Chain D.L.K.: What else do you expect from the future, musically and for your private life? Any new releases in the works which you can already confirm here? Endif: I'll keep making music: it’s what I do. Hardwired in. And people seem to enjoy it, so I'll keep releasing it and playing out. As I mentioned before, I'm halfway done with my next CD at the moment. I'm planning on adding midi controlled live video, with clips assigned to a given sound and played simultaneously, to the live show. This of course will require a laptop and a projector. I also want to add some unusual controllers, and a modular synth. So that's exciting. To me anyway, but then I'm a nerd like that. =] Chain D.L.K.: Your final words to our readers to conclude this interview? Endif: Pay attention. Live. You could be dead tomorrow.
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