‘relationships and perspectives’

Interview by Billy Gomez [chad interviews billy here]

Chad Imes began playing piano and then guitar at around six years old. His mom really wanted him to be good but chad would never practice what his instructors gave him to study.  Instead, he’d spend lots of time with these two instruments, making up his own sounds.  He continued playing guitar and it was during his early teens, that he says, things became more serious…

“I thought, if I start making music and continue to do it until the end… I might be able to make something that’s good along the way and if not, it’s at least something to focus on.  I would be happy to find lots of people appreciating what I do and have the opportunity to collaborate with some favorites but whatever…  I’ll probably keep making songs regardless.”

fall math – paper throwing star
fall math – digging tunnels to the moon
repeat pattern – all the heads
repeat pattern – fairport
loudspeaker speaker meets clearly human – hush your moon glow

bg – Dude, first of all, you got more aliases than madlib… what’s up with that?  In fact, I figure by the time this reaches you, you’re probably going to have opened up a new myspace for yet another project/name…

ci – It’s because each project seems so different to me.  By the time I finish a project I’m usually ready to explore new approaches that, to me, wouldn’t make sense under the same name–there is one repeat offender though.   I guess I’m still trying to figure stuff out, decide what I want to be when I grow up,  what kind of music I want to make.  -and I do have another project in the works ^_^

bg – Let’s say you disappear and wikipedia needs to do a posthumous write-up on who you were and what you did… BUT, they’ll only mention one type of music you made… which one would you want it to be?  Why?

ci – That’s kind of a fucked up question–make a man choose between his children!  I don’t know so I’m going to answer this by not answering it.   Sometimes I like my own stuff and sometimes I hate it -depends on the day.   Maybe Mud Funk J-Pop Disco?  I haven’t done it yet but it sounds like it might be fun to try.

bg – Okay, let’s approach it from another angle then. If someone was to go and check out your music, where would be a good place to start… and why?

ci – Let’s see, there are clips for most everything released on Brokentwilight.com. One could also visit one of many lonely not often visited myspace pages which are:

http://www.myspace.com/loudspeakerspeakermeetsclearlyhuman

http://www.myspace.com/brokentwilightcom

http://www.myspace.com/loudspeakerspeaker

http://www.myspace.com/circlevssquare

http://www.myspace.com/fallmath

http://www.myspace.com/halfbrothermelodic

http://www.myspace.com/repeatpattern

I think there are also songs posted for these projects on last FM too?  Unfortunately, if someone wanted to physically go and listen to my music at a club that wouldn’t be an option anytime soon. And if/when it does become an option you might have to be in Japan?  Anyway, I really don’t like playing shows.

…sorry, the fucked up question statement was a joke by the way ^_^

bg – A joke, but also a perfect analogy. It does give creedence to the fact there is a strong distinction between the various types of music you do, and that they are really important to you. I get it.

What are you working on right now?

ci – Right now I’m working on  Repeat Pattern stuff which, I guess, is just beats constructed from samples taken from vinyl.  I’m really enjoying digging for records and chopping up what I find.  It’s kind of exciting to discover sample grounds that other artists have worked from and use the same samples in different ways.  It’s also giving me new perspectives on music and being a music maker.  There’s a lot of relatively unheard or left-behind moments of recorded brilliance out there that will probably never get a lot of shine.  And the fact that it won’t be anywhere near the forefront of music market consciousness doesn’t make it any less brilliant.  Sounds like a pretty obvious idea and as a listener I agree…but somehow the true weight behind that thought has only recently begun to reach my artist self.

bg – Tokyo brings up two things… that i’ll come back to…

But first, I have to tell you, i’m really loving the FALL MATH and REPEAT PATTERN… music is so cool in that it sometimes finds you, instead of you finding IT… and when it does find you, it can be completely aligned with what’s going on in your head and heart… and i have to say, that all the tracks

i’ve heard under both these two pseudonyms, fit the mentioned criteria perfectly.

Fucking great work on those, chad.

ci – I think that’s what I’m working for–that connection.  While driving around in a car, riding a bus, on a bike or a walk are typical settings for me to be with headphones, altered by music and on my way.  So to think that somebody is out there on their way, consciously choosing sonic environments I created to color their state of being, their journey, that’s big for me.  That’s the proof that I’ve achieved something that I’m constantly attempting but not often sure of the result.  My guess is that everyone wants to hear that they’ve done a good job and I’m no different so thank you Billy!  It means a lot coming from you.

bg – I know what you mean about that connection… it’s definitely all the encouragement you need, when someone acknowledges what you do in that sort of manner… and yes, you’re welcome, the pleasure is always mine, my friend.  As far as connections go… what/who are you connecting with these days… are you the type of person who listens to other music to be inspired and influenced… or do you just listen and let those things take care of themselves?

ci – This summer’s listening has been the following in heavy rotation–Kev Brown’s I Do What I Do,  Exile’s Radio, Arthur Verocai, Herbie Hancock’s Treasure Chest, Ramsey Lewis’s Funky Serenity, Joao Donato’s Quem e Quem, some of my own stuff, a Scientist mix I made, The Silver Apples–of course other stuff too but those are the things that have lived in my car’s player for weeks at a time. I listen to whatever snatches me up and wont let go–I get blown around like a tumble weed when it comes to music and art. There’s no particular style, artist, producer or label that dominates my consumption or search for music. Shit often just comes along from a random source and that’s it–there’s a lot of amazing stuff coming from everywhere. That’s not to say I don’t sometimes research and follow a string of who did what with who but it usually doesn’t last long if I do.  When it comes to influences and inspirations those can and often come from non-musical sources–things seen and read…anything.  It’s all about relationships and perspective for me.

bg – ‘Relationships and Perspectives’ … i like that.

Let’s take a step back to the tokyo thing.  As I said, it brings to mind two things, one being the first track i ever heard from you (please post a link to it) called interestingly enough, “to tokyo”… it is how we met so to speak.  A friend emailed me the track some 3 years ago and i loved the hell out of it.  I ended up finding your page on myspace and wanted to let you know how great i thought that piece of music was… and we’ve been in contact ever since.  Fittingly enough, you are finally making the journey there, “to tokyo”…

talk about what you think that’s going to be like… especially in terms of how you make your music.

to-tokyo

ci – Well I actually made that song on a plane headed to tokyo to visit my now wife.  As far as moving there goes it’s pretty much a done deal.  Still sorting out dog stuff–got my visa app in–got work more or less sorted out so things are coming together.  I think that at first it’s going to be about getting oriented, figuring out work and how to perform as expected, refreshing my limited Japanese language skills and then building on them.  Hopefully between all that I’ll be able to continue working on songs as often as usual.   As for the specifics of how things might go down I know better than to guess.  I can say for sure that it will be a fresh and inspiring environment to produce in, that I’ll be looking for record shops and records to chop for the Repeat Pattern project as well as actively searching for interesting shows to see and write about for The Fmly.  I’ll also be trying to hustle Japanese business for Lucky Cat Promotions and Panic Studios both of which are run by friends and are sources of income for me.

Finally, I have this idea that it would be fun to post up on the street, rock live beats and sell discs and t-shirts (I’ve got a bunch of t-shirts I’ve screen printed that I’m bringing with me) but we’ll see.  Life comes with a lot of uncertainties built in and I can be pretty shy and lazy at times so…  I want to go to shows and participate in some way but …

bg -  Nonsense… I’ll be close enough to put a foot in ‘that ass’ if you get too lazy.  And that’s the best part of you moving to tokyo… it’ll be that much easier to finally meet you… bout’ a 2 hour flight from seoul.

i look forward to that.  great talking to you, my friend.