#dean spunt

[sinceileftyoublog]

Dean Spunt Interview: An Archaic Piece of Gear

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Of No Age drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt's solo releases, the one that's wholly a demonstration of an obsolete Aughts-era synth is his most personal and accessible yet.

A couple years ago, Spunt stumbled across the E-mu Mo'Phatt, a module popular at the turn of the century for hip-hop and R&B production, and found one for $50 on OfferUp. Playing around with it, and not having performed live in years due to the pandemic, Spunt jumped at a friend's offer to play a show and decided to bring along this new piece of gear. One show turned into a few shows, and eventually, Spunt was intrigued enough by the instrument to record with it in 2023, taking advantage of the 64-voice E-MU modules within it. Orchestra stabs, vinyl scratches, and vocal samples may be well worn territory for producers, but not for Spunt. "I was intrigued by the ridiculousness of it all," he told me over the phone last week, "because I don't make music like that."

The result was Basic Editions, released in September on Drag City. Though the songs are much more abstract than the high wire art punk of No Age, they're also far from the musique concrete of Spunt's debut solo album EE Head and collaboration with John Wiese, The Echoing Shell. For one, on Basic Editions, Spunt didn't deviate much from the source material--he's described his process as "using sounds" rather than "making sounds"--recording the Mo'Phatt into a computer in order to be able to chop, segue, and delay. "This record is very much in the box," he said. Though one can change the BPM of the presets, add internal effects to them, and modulate each of the four layers within the preset, Spunt barely tweaked the presets themselves. It was less of an artistic choice than a necessary one: Spunt didn't really know how to work the machine. But there's undeniable artistry in his presentation. On "Critic in a Coma", bowls whoosh, gurgle, and bubble; it reminds me of the sound effect most often used to denote time passing in a movie. Indeed, the E-Mu module used on the song was meant for composers. "I liked being able to pick out the things that might feel corny," Spunt said, noting that when presenting them in context of an experimental record, "You're mind's able to think about them a little differently."

From the start, the Mo'Phatt felt like familiar territory for Spunt, even more than just recognizing its "eerily familiar" sounds from the music of the early 2000s. It actually reminded him of working at his mother's screen printing business when he was in high school. Just like one could purchase expansion cards for the Mo'Phatt, Spunt worked with clipart programs, books with CDs of extra images. "If someone wanted a balloon logo for their party shop, you'd type in 'balloon,' and there would be 350 different images of balloons," Spunt said. "[Working with the Mo'Phatt]...reminded me of that." Spunt pays further tribute to this connection with the album art, an image of a box that the orchestra card came in. "It also seems like it's probably clipart, which reminded me of my mom's shop," Spunt said. "I like that there's a score on there that I don't know."

Embracing what Spunt didn't know also meant that he had to learn how to play Basic Editions songs live. "When I first recorded the record, besides recording into my computer, I didn't save any of the patches because I didn't know how to," Spunt said. He figured out how to do so later and was able to recreate the songs for a performance, having to recreate them because you cannot add your own samples to a Mo'Phatt. To Spunt's credit, live, he runs two Mo'Phatts with a delay pedal. "I'm pretty versed in [the Mo'Phatt] now," he said. "I can get in there and change things around. To get inside and manipulate stuff live can be a challenge, so you have to do it quickly. I have a controller plugged in, and with a controller, you can change parameters around what you're triggering."

Spunt performs tomorrow night at Judson & Moore, and hopefully, it won't be the last time we see him come through with his trusty Mo'Phatts. He already has plans to record more with it in December. "[Basic Editions] is not a one-off thing," he said. "[The Mo'Phatt] feels like an instrument I want to learn and master. It's an archaic piece of gear, but so is the guitar."

[dustedmagazine]

Dean Spunt — Basic Editions (Drag City)

Photo by Penny Spunt

There’s quite a lot of synthesizer in No Age, so it should, perhaps, come as no surprise that Dean Spunt’s solo project would explore synthetic sounds. Basic Editions comes out of a period he spent exploring vintage1990s EM-U synth Romplers from No Age. The Romplers (“ROM” for computer memory, “plers” for samplers) are filled with pre-set sampled sounds, which can be played through buttons and manipulated in various ways. You can go down any number of rabbit holes (try here and here for starters) and still not understand exactly how the apparatus works. So let’s stipulate the shorthand: Spunt bought a new set of toys and spent a certain amount of time bending them to his will.

We can, at least, gather that the EMU-Romplers came in a variety of editions, each with distinct palettes of sampled sound. The “Mo Phatt” version featured blasts and blats of hip hop textures; you can hear it at work here in the robot funky “Boom Times at the Phatt Farm.”  Other versions delivered more ethereal, ambient friendly tones. Opener “Gonzo Bop” is really neither very gonzo or much of a bop; it floats and hovers over a twitching synthetic bass groove. The amusingly named “Confusion Is SysEx” drops watery bloops into fizzing electric-shocked noise blasts. It’s austere, cerebral, and maybe having a laugh at us.

The tracks, then, are very different from each other, so much so that you wonder how much is Spunt and how much is the instrument he’s playing. “Highlighter Bombast” rolls out a glassy beat, all transparent tones and shushing, syncopating glitch percussion; it would be right at home on a Kompakt comp.  “Fructose,” though is lush and tropical, all sinuous curves and hand-drum patter, though with the sound of a wire sculpture exploding laid over it. And what to make of “The Eternal Present”’s multicolored 1970s optimism? You expect Karen Carpenter to come in singing at any moment.

None of this matters if the music isn’t good — not the unusual instruments, not the variety of sonic textures, not the technical challenges turning pre-set tones into tunes. But in fact, it is quite good, full of airy atmospherics and shifting moods and intricate layers of percussion and tone. It’s quite different from No Age, not to mention from the post-punk rough-housers Spunt highlights on his PPM label, but enjoyable on its own terms. If these are the basic editions, we can only anticipate the deluxe ones.

Jennifer Kelly

[affairesasuivre]

People Helping People / No Age (Drag City, 2022)

No Age’s breakthrough release, Weirdo Rippers, came out 15 years ago, when Billie Eilish was five years old and people could still afford to live in Los Angeles. The compilation of early lo-fi singles shifted guitarist Randy Randall and drummer-singer Dean Spunt into indie rock’s low-watt spotlight; stories tended to focus on their deep involvement in L.A. performance art venue and community space The Smell, a hub for the city’s burgeoning bohemia. The Smell is still kicking. And so are No Age, thankfully, even though their hazy, propulsive, and blissful skate-punk hasn’t changed substantially since 2007.

Between 2008’s universally acclaimed Nouns and 2020’s Goons Be Gone, Randall and Spunt have remained committed to their foundational sound—wielding whirls of guitar effects to smear three- or four-chord punk songs—but tend to differentiate each release through mixing and tweaking. They’ll lower the levels of distortion or accentuate Spunt’s slurred, slacker vocals; they’ll cut out the drums, or anything resembling a song, entirely; they’ll thrash away or chill out. But on People Helping People, No Age’s sixth album, Randall and Spunt break from their template with music that’s more abstract and eccentric. For the first time since their early releases, they’re playing with a renewed sense of possibility.

Of all No Age’s LPs, People Helping People has the most in common with the jagged arrangements of 2013’s An Object. Yet that album was still primarily song-based, whereas People Helping People emphasizes sound and texture. It’s bookended by two ambient pieces, and the first track resembling classic No Age—the squelchy, nervy, and unexpectedly poignant “Plastic (You Want It)”—doesn’t arrive until nearly a third of the way in. Seven of the 13 cuts have no vocals; five have no drums. The most straightforward songs are an unusual hybrid of IDM and post-punk. No Age draw lots of comparisons to Hüsker Dü, but People Helping People is more like Mouse on Mars trying to make The Flowers of Romance.

The kitchen-sink sound design is likely a byproduct of the recording process. People Helping People is the first No Age album created without an outside producer, in their own studio in Randall’s garage. Some songs feel like experiments with new tools. A motorik-paced synth-drum beat is the sole backing on “Compact Flashes,” with clipped guitar scrapes and drum hits entering at random. “Interdependence” is a phased-out passage of psychedelic guitar shredding that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Six Organs of Admittance LP. The ceremonial and downright dreamy “Blueberry Barefoot,” backed by orchestral synth chords, could be a Disintegration demo, a punk church wedding, or hold music for androids.

Spanning just over half an hour, People Helping People requires a few listens before its logic begins to click, but eventually the fractured music overlaps with their catalog, even suggesting new directions for their work to come. No Age’s music always felt like it was equally at home in a gallery or a basement show, but now they seem to be inching further toward the art world. That holds true for Spunt’s lyrics, which are still too cryptic to be sloganeering (“I don’t like the obvious, I made you my man,” he sings on the single “Tripped Out Before Scott”). The video for closing track “Andy Helping Andy,” directed by noted L.A. photographer and experimental filmmaker Kersti Jan Werdal, shares a similar sensibility, with a montage of found footage of Andy Warhol. None of these gestures are pretentious or off-putting. In fact, they’re in line with No Age’s persistent virtue: to inspire and energize through ambiguity and without resorting to cheap sentiment.

[bappychaps]

No Age - 'An Object'

CD - 2013 Sub Pop Records

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Dean Spunt and John Wiese “Black Fruit (Edit)” (The Echoing Shell, 2022)

Official Music Video / Video by JW.

https://www.dragcity.com / http://www.john-wiese.com  

[theseventhhex]

No Age Interview

Dean Spunt & Randy Randall

‘Snares Like A Haircut’, No Age’s fourth full-length, sounds like the good stuff and smells like the buzzy burning off of an aura, the marine layer suddenly vanished, leaving a thin layer of smog over the songs, simmering sock gazing tunes, revved and displacing enormous amounts of sound soil. Recorded in a few days, ‘Snares Like A Haircut’ finds No Age in full-on mode, because there was nothing else to do but go full-on. With ‘Snares Like A Haircut’, No Age scrub the itch in the little moments, engage actively with the process and carve/plaster/shave something in an album shape that’ll last… We talk to Dean Spunt about being more self-reflective, having a psychic connection with Randy and being vegan…

TSH: No Age’s excellent current release ‘Snares Like a Haircut‘ was not an album you had to labour over, instead it came about very quickly...

Dean: Yeah, it felt wonderful for things to fall into place so naturally and quickly for this album. We had spent some time after ‘An Object’ trying to find cohesive ways to write music and it wasn’t really happening. I think the long break and just a change in our individual lifestyles allowed us to get back into the studio and create so seamlessly.

TSH: Do you feel there is a shift in instrumentation coming into play with this record?

Dean: Personally, I would hope that the evolution of our sound from the last album is tighter, more progressive and more realised. From the outset, I don’t know if the intention for our instrumentation is ever too different sonically. I think sonically the shift in our sound has a lot to do with the samples, guitars, drums and vocals all competing for this space. All of these instruments vibrate with each other and cross paths to forge our sound. This is essentially the way we’ve done things since we started - we always have a lot to play around with.

TSH: Does your creative process still revolve around being somewhat selfish; knowing that the first person you have to satisfy is yourself because it’s hard to put the energy into making music if you’re not excited by it...

Dean: Absolutely. It’s really important for us to just smile and have a good time when we create. The energy this time around consisted of a lot of laughing and an overall playful atmosphere. I mean I don’t know how you can make music or art and not want to challenge yourself as an individual first and foremost. I’ve never fancied the idea of being a studio musician - I look to create and experiment.

TSH: This record also sees you and Randy asking who you are as individuals and what your place in the world is - very much a self-reflective outlook...

Dean: I think being more self-reflective this time around was mainly circumstantial in a sense, especially living in America today. Also, there’s the notion of globalisation and us thinking ‘where do we fit in? ‘An Object’ did touch on globalisation a little too with the packaging we did for Sub Pop. The idea was to stop and think about the stuff that we’re purchasing all of the time and throwing away too. We were very much looking into the idea of what it means when an artist is making the product versus someone in a plant or some sort of factory. How does this interact with us buying and making art? Also, because we had such a long break I worked on other things outside of the band and I felt like I found more of my individual space as a person, which comes into play too.

TSH: Knowing that you ended up feeling rejuvenated in the lead-up to this album, what sort of obstacles did you endure initially?

Dean: For so long doing No Age extensively with the constant touring and record releases made me feel like I was part of a never-ending cycle. Always working with this band and creating became hard, and maybe it’s my ego talking, but you lose yourself in this bubble. I just felt like I had my head down and like I was running, but I didn’t dwell on where I was running to. Eventually it was the time out that made me feel rejuvenated. We had to stop and take a break, you know? At the end of the day you need some ideas to create art and me constantly staring at Randy’s face for hours on a plane wasn’t helping, haha!

TSH: Was kicking off the record with ‘Cruise Control’ a decision that you both made early on?

Dean: Actually, no. We were having a hard time finding an opener and this track was chosen later on. I do recall that it was Randy’s idea to start with that track. It was the right choice too, because the track sort of sucks you out and just kicks in. It felt appropriate for this album to just have this ‘let’s go’ approach and for us to not think about things too much from then on.

TSH: How did you go about structuring and layering ‘Drippy’?

Dean: ‘Drippy’ was an interesting song to bring together. It was initially a lot slower and it didn’t feel right to both of us. The song initially had these open chords and it reminded me of a Wire type of track. At first ‘Drippy’ was a lot thinner sounding and we decided to discard it. In time we revisited the song and suddenly there was something about the melody and the lyrics that stayed with us. We ended up including bar chords before we tweaked it some more and let it become what you hear now.

TSH: It must be really pleasing to know that collaborating with Randy for such a long time has allowed you both to have complete creative control, which in turn allows for such impressive consistency...

Dean: I appreciate you saying that our music is consistent, and I hope that listeners feel the same way. Really this group is just me and Randy collaborating in the most efficient way that we can. Whenever we feel capable, that’s when our work tends to be at its best. After so many years we really have this psychic connection - we don’t really need to speak - we can create seamlessly. On this record we were able to tap into this way of working a lot easier because of the time off. It’s cool that we allowed this album to rock out.

TSH: Do you delve into the musical advancements much when you go online?

Dean: Well, I tend not to read reviews, ha! If I just walked on my street and heard everyone’s opinion with each passing day, I’d probably go crazy. I tend not to get lost when I use the internet either. I only delve deep into the internet if I need to look up something specific, like a piece of gear or finding a curry place and seeing if the reviews for the place are any good. I guess everyone is a bit of a know it all these days with many platforms to make one seem special. Regardless, I think you just have to tune out what you don’t want to hear and find a healthy balance with modern day technology.

TSH: Does fatherhood occupy most of your spare time?

Dean: Oh, definitely. Fatherhood certainly occupies a lot of my time, especially the way that we raise our child. I love spending time with my little one and I feel it’s important to show him even at the age of 2 that you should always do what you want to do - even if you’re not making money from it. I’ve met a lot of people recently who have kids and they’ve stopped their careers because of being parents, so they get another job. To me, that’s just a horrible thing to show your kid - to have to give up what you’re doing. I mean music is what I do, what would I be if I didn’t do this? Everyone needs money, but you still have to maintain your values and moral codes.

TSH: Being vegan is also imperative to your lifestyle?

Dean: I’ve been vegan for 20 years. To me, killing animals to eat is ridiculous and so disgusting. It’s remarkable how some people say they love animals and that they are not savages, yet they still eat them. If you at least like animals, the least you can do is not eat them, and then you can still say you love animals respectively. People often think we’re so extreme for not eating animals or being vegan, but to me the extreme thing is to eat an animal that was alive and is now dead. Now that is messed up. My whole family is vegan and it’s an important part of my life. It should always be a primary concern to care for animals and their wellbeing.

TSH: Speaking of veganism, did Randy master his recipe for his vegan chocolate chip cookies?

Dean: Yeah! He nailed it man. They’re really good!

TSH: What defines No Age’s mentality looking ahead?

Dean: At this point, the fact that me and Randy are still creating music together with devotion and positivity - that’s all that matters. We’re having a good time and using the psychic connection that we’ve honed in on over the years. I think we’ll continue to use our music to communicate with ourselves and with our audiences. Hopefully along the way we can inspire people that come along for the ride.

No Age - “Send Me”

Snares Like a Haircut

[inafternoonair]

No Age — “Glitter”

[fantasy-vibes-with-the-magi]

No Age Announce New Album People Helping People and Tour, Share New Song: Listen

Check out “Andy Helping Andy” from Dean Spunt and Randy Randall’s latest full-length from RSS: News https://ift.tt/O4ocGAW

[neonscopecommunity]

No Age Announce New Album People Helping People and Tour, Share New Song: Listen

Check out “Andy Helping Andy” from Dean Spunt and Randy Randall’s latest full-length from RSS: News https://ift.tt/7rkdtYs via IFTTT

[walkerartcenter]

Recently published on The Gradient: Everything in Between: Brian Roettinger on 10 Years of Working with No Age (Plus, 5 Questions for No Age) On stage and on record, LA punk band No Age consists of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer Dean Spunt. But through a decade-long collaboration with designer Brian Roettinger, they form a unique version of the power trio. Here, Roettinger and No Age discuss a truly DIY creative process that has found them doing everything from hand assembling an entire run of LPs to recording music in a motel parking lot.

[omegaplus]

# 2,412

No Age Losing Feeling e.p. (2009)

Acquired from Riverhead’s Sunday Records and an artist we played during our very first broadcast season. Los Angeles’ experimental garage punks lay down four tracks of exploring exactly what the title says, foregoing traditional sound structures and opting for electronic sounds, treated vocal, and guitar loops. Losing Feeling delves into the unavoidable dynamics of failed relationships, loneliness, and those moments of your former significant other having all the fun you can’t bring yourself to think about. Despite the isolationist and defeatist subject matter, the title track trots out of the gate into somewhat sentimental air. “Genie” and “Aim At The Airport” slow things down into subsiding easy breezy territory until the rip-roaring closer “You’re A Target”, tearing and blowing itself out to the finish line, ending the e.p.

Insound pre-orders sent out a zine (200 copies) including lyrics, artwork, and a paper exchange between No Age’s Randy Randall and Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, plus a photo of Dean Allen Spunt being arrested at a student protest. Look for the smeared vinyl record refusing to go right.

[dustedmagazine]

No Age—People Helping People (Drag City)

Photo by Benjamin Clark

People Helping People by No Age

If you think of No Age as a noisy, stutter-y, rattling punk band, track one of People Helping People will be a bit of a surprise. “You’re Cooked” is more of an ambient jam than anything else, a blurred wash of keyboard sound, tones left to warp and decay in the air, some flickery bits of beeps and squeaks, an artfully placed drum sound or two, carefully spaced and un-beat-like. This sixth album from the LA duo of Dean Allen Spunt and Randy Randall is different from all the others, and not just in that it was home-recorded in Randall’s garage instead of in a studio (though it was). There are still some spike-y, fizzed-out, distortion-crusted bangers, but they sit alongside other songs in a dreamier, woozier palette.

Consider, for instance, the two singles. “Andy Helping Andy” is all whooshing drone, a swirling miasma of enveloping tone and atmosphere that is paced, oddly, by a humping, scrabbling beat that percolates just out of focus; it’s a rhythm, but also a sound like the mice in your walls make when it gets cold. “Tripped Out By Scott” bounces harder on a clipped, staccato rhythm; Spunt punctuates drawling Lou Reed-ish rants with snares on the offbeats. Randall layers hazy guitar sounds over it all, lulling its militant cadence into lyricism. It sounds like No Age, but prettier and calmer and more introspective. 

Not that it’s such a departure. Pick your way through these 13 tracks carefully, and you can pretend that not much has changed. “Violence” blares and bristles with buzzy distortion, Spunt’s abstract chants busting out in emphatic choruses of “Ba ba-ba bah ba-ba bah ba-ba bah ba-ba Violence!” “Plastic (You Want It)” ramps up jangly guitars with a scratchy, blurting beat, and floats the disc’s most haunted vocal over top. And “Rush to the Pond” sweetens punk agitation with mid-1990s indie romance; it’s a Sebadoh track having an anxiety attack. 

You can hear the impact of the pandemic in this latest album from No Age, not in the recording, which sounds as assured as ever, but in the bouts of introspection, the intervals of lyricism, the sweet haze and jangle of home-cooked rock. Spunt and Randall went inward, not out into the world, to find a different way to sound. 

Jennifer Kelly

[noloveforned]

no love for ned on wlur – may 13th, 2020 from 4-6pm

artist // track // album // label the woolen men // alley cat // alley cat digital single // dog's table tidal rave // disillusion // heart screams // fishrider melenas // no puedo pensar // días raros // trouble in mind boyracer // the rest of yr life // on a promise // emotional response eggs // still life // life during wartime 7" // howlin' banana diet cig // who are you // do you wonder about me? // frenchkiss * x // alphabetland // alphabetland // fat possum * the pathetx // i hate rockers // 1981 // third man archers of loaf // street fighting man // raleigh days 7" // merge p22 // ode to rio ariba // human snake // post present medium vaguess // wedding bells // guest list to heaven // refry rex wonderful and the silk sheets // bitumen // amor fati // (self-released) moviola // i know it won't // scrape and cuss // no heroics crisman // cya // crisman // topshelf * stereoearrings // innig // tonkunst // kelp dean spunt // pret // ee head // radical documents joe mcphee, dave rempis, tomeka reid, brandon lopez and paal nilssen-love // smola // of things beyond thule volume two // aerophonic linda hill // children // lullaby for linda // nimbus west once and future band // mr. g // deleted scenes // castle face * ben williams // if you hear me // i am a man // rainbow blonde judith hill // my people // back in time // npg dibson and essody // music makes me move // justice // dig this way the roots // double trouble (feat. mos def) // things fall apart // mca ezrat // picture taker // carousel // bobo integral trace mountains // rock and roll // lost in the country // lame-o * diners // big times // leisure world // lauren damien jurado // when you were few // what's new, tomboy? // mama bird the selkies // bon voyage au revoir // the selkies cassette // 20/20 television blonde // freaks (surf curse) // (bandcamp mp3) // (unreleased) super hit // falling in love again // ∵ // (self-released)

* denotes music on wlur’s playlist

[wilderalison]

Wilder Alison, Untitled, 2019, dyed wool and thread, 31.4 × 55 inches (pictured with Leilah Babirye) In A Page from My Intimate Journal (Part II) — March 15 – May 30, 2020 Gordon Robichaux (New York) and Parker Gallery (Los Angeles) are pleased to announce a gallery exchange from March through April 2020. In the spirit of collaboration, the exchange is a platform to foster and expand audiences for the two programs and their artists. Gordon Robichaux will present an expansive group exhibition at Parker Gallery in Los Angeles: A Page From My Intimate Journal (Part II)—. The exhibition exemplifies Gordon Robichaux’s distinct vision and program, and includes artwork by artists represented by the gallery, artists who’ve collaborated with the gallery over its three-year history, as well as those who point to the program’s future. Wilder Alison, Leilah Babirye, Matt Connors, Jenni Crain, Stephanie Crawford, Florence Derive, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Gillian Garcia, Daniel Marcellus Givens, Janice Guy, Otis Houston Jr., Miles Huston, KIOSK / Marco ter Haar Romeny, Clifford Prince King, Elisabeth Kley, Wayne Koestenbaum, Siobhan Liddell, Rosemary Mayer, McDermott & McGough, Reverend Joyce McDonald, Matt Paweski, Signe Olson, Sanou Oumar, Kerry Schuss, Dean Spunt, Tabboo!, Ken Tisa, Boris Torres, Frederick Weston.

[adsmusiconstellations]

Dean Spunt - EE Head (2018)

https://deanspunt.bandcamp.com / https://radicaldocuments.com/