CLOAK OF DIN: What are the issues, themes, images, or topics with which you are
most consistently obsessed or possessed?
BLACK BLOC: A good question right off the bat. The short answer for me is that struggle is my obsession…and I suppose love. I understand that is very, very broad and I will break it down into not so vague terms.
For me personally, everything I do is motivated by the struggle for a better world…a struggle taken out of love for people despite our obvious short-comings. Struggle for a better world I feel requires struggling to be better ourselves. So every personal struggle I have such as my emotional issues, to just relaxing with my friends, is all related to the broad struggle. This is not to say I cannot relax and have a fun time, laugh at things, laugh at myself…I do not take myself overly serious, but I think for people who see Black Bloc play, or who see the page, or anything to do with this project, that they get this idea I am some ultra-militant, super serious person that can never be relaxed and such. It is true that I look really stern and serious…I do not smile much outside of my social circle but that is more my own personal social awkwardness which admittedly I need to combat…and I work on that….but you combine that, with a larger male bodied figure of about 6 feet, 200 pounds, black boots, fatigues, spikes and patches, ratty hair, lots of scars….and intense images, performances and sounds…it is understandable why that impression could be had.
So for me, the struggle is life, a life long attempt at bettering my own self, to be able to be that world I wish to see, to be able to treat other people, as well as myself better…I think we all have a ton of shit to work on in ourselves. None of us are perfect nor will we ever be…but we certainly can treat each other better, unlearn a lot of this horrible shit we have been instilled with, and those of us who have faced extreme abuse of some form be it racial violence, sexual assault/rape/gender violence, emotional trauma…we often need to and can constantly be working on ourselves to not lose our humanity, to not become that monster, to still believe in and work for a better group of societies that is not instilling that horrible shit, not systematically churning out 10 year old rape victims, or mass producing self-hatred or disharmony.
I have had a very intense personal struggle to overcome a lot of severe emotional issues that stem from numerous kinds of abuse that spanned well over two-thirds of my lifetime, and I am beginning to use those more personal experiences as topics for lyrics since it connects to the bigger picture. Going through that shit helped a lot to be able to see the patterns and help connect the dots of how fucked up we are, but more importantly helped me see first hand how fucked up things are here, and have a reference point of that to be able to speak from experience and say “hey, this should not be happening, how can we let this be happening??”
I guess it could be summed up that the issues and themes I deal with are ideas around the personal being political, how we all tie into the oppression, how we are all being victimized but all being aggressors too….I try to challenge this in myself for sure, but I also try to promote that ideal to other people as well. I also apply this to other
dynamics such as patriarchy, racism, sexism, equality, animal rights, primitivism, hierarchy…and they all fall under a broad classification of anarchism. Some other topics of great interest to me which have been touched on by Black Bloc are psychology obviously, armed struggle and nonviolence, waste culture and software piracy.
CLOAK OF DIN: It seems as if most people come to “noise music” indirectly, through other “extreme” genres or subcultures. Do you think this applies to you, and how did you realize that noise was the form for you?
BLACK BLOC: I would agree overall that people come to noise from other more extreme forms of music. That or I think they stumble upon it randomly. That is what happened to me really.
The first noise based thing I saw was when I was 18 in my little college town I live in. I saw a guy named Aaron Davis, who goes by Lost Earth Lock, playing these live sound collages using probably 15-20 pedals on the floor, and a guitar and a sampler. He was doing this type of dance with all the switching of pedals he was doing. It was absolutely incredible and I never had seen, nor heard anything like that ever. I got a tape from him that day called “The Greatest Artist Ever” which became one of my all time favorite recordings. I still listen to it regularly. At that point I knew I
wanted to do music and sound and a couple of years later that would start happening.
At the time I was not into anything too extreme…not in the sense I am today. Back then I was listening to the emerging trendy Norwegian black metal of Dimmu Borgir…Cradle of Filth…Moonspell, Type O Negative…Faith and the Muse and Dead Can Dance…it was not quite like today where I listen to 80 minute drone albums made of one solitary note…or listen to Knurl, or Phobia, or any funeral doom metal or depressive black metal….though I guess back in the late 90’s, that stuff was not trendy and was seen as extreme to some…
Anyway…I kind of found this stuff randomly by chance. Lost earth Lock was by no means anything like say Napalmed, Survival Unit, Merzbow, Masonna or anything extreme…but it was sure as fuck unique and unlike anything I have heard before or since.
I didn’t start getting into the more extreme stuff until Clint who was one of the guys in the doom metal act Long Winters Stare sent me some cd’s from his new dark ambient/experimental label. He sent me stuff from Vedisni, Monstrare, LS-TTL, and Necrophorous. Vedisni resonated as did Monstrare, though all the discs were really awesome. Vedisni was so brutal and haunting and vicious. I still love that album, some of the best dark ambient/black noise stuff I have ever heard to date, just some amazing sounds coming from 4 guys who knew how to bring it.
After those I started learning more about other projects like Whitehouse which did very little for me honestly. It was shock bullshit, high end abrasion for the sake of being shocking and different in my opinion. I was always more into the low end, filthy sounding material. Once I started doing music…I actually started a project called Romance In Tragedy which was me teaching myself piano and synth but I wanted to start experimenting rather quickly and ended up starting another project called Deconstructive Screwdriver Criticism, which allowed me to do material that was not written, not scripted etc. That project spawned every other project I did or do, including Black Bloc.
And as I began playing live I started getting exposed to more stuff through trades and such. Eventually found my way to stuff like Mourmansk 150 and Survival Unit which became some of my favorites along with Steel Hook Prostheses, Napalmed, Knurl, Ex Order.
In all honesty, I do not think noise is for me, at least not totally. I enjoy it, I play it, some people think I do it good, but I am a person that needs variety and not constant routine. Black Bloc only started because I could not get a grind or crust punk band started, or any type of band started that could be a political outlet for me and allow me to
explore these things.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy playing very much. I enjoy listening to new stuff and classics at times but I am always shifting. Noise is probably the genre I listen to least in my collection. There is almost always a punk band, or post rock or ambient artist playing on my speakers, and occasionally I will get in that mood where I have to hear some vicious
and demonic walls of distortion. And just as I shift a lot what I am listening to, I shift on what project I am focusing on…there usually anywhere from 2-4 active projects I am working on, including Black Bloc.
CLOAK OF DIN: Could you quickly sum up your non-musical connections to activist and radical circles? How do you feel your career as a noise artist fits in with your lifestyle and goals as an activist?
BLACK BLOC: I have very few connections to any activist circles but honestly, that is more a symptom in my opinion, of a shitty radical base in the US. I find that radical politics are in no way a movement here in the states, but a scene and clique no different than the punk scene and just as cliquey despite all the rhetoric of mutual aid, community and all that.
Before I get into what I am doing, and further developing thoughts on this subject, I want to mention something that happened to me that is relevant to this topic, and reflects on my first thoughts to this question. Back in September I was at a performance of a political play called Ulysses Crewmen in Buffalo. The play is a two person piece which was amazing and highly recommended if you get a chance to see it! I know they performed down in Pittsburgh on the day of the G20! It is some amazing writing that raises some really poignant questions we must be asking ourselves in the movement I think.
To top the night off there was a group discussion with the two who performed, and all audience members, where we sat around and asked questions and talked and debated about issues and such. It was really an amazing thing to be a part of.
So, as I got at a bit earlier in the interview, I deal with some emotional issues which make it hard to branch right out and be a social butterfly. I am not even close to the only person like this…I have found in my personal experience, that so many people are much more scared to get involved, to ask questions, to make their opinions heard…I think this is the effect of a type of psychological warfare that has us all so fucked up and beaten down and self-hating….much like the old SPK in Germany back in the 70’s and 80’s, I believe this system is sick and the resulting “mental illnesses” such as depression, and the like, stem from this systemic disease, it is bred.
So I raised the issue of psychology in this group talk, and more precisely how we can bridge this gap to get people who are scared and timid and shy, and make them feel welcomed in our spaces and projects? It is intimidating for new people to hear about grand juries, the green scare, and see how paranoid activist circles are, it is intimidating to me and though I am sure a lot of individuals wont admit it, they are just as terrified, if they were not I do not think the paranoia would be as bad as it is…of course nobody wants to be in prison or face huge fines and fees, none of us are in a great position to pay monetarily, and prison is something that is brutal one way or another, so it is understandable a bit why this paranoia exists, and I am not saying we shouldn’t be thinking about security and such, but it is to the point, I feel, that the radical “movement” has closed itself off, and it is not making it easy for new blood to get involved, despite knowing it needs popular support to survive.
Back to the discussion…the response I got was so disheartening and contradictory. Now, I know that every person is a paradox in many ways…and I believe in very, very few absolute things. But in my opinion, for the “movement” to say
things like “we all have our own battles we have to fight” in response to my point/question is lazy and naive…I find it a copout because not everybody is at a point where they can make that leap and be self-determined or self-assured or comfortable with certain things. I think that response takes out the personal contexts of people like myself, who deal with social phobias, isolation, and self-worth issues. I find that approach very contradictory to the ideas of community, mutual aid, and the ideas that anarchism holds, and broader revolutionary theory that values the
individual experience and context as a base. As Malcolm said about whites during the black struggle…there is a place for them in the struggle against racism, they just cannot lead it. The same holds true for any oppressed group…they must be the leaders of their liberation, not the followers, and sometimes to be a leader one has to be a follower and learn to listen, understand, and step away from their bullshit ego.
So when I look back on that, I see how compromised the radical “movement” seems to be. The culture of society, the capital mainstream society of me now vs. totality later, has permeated even the radical circle, and it is displaying those very traits it fucking despises. And I think that is a huge, huge problem that needs to start being addressed instead of being brushed aside like we always have a tendency to do.
Now, as to what I personally do beyond this project, I started and run a portable infoshop here in western NY that tables at shows and events, selling books, zines, videos, patches, and also has a dedicated free section with papers, pamphlets, stickers etc. That project was started in hopes of bridging some gaps, getting some networking going and building some community strength. It has had a lot more personal success than movement success, but that is just as important because I have come away with some more solid ideas, critiques, and made some great advances in my personal struggle with my own issues.
I was involved with doing the Really Really Free Market in Buffalo over the summer but that is on hiatus currently.
As far as being in some group or anything, at this point I am not and honestly, I think people put way too much stock in that. I was putting all of my energy into that, trying to get it going, trying to start projects such as a reading group to build towards an affinity group, wanting to summit hop etc. I got burned out trying and got myself into a bad place emotionally.
I am working now at getting more into mental health activism, and have been an active participant in the Icarus Project forums recently. The wonderful people there have a lot to teach me, and everybody really, not just about mental health issues, but about the human experience, coping, and being a better person. It is without a doubt the most respectful place I have been involved with on the internet and I am proud to be a part of that community, learning, and maybe helping too.
These days my stance is that there is a lot all of us can do alone, or in groups. I hone my beliefs in interacting with my friends, lovers, families. I hone them by forcing myself to discipline myself and practice what I believe, learning to be self-motivated and work toward living as freely as possible and undermining static routines and oppressive structures how I can at this point as one person…and there is a lot we can do like this. We can distribute information so many ways which can build our creativity and also our courage…for instance..I try to come up with new ways to get info to people…so I stole some rubber bands, wrap up catalogs, nor’easter issues, or whatever, and I become a paperboy…I fill my shoulder bag, walk around my town and put them on door steps or in mailboxes. In the realm of building courage and honing your mind, wheat pasting posters, putting up incendiary stickers, or tagging things works wonders, as does dumpster diving and learning to steal as much as you can.
None of this alone will even come close to collapsing this fucked up system, but it does hone us and put ourselves in a position that is more ready to fight in whatever manner is needed. For me personally, since I started getting involved I learned to make paste, got back into pretty good physical condition, worked on a lot of my personal issues and confronted them head on, learned to solder, and just became more equipped as a person, be it radical critique or just supporting a friend. It all ties together in my opinion. And if the time comes where I meet like minded people who are committed, I will be ready and able to work with them.
CLOAK OF DIN: How long have you been doing your current project, and how did it start?
BLACK BLOC: Black Bloc started back in late March/April 2007, playing its first show in the first week of April that year.
It evolved, as I said from my first experimental project DSC. I wanted to do stuff in a more dedicated power electronics style…more harsh and brutal. The other aspect that factored in was failing to get a crust band going, which is something I have wanted to do for years. I love that style but it just happened or happens here…so I applied my politics to this project, as well as an influence from crust punk. I figured it may be even better because then it is not “preaching to the choir” (even though I was told that I was in my lyrics.) I found, and still find very few dedicated, outspoken, explicitly anarchist positions in noise and power electronics. There are some I came across after starting, but I dont think any put their politics as the basis for the project, that is fine, and I am saying nothing bad about them, just an observation. There are a couple radical based projects though which deserve mention…far more mention than this one I think…Suburbia Melting I find amazing, same with Shallow Waters their lyrics are so good! I also greatly enjoy Mourmansk 150.
CLOAK OF DIN: What do you feel are noise’s connections to punk rock or hardcore? Would you like to see these connections grow?
BLACK BLOC: Interesting question again! I think they share a lot in the clique-based scenes, the elitism, lack of introspection, and fucked up social values. This is not to say every punk, or every noise kid is an arrogant asshole. There are amazing people in every scene you could go to be it rap or noise or goth or metal or punk. I find though that no matter which scene you’re in, the building of walls is so fast over arbitrary shit…the punk kids bicker about whats punk, shit talk emo, and then scream “equality.” Then you have hardcore kids saying “fuck street punk, its all fashion” and blah blah blah. I hate that shit, and I believe that anybody that would tell me I am incapable of revolutionary activism, or that I am a shitty anarchist because I have had mohawks, because I wear spiked and patched vests and clothing, is fucking ignorant. That stuff has NO bearing on what I can or cannot do in those movements. None.
I would like to see any connections grow. I am all about cross pollination of scenes. Why are noise people not playing rap shows and vice versa? There is room for all of this stuff, none is better or worse, its all subjective. Like what you like, but respect anybody doing something creative or meaningful or something to better themselves as a person, even if it is in a style or scene you don’t enjoy personally.
CLOAK OF DIN: Do you feel that the inherent harshness or dissonance of noise makes it a genre particularly resistant to recuperation into pop culture? Do you think noise will ever go mainstream in the sense punk has?
BLACK BLOC: Theres already shades of this I think, with post rock becoming pretty damn popular, but even more so groups like Flaming Lips etc who use weird sounds and the like. No its not power electronics by any means, but regardless, I do not believe anything is immune to being co-opted. I also think that is more individual based…if a movement is strong it will not be co-opted, even when individual bands or people are.
Punk is still very much alive and well, even the underground shit. Crust punk is full of great bands, as is hardcore and even street punk. Despite bands that have went on to make decent money or get decent exposure. Punk is by no means a social threat like it was back in the 70’s when it exploded…then again maybe that was only shock value and no real threat…I would be more inclined to say punk was never a threat, just shock. Same as noise. Those things only become threats when they build awareness to power and challenge it…and lets face it, there are not many, if any bands out here now doing the things Crass did…shit like the Thatchergate tape and direct actions. I may be completely disconnected, but it seems like a lot of the bands going let their activism end with their band, or low risk, low level liberal shit…not many are involved with say the ELF or ALF, or in the Zapatista struggle, or any more risky activities…and I think until they/we are doing more serious actions or activism or whatever …our scenes are no threat. I think a good place to start for making punk/noise/insert name here a threat, is to start eliminating scenes as we know them, bridging gaps, becoming informed, learning and teaching each other, and building a welcoming and legitimate community.
Though these scenes may be no threat, they can however, be money making sometimes…but being money making does not mean you were/are a threat, and because something was bought out does not mean it was co-opted to diffuse it.
Then again, what the hell do I know?
CLOAK OF DIN: Are there any upcoming events or releases about which you’d like
readers to know? Any closing words?
BLACK BLOC: Don’t wait for events to happen, make them happen right now. We can die in a moment, if you don’t think that I hope you do not face what I faced…having a good friend die unexpectedly fucks with you, and it hurts a lot when you eat the words “next time, I promise.”
I encourage anybody to get in touch with any questions or general hellos. I like interacting with people and making new contacts and friends, or engaging in dialogues on issues. black.bloc(at)riseup.net
To anybody dealing with emotional or mental health issues, get involved at the Icarus Project. www.theicarusproject.net
I am not one for plugging releases much…Black Bloc was on recording hiatus for about a year…did a track for the anti-nazi noise comp put out by RJ Myato down there in Pittsburgh. The only other thing that will be recorded is a split with the Buffalo grind-crust band called Ancients of Earth. They were formerly Brain Pollution and they are brutal stuff. One of the best in Buffalo and so fucking overlooked here. We played down there at Roboto together actually, and we hope to come back in the future, with maybe more than 10 people showing up haha. But yeah we will be doing a split soon. My track is about earth liberation…will be “studio” version of Ecocide which I played a couple of times over the summer. Thanks so much for the good questions and opportunity to speak out a bit. Please take care of one another and be well.
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Link: http://www.myspace.com/blackblocpe
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