Fwonk* Monday

Prolific (pruh-lif-ik)
–adjective
1. producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful: a prolific pear tree.
2. producing in large quantities or with great frequency; highly productive: a prolific writer.
3. profusely productive or fruitful (often fol. by in or of): a bequest prolific of litigations.
4. characterized by abundant production: a prolific year for tomatoes.
5. Katarrhaktes.

Today, though the infinite love of Fwonk* Monday, you get the chance to meet a true phenomenon. A man who seems to sweat music, tracks dripping from his every orifice, remixes scattering carelessly from his pockets like so much loose change every time he sits down, albums dropping like biscuit crumbs as he dusts the front of his sweater.

Welcome to the itchy glitchy world of Katharrhaktes.

With eight albums to his name (and counting) and a penchant for destroying pop music with fiercely squonky remixes, Katharrhaktes' sound is hard to explain or describe.

It's like music only broken. If music could be kept, tethered and strait-jacketed, blindfolded in a cold, wet, windowless cell for 3 years, only being let out once a week to be waterboarded or given shock treatment, this is probably how it would sound.

Just check out the deeply freaky Katarrhaktes remix of Hannah Montana's 'Hoedown Throwdown' and you'll start to see what I mean:



I honestly expected the man behind such music to be writing strange prophecies about robot badgers on the wall of his rubber room using crayons and faeces. However, when we caught up with him for a chat, he seemed to all intents and purposes a very rational and sane human being.

Mind you, they said that about Charles Manson. It's always the quiet ones you have to watch...



How would you describe your music?

It’s different depending on which LP/EP you’re listening to. There’s a kind of continuity going, too, so if you listen to my earliest music, it’s quiet, ambient, and textured noise over piano. Over time it’s gotten darker and much more sparse, with an increasing reliance on digital technology. Dynamics are often vast, ranging from ear-splitting industrial noise shrieks to incredibly soft atmospherics. If I absolutely had to put a label on it, it would probably have to be something like: Bipolar Dark Electronic Harsh Ambient Wreckno

Which of your Fwonk* releases are you happiest with and why?

NO FUTURE. It's my only release on Fwonk*. This is a sin that must be rectified. That album is not easy to ‘get’, seeing as it’s essentially a lengthy indulgence of remixing some sickeningly mainstream pop songs with almost unknown artists. All over-driven with noise, of course.

When and where do you make music?

In my bedroom. I make music whatever state of mind I may happen to be in. Time isn’t really an issue, either, although you probably won’t find me doing anything between the hours of midnight and nine o’clock a.m.

What inspires you?

Suffering. The sad things in the world. I don't think I have ever written a piece of music about a joyful experience. If I do write about beauty, it’s always tinged with the knowledge that that will wither and perish. My happiest-sounding track so far is entitled ‘the wish that was, but never would be’.
I am often inspired by disillusionment and the separation of one’s own perception of reality from reality itself. Truth can be relative, but much of the time it’s not.

How does your creative process work?

Sometimes I’ll ‘hear’ a particular line of percussion or melody, either in a dream or a random passing moment, and quickly record myself singing that. Later when I can get access to my computer, I’ll re-create it and flesh it out. The next step comes with improvising and finding sounds that work with whatever I’m working with. Much of the time this will be weird samples taken from something like radio hiss, a guitar that sounds like a vocal line, something like that. After I’ve got it all down and am completely happy with what I’ve made, that track is then left for a few weeks, listened to again, and either left or worked on more.
Getting myself into the right frame of mind to get down and write has always been a problem, but I force myself to do it anyway to keep myself on edge, and as a result, I produce a whole load of music pretty quickly, and usually have a backlog of material. Right now I have around fifteen tracks completed and ready to send out into the world, but the problem is with pacing – having literally just released two full-length albums in two months, I don’t think it’s wise to flood the market with way too much too quickly if I can help it. I’m thinking of setting myself some new boundaries to ensure that I only release one thing every couple of months.

What hardware / software / instruments do you use to make music?

PC with an old version of ACID Pro and Sound Forge
Boss Dr. Rhythm DR-550
East West Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra [silver edition]
FRG-7 Communications Receiver
Various free VSTs
Zoom H2 recorder
A circuit-bent Casio SA-21 keyboard
Cornet
A violin owned by a man who is now dead, and has not been re-tuned since he departed.
Egg shaker
Piano
Ocarina
Recorder
A myriad of bells and whistles

Who are your favourite bands / producers / DJs?

I can enjoy pretty much every type of music, as long as it's well done, although I have to admit that I tend towards listening to music with a dark aesthetic. As far as bands go, I'm very into Blam Honey, Collide, Curve, Dir en grey, Massive Attack [the late albums especially], Nine Inch Nails, and Teargas & Plateglass.

Whereabouts in the world do you come from? And is that where you live now?

I'm from London in the UK. Born and bred, and still here!

What's your favourite noise?

When you’re alone in the middle of a moor at twilight, and you can’t see or hear any sign of civilisation. And you stand there with your eyes closed and are at peace, even though around you, you know that the harsh landscape is at war with itself.

What's your least favourite noise?

Not hearing. A few months ago, one of my ears became blocked, which meant that I couldn't hear a thing. I couldn't listen to music, let alone make it. It was one of the more traumatic experiences I've had.

Download 'No Future' by Katarrhaktes here and visit his own site for much more music.