Staf magazine interview with Brian - Spain 3/2002

I would normally refer to noise as unwanted sound, like my loud neighbors or an unexpected crash that startles the shit out of me. As far as this musical movement called "noise", I guess it's just a broad generalization for people making music that may have dissonances or harsh sounds or even no tonal center, sometimes no discernable beat, sometimes played or meant to be played very loudly. But this isn't always clear. People used to call stuff put out by Amphetamine Reptile Records noise (it was even incorporated into the label's logo). But that was just a lot of loud rock music compared to stuff like Merzbow, Masonna or Brighter Death Now (No offense meant at all to AmRep, I like a lot of stuff on that label.).

What is the most noise, chaotic and rare you know?

My neighborhood is one of the most noisy things that I know of. It is often chaotic, but unfortunately not very rare. I use recordings of it often in my SUCKPiG project.

What is the best and the worst of the noise scene, in your opinion?

I wasn't aware that there was a noise scene. I don't usually go for scenes. In a lot of scenes there's a "leader" (be it person, zine, record label, or otherwise) that tells the "followers" what is supposed to be cool and what isn't. Then people start to like things that they may not have even been remotely interested in if left to their own devices simply because they are told that they are supposed to, or bands that are amazing are completely ignored because they didn't get the "golden finger" pointed at them. As much as I'm able, I like to figure these things out for myself. I have very eclectic tastes. Some of the noisier stuff that I like includes Zeni Geva, Negativland, Swans, The Locust, some of the stuff that Mike Patton is involved in, but I don't know if these musicians could be called, or would want to be called "noise". I wouldn't call it "noise". Of course there are good points to some scenes. Good scenes bring in bands from out of town, put on shows, start labels or distros, put out decent zines, make people aware of bands that they may not have heard of. I guess any scene is as good or bad as the people in it.

Why there is now a boom of noisy bands? It seems everybody likes this style in these days & what can this kind of bands offer that other styles hasn't been done yet?

I've been playing and listening to noisy music for a long time now. I didn't notice that there was any more or less than before. However, if everybody likes this style these days how come I don't hear it, instead of what I consider to be real noise like Britney Spears or NSync, in shopping malls, on the radio, or on TV? As to what's new being offered, I don't know if anybody is doing anything at all anymore that hasn't been done already, but the derivations and mutations are what interest me.

What is the future of noise, if it has?

I never know these things, although the older I get the more I see things that used to be cutting edge, offensive or inaccessible becoming homogenized and acceptable. Maybe "noise" has this in its future as well. I wouldn't be surprised. Possibly this is the boom of noisy bands that you're referring to (nice pun, by the way).

Noise will die when?

NOISE WILL NEVER DIE.

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