Connectedness Locus
Two years of hard work and long, sleepless nights has yielded Terraforms: the second album from the Northern Wastes’ very own Connectedness Locus. You can grab it for free from terraforms.connectednesslocus.com.
>>>> EFM: What have you been up to since the release of As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count?
Using a computer would have been too easy.
>>>> Connectedness Locus: The first order of business was resolving to figure out how to perform this stuff live. I played the first handful of Connectedness Locus shows in ’09 and ’10 without a laptop because it felt right and I wanted to challenge myself. Using a computer would have been too easy. I felt like I needed to earn the right to perform with my computer. So sampler, loop pedal, synth and projections it was. Those went well. Very fun. Very challenging. Besides live shows, I’ve been working almost exclusively on Terraforms.
>>>> EFM: How is this album different from your last?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count was my call to arms, my retaliation, my trial. Terraforms is my ode to music itself, to my experiences in ‘the Northern Wastes’, to Endless Field Studios, to the cicadas that climb the trees here every summer and sing so loudly that you can barely think, to my dreams. Terraforms is a continuation of the story of As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count. This time around, though, the characters are more grown up, the stakes are higher and there are even more mysteries.
>>>> EFM: How long have you been working on Terraforms?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: About two years. I started immediately after finishing Serial Index of Unclaimed Memories with my other project Everything Comes in Cycles; Everything Fades in Shades, which was technically before As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count was even finished. I probably wrote about 30-40 songs before narrowing it down to the 10 tracks that appear on the album. That was challenging because I have an inclination to develop a soft spot for all the songs I write. But I’ve learned to just delete those ones, the troublemakers. It’s like, ‘Oh that song? Yeah, that’s pretty cute. That would’ve been amazing to me three years ago but is this really what this album calls for?’ If the answer is no, then I’m better off without it. I’m not here to retrace the same pages in a coloring book and fill them in again with slightly different shades and hues. Because of that I have consciously endeavored to push myself with each track and explore new sounds and structures that I haven’t explored before.
>>>> EFM: Please explain your creative process compared to the last album?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: With Terraforms I have allowed my guts to guide my decisions much more than I did on As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count. I still utilize constraints to force creative solutions quite extensively. Production value became a part of the creative process: stereo space, bit rate, sound fidelity, all that stuff was consciously in the forefront of my mind while working on Terraforms, so those often guided my choices. Ultimately the creative process for both remained intact: imagine, explore, execute, repeat, imagine, explore, execute, repeat…
>>>> EFM: Have any events or people directly influenced the sound of Terraforms?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: Yes. All of them. Everyday is overwhelming because I find inspiration in everything but cannot yet spend everyday releasing and creating with this inspiration. ‘The Third Coast’ was probably the most influential location. There were two days back in the fall of 2009 that I decided to visit 12 different beaches along the Illinois coastline and photograph them. On that day I awoke from the dreams and nightmares of As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count and began to feel the tug of Terraforms.
Then there are these huge gravel pits by my house that were once prairies. The gravel company dug too deep and the pits filled with water and became lakes. The city then engineered a park and beaches down in the pits. There are highways bordering all four sides of these artificial lakes. Driving passed them gives me the weirdest feeling, like they’re either going to fill all the way up with water or some weird UFOs are going to fly out of them.
I worked with Brit Woollard for two tracks on the album. She is a phenomenal musician and cellist. Very professional. So that was an absolute pleasure. Other EFS guys contributed support and inspiration: Paul, adamjmoore, Caden, Trent, Arthur, Dorian, Kevin, Isaac… All of them have been an amazingly supportive community and I’m really grateful to have them in my life. Finally, my mother was kind enough to illustrate the cover of the album. It was really great to let go of doing my own visuals for a change!
>>>> EFM: Has your career as an artist/graphic designer influenced your music?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: Yes and no. I was very careful to select a career that had little to do with music directly because I don’t want ever to have next months rent become dependent on how many gigs I play or how much merch I sell. Too stressful. Too many scary opportunities to compromise your artistic integrity. For the most part the two are very segregated. Designing websites/logos/CDs for bands has put me in contact with some really great people, though, and these people have definitely influenced my music.
As an artist, it’s great to be able to readily pair visuals with my sounds. I shoot a lot on film and I often do so with particular songs or sounds in my mind. I try to match the sounds with what I see around me. It doesn’t always work, but when it does I to project those images with those songs during my live sets.
>>>> EFM: What are your goals as a musicians and artist?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: To continue to explore. To learn more about music. To make sounds and songs that have never been made before. To play shows and make people move or think or just forget about everything for half an hour and get lost in another world. To follow my guts.
>>>> EFM: What does the future hold for Connectedness Locus?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: I don’t know right now. Immediately after As Quippolous Codes Quietly Count, I knew I had to write another album. With Terraforms, I finally feel like I’ve gotten everything off my chest, that I said what I’ve been trying to say.
With Terraforms, I finally feel like I’ve gotten everything off my chest, that I said what I’ve been trying to say.
Whatever’s next, I’m open to it. It’s gotta feel right and it’s gotta feel natural. Right now, I’m just excited to play these new songs live and promote Terraforms.
Watch, though… I’ll wake up from a dream tonight and have another album itching to get out…
>>>> EFM: Why music? Why not something else?
>>>> Connectedness Locus: I realized one day that music is the most fun and creative things that I can possibly do. Some bands… their songs, their presence, their ideas and artwork have sculpted my life, my thoughts and my goals in ways I never thought possible. I suppose I do this because I hope that I can affect others in the same way that those bands affected me and, ultimately, inspire others pick up an instrument and do something with their lives.
This is exactly what Terraforms is about to me. Is it easier to transform an entire planet and make it more perfect or is it easier to transform singular entities to better exist on that planet? Which is more efficient? Will you allow the world to change you? Will you try to change the world?
That’s part of the mystery of it all. Music has this power that I don’t understand. That’s what excites me so much about it. I’ve barely even dipped my toes into the ocean.