Here is our interview with Big Ears Festival. Mamiffer performs the festival on March 31st 2016
Timothy Garrett: How important is the concept behind any of the musical work that you do? Does a specific record have to have some sort of concept from the beginning, or are there times when the music itself starts as pure music and ties in some concepts later on?
Mamiffer/Faith: Hi Timothy. Concept is very important, although the most important part for us is process. The concept can always be there, and usually reveals itself through our process, and can culminate in a final idea tied together with the artwork and presentation. Concept informs the process for us, and is part of the larger whole.
Ben T O Smith: Hi Faith and Aaron! Excited to have y'all in Knoxville!
What has been the most difficult part of running and operating a label? Is there a balance that you've found between running the label and creating your art?
What artists have caught your attention lately? Any you've been wanting to share with Big Ears fans? :^)
Mamiffer/Aaron: the hardest part of running SIGE is figuring out how to contain it. Running a label out of our home means that the work is always near, there's always more to do, and there's always something that needs to be addressed. We didn't intend for it to become as sprawling as it has, and though it's still a "bedroom label", it's become quite involved. I love many aspects of the work, especially being connected with other artists we share a deep affinity with, yet I sometimes find the administrative side of things very tedious. The creative part is what attracts me to running a label - dealing with concerns over distribution, social media, manufacturing, etc... this is the stuff that ends up taking far more time than I anticipate and takes away from actually being creative. My own work has often been neglected for long periods of time because of this kind of work, which is sometimes frustrating.
As far as what artists have caught our attention lately - well, some of the artists we've released recently, or are about to release are good indicators: ENDON, Jon Mueller, William Fowler Collins, Black Spirituals, Daniel Menche, etc. Beyond that I'm constantly seeking out new music, or relees from artists I already enjoy, so the list is fairly endless. Some of the last few records we've spun and mutually enjoyed are: Luigi Archetti, Mirror, Janne Westerlund, Klaus Lang, Aluk Todolo, Chaos Echoes, Abul Mogard, etc.
Ernesto Phlbatin: Hello Aaron and Faith! I am always in awe of the song titles you give to your music. Can you share with us any literary references/influences you have? Your work is always shrouded in mystery and I like it very much. Thank you!
Mamiffer/Faith: Thank you! Many influences for song titles and lyrics come from dreams and what we have been reading and discussing. Some examples: Hélène Cixous, Margaret Atwood, Marija Gimbutas, Audre Lorde, Philip K Dick, Bell Hooks, Riane Eisler, Barbara Walker, Gloria Anzaldúa and so many more.
Ernesto Phlbatin: One more question for Faith:
Mara could very well be Mamiffer music, what drove you to treat it as a separate work? Surfacing is an elegantly beautiful piece of music and I hope you release more under this name. Thank you!
Mamiffer/Faith: Thank you. Mára started out around 2010 when I started to practice learning how to sing and recording that onto a 4 track or hand held cassette recorder. I also recorded very fleeting simple piano melodies. These were all done while Aaron was on tour, so I could sing in the house alone! The simple songs never seemed to need accompanying instrumentation. With Mamiffer songs, part of the process is writing with Aaron and collaborating with others. Mára was something I could do all on my own, from recording to mixing etc.
P.S. Yes there will be another Mára record coming out this year, thanks
Ernesto Phlbatin: Thank you, it's a pleasure interacting with you Faith! Hopefully soon I can actually watch Mamiffer perform (I live outside the US) and thank you for your art!
Corey McDaniels: What acts are the two of you looking forward to at Big Ears?
Mamiffer/Aaron: Hey Corey McDaniels - we may miss some of the artists we really want to see as we'll be on tour at that point and will only be able to see sets from others on the same day we perform. Were we there for the whole event we'd likely try to catch some or all of the following: Anthony Braxton, Ikue Mori, Beyond The Dream Syndicate, Andy Stott, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Circuit Des Yeux, Sunno))), Faust, Sun Ra Arkestra.... and probably some of the artists who're playing that we're not yet familiar with.
Marc Anthony Solangon: Hi Aaron and Faith,
In regards to forthcoming album "The World Unseen", you've said, "The record is imperfect. It has within its heart an incompleteness, a stillness containing the presence of absence and loss." This had me thinking of a quote that Steven Wilson once said in regards to his body of work, "What you imagine in your mind can never truly be created in the real world. The creative process then becomes to get as close to that as possible, but you never really reach it." As artists who have released a huge body of work over the years yourselves, would you agree with what Steven Wilson says, and if not, can you understand where he's coming from?
PS: I also want to say that I've been following your work (including your ventures outside of Mamiffer) since I saw you open for Anathema and Alcest almost 3 years ago in NYC. I came for Anathema and Alcest, but you ended up being my favorite band that night. Hope to see you back in NYC again soon. Thanks again for the music and I'm really looking forward to the new album!
Mamiffer/Faith: Thanks! Thats great! That tour was very fun for us, and we learned a lot.
Mamiffer/Faith: To answer your question about "The World Unseen": With this record the quote holds pretty true. The record was remixed twice, and we spent a long time with the songs and arrangements. It was a hard record to make since we were dealing with subject matter that was also "incomplete", the record kept reflecting this back to us, which at first made us uncomfortable. Eventually I understood, (and with the help of our good friend Randall Dunn: Record Producer !) that the record contained absence, which is really hard to grasp. With previous records the end result seemed complete and tangible! Our record was about the "uncreated and unformed" and so it reflects this. The Steven Wilson quote is beautiful!
Mamiffer/Aaron: Albums are meant to be definitive statements of an artists vision. This album in many ways was about wandering in the dark, the lack of clear sight and was thus a very uncomfortable process. To present something which even we as the creators didn't fully grasp, which was about things we couldn't render fully conscious was a big leap of faith for us - one that's still creating unexpected ripples as the work is now reaching others.
Anton Ch: Do your pets participate in the process of recording of your albums? Thanks!
Mamiffer/Aaron: Hey Anton Ch - yes, or pets have participated in our recordings. Our cat Pizza loves to be in the studio with us when we're tracking and mixing - and her benevolent presence has been a benefit to the working process. Just knowing she's in the room with us, or me alone feels like encouragement - and a very different kind of life force in close proximity. She has occasionally interrupted the process - past a certain volume level she gets frustrated, and not surprisingly, very high frequencies really bother her. Animals are a very grounding force in our lives - they are often great reminders of how trivial some of our human concerns are and how the most basic primal needs are fundamental to our existence. Additionally, I processed some of our dogs fighting/growling noises as a textural element in a track on the first Jodis album.
