Claw Grips Moon Interview
Q: Can you talk about your history as an artist?
A: I was always just an artsy kid growing up. I paint and make visual art and have done most of the visuals and artwork for my albums. I’ve played in punk and indie bands my whole life. From my teens in high school, to my 20’s, and now in my 30’s, I’ve just constantly had a band or some project I’ve been working on. I’ve probably played in a total of six bands, some more active than others. Opened for bands like Nobunny, Ponytail, Power Animal, Creepoid, Person L, and a ton of others. I played in a band called Daughter Cells (https://daughtercells.bandcamp.com) that started around 2015. That was a really fun band to play in. We played some awesome shows. I was usually vocals and guitarist in most of the bands that I played in. But I started a solo project called Exploding World (explodingworld.bandcamp.com) in 2007 that I guess was essentially the beginning of Claw Grips Moon. I had gotten my first MacBook and started making beats and electronic music in Garageband. The first few EP’s were just me doing weird experimental stuff just messing around in between bands I was playing in at the time. Then that project evolved into a full four-five piece band, but the difference from all the other bands I played in was that I was writing all of those songs on synths and piano instead of guitar. We had guitar in the band but it was also really synth heavy and that kind of changed my outlook and perspective of what’s possible sonically.
Q: What is your recording process like for Claw Grips Moon?
A: I write, edit and record almost everything in Logic. I work a lot in Logic itself, but I also use hardware synths and samplers like the SP404, MPC Live, Novation Circuit, the Microkorg, Korg Volca FM, different Pocket Operators and just a lot of other random synths, pedals and effects. Then I use a lot of software plug- ins and VSTs. I make a lot of sounds in Serum and Iris 2. I like to make all my sounds unique and custom. I do use random samples which I usually manipulate pretty hard so that it's hard to pick them out even if you knew what the original sample source was. My stuff is very percussive so I’d say 50% of my drum sounds are actual percussion I’ve recorded, and the other 50% are drum samples that I take from somewhere and just EQ and compress the shit out of them to my liking.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: I have somewhat of a routine for when I write and make music which has just come from years of creating in different ways. I know that I’m most creative in the morning, so any time I’m able to work on stuff right after I wake up is best for me. Also, just the way my mind works, I’m constantly thinking about making things, even if I’m not in the process of doing so. So I record a lot of field recordings on my phone and use them in whatever ways fit. One of the reasons I love electronic music is the sonic possibilities are endless. Maybe a fire alarm goes off somewhere, I’ll record it on my phone then load it into Serum as the oscillator for a synth sound. Or if it’s something more ambient then I’ll probably sample it into a beat.
I also made a rule for myself to make at least one beat every day. Which I’ve stayed pretty faithful to. I miss a day here and there but then some days I’ll make three or four so it evens out. I’ve been doing this for about three years now, so I have over 1,000 beats on my hard drive.
Q: Can you talk about your history as an artist?
A: I was always just an artsy kid growing up. I paint and make visual art and have done most of the visuals and artwork for my albums. I’ve played in punk and indie bands my whole life. From my teens in high school, to my 20’s, and now in my 30’s, I’ve just constantly had a band or some project I’ve been working on. I’ve probably played in a total of six bands, some more active than others. Opened for bands like Nobunny, Ponytail, Power Animal, Creepoid, Person L, and a ton of others. I played in a band called Daughter Cells (https://daughtercells.bandcamp.com) that started around 2015. That was a really fun band to play in. We played some awesome shows. I was usually vocals and guitarist in most of the bands that I played in. But I started a solo project called Exploding World (explodingworld.bandcamp.com) in 2007 that I guess was essentially the beginning of Claw Grips Moon. I had gotten my first MacBook and started making beats and electronic music in Garageband. The first few EP’s were just me doing weird experimental stuff just messing around in between bands I was playing in at the time. Then that project evolved into a full four-five piece band, but the difference from all the other bands I played in was that I was writing all of those songs on synths and piano instead of guitar. We had guitar in the band but it was also really synth heavy and that kind of changed my outlook and perspective of what’s possible sonically.
Q: What is your recording process like for Claw Grips Moon?
A: I write, edit and record almost everything in Logic. I work a lot in Logic itself, but I also use hardware synths and samplers like the SP404, MPC Live, Novation Circuit, the Microkorg, Korg Volca FM, different Pocket Operators and just a lot of other random synths, pedals and effects. Then I use a lot of software plug- ins and VSTs. I make a lot of sounds in Serum and Iris 2. I like to make all my sounds unique and custom. I do use random samples which I usually manipulate pretty hard so that it's hard to pick them out even if you knew what the original sample source was. My stuff is very percussive so I’d say 50% of my drum sounds are actual percussion I’ve recorded, and the other 50% are drum samples that I take from somewhere and just EQ and compress the shit out of them to my liking.
Q: What is your creative process like?
A: I have somewhat of a routine for when I write and make music which has just come from years of creating in different ways. I know that I’m most creative in the morning, so any time I’m able to work on stuff right after I wake up is best for me. Also, just the way my mind works, I’m constantly thinking about making things, even if I’m not in the process of doing so. So I record a lot of field recordings on my phone and use them in whatever ways fit. One of the reasons I love electronic music is the sonic possibilities are endless. Maybe a fire alarm goes off somewhere, I’ll record it on my phone then load it into Serum as the oscillator for a synth sound. Or if it’s something more ambient then I’ll probably sample it into a beat.
I also made a rule for myself to make at least one beat every day. Which I’ve stayed pretty faithful to. I miss a day here and there but then some days I’ll make three or four so it evens out. I’ve been doing this for about three years now, so I have over 1,000 beats on my hard drive.
Q: What are some themes that are touched upon in your release Claw Grips Moon?
A: There’s no vocals or lyrics on my first album but I’d say everything I do has the theme of “man vs. machine.” It’s just a topic that’s interesting to me. I mean electronic music is literally the embodiment of that idea. At least the kind I make, mixing synthetic sounds with natural environmental sounds. I love Philip K. Dick. I feel like he might be the most influential author in music. His books touched on these topics decades ago and people thought his stories were just goofy ass sci-fi. He wrote about a world filled with artificial intelligence and computers that people carried in their pockets like 50 years ago and people thought it was ridiculous. He was a total visionary. Now it’s possible to have artificial intelligence generate a complete musical composition without any human thought or soul in it. The concept seems kind of evil and nefarious but it’s interesting. We're in an age where technology rules over all in our society. It's almost religious the way that we worship technology. Would we devolve as a society if all technology was wiped away? What would a world look like where the robots that man created become self-aware? Like a robot recognizing itself in the mirror. It would be really wild and pretty scary. I’m ok with robots making music though. As long as they make some bangers.
Q: Have you started playing shows now that the pandemic is almost over?
A: Let’s all hope this pandemic is almost over. I have not played any shows under this project yet but I will be very soon. I’ve been working on a set. All my equipment isn’t midi synced when I play live. It makes it interesting because everything can be a little different each time. It puts a more human element into it when everything isn’t totally quantized and perfect. Things can also fall apart into a mess very easily as well so I’m working on it.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: Just that I have a lot of new music coming very soon. I have a second full length album coming out soon that is kind of a sequel to my first self-titled one. I’m going to release it on cassette in two different runs. The first one is going to be a super limited run where all the art and packaging is handmade and it’s going to come with other pieces of original art, and the second run is going to be an actual professionally packed cassette tape. Then an EP that has a lot more vocals on it. I have a lot of different things I’m working on. I have multiple projects that are done that I just haven't put out yet because I'm just not sure exactly where they fit in. I have an ambient record. I have a record thats all symphonic sounds. My goal is to just constantly evolve and try new things and not do the same thing over and over.
A: There’s no vocals or lyrics on my first album but I’d say everything I do has the theme of “man vs. machine.” It’s just a topic that’s interesting to me. I mean electronic music is literally the embodiment of that idea. At least the kind I make, mixing synthetic sounds with natural environmental sounds. I love Philip K. Dick. I feel like he might be the most influential author in music. His books touched on these topics decades ago and people thought his stories were just goofy ass sci-fi. He wrote about a world filled with artificial intelligence and computers that people carried in their pockets like 50 years ago and people thought it was ridiculous. He was a total visionary. Now it’s possible to have artificial intelligence generate a complete musical composition without any human thought or soul in it. The concept seems kind of evil and nefarious but it’s interesting. We're in an age where technology rules over all in our society. It's almost religious the way that we worship technology. Would we devolve as a society if all technology was wiped away? What would a world look like where the robots that man created become self-aware? Like a robot recognizing itself in the mirror. It would be really wild and pretty scary. I’m ok with robots making music though. As long as they make some bangers.
Q: Have you started playing shows now that the pandemic is almost over?
A: Let’s all hope this pandemic is almost over. I have not played any shows under this project yet but I will be very soon. I’ve been working on a set. All my equipment isn’t midi synced when I play live. It makes it interesting because everything can be a little different each time. It puts a more human element into it when everything isn’t totally quantized and perfect. Things can also fall apart into a mess very easily as well so I’m working on it.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: Just that I have a lot of new music coming very soon. I have a second full length album coming out soon that is kind of a sequel to my first self-titled one. I’m going to release it on cassette in two different runs. The first one is going to be a super limited run where all the art and packaging is handmade and it’s going to come with other pieces of original art, and the second run is going to be an actual professionally packed cassette tape. Then an EP that has a lot more vocals on it. I have a lot of different things I’m working on. I have multiple projects that are done that I just haven't put out yet because I'm just not sure exactly where they fit in. I have an ambient record. I have a record thats all symphonic sounds. My goal is to just constantly evolve and try new things and not do the same thing over and over.