Interview- Electric Bird Noise

Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 January 2008 13:38 Written by Julie Johnson 2

Electric Bird Noise

Brian McKenzie

Oct 1999

by Julie- AKa gothgirl

1) Julie-Who is behind this sometimes aggressive and somber Electric Bird Noise?

Brian-Electric Bird Noise is pretty much just me ( Brian McKenzie ) with friends / occasional collaborators ( Kyle Trash and Trey McManus ).

2) Julie-Do you have a birds eye perspective in general for the music you create?

Brian-Electric Bird Noise is my attempt at creating something somewhat new and refreshing musically. Basically I'm trying to make music that I can't seem to find readily available.

3) Julie-Do you consider yourselves an experimental band or an industrial band?

Brian-Neither, but I guess if I had to chose one it would be experimental because to me it seems the experimental category is much more varied than the industrial; especially in the late 90's. I mean with experimental you really don't know what your actually getting into, which I personally like.

4) Julie-The genre that you are listed under says your a Cinematic Loop and Layered Instrumental. Is this a new genre or category under a genre? Are there a lot of bands doing this out there? What got you involved in this genre?

Brian-It's something I made up. Since I'm promoting myself most of the time I guess I have to have a tag of some sort to kind of let people know what we're about and all. So I tried to come up with something as vague as possible ( cinematic ). The loop and layered part does have meaning though, with a little help from our toys we loop our guitars then layer more guitar sounds etc. till we have this wall of sound and it's usually only one or two of us making all the racket.

5) Julie-You have decided to go with no vocals on this record; why? Have you every played around with vocals, or is that out the question? Do you think music without vocals is more relaxing or hypnotic?

Brian-None of us can sing so I guess we're working around our limitations. And no I don't think music without vocals is more relaxing or hypnotic. I mean a band like the Cocteau Twins have done both and there instrumentals are as equally hypnotic.

6) Julie-Are you a very serious band who want a lot of records sold or are you just having some fun? Are you here to stay? What lies ahead for the band?

Brian-I'm very serious about this band and the more records sold the better. I plan on continuing this for a long time. In fact we just started recording for our next album... we're here to stay.

7) Julie-What kind of environment are you creating with your music? Does you music reflect the title with Electric Bird Noise? Do you incorporate anything from nature? Do you even like bird noise?

Brian-The Electric Bird Noise title comes from this freeform jam session I use to do. I would bring in loads of effects pedals and manipulate the sound that these pedals would create. People said it reminded them of bird noises. I started doing shows more frequently with this set up which eventually turned into today's version and figured I needed a name so I chose electric bird noise.

8) Julie-One of my favorites is " The Shape of clouds to Come " I heard many layers and creates a dreamy atmosphere that is very relaxing that makes me forget what a crappy day I might of just had, what do you get from this song? Which are your favorite, and the crowd favorite?

Brian-I also feel the shape of cloud to come is the most upbeat and bright song on the album. It reminds me of looking up on a sunny day and watching the clouds morph into different shapes and one another. As for a crowd favorite, it seems every song on the album has been singled out at one time or another. I guess the songs are so versatile from each other that everyone has there one favorite. Me, I like'm all. I have to, they're my children.

9) Julie-Is your website the only place to get a copy of your CD? Where do you mostly perform live?

Brian-Velvet empire is helping us out a bit with distribution ( see link below ). It's Also available though CD Now and of course our web site ( see link below ). Right now we're doing one to two show a month around the southeast; just played atlanta a few weeks back and a cool guy recorded and posted our entire performance on his site at https://www.abl.com/at/.

10) Julie-What kind of movies would fit your music? Have you ever submitted your music for any films or that is not what you want to do?

Brian-I love soundtracks... obviously they're a big influence on my work. Actually someone just ask permission to use Japanese toy song in their upcoming indie film so I'm curious to see the results.

11) Julie-Is South Carolina known for any Electronic music? How do you view the scene?

Brian-The scene here in South Carolina is no different from any other. There's crap and then there's magic. Electronic music is not really big here in the south. I mean you have your contemporary raves etc. but nothing much progressive.

12) Julie-What do you like to do for fun when not making music?

Brian-Cut my toenails.

13) Julie-Any final message to new listeners?

Brian-None for now...

Velvet Empire- "https://velvetempire.com/

Electric Bird Noise- "https://members.aol.com/ebnoise/index.html

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