In Conversation With… Natalie Mardi

I’ve been a long-time listener to Mardi’s Natlyea project.  Well, not that long.  But long enough.  While the droning soundscapes of the Dystopian Origins works are definitely not for everyone, they have a calming effect and are a must listen for fans of ambient music.  Recently, I had a chance to talk with Mardi about life, love, laughter and the all encompassing great questions of life.

Aaron: Ok. this interview will probably be ass since i’ve been drinking.

Natalie: that -is- the only way to interview

Aaron: so anyway where was i?  let’s talk DRONE. of all the music styles out there, you couldn’t have picked a less popular one. obviously you’re doing it out of love. what is it that really does it for you, i suppose? is there a specific moment in your life where you said, “i really want to play DRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG”?

Natalie: yes sure there are such moments if you are a) audiophile of any kind and b) have found a lot of extreme ends of music, you might want to dive into whatever you consider the extremest, too… no matter if you ride rollercoasters or guitar amps, people like the extremes i guess i just am not much different =)

Aaron: so was there a specific work that changed your perception regarding music?

Natalie: yes, actually there was… i think i must give credit to one of the loudest and most productive people out there, masami akita, known as merzbow i was shown a piece years ago that deconstructed my ideas of sound and music so severly in a mere five minutes, that i just concluded – ok, then you might as well play -anything- of the sound spectrum – as long you think it is the right sound or chord or tone at that moment, it must be where you put it

Aaron: do you recall specifically what that piece was that changed you?

Natalie: yes, cannibalism of machine, from tauromachine it’s a mere five or six minutes chopping up the entire sound spectrum – i found it quite genious

Aaron: so it was really the whole piece of music, not one specific part

Natalie: might be the first few seconds did the trick already after a few heavily pounding sounds in varying rhythms, the rhythms are instantly fucked up by a kind of alarm-hornish sound and then it descends into quite a mess of whitenoise might be the horn did it i’ve listened to more merzbow later on, and while i’ve liked quite some handful of his stuff, i must say, he made way too much outright crap too no wonder among … what’s the bastard at… 600 or 700 albums i’ve fed me some 3 day marathon of merzbox once, some student radio played the shit on the internet years ago i had a couple of c90 tapes and would hit record in random moments

Aaron: i tried listening to the merzbox once. i got about 6 albums in. then i had to quit.

Natalie: that sounds familiar by now i can’t get into the stuff anymore as much as i used to one gets overfed with sound, no matter if it’s popular or underground music – can be always too much of a thing

Aaron: what do you find yourself listening to most often these days? you know, besides goatwhore.

Natalie: lots of grateful dead actually old stuff i’ve bought me a xaphoon just the other week, learning mary’s little lamb right now and thinking to play jazz eventually… the kind of tunes they don’t play anymore

Aaron: i feel confident stating that mingus, and therefore jazz, is dead.

Natalie: jazz is dead since it is popularized as what it is called – jazz most genres are bound to die by their original idea as soon as they leave the underground because they get picked up, reworked, mangled through other people’s ideas and beliefs of “how it must be done” that’s not wrong by itself, no way – music lives from reinvention and from going further

Aaron: do you feel that noise has ever been co-opted in that fashion? or should i say, to the extent

Natalie: but it makes the ideas of classifying genres or the like quite absurd noise has hit the border too, i think

Aaron: that’s all wolf eyes’ fault. i blame wolf eyes for many things they are an easy scapegoat.

Natalie: in the last few years i noticed that you can throw names like gerogerigegege at people and people might say “fuck yes, i know them” that wasn’t the same around 2000… and merzbow’s then just even more known a name by now masonna… yes, they’ve had masonna running in a club once that usually played poppy industrial nonsense…

Aaron: that’s probably the weirdest thing i’ve ever heard of. that’s like hearing about sunn o))) electro remixes.

Natalie: i don’t know – merzbow’s been also working with the likes of alec empire find yourself in a european venue where they’d play atari teenage riot, and people also nod and say “yes, sure, that moron from japan. nic endo’s lovely blasts of noise in atr then are just a story of their own too… so that stuff just does lose it’s underground-ness (if thats a word) as soon as people are exposed to it in bigger masses once again nothing wrong – but it will inevitably pervert the original ideas and genrefications

Aaron: atari teenage riot were innovative in their own right, though. they were really one of the first aggressive breakcore groups. nobody was really doing what they were before them. at least, no one noteworthy

Nataile: more than it perhaps – they’ve got the right punk and d.i.y. feeling to electronic music meant that a lot of angry kids would realize with a shitty guitar and some old synthesizer they could also make part of their voice heard question is again, who has been then noteworthy enough to make something out of it to be remembered still? mhhh

Aaron: innovators are few and far between though. from the last 20 years, who has been really influential? nirvana? atr? meshuggah?

Natalie: that is the point where copying comes in to play things must be repeated often until there’s a new iteration of something coming

Aaron: new things are always coming though. especially with the internet it’s so easy to find something new someone is mashing up one shitty thing with another.

Natalie: you could listen to a lot of doom bands and say, it’s all doom by the characteristics of slower speed, downtuned, yaddayadda – but you might find even one particular sound of vocals, build-up of songs or some other element innovative. if you then indeed pick up such elements, and mash them up with something else you like – well it might become something new

Aaron: well, electric wizard is nothing like sabbath who are nothing like yob who are nothing like disembowelment who are nothing like halo

Natalie: yes exactly that is why genres and ideas are just so.. artificial and innovation works surely from viewpoints too i’ve heard a lot of doom, to stay with this example, i would’ve marked off on a list like “boring… boring.. boring… boring…” while it might have been for people into doom on another level a list of finding awesome new bands

Aaron: i understand. i know some people who name some of the most boring doom bands as being awesome.

Natalie: it’s always the point of view (and taste coming hugely into play of course)

Aaron: but i mean, i find that problem in any genre you have people who latch onto the aesthetic more than the actual music. be it doom or jazz or punk.  why else would the casualties be sellling so many records?

Natalie: but so there was some webzine stating electric wizard -the- innovator of the “mysterious lovecraftian doom” or whtever they called it

Aaron:  oh i wahat? “mysterious lovecraftian doom?” OKAY so i like electric wizard and all, but that is just fucking dumb

Natalie: so it is but someone there must have thought that making a song about dunwich makes you extremely occult, lovecraftian and whatnot my opinion they just write catchy tunes (recently again) and have a good sense of humour

Aaron: i’ll admit that electric wizard probably sounds innovative to someone who is new to sludge. but the whole concept is just beyond me. ok. i’m getting wired up aboutthis. in your opinion, who IS groundbreaking by this point?

Natalie: in anything music?

Aaron: sure.

Natalies: hard to say. i can listen through old northern soul songs and find a bass line which has been heard by people years ago, and yet me discovering this tune makes it for me the most innovative thing i’ve heard in years might as well be someone tomorrow stubbles together grindcore and polka to something that’ll impress me and can be liked. i might find it innovative or just a failed experiment, or i might find it both.

Check out Natlyea at http://www.last.fm/music/natlyea