Sunday 22 June 2014

Interview with BoneMagic


Interview by Brayden

BoneMagic is one of several projects from Matt Hex aka 'The Only Noise Artist in Oklahoma'. While BoneMagic isn't strictly a noise project (it owes more to synthwave and industrial), it's no happy walk in the park either. I talked to the man behind the keyboard to find out more about the project and his involvement in the world of experimental music.


FBN:Greetings! Who are you and what do you do?
Matt: I'm Matt Hex and currently the only recognized noise artist from Oklahoma...trust me I've looked or they don't wanna be found.


FBN: How did the name for your project, BoneMagic come about?
Matt: Really it came from none other than a Halloween episode of the Simpsons, the one involving grounds keeper Willie assuming the role of a Freddy Kruger type...in the story Willie is burned alive and proclaims his curse then chief wiggum mentions something like "skeleton power" so I riffed with that hence BoneMagic


FBN: BoneMagic isn't exactly a 'noise' project, strictly speaking. How would you describe it?
Matt: Started with wanting to do something more structured and I've been a big fan of old industrial & 70/80s era synth soundtracks so that played a big part in developing the project, there are bits of noise littered through out the releases but I believe it's coming out into the forefront.


FBN: What sort of themes do your music and lyrics explore?
Matt: They tend to come from recent life changes and failed relationships, not to sound cliche but it's been a real emotional arc in progress to deal with and overcome. Other themes spur from ones own mortality and the end times but that is in my own perception


FBN: Where do you draw inspiration for BoneMagic, musically and otherwise?
Matt:  Damn to be honest, I enjoy everything, industrial and old synth stuff as made mention before but the real Inspiration comes from early prince and older pop music such as Isaac Hayes, BeeGees and a new cat Adrian Younge. Gotta expand and not recycle


FBN: How do you construct your tracks? Is there much of a writing process, or does improvisation play a part in it too?
Matt: I'll spend a few months making loops and toying with various bits of noise for background and when I feel it's ready I'll go in, record the main structure then afterwards add noise and sound bits to make it fuller, vocals are usually done in one day to maintain consistently. When I play live, improv is a big part of it as well, it keeps each show different and loose.


FBN: What do you use to record and play live - instrument/equipment wise?
Matt:right now I'm using Alesis micron, a mix of pedals, a shaker box"crank sturgeon issue" a boss looper, boss multi effects for vocals and a custom Trogotronic hot rod. I tend to mix it up when I play a different show. Helps break up the pace.


FBN: Noise and experimental electronic music has certainly experienced a renaissance period with the internet and development of online music services (youtube, bandcamp, soundcloud etc etc). Where do you see this kind of music going in the next five to ten years?
Matt: That's really hard to say, it's really helped me network and get out there as far as anything else and with the digital medium it's really leveled the playing field for people to be heard but trends change in a heartbeat.


FBN: What are your top three noise releases of all time?
Matt: This is a hard one...
In no order but had a profound impact

Halo - Body Of Light

The Bastard Noise - Rogue Astronaut

Sunn - White One


FBN: This is the part for any shout-outs. thank yous, words of wisdom or inane trivia you may have for the folks reading this. Shameless self promotion is allowed.
Matt: .I really want to give props to Sean Beard, that dude is cool as fuck, Raws"Plack Blague" nothing but nice and genius in assless leather chaps.Wt Nelson...a mentor and a brother simply & Johnny Cash for helping me really network with all the other freaks from the noise scene. Plugs??? My bandcamp Cruel Corrupt Recordings and my other bro Colt "45IVE" who I dj for under the guise of "Dj Fancy Feast". And for those who prefer something more harsh, I have a noisecore project called Video Nasty & a more traditional experimental called GRÆYBACK. Both our up on the cruel corrupt recordings bandcamp
Check him out... But that's all I can riff on. Thanks for having me.


No problemo man!
You can check out Matt's bandcamp over yonder  and, while you're at it, you can scroll down a page or so and check out the review I did for BoneMagic, and maybe give a listen and a download. It's pretty good.

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