A few years ago I had read an interesting article by Rob Hayler entitled “what i mean by the term ‘no-audience underground’“, referring to the noise, sound-art, experimental and free music network and the connection between musicians, labels and audience. Since the beginning of my involvement with Moremars label, I have been concerned with the concept of ‘community’ and one of the main questions I still have is whether this concept exists from a global perspective. What you often discover when looking for, let’s say, the “experimental music scene” is ultimately small pockets of musicians or small music labels that keep the scene alive.
In this first interview presented here, I had the opportunity to interview Clinton Green, an Australian sound artist and owner of the music label “Shame File Music“. One of the albums that stood out to me this year was Clinton Green’s “A Conduit”. In this first interview that we present in our “community” column, we tried to explore Clinton Green’s music and to get a litle taste of the Australian music scene.
Marios Moras: Clinton, thanks for agreeing to do this interview. What have you been up to? Firstly, I would like you to tell me a few words about your involvement with music.
Clinton Green: Lately, I’ve been working on refining some musical ideas I’ve been experimenting with over the past year or so, involving Walkmans as sound sources. I’ve noticed a pattern with how I work; first comes experimentation, which often involves trying lots of different things, and usually multiple sound sources. In this instance, I’ve been using 2-3 Walkmans for a track. But recently, I am restricting myself to a sole Walkman as a sound source, with some subtle effects. I feel like I am honing in on the timbre of the Walkman sound itself, not hiding behind multiple tracks and sounds. I’m not sure if it will end up being something worth releasing, but that’s OK, it’s all part of the process.
I have been involved in music pretty much all my adult life. I was 18 in my first band, and I’m 52 now. Obviously, it has varied over the years; mainly guitar to begin with, then turntables in various forms, and a whole lot of other stuff in between/coinciding (percussion, bowed metal bowls, performance, text), solo and in collaboration.
MM: In your compositions you use many improvisations with automated percussion, found objects and turntables. Tell me a few things about your approach to this material and the way you are working your albums.
CG: I think the common thing throughout most of my work is that I am interested in finding new sound/music. Music that is interesting and new to me, from objects or machines used in new sonic ways. Finding the hidden sonic properties of a turntable, or a piece of metal, or a Walkman. I’m using the word “find” a lot; I think of myself as a finder of music, rather than a maker. I’m finding the music in things that we just haven’t heard yet. A lot of my earlier albums were pretty raw documents of this process. These days, I’m trying to be a bit more careful to make albums that continue to document these experiments, but as I said earlier, are more refined and even nuanced – well, that’s my aim, I don’t think I’m always successful.
MM: Listening to your recent release, the “A Conduit” CD, I felt that this album, along with 2021’s “Here?/Secret” and 2019’s “Young Women of Asia”, introduced me to a parallel musical direction of your soundwork. My impression is that there are more noise textures, made by analog equipment like cassette players and in essence, your music is shaped by a more low-fi aesthetic. Am I right?
CG: Yes, I think this is true in comparing it to my turntable sound sculpture recordings, best represented by “Relativity/Only”, which is an acoustic, high quality studio recording. However, both streams of music are still concerned with machines/objects making their own music and me “finding it”, through various procedures and settings. Machine, tape and record noise are certainly part of those releases you mentioned (especially “Here?/Secret”, where silence also plays a big role). But in the refining process I’m going through at the moment (mentioned above), I am finding myself wanting to remove a lot of the extra noise and isolate particular sounds and rhythms.
MM: The Shame File Music label has been around since the 90’s, initially releasing punk music releases and then moving into the experimental music scene. How did this transition happen?
It just followed my own changes of interest from the music I had been involved with but gradually lost interest in (punk), through to my developing interest in experimental music. Especially in the early days, Shame File Music was a vehicle to release my own music and other music I was interested in, which continues to an extent today.
MM: On the label’s website you specifically state that Shame File Music “specialises in documenting Australian experimental music, both contemporary and historical”. What do you think would be interesting to document the Australian scene? I’m also wondering what is the meaning of “music community” amongst musicians in Australia. If so, how does it work there?
CG: I was frustrated that experimental music in Australia was barely being documented at all. I thought it meant that there was no history of experimental music in Australlia prior to the late 1970s, but through my research for what became the “Artefacts of Australian Experimental Music” series, I found that in fact there was a rich history. A lack of interest in our own history is a common problem in Australia, and especially in the arts, which are not really valued by mainstream society in this country (or at worst, despised). For me, it is important to know what has happened before in this place where I am making music; primarily so I don’t just repeat what has come before, but also to enrich the culture of which I am participating.
I think the “music community” is pretty strong in Australia, although it varies a lot between cities. Where I am, in Melbourne, there has always been a strong supportive network of artists and musicians in the experimental and improvised music worlds. The other advantage in Melbourne is that these scenes are not isolated or exclusionary (for the most part), and have lots of crossovers with other music, like rock, classical, jazz, electronic, folk, etc. It mostly works through social opportunities at regular gigs (which admittedly are not as common post-COVID, but some continue), and in general moral support for each other. There is also a strong spirit of collaboration between musicians; people are mostly willing to play with each other in various settings (often improvised). I think all of these factors are important for the strength of a music community. The other factor is that support from governments or institutions is often limited or inconsistent, so we really have to rely on each other for ongoing support.
MM: And one last question for you. Do you want to recommend me some 2024 releases that you enjoyed a lot this year?
CG: yes of course!
Adrianne Lenker “Bright Future”
Dagar Brothers “Berlin 1964 – The Lost Recording”
Buttress O’Kneel “Samplants”
Links:
Shame File Music: https://shamefilemusic.bandcamp.com/music
Clinton Green: https://clintongreen.com