Interview with Ming of Sleepmask

MC: Sleepmask certainly draws on a wealth of experience! What are some of the differences between the music scene on the east and west coasts that you guys have observed? How did you get together?

Ming: Well i did move to NYC originally to put something together on the sleepmask material, but i can’t say that i’m an authority on the scene out there.  But i can tell you a bit about the formation of the band.  i had written much of this music while still playing in a band in Los Angeles called Faculty x, but i began to notice the material was more melodic and the instrumentation was drifting from the danceable deathrock we were doing and a shoegaze influence was surfacing.  As i felt strongly that it was good material but needed a different feeling band to pull it off, i left for new york.   That proved to be a bit of a stretch for me.  i knew no one and had no connections there, all of my contacts were here in Los Angeles, so after 8 months or so of seeking players and some way to make money, i came back here to L.A. somewhat discouraged.
i had known our drummer Charlie Woodburn from playing a show with him when his band at the time opened for  Fac X.   We had done some recording together working on a side project of mine called les enfants terribles so i knew he was very talented and his style is mature, a real percussionist and not just your average bashing ‘concussionist’.   i bumped into him on the street almost immediately off the plane from NYC and we talked about working together again.
Adam Dzurilla responded to a Myspace add i had posted some ago searching for a bassist.. he is actually a great guitarist and singer as well, but felt he was into working with bass again, and i’m so pleased he answered the call because he quickly mastered the sliding sleazy lumbering feel i wanted..
We are in the midst of auditioning guitarists to round out the foursome and in fact i believe i’ve found a great fit just last night… i play guitars and sing but want a second player as many of the parts are two lines meshing to make a wall of sound approach to the higher frequencies.

MC: I see you are interested in such diverse figures as Rimbaud, Camus, and Crowley. It’s refreshing to see a band these days with this kind of literary tastes. Have these poets and authors influenced your music? What are you reading these days?

Ming: Oh absolutely.. i didn’t begin playing music seriously until after i finished getting a degree in philosophy, and in fact it was my studies on aesthetics that forced me to realize that it was time to take part in an artistic dialogue, rather than remain a musicologist and appreciator of the arts… I was very interested in the frankfurt school of critical theorists, writers like Habermas and Marcuse, deconstructionist philosophy like Derridas, the dada art movement, and Roland Barthes’ work on aesthetics.. i had also read lipstick traces by Greil Marcus, the music critic, and his tying of philosophy and socio-political critique with music analysis enthralled me and empowered me with ideas that led to my dedication to music as my artistic medium..     Rimbaud, Baudelaire and other romantic poets, as well as certain occultists for their dark aesthetic became the next wave of inspiration as i began to write lyrics.. imagery is paramount to me in songwriting, much more than linear narrative… which i find pedantic and cliche.

MC: I think Rimbaud’s life, i.e. giving up poetry, trekking into Africa, and returning home to die, can almost be a metaphor for a lot of underground poetry and music scenes. Do you think this is a valid comparison, or is this too far out?

Ming: no certainly, perhaps the first rock icon of the live fast die young ethic. his life became a source of inspiration from artists as diverse as jim morrison, iggy pop, kurt cobain, and perhaps even sid vicious unconsciously mirrored his life along the lines of the tragically romantic…
i remember when i was younger being devastated that my youthful music was falling on deaf ears, i wanted badly to shine brightly and then dissipate back into the aether… but now i am grateful that my more sophisticated voice is the work that is starting to get attention… as much as i admire the youthful prodigies that explode with their early brilliance, there is something to be said for the late blooming work that achieves depth with the accumulation of broader perspectives..

MC: I’ve always considered Aleister Crowley to be a vastly underrated writer. I think his sardonic sense of humor goes right over people’s heads, and he was incredibly witty even when writing about the most serious of subjects. What do you think? I’d love to hear your observations!

Ming: Indeed! He carries a stigma that is unwarranted. i love his talk of murdering millions, which many take to mean chronic masturbation! but yes in general the somewhat rambling and flowery language as is his want often masks the humor implied in many of his best passages.. i liken it to the sense of humor embodied in the work of the sisters of mercy, which is so perfectly straightfaced in delivery and tone that few hear the dark humor that pervades their best songs…

MC: Your music is available digitally on Myspace. How has that worked out? Do you plan to release these tracks on a ‘traditional’ CD?

Ming: Without the internet this music would be languishing still in my bedroom… i am extremely grateful that we all have this resource that allows us all to share our work and in turn discover one another.. however we can’t say we are earning our keep this way.. music has become more of a calling card it seems these days, and people can own songs now whether they are for sale or no..
i am very excited though, to record these songs as a band.. the music one can hear now is in fact home demos recorded by me at home, and i am anxious to capture the performances of my band mates who bring depth and fury, and sublime grace that has yet to be captured for listeners..
i am also a great fan of artwork included with music.  There is something about holding a cd or better yet vinyl, with the artwork lending even more suggestive mood that can lead listeners into regions they might not drift toward without some context.  With that in mind we are eager to release a full length release. we have some exciting prospects being batted about and may be able to deliver something sooner rather than later if all goes well!

MC: “Choose that Girl” sounds almost like British Invasion meets Postpunk, with the harmonies and the awesome guitar lines. It’s a very cool song. Where did the concept for this song come from?

Ming: Thank you… people do seem to be responding to that one.. that is definitely an apt take on that song… it is a sort of response to the Beatles early pop songs that were always so saccharine and buoyant … i feel compelled to expose that sort of sentiment as fraudulent and naive.. i need to reveal the seedy underbelly of that kind of rosy cheeked optimism somehow,  so i wanted to take a song like that and make it dark and dreamy and threatening.  i  was also inspired by the early scenes of ‘the hunger’, the choosing of one’s victim in the night rather than choosing one’s love..
i also have always loved the edginess of Linkwray’s snaky surf lines, i wanted to find a song to incorporate a great surf hook and this one seemed to jump out..
the bass line is usually where i begin when writing, in this case it came first using a keyboard given me by Jeremy Dawson of Shiny Toy Guns…it is definitely influenced by my earlier work when we were both playing with Mount Sims, a great electro artist now living in Berlin.. i didn’t realize that the portamento bar was broken when i wrote it and it was in no tuning known to man.. instead of replaying it i tuned all the other instruments to it.. asking the band to learn it was cruel as they couldn’t figure out what tune it was in!

MC: What do you think of the current state of the music scene? Do you see a divergence of the “real” underground and the “media” underground?

Ming: uh, yeah.. well first off music has been split into so many sub genres, mainly because the ‘industry’ needed to find labels for easy marketing and demographic targeting.. but music is just music is it not?
the internet is a wonderful thing, in that a true ‘underground scene’ can flourish beyond geographical limitations.. without media support, who are often tools of the marketing wing of corporations… true notes from the underground come from artists like you and i doing it at home without attention and support from marketers, labels, media.. and people can still discover these sounds through their own research..
so yes, i think in a sense the ‘underground’ ceases to be that by definition when any media latches on to something, the exceptions being underground journalists who are not directed by the influence of labels who seek to make more money by exposing the artists in the media via strategic campaigns and time release coverage in support of schwag they want to sell.  Well I’m getting overly political here i suppose… Sleepmask is more about an inner journey, closing one’s eyes and ears to the outside world and traveling inward to find inspiration from imagination, exploration of the phantasmagoric dreamworld we all have access to, that can provide us with much richer knowledge than the mundane and dreary world we find ourselves in in the waking world…

MC: Out there in LA, has the rising price of gas had any effect on the bands and fans?

Ming: i imagine that must be taking a toll… it has definitely effected us personally, as Charlie has had to travel up from long beach until just recently..

MC: Who are some of the bands you have enjoyed touring with? What are your favorite venues?

Ming: Well I’ve had the pleasure in past incarnations of opening for interpol, the strokes, red house painters… Robert Turner from brmc has joined me on stage playing bass.. i even played in a band opening for Outkast! but Sleepmask has only played three shows to date. We are really enjoying a burgeoning scene here on the west coast playing with bands like veil veil vanish out of San Francisco.. war tapes, and repeater are bands we are developing relationships with..the Prids out of Portland.. a place to bury strangers..film school..it is an exciting time for music i think and for this sort of resurgence of darker music that sublimates the deathrock, shoegaze, postpunk and gothic rock of yore while bringing a freshness and updated twist.. a definite shift in the right direction from nu-metal acts borrowing the dark aesthetic while making metal and pop-punk music, confusing many listeners by crossing bad sounds with a credible aesthetic.. of course, taste is just.. taste..

As for venues, i love The Bordello here in Los Angeles, a beautiful intimate room with gorgeous baroque and decadent decor and an incredible backdrop behind the stage, a shrine of sorts right behind the band.. i am grateful to venues like Spaceland and the echo that always support local acts. Boardners has consistently been kind to me as well… but in my dreamland, larger venues like the wiltern, or, wait how about the Disney Hall downtown? i would enjoy taking advantage of those acoustics…

MC: What are your future plans? Is Sleepmask going to tour anytime soon? Or can we catch you anywhere out in CA?

Ming: well, we have just found a new guitar player and we are beginning to book shows again.  Our limited resources compel us to remain in Los Angeles for the time being, but we may get up to San Francisco soon and perhaps even Portland.. we would love to travel to NYC as well, as some great dj’s have begun spinning us there like dj patrick of salvation fame.. but on top of our list of priorities is recording this band in all its fullness, i am fond of my demos and so pleased that they are getting the response that they are, but can’t wait for listeners to hear the fullness of our sound with all the players imprinting their personal style and sounds, lending four dimensions to the pictures that now are just sketches….

MC: Is there anything else you’d like to add for our readers? Thanks so much for doing the interview!

Ming: my pleasure aiden… we cannot wait to delve into the dreams of as many minds as will close their eyes and don the masque…   – ming vauze and sleepmask

http://www.myspace.com/sleepmask