Quietrise
This month digital magician Joshua Garner talks about some of his favorite things
by John Noyd
February 2015
Joshua Garner's Quietrise
A primal intelligence haunts knob-twiddling riddler Joshua Garner’s ambient loops, introspective lyrics and home-built samples. Supporting soul-searching moods among left-field grooves, Garner’s slippery cyber-folk fusions transport outstanding mechanical insanity into enlightened nightmare-pop armories whose rambling phantoms surf electric byways littered in sonic mysteries. As Quietrise, Joshua is a prolific manipulator of sound and scene, with last year’s, “Anhedoniac,” aptly capturing sharp, subterranean beats reaching beneath bubbling hypno-cathartic starkness to conjure entrancing alien landscapes shaped by random humanity. Joshua was kind enough to set aside some time to answer this month’s five favorites.
MAXIMUM INK: Who’s your favorite “out there” artist and why?
JOSHUA GARNER: It would have to be Richard D. James, better known as Aphex Twin. His material is so complex and deliberate. You can listen to Selected Ambient Works volume 2 in the background for almost any occasion, as long as its chill. You then have to take a sharp left hand turn to get the complexities of Drukqs and put up with a little noise, but understand that he placed the notes just so. You have the great listen-ability of tracks like Windowlicker and Come to Daddy…and most recently Minipops 67 from Syro. Then you have Rubber Johnny, which is an amazing little music video/film in and of itself. You have the great piano pieces peppered throughout his works. He releases tracks from his storehouse on soundcloud in an almost overwhelming flood-like way, and at the same time an ALMOST ALBUM surfaces from the early 2000’s with Caustic Window LP. This guy just keeps us guessing. I truly believe that RDJ’s “b” material could outperform most electronic music today. And this guy doesn’t make much “b” material.
MI: Do you have a favorite film that puts into images what you try to put into sounds?
JG: “Waking Life” is a fantastic journey into the world of dreams. Its philosophy meets cell shading meets the odd cameo. It tries to get into the heart of dreams and lucid dreamers, and it does an amazing job for only being an hour and a half long. I feel that the way this film approaches life….by stripping away the realities like layers of an onion…it tries to make sense of the nonsensical. The musings of the protagonist as he weaves his way through the dream state are like my musings on life in the relationship sense. I like to focus on relationships, not just romantic ones, but those are especially good cannon fodder for the writing process. This movie connects us as a people on a whole new level, and I try to do the same with my music.
MI: What’s your favorite line when people ask you how you ended up in Wisconsin from Pennsylvania?
JG: I was looking for a better audience for my electro-folk music, and I had heard of “Reverence” the electronic music festival, held annually here in Madison, so I thought this area would be a good fit. But really, it’s all about the cheese curds, Badgers, and lots of water sports!
MI: What’s that favorite piece of gear you just can’t do without?
JG: My Roland SP-555 sampler, it is the heart of my rig and is so versatile. From live looping, to programming patterns, and effects on the fly it has been a workhorse. I actually bought 2 at one point to act as a turntable mixing back and forth setup. I keep finding new ways to utilize this beast.
MI: Have you found a favorite place to refuel your creative juices?
JG: My wife and I are big on camping, kayaking, and hiking and so we have begun to explore the state during the warmer months. Lake Geneva was quite a wonderful experience, Devils Lake is always nice, but you just can’t beat Lake Wingra for a smooth and close place to mellow out. I like to just let my hands drift in the water with the sun on my face and inside my head I am composing bleeps and bloops galore!
Joshua’s electronic alter-ego Quietrise play Mother Fool’s Coffeeshop March 27th
(2715) Page Views Quietrise Online:Quietrise
CD: Anhedoniac Record Label: self-release