INSPIRATIONS (or, who to blame).
Robert Ashely – the contemporary composer of the absurdist television opera Perfect Lives, which changed my life and initially gave me the idea to pursue the idea of investigating language with his Automatic Writing and, of course, Perfect Lives.
Captain Beefheart – A musician who’s experiments with The Magic Band, mixing blues with the avant-garde, was highly influential to the genres of new wave, punk, and experimental rock. Trout Mask Replica was my first foray into experimental rock music; the absurd randomness, looseness, and the ever-present question of “why?” are all goals of HW.
John Zorn & Naked City – I was introduced to John Zorn in high school, and that New York chaos is something I’ve longed for musically ever since listening to the album Naked City, especially in tracks like Snagglepuss.
Eric Andre - a comedian, musician, and television personality responsible for "The Eric Andre Show", a show whose chaotic character is really prevalent in HW.
Death Grips - a grimey grindcore experimental hardcore hip hop band from Sacramento who are equally chaotic and loud, a sensibility I took for HW.
Richard Dawson – a freak folk musician from Newcastle, who attempts to do to folk music what Captain Beefheart did to blues. His vocals, unabashedly authentic and brazen in his natural accent makes me feel more empowered to sing from a place of authenticity than an attempt of perfect performance.
black midi – a modern experimental crunchy punk/prog/rock band based out of London. Their music is noisy, loud, surreal, but never serious, a tone which HW strives for.
Frank Zappa – the chaos and humour and spoken-word-y-ness of Zappa’s work are super influential to this sort of scene. Admittedly I haven’t listened to a lot of Zappa, but his influence on my influences is unmistakable.
Bec Plexus – a queer composer and singer from Amsterdam, who I found through a YouTube collaboration of composers. Her music, especially that found on her album Sticklip¸ is erratic, humourous, and insane and highly influential, specifically her song Mirror Image on Hydrophile.
Anthony Braxton – an American experimental composer whose use of colour and shapes with visual notation heavily inspired the IML.
Django Bates – a composer and arranger based in England whose experimental and free jazz compositions, especially the experimental arrangement of New York, New York, influenced my work heavily.
Ember Knight – a queer musician and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, whose YouTube web-series THE EMBER KNIGHT SHOW was the main catalyst of the tone of the show.
Jennifer Walshe – an English experimental composer whose absurdist, humourist, noisy works, especially XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!! and THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS/AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, inspired me to create and experiment with strange scores.
Keith Haring – the highly influential New York graffiti artist, who’s visual language of thick lines and continuous, flowing patterns inspired the look of the IMLs.
The Garden – an experimental punk rock duo from Orange County, LA, who specialise in loud, grungy music and quickly changing genres. I discovered them in the break between the first and second semester, and their influence in HW. is clear and abundant.
The Aquabats! – the Californian ska band of superheroes that made a kid’s TV show is one of my favourite bands of all time, so their influence has shined through, especially in the story-telling aspect of Can of Beans, and obviously the ska segment of What?
Xiu Xiu - a noise punk band that's been going on since the turn of the millennia. A friend introduced them to me at the start of the year, and their music has been very close to the ethos of HW.
Cojum Dip - a metal alt band, whose music follows on with the John Zorn "clicker music" tradition.
Ben Levin - specifically his concept album Freak Machine, Ben Levin has this programmatic music that itches my need. This is something I listened to a lot when I was a teenager, so it makes sense that it carries into my music today.
Captain Beefheart – A musician who’s experiments with The Magic Band, mixing blues with the avant-garde, was highly influential to the genres of new wave, punk, and experimental rock. Trout Mask Replica was my first foray into experimental rock music; the absurd randomness, looseness, and the ever-present question of “why?” are all goals of HW.
John Zorn & Naked City – I was introduced to John Zorn in high school, and that New York chaos is something I’ve longed for musically ever since listening to the album Naked City, especially in tracks like Snagglepuss.
Eric Andre - a comedian, musician, and television personality responsible for "The Eric Andre Show", a show whose chaotic character is really prevalent in HW.
Death Grips - a grimey grindcore experimental hardcore hip hop band from Sacramento who are equally chaotic and loud, a sensibility I took for HW.
Richard Dawson – a freak folk musician from Newcastle, who attempts to do to folk music what Captain Beefheart did to blues. His vocals, unabashedly authentic and brazen in his natural accent makes me feel more empowered to sing from a place of authenticity than an attempt of perfect performance.
black midi – a modern experimental crunchy punk/prog/rock band based out of London. Their music is noisy, loud, surreal, but never serious, a tone which HW strives for.
Frank Zappa – the chaos and humour and spoken-word-y-ness of Zappa’s work are super influential to this sort of scene. Admittedly I haven’t listened to a lot of Zappa, but his influence on my influences is unmistakable.
Bec Plexus – a queer composer and singer from Amsterdam, who I found through a YouTube collaboration of composers. Her music, especially that found on her album Sticklip¸ is erratic, humourous, and insane and highly influential, specifically her song Mirror Image on Hydrophile.
Anthony Braxton – an American experimental composer whose use of colour and shapes with visual notation heavily inspired the IML.
Django Bates – a composer and arranger based in England whose experimental and free jazz compositions, especially the experimental arrangement of New York, New York, influenced my work heavily.
Ember Knight – a queer musician and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, whose YouTube web-series THE EMBER KNIGHT SHOW was the main catalyst of the tone of the show.
Jennifer Walshe – an English experimental composer whose absurdist, humourist, noisy works, especially XXX_LIVE_NUDE_GIRLS!!! and THIS IS WHY PEOPLE O.D. ON PILLS/AND JUMP FROM THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, inspired me to create and experiment with strange scores.
Keith Haring – the highly influential New York graffiti artist, who’s visual language of thick lines and continuous, flowing patterns inspired the look of the IMLs.
The Garden – an experimental punk rock duo from Orange County, LA, who specialise in loud, grungy music and quickly changing genres. I discovered them in the break between the first and second semester, and their influence in HW. is clear and abundant.
The Aquabats! – the Californian ska band of superheroes that made a kid’s TV show is one of my favourite bands of all time, so their influence has shined through, especially in the story-telling aspect of Can of Beans, and obviously the ska segment of What?
Xiu Xiu - a noise punk band that's been going on since the turn of the millennia. A friend introduced them to me at the start of the year, and their music has been very close to the ethos of HW.
Cojum Dip - a metal alt band, whose music follows on with the John Zorn "clicker music" tradition.
Ben Levin - specifically his concept album Freak Machine, Ben Levin has this programmatic music that itches my need. This is something I listened to a lot when I was a teenager, so it makes sense that it carries into my music today.