Womb diving with Save Me From The Gallup Poll

Save Me From The Gallup Poll / SMFTGP / Smiffedgip is a one man plunge into the guts of sound. Mixers and effects pedals are bastardized into amateur tinkerings of biotechnological abomination; bleeding, bowel-sputtering androids barely able to murmur "Pleeasseee killl meeeeee." Sound like fun? Check out this house show this Friday, 11/12/10, in world famous Ypsilanti, Michigan.

 

Just days ahead of this rare out-of-home excursion from SMFTGP, his imprint was able to extract some limited answers on the what and wherefore behind the project. This Ypsi house show on 11/12 will melt you and SMFTGP sightings are fleeting like the sasquatch. Be there, or read about it Saturday in the Daily Mirror or whathaveyou.

 

AvE: Why do you want to be saved from the Gallup Poll?

SMFTGP: Noise is the blues of the information age.

AvE: You're into recording direct to tape. And making tapes. What's with the tape thing? Is this just ironic experimentation in marginality or is there something aesthetic about cassettes?

SMFTGP: There’s some object fetish at work there, I’m sure, as well as market forces.

The recordings are basically bootlegs of improvisations I played for no one. Recording to tape was just easy to do for the first couple of recordings -- straight from mixer to two track. Then it made sense to dub and release them that way in a really small quantity. If I ever get to a point where I’ve done something worth putting on record or a proper CD, maybe I will.

Malcolm McLaren liked cassettes for their disposability back when they were first getting popular. I think he thought it was a good metaphor for the pop culture they delivered.

AvE: Favorite pedal and why. Go.

SMFTGP: It’s mostly delay and EQ. I use what I have for playing guitar, which I do in a couple of other bands.

AvE: Any thoughts on a link between feedback loops and Oedipal motifs?

SMFTGP: Sounds diving back into the “womb” just to be purged again uglier?

AvE: For the uninitiated, what makes a track of yours good or bad? Noisers can be totally impressed by sounds someone does ("That was killer!"), or totally underwhelmed ("He's so predictable."), but it's hard to decipher what exactly elicits the various reactions. What sound values are at play? Or what beyond sound is at stake?

SMFTGP: My wife says there is no difference; you like noise or you don’t. She might be right. My friend Chris Oposnow says the difference between good and bad noise is the album art. He’s probably right.

More info, including some free releases from SMFTGP here.