Alex Pollock é a mente lisérgica por detrás do alucinógeno The Ocular Audio Experiment, simplesmente uma das maiores druggy bands que já tive o prazer de estar frente a frente, veja você o nome dos albuns Friendly Psychic Stranges Church ou Spectro Sonic Cosmic Gaze e o novissímo The Witch´s Whispering Tomes (Part I e Part II), só pra deixar claro o terreno que estamos adentrando, aqui o negócio é entorpeceda-se primeiro e depois você fara parte do contexto e o resultado podera ser muito mais eficaz, a receita é simples, psicodelismo oras folk, oras psych mesmo, acrescente ai primeira fase do \Mercury Rev, Spacemen 3 e claro, e muito muito Brian Jonestown Massacre, como o próprio Alex comenta na entrevista pra o TBTCI, as vezes as cores são escuras, em outras hiper coloridas, pode se beber para compreender, pode-se adicionar psicotrópicos de todas as formas, aqui é tudo liberado, a música do Ocular Audio Experiment é viciante simplesmente por funcionar como um alucinógeno dos fortes, daqueles que a viagem transcende por completo, o que mais o TBTCI pode relatar, bom, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Taking Drugs To.....esse é o altar do The Ocular Audio Experiment e o TBTCI esta completamente entorpecido com tudo isso há alguns dias....e não somente este que vos escreve, amigos estão com os mesmos sintomas, e a tendência é vicio constante....e quem liga pra isso....queremos nossas druggys sounds for druggy minds...
***** Interview with The Ocular Audio Experiment *****
Q. When did Ocular Audio Experiment starts, tell us about the history...***** Interview with The Ocular Audio Experiment *****
Thinking about it now, I guess there was never really a specific starting point, it just sort of transformed out of the rest of my life and became whatever it is. I had been making music by myself for a long time, for fun, keeping it to myself, and then in 2010 it sort of transitioned into a way in which I could share it with people while keeping it deliberately broad and open enough to still do whatever the fuck I want with it.
Q: Who are your influences?
Geez, there are so many. Basically everything. I'm a theatre artist too, so I've had the pleasure of some really interesting experiences with experimental theater and all sorts of cool collaborators that have been unique in their own ways and taught me different things. I've always been inspired by ordinary people who are fearlessly, unpretentiously themselves. Same goes for people who aren't afraid to take artistic risks. I think not being afraid to sound different from one record to the next is the ballsiest, coolest thing. To commit so fully that you don't even sound like the same band. To pursue fully your own interests. Then there's 2Pac who's just fucking straight up lyrically, honest, fearless, G funk west coast whistler, talking from the gutter. I respect that. And then there's all the stoner doom stuff, High On Fire, Converge. I fucking love all that shit. I love everything.
Q. Made a list of 5 albuns of all time…
There are so many, but for the sake of maybe sharing a few that people don't talk about as much, I'll say:
5: Experimental Audio Research - Mesmerized or Beyond the Pale
4: Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight
3: Mr. Airplane Man - C'mon DJ
2: Bardo Pond - Selections Vols 1-4
1: AMP - Perception
Q. How do you fell playing alive?
Playing live is fucking fun as hell. We haven't done it too much, but I'll tell you what, there is nothing quite as fun as playing music loud as shit on a nice sound system. It's just fucking awesome.
Q. How do you describe Ocular Audio Experiment sounds?
Shapeshifting. There is no one sound. I don't want to be a band that does one thing for six albums. I hate bands that do that. Pussies. But I'm not interested in gimmicks either, different for the sake of being different. I'm interested in my own overall sonic mosaic that in the end, when I'm dead or when I quit, will be the whole picture and not until then. I'm not interested in an image that I can sell. I am interested though in making shit that I like. Plain and simple. I am every sound that there has ever been and ever will be, and so are you and so is everyone else. Can't we just have the courage to celebrate and explore it?
Q: Tell us about the process of recording the albuns?
It's different from album to album. For part 1 of the last album, The Witch's Whispering Tomes, my friend Mark and I recorded the drums and main guitar part live together for each of the 12 tracks start to finish and then I layered in everything else live around it. Depending on the situation, there's usually darkness, colored lights, drinks, and sometimes drugs...as cliche as that sounds.
Q. Which new bands do you recommended?
To be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with new bands on the whole. It seems like most of them are too busy wearing sunglasses in the dark or leather jackets or growing the right facial hair or trying to give a Spacemen 3 or 60's vibe or something instead of being themselves and contributing something actually fucking human and interesting to this tradition. It pisses me off. Let me be clear, I have no problem giving credit where it's due, and it's not as black and white as I'm making it sound, but it drives me up the fucking wall that there's all this talk in this scene of it being about the "art" and "experimenting" and "revolution" and that's all just fucking bullshit. It's fucking bullshit. Revolution? Are you kidding me? How so? It's about how you dress, being pretentious, withholding who you really are, how many people like you on Facebook and will buy your shit, and it's about established artists handing out golden tickets to careers for their friends or people they find on Youtube that they can make money off of. Fuck that. Are you kidding me? How is that revolution? Because different people are making the money now? It's a shame that in an age where most anyone with a computer can put together some kind of music and share it with the world and what we get is just the same kind of bullshit over and over and over again. The revolution was supposed to be that you could do it, right from where you are, fuck label support, be yourself, be free, but it's a joke. What's the point in giving the artists the power if they just give it back? It's not about the art. I hate it. The measure of any artist's commitment to their art is measured directly by the risks and sacrifices they are willing to take and make in order to serve that art, not in the compromises they make or the people they try to please in order to sell colored vinyl or something. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm the shit or something or some living example for people to model themselves after or something. I'm not. I don't want to piss on people's fun, and a lot of people have made things easier for me, but Jesus Christ.
Q: Which bands you love to made a cover version?
I probably won't ever play a cover in my entire life if I can help it. Mostly because I'm not skilled enough to play other people's music :) but if I had to, I'd probably be interested in like a Mazzy Star song or something. I like her.
Q: What´s the plans for future....
Only to deliberately destroy any and all expectations of what people think I am or should be, and to fuck up the program as much as I can for all the phonies and posers. I'm coming for you motherfuckers. You know who you are and you're vintage clothing will not save you.
Q: Any parting words?
Just that you can do anything.
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Thanks Alex
https://www.facebook.com/ocularaudioexperiment
http://ocularaudioexperiment.bandcamp.com/
