MOMENT SOUND

Moment Sound is thrilled to bring you the first netlabel release:

download zip file of the whole release

to shed some light on the issue at hand, Coyote DG asked Garo a few questions:

Though I frequently encounter the man at fashionable parties, on the street, and at Atomix Café, there are still many things that I don’t know about Garo. When Slava asked me to interview him for the first Moment Sound netlabel release, I jumped at the opportunity. Who is this guy that I’ve been sharing billing with over the past year? What can I learn from him? And what is a “Garo” anyways?
We bounced emails back and forth over the course of several days, and here is the result. Enjoy!

Coyote DG: Thanks for taking the time to answer my burning questions. We have a lot of topics to cover, so let’s start with your background. Your Armenian-American ethnicity comes up frequently in conversation. Tell me a little about your family background.

Garo: I have a massive family that literally spans the globe. I think that I have every type of individual in my family from the lowliest of crack-heads and dentists, Parisian men-about-town, to some seriously world changing scientists! I am the only musician, though!

CDG: Quite the international assortment. What sort of traveling have you done? Do you ever travel to visit with these other family members?

G: Sometimes. I don’t travel much anymore. Does Wisconsin count? The travel option is always there, but I love Chicago. My immediate non-spanning family is here. Really, I can only justify travel now if I have a show to play in that locale.

CDG: Hey, I’m originally from Wisconsin! I’m much happier in Chicago, but I’m interested in hearing a little about your impressions and experiences there.

G: Oh man. I love it out there – middle of nowhere, hardly any people, vast landscapes. Especially when it snows, and you wake up in the morning and go outside for a cigarette…you look around and there is nothing but rolling hills, a barn or forest, maybe an owl. I go out there for a week or two every month, and help my friend refurbish an old home that an artist is moving into. My dream is to have my own place in the country, and then only leave to play shows.

CDG: Ah, so you’re a tradesman. In addition to your “musician” classification, what are some other job titles that you’ve held?

G: Oh dear. I’ve done construction, painting, demolition, helped run my family’s auto body shop for a few years. When I was way younger I worked an internship at a hospital, and even did a stint in their animal research laboratory - that was some x-files type sh*t. I’ve been a bartender, bike messenger, strip-club DJ…bum, barista, mover… I look forward to future employment in the fields of agriculture and oceanography, haha.

CDG: Strip club DJ? You used to DJ?

G: Oh yeah. When I first started in the early nineties, I was only playing strictly hip-hop live PA. I would go to club and pub owners and be like, “Excuse me ma’am/sir, may I play this establishment using my laptop and drum machine?” and they’d look at me like “Heeeeeell no.” I seem to remember that even using CDs at that time was still kind of frowned upon. Plus, they would ask me if I was a band or a DJ. I didn’t know. I just wanted to play my songs live. Eventually, I realized I could only get in by mixing DJing with what I was doing. I love that in Chicago because in some places you could have a set list that was like Busta Rhymes, Pantera, Beenie Man, Lawerence Welk, Black Moon, 38special, Lee Perry, and then mix it all together with live PA, and the people will like it! I feel like Chicago has always taken that for granted.

CDG: And nowadays it’s commonplace! It seems like everyone with a laptop is in some form DJing, re-editing, and inserting their own musical elements at the same time. I guess it’s not a terribly novel concept after all. But more and more electronic musicians are switching from hardware setups to laptops for their live performances. Do you see yourself making this change in the future?

G: Actually, I’ve been switching back and forth between the two for many years. I’ve always maintained that what matters is the artist’s intent. If you use Ableton, Reason, hardware, gameboys, commodores…if you’re clear on your purpose, and out of the experimental phase, the tool is irrelevant. If my Electribe breaks tomorrow- I will switch to laptop. If that breaks I’ll borrow my sister’s Gameboy, and run it through some guitar pedals. I’ve used so many different programs, and types of gear, but what has always mattered is “Hey, do I know what I’m doing, and why? ”

CDG: What sort of formal musical training do you have, and from whom did you receive it?

G: Yikes! I have a lot of classical training in violin and piano, but my most cherished training is from my grandfather (a choirmaster), and my cousins who made house music in the early eighties. When I was a little Garo they both schooled me proper!

CDG: Like most of us, I assume that you have many friends who come from a non-musical background. How would you describe their understanding of your musical craft?

G: Well, at first it can be rough. Years ago I played an MPC2000 for about an hour at Danny’s. The performance went well. It was a very improvised and live thing. I barely used the sequencer, and just hammered the samples on the pads in different combinations. The people liked it. After the applause, this guy walks up and says, “That is the coolest looking CD player I ever seen.” I was heartbroken. Recently, I played a gallery w/ drmlgcc (AKA J. Beckman). We brought all of our machines, and we played live for like five hours. We all had a great time. A guy walks up and goes, “Hey, you guys played the coolest records.” In my head I’m thinking, “There aren’t even any turntables in our setup!” But once people learn that you are controlling the beat, shaping the sounds, deciding the tempo, deciding and changing the textures - then everyone is happy. Sometimes people try to talk to me while I’m playing because they think I’m only DJing. If possible, I try to tell them that I have to concentrate on the song. You don’t see people going up to talk to drummers and guitarists, right? Anyway, sometimes I like visits, and I have friends who have become regulars. Sometimes I try to show people what I’m doing just as I am doing it. Once people realize that the live electronic performer is the composer, instrument-maker and performer, the producer - all in live time…then it’s all good.

CDG: Maybe the misunderstanding is a failure of the grade-school music curriculum. I experience similar frustration when I tell my friends about my music. Now, you mentioned that you used to play at Danny’s a while back. I know you’ve been active in the Wicker Park scene for quite some time…how long have you been hanging around the neighborhood?

G: Oh god. Now I will carbon-date myself! I started hanging around when I was sixteen, interning at a studio on Damen just north of six corners. Jeez, that was like 1991 or something.

CDG: It seems like the changing demographic of the neighborhood is a constant source of controversy in recent years. As someone who has witnessed the changes over the past several years, how do you feel about the situation? What do you miss about the “old Wicker Park,” and what do you still find enjoyable about it?

G: I miss a lot about the “old Wicker Park.” Some people have left, or died. I miss its undeveloped state. I might be romanticizing the past, but it seemed like there was a higher ratio of “real artist” to “phony-ass hipster” back then. The crowds seemed more diverse, more real. Now, I see a lot of musicians/artists moving in with these constructed attitudes and I’m like, “Jesus, these people aren’t going to produce anything solid if you gave them a hundred years!” To many of these people this neighborhood is their toilet. They move here. They don’t speak to their neighbors, they go out… this hood is their Disneyland. They run around taking pictures of decaying sidewalks with great delight, and treat people they don’t know like garbage. Certainly, that’s not everybody. I meet wonderful people moving here all the time. It still is a great hood with a high concentration of places to play and hear good music.

CDG: If more people followed your example, the neighborhood would likely be a much more interesting place: more coffee shops and fewer ill-conceived banks. I’m glad that you have remained true to your ideals of living. You’ve always struck me as somewhat of a Bohemian. Even now, I know that you live in a multi-purpose art space. Tell me a little about your living situation.

G: This situation would best be described as “wacky.” We’ve got some painters, sculptors, graphic artists, yogic therapists, and a theater group. The place is massive with dozens of rooms branching off of one main hallway - it used to be a dentist’s office in the fifties. At night, the place is completely empty and silent like the hotel in “The Shining.” That’s when I hook up to the speakers in the performance room, and practice until the wee hours of the night while drinking Old Style, or Miller High-Life.

CDG: The Shining?!? Wow, sounds like quite the environment. Hahaha! Well, I have one final, burning question for you, and I think the answer can be found in the rest of the interview, but I want to hear it from you:

WHAT IS A “GARO???”

G: Courage and Love. I am a man of the people. Not some people, but ALL people. I look to the future. A lot of artists right now are terrified of the future. Not me. I embrace the future like it was my mother - you know what I mean? I am a man of the people; multicultural, omni-genre, pro-technology, pro-nature and sustainability, eco-friendly. I take one for the team, and my team is all forms of life and matter and history itself. I walk through miles of snow with seventy-five pounds of gear on my back, show-up to the show, slap somebody’s stalker, and then donate my last penny to charity before I start my set. Well, I guess I’m a Garo. I’m a songmaker.