Crawl Unit is a "band" that has been around a while; just HOW long i didn't realize until i was cleaning up the Moon Unit Studio the other night and ran across a Charnel catalog from 1993 with a review of a Crawl Unit ep. However, Crawl Unit still exists and in fact, has a new CD coming out on Manifold, uh, any minute now. So it's time you learned MORE about CU, eh? Hence, the interview that follows... which is essentially a reprint of the interview conducted by NOISE for their magazine, so thank them for the swell info. Then go seek out the material and hear for yourself what it's all about....
DA: First of all, give us a brief history of Crawl Unit.
JOE: Crawl Unit began first with no name or concept or dedication, just an experiment with electronics, tapes, sounds, toys. The same materials being used today. As the project grew it became a group of two people and as it continued to grow it became only one person, me: Joe Colley. I found that to achieve what I wanted in a group situation I either had to be satisfied with less or become a dictator and I didn't want either of these.
DA: What feelings or ideas do you want to express in your soundwork?
JOE: As I began to work more seriously I decided to release some of my work to try to get in contact with others. I released a tape and sent it out and also played a show in the basement of a record shop. The promotional process has never been my main interest. I do enjoy communication, though and sometimes this becomes promotion. My activities now consist of recording, experimenting, releasing, collaborating, and occasional live performance.
DA: Do you have any particular background? What are some of your influences?
JOE: This is a question i've thought about a lot. All of my experiments have a purpose to me, no matter how minor. It really is something that I must do. It is like a diary in a sense. Sometimes the reasons for the pieces are very specific and sometimes elements reveal themselves after hours of work and scrutiny. I really don't expect anyone to understand the causes behind the work. Some people need crutches to deal with the world. I use sound as a sort of extension of my body, my perception. It's like a palette or a tiny environment which I control. I use it as a playground to work out problems and neuroses.
A lot of it comes from the mixture between fictions and my perceptions of "reality". It's hard for me to recall what opened my mind before I started experimenting. It was mostly books of philosophy, existentialist fiction, and psychology.
As far as "music," when I heard Einsturzende Neubauten it really hit me that there was freedom out there to make whatever you need or want to make starting from nothing. Once I really started listening I learned a lot from everything. It interests me to make a cerebral form of "music," not based on the body. It seems most music appeals to the rhythmic instincts of the body. Almost all current music is based on the blues, songs slaves sang as they worked, etc. I think it is a challenge to create something free from that. Something where the purpose is just to distort perception. I think noise, electronic, and classical "music" comes close. You can learn a lot from studying the past, advances made by early composers like Xenakis, Ligeti, Cage, Stockhausen. People who were up against a lot more uncaring audiences than we are today.
DA: How do you make your recordings? What instruments or materials do you use?
JOE: I use anything. Most of my sounds come from tape that has been processed and reprocessed. Most of my materials are constructed simply with effects and mixing. I have no specific criteria for where to get sounds. I don't think it matters what is making the sound. I want to try to get it to a point where it is organic, and hence universal. Most of the sounds are constructed to commemorate a mood or situation. They become history for me.
DA: Which past show of yours has left the biggest impression?
JOE: I don't perform often. usually I think it is boring to watch. I just stand turning knobs and get into the sound, but i've done a few shows lately with Scott Arford doing large video projections of his visuals which I think were successful. I had a nice time in Portland and Seattle performing and spending time with Small Cruel Party, Killer Bug, Daniel Menche, AMK, Inboil, etc. It was nice to talk noise gossip for three days. I don't plan to perform much in the future. I just don't think it's an accurate expression of the work.
DA: Have you other projects?
JOE: Right now my own Povertech Industries label is expanding a bit. I've just begun the artifact series which is a series of 7" eps from strong abstract sound-artists from all over the world. The first one is from C. M. von Hausswolff (1/2 of Phauss) from Sweden doing a John Cage piece, the second is from Hands To. And there are more planned from Mmnortham, Dead Voices on Air, Crawling With Tarts, etc. I just produced a compilation 7" of artists from Sacramento that includes Ecomcon, Crawl Unit, and Conceptual Music Union.
DA: What do you think of the current noise scene in the U.S.A.?
JOE: The noise and strange music scene is fairly healthy nowadays I suppose. I don't really think any scene matters in terms of what's being made. I'm seeing lots of strange releases coming out from all kinds of new people, and some of the more established artists are really doing some great work. The U.S. is huge so it's hard to tell what's going on. Most weirdness comes from large cities with lots of freaks and there will always be those. It's the same as it always was. I tend to respect those who are working on their own, apart from academic communities or government support. People that use their own resources to express themselves.
DA: What Eastern and Western artists do you find most interesting at this time?
JOE: Well, there are a lot of people doing interesting work now. In addition to the artists I mentioned above I enjoy: Aube, Klangkrieg, Paranoise Terminal, Rend, Hafler Trio, Maeror Tri, Phauss, Kent Tankred/Leif Ellgren... more that I can't think of.
DA: Any future plans?
JOE: A cd CRAWL UNIT VS. SILENCE from Manifold, hopefully another cd, some collaboration with Small Cruel Party and AMK. I hope to travel more.