MachineDrum Will Make You Wanna Shake It

by Hilary RAWK!
www.myspace.com/rawkmagazine
rawkmagazine@yahoo.com

Travis Stewart aka MachineDrum makes experimental, glitch-hop that will make you want to jump up and dance. He quickly gained fame in the indie scene after the local giants at PitchforkMedia.com called him "the standard to which the next wave of imitators aspires."

His current projects include MachineDrum, Syndrone, and Tstewart. In his own words, “MachineDrum is party music, Syndrone is drugged-out, crazy programming stuff. . . the closest thing that comes to IDM, even though I hate that term. TStewart just sort of wraps every sound I have going on in my head all together, that’s why I decided to use my own name for it. It blends electronic and organic sounds together in one, happy whole.”

I gave him a call last week, and the first thing I heard when he answered the phone was super loud music blaring in the background. . .

Hey, Travis, it’s Hilary . . . Where are you it's loud?! You better turn that shit off . . . I’m gonna hurt you.

What? Oh you said turn it UP? Okay.

(Daddy Yankee starts blaring through the speakers on my phone, and all I can hear is a bass drum and something that sounds like a car alarm, and I’m laughing, and he’s laughing. The whole thing is pretty much ridiculous.)

I love alarms in music. It sounds so good. Hahaha.

That was an alarm?!

That was an alarm in the background. Waaaahhhhooohhhh. Letting everybody know that Daddy Yankee is here.

Anyway . . . So you’re from Hickory, NC. What’s it like there? I’ve been to SC, and people are pretty conservative there. They call gay people ‘fancy.’

Hahaha. . . fancy?! Yeah, they call them faggots where I’m from. Hahaha. It was super boring. I had to drive like three and a half hours to see any good shows in Chapel Hill. I was like the only person I knew who was into everything I was into. I had one friend who was sorta into industrial music and Mr. Bungle and some other stuff, so we kinda related. But, pretty much, I just kept to myself. I was on the Internet every day, and I pretty much spent all of my time with my girlfriend, or making music, or trying to research stuff online.

What made you decide to start making music?

I think the day I decided I that wanted to always make music was probably some random day when I was just sitting at my parent’s piano, when I was like in third grade or something . . . and I think it had a lot to do with my grandpa being in a . . . he used to be in a touring country band like a long, long time ago, and he still played. Every time I went to their house, he had his peddle steel out, and a couple of guitars, and stuff like that. So I’d always play around with them. And he even had effects peddles. I never really had any major reason why I wanted to make music, it just felt natural.

I actually originally wanted to make video games. I have notebooks filled with video game ideas and stage maps, and all this crazy, character development stuff . . . like really nerdy. . . and I would do like Choose Your Own Adventure books . . I’d make my own. This was when I was in elementary school. I was sorta playing instruments and stuff, but I was more interested in video games.

What Instruments do you play?

I play the guitar, bass, drums, piano, multiple percussion instruments, vibraphone, marching snare, hand flute, skin flute, the water. . . I play the water . . .

What?

You know . . . how they do in Africa. The Pygmy tribes or whatever . . . they all stand in the water, and they sing and beat the water in rhythm. (laughter) What? I’m not joking. So I . . . I play the river. That’s probably the main instrument I play.

Hahaha. Anyway, what’s a vibraphone?

It’s like a big xylophone. You hear tortoise use it a lot.

So what was your most memorable show?

Probably the best music experience I’ve had was playing at the Sydney Opera House in 2003 as part of the Sound Source Festival. Cause they told me I could use whatever I wanted and to include whatever I needed on the rider, so I asked them to supply a set of vibraphones. And it was incredible. And we all did this huge jam thing at the very end of the show, which involved me, Dabrye, Sutekh, Tim Koch, Sense . . . all kinds of people. It was sick.

I was there for a week, and I taught workshops on makin’ beats and sampling. I toured Australia, Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney. The beach was beautiful.

It’s popular to tell people that aren’t from Australia about bears that drop from trees and attack your head. They did that to me, of course.

You’re gullible.

I guess so. And another very memorable experience was playing in Greenville, SC, at this shitty-ass, Irish pub to nobody. And Surachai (the deep element) was involved in this as well. And we stacked up chairs to the ceiling while some guy was circuit-bending a Casio or something. And nobody was there. It was pretty much just people performing and watching each other.

Well, do you have any hobbies, besides making music?

Hahaha. That’s probably the best interview question I’ve ever been asked. Hahaha. Do you have any hobbies? Well, let’s see . . . I like spelunking, sky diving, poetry . . . um . . arts and crafts, scuba diving . . . that pretty much sums it up. Oh, horse back riding, fencing! . . .fencing, traveling, gossip. . . gossiping. I like to play dice.

Do you gamble?

No, I usually play by myself. I got used to it . . .doing things by myself.

Aww . . .so I’ve seen your music describes as “the soundtrack for fiestas and orgies.” How do you feel about that?

What? Sure. I don’t know . . . maybe it makes you feel sexy, maybe it makes you wanna dance, maybe both.

Okay so Benn Jordan wanted me to ask you if you’re going to use a Don Piano on your next album.

Hahaha. Oooooh Don Piano . . . oohhh Long Johnson.

Hahaha. What the heck is that?

It’s something you will never understand.

(Okay, so I looked this up and apparently there’s this really strange video on YouTube of a black cat saying, “Oooooh Don Piano . . . oohhh Long Johnson.” And it is at the same time the wierdest and the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.)

What do you think of all of the people who are trying to be different?

Well, I think--first and foremost—if you’re making music, you have to make it for yourself. It’s okay if you want to be different, but try to make something you would wanna hear. And if you’re consciously trying to make something that’s different than the rest, then you’re missing the point, because in the end you’re gonna sound like somebody else.

There is such a thing as a Collective Consciousness that everyone sorta keeps tapping into, and everybody keeps coming up with the same ideas. I think the people who are being innovative aren’t consciously trying to be different. They’re trying to make something that they would like to hear.

How have wolves affected your creative process?

They pretty much guide me in ways that are unknown. Umm. . in a spiritual way . . . in an aggressive way. I like to think that I am a wolf whenever I’m making tracks. Yeah that’s pretty much it . . oh! and the thirst for blood.

Do people still think you’re black?

People did think I was black. When my first album came out, we used images of Eddie Grant for the album artwork, and people who didn’t’ know Eddie Grant thought it was me. They thought I was some tall, skinny black guy that wore short shorts and had dreadlocks. So I would play shows, and people would come up and say, “I thought you were black before I came to the show.”

Do you ever feel pressure to make a certain type of music?

Well, yes. . . . sort of. I mean, the labels that I’ve worked with have been into what I’m doing, so it’s the best working situation . . . where we agree on my sound. And I would never really work for a label that wanted me to make a certain sound unless we were both in complete agreement over it.

And people, based off of what they’ve heard, want you to either sound the same or do something like whatever they’re used to but it sounds just like that times 10. But I just think that an artist should—their output and the way they work on things should flow naturally. People are always gonna expect certain things.

What’s in your future?

I’m starting a monthly event here in Brooklyn. Every month new films and music videos will be featured, installations, sculptures and paintings will be on display by various friends, live performances and all night DANCEPARTY fueled by the hottest DJs. Opening night is Saturday, March 17 at Galapagos Art Space.

And I have a new MachineDrum album coming called Want To 1 2?. And I was just informed that that’s what they say in Detroit they want someone to sleep with them. I was thinking it would mean like, “Do you want to dance?” But at the same time I sorta’ had this idea that it was sort of a sexual come on thing, but I had no idea that people actually said that.

MEMBER
Travis Stewart

WEBSITE
www.myspace.com/machinedrum
www.myspace.com/casettetape
www.machinedrum.net


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