Lobsterfest 2014: Moltar
By Travis Boswell, Contributor
Electronic artist Jake Johnson, also known by his stage name Moltar is currently located in West Virginia and has been touring throughout the midwest. ACRN caught up with Johnson before his first Lobsterfest appearance to learn more about his musical influences and plans for the future.
So when you have live shows, do you usually perform up in West Virginia?
Jake Johnson: I play there at times, but mainly for the most part I play in the Cleveland area, the Detroit area, Columbus, Philadelphia, yeah. Kind of local cities, but not too much in terms of West Virginia. There’s not a lot going on here as far as electronic music goes, so it's kinda hard to get shows there.
Have you ever played in Athens?
This will actually be my first time. I'm pretty excited about it. I've played all around it. I've played in Columbus plenty of times and in Dayton. Like I said, in Cleveland plenty of times, but yeah. For some reason haven't made it to Athens yet. So I'm excited to make the trip and check it out.
How did you get started in making music and touring?
Originally, I started playing guitar when I was 14 or 15. I kinda got sick of trying to find people to play in bands with me so my music got progressively more electronic and from there, I met a few more people doing the same thing and got my first gig in Kent back in 2009. Since then, just kinda continued meeting people and trying to get out there as much as possible. But yeah, it's kind of an evolution from starting just playing guitar in the bedroom to doing full-on electronic compositions and stuff.
What is your setup on stage when you're playing live?
I use various tape players, drum machines, synthesizers both analog and digital. A little bit of help from computers, although I don't use any actual audio generation from computer. I just use them for control signals. But most of it is done on the Elektron Machinedrum and Monomachine. It's all kinda processed and I use those two boxes and the brain. Everything else kinda runs through those.
What's the inspiration behind the name Moltar? When I looked it up I got mostly Space Ghost.
I was gonna say! It's originally from Space Ghost. It’s kinda been a favorite character of mine since I was a kid. And I thought the music I was making at the time kinda sounded like molten lava or something, so I thought it fit. Now it's kinda funny and cartoony, but it kinda stuck with me and I haven't found the need to change it yet so it works. But yeah, Space Ghost is the origin of that.
I was checking out your album releases on Bandcamp. Where does the art from the covers come from?
Actually, I do all my own artwork. I think one of the covers is just a drawing with Sharpie. But the rest of them are indeed paintings. I go back and forth, sometimes I work with pens and sometimes I do canvas work as well. It's all deeply personal and both the visual and auditory work come from the same place and it's just different expressions of the same thing. They all kind of go together.
Since you haven't been to Athens before, what would you describe your music as for someone who hasn't heard it?
That's always the hardest thing. I get asked that a lot, and I give varied answers, you know? And I really like what Frank Zappa said, he said something about "writing about music is like dancing about architecture." And so it's always hard for me to put into words something that's kind of intangible and beyond words in the first place. But you know, I generally just describe it as abstract electronic music, let people make up their minds from there. But I don't try to label it any much further past that.
Do you have any major inspirations behind the music?
You know, various things. Nature, you know. The universe, space. [Laughs] Being alive, you know? Just everything is all my life experiences I feel are the inspiration, in a way. But musically, you know, it's all over the place. I really like stuff like Boddicker and Aphex Twin, stuff like that. And then I like a lot of Midwest noise, stuff like Wolf Eyes and the like. Really, the inspiration for the Moltar project is mostly pretty abstract stuff but I really have an appreciation for pretty much anything. It just kinda channels into that at some point.
I noticed the songs on Tacrolimus are a bit shorter than your previous releases. Are you moving towards doing shorter songs on future albums?
I've tried messing around with different formats for new releases, and probably I do plan on releasing an album that is more shorter tracks. Four-, six-minute tracks like that instead of doing like 15-minute tracks. But at the same time, I'll probably always wanna do longer releases that are just focused around 10 or 15 or even 20-minute tracks depending. It's really just kind of depending on the place I'm in whenever I am writing a certain release. It comes out different ways. But yeah, I definitely do plan on exploring the shorter format more. It feels a little bit more accessible and easier to get into than shoving a 15-minute track in someone's face and expecting them to digest it, you know?
Are you recording anything new right now?
I am. I'm currently working on a few different tape releases for friends across the area. I'm hoping to have a tape released by Experimedia, which is a label based out of Ohio, within the next few months. That'll probably be my upcoming release. I have a couple of other things in the works, but nothing for sure yet. So, you know. Just constantly working on stuff, and I end up collaging it together for release. So, it's kind of a constant process, you know?
