Lobsterfest Q&A: Jeff Carey
By Marlena Scott, Features Editor
Jeff Carey is a unique noise artist from the Baltimore area, using unconventional tools he refines personally to create his shows. With a gamer keypad and a joystick, he controls a light show and an organized network of sounds to create a physical, tangible experience for his audiences.
How did you discover you could make music with a joystick and a gamer keypad? Also, what is a gamer keypad?
I’ve been refining my own custom software based instrument for years and as part of that process I always try new controllers with the computer to explore different ways to gesturally control sound. I like the joystick mostly because it is inexpensive and easy to replace, which is important because I break controllers regularly in performance.
It also has a lot of buttons on top just under your thumb and the stick moves in 3 dimensions (left/right, forward/back and twist) so there are a lot of control possibilities making it easy to broadly explore the palette of any given synthesis function. A gamer keypad is just a little accessory computer keyboard for one hand that can be customized. I use the keypad and the joystick together.
For example, the keypad starts a sound process and the joystick modulates a few parameters depending on the voice, so you could do a Theremin type thing where the press of a key starts and stops the sound and the joystick would control the pitch center (left/right), amplitude (forward/backward) and vibrato (twist). I sound more like an active war zone than Clara Rockmore so that is a misleading comparison from a musical perspective but it does describe one of several uses of the joystick/keypad in the instrument.
I have to ask, do you play any games with said joystick? What kinds of things do you like to play?
No games with the joystick, but I was an internet slave during the dotcom bubble in the late '90s, and we were forced to drink soda and play Quake III and Unreal Tournament all day. Honestly, I prefer Galaga.
Your music is pretty unconventional and discombobulated, and your website describes it as physical. I definitely agree. Is this something you’ve meant to do? If so, what is your technique in creating such tangible art?
100% intentional, though I’m not sure about “discombobulated.” I used to perform on stage seated at a table with the laptop in from of me. Pointing, clicking and staring at the screen is not exactly a thrilling scene and eventually I wanted more direct physical control over the sound generating process than that would allow.
I wanted the immediacy of a physical instrument but the sound world that I had created on the computer. I wanted to manage the production of sound at every level, so in 2002 I went to STEIM in Amsterdam to use the SensorLab and the mapping language called Spider to start figuring out how I wanted to approach the problem. It was a mind expanding experience, and, since then, I’ve just been following through on the implications of that residency. To get really detailed about the technology, while it would be really fun for me, might be a total snooze-fest. Suffice to say, I eventually resolved not to look at the computer screen and to only compose music that is physically performable.
Is there any rhyme or reason to how you organize your lights? How do you feel lights enhance your sets? What do you think your sets would be like if you didn’t have lights?
The lights are an extension of the ‘voice’ of the instrument. The lighting is controlled by the joystick and keypad and the behavior is tightly coordinated with the sounds and the events in the music.
I write all the lighting control routines in the same software that I use for sound, and I think they communicate that my performances are an expression of a system of behaviors rather than a tightly scripted sequence of precisely placed sounds.
With minor exceptions, my music doesn’t have much in the way of a recognizable meter/tempo or melody--it is elastic and based on the timbre of mostly un-pitched sounds. I think the lighting creates an even more intense focus on the details in all the moments even though it occasionally stands apart or counters what is going on sonically.
I’ve performed without the lighting a lot, usually as close to the audience as possible sometimes IN the audience. It is almost the opposite extreme - more like a sweaty punk show. I like to do both.
Tell me about this tour you’ve been on: Where has been your favorite place to stop? Which was your favorite show to put on?
I’ve been touring a lot this year: up and down the east coast down to Miami, then out to the midwest and through the south. I’m pretty stoked about the scenes in Miami and Gainesville, FL. Atlanta is also pretty charming. My favorite stop was Dayton because Dromez is a fantastic hostess.
Picking a show is not so simple; International Noise Conference had some really off the chain sets by Profligate (who is also performing at Lobsterfest), Yohimbe and Kenny Millions to name but a few--I was only there for the night of the fest that I performed on. I think my best set this year was at Sux by Suxwest in Austin. You only get 10-15 minutes on stage so you just need to make your point. I was pretty amped to hear all the performers that day and I felt pretty good about my set, so that was a standout for me.
Have you had any strange or unanticipated experiences while on tour in the audience or otherwise?
Somebody who had obviously become “untethered from reality” came up on stage next to me and just stood there staring into the audience. It was pretty amusing to imagine what was going on in her head--when I look out at the audience, people tend to be still and fairly expressionless staring back at me. I get it: overload. But what was she thinking about? Was she imagining that she was performing too? Or was she the queen in some kind of cyber-punk paparazzi nightmare?
Tell me about yourself, where are you from?
I like spicy food, my blood type is AB positive and I like walks in the rain. I’m from near Baltimore. I hang out there and help put on improvised and electronic music shows. Everyone should check out the High Zero Festival--it is pretty singular.
How did you feel about being asked to play Lobsterfest?
I’m a nerd for live music, and the lineup looks great, so I’m looking forward to checking out all the other acts.
I’ve found you on this Supersonic Festival video, the crowd seemed packed. What is it like to play such a large crowd?
That was a really fun show for a lot of reasons. I was not booked at that festival--I was on a tour opening for Matmos and it was their show. I had the day off but in the van on the way to sound check they hatched the idea that I would crash their set. I performed a really cut up set for about five minutes with odd breaks and moments of silence and I remember a guy way in the back shouting, “FLIGHT SIMIULATOR!” right in one of those breaks. When I finished, the crowd went really nuts so it was pretty nifty. Then I walked off stage and met Felix Kubin, so it was a good day.
