What does your songwriting process typically involve?

I’ve been doing Human Resources for a few years and it’s changed a lot. Sometimes I turn on the radio and just build samples off of what I stumble on. I’m lucky to have a cheap apartment in Brooklyn that’s big enough to have room for all my gear. Somehow, I’m a magnet for people’s left-behind gear. I have a decent violin and a Les Paul
guitar that were just left for me as people went on to other places. I also have a lot of my own gear: a Fender Rhodes, synths, my dad’s 1973 Telecaster… I also have an album coming up called Oxyc Woody II which is an ode in real time to the FDA’s former love child, so inspiration comes from all corners.

Do your parents listen to your music?

My dad organises a mammoth classical music collection chronologically. My grandma likes my “spunky rhythms”. My mom suggested sending my music/video collabs I’ve done with Eye Bodega to the MOMA because she thinks they should be in the Biennial – they are all very supportive.

What are the three most common words used when describing your music?

Drone and ambient are really abused terms and, with a few exceptions, I don’t believe my music bears any
substantial relationship to drone music, but that is what I’m knocked over the head with in descriptions of what I make. I was the editor of Impose for six years, so I can sympathise with the difficulty of wrapping your head around music that’s difficult to classify, but I’m just as pissy as the next musician when weak comparisons are pointed at my own stuff.

You just released a mixtape with Brendan Sullivan. How and why did you both collaborate on this project?

I think I might be the first non-Baltimore musician to be featured on a release by Friends Records. Brendan is in a band called Weekends that I’ve booked a lot for Impose.

What is the most played song in your iTunes library?

Uptight (Everything’s Alright) by Stevie Wonder.

What are you reading at the moment?

What Is The What by David Eggers – it’s Abotu Sudan’s Lost Boys… It’s hard to put down. And a lot of comp sci-text books.

What’s your favourite city?

The one where I live. I like to move around, but I’ll never call anywhere else home.

How has your tenure at Impose affected the way you critique your own work?

When I actively ran editorial for Impose, I completely separated the two, up to the point where even if we covered a show I played, I’d pull the photos of me (but not the other band’s, of course) – now, I don’t care. So many people blur the lines mercilessly between promoter and artist to the point where conflict of interest is a mental problem, not an actual rule of thumb. To [answer] your question: see this… all the lyrics are press releases.

What genre of music do you wish never existed?

All of them. I really believe that genrefication is an extension of a market cycle that systematically sustains and then sinks trends in an orderly (quarterly?) fashion for the benefit of nothing and no one excepting the industry itself.

Does your music evolve each time you play live?

Maybe, in the sense that my old performances are precious and fragile and my new ones are massive pulses emissions.

Oxyc Woody II is out on April 19th
Words and images: Hatnim Lee

The post HUMAN RESOURCES takes us shopping… appeared first on Wonderland.