The Brvtalist: Tell us about your history with DIY electronics. Would also love to hear about the communities you are/were involved with in the South and/or beyond.
S. English: I was born in Ypsilanti, MI, but grew up in a small city outside of Dallas. I started getting serious about playing drums and guitar at a pretty early age (10/11 years old) and was in several punk bands in the late 90's/early 2000s. My musical interests continued expanding in high school as I discovered bands like Wire and Suicide. At 17, I graduated and moved to North Texas' liberal oasis, Denton, and joined a gender-bending post-punk/industrial band. We were going for an unholy mix of The Birthday Party/Bauhaus/Thrill Kill Kult/Big Black/Christian Death kind of thing. It was a 3 piece and I played bass, another guy played guitar, and our singer programmed our $100 Alesis drum machine which was blasted through a huge crappy amp. We would wear trash bags and duct tape as costumes and spend thirty minutes in the bathroom before every show putting on makeup. We were so young, but took the project very seriously. We ended up getting a lot of attention in Dallas/Denton and eventually toured the U.S. small club/basement/DIY circuit several times. When the band fizzled out I stayed in Denton for quite a while. Around 2006-2009, Denton was experiencing a small renaissance of underground music and house shows happening nearly every night of the week. Around then is when I met Rob Buttrum (his solo project, FILTH, appears on Eminent Domain). By far the darkest of Denton's house show venues---House Of Tinnitus--- was lived-in and run by Rob and his partner at the time, Amelia. H.O.T. became an essential destination for every noise/experimental/extreme act touring across the States. It was definitely a turning point for me. I worked a shitty kitchen job but nearly every other night I was going there to catch acts like Pedestrian Deposit, Weak Sisters, Halflings/Yellow Tears, Black Leather Jesus, Taint, White Mice, Dromez, Black Mayonnaise, Climax Denial, DEMONS, and countless others in this amazingly intimate environment. The living room turned into a world class venue with 150 people losing it with red strobe lights pulsing. The performances I saw and the connections I made there with the U.S. underground experimental/extreme electronics community absolutely laid the groundwork for where I'm at now. This is also around the time I started my project with longtime friend/collaborator Jonah Lange, Corporate Park. CP, Rob, and the Denton crew were lucky enough to go on a couple mind-bending tours of the Midwest and East Coast in the late 2000's/early '10s--- meeting many new kindred spirits along the way.
TB: Talk about the process of assembling the compilation. What was your approach and what did you want to achieve?
S. English: The idea for the compilation was pretty simple -- peel back the curtain on the fertile underground electronics scene in America. There's no way it could be completely comprehensive as there's so much good stuff happening all over the country. I just began with asking my friends and people I respected. It organically came together. Classic 80's experimental compilations like The Elephant Table Album, Controlled Bleeding's Dry Lungs series, RRRecords' God Bless America & Bruitiste were inspirations during the process. Shining a light on people creating their own entertainment + reality in their communities was the ultimate goal.
TB: Tell us about your track on the release.
S. English: "Fade Out" is a track I recorded over a decade ago in a tiny room while briefly living in Hot Spring National Park, Arkansas. I used a 2001 iBook and a large sheet of glass for extra percussion and my voice. The Corporate Park track "Benevolent Surveillance" was prepared for a special performance circa 2014 at our friend Tiago's loft in Cleburne, Texas. That was a special night- Traxx (Melvin Oliphant of Nation) blasted a transcendental set until the very early morning.
TB: What’s coming up next for you?
S. English: I've been working on a new project here in Austin with JT Whitfield. We're hoping to have a mini-LP finished within the next couple of months. My longtime collaboration with Jonah Lange & Beau Wanzer, CP/BW, is currently working on compiling a brand new LP for release some time this year. I've also been working on what will hopefully become a new concept S. English LP.
