RoD header

Translate

pureground2014 01Interview with

Jesse Short and Greh Holger from Pure Ground

PURE GROUND is a duo based in Los Angeles, consisting of Greh Holger (also boss of the Chondritic Sound label) and Jesse Short (also in Brotman & Short). They are one of the most promising acts for the moment as they have created a style of their own that you could describe as minimal / body / industrial / power electronic music. They have released two cassettes, two 7”, one VHS tape and one compilation vinyl LP. Reflections of Darkness caught up with them in Brussels, the day after the concert they held at the Fantastique Night. Michael Thiel, aka Weyrd Son (from Weyrd Son Records), who helped to organize the interview, was also present.

Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: My first question is about the name of your band, PURE GROUND: where does it come from?
Jesse Short [JS]: It suggests unspoiled earth, it's an idea we like. There's no philosophy, no good story.
Greh Holger [GH]: Just a simple name. Hard to have a band without a name (laughs).

RoD: How would you describe your music? Is it a mix of minimal, EBM, …?
JS: We borrow some elements of minimal. Maybe not EBM exactly, although we are great fans of that music. I would say minimal and industrial music, early UK industrial music, power pureground2014 02electronics. More so than maybe some of the dance oriented EBM music, which we love and DJ but we don't exactly pull inspiration from that.

RoD: Technically, your music is based on analogue equipment...
GH: Yeah, we play analogue synths and drum machines.

RoD: So no MIDI, no computers?
JS: We do have MIDI sequencing and conversion boxes to convert MIDI to signals that drive the synths and link up the drum machines.

RoD: Regarding your releases, you released two cassettes first, I think?
GH: We did a cassette and a 7 inch. The first cassette was released on my label Chondritic Sound. And then we released a second cassette...

RoD: And then a compilation LP?
GH: We did a lathe cut record, a VHS and a compilation LP of the cassettes in a slightly updated form.

RoD: Talking about analogue synth music, is it a choice that you made out of personal taste or...?
GH: I think we both had synths well before we started this band. I've been using analogue synths since I started making music. The Korg MS-20 is the first thing I bought and still is my pureground daylightfavourite synth. Jesse also had analogue synths when we started working on music together. So, it was just natural that we would use that stuff. A lot of the music we like was made on these machines. We both like that sound, we like the limitation of analogue equipment...

RoD: It was before minimal became in fashion...
JS: Largely before it became a revival, we were collecting analogue synths. It wasn't in response to that. Greh and I grew up listening to industrial EBM pop in the 80s and 90s, all bands which were also using analogue most of the time. So it wasn't the minimal synth revival that got us into analogue synths. But naturally analogue instruments make those types of sounds that guide you toward a sound linked to that style of music. A Korg MS-20 or a Sequential Circuits have a certain sound and you end up making melodic pop that sounds like what you could call Minimal Synth I guess... If it's aggressive, it is something you could call EBM. But we're not trying to replicate these genres.

RoD: Especially on stage, you get a “body” dimension...
JS: I like dancing... (laughs)

RoD: It's pretty energetic and it gets another dimension than on vinyl...
JS: Most of the recordings we have available were made at a time when we were still unsure of ourselves, we maybe had not enough confidence to do what we wanted to do. Now we're doing what we really want to do and some of the more subdued, kind of distant sounding things that we had put up previously are not untrue to ourselves but are no longer what we want to do right now. So, what you saw on stage last night...

RoD: ...is what you are now?
JS: Yeah...

RoD: Are you preparing newt stuff in this new style?
GH: A couple of the songs we played last night are new and will be on our next record. In the last months, we're been focusing on our live set, so we stopped producing new music for a while. We are hoping to get back into the grind of writing and recording when we return from Europe.

RoD: Will it be an EP or?
GH: We're working towards an LP.

RoD: Vinyl?
GH: Yes, absolutely.

RoD: On Chondritic Sound?
JS: Almost certainly. Unless we get an offer otherwise... (laughs)
pureground2014 01
GH: Like Jesse Said, we kind of found ourselves. We're making the music we wanted to make. Now we are really able to express some of those ideas and we keep adding different sounds to our set-up, so... We're buying new drum machines, end up using a synth for percussion, etc. Doing more of that has given us a much broader sound and the ability to work in new directions...

RoD: So, it's gonna be less minimal and more powerful?
JS: I think both things can co-exist. It can be minimal and powerful. There a misunderstanding about minimal synth having to be soporific and detached.

RoD: I was talking about the sound.
JS: Yeah, it won't be minimal, it will be more noisy and energetic, mean... (laughs). A lot of the topics we were singing about were not suitable to the kind of music we were playing but now, we're still writing about the same things but we're now playing the kind of music that's better suited for what we're writing about.

RoD: What kind of topics are you dealing with?
GH: The end of the world... (laughs)
JS: What else?
GH: The beginning to the world... We pull inspiration from a lot of science-fiction themes, dystopian realities, fictional but also related to the present-day world we live in; there's enough inspiration there.
JS: We're talking about the decline of civilization. But there's no politics, no message behind it. There are themes of great reverence for the natural world and a great disdain for the man-made world, despite the fact that the man made the gear we use, I don't know what instruments mother nature made... (laughs)

RoD: Can you tell us which bands inspired you? As we are in Belgium, which Belgian bands?
JS: Oh yes, the homeland!
GH: You can't talk about Belgium without bringing up Front 242. We're obviously also big fans of Snowy Red. And of course Dirk Ivens: Absolute Body Control, The Klinik, Dive,...
JS: The 'Melting Close + Sabotage' double LP by The Klinik is probably our favorite record. It really nails it like no other.

RoD: And in Germany? Apart from DAF?
JS: Echo West and Silent Signals....
GH: Yeah, obviously...
JS: We also listen to a lot of our American friends: High Functioning Flesh, Inhalt, Youth Code, our peers we admire and enjoy...

RoD: What about the scene in LA, is it vivid?
GH: Yes, there are a lot of shows, a lot of bands. It seems like there's more people getting pureground protectioninto this kind of music than previously. There's a wealth of music, of bands and a good community of people, everybody is very friendly. I like LA as a city for that.. It's got an interesting scene, pretty diverse. You have bands with a smooth and polished sound like Soft Metals or something more aggressive and dirty like High Functioning Flesh or Youth Code. But they come from the same city. It speaks to LA's architecture and atmosphere that these bands all exist there. There are several sides of LA that people don't understand. On this tour, people told me they wouldn't have guessed we were from LA because of our sound...

RoD: Greh, what about your label, Chondritic Sound. Can you name other productions? For instance Body of Light?
GH: Yeah, I've released a cassette for Body of Light, 'Volantà Di Amore' and there will be a vinyl LP version of it later this year. I have also released a record for Believer/Law, who are from New-York. There are almost 300 releases on my label, so... I wouldn't say there a specific sound for the label. I like to work with my friends; I think it's the best way to run a label.

RoD: If you had to choose one or two songs from your productions, other than PURE GROUND?
GH: Sure, I would say: ‘Burn As One’, by Body of Light, it's a really good cut. And ‘Ashes’, by Believer/Law.

RoD: And, Jesse, let's talk about Brotman & Short? It's pretty awesome as well!
JS: Thank you! It's a group I have with a guy, Max Brotman, from up in Auckland. We have a few records. Our project is a bit inactive for the moments but we still have plans to collaborate casually, we're still great friends…

RoD: Can you also choose one or two favourite songs?
JS: ‘Für Immer’ by Haus Arafna. And ‘In deine Augen‘ by Echo West.

Michael Thiel: You came to play in Europe very early, even before you had done your classes in your own country. How comes?
GH: Europe is really where a lot of the music we like comes from; it's where this music was born. It's an European sound, so we wanted to play for this audience, to the people who have a history of doing this music and listening to it. And it's also beautiful here! It's really just beautiful! Each country we've been in has been wonderful. People have been so hospitable and we've had such a great time, so it only made sense.

RoD: Thank you very much, guys!

www.chondriticsound.com/bands/pure-ground/


 

Comments powered by CComment