Last summer Carolyn ZS (Zaldivar Snow), or as you may know her on synthagram, @tangent_universes reached out and asked if she could interview me for her delightful digital zine Wow and Flutter, on IG at @wowandflutterzine, where she interviews musicians who love, collect, record onto and manipulate cassette tapes. Along with being an accomplished musician, she's an OG of the synth community as a contributing writer at Tape Op, as well as small label Mystery Circles, and performs live at DIY shows all over the Eastern Seaboard. She also helps organize Sound Scene Audio Arts Festival in Washington DC, which showcases immersive sonic experiences and public art.

Carolyn was one of the first synth gals I found on IG who also lives a life of the great outdoors. We both live near natural delights like bogs, marshes, rivers and bayous, and can often be found hiking around with our field recorders in hand. I'm always humbled with appreciation when someone who has already lived a few lives in the scene offers to extend their platform to the new kid. She made me feel really special getting press for my very first EP, which is not usually the norm. So here's to wishing Carolyn a Happy Thankyoutine's Day for making the debut of my first hand pressed cassette feel grandiose and important, it certainly was to me and it was a real treat to bring the synth club into the fold with this interview.

This was also the first time I was interviewed as House of Egregious, which felt really cool to be seen and cemented as a musician in interviews instead of only a puppeteer. That's not talking smack about puppets lol really, and yes they will eventually find their way back into my work - esp after seeing Oneohtrix Point Never puppet the mini puppet he had built of himself with Control Voltage, which is definitely something I've been doodling schematics for ever since I picked up KOMA Elektronik's CV motors, light sensors, etc in the summer of 2022 and took my synth building class in fall of 2023.

For now, I'm working on my second EP which I hope to have ready by August to take on tour with me when I hit a few locations in MI and Chicago - dates coming soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this lovely conversation Carolyn and I had about tape.

Interview: The Itch that Follows the Scratch

So I finally checked a big life goal off and successfully grew my own mushrooms at home, and oh wow were they beyond delicious! I've spent over 4 months researching, book collecting about cultivation and experimenting - finally we saw success. Could I do this at a larger scale, to feed my community? The horror that comes from failure pales in comparison to the disaster that comes with never trying. I love learning about things I have no reference point to fall back on, it's incredibly terrifying and liberating to go from not knowing to understanding to the point of being able to accurately explain it to someone else. I'm going to keep pushing to see how far I can go! Next is to try outdoor beds to see if I make that work to produce higher yields. If I could learn synths after have 0 musical background or experience, surely I can make this work. Recently I read that "it's about what you're willing to do, not what you're capable of doing" and that really got to me. I totally agree, but that puts a hell of a lot more accountability on your shoulders than something shrugging off as "not for me" upon immediate failure - and boy have I failed at mushrooms. Laughably so. And this is all while figuring out how to hydroponically grow 36 different lettuces, herbs and vegetables organically at the same time. This year has been wildly expansive, I never saw the life of a gardener for myself but I'm here and I'm queer so get used to it.

Everyday I keep on trying to hit the books harder, watch more PBS, cram as many "things to avoid as a first year gardener" tips into my tired brain as I can, and after four months of intensive study - I can proudly say that I'm to the point where I'm growing enough mushrooms for four people to enjoy for breakfast. So that's why I've been quiet on the music and blogging front, but I promise some fun things are coming down the pipeline in both MI and Chicago this spring so stay tuned!

My holiday gift to you, a free printable zine with instructions to fold and cut below!! These make great stocking stuffers, companions to your holiday cards or just something you keep in your top drawer for when you need a little emotional pick me up : )

This year has flown by in a blur, I hope to write a few blogs recapping the highlights in preparation of my Top 10 album list, that will be published later this month. Keep an eye on my IG stories for countdowns to these drops! Wishing you and yours a very happy holidaze <3

Hi I miss blogging so much, will catch up in a few weeks, in the meantime - come hang!

Poster text:
August 1st 2024
Comfort Station * Chicago
House of Egregious
with Warm Darn
Door at 7p
Show @ 7:30p
Outdoor show
If moved inside, N95 masks will be provided
ADA access (venue and bathrooms)
EP debut
Noise + Synths
free show, donations accepted

Last summer I was inspired by an ad for an analog animating class hosted by Dogbotic, which prompted me to pick up my stylus and doodle one quickly as a promo for an event I was doing. What began as a charming one-off 5 frame animation turned into a collection of 5 complete looping animations within the next six months. I didn't make them for any special intent, it was just something that I enjoyed experimenting with, with the attempts to push myself past the limitations of the previous one by trying a new style, brush or color palette.

As luck would have it, around Halloween I won a free Dogbotic class from a raffle I entered, so I decided to take the one on analog animating. One week I wasn't able to complete the traditional stop-motion blackboard assignment, so I did it digitally. It was a rush job, like I liked the concept and the style, I wasn't happy with the ending and it didn't loop - which is my favorite quality to animating short form work. After I showed it in class, I decided to rework it - something I hadn't done with any of the others I had made. I ended up doubling the length of it and fell in love with the ending, because nothing goes hand in hand quite like hot dogs and kite flying : ) When I wrapped the final edits, I saw Agitator Gallery was hosting an animation showcase, so again as luck would have it - I had amassed an entire visual compilation, however it lacked the full immersion that a good soundtrack brings. So I set out to correct that.

I have a synth cave where my entire collection lives, but this time I wanted to challenge myself with a different workflow. Sometimes having too many options can slow down ideation, so I tried different approaches I haven't ever toyed with - I used only two portable synths to compose the entire score, recorded it with my voice recorder and worked upstairs where I usually paint. It was the best decision I could've made!

I wrapped recording with about 15 minutes of sound and gave that to my partner chop up and sync to the different animations. It's funny/befuddling to think how much finessing goes into syncing up a fourth of an hour of bleeps and bloops to a minute and a half of footage. Even though the ratio is big, there was still footage that wasn't scored, so I did another round of recording for about 7 minutes and finally assigned a sound for every moment.

There are two ways to score a film, start with the footage and make music and sounds specifically for each moment OR create many sonic swatches, pull from that and splice it all together. I like to score with the ladder workflow, I think it injects a lot of spontaneity and opens the doors to having many more a-ha! moments than anything I could've prescribed and purposefully tried to define. I call these moments of serendipity "puppet magic," even if I'm not working on on a puppet show. The roots of puppet magic are found when something artistically comes together perfectly without meticulous planning: a quick cut without a template that fits like a glove, a mistake that turns out better than what was intended, or discovering a movement you didn't build for but looks effortless and purposeful.

That being said, in this case, I'm not naive or discrediting that much of the magic pumped into my short filmmaking process is conjured by the hands of my partner who is one of the best editors in the industry. (this isn't a bias because he's so handsome, his impressive CV backs this up) We make a really great team and making short films together is one of my favorite art forms because collaborating with him is so fun and he makes my footage look like a billion bucks. He's super supportive of my art career and always invested in my creative process, no matter how obscene the timeline may be. I'm really lucky he's an editor because if he wasn't I would have made 0 short films in my adult life, that part of the workflow frustrates me to no end and brings me no joy - so our director/editor combo is really a dream come true <3

Come check out the Agitator Animation where my scored compilation of animations will debut on Saturday, February 3rd from 6 - 10p at Agitator Gallery in Chicago!

I'll be debuting my animations one by one on my House of Egregious instagram soon, and then after I'll put my compilation to my Short Films page.

​I'm stoked to announce I landed a group show and my comic Old Ghost, New Tricks will be on display. Big thanks to Agitator Gallery for accepting my work into the show and for being so kind in working with me as a remote artist.

​Of course it would take me moving out of the city to have my work presented at a Chicago gallery. (cue Earth Wind and Fire's "That's the Way of the World") Truth be told, I never tried very hard - in my 15 years there, I only applied to a handful of galleries. However consistent no's after a while didn't really hype me up to keep applying, eventually I set my eyes on different types of gigs to book. This just goes to show to never stop trying because you never know when you'll finally get a YES after a parade of NO's.

Also the comic I had accepted was something i sketched up during last year's Inktober. While I never found the time to ink my pencil sketch, it did give me a jumping off point for this submission. Having a completed comic to digitize instead of starting from scratch enabled me to see this through to completion instead of getting hung up on ideation and editing during the submission window. It taught me a valuable lesson about open calls -  to value the sketches I doodle daily more and build off of those instead of always starting from scratch when I find an opportunity that excites me. Seems obvious enough, but this was the first time I ever leveraged something in my sketchbook for a final product instead of creating something specifically inspired by the submission. More importantly, I was also able to submit it days. before the deadline instead of the hour before it was due, which historically has always been my downfall and major source of stress & anxiety. I'm trying really hard to focus on conjuring less stressful workflows, both in my art and personal life, this year. Capitalizing on previous designs went a long way to help me find a new approach that instilled equity into my practice that I've never before experienced - which very much ties out with the title and theme of my comic: Old Ghost, New Tricks.

taken from @agitatorgallery's IG announcement:
Volume 4 of Agitator's annual open-call, open theme comics compilation is LIVE! Come meet the artists, and buy books, original artwork and swag.

Book Edited by Gretchen Hasse, designed and produced by Alex Wilson. See you there!
The 15 Artists I'll be showcased alongside are linked in the IG announcement.

I've been publishing a top 10 album of the year list since 2018, it's one of my favorite things I write and I work all year on finding the best of the best. This year was probably one of the best years for music since I started sharing my list - I could make a whole other list of just bomb ass singles and more EPs, but this one took me long enough to write so I'll let this speak for itself.

10. Simon Grossman - Mostly Fresh EP
I only came on Simon Grossman in recent years, however the music he makes perfectly unifies all of the ideal aspects of Latino Indiepop that I've adored for years. "Atardecer" is one of my fav tracks of the year and it's delicious to listen to on repeat for hours, hope your hips are ready to swivel. 

9. Aphex Twin - Blackbox Life Recorder 21f / In a Room7 F760 EP
I actually enjoyed this 4 tracker way more than Syro, his 12 track grand return in 2014 -  and first album since 2001's critically-acclaimed Drukqs. Only now in typing this out do I realize that he's put out an absolute banger every decade, which I think is a much more reasonable pace than most others operate at. I can wholeheartedly appreciate that cadence. It's easy to leave on repeat for hours and find something new with every play through to key in on and appreciate.

8. Cannons - Heartbreak Highway
E got me hooked on this band, and since she did every time they have a release it usually ends up on this list. This is about as poppy as I'm into these days, it's delicious because of its shimmery, etherial fairy vibe. Its driving beat is ideal for working out, cleaning and cranking out a big project.

​7. Sampha - Lahai
J posted one of these tracks to his IG stories - we have over a dozen shared playlists so I was excited to check it out. I was instantly impressed with that one track that I dove straight into the full album and was blown away. Never heard of them before and was converted into a forever fan. Every year Frank Ocean doesn't put out a new album is a sad one, and when that happens I look for a runner up and this is it. 

6. Ladytron - Time's Arrow
On the contrary, I've been a fan of Ladytron since they broke ground with their first full length album 604 in 2001, "Another Breakfast With You" being a favorite anthem in 8th grade (shoutout emo kids on Napster with impeccable playlists). It's been a joy to grow up with a band as badass as Ladytron, especially when most of the music I listened to growing up was made by all dudes. Fast forward to now and I appreciate how influential they've been on my own music making endeavors. Sonically and aesthetically speaking they are pretty untouchable.

5. Oneohtrix Point Never - Again
Let me just say I'm very thankful my friends have such a great taste in music, otherwise my life would be far less rich than it is. I learned about this album when P posted a meme that said "they don't even know the best album of the year is about to drop" and I was instantly hyped bc their taste in music is *chef's kiss.* From the first single "A Barely Lit Path" I was left speechless - it's the apex of so many genres I love deeply -  experimental electronic, classical, glitch, pop. This album is so complex, it keeps blooming and reinventing itself as it moves you through the halls of avant-garde delights. This album is something special and had a huge impact on the music I make.

4. Chemical Brothers - For That Beautiful Feeling
I mean, it's the fucking Chem Bros. Highly delightful, an ancient satisfaction. The OGs of the industry did not disappoint with this drop, and we haven't had a full length one since 2019's No Geography. While my favorite albums of theirs are the 90's releases, with one of my all time fav albums being Come With Us, 2002, this album will absolutely be added to the lifelong tops list. Every song feels like a feature-length film, a world onto itself. They will forever be the very definition of goals.

3. Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World
I've been a fan of them for so long, I was beyond stoked to be able to finally see them for the first time - and in Michigan of all places! They're the closest thing we have to experiencing The Velvet Underground live and I wish more people would give them the credit they deserve. I'd go so far as to say they're one of the most underrated bands in the genre. With seventeen studio albums, six compilation albums, sixteen extended plays, twenty-two singles, two film score albums, four collaborative albums, and one album of cover songs (re: wiki) - they are at Zappa status when it comes to a prolific career. But everybody sleeps on them because they are older, not showy, not into clout-chasing and very lowkey - don't make this mistake. The opening track has been in my top 5 for almost a year, the perfect album to drive to. 

2. Blonde Redhead - Sit Down for Dinner
I haven't been this obsessed with an album of theirs like this since their 2007 release, 23. I'll always count the title track as one of the best songs the band ever put out, and a staple of the indie cannon. It's driving, sexy and the way the drums seem to waterfall on top of each other, splashing into haunting rhythms - it hits all the right spots for me. It also set the expectation really high for all subsequent releases. "Melody Experiment" picks up where the song "23" leaves off, and based on Spotify's top play list - I'm not the only one who is completely consumed by how remarkable it is. "I Thought You Should Know" feels like walking in a Michigan snow drift. It's cool to mark different parts of my life with their albums, I'll always associate this one with my first year living in Michigan, like I associate 23 with hanging out in my partner's dorm room in 2010 or falling asleep in the Ravenswood apartment a decade later. This album is a femme dom, for which we are all too eager to sub.

1. KAROL G - MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO (BICHOTA SEASON)
I'm going to make a bold statement - KAROL G is possibly the closet we'll ever get in this lifetime to the soulful excellence that only Selena is known for. This is galvanized by “Mi Ex Tenía Razón,” where she echos the brilliant cumbias that are signature to La Reina. She makes no mistake where her inspiration comes from, sporting a Selena shirt in her music video for the song. This album has no skip tracks and feels like summer drives down to San Antonio to visit family and day trips to Mexico. Track 1 "BICHOTAG" is pure party, you can bet you'll hear this play as my walk out music for a future House of Egregious shows. We all love Kali Uchis so it was really rad to see her guest on this album, her feature on "ME TENGO QUE IR" is sooo fucking hot I really cannot with them. This album is unlimited joy and an instant favorite, bump it loud if you want some sultry summer vibes to warm you up from the biting cold.

Hey friends! Happy new year! It all happened so fast, I didn't even have any time to promo it here. What a wild ride! I played my first live synth show on NYE, hosted by Earth Modular Society. It was so badass, I broadcasted from my basement and played a stream train where musicians from all over the world showcased their talents and impressive rigs for almost 20 hours straight. It was a marathon of bleeps n bloops and I feel honored to have been a part of it.

​I also survived my audio interface going down minutes before my set started, causing me to reroute my entire set up through my mixing board instead. From the beginning this has always been my biggest fear (losing my audio signal either from an instrument or all together during a live performance) and now I can say I lived through it without losing my shit too bad - which is a real triumph. I know how to get through technical difficulties during a puppet show just fine, but it's a different pandora's box when we're talking complete dead air.