Interview in Real Groove magazine with Shayne Carter. Febuary 2007.

carter - how many records have crude put out ? you done a lot of songs buster...

crude - I think a good round-about figure would be 70. That's the entire self-released lot. As far as actual 'proper' label releases, well you got your Inner City Guitar Perspectives on the Flying Nun backwash/backlog, Refute a Myth Society on Ecstatic Yod, a string of 7" singles both acetate and vinyl..but my deal now is self releasing Cd-rs through my web-site (www.crude.co.nz) and it looks like thats how it's a-gonna stay. Full artistic control - only your own control issues to deal with, no-one elses.

carter - what have been your avenues of distribution ?

crude - It's varied. Earlier vinyl releases made their way into obscure indie collections the world over - especially in the US of A. Inner City traversed the western world via Flying Nun. These days I use the mighty internet for pretty much all of it - well, setting up buyers, approaching stores, radio etc. I've used viral direct marketing to bandy the name and sound about and I've deliberately penetrated the borders of whatever strange little country I can (eg : China). And now I've embraced the future too soon and have made Crude 100% downloadable as high quality album sized mp3s, direct from my server. And that stuff really does get in. Everywhere, anywhere, anytime.

carter - what side projects are you involved in ?

crude - Lil' bits on the side eh? Well.....I'll mention The Aesthetics - who are now over (sorry boys) , but that was kind of an equal first priority project at the time so....I always had the Rock thing and the stranger Crude thing going. I've got a free jazz Trio, 'The Anomie Ensemble' that performs biannually (busy) - core playas there are me on Tenor Sax and Duane Zarakov , now proud new owner of Records Records, on Drums. Wha' else. Space Dust. When I lived (well, existed) in Auckland I had a synth duo called 'Southkill' going with my friend Duncan Bruce.
Rumor has it Duncan is now a practising Muslim - i wish him well - he's walking the straight path. I always enjoy freelancing my talents. I try to 'write' too.

carter - what is your recording set up ?

crude - Initially it was all cassette 4-track into stereo system - cassette mix-down and thats it. I feel confident enough now at 32 to say that I got a good, ballzy, rich and punchy sound outta that thing. Over the last 4 years or so I've upgraded to software multi-tracking systems and editing suites..still keep it really basic though. Don't usually go over 4-7 tracks. Just how it is. Computing allowed me to release Cd-rs and now the reviled/adored mp3. My hard-drive is the inner-inner- core of the Crude recording legacy.

carter - how much time do you spend on music ?

crude - As much as it takes, man. There were periods in me 20's where I'd commit huge chunks of time to a project y'know. I tend to record an album in a compulsive, furious, single-minded spasm - the album completed, the latest self-nurtured neurosis dealt with . If I have a project, or a commisioned piece to do, or have a sound/motif I need to realize, I'll simply spend as much time as necessary to get it done. I guess its a kind of unconscious work-ethic or something. And the work ethic - i haven't been able to apply it to anything else quite the same as with my music. So yeah...of course, I've been 'unemployed' for ,,hell,,14 years now...plenty of time to 'do' my 'work'. Pity it just dosen't cut the mustard in the so called real world or at WINZ or whatever. I feel I'd have more status if I bloody well dug holes - i mean..thats a REAL job.

carter - do you get disillusioned and feel like sometimes you're squalling in the wind/ yelling into a big empty canyon etc? i only ask cos i think a lot of people feel this
way...

crude - Every now and every then. I actually have a couple of tracks that smack of those images...These days doubts pass pretty quick though. It's like this:experimental ( in the broadest possible sense) music simply dosen't have an abundant fan-base. I mean, relatively speaking. It is a specialist music - as is Jazz apparantly. It's taken me 13 years to truely realize this. How deluded i have been, thinking i can 'make a living' eh what? Playing the USA did it for me. I was briefed on the state of the avant garde nation by a local indie booking agent and yeah - its the freakin same there too. I mean I don't want to destroy any dreams or pubescent hearts but that's just how it is. I'm just going to keep recording and realizing my own vision regardless. I think thats the only way to be.

carter - 'songs' or 'noise' ?

crude - Songs and noise. I tend to churn out short, simple but spooky songs. Little ditties, retarded rock stuff, little synth numbers. They come and go. I'll always craft songs.
My 'noise' stuff, the formless , gurgling, purring, dark ambient or whatever the hell it is - that serves a purpose. I love sound. I guess my songs are the abstract, noise and experimental electroinc Crude is the full publication as a pdf.

carter - are you a 'difficult' character ?

crude - It depends on who you are, what we are doing and where we're doing it. Sure, I can be difficult, opaque, seemingly acting according to some putrid set of internal rules...but most of the time I'm compassionate, easy-going, friendly and generous. Eh. Yeah. I used to be way worse than I am now. Unfortunately its those frequent episodes in my early 20s that people seem to tag to my name. Pity I didn't realize that's like rule number one of small town social psychology.

carter - do you find it easy working with other people or would you rather do it yourself ?

crude - If you are easy to get along with then I am easy to get along with. I think the mark of a mature musician is their ability to work alone, to craft ones own songs/sounds to a high standard, and to be able to work in a group. And to be able to adapt for a duo, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet etc etc. Doing it yourself allows you to tap in to an internal dialogue and problem solving process that you can bring to the table when you're in a group. Ultimately it enhances the aesthetic evolution of a group.

carter - i had a weird experience recently. i was asked to go back to my old high school and talk to some kids there which is odd as i tended to polarise opinion back in the old days. anyway...the teacher who'd invited me there asked me if i thought the rigid conservatism of the place had given me something to kick against in my 'formative' years and whether it had some influence in the way i turned out and what i did.. you know what ? it did. with this in mind what kind of influence did growing up in invercargill have on you ? it's the bottom of the earth.....
crude - Long pause and sigh. Invercargill seems to produce some odd, genuinely unique talents. Why? I have no idea. Those of us from Invercargill with something 'special' to offer the world are usually strangely 'driven' people. For me Invercargill was somewhere I just had to leave. Thats about it. Even a 'zero fee scheme' can't tempt me to live there.

carter - is revenge a good musical motivation ?

crude - Hell yeah. But to a point. I mean you can't stab someone 23 times with a song.
I guess I often spike my lyrics with a vengefull spirit. I hate alot of shit. Corporate greed. Supression of dissent. Right wingers, in all degrees of intensity. Revenge is always a very personal affair. I don't think music is the ideal forum for revenge.

carter - did going to the states open your eyes in any way ?

crude - Absolutely, it made me realize that in essence, we're all in the same predicament wherever the hell you are on Earth. Streets are streets whether its Gore or Paris. The USA opened my eyes to the fact that we are extremely priviledged to live here though - to be able to draw a welfare benefit if needs be, to be able to get free medical support occasionally, the beautiful lush native bush...when i arrived back I could taste the beauty. I guess thats a first timers cliche or something.

carter - musically what do you NOT want to be ?

crude - Bono.

carter - what experience do you hope to give the listener ?

crude - A rich, subjective, mind-expanding, subversive dose of raw fuckin energy. Even the punk stuff. Even the stupid stuff. I want the Crude listener to be empowered. I use strange, alien timing to instill a sense of superhuman possibility in the listener. Crude cuts and drops, clicks and spatters, screams and whispers, is retro but not, it creates a gentle tension - i'm certain it encourages new neurons to form. Oh no do I sound like a hippy here?

carter - here's 2 questions i asked girls aloud when i interviewed them for pavement last year - what do you think about when you're singing ?

crude - I think - oh my god did I say that in public?!

carter - and ....does any kind of music make you sick ?

crude - Shit , right.....sick. Goa trance.

carter - what is skronk ?

crude - Have I used that term? I initially caught the term through a King Loser song title (?) - i think it sorta means any kind of horrible noisey din...? The word was first coined by the rock journalists Robert Christgau and/or Lester Bangs..
I always intuitively felt it to be a type of dirty, swampy, fuzzed out synthesiser sound. I guess its dangerous to just throw half understood terminology around.
Or maybe thats how it should always be - intuitive guess work.

carter - a lot of people don't seem to understand that instrumental music can be just as evocative as a book full of words. would you agree ?

crude - Well, this depends on the imagination of the individual. Instrumental music evokes feelings...moods. Moods lead to the use of adjectives. Your mind tends to wander when you listen to instrumental stuff too.

carter - and if so what do you think your instrumental stuff is saying ?

crude - It's saying - 'Feed. Feed on the internet, load up, transcend, subvert, deconstruct,
time does not exist'. It's saying - 'What have you done for me lately?' it's saying -
'wait a minute - maybe Marx did have a point..' oh yeah..and 'drink more' .

carter - i can remember someone saying when they heard crude that it "was the sound of mental illness". comments please.

crude - Fair enough. Indeed alot of it is. I know how to encapsulate fear with my music.
The sound of mental illness is something S.P.K strove for. When i record I tend to create a real tension. Some stuff is paranoiac. Some is paralysis. Some is
obsessional. I'll tell you one thing though - the sound of mental well-being is
pretty damn BORING!!!!

carter - what would you do if you didn't have music ?

crude - Well, if I lost the ability to play music now, yeah, I'd be destroyed. But I'd eventually get over it I guess and maybe I'd try my hand at writing. Maybe some science subject. I'd develop web-sites. Poetry. I'd become a monk. I'd eat comfort food and become obese. Who's to say. Its a gift - and i DON'T take it for granted!

carter - do YOU think you deserve more recognition ?

crude - Depends what you mean by recognition. Yeah, quite often I do. Especially if the recognition comes with a dollar sign attached. Ha! I dunnow - I've contributed alot to New Zealand's underground and I'm basically supressed. Maybe the companies don't want someone like me to be seen as doing well, because I'm doing it myself. Maybe I angered the person I should have been sucking up to. Maybe I've been labelled a fascist, when in fact I'm the opposite. Is it because of my 'unreliability??'. Do I represent an un-marketable and undigestable paradigm?
I just do what I do, I try my best, I do what I can with what i got, and at the end of the day I'm happy to have the support of those courageous sonic explorers who I call my friends. Thats all i can ask. I don't have a huge following - but the one I have is very enthusiastic.