Interview with the Flashbulb for "Where the Wild Beats Are"

Chicago’s Benn Jordan (AKA the Flashbulb, Flexe, Acidwolf, Human Action Network and numerous other monikers) ranks among the most versatile acts in the electronic music world. His production traverses spacey ambient, classic Chicago acid, melodic breakcore and everything in between. His largely improvisational live sets feature a guitar with MIDI pickups, extensive use of loop pedals and complete re-workings of his growing catalog. The end result is a gorgeous cacophony of sound leaving fans trying to decipher where he ends and the music begins. Shameless is very proud to have him co-headline October 16^th’s “Where the Wild Beats Are” at Chop Suey with Kid 606.

Benn represents everything we at Shameless love in a performer. His music is intelligent but danceable, gritty but melodic, and emotional but always a little tongue in cheek… and it’s always evolving. But Benn’s appeal extends way beyond our eccentric tastes. At only 31 years old, he already has over thirty major releases under a variety of monikers. He has remixed for artists such as Aphex Twin and toured with acts as diverse as Telefon Tel Aviv and the Dillinger Escape Plan. He is also owner of the nonprofit Alphabasic record label and an award-winning composer for advertising, television and film. In other words, his entire life revolves around making music.

I was recently able to interrupt Benn’s busy schedule for a brief interview. We spent a half hour discussing his personal musical evolution, his label as a “breakcore” artist and his views on pirating and digital music distribution. The highlights are included below. But the only way to truly appreciate Benn’s music is to catch a live Flashbulb set. We’ll see you at Chop Suey on October 16th. We promise it won’t disappoint.

ADLIB:

Between the Flashbulb, Flexe, Acidwolf and all your various other aliases, you’ve developed a pretty varied range in production spanning two decades. Just how big is your catalog to date?

FLASHBULB:

I’m not sure. It’s sometimes difficult because you have different versions of stuff. There was a vinyl version of Red Extensions of Me that came out in Europe that has all these extra tracks and is missing tracks from the US version. If you count all that stuff, it’s above forty. If you don’t, I would say it’s between twenty five and thirty releases.

ADLIB:

Out of all your work, which songs or albums are the most meaningful to you at this time?

FLASHBULB:

I think Reunion (as the Flashbulb) has been my favorite so far. It was done pretty fast so it felt really accomplished, and there weren’t many computers or much post-production used. It was very (live) performance based… I think it’s probably my most eclectic and original, where I have the most composition.

ADLIB:

You are considered a pioneer of the “breakcore” sound. Do you think this is an accurate description?

FLASHBULB:

It’s really hard to say. Some people would get angry if they heard someone say I was a pioneer of the breakcore sound. Others have told me that I’m a pioneer of the breakcore sound… When I think of breakcore, I think of really fast, evil, distorted sounding stuff. I’ve made a couple tracks like that, but for the most part I pay a lot of attention to melody and the form and function of the song, a lot more than just trying to make something as aggressive as possible. I’ve definitely made fast stuff but I’d call it more drum and bass mixed with metal or jazz.

ADLIB:

Your music has always struck me as much more melodic than a lot of the breakcore out there, although it’s often lumped into that category. You seem recently to have moved beyond that kind of sound into straight guitar work. What does it mean to be evolving past the stereotyped image as a breakcore producer to where you are now?

FLASHBULB:

It’s interesting how you get pigeonholed. I’ve always been a guitar player. It was the first thing I picked up and to this day it’s my number one instrument. Everything starts with writing on the guitar or performing on the guitar and using MIDI pickups to make synthlines… That moves into my live set, too. I’ve been working on a lot more on improvisation. It’s more of a challenge for me and it breathes a new life into touring. The more you rely on a laptop and the more you have a set that is foolproof and that you can’t mess up, the more boring it gets to perform live. So this one’s more nerve-wracking and less boring.

You can do things on a laptop that are pretty wild of course. But I’ve always strayed away from using your standard Ableton Live pre-made set where the only thing that can go wrong is your computer crashes or another technical problem. This is a little bit crazier. If I screw something up live, it’s screwed up in the loop pedal.

ADLIB:

It’s more of a challenge as an artist, then. So you’re pushing boundaries and forcing yourself to be a perfectionist.

FLASHBULB:

It also really comes down to sensing what an audience is feeling, too. That almost borrows from being a good DJ, being able to sense what the audience thinks. If you have an audience that seems really mellow, you’re gonna play more melodic, mellow stuff, but if you have an audience that’s really into dancing, you’re not gonna want to play something slow. It’s nice to be able to improvise and play whatever you think is the right energy.

ADLIB:

In the past, your live performances have incorporated a little bit from all your varied sounds. The last time you played for us (at Esthetic Evolution in Idaho), you played a lot of Acidwolf material and a lot of Flashbulb material with a lot of guitar work layered over your more traditional songs. Do you see your live sets continuing to draw from older material or going in a truly improvisational direction?

FLASHBULB:

I’ve been trying to do half-and-half. I’ve been going in and taking the stems from the original song sessions and incorporating them into the software and loop petals I use for live sets. That way I you pick and choose what you want to play and how long you want to play it for and add solos. You can mix the songs around or stay true to the original, depending on the vibe you get when you’re playing. I think it will mostly be half improvised stuff and half stuff on past albums.

ADLIB:

You’re playing with Kid 606 in Seattle. He plays pretty hard stuff. There will definitely be an interesting mixture of people there for his stuff and yours, but I imagine the whole crowd will want to rock out a bit. It will be an interesting experience for all parties, especially

FLASHBULB:

Yeah, his stuff is pretty heavy, from what I remember (chuckles). Definitely. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Miguel live. I’m really looking forward to it.

ADLIB:

You own your own independent label and also do production for the advertising industry. How do you divide your time between the label work, advertising and your own production?

FLASHBULB:

A lot of it’s prioritizing. If I’m releasing a new album (mine or someone elses) on Alphabasic, then that will take the reigns. If there’s a big campaign coming in for film, television or advertising, then I’ll prioritize that. There have definitely been a lot of sleepless nights and twenty-hour sessions. But the agency that I’m partnered with (Vapor) understands that I’m a recording artist. My contract with them is a freelance contract. If I want to tour or work on my own stuff for a week, I can tell them I’m not gonna work on anything. Of course, my bank account will reflect that (chuckles).

ADLIB:

What direction is Alpha Basic going here soon? What are some of your favorite releases on the label?

FLASHBULB:

We’re actually expanding it quite a lot recently with a couple different things. I have one release coming out called Dojo VS. Switch, which is gitchy, mellow stuff. I’m really happy to be releasing the next Phoenecia album. They were pretty big Schematic artists and I’m doing their next album. All before 2010… It’s a non-profit label. The only people who make a profit are the artists releasing on it. I don’t make anything… The money just carries over. It either goes to the artist or it funds the next release, which is nice.

ADLIB:

You and your label seem to be strong proponents of independent artistry and musicianship and anti corporate exploitation of artists. Just last year you released an album online and allowed fans to pay what they wanted. What motivated you to do this?

FLASHBULB:

I feel like the music industry in the 90s was just so greedy that hey didn’t give people what they wanted. They didn’t move along with the technology or progress. The first CD, I think it was Abba in 1978 or 79 or something, was really profitable. When your making hundreds of thousands, CDs cost around 50 cents each to make with the casing and the artwork. In the beginning, they were selling them for $25 each. You had a huge profit margin and artists were getting a small percentage. They eventually came down because of a class action lawsuit.

In the meantime, they (big labels) weren’t taking advantage of digital distribution and everybody else was. That’s when the whole Napster thing happened. You can’t blame people for pirating music. I don’t think there’s any malicious intent in it. Nobody feels like they’re stealing and nobody should feel like they are. It’s a much easier way to get music than there used to be.

Another way I look at it is if there are 100,000 people out there sharing my album, I’m really happy. This way, I get to play shows like the one next week. A lot of times, those downloaded albums end up in the hands of a producer or licenser for television, which pays more than if everybody brought the album.

I think you just have to open your mind. It’s just the way technology is and there’s nothing you can ever do to stop it. There’s no amount of lawsuits or copy protection schemes or yelling at people will ever stop it.

ADLIB:

It’s just the natural evolution of all art and music distribution.

FLASHBULB:

And it introduces this Darwinian concept to music promotion. The most successful artists are no longer just chosen by who has the record contract and the biggest promotion budget. Now an artist can be popular without a big label. Music is only going to get better that way because it’s a natural selection process with what people listen to.

You have artists that don’t have huge budgets or don’t know somebody but actually make good music and get rewarded for it. Whereas people like Brittney Spears don’t sell records any more. Nobody cares anymore because they can research a lot more music now and don’t have to be subjected to what they’re handed.

ADLIB:

And people could just go pirate it if they want.

FLASHBULB:

I think ultimately it’s a lot bigger than music sales. The music industry is where the focus is. It’s all about copyright. I hate speaking out against copyright because I make my living from it. If someone licenses my music or buys my CD it’s my copyright that creates that process. But copyright also prevents, for example, a kid in a poor family from watching CNN. It ends up being a cable channel where it costs $50 a month to watch CNN or Discovery or History. You end up with a situation where information is being sold and only the people who can afford to learn can buy it. The overall picture is a lot bigger than music. When information becomes free, it kind of levels the playing field. That’s hugely important for society.

I think it’s only a matter of time before everyone realizes socialized copyright is where we’re going. We’ll eventually have an internet tax like the UK’s TV tax… I think the government should setup a network like Napster and the tax gets divvied on what you download for free. It will be the fastest, most complete network. You won’t have to pirate anything and people will get paid for their share of what’s downloaded.