John Wiese shares his origin story on Harsh Truths podcast
John Wiese released his first 7” in 1999 and it set the trajectory for his output: short bursts of collaged sounds (usually on a 1-sided record) sourced from his own ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC SOUNDS and field recordings packaged with refined typographY and a humorous, playful approach to titles.
This sensibility established an identity that stood out in comparison to much of the harsh noise scene and its default mode of 45 minute tapes, photocopied artwork and serial killer themes (though much like skateboarding and skulls there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just a bit expected).
Then there’s Sissy Spacek. A “grindcore” “band” he started with Corydon Ronnau (now with Charlie Mumma and a rotating cast of contributors) who never finished their demo so Wiese just acted as a kind of demented producer, remixing and recycling minutes of music for dozens of releases before expanding the concept to undertake collaborative efforts, large group performances, visual scores and even just being a normal tight live band.
Perhaps due to his unconventional approach Wiese has worked along the edges of various scenes: remixing hardcore bands like This Machine Kills and The Locust; touring with art rockers like Sonic Youth and Liars; contributing to SunnO))) and Cattle Decapitation; and frequently collaborating with Matmos. At the same time Wiese has stayed grounded in the global network of noise musicians over the last 20 years—collaborating with Merzbow, Lasse Marhaug, Pain Jerk, C. Spencer Yeh, Panicsville, The Haters, Wolf Eyes and pretty much everyone.
This year his Helicopter label has been working with Phil Blankenship’s Troniks on an aggressive reissue campaign bringing classic noise releases from The Incapacitants, C.C.C.C., The Cherry Point and others back into circulation. Just last week he put out 2 new solo records and a collab with Aaron Dilloway and Robert Turman. Oh, and Sissy Spacek’s Featureless Thermal Equilibrium came out last month which might be my favorite thing they’ve done as a band.
John’s recent visit to the Harsh Truths podcast gets into some of the forces that have shaped his trajectory.
Read on for some quotes that I found enlightening as well as a stream of the full interview
On the difference between sound art and music:
“When I was in kindergarten, I had a little turntable in my room and my parents got me this Disney LP. On one side were all these individual sci-fi or space-themed sounds. On the other side its a full narrative story but told only through sound effects — there’s no dialogue or music. You hear the sound of a space ship landing on a planet, then people open a door and they’re creeping around and exploring. They come across aliens, they have a laser fight and they’re running to get away. And it’s only through these type of sound effects that the story is told.
I never forgot this record the whole time I was growing up. It naturally instilled in me an appreciation of sound and gave me the experience of using sound in that sort of expressive way. My whole life whenever people think that sound or experimental music is weird or not music I fundamentally can’t relate. I never thought that. It’s always been hard to imagine how you would think that.”
I'd rather have these small accomplishable goals in making these 7"s and let them add up to something.
John Wiese “Magnetic Stencil 2” (Helicopter, 2020). Designed by John Wiese.
How he got into graphic design:
I saw an ad in a magazine for a program for generating font files. I thought that was so interesting — that you could be behind something like that. Of course you have used a computer there are typefaces on there, you enjoy selecting typefaces or having a preferred typeface but to think that you could actually make that? Of course someone makes it but you don’t think about everything that you run into on a daily basis. This was 1994 or 1995 or something like that.
So I mail-ordered the program and I didn’t have a Mac so I would go to this Mac lab, install it, work all day, save my work to a disk and then delete the program off the computer and go home. I would do that all the time. I designed a lot of typefaces, and I started licensing them to foundries and I’m sure these places didn’t know who was on the other end — a high-school student. I had some success with it — I’d get a few thousand dollars [in royalties annually] and for somebody my age, at that time, in my area, that was enough for my year.
Basically my interests when I was through with high school were photography and type design and if you combine photography and type design then you get graphic design. And so I did get really interested in graphic design but it came second to type design. Which is not necessarily the average trajectory of a designer but it gave me a certain perspective on graphic design what was helpful.
V/A “Moonlanding Vol. 1/2” (Helicopter Records, 2000) designed by John Wiese. Back cover uses the Krasivyi font designed by John Wiese.
The influence of the early 90s hardcore scene:
Growing up in punk and hardcore I had a really strong programming to just write to people. Basically if you're curious about anything you drop a letter in the mail. That’s just how you did it. So when I started cutting into the surface of knowing about these different [noise] artists I would just write to all of them. I did a lot of correspondence with Aube, Pain Jerk, GX from The Haters... You’d write them and they'd just write back. You’d send them something and they'd send you something back. That was how I really started reaching out to other people that were doing this.
8 of the 150+ 7” records that John Wiese has released, produced or appeared on since 1999
Why he started out making 7” records instead of tapes (preferred format of noise artists everywhere):
First of all, I always was drawn to 7"s. As a kid in the midwest mailordering stuff 7"s are $2.50 postpaid. That’s really inexpensive and its something you can start collecting. Bands put out 7"s because at that time they were very inexpensive to make. I always felt like it was the best format. I always liked things that were very cut up, edited, that were very realized. Things that were very "jam"-y, very loose, slow, those things didn't appeal to me. I always felt like it took more effort to make things that were very realized in this other sort of way.
I also never thought of myself as a musician, I always thought of myself more as an editor. So what better format than 3 or 4 minutes a side? When you put on a 7" the only thing you can do is listen to it so it also forces this kind of focused attentive listening which when you put on a 60 minute CD or tape, yeah, ok, you're gonna listen but maybe you're gonna get distracted or do something else while its going on. And that's perfectly fine, it just wasn't the format for me.
John Wiese “Cat Woman is a Cat Vampire” 7” (Helicopter, 1999) Designed by John Wiese
When I started making 7”s, the first was a learning experience. I made 500 copies, that was too many. It cost me about 750 bucks and that was also too expensive. The next record I made was a one-sided 7", 200 copies, it cost $199 including covers and everything. And then they just started coming out because this was the perfect thing to make. Especially since the sort of work I was making was very condensed. To make a condensed thing that runs 90 minutes, I mean, it’s exhausting to listen to and it takes so much time to make. I'd rather have small accomplishable goals in making these 7"s and let them add up to something. Rather than put out these long things that, in my editor’s mind, they would be basically always be better if I would just trim 'em in half. If I could just trim it in half it would be twice as good. I'm just never gonna get there because that equation is always just reducing and reducing.
whenever people think that sound or experimental music is weird or not music—I fundamentally can’t relate. I never thought that. It’s always been hard to imagine how you would think that.
Stream the whole interview here:
Note: Quotes have been lightly edited to reduce redundancy