Interview: Tristan Shore of Author&Punisher

When you hear the stark robotic juggernaut that is Author& Punisher, you would never guess the master mind behind the machines is one of the most down to earth and friendly science geeks you could ever meet. Well, he was and here is the conversation we had with him.

Abysmal Hymns-The new album "Women and Children" inhibits a much different sonic space than "Ursus.." did. What place were you coming from to invoke this kind of evolution?

Tristan-It's a mix of  all the sorting of the past couple of years. Sorting through drummers and switching to machines. I wanted it to be pure and able to reproduce it live. It id frustrating to only be able to play four songs live then have to have another set up with a drum kit. So I wanted to play the whole thing pure, returning to that idea with no guitars to mix.

As far as the lyrics and melody, life is a mess, I'm hustling in every way possible. Its not going into some cabin and be able to work. Some of it I came up with doing art show in galleries where I played with synths and no machines, forced me into other sounds.

Abysmal-You have really been embraced by metal audiences.Is it something that you have a background with?

Tristan-Absolutely, Godflesh,  more stuff rooted in hard core. Melvins and Neurosis and graduated into more extreme stuff like death metal. I listen to a lot of Drum and Bass as well as dub at warehouse parties I throw which sound great through a sound system, that's more of my social scene.

Abysmal-So your are touring with Phil Anselmo's solo band. What are your thoughts on that? Is there any concern there might be a bunch of rednecks just there to hear Pantera songs who might not get what you do?

Tristan-I'm not so sure about that, from what I have heard of his new album it sounds more like Deadguy. I think that will change the crowd. I came from headlining 100 capacity rooms with local support, so it will be good to play through real sound-systems.Its the best way to hear what I am doing, rather places where it's more d.i.y sound.

Abysmal- Haha, yeah and the monitors are blown out.

Yeah, So I'm excited about that , though I'm sure there well be those who see what I do as gimmicky and think its some type of Hipster Metal.

Abysmal-Have you ever toured or thought about touring with Industrial bands?

Tristan-  Seems more of a thing in Europe. Its big in Belgium and the Netherlands, all though there is a lot of break-core and heavy noisy dance music coming out. We have had the leather industrial kids with the dreadlocks come out and I think they were disappointed there was no sequencing.  We were going to tour with a lesser known industrial band that I like, but cancelled  that to do the Phil tour.

Abysmal - So have you ever been into stuff like Skinny Puppy ?

Tristan-No, though I like Ministry though they were always more of a metal band. I think  that crowd is torn because they want to like it but what I do isn't flashy, though they see it as a gimmick. When I built every thing to be efficient live so no computer crashes and I can control drum trigger with my mouth.

Abysmal-Hows the response in Europe been?

Tristan-Good , though it has started to even out. You can play with a doom band and a D.J spinning break core all-night. The U.S. has begun to loosen for us there are more crossover festivals. It gets to be a little annoying when you are always playing with doom bands that have Orange amps stacked to the ceiling. The Life Once Lost tour was more than we could have hoped for.

Abysmal- I think a band like Atriarch or Pinkish Black would be a good fit for you.

Tristan- Yeah, I know those guys.  We are on the same label. There has been some talk of a little Seventh Rule Festival. Its cool there are more bands using industrial and electronic elements.

Abysmal- Like Wreck&Reference.

Tristan-Yeah we have reached out to each other.

Abysmal- Well there you go. Lets get on the phone and set up the tour  You , Atriarch, Pinkish Black and Wreck&Reference.

Tristan-laughs 

Abysmal- Aside from control, what do you see as the plus side for being a one man band and what is the draw back?

Tristan-I am pretty confident in what I am doing so it's not like being in a band where you might be second guessing yourself  and you start to sound like other bands because some of the wackier more experimental ideas which you know would sound cool get trampled in democracy.  Draw back is you are doing every thing yourself, the website , the merch, getting a van. A lot of people have some one who works for them and I don't know how they afford it. I mean you play a club and if that's split between a band it comes out to less than minimum wage For this tour though, I'm bringing another guy to do video. So you can see what I'm doing as well as conceptual video. He will also handle extra sounds and sequencing where I will be playing the main lines.

Abysmal-What were the lyrical themes for the new album?-

Tristan-Personal stuff, there's one song about drinking, its comical. A lot of it is unconscious. Then the song "Women and children" is referring to the downfall of humanity and wildlife, but you would not know that by reading the lyrics. Some of it is more simple , my family live far away so there's that isolation.

Abysmal-So I know you juggle working a regular job with making music , how is that ?

Tristan- I am lucky to work in a field  closely on the engineering side. I like getting exposed to new technology, it gives me ideas to take back to what I do. Its an academic environment so not many musicians and creative types that leaves me working in a vacuum.




   

   

Author&Punisher : " Women & Children"

O.k... with no time to grow on me and fresh out of a nap I decided the most jarring way to review this new Author&Punisher is just in real time as I hear it like a virgin for the very first time. This is Tristan Shone's fifth album as the one man industrial monolith, I can say from the first song , the albums title track that his sense of dynamics and song writing have improved , this one moves at the speed of explosive hot lava that is melting a robot invasion. Big robots like the kind coming in Pacific Rim, doom for the Decepticon's. Did I even spell that write I'm not a Transformers fan but the dino-bots were kinda cool and I think they would dig this album. Where the first song kinda brought to mind Ministry's cover of Lay Lady Lay, "In Remorse: at first recalls Skinny Puppy's more melodic moments before crashing down on planet cyber-sludge.

From what I'm hearing so far in the first two songs, a lot of my gripes about the first album are being cleared up, there's more melody and dynamic without sacrificing the mechanical crushing, who said electronic music has to be for pussies. Where a lot of industrial tends to fall into two big holes, they are either a metal band with a drum machine or a electronic band playing guitar hero metal karaoke, this is legit futuristic robotics in the chaos of action.

the vocals are the biggest improvement and here is a sure way to win me over or turn me off, I like variety, here there's what could constitute as real singing, at least on par with Justin Broadrick, but there is still moments the more distorted harsher tones emerge, on "Melee" the song structure changes and wanders off from the build to even more crushing pattern he tends to establish. This album works well when I listen to it while watching the "Maniac" remake with the sound off...yes they re-made it, it stars Elijah Wood.

The dark melodic nature of "Tame as a Lion" comes from a place almost like Final Cut- era Pink Floyd before the robots get possessed and sound sorta like David Vincent. So think Pink Floyd meets the more robotic elements of Morbid Angel. "Fearce" most closely reminds me of the previous album. The fuzzed out machine punches and chants return for revenge, though it's syncopation is more varied rhythmically, and less monotonous, even when Shore is in the process of pounding the point home. This album is more richly layered, and goes to darker depths while still being less claustrophobic than the last, I don't maybe I'm just in a better head space to receive this one with open ears.

"Miles From Home" begins more like something from the Tron sound track, layers of Tangerine Dream like synths. This drones on for the first three minutes, the beat slowly rumble up from its cosmic slumber beneath it, this dies down like the foreboding of a horror soundtrack and leaves room for vocals to call out from a worm hole of reverb. While I like this one its the most obvious filler interlude considering the caliber of the other songs he has been throwing at us thus far.

On the last song we wind back down into Pink Floyd's zip code with morose crooning over piano that begins to build until its takes goes to take a more sinister turn and he fakes a left turn back into the piano ballad. The pay off for this one is in the last minute when the heavy comes back leading up to this something about the melody reminds me of Neurosis. So all and all I'm pretty pleased with Mr. Shore on this one I'll round it up to a 9 because I'm not totally awake yet and have only one cup of coffee in me at four thirty but the two songs which felt more like filler the last two actually still had some cool moments and sounds I just think they dont stand up to the other songs on the album but are still interesting and might need time to grow on me.