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Dylan Wiggins: Hey how’s it going man?

 

Marc Ostermeier: It’s going alright how about you?

 

DW: Doing okay! I appreciate you taking the time to do this interview. You said in your email you were traveling out of the country, what were you getting up to?

 

MO: I was with some family visiting, we went to Norway for vacation.

 

DW: Cool man, so I was going through your discography, and some of the first releases are in the late 80s, making electronic music under the name “shiFt”. How did that start, was it a personal project? Or influenced by anything specific?

 

MO: I had gotten into making music when I was an undergrad at school in New Mexico for a couple of years. My roommate and I started playing together, but then I transferred to another school. I started doing stuff on my own, I took a class at the university in Analog Sound Design, they had these old Moog Synthesizers - and I just started doing stuff on my own. I don’t really know what it was influenced by, there were some artists around like 4AD . And I was doing that from maybe ‘87 to when I moved to Austin in 1990. I went to grad school, I had a little bit more money and I bought some more equipment, and started kind of expanding what I was doing. It was still very electronic-oriented, I didn’t have a guitar or anything so it was pretty much all keyboard stuff. And then, about ‘91 or ‘92, I started getting into shoegaze-type music. I heard the Lilys first album, and that really inspired me to go into a different direction - which ended up being those songs that were on the first release of A Folding Sieve. 

 

DW: Okay cool! So I noticed there were a few different labels being listed as the distro for some of the first releases - one of them being Aural Mural Music , as well as Whirlpool. Did you have any involvement in those?

 

MO: Yeah - so Aural Mural Music was, like I was saying earlier; my roommate and I were making music in school, we made a cassette tape and that was the name of the label. My roommate, his name’s Robert Bass(?), and he was more the driver of that project. And then when I transferred to the University of Wisconsin and started doing music on my own - he kept that label and kept releasing his own music along with other artists (including myself). And about the time I moved to Austin, he had also moved to Austin. He continued to release things, but it was under - what was it, Whirlpool? So Aural Mural Music really started - it was just Robert and I making music, and he had the label and was like yeah we can put this out. But “putting it out” meant, like - we made 10 cassettes and gave them to friends, it wasn’t too big of an operation - at least my own music. I think some of the other stuff he did got a little bit more exposure.

 

DW: There was another label that caught my eye, a magazine/label called “N D” run by Dan Plunket (End of an Ear, 33 Degrees).What was Dan’s involvement/what do you remember about N D?

 

MO: So N D - it was a magazine that was kind of run by Dan and some other people that I didn’t know so well, but I think Dan was the main driver of it. It was very much focused on experimental music, I’m trying to think of the names. They must be on discogs. But Dan was also interested in shoegaze and indie stuff - he liked the Creation Records stuff, he liked a wide variety of stuff. I don’t remember exactly how I got into contact with him, it might have been with Robert B. But I gave him a copy of the stuff I was doing and he was interested in releasing it. So that’s how A Folding Sieve originally got released. And a few other Texas artists that he released; one was called The Factory Press, and there was another called The Marble Index, which I think has a 7”. Factory Press was kind of Joy Division-ish, but anyways N D was a magazine but at the same time was centered around music and did these releases. And he was roommates with, ah! I can’t think of his name. But he ran a label called Sedimental records, which did experimental stuff. I think they did the first Stars of the Lid release, and so there was a combined release show for “Music for Nitrous Oxide” - their first CD which was actually recently re-released on vinyl. I think on Kranky. So there was the Factory Press and Marble Index 7 inches’ , along with Stars of the Lid and A folding sieve release show. And that was one of the only times we played live. It was just Tanya and I, we played with a backing tape.

 

DW: Yeah I was going to ask actually, I read that y’all only played live (as Should) 3 or 4 times.

 

MO: Yeah I think it was 3 or 4 shows. I have flyers for 4 shows but I can only remember 3. And - there were 3 of us that had been involved in it but most of the instrumentals had been done by me. So Tanya contributed vocals, and played keyboard during the live shows. And occasionally my brother is on some of the songs. But for the most part it was just me, in the studio making music. And that’s why we never really played live. It just doesn’t translate well to live. We’d play with a backing tape, we didn’t have a drummer - so we programmed drums. And initially, all the guitar was sampled stuff programmed into a keyboard. So when we played live, I just played bass and sang; Tanya sang and played keyboard. So all the guitars and drums were all on a backing tape. So it doesn’t really make for a great live experience, haha. And I was never really interested in performing live, I was interested in recording - and how does the recorded product sound, that’s the stuff that I really like doing. But anyways, Dan was having this show and wanted us to play something - I felt obliged to play and we did, but it didn’t necessarily make me want to do it more, haha. So we didn’t play any more live shows after I left Austin. 

 

DW: So it’s been about 30 years now since A Folding Sieve came out, do you have any particular feelings about this record now that differ from when it was released?

 

MO: I think - I mean, you know - there are things about it now that I don’t like about it. Like, we should have done this with this song or I didn’t like my vocals on that; just that sort of thing. Ever since Captured Tracks reissued it - people have really liked it. I used a very limited number of things to create it. I’ve always been interested in the process of creation. I still create music on programs like Logic, and with that I like to impose limits on what I do because I think it helps creativity. So I’d say in general - it’s something that I am proud of but it’s not something that I would make today. I have mixed opinions, I guess. 

 

DW: I like that. I like the idea of challenging yourself with limits.

 

MO: Yeah, ‘cause you come up with things you wouldn’t otherwise do. I think that’s kind of a problem now, it’s so easy to record things digitally - so there’s so many possibilities and it’s hard to know where to start. If you just have something simple, like - we’re only gonna use this instrument or only take sounds from the previous song I recorded; things like that. I don’t know, it helps overcome the vast possibilities of what you can do - kind of the equivalent of writer’s block.

 

DW: Are there any experiments or other mediums you’re wanting to work with in the future?

 

MO: My brother and I, we run the label Words on Music. Some of the cover designs, I’ve done the artwork. And there’s another side label I did that hasn’t been active in a while, called Tench (tenchrec.com). That’s more just experimental music, and just run by me so I’ve done most of the covers and such. I’m still working on music, Tanya and I have been talking about possibly collaborating again and doing something. About 10-15 years ago I did a bunch of experimental piano music. And sometimes I feel like that’s what I’m most proud of. I’d like to get back to doing that, but I have other music things I want to complete before then, whether they get released or not. 

 

DW: I’ve got one last question - I read in an interview that you bought one guitar in 1996 and haven’t ever changed the strings?

 

MO: Haha! Well they’ve actually been changed, I think twice - ever.

 

DW: Yeah that interview was a little bit older but I wanted to get an update on that!

 

MO: At one point, Eric my brother made a point to change the strings. I haven’t been doing too much with the guitar lately. And what I experience when putting new strings on - it’s like oh! This sounds much brighter, and maybe to a lot of people that’s better, but really it’s just a different sound. So if you can still keep the guitar in tune and you like how it sounds, maybe it doesn’t matter if you change the strings or not.

 

DW: I like that. Thank you for taking the time. Where are you living now, by the way?

 

MO: Baltimore - I’ve been here since about 2000. Another thing I should mention, were you aware that The Numero Group is going to be reissuing Feed Like Fishes?

 

DW: For real?!

 

MO: Yeah it’s going to be a double LP with a few unreleased songs included.

 

DW: Right on!

 

MO: I was so stoked when they contacted me with interest about it. Some of my heroes at the time : Bedhead, Codeine, American Analog Set, I hold them in such high regard. And the fact that they’re interested in releasing Feed Like FIshes - it’s been a little ego boost, haha. I’m excited for it. The second disc will have a collection of songs I recorded at the time - they’ve appeared in certain places but half of them haven’t.

 

DW: Word! I’m really excited to hear those. Is there any kind of timeline for that release? 

 

MO: I don’t know if it’s gonna happen in - I actually talked to them yesterday, and we were talking initially about the cover design, who’s gonna do the mastering and stuff like that. I mean, vinyl takes a while but I’d say the next 6 months to a year.

 

DW: Sounds good, much appreciated Marc - take it easy!