Jaie Gonzales (bassist in super-famous Danimals and also I Like Cats) and James Domeyko make up Domekyo/Gonzales, a new(ish) experimental soundscape duo that have caught the attention of fBI pretty quickly, and have been playing gigs to audiences who seem to be quite ready and willing to accept their expansive, epic, non-pop-song style of jam.

With their gig coming up this week at Sedition’s Difficult Music Festival we had a chat to them about their musical ambitions and direction. Make a jump to read it…

+ Tell me a bit about your music. What are the main influences? How would you describe it? What kind of people like it? Where should you be to listen to it, ideally?

G: James and I do these kind of improvised electronica shows. The way they sound kind of depends on the mood we’re in. They [the shows] can range from super ambient soundscape stuff to being extremely loud and abrasive. It’s basically an opportunity for me to set up all my synths and pedals and instruments at once and see what happens. What I do is mostly loop based. I’m really into some weird bands I’ve stumbled across in New York recently. Check out Blues Control and Excepter. We’re also playing with some more beat driven music in the style of artists like Madlib and Flying Lotus, we did a thing like that at our last show.

D: We each bring our different backgrounds to it. Between us we cover everything from noisy no-wave stuff like Glenn Branca to spectral/minimalist music. Also we’re both really into the DIY vibe of groups like Fuck Buttons. When we play live we like to leave large spaces for improvisation and feed off each others’ ideas. That way it keeps it fresh and if we do revisit a previous idea, it’s because we really vibed off it. We don’t know if anyone likes it – anyone who has an ear for experimental approaches and likes soundscapes. We never know exactly what will happen so being open to going with us wherever it takes us is fairly crucial to getting the most out of it.

Just be where we’re at.

+ How did this musical friendship begin?

D: We’ve technically been playing music together since we were about 8 in our first band when we both played alto sax in the Woollahra Public School band. This particular project began properly when we played a cheeky gig at World Bar for Radio Social and then we got asked to program FBi, and then got asked to play another gig and then it kept coming. We’ve jammed sporadically over the years but this has brought it into a more focused realm.

G: Yep.

+ Are there any difficulties with pushing your kind of music in Sydney?

G: This hasn’t been a difficulty for us because we haven’t really been trying to push it on people, we both play a lot of music and this is a chance for us to really do whatever we want.

D: We’ve had a steady stream of gigs and from our first show we were asked to do a radio program and live performances on the air with Justin Zeltzer from the Bridge, who was cool with it when we straight out said we’re going to jam on the air. We’re still playing and people are there when we play.

+ Is experimental music reaching new audiences these days? is there a sort of aura of cool and avant-garde around it that carries it?

D: Haha, I guess if watching music nerds play with their toys is your brand of James Dean then you’re in luck. From our experience, we’d say yes. A lot of people are spreading the word about whatever is catching their imagination and everyone benefits when great new things are shared.

G: I think the only way that music progresses is through experimentation so if people stop liking it we’d get a bit stuck. I don’t think what we do is particularly cool by any standard. It’s quite honestly a bit self-indulgent on our behalves as we mainly do it for ourselves but if people want to watch then they’re more than welcome.

+ Biggest Sydney influences/Sydney bands you have the most respect for?

D: Fuji Collective, The Danimals, I Like Cats, Rockethead, Squid, Kirin Callinan, Seekae, Bridezilla, Warhorse, Ghosts of Television, Kyu, The Laurels, Fashion Launches Rocket Launches to name a few.

G: Whipped Cream Chargers, Nhomea, La Mancha Negra, Seekae, Dead China Doll, Kyu, Dead Farmers and Kirin J Callinan.

+ Tell me a bit about your upcoming gigs.

D: We have one coming up at Sedition Barber Shop on the 28th of January with Piano Is Drunk and Arkestra for the Difficult Music Festival. Sedition is a very small venue: it holds about 30 people max so I think there is a greater expectation than ever to deliver. Depending on how we feel after watching Piano is Drunk we’ll either want to chill the place or blow it out. Arkestra is going to be dark as well so keeping the overall experience in mind is important. Then we’re playing with Warhorse and Silvermoon at World Bar on the 5th of March. Bring earplugs to that one. As a rule for the gigs, anyone’s guess is as good as ours.

++

http://www.myspace.com/domeykogonzalez

Posted by amelia in Features, Music

Tags: arkestra, blues control, Danimals, dead china doll, dead farmers, difficult music festival, domeyko/gonzales, excepter, fashion launches rocket launches, FBI, Flying Lotus, fuck buttons, fuji collective, ghosts of television, glenn branca, i like cats, jaie gonzales, james domeyko, justin zeltzer, kirin j callinan, Kyu, madlib, nhomea, piano is drunk, radio social, rockethead, sedition, Seekae, silver moon uprising, Squid, the bridge, the laurels, warhorse, whipped cream chargers, World Bar