Ian Bradley currently resides in Brooklyn, NYC.

UDR: Talk about the division of this new body of music into
two separate records. Musically, where is the dividing line?

SLOUCH: Labor was originally intended to be an LP, but so much time went by between the Viva release and these releases that there was a stark evolution between the older material and the last few tracks I'd made before the release date. I was shooting for a cohesive body of music, but I wasn't comfortable dumping the tracks that didn't fit in. I still thought they held up on a different level, so I decided to give them their own place. Travels became an outlet for that. The dividing line between the two is energy, really. With the later tracks I reached a point where I was comfortable with painting with a broader brush... Simplifying the message, getting straight to the point and knocking it out. The work on Travels is more pensive, meandering, and hypnotic.

UDR: Talk about your live performance, lately. To what degree are you
creating the music in real-time on stage?

SLOUCH: Well recently when I perform out, I'm playing these long mashup sets... tapestries of different tracks from all over the place mixed into one constantly changing remix. I throw my own stuff in here and there, but alot of times you have to look for it... I can actually attribute a lot of the recent 'dancability' in my work to doing this mixtape series. I learned alot about energy and contrast from the monthly events here. The live performance of these tracks focuses more on the visual experience... To a certain extent the tracks are being manipulated... Effects being tweaked, loops triggered here and there, and samples being cut and scratched live, but I love having a focused cinematic experience for the audience to absorb. I spend alot of time rendering chopped up DVDs and finding VJs I respect.

UDR: Do you think the computer (as a tool) affects people's creativity
for either good or bad?

SLOUCH: My computer is really the backbone of what I do. The only hardware I use is an Axiom 25, my turntable and mixer... You can't do what I do without it... With all the time-stretching and layers involved, to try to do it any other way is ridiculous. I tried out an MPC 2500 for a while... But it was pretty futile. It couldn't come close to matching the working-speed or processing power of a computer. The only thing I found it good for was drums, and even then, I was just as good with software, (and I got to stick 2 grand back in the bank when I sold it, which is nice). Seems to me that if you know how to mix a track, it doesn't matter what you use. Most people who drop two grand on an MPC do it for the history and the credibility or something, not because it's neccesarily a better machine. I'm sure MPC fans will read this and curse my fist born child. They're a diehard crowd.

UDR: What are your thoughts on music piracy? Does this affect you in any way?

SLOUCH: It's impossible to expect anyone not to snatch some free music here and there. It's always been fine, ever since people started making mixtapes, to copy music and pass it around... it's just gotten a lot easier to do, so it's a problem.

The way I see it, the only people who really suffer from piracy are the people in the middle... not unknown, and not quite famous. If you're not making any money... it's probably pretty hard to find your album, and therefore pretty hard to steal it. If you're raking it in, you should be doing fine from your shows, merchandise, etc. So, I make a point of it to pay for most of what I sample from, and I pay for albums by people I've just heard of, or independent and emerging artists. But if you expect me to go and pay for some piece of shit track by the next hipster sensation that I need because I'm spinning a club night somewhere... well, good luck. But, y'know, don't steal my album. I'm broke.

Now as far as sampling goes, that's a different story. People ask me all the time if I worry about licensing issues when I work... This is a huge grey area. I have several tracks that I'm sure don't 'legally' cut it. (Bob Dylan accapellas, etc) But I think it really has to do with how much you make it 'yours' versus how much you use that artist to sell your laziness. I've seen artists (some I know, who will remain nameless) who will literally grab a loop from an electronic track, add some drums, and call it their music. That sort of shit irritates the hell out of me. I sample from prominent artists frequently... but when I'm done working with it... the audience doesn't know what it is or where it came from, and I've flipped it to the point that it no longer resembles the source. I'm comfortable with that.

UDR: Do you think music is fairly priced? Do you feel the price of music should reflect the production cost, or does the artist deserve a big return?

SLOUCH: That's an interesting idea, definitely. It's really hard to say... I mean, there have to be standards for this sort of thing. I can't imagine how I'd react if an artist decided themselves that their work was worth more than the going rate, and said, "You can have the album for 80 dollars, because that's how much the sweat and blood is worth to us". I don't think anyone would go for it. When Radiohead said 'pay what you want'... I gave them 5 bucks, because that's how much they got when I paid 15 for their cd when it was on a label. Some people paid more, which is great, some paid less, which I think is fine. I don't know if it's possible to know what an artist 'deserves'. I think the more you put in, the more you'll get out of it, and the rest is luck and talent. I mean we choose this, knowing already that in all likelihood we won't be rich. So if you can't deal with what society says it's worth... you probably shouldn't pursue it as a source of revenue.

There are other ways to do it though, grants, bigger budget projects, etc. There's plenty to be made on the more fine-art side of things, but that's just as hard to do. I think in the end, being an artist should be it's own reward, and if you're lucky enough to be blessed with some business savvy, then hopefully you'll profit from it. Not many people get to do that... I'm just happy to have gotten to a place where people are buying it... that's pretty rewarding in itself. So I guess what I'm saying is... all tracks should cost 78.47291 cents.

UDR: Talk about Sync Tank. Where did this idea originate?

SLOUCH: Sync Tank started about a year ago on my birthday when I joined my friend DJ Kuma on stage at Bar on A in the East Village. I played a set with a bunch of guys and the booking agent there loved it so much he asked us to do a monthly. So we put our heads together and came up with the branding and everything... The basic idea was to create a venue where underground electronic musicians and VJs could come and do their thing in a small community environment. It's hard to find venues for that sort of thing in the city... Seems the city is more geared towards indie rock and house these days. So we're doing our best to help like-minded artists flourish around here. We've had a bunch of great artists come through... everything from producers, DJs, violinists, vocalists, guitarists, etc. We like to foster a kind of overlapping, collaborative enviroment where musicians can meet designers and programmers, and from that... well, things just happen. Everyone's passionate about it. It's been great so far. It seems to me that the networks and ideas that have been created through it are still growing every day. Through the show I met several artists that I still work with on a regular basis. A-ux and Tom Phonic and I are throwing a new party called Out of Sequence at Karma Lounge, also on the LES, every month now. Those are connections that grew through the show, for example. Out of Sequence focuses more on live equipment and reproduction. We're also working with the crew from X in DC to create X in New York, which should kick off this fall if everything goes well. But more on that later... the eggs haven't hatched yet. We're going to be focusing much more on bringing artists from all over the US and elsewhere for that. I want to help give the city the electronic scene that it deserves.

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