MDC Interview#57 " Submerged "

Submerged
https://ohmresistance.bandcamp.com/music
SUBMERGED​ creates turbulent chaos music, grooves which pulsate into offworld dimension codes, basses constructed from synthetic alien growth hormone, and overlaid with atmosphere melacholia.

Beginning his journey in music as a drum & bass DJ in Washington DC, he created the world renowned ​OHM RESISTANCE ​label, which started life as a vinyl-only drum & bass outlet in 1999.

The operation was moved to Brooklyn in 2003, where Submerged began to collaborate with artists from all genres; styles worldwide became a reference point, and source of interwoven languages, recursive toward the infinite.

Collaboration in recordings became a ritual occurrence -

Method of Defiance​, with Bill Laswell, and Toshinori Kondo

The Blood of Heroes​, with Justin Broadrick, End.user, Dr. Israel, and Balázs Pándi

Death Cube K​, with Buckethead

With Kool Keith and Scorn, on the 12” single Distortion

DJing globally from America, to the UK, to Germany, Ukraine, and many European nations, and as far as Kazakhstan and Brazil.

A world traveler who has passed through Portland, Berlin, and now headquarters on the island of Saaremaa, Submerged continues to make music as it speaks to him - exploring tempos and themes beyond Drum N Bass. The noise as format for opposition. The groove as method of inception and then smash it to pieces. A forever defiance, as expressed through sound.

Q. How did "FURY" come to be completed? What is the theme of this album?

FURY is the work I’ve done in the last 11 years since I’ve released a solo album. So much has happened in my life since that record - I went to prison, I got divorced, left the USA, and now I have a daughter…the thematic focus of the album, is anger. It is the primary driver to my personality, and understanding and capturing this FURY, is the central thread of this album. To understand myself, and to find a place to put all this anger at the events of the last 11 years. I’m angry about many things, at the way people used my good nature to manipulate me and cause harm to me for their own gain, and really, at myself for not having the capability to understand what was happening, and allowing my life to go so far off course. It was the FURY that put it back together, and got me to where I am now - which is a much better place.

Q. What artists participated on the album? How did you collaborate on the songs?

My main collaborators were Anne Meiere and Alex Boniwell on vocals, and Caligo on electric viola. Anna was working for Ohm Resistance while we were in Berlin, and she recorded in Flash Tower while we were stationed there. Alex from Leechwoman recorded his vocals in Australia and it was a mail collaboration - the first of the record - those tracks have been waiting to be released for a long time! And finally the real tragedy of this record, so heavy and serious, it needed a whole CD to itself - the electric viola was recorded by Caligo who is my ex-wife, on the last day we ever saw each other, in Portland USA.

Q. What equipment did you use for the album? What is your basic songwriting method?

My main equipment on the record for the faster material, was the TR8 drum machine. I recorded a LOT of drum machine improvisation in Flash Tower Berlin, that became the tracks like Öö, Do You Know What Your Angels Really Look Like, etc…for mixing down, I went really overboard - I bought a Custom Series 75 Neve Console and mixed all analog on the console. I also accented the material with many hardware synthesizers - one of my favorite being the Deckard’s Dream from Black Corporation, and also the ASM Hydrasynth, which I take on tour with me.

I usually just play music to tape and then decide to construct a track around something. My method is very improvisational to start with, and then I will go back to a theme or beat and write a track around that.

Q. Noise is used more on this album than before. What does the sound/method of noise mean to you?

I felt free enough to be able to push the envelope on this record. It had been 11 years, no one had any expectations or any plans based on me making an album, so I just decided to write and compile the tracks I felt that were the most boundary pushing. The noisier, the better!! I really enjoy noise as compositional tool, and the foundations of that are in my years of exploring Japanese artists like Merzbow, Aube, KK Null, MSBR. Noise is composition overload - so much happening that the sound can be sharp as a blade and very confrontational. This is the most extreme way to display FURY as audio - in aggressive and non-standard noise.

Q. Which songs on the album are particularly memorable?

I think my favorite song I’ve ever written is “Do You Know What Your Angels Really Look Like?” 250 BPM of terror, with a fantastic video by skintape!! Also, I’ve always wanted to write a really long song, over 20 minutes, but I never wanted to push it or force it. “Every Sadness Put Away And In Its Place Forever, Even If That Means I’m Dead” came together naturally as a long composition, and I’m super proud of that piece.

Q. I think an important part of this album is your focus on Hard Drum&Bass again. Of course, Hard Drum&Bass is what forms Submerged. It seems to me that you are trying to get back to the early Hard / Dark Drum&Bass on this album, what do you think?

Absolutely - I am using hardware again, using my EMU sampler for the Drum & Bass tracks, I am definitely consciously returning to what I feel was my best sound. Making Drum & Bass that you can still mix into any set, but so heavy that it makes you question whether it is still Drum & Bass or not!

Q. You and Ohm Resistance are a big part of US Drum & Bass. Do you still feel connected to the US Drum & Bass scene?

I’ve been living outside of America for 5 years now, I really don’t feel at all connected to anything that has to do with the US. I feel much more connected to the breakcore and speedcore scenes, the punk and squat scene, than I feel connected to drum & bass at all anymore, and to me it is very liberating. I can make any music I feel and it doesn’t have to follow certain rules to be accepted by my peers. I have always played more shows in the European Underground, since 2003 - in the Baltic Nations, in Ukraine and Poland…these are where my audiences are. I just finished a tour of Spain and the Basque Country, and I felt very well-received for these shows as well.

Q. What was the state of the US Drum & Bass scene when you entered?

I started DJing in 1998, so the US labels that existed then were only Thermal in San Francisco, and Rawkuts in NYC…the Thermal label was making such great experimental dancefloor music at that point…we were one of the first on the east coast to really push hard Drum & Bass; we were just making tracks we wanted to DJ! There wasn’t as much thought process to where we stood at that point. Washington DC area, where I was living at the time, had a vibrant electronic music scene overall, so we started off just trying to break into what was happening in that city. Around that time Buzz was the strongest party happening every week at club Nation, and there were several weekly drum n bass parties - we used to throw a Wednesday night on U St. called Tangent ourselves for a year.

Q. What was the reaction to the "Fallen Heroes" series, "Disciples of the Unreal" at the same time? and was the reaction different in the US, Europe, and the UK?

It was fantastic. I got to do a lot of touring based off of those 12"s as a DJ - we were really grooving in the Drum n Bass world, when we started making the adventurous, hard music, but just barely kept it on the dancefloor...

Q. What early Ohm Resistance's Hard Drum & Bass releases do you feel are the most underrated?

The best stuff that went less discovered, definitely 17K OHM (Submerged + Kain - Vengeance / Temulent - Dysphoria), and maybe 23K OHM Lethal and Khanage - Project X...both are killer 12"s but at the time we were releasing a lot of amazing work, and Servant + Technical Itch remix probably had all the interest at the time rather than these 2 slices, which both RIP!

Q. About "Distortion" with Scorn and Kool Keith. How did this song come about?

First thing that happened was, I had a bass line I was saving for a good beat.

My homie CHEF DEAN (Breaker on Ohm Resistance) was telling me that Kool Keith was looking for collaborators.

I asked Mick Harris if he wanted to get Kool Keith for the next Scorn album, since Jason Williamson, who was on the last Scorn record, and Mick weren't on the same page about doing another track together. Mick said alright cool, let's do it. So I sent him my bassline and he chopped it under his beat.

So we sent his manager the beat and he was down. We gave him the theme of Scorn's album "The Only Place", and he ran with it! We talked a few times together leading up to him recording at Studio G in Brooklyn, and you can hear some bits from our discussions in there, references to saunas and Mediterranean bosses...Keith was one of the most perceptive and easy to work with artists I've had the pleasure of working with, he really utilized a lot of the concepts we discussed in only a short time period! Tony Maimone as the vocal engineer was super helpful as he'd worked with Keith previously. One of my proudest moments, doing that record.

Q. Tell us about the new The Blood of Heroes album. When did you start working on the album? What kind of album is it, and what are The Blood of Heroes' live plans?

During Covid, I was speaking with Mick Harris a lot about how nice it was to have time and space to create more music, and we were working closely together with Scorn during this time period - so it gave me the idea - what if SCORN joined The Blood of Heroes? It would put two of my biggest musical influences together again (Justin K Broadrick and Mick Harris), and add a whole new dimension to the band.

This gave me the opportunity to play more bass and synthesizers, and do less beats. Enduser also played a lot of synthesizers on this record. He reached out to Burton C. Bell, and we got him for 2 tracks - an amazing artist to work with, and he got to be on tracks with Justin as well, which was an important goal for him. It was a great record to connect people from all over the world - and it’s FINALLY coming out. It was a long project, but truly worth it with the end result.

The Blood of Heroes was always meant to be a trilogy per Dr. Israel - so we made it into the Past, Present and Future described in the movie The Blood of Heroes. Nine Cities is the future - what do these cities buried deep underground become? Because at least ONE of them makes it back to the surface, if you listen to Doc’s lyrics!!

Q. You released "Heroes of Snake Island (iди нахуй)" to raise money for Ukraine. How do you feel about the power of music in reality? What do you think music can change?

Music seeks to be its best and most be the motivating, most powerful magic, when it is does sincerely and from the heart. I made this song because I was pissed off that my friends were being invaded over some bullshit, and my friends, people whose families I know and I've spent time with their children, were under attack. I made that track in the early days of the war, and we've sent over $1000 to Razom (charity) just from that track alone. I'm realistic and I know that isn't shit, but it's what I personally could do at the time. It's better to do something small than nothing at all.

Q. You make dark music, but do dark sounds and atmospheres have a negative effect on your body and mind?

Of course they do, I'm very realistic about what you expose yourself to, dictates what you are. For me, the darkness is a tool that I use to motivate, drive harder, not rest easy, it's a reminder of what is always there lurking if you let your guard down and don't stay on your plan. My darkness is real, it's not something I paint or conjure, I'm like a reporter, I've been through some of the darkest places a person can go. I try to capture that in audio and re-purpose it for people to use as their own chaos energy. My Fury = Your Strength.

Q. You have been Submerged for over 20 years. What is your reason for still making music? Have you ever felt betrayed or sought reward for making music?

My reason for still making music is it is part of my self-identity. I’ve always been a musician, a composer, since I was young, and I love doing it. It makes me fulfilled and feel some sense of permanence on earth - I will be gone someday, but I will have a body of work that will hopefully live onwards and be heard long after I’m dead, no matter how obscurely…identity and immortality are my reasons, if you sum it up quickly!

I have grown more and more comfortable over the years with realizing the only race is with yourself in the world, and just me getting better at being me, is the only reward I seek. 

Q. What was the turning point in your musical career?

Definitely when Mick Harris invited me to make drum n bass with him. That was a huge honor, and even if Mick and I fade in and out of getting along or working together over the years, I will never have any less gratitude for him to helping me grow and learn music composition and mixing. The next turning point would be meeting Bill Laswell - another person who had much to teach me about having no limits, and how everything has the possibility to fit together. And finally, being involved with Studio G, and mixing a whole entire record with Tony Maimone, taught me to make the track the best track it can be.

Q. Please tell us about Ohm Resistance's activities in recent years. What are your plans for the label in the future?

We have the Blood of Heroes release coming in less than 2 weeks!! We are super excited about this, to bring this project with all the amazing musicians from Ohm Resistance to the public - Justin K Broadrick, Mick Harris, Dr. Israel, Burton C. Bell, Enduser, and loads more new faces to the label - vocals from Ajamari, Night Sins, Jaymie Rodgers Pollack, Gore, Wreckless life - lyrics in both French and Spanish languages - guest appearances by Gore Tech and Dadub…it’s such a complete trip as an album!

After that, we have the artist from Osaka, Atsushi Izumi with his first album for Ohm Resistance, Schismogenesis - it’s so dark and industrial, just the right blend of blackened noise on top of crushing beats and bass. After that we have 2 great bands from our homeland of Estonia - Forgotten Sunrise, and Pedigree. Both are industrial legends with completely unique sounds. And then looking forward, we have albums from Dadub, and Enduser incoming…so the label is marching forwards with amazing heavy sounds and new faces!

Q. Any last message to our readers?

Just to give power to everyone, and to remind everyone that down-cycles aren’t forever, and that you have the resources within to control or eliminate any problems you may face!

Force + Discipline + Measure = STRENGTH!