Soldout Gets Intimate with Sasha Grey and aTelecine

We talk a lot about Witch House, Fuckcore, Grave Wave, whatever you want to call it.  So when we heard about Todd Pendu's plan to release a record by aTelecine (Pendu Sound/Dais), the musical outlet for Sasha Grey and Pablo St. Francis, and their new band members Anthony Djuan and Ian C, we knew we had to find out more.

aTelecine actually describe their music as "Acousmatic / Tape music / Ambient / Post punk" on their website, Pendu calls it "Mutant soundscapes from a warped and perverted mind" and in our interview they call themselves "discord, drone, demented."  Where, exactly, that falls on the slowed-down witchhouse spectrum isn't really important; in any case, we're big fans of their slushy beauty. 

Apart from the music, we love them because Sasha bucks expectations and their page says things like "Record Label: nice" and "working on new strange things... a double concept record." Yes, please.

Soldout: What music did you listen to growing up? What was the first album you can recall purchasing with your own money?

Sasha Grey: Everything, literally-everyone in my family liked something different. Classic rock, funk, jazz, hip hop, r&b, reggae, industrial, etc. I think the first album I bought was a really bad comp of early Bob Marley tracks, from a discount store, for $1.99. I still have it.

SO: The aTelecine record was released via Pendu, a BK organization/label/etc that's near and dear to us.  How did you come to be affiliated with Pendu?

SG: Through Myspace originally! We had a few cool indie labels courting us for our first ep/record. We connected with Pendu the most, because Todd is so passionate about what he does...and Pendu is more than just a record label...that showed us a lot about their philosophy. 

Pablo St. Francis: Not to mention, he let us work at our own pace. Sasha's other commitments don't always allow for traditional recording days.

SO: aTelecine originally consisted of two members: yourself, and Pablo St. Francis. How did you two meet and come to collaborate?

PSF:  We met in Berlin.

SG: Yep, he liked the KMFDM shirt I was wearing. It was a pretty dank club in Berlin, and he was one of the only people who spoke English. Now we've added two more members-Anthony D'Juan, and Ian C.

PSF: We started making music for fun, recording tape loops here and there.

SG: I never thought we'd actually release the material; we had so much with it we decided to put up a Myspace page with a few demo tracks (and not tell people I was involved). Once we saw people were actually diggin' the music, it slowly evolved from there.

SO: Who would some of your dream collaborators be?

SG: Martin Hannett. 

PSF: Robert Fripp.

Ian C: Angelo Badalamenti

Anthony D'Juan: Cody ChesnuTT

SO: The sound of aTelecine is a lot of things: dark, dreamy, noisy, painful, beautiful. When someone asks you to describe your music, what words do you use?

SG: Honestly, whatever inspires me in the moment. For example, the day we record a song I might say..."today I'm going for a dub vibe." It's (hopefully) constantly evolving. But if someone were to ask me what kind of band it is, I'd say experimental.

PSF: Discord, drone, demented. 

SO: 2010 has been a huge year in terms of popular music moving towards a darker sound, with the rise in popularity of acts like Zola Jesus, SALEM, the entire witch house genre, etc. With the sound of aTelecine fitting squarely in this, why do you think we're being drawn towards darker, lusher music? Are you fan of much of the genre? And, as a female musician making this music, do you have any comments on the recent controversy over CREEP jokingly referring to it as "rape gaze"?

SG: There comes a point where sub-genres in music cease to be underground and they become more culturally accepted. I'd actually like to think Brandon Stosuy deserves some credit for his writings on black metal, etc. He knows who's the real deal, and conversly he knows when to call bands out when they purely use the "genre" as a gimmick. 

I guess I missed the controversy.

SO: What was the last great book you read?

SG: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I've been revisiting it for an upcoming project...which is absolutely unrelated to Blade Runner by the way!

SO: What are you listening to lately?

SG: Agalloch, Swans, The Roots, Depeche Mode.



Update on Dec 27, 2010 by Russ

Sasha's dream collaborator is Martin Hannett. Just imagine that resulting record.