exploring i\d: when improv means to keep improving

by Mark Wong

Photos by I\D

Looking like a who’s who in Singapore’s small but growing scene of improvisational and experimental music practitioners, I \ D is like a gobble of spittum in the face of melody, harmony and pop structures. Heavily indebted to obscure Japanese avant noise, kaleidoscopic krautrock and metal that’s blacker than your 70-cent kopi-O, I \ D is setting the local gig circuit ablaze in a flash of white light, white heat and no wave fury. We manage to pin down drummer HaroldSeah, Shark Fung and Joseph (barely) from the eight-strong “supergroup” to probe a little into their collective’s consciousness.

What in Freud's name does I \ D mean?

Shark : All Singaporeans should have one copy.

Harold :(I’m) not sure about subliminal advertising, but one can consider allusions to ‘identity’ and the ‘id’ which I find also somehow connected to the idea of improvisation in music. Though in reality, the ‘I’ refers to our bassist Ian Woo and ‘D’ for David the guitarist. Hahaha…

How was I \ D formed? Was there any kind of an objective in mind?

Harold :The so-called first movers were myself, Joseph, Shark and Weinan, the latter two of Engineered Beautiful Blood. Jo and I have always been fans of Engineered Beautiful Blood’s no-wave-noise-improv and the fact that they had this amazing ability to generate serious noise so we figured (it) would be great to get together and knock out even more wretched rubbish!

The first 2 sessions we did in 2005 featured George and Evan separately. By the 3 rd one in 2006, we got Ian and David on board and that’s how the damn name came about. Shark (who recorded all the sessions) passed around the results and marked on the CDR sleeve precisely that: ‘I \ D’. I thought it looked great as a name. Easy to intellectualize after that fact right?

In all, it’s a pretty open thing so we’re open to working with different configurations and other people.

Shark : (The objective’s) enduring all creation.

How far do you hope to see I \ D go? What are the limitations that you face in achieving that?

Shark : As far as our health permit.

Harold :Not pushing.(We’ll be) just playing till the day we get sick of it.

Could you please explain your album title, ELITE. kVlt. Irrevocably tr00?

Harold :That’s my personal homage to all the almighty warblackgrind gods Revenge, our very own mighty Impiety (for the sheer sick-ass belief in the face of stinking apathy and stupidity) and to black metal in general. My life would never have been the same without such beautifully misanthropic monomaniacal bloodyminded-ness. Oh, such a difference it has made eh?

The song titles namedrop psych freaks Acid Mothers Temple and electro-improv powerhouse Supersilent, some of the more popular characters in the experimental and improvisational circuit. What's your intention in referencing them?

Shark : (I) don’t know, but I like ‘Filigree’.

Harold :Heheheh, I do honestly feel that those tracks kinda captured the spirit of these great great artists not that I dare to say we sound like them. More like totally fucked up homages.

You've got a track titled "How Can The World Be Free When Assholes Are King?" What're the politics of the band/collective?

Shark : I don’t mind being an asshole if I can be king. At least, I am free playing in I \ D.

Harold :That was such a great line I got off the Lioncitydiy forum. I just love picking up these hilariously spot-on lines and remarks. So far, there’re no politics but neither is it a commie communal farm too. Hehehe. It’s a gathering of FREE MEN!!! No egos (please, what for?), no hidden agendas, just rock n roll.

There's no mention of the personnel in the album liner. Could you tell me who was involved? Why the secrecy?

Shark : Can. I can tell you: Harold, Joseph, Weinan, Shark, Evan, George, David, Ian… Where is the angmoh (Hokkien for Caucasian)?! Where is the chink?! Ain’t we globalizzzzzing? BUY lah! When (has) art become a commodity?! Ha... Fuck Chinese art. Do you have a secret? I do.

Harold :Too many nondescript men in their 30s for anyone to give a toss about, honestly! Sorry, all except for one. Evan is God. (Ed: Ahem.)

Musically, it’s all basically stuff we had on hand in the studio, some contact mics and some spastic toys that Joseph brought along, like this baby rattle you hear on some tracks.

How was the album recorded? Can you elaborate on the process?

Shark : (It was done) mainly on a Mac with Digidesign. Fucking cool Americunt product, I must confess. (Took us) 2 years to finish basically.

Harold :That was the mixing and editing bit lah. Shark basically set up 1 to 2 mics, an M-box and the Mac. The rest is just rock n fookin roll. Shark did all the editing and mixing thereafter and thus, the curating. Because we’re talking more than 6 hours worth of recorded stuff! He did a pretty awesome job.

Any memorable moments during that process?

Shark : Yup, there is this demonic chick. I wish I could give it to her. Anyway, she will be always in my mind for future use.

Harold :Now I know why you play drums in that strange shambolic yet motorik manner, and you always look distracted! Hahahah, when you improv, the best bits are always when we all just somehow connect at a certain point and there truly is a good conversation going. But the conversation has been really good and fun so far.

What does “improv” mean to you?

Shark : Keep improving and changing.

Harold :Generating momentum, harnessing and unleashing it at the right time. All this while constantly listening and empathizing with your fellow musicians - all I learnt from and was inspired by the Supersilent 7 DVD. To me that is the true power of improv.

You've played quite a few gigs. How did those go?

Shark : Wonderful. Thanks to all our fans!

Harold :Our first show at Pitch Black saw about 10 paying attendees and the audience included the cream of the Singapore avant garde. So my frigging balls were shriveling up but it went pretty well. I think we ended up with a more jazz-rock vibe! The second one at Home Club was way noisy, not that we really meant it that way. My enduring memory is of a guy staring at us with beer in hand, mouth agape. Oh yes, we are shock rock indeed!

Who is your audience?

Shark : Too many, I don't really know. (I) wish we (had) a manager.

Harold :Yeah, (being able to count them with) one hand is a lot - anyone who likes fingernails across (a) chalkboard, I suppose. Hehe. Or anyone who likes Sonic Youth’s worst moments, horrible early 90s Pigfuck records on Amphetamine Reptile label. Honestly though, we’re a very, very mild and polite experience.

I've noticed that there're copies of the album selling in Joe Kidd's shop in Kuala Lumpur. Any idea how those are doing?

Joseph :I think we definitely have supporters up north.

Harold : Joe said out of the 10 I threw at him, [he’s] sold 2. So, yay! Then my friend Yin from Orient Occident Mailorder sold 1 more. If this keeps up we’ll be serious rivals to Klangmutationen. Hahaha!

Harold, you've been persistently proclaiming 2007 as the year of noise in Singapore in your Flux-Us blog postings. What do you mean by that and what sort of repercussions are resulting from that?

Joseph : Can’t people see everyone is using/ hitching/ piggybagging on the word ‘noise’? By the way, there is already an annual noise festival in New York City which has been a sell-out 3 day fest since 2004 or 2005: No Fun Festival, Noise On!. (There have been) releases of crucial noise/ power electronics/ industrial/ free jazz/ noise rock albums all over the world since 2 years ago. What the @#% are Singaporeans waiting for since we love to jump on the bandwagon for everything (else)!?

Harold :Hahaha, it’s not my business to go around telling people whether or not they truly are ‘noise’. (Look at) the number of gigs with ‘noise’ artists, the Our Coalition thing at The Substation having a discussion on noise (which Joseph attended) and our personal interest in noise. This is the only genre that has come up with anything truly exciting this past year. Look out for Jo’s piece on da noize in coming weeks.

I truly wish there could be some repercussions ‘cause that’s what evil satanic rock’n’roll noise is all about. But this being Singapore (is) all too Singapore...