No Age are one of LA’s finest experimental punk bands, and have been making a great noise for almost 15 years. Guitarist Randy Randall has taken that noise to the next level with his recently released Sound Field Vol 1, a series of sonic experiments inspired by the I-10 freeway. Randall is playing a handful of shows to promote this release, and is dropping by Cafe du Nord in San Francisco for 4/20. Tickets are available here
Spinning Platters recently had a chance to chat with Randy. Here’s what we talked about!
Spinning Platters: Sound Field is a bit of a departure from the your previous work with No Age but it is not the first time that you’ve used the medium of music to explore the the visual world. Why do you think that music is an ideal medium to explore visual stimuli either as an accompaniment to some other visual art or as stand alone representation?
Randy Randall: I think sound and moving images provide a chance to re-imagine what the world around feels and present a new way to express how we see the world.
SP: This album is kind of an ode to Los Angeles and its interconnecting freeways. Why did you choose to set your music to this backdrop?
RR: They always say “write what you know…” As a native to Southern California the strange web of endless freeways has provided a backdrop to some of life’s more important moments. I remember being a kid traveling down the 5 to go to the beach with my family. The feeling of falling asleep with sandy feet and sunburned skin as we whip along the freeway will always be part of my childhood memories. As a teenager I would drive the 101 into Hollywood to see live music for the first time. All the excitement of taking part in a new world and flexing my adolescent independence is something that influenced the adult I became, obsessed with playing live music.
SP: Each of the movements on this album are not only given specific locations but specific times of day. What is the relevance of these particular places in time and their relationship together?
RR: For this release I chose to look at the journey from the desert at sunrise and follow the path of the sun west to the ocean, moving through the long swatches of suburban landscape as it slowly becomes the urban center of downtown LA at noon and finally ending at the tourist attraction of the Santa Monica pier. These locations and times provided a background to explore the feeling of moving through different landscapes at different times of the day, showing how they are related and subtly shift as the time moves.
SP: What was the impetus behind going out on your own and creating something that is distinctly different from what No Age fans have come to expect?
RR: I didn’t really think about the difference between this project and the songs we write for No Age records. I feel like No Age has always had a bit of that Brian Eno “ambient” meets “art rock” kind of feel as well as a Black Flag vs My Bloody Valentine vibe. Since I don’t sing or write lyrics for No Age, writing an instrumental piece music is not that far off from what I normally do all the time. Just the tempo slowed way down to glacier speed and the sounds get to breathe and take time to bloom.
SP: There is a film and an “experiential installation” as part of your performance. This doesn’t sound like a typical concert experience. What can people expect to see from you on Saturday night?
RR: For this quick tour with Tim Rutili and Arthur King we all have a video projection element to our sets. My set will be accompanied by the film that I created with photographer/cinematographer Aaron Farley specifically for this project. It will show the scenes of the Southern California freeways that the song titles reference. This will be a special one night only “gotta be there” to experience it kind of night.
SP: Since you are coming to San Francisco on 4/20, is that saying anything about the best mindset for this work? Also, does choosing this date for one of the few live sets of this project therefore encourage people to drive while high?
RR: Ha! It’s been a while since I tried driving after chilling out. It’s probably not a bad idea to take an Uber/Lyft or let a friend drive while you experience your own trip staring out the window. One of the best times I had traveling while stoned was sitting in the back of our tour van while someone else drove us through Italy. I think it was going from Rome to Milan and I smoked a huge joint and put my head phones on and listened to Bob Dylan and The Band and stared out the window giggling to myself. That was fun.
This night is definitely capable of being enhanced if you roll that way. It is also pretty trippy on its own.
