Torso by Matt Dixon, July '07

Photos by ???

Babi Yar 1 from Unreleased

1. Who/What is Torso?
An insignificant outlet for an insignificant human…but I have been getting some attention lately due to this strange public interest in “noise music” all the sudden. It’ll pass though.

2. How did the project come to be?
The urge to create some sort of personal/ meaningful/ expressive self-release swept over me approx. 4-5 years ago while living in Truro. I had been turned on to the idea of sound experimentation by my close friend Matthew Carroll (whom now lives in Toronto and is doing amazing things with both THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE and his solo sound project GACK). I started by purchasing a cheap handheld tape recorder and began trying my hand at creating very lo-fi soundscapes.

I remember one of my favorite early experiments involved taking a very high-output adapter and hooking it up to an old car sup woofer. Sparks flew and smoke filled the room as I recorded the powerful death of the subwoofer. I wish I could find those early recordings.

After about a year of playing around, I began to get very obsessed with recording and it became something much more important to me than simply experimenting. This was long before I began playing live, and at the time I had no other outlet beyond sound recordings. After months and months of recording in the solitude of my basement, I compiled enough material I was happy with to release a small CD-r. I made about 20 of them and gave them to close friends. No one else was interested at all. It wasn't until quite some time later that Matthew asked me to play one of his Garage shows that I ever considered doing this in a live arena.

3. Where does Torso draw its influences from?
My life in the lonely woodlands of Hilden, Nova Scotia had a lot to do with it. It's a pretty bleak/ depressing place. Due to the painful boredom of the town most of my childhood friends are now total drug addicts whom I separated ties with long ago, so there was really no one nearby for me to spend time with, which influenced me to do this shit.

As for influences on the sound itself, it's hard to say. I listen to all kinds of shit...black metal, doom metal, hardcore, “power violence”, some power electronics stuff, grindcore, etc. Anything to the extremely negative side of things has some sort of influence on me, whether I like it or not.

And, as many people have pointed out to me in the past, I tend to seek out/ focus a lot of my energy on finding, reading, learning about the darkest sides of human nature/ behavior that I can which is possibly the biggest driving force behind "TORSO". I have an obsessive personality and for as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by the dark points of mankind, for which there are many. This whole planet is a fucked up source of inspiration...

4. How did the split with Bill Nelson's Unicorn project come about?
I think it started a few years ago, when I had ordered a bunch of C.D.s from Bill's "Thumbprint Press", and we just sort of kept in contact on and off for quite some time. Then he began selling his "Trogotronic" gear, which brought us closer together through constant communication. His kindness to me was/ is unmatched, so I decided to send him a copy of the TORSO S/T Cd-r that had just been released on DIVORCE RECORDS and he really enjoyed it, so the idea of doing a split release just came very naturally out of that.

Man is the Bastard/ Bastard Noise was the first experimental sound project to ever grace my ears, and I owe those guys a lot for constantly keeping me in awe of their power/ kindness. Unicorn, of course, is equally as beautiful.

5. What do you try to communicate through the lyrics?
I don't know that I try to communicate anything to anyone through my lyrics. TORSO has always been a very selfish project. Everything I do is for my own satisfaction, and everything I write about is not meant to be groundbreaking or enlightening to anyone else but myself.

I am very honoured that some people have enjoyed my work enough that they offer me shows/ want to release material, but that doesn't change the fact that this is an outlet that I created only for myself.

As for what I write about, it mostly comes out of situations I have either read about/ dreamed about/ or just thought up. Much of it also comes from my frustration with living in a disgusting city, call it environmentalism if you want or, being a negative, anti-social hermit who just wants to live in the country-side...I can't still my hatred for city life, and yet it is unavoidable for me at this time. My future holds only the possibility of life in even BIGGER/ more sickening cities, so all of these thoughts get pushed out into my work with TORSO.

Basically I’m just another asshole writing about all the fucked up/ negative shit around me. Who cares?

6. Is it easy for you to go out there and play for of an audience?
It’s very easy. As I stated before, TORSO is very much for my own enjoyment. It is no different when it’s live. When I had my setup in my basement in Hilden, I would play for my own amusement, not to record, not to practice or anything like that, just to hear sound that I enjoy, and to get some frustration/ anxiety out while I do it.

So it isn’t much different when I play live, except it’s a lot louder, so I get more worked up. I never acknowledge the crowd, or look to see how many people are watching. Each set is very personal…it’s very selfish.

7. What's up next for Torso?
I have a few releases/ split releases in the works, including talk of a split release with BASTARD NOISE, time will tell. I am also playing a few shows in August with my new band VENNT across Canada. Torso will also be playing some of these shows. (www.divorcerecords.com for future details. Darcy is in charge of most everything).

8. Final words?
Thanks to Darcy/ Divorce Records for constant fucking friendship and support. He was the first guy to ever offer to release my shit, and he continues to do so. Eternal praise for that. And Matthew Carroll for always igniting my imagination/ excitement and supporting me every step of the way. Hate Projektions forever, brother.

Listen to Torso:
myspace.com/torsodeath

THANKS TO SANDY FOR DOING THIS INTERVIEW
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