After several months of courtship, we managed to contact the mysterious Fog, whose identity remains an enigma. Nevertheless, the Wilmington, Delaware-born artist did not shy away from our questions, which were aimed at investigating even more closely that synthesis of free-improvisation, electroacoustics, sound collage, avant-folk and a 'totalist' taste for sound organisation that reached its climax approximately one year ago in the excellent 'Thirty Three, Recurring', an 'exploration of recurrence' that is also a hymn to creative freedom.
So, finally I get to talk to you! I thought Fog was a ghost - a ghost musician, but still a ghost! All I know about you, besides the fact that you make music, is that you are from Wilmington, the town where the current U.S. president, Joe Biden, had his residence before he entered the White House. So tell me a little bit about yourself, even mentioning your real name! And also tell me about your first steps as a musician.
I prefer to not say my real name as I am a very private person. But I will say that I am 25 years old, and I work in Audacity as my DAW of choice. I love it even though it does have its drawbacks. My first steps as a musician… probably tapping along to Frank Zappa while on long car trips… and that then spiraled out of control into what you see now.
The photo of a woman that stands out on your bandcamp page: I'll associate you with her! Who is she?
She's not a real person, I felt uncomfortable using my face and using someone else's face would be a strange choice too. I like to call her Evangeline after the Angels of Light song.
I find it very fascinating that, in the age of social media and globalisation, there are still people who are very jealous of their identity and privacy (by the way, the choice of the name Fog seems very apt to me, given the foggy nature of your identity)! Abu Lahab comes to mind, for example, but the Moroccan artist has to deal with a reality that cannot accept the anti-Islamist themes of his music... Anyway, I have had the opportunity to interface with elusive and more or less underground artists... but with you… I am almost at degree zero. In any case, I guess your choice of anonymity also reflects a particular view of the world and life in general? Is that so?There's two reasons why.
One: the internet is a dangerous place.
And two: I just don't want to be seen as self important. I've always found that there's a degree of hubris involved with putting your name on something, for the whole world to see. Not that I'm not at least a little bit self centered, and of course I'm proud of what I've made but I prefer not to outwardly show it… If that makes sense.
Your music, especially that of "Thirty Three, Recurring," seems to me to be dominated by a "totalist" taste for sound organization. How much of the ideology of "Totalism" underlies your music?
It isn’t really what I strive to achieve but somehow I always end up there. Totalist music inspires me a lot but I never set out to make something totalist. I guess I just tend to gravitate to that all encompassing sound from acts like Swans and Glenn Branca.
So what exactly do you aim to achieve with your music?
I just make what I like to hear. It's not like I'm trying to conform to rigid genre rules and I've set out to make something totalist. Totalism just seems to happen with my music. I like to make music that is emotionally overwhelming, in a sense.
Which musicians in particular are you inspired by?
I am heavily inspired by La Monte Young, Scott Walker, Glenn Branca and many others. Some may call those artists quite totalist. But I also enjoy the music of those such as Steve Reich, Brian Eno, and Harold Budd. I often present my music as a slight rip off of the work of Paul Dolden too.
Paul Dolden! What fascinates you most about his music? Which of his albums do you like best?
I love how visceral and otherworldly it is. I rate Paul Dolden among the greatest living composers. I am fond of L’ivresse de la Vitesse. It’s music that you can’t find anywhere else.
"Thirty Three, Recurring" is presented as an "exploration of recurrence." Would you like to explain more about this definition? Does it, by any chance, have to do with minimalism? And why specifically "Thirty Three"?
"Thirty Three, Recurring" was created to explore what it means to reiterate, there are many little motifs that repeat across the whole album. Every track has some sort of repetitive quality to it whether it's the prepared piano loop on "Dancer", or the mid track crescendo on "Happy Ending Problem", where various instruments bleat out the same note over and over, each one escalating in tone. As for the name "Thirty Three, Recurring", I thought it sounded intriguing.
"Thirty Three, Recurring" opens with a recitation, in Spanish, of the first verses of the book of Genesis. Where is the recording from and why did you decide to put it at the beginning of the album?
I put it there for pretty obvious reasons, I wanted the album to come into the light as the heavens and the earth did in Genesis. As for where I found the sample, I think it would ruin the mystique if I told. It's quite mundane.
On the album, you collaborated with several musicians, some of whom are also from Europe and Australia! How did you guys work together?
We all met each other on a music forum. One thing led to another and we ended up contributing towards each other's musical endeavors. They are more than just collaborators, I consider them some of my closest friends.
I'd like to give some shout outs if that's okay.
First is Dave, a one man band and one of the most talented people I know. The album wouldn't sound the way it does without him.
Next is CJT, a gifted and prolific artist from Scotland who is currently working on the cover art for my next project. He's been making music longer than any of us.
Zero Point Fool, who while not featured on the album, was instrumental in helping me visualize what I wanted to make.
Neopoliten, someone who's artistic output I deeply admire, and am inspired by. keep an eye out for his next release, from what I've heard of it, he has outdone himself.
And lastly, The Eternal Returns, who is essentially my copilot for the next album. While not heavily featured on it, I've run nearly every track by him for his thoughts
Tell me more about Dave's contribution to the sound of the album... After all, the sound of the tracks on it is one of the album's great strengths!
Dave played many instruments on the album. There's something he's done in almost every interesting moment on the album. for example the guitar licks on "A Brief Foray", are all him. The insane clarinet freakouts on "Esther" and "Of Collatz" - all him. A good third of the percussion was done by him with the other two thirds being me and samples. The album wouldn't be nearly as compelling without him.
"Thirty Three, Recurring" is certainly not and will never be an album that can reach large audiences.... However, I know several fans who were thrilled with it, so much so that they placed it at the top of their 2023 chart (I did the same!). Did you expect this small success?
I certainly did not! I honestly have no idea how you found me, I haven't really been promoting my album much as of late. I really only expected my friends to listen to it and my family to tolerate it. All this new attention is crazy to me.
Satisfy my a curiosity: the title of the first track, "Tall Shadows Of The Wind," is the same as the one given to the English version of "Saye-haye Boland-e Baad," an Iranian, magic-realistic film directed in 1979 by Bahman Farmanara. Is this an accident or a conscious choice?
That was indeed a conscious choice. I saw a clip of it about a year ago and it just grabbed me with how stark yet mythical it seemed. It took long after the release of the album to find a watchable copy of the film but one was uploaded to YouTube a few months ago.
Would you like to go over, a bit, the other stages of your discography, starting with "Basking In It"?
Sure! I don't really have much to say about "Basking In It", it's not really something I'm very proud of, and to be honest I see most of my work prior to Insect is just kinda mediocre with minor glints of promise. "Basking In It" was made in 2½ to 3 years but most of the material came from the last four months of that and it shows. The album had many rewrites just like a bad Hollywood script. The album only took that long due to ineptitude to be honest. I just didn't really know what I was doing and it shows.
You can say the opposite about the self-titled, which was made in a frenzied, suicidal, panic over the course of 6-7 months. The title track was supposed to be a note to my friends and family that I was to depart from this world. Thankfully I replaced it with a tacked-on lazily done sample of a dictaphone message from the 50s or 60s. I generally dislike this album the most out of my discography, not just because of the original purpose of the project, but because it was pretty rushed. I am glad that I got the help I needed.
"Idle Hands" has some pretty cool tracks on it like "Little Lamb", and "Time is Running Out", but it's just a bit same-y. There's a lot of moments on it that feel like filler. I feel like the underlying issue with "Idle Hands" is that it's trying to be more accessible, when that was never the intention of the music, take "Infinite Love" for example: it's a boring slog of a song that meanders to a messy and unsatisfying conclusion. That's basically most of the album except for a few tracks.
"Insect" is the first album of mine that I've actually enjoyed post release. I took heavy inspiration from recordings of religious ceremonies from different tribes from around the world. The project flows beautifully too, I just like how it doesn't waste the listener's time.
You forgot to mention the single EP "Jeweled Throne", completely unbalanced on the side of harsh-noise and which, as far as I'm concerned, is your weakest work so far...
"Jeweled Throne" was made as a joke and I don't consider it part of my main run of albums.
Neil Young used to say that each of his albums was a piece of his autobiography. How does your music reflect, if at all, your existential journey?
A few of the albums I've made take pieces of me with them. Namely the self-titled. I was in a terrible place when I made that project and it shows. The album was rushed to hell and back because of my mental state, and it shows. Some days it feels like making music is the thing that's keeping me alive.
How do your songs usually come about?
There's a lot of spontaneity in how I make music. It's mainly just throwing whatever I can at the wall till it sticks, but most of the time it does not stick. I prefer to use Audacity, it's a very obtuse DAW, but because of its destructive editing you can do things in it that would take many different, complicated steps in other programs. Audacity's got its rough edges sure, but I kinda like that. I'm also a relatively patient person which helps when using a program like this.
I'd love to know which albums from 2023 you liked the most and why…
I really liked the new Sprain album, it's a shame that they broke up. I loved how tense and twisted it is.
I enjoyed "The Beggar" a lot as a die hard Swans fan. It's a gorgeous tableaux of mortality.
"Dogsbody" by Model/Actriz was a lovely surprise and I can't wait to hear more from them. A very impressive debut.
Let's, then, play the usual game: tell me 10 albums that you would take with you to a desert island and also tell me why just those…
La Monte Young - The Well Tuned Piano
It's just all-encompassing in both its beauty and virtuosity. I could talk for hours about this album.
The Angels of Light - How I Loved You
One of the darkest and most emotionally honest country albums I've ever heard, and a serious left turn for Michael Gira.
Glenn Branca - The Ascension
The Holy Grail of no-wave and the finest album of the 1980s.
Lift to Experience - The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads
I'm not really a religious person, but this album is a religious experience.
The Band - Music From Big Pink
It's just so soulful and inviting how could I not pick it.
Scott Walker - The Drift
As nightmarish as it is gorgeous. A must listen.
Pharoah Sanders - Karma
One of my favorite jazz masterpieces. Pure bliss.
Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
It's a bit of an easy pick but I really just adore this album.
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
This album is just so much fun
D'Angelo - Voodoo
The smoothest album ever made.
Are you already working on a new album?
Yes. It's called: "The Fly Circles the Drain as if it were an Orchid Blooming". It is currently 99 minutes and is nearly complete. It will be a bit of a departure from what you've heard on "Thirty Three, Recurring".
I find it a very poetic title... Can you tell us more about the themes around which the album revolves and its sound?
The album is themed around death, and the process of understanding it. What it means to die, or to kill. In these confusing times, life isn't taken for granted, but it seems that death is. Thousands are dying in Gaza right now and I of course feel terrible because of that. But at the end of the day I'm just one person and nothing I can do, and there's no charity I can donate to or protest I could attend that will directly end that suffering. And that suffering is not unique to Gaza either, look at what's happening in Myanmar with the Rohingya, or the genocide of the Uighur people at the hands of the CCP. This album is an observation on the futility of death as well as the process of death, and I hope the sound will reflect that. It's definitely going to be a new direction for me.
I listened to the first single from the album, "May 30, 1431, Rouen, France," and it seems to me that you are getting even closer to the music of Paul Dolden...
Somewhat yes. There are certain tracks on the new album that are very Dolden-esque, some would call them fear inducing, but a lot of the album is also quite calming. "May 30, 1431, Rouen, France" is not one of those calming tracks.
Do you have other projects besides Fog?
No. For a while I've wanted to make a no-wave/punk album but it has eluded me.
