As spooky season crests and All Hallow’s Eve is all but upon us, we’ve been trying to take a break from looking at things that immediately ruin our day. No, not cheap costumes, we love those. We’re talking about the usual everyday stuff. We know it’s there, and sometimes, if your goal is to create something from the struggle, you have to know your limits and when to take breaks.
Honestly, it’s more important than ever that people develop this skill as they’re systematically manipulated and steeped into social chaos. But sometimes, all these feelings of course get channeled into singular works of art that don’t just capture the moment, but the power to change it.
Trace Amount comes from a long history of complex music, with time spent in bands like Coarse, Funeral Fires, and Old Wounds, but solo performer Brandon Gallagher puts a laser focus on dystopia itself. Not as a fantasy, but a potential reality and sonic building block for music. There’s many ways to do this of course, but what makes Trace Amount so insidious is that it’s almost like it uses the language and presentation of it’s subject against itself.
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Trace Amount’s new album, FLAGRANT, is a massive amplification of the tensions that makes industrial music so entrancing, but it’s not necessarily designed to make you dance. It almost borders on sound design as Trace Amount is more of an enveloping, evolving takeover of the senses. So perhaps it’s better for something like running, martial arts, or according to Gallagher in the press release, even working out:
“With the threat of civil war or another global virus,” he says, “yeah, you should probably be able to run a mile and then lift yourself up over a fence, because who knows what the fuck is going to happen. My music is designed to be your gym soundtrack.”
After checking out the record, we imagine that Gallagher’s gym as the Totentanz from Cyberpunk 2077 or some kind of course from the Deus Ex franchise where he can practice hacking cameras, disarming robotic dogs with gallium, and creating / installing biomods, and that the songs are just recordings of those sessions. You should just pre-order it here, but if you want to actually know more, you’re in luck because we’re stoked to present this QNA below with Gallagher himself:
FB: After playing in Coarse, Funeral Fires, and Old Wounds, did anything from those projects inform the stretched, non-linear industrial sounds of Trace Amount?
TA: I’ve always been drawn to more metallic, harsh, and just overall brutal sounds and I think all of my
previous bands have had mixes and tones that were harsh leaning. When I started working on Trace
Amount, the “vibe” was already there, but it was more of a journey into sound design, and programming, etc. since I was doing a heavy music project without guitar or real drums.
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FB: What was it like transitioning from playing those kinds of shows live vs what you do now?
TA: I’ve either been a drummer or someone who yells and still kind of plays drums, so I’m always going full throttle. I used to feel guilty about having a Trace Amount live set feel “easy”, harsh noise karaoke or a DJ, so that’s why I built out a live set that has external drum + finger samplers, and FX pedals for vocal feedback, etc.
FB: What are some of the more important production elements you’ve learned about from dub and hip-hop that you bring to TA?
a: Dub is definitely more of a “defined” genre, than say Hip-Hop is as a whole, so from a Hip-Hop perspective, I’ve learned that electronic music can be limitless.
FB: Imagery seems to be a strong component to TA – how did the imagery for FLAGRANT come about? Is imagery for the project something you think about during the creative process or after?
TA: I’ve had this idea for a minute, but I’ve just been trying to find the right way to express it. This fully automated robo life that these tech companies are trying to push on us is getting a little out of hand, and a little frustrating to be honest. I just toured in Texas and there’s tons of Waymo’s who drive worse than people from Philly, and then there’s the little R2D2s that deliver food and clog up the sidewalks while you’re trying to load gear out of the club. One time I saw a “security” robot, patrolling an area, like cmon. Musk has a robot company as well, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing more about that as time goes on. I think it’s one thing all of humanity can kind of come together and agree that it’s fucking stupid.
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FB: You’ve had some great collabs over the years, and they cover a pretty decent range – what do you look for in collaborators?
TA: That’s what I love about Trace Amount. It’s pretty limitless in terms of who I can collaborate with. I’ve had Billy Rymer play drums on a track, I’ve had Orphx remix a track, I’ve had Fatboi Sharif contribute a verse to a track. There’s not just one set type of “collaborator” which is awesome, I can get creative about who and what I think would fit on a track.
FB: As reality gets increasingly dystopian, is it harder or easier to write lyrics based on dystopian projections and fantasy cyber-horror?
TA: Insane and stupid things happen every day, so no, not really. Maybe 10-15 minutes of doom scrolling on twitter and I’ve got a couple starting points, then I just let the poetry flow. Like they say – the horrors persist, but so do I.
FB: There’s a quote in the press release that says the new album was more less intended to be our next gym soundtrack – what track (or tracks) would you say get the most blood pumping from FLAGRANT?
TA: In my humble opinion, the closer track “Boomer Terrorism” has the perfect BPM for bench presses, and it’s by far the most angry track of them all. “Restricted Area” and “Flagrant2” definitely have cardio energy though, so it really depends on what you’re looking for haha.
(Thanks for reading! If you’re looking for more music, check out our Bandcamp compilations here. If you like us, or possibly even love us, donations are always appreciated at the Buy Me A Coffee page here, but if you’re in a generous mood you can also donate to folks like Doctors Without Borders, the PCRF, Charity Water, Kindness Ranch, One Tail at A Time, Canopy Cat Rescue, or Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that could probably use it more – click on their names above to check ‘em out if you’re so inclined. Thanks again!)