Drift Net Interview 29th March 2007

Why did you become an artist/musician?

Ricks: We love the process and result of creating new music or artworks, 
drawing influence from our immediate surroundings and things we like.

What's your proudest accomplishment as an artist?

Ricks: To date, it would be our last album, the ghost of things, which received many praises from peers both from the music, the arts and design scene. We put together our photography and songs which influences each other in parallel and packaged it in a mini-accordion photo album.

What are your inspirations/activities you engage in to stimulate your art?

April: Sometimes, non-musical inspirations inspire our music, for example photography, architecture, and product design, which is why we are not content with working solely as musicians. Our dayjobs sees us as designers and photography plays a big role in both our design work and music. A photograph can inspire a certain mood which in turn creates a musical piece. We also often take time off to explore quiet places, be it parks or reservoirs, to capture field recordings and photos of the experience of being there.

What do you feel is the role of technology in your art?

Ricks: I think it is important to get in touch with new technology that can open up new possibilities in our art and music, especially audio/visual element in our live performances and we also design web media or installations that we put up online.It is now possible to create a whole audio and visual experience. But then again, we want to make sure to not allow technology dictate aesthetics and the connection with our audience. The kind of technology we use are the kind that would make our ideas work or would be inspiring for our creative process.

What is your personal relationship to the "blogosphere"? What's your blog address, if you've got one?

Ricks: We've gained alot of support through blogging when we first began, especially through April's Kitchen.daily. blog from back in 2002. That was how people really got to know us, The gap between our art and our daily life has been drawn closer and i guess people can easily make connection to our art this way.

What has this current project meant to you as an artist? Has the creative process been especially interesting? Have you broken any new ground?

Ricks: aspidistrafly is always keen to explore beyond the music scene. Working with music to light and visual response is a first for aspidistrafly and we hope to continue working towards this direction wherever possible. We have been working with the medium of video since we started playing at shows in 2003, and we look forward into this direction for our future installations or shows... Working on live background music for some of the sequences in Drift Net also gave us the liberty to discover negative spaces in sound and to improvise without feeling restrained by a structure.

(Portion of this interview appeared in the event brochure for "Drift Net" by ®TheatreWorks, Singapore)