Mono Lisa

How long you been doing this music thing?

I've been recording as Mono Lisa since June 2011. 

How did you get into making the music you make as Mono Lisa?

It started out as an audio diary, and in a way I guess it still is. I would record everything: walks outside, conversations, sounds from outside the window, etc. I was living in Seattle, Wa and didn't know anyone in the city besides the girl I was living with. All I had was too much free time, a synthesizer, and an acoustic guitar. With that lack of equipment I became heavily interested in mixing, so I started making sound collages on audacity.  Later in the year I moved back to Southaven, MS, my home town. My best friend joined the navy, and kindly gave me his samplers because he is really supportive of my work and said I'd be better off with them. 

You seem to have found a good group of similar artists (blithe field etc) to tour with, release with etc, how'd you guys get in touch? 

Spencer and I have been friends since we were around 14-15.  I'm 20 yrs old now. We met on a popular anime forum. Having a similar taste in music, we started swapping recordings and making songs together through AIM messenger, and I eventually moved out to Ohio where we played shows together for awhile...The tour is something we'd always promised to do together, and I'm glad we were able to! 

You recently said you might stop making music under the mono Lisa alias after your upcoming pouple mort release, what's the reasoning behind this?

mono lisa will be over after this album release.

Will you continue to make and release music under different aliases? Of different genres?

hahaha, I have about 20 bandcamps and different aliases already. I'm sure I'll always have different recordings & performances under separate names going on. It's kind of an obsession of mine to have so many outlets.  Plus, I love playing music with others!!

You say you have an obsession with having so many outlets. Is this because you have a need to keep busy or just dig making music so much?

I enjoy playing all types of music, and for awhile I'd have to record everything I played, regardless of genre. for years i had a new bandcamp page up, with halfassed artwork, and jams from the current style I was playing in. I could say it kept me busy, and I love making music, but I have trouble with devoting everything into music because i get reclusive.  currently I'm making conscious efforts to record less and listen more. 

Is the decision to kill off Mono Lisa because you've gone as far as you can with it musically or something else?

interesting you say 'kill off'. i started recording as Mono Lisa to devote all my time into music. literally all my time. I compulsively recorded hours of sound daily, in  fear of losing something "perfect". DW was made in two days, whereas Vision Engineering focused on compositions more diligently over the course of four months.

I'm already looking back at Vision Engineering as an adolescent plea. it's an intense record. 

I saw you did a few tapes of diamond wing, any other plans to release any of your other recordings on tape or vinyl? 

I have a 10" record with Poulpe Mort to be released march3rd 2013. all 500 copies will be pressed on white vinyl. 200 ltd copies will have a pop-up book insert, and excellent artwork my friend Wyatt Grant made. the standard pressings will have work by another artist, who did two covers for it.

..............i wont speak too soon on any other things i'm working on................

How's the 10" going? How does it sounds in comparison to your other releases?

it's been done since october! prepare for distorted guitars, thrashing, organs, organs, organs, and a lot of love!!!

Poulpemort Label 

Soundcloud 

Mono Lisa Bandcamp 

WARM THIGHS AND SLF TAPES

So who is Warm Thighs and how long have you been producing music?

My name is Warm Thighs. More people possibly know me as _lip. 22 pound cat? I make weird beat instrumentals from

time to time and recently I've run a little digi-label called SLF Tapes.

I've not been doing the Warm Thigh's alias very long... Maybe 3-4 months max. It started when I was visiting my ex-girlfriend in Finland. We were coming up with cheesey ass alias/DJ names when she came up with the name DJ Warm Thighs.

That night I couldn't sleep so I ended up making a bunch of tracks on the SP-404 which started the whole Warm Thighs sound.

It's all because of my ex-girlfriend really... The whole sound and conceptually everything I put into Warm Thighs.

No one totally knows about the meaning/motivation behind the music save a few random ass people on soundcloud hahaha! I think my ex was a bit offended I stole her name actually.

SLF Tapes on the otherhand, started maybe one month ago. 1.5 max! Its actually super newish.

It was a spontanious decision, the whole blog and digi-label, despite wanting to run a site like this for a ages.

I started it off with a few Warm Thighs songs... "Warm Thighs 2". I ended up hating the songs but that isn't relevant. I was quite pleased how people responded to contributing and word got around to some cool people.

I got some weird emails as well.

You say some cool people are involved in slf, who in total contributes?
Do you all have equal input or do you decide if shit gets hosted? Are you a media mogul?

Well in reality, I've been managing everything. My homie Exaveyur I call my "Executive Associate" because we have frequent skype "business meetings" about various ideas or plans for SLF. He's asked a few people to contribute as well.

All the artwork, website crap, organisation and just about everything has been under my supervision and doing. Nothing too complicated though, I've just asked people to make a tape, they send me the mp3, I do all the artwork and put it up under SLF tapes and promote it a bit.

I've told a few people I have the ability to do a cassette release and did already invest in a fair amount of blank flat white cassettes, but no one has done enough tracks to fill it all yet haha! Most the people I know make 1 min tracks max anyways...

So far, a lot of people have agreed to contribute, a few people are maybes and I probably can't say who they are...

There's a long list of names in general... The list on the side of the website actually needs updating... I'll say everyone I'm allowed to that are buddies so to say of SLF.

Exaveyur, Culprit, Dpee, Nippletapes, Chushi, cy18291, Jalen, Parkerstewart, Dil Withers, Wednesday, Wodoo Wolcan, 1618, Vxlam... I think that's it, I might be forgetting someone, NOTHING PERSONAL.

Also there's a 100 percent chance someone will contribute under a different name because of... traditional reasons.

So there is hopefully going to be some physical releases at some point. Its a bit of a world wide affair then, was it through soundcloud you found the others? You've all got a similar feel to your stuff, was this just a meeting of like minds or a planned style?

Yeah, maybe...

I'm not a big fan of soundcloud, but it IS how I met all these people and even got my name out.

As to people thinking SLF was all the same person, I'm really alarmed. I've been listening to all these people so much I can tell everyone apart from each other so precisely. All of us can. Most the people I know, we can just immediately know who is who if some cat is trying to hide behind an alias and shit.

I won't lie, I was really careful who I asked regarding SLF. It was originally supposed to be a genre specific label and all SP dirty lofi. A little cave for random tapes and aliases people wanted to throw away and forget about it without giving their name away.

In present time SLF has kinda come to a stop, all of us are busy with life, I think. I'll have SLF in mind, and unlike all the similar projects we've started and tore down like the MAGIC KAMEN collective, I don't want to kill SLF.

I'm still going to do music as Warm Thighs, but SLF will probably be off and on infrequently.

You can check out all the Warm Thighs and other SLF releases on their website and make sure you go and see Warm Thighs supporting Shlohmo at the Green Door Store, Brighton on Feb 1st 2012

SLF Soundcloud
SLF Blog

Sun Glitters

For those that don't know you can you sum it up for them?

My name is Victor Ferreira, I live in Luxembourg and I’ve been performing under the Moniker Sun Glitters since March 2011.

You've had a pretty busy year, with releases and live dates, what's been the highlight so far?

The highlight so far is for sure the Buzz I'm having all around the world in several platforms, it is giving me the chance to live my dream and who knows, maybe it might be a full time job one day ;)


You released a split with halls, how did this come about and any plans for future collaborations?

To be honest, I can't remember exactly how this collab started... But what I do know, is that I discovered halls on his Bandcamp and fell in love with his sound from one listen! He’s a great guy! I had the pleasure of talking with him at the Binnacle Festival in London where we both performed.

The artwork for your releases features your own photography. The imagery fits the music really well, is this done along the same time as recording or once the record is completed?

Thanks for your kind words! It depends, I actually have a large stock of pictures... However, I often choose the picture(s) after the songs are finished.

What have been your favorite releases/New artists this year?

There are a lot! But I really like Burial (Street Halo), Holy Other (With U), Balam Acab (Wander/Wonder), Clams Casino (Instrumentals) and many many more!

What have you planned for the next year?

Playing shows and festivals and looking forward for my new album!

Any chance of a Christmas single?

There are still several projects open and still in process like this tribute to Mazzy Star that should come out for Christmas. It's a project curated by Jaxart Records.
There are some remixes and some collaborations also waiting to be released...

The new Sun Glitters remix EP is now available from his bandcamp page, you can pay what you want, so GET IT!

Website

Bandcamp