DAKOTA HARRINGTON: “I even blended Country, Black Metal, and Shoegaze together in one song”

Could You name Your favorite compositions / albums / collaborations, Ideas that came to mind?

Well I’ve only been in two bands and I’ve performed live with other artists before as a guest and with them on stage as guest musicians during my live sets.

Ultimus was really fun and a mind opening experience to me. Ultimus consisted of talented artists from different musical backgrounds which made Ultimus more unique. Keylee was our vocalist, keyboardist, and pianist at the time and was more of an Alternative Rock, Classic Rock, and sort of R&B based musician. She brought the listener friendly aspects into the band. Daniel is the bassist and is more Jazz, Metal, and Classically based. He really brought in the dynamics and punch to the band. Keylee did that with her vocals and composition as well, but Daniel brought the heaviness to the album. And I was the vocalist as well, but I was also playing guitar, piano, synths, hand percussion, and a lot of weird instruments. I brought in the outlandish stuff.  The kind of stuff no one would think of blending with those genres. But in the end it wasn’t just me. It was the whole band.

At that time, I had been listening to A LOT of “weird” music. Like I had discovered Steven Wilson through Opeth and my mind was blown when I listened to Porcupine Tree’s song: “Arriving Somewhere, but not here” totally changed my view on how Rock and Metal were played. I also discovered Mikael Akerfeldt and Steven Wilson’s band: Storm Corrosion. They had these elements of minimalism which is basically using the aesthetic of “Less is More” and I loved that and applied it to Ultimus. Because I’m not a good guitarist by any means.

But I can play well enough to put a song together and approaching the songwriting process from a minimalist style of songwriting usually works for me. Ultimus was my favorite when it comes to bands I worked with. Because that was the moment where I stopped being closed minded and just started loving all music. But Live. There’s Two live collabs that I loved doing. There was jamming with this improvised Psych Rock band called: TFM. I came on stage and did Vocals. Harsh and Clean. It was cool cause I would use lyrics I was working on, Improvising, just singing melodies, and at one point I even took the first verse from Mark Lanegan’s song “The Gravedigger’s Song” and it fit really well. Then there was my third show playing as The Blakstar Experience and I had brought Joseph Martinez of Obscure Sanity to come up on stage with me and do vocals while I would play the songs I’ve already written. (Which are a really bad-ass band and suggest the people reading this to check them out on YouTube.)

It was really cool, because it was the first time I played as The Blakstar Experience and had a vocalist sing along to the songs (it was more like screaming). But it was also really cool because it was Joseph’s first time playing with anyone else besides his brother Elijah. Him and Elijah have been playing in bands together for a while now and that’s all Joseph has done. So it was great to see him go outside of his comfort zone.

Idea wise? It’s really hard to say. My mind moves at a million miles per hour and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with my own thoughts and ideas. I guess the main ideas behind my music if we’re talking instrumentally is tone, space, and patience. I put A LOT of time into tone. The first Blakstar album took almost a year to write. I would spend so much time on trying to find the perfect sound in my synths and for the effects while I was recording the tracks for the album that it took me FOUR MONTHS to finish writing “Adam’s Score”. It’s one of the hardest songs I’ve ever written and I’ve written others more difficult than that one, but it was still a bitch to finish.

When it comes to space. Timing is everything. You’ve got to make sure that the riff you’re playing is being played in the right place at the right time in the song. It can be a very stressful process. Ultimus had that problem. Same with Volition. We would have to record what we were playing and have to go back and to where we could improve (and there’s always room for improvement). You could be finished with your album and completely happy with the final product, but then you release and listen to it more and say: AH SHIT! I could’ve played that this way or I should’ve played it longer! In the end when it comes to space. You are going to be happy with some of the stuff you did and somewhat displeased with most of it.

But I’m currently happy with my 2 latest albums and have no regrets. Patience is key when I’m writing. I don’t want to rush the process, because it won’t be as good if I took my time with it. And sometimes taking my time with a song could take me from a day to 4 months to complete it. One of my biggest musical influences Scott Walker once said that if you rush an album or song people will be able to tell. I don’t like to rush the process either, because it will suck. Like you have all these artists who release an album year after year. And you can hear the ones who rush the process and the ones who were writing it on their own time. So in conclusion patience is key. Just work on your own time.

John Cage proved that there's no silence. Also, the sound is magic. But, what ends, when there is no sound?

4’33’’ is an excellent piece. Though to some it can be seen as shit if you don’t keep an open mind. There is sound everywhere. I love going outside and listening to different sounds and ambiences. Sometimes I’ll be walking around downtown and I’ll hear a really interesting sound that I’ll wish I could’ve sampled. Or I’ll be at a club and wish that I had recorded it as a field recording. Sometimes I’ll even be at concerts and listen to the crowd talking. It’s very beautiful how sound is present everywhere. Even if you’re sitting in your house alone by yourself in silence there is sound there and every quiet room or the environment alone has its own unique sound. I honestly don’t think that there will ever be true silence.

NASA even proved that there’s sound in interstellar space. So I don’t think anything can end, because sound is technically forever.

But not all sound is art. What is and what is not a Sound Art?

Art is subjective. So sound art could be anything. It’s really a cut and dry answer to a question where people expect a much broader response. But it’s like asking people: What is Body Art? What is Water Art? What is DaDaism? The world of art is so wide that no one would be able to learn everything there is to know about art in their own lifetime. So to be blunt. Anything.

Which Your own albums You value most?

Since 2014 I’ve been releasing music and every album I’ve ever released is a concept album (with the exception of Breaking Ableton). And the first two albums I released revolve around Depression and the effects that they can have on people. Throughout the entire Ultimus album you hear samples of the Ocean.

That’s because I have this saying about Depression and it goes like this: “Depression is like the ocean. The deeper you go the colder it gets. The deeper you go the more pressure there is. The deeper you go the darker it gets. And once you’ve swam too deep you won’t know which way is up. On the first Blakstar album I wanted to explore my more Experimental side. 

On the Ultimus album I didn’t really get to explore that part of me. Since the release of the Ultimus album though I had been listening to bands and artists like Ulver, Sunn O))), Lustmord, Column One, Earth, Swans, Merzbow, Human Larvae, Dawn Tuesday, Scott Walker, The Dead Texan, and Storm Corrosion. All these bands are extremely experimental in their works. And I wanted to make a new Ultimus album, but it wouldn’t be Ultimus if there weren’t other artists working on the album with me. So I just decided to do my own thing. I brought two people on board for this album. Kyle Steenveld played Piano on Dead Texan and Cecilia Hernandez spoke for the verse I had written for Hemlock.

That’s the extent of personnel on the album. Ironically and coincidentally I had been writing Scores for films made by students, but they all had been scrapped by them, because They had told me the tracks were too long. Even though I had written them that way so they could fade out the track when the short ended. I didn’t let them go to waste though I decided to put them on the album I was working on and they fit perfectly. I wanted to tell a story though.

So I had to work around the other songs so that they could fall into each other. It was a long process, but it paid off in the end. The album is called Elegiac Persona and the first three tracks were written around the 1927 Avant-Garde Short Film: “The Love of Zero”. It’s a romantic tragedy, but when you add my music to it. It becomes a horror movie. Just check it out. The music synchronizes with the film pretty well.

The tracks though have multiple concepts behind them and the names themselves tell some of those stories. In the summer after I had finished EP and The Blakstar Experience was playing shows. I tried writing an Ultimus song again, but it didn’t work out. I had written some pieces and was experimenting with Post-Rock and Drone Metal. At one point I considered making those the new Ultimus album, but it wouldn’t be Ultimus it would’ve been me and I’m not Ultimus. I’m just one member. Ultimus is a collective of artist. Not just one person. So I took these tracks and posted them on my Soundcloud page: The Last Factory. The tracks are called Joseppi, Mesa Dreaming, and Mirage. There’s plenty more tracks like them that I had made around that time, but I won’t release them until I feel like they’re ready. So in the wake of failing writing a new Ultimus album. I instead found inspiration for a new album and a new project. That inspiration was my friend Aerial. I met her and her twin sister Shyla at a Beach House concert. Me and Aerial stood by each other at the concert in front of the guard rail and we hungout there and talked about our interests, listening to the crowd, and during the opening act (Jessica Pratt) we talked about the images we were seeing in our head while she and her guitarist (Cylus) played.

Then Beach House finally came on and we were just enjoying the music and jamming out. It was a good time for everyone and after the show we got to meet Victoria Legrand. Victoria was a really great and beautiful person and it was a privilege to meet her. After that night Aerial and I started hanging out. Eventually we got close and were in a relationship that we both (mainly I) weren’t ready for. I was very angry at myself and her. I won’t say why because it’s not my place and I would rather it be that way between Me and Aerial. Although the relationship ended. We had a lot of fun together and a lot of adventures and she inspired me to be more independent and not to anticipate things so much. As time passed I began to listen to more Alternative Rock and EDM genres like Dream Pop, Downtempo, Chillwave, Shoegaze, Avant-Garde Pop. It all just started influencing me and eventually one day I was trying to write a Metal song, but over time that eventually turned into a Pop song I guess. I showed Aerial the song I had written and she loved it.

The song is called: Space Eyes (you can listen to it on my band Space Eyes Soundcloud and Bandcamp). It was the first song in a year that I had written Guitar, Bass, Keys, and Drums! At first I didn’t expect the song to go anywhere, because I had written for fun and for Aerial, and I didn’t plan on making an album with it.

But as time passed I kept writing more songs in correlation with Space Eyes concept and eventually created the album: Unsung Heroin(e).

I’m currently in the process of writing a new Space Eyes album. As well as a Blakstar collaboration album with Dawn Tuesday. So keep your ears to the ground, My Droogs. I don’t put any of my albums above the others, because that’s like being a parent and trying to pick your favorite child. So all of my albums are my favorites.

What do You think about relations between the old art and computer art? Are they compatible?

Yes of course! If there is anything that I've learned from art. It's that when it comes to art there is no such thing as boundaries. If an artist isn't willing to progress at their craft whether they be a Musician, Painter, Sound Sculptor, Sculptor, Sketcher, Writer, Poet, Avant-Garde artist, etc. and move onto other areas to advance then they have built walls that prevent them from progress and have wasted their talents. I blend genres together on all of my albums. I even blended Country, Black Metal, and Shoegaze together in one song and those genres are seen as being incompatible, but I did it and so far people love it. It's just a matter of thinking outside of the box.

What do You think about thousands of neofolk/industrial/ambient/tribal/electroacoustic/avangarde etc. bands/projects? Is it a kind of trend, o just a tendency forwards better music?

There are thousands of bands and artists in the world that are playing that kind of stuff and happen to be one of those people. These genres of music have been going on for a long time now and have been doing so since before I was born. It's definitely not a trend and it's definitely forwarded music. Look at bands like Sunn O))), Ulver, Lustmord, Merzbow, Swans, Burzum, Shining, Bohren & Der Club of Gore. These are just a few bands who've influenced music that fall into some of those categories that have played a major role in influencing some of the biggest artists in music.

What do You know about Lithuania? What Lithuanian and foreign musicians do You value most?

I only know about Lithuania through Marko Ramius from the film and novel: "The Hunt for Red October". I sadly don't know of any Lithuanian Musicians.

We don't have them. It's a strict country without music. (Silence.) Did i say it aloud?

Anyway, you are a multi-instrumentalist. What do You think about field recordings?

I've been using field recordings a lot lately for my collab album with Dawn Tuesday. I think they're great and really help fill in the empty space and add character to the songs. If you grab some headphones and listen closely. You can hear field recordings that I used in my tracks Goshen, Elder Wolf, Joseppi, and Sweden.

Sometimes I'll sample people walking and talking in the streets for an hour. Sometimes my friends will E-Mail me found sounds or field recordings they aren't using. I have a friend in Switzerland who recorded a bell ringing and I haven't found a place for it yet. Another one of my friends sent me a field recording of traffic in New York as he was hanging out in his friend’s apartment. I also have a field recording of a train going by in Downtown Tulsa that I have used on a couple of my tracks. I was influenced by Bass Communion, Pierre Schaefer, Noam Faingold to start using field recordings in my music.

If it honestly wasn't for my teacher Noam, I probably wouldn't have used field recordings in my music or even known what Musique Concrète was. Up to now I'm very happy with where I am musically and I can't wait for the next adventure in music.

Links:

https://soundcloud.com/the-last-factory
https://www.facebook.com/ultimusoffical
https://www.facebook.com/blakstarexperienced
https://ultimus.bandcamp.com/album/heavy
http://theblakstarexperience.bandcamp.com/
https://spaceeyes.bandcamp.com/album/unsung-heroin-e

Ultimus has never played a live show and there are no videos from The Blakstar Experience show.