Peter: Your time on The Flenser label has been a fruitful one with As Lost Through Collision garnering much attention and praise. Has your process changed much now that there's a sense of reputation/expectation appendaged to the Sprain name?
Sprain(Alex): The process is constantly evolving, I think that an integral cog of keeping the machine running is change. We tend to not stay occupied with one particular process for too long, I think mostly out of fear of stagnation. Being signed to a label hasn't provided the impetus to change, but it has offered tools and opportunities that make it easier to do so. I do my best to ignore the notion of what is expected of us next because getting caught up in that can be disruptive to the natural flow of work. My philosophy is to do the work to the best of our ability, care for it, release it, and subsequently ignore, to the best of our abilities, the response.
Peter: Your music often leans into slow-burning characteristics while also having the potential to take off into breakneck speed. Does your process change depending on whether you plan to speed up or slow down the material?
Sprain(Alex): The tempo of our music is always dependent on whatever is necessary for the piece in question. We don't map our songs out before writing them, they usually grow organically from a small article of sound then mutate into something deemed worthy of recording. They typically mutate further beyond their recorded versions too, the live songs can sometimes sound very little like the recorded versions. Recordings are just stepping stones for the constantly evolving pieces.
Peter: What are your go-to albums?(albums that you turn to on a regular basis) What makes them your go-to albums?
Sprain(Alex): There are really too many to name, and we all have such wildly different tastes in music. One for me recently has been the record "Revolutionary Pekinese Opera Version 1.28" by this incredible band Ground Zero. I can't listen to that record without being totally blown away every time. Just tons of texture constantly changing at a breakneck speed, it feels like listening to an entire decade of music distilled into an album. Really fantastic! There's other records that are pretty constantly on rotation in our little circle, Alice Coltrane's "World Galaxy" and of course many Swans records...
Peter: Can you name three artists that you have been listening to as of late, or that has inspired your upcoming/latest work?
Sprain(Alex): For me personally, I would have to list, again, the record "Revolutionary Pekinese Opera Version 1.28" by Ground Zero, "Ache Horns" by 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, and "Long Hair in Three Stages" by U.S. Maple. That's just me though, and I'm not sure how much of that has seeped into our new writing, but they've certainly been on repeat.
Peter: Do you find that things outside of music - concepts and ideas, for example - find their way into your output from time to time? If so, are these conscious efforts or things that occur out of nowhere?
Sprain(Alex): Absolutely, but I think they are primarily unconsciously slipping into the work. I mean, it's kind of inevitable right? Your life slips into your work, even if you don't want it to. If you want an example, I suppose I'd say that the music sounds much more desperate, because we are all VERY DESPERATELY trying to make it. Of course there are always other mediums we are influenced by too, literature, film, stupid conversations I'll have with people that inevitably influence me. It's all in there somewhere.
Peter: Catharsis plays a major role in my experience of listening to your material. Do you find the process of creation to be the most rewarding in the sense of emotional release?
Sprain(Alex): Well, it's always rewarding in one way or another. The creative process can be very arduous and defeating sometimes, the opposite of cathartic. Performing is, for the most part, very cathartic, but there's a lot of work that goes into making the music performable at all in the first place, and it's not always fun or gratifying. When it is gratifying and cathartic, it's all worth it.
Peter: And finally, what can your fans expect from you in the near/distant future?
Sprain(Alex): WE ARE WORKING VERY ADAMANTLY ON OUR SECOND FULL LENGTH RELEASE. It should be out next year, if all goes as planned, but we have no real estimation of a release date yet. The ultimate plan is to tour the record extensively, as we did not get to tour the last at all, but for the time being we are just focusing on creating the best possible record we can in these difficult times. I'm particularly excited about the direction of the new music, it feels more holistic and established than previous efforts. I'm feeling confident about it.
