Background

I first began creating music as part of sound designs for productions of my plays in 2001, mostly because in those early days, the companies who were putting up my shows weren't hiring sound designers. This drove me crazy. Sound has always been a central component of my writing and directing. Out of necessity, I started volunteering even though I didn't exactly know what I was doing. Out of that grew Occurrence, which, in the beginning, consisted of me, an old Blueberry iMac, and a CD Walkman with a bad skip. The name for the "band" came about because I couldn't afford most sound programs. I would download the demo versions and "hijack" the sound out of the computer to a Mini-Disc recorder before the program shut down or started asking me to buy it. Each track was one time occurrence, since there was no way to save what I was doing.

Since then, I have continued to create pieces outside the contexts of plays and it has evolved into its own thing.

In 2006, one of my pieces was named a Finalist for Drunken Boat's PanLiterary Award for Sound (judged by Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky). You can read and listen to all the finalists and winners here.

For the gearheads, current equipment includes: M-Audio Oxygen8 V2 MIDI keyboard, Casio SK-1 mono sampling keyboard, Behringer XENYX1204 FX Mixing Board, iBook, MacBook and iMac (all running Abelton Live, Logic Pro, and other programs), CD players in various states of disrepair, a Dictaphone, Shure SM57 Microphones, KAOSS Pad, Apogee DUET, record player, cassette deck, etc.

The Stairs

I was working on a series of pieces about a childhood memory that haunted me. When I was 8, my grandmother suffered a massive brain aneurism while I was alone with her. I was the last person my grandmother saw and I was the one who had to call an ambulance as I ran around frantically trying to find an adult in her neighborhood on a cold weekday morning. I wanted to create a series of pieces about this memory but wanted to do it without resorting to sounds that somehow reflected her or me. (In many ways, my grandmother introduced me to music since she played the organ religiously.) In 2005, I sent out a letter to a variety of friends and strangers requesting cassettes, CD-Rs and MDs of sounds. (To read the letter, click here.) From that letter, I received, among other things, recordings of a surreptitiously recorded conversation at Au Bon Pain, an acoustic guitar jam session, the sound of rhinoceroses mating, a mariachi band performing in a subway station, and a woman whispering. I manipulated these sounds and created these tracks.

1. everyday i think of killing myself [mp3]
2. stair climb (11:27am) [mp3]
3. what returns always turns [mp3]
4. gazed [mp3]
5. guitar song [mp3]
6. the barrier [mp3]
7. techno davis [mp3]
8. the stairs (age 8) [mp3]
9. goodbye grandmom [mp3]

to download the entire set as a ZIP file, click here.

Recorded and mixed from 2004-2006. Thanks to all the people (known and unknown) who sent me sounds.

The Avon Barksdale

Taking our name from a character from our collective favorite show The Wire, the band has been rehearsing since late 2007. The line-up: Cheney Brand (bass), Jay Breitling (guitar, percussion, vocals), Wayne Feldman (analog electronics, percussion), Jeff Stern (drums, acoustic guitar, voice) and me (voice, electronics, percussion, f/x). Here are some demos (of varying audio quality) of songs we've been working on. All demos recorded at The Icebox (our practice space) in Somerville, MA by Cheney and the rest of the band.

"8bell" is about a dead horse who is also my dead grandmother.

"when you are a person" is about how life is boring and how death is scary.

both of these songs, I wrote lyrics from recordings of instrumental jams and then we collectively structured them into pop (?) songs.

"if you could" was a song i came up with for my play The Happy Sad, and I brought it to the band and turned it into a song.

"untitled" and "ocean drive" are jams from our very first time playing together: of historical significance, though both tracks we've thought about returning to. jay was not at this session.

become our facebook friend.

1. 8bell (5-12-08) [mp3]
2. when you are a person (6-16-08) [mp3]
3. if you could (2-24-08) [mp3]
4. if you could (early attempt) (2-4-08) [mp3]
5. untitled (12-3-07) [mp3]
6. ocean drive (12-3-07) [mp3]

Songs

More song orientated material, sometimes with vocals. "Nurse's Song" was written for 2 Husbands. Two different version without vocals is also included for those who want to listen while reading the script. "Pony" is the song I wrote for a short play Tecmessa, and "Eskimos" is an instrumental piece I wrote for the NYC production of The Private Lives of Eskimos.

1. eskimos (2007) [mp3]
2. nurse's song (vocal disco version/2007) [mp3]
3. nurse's song (instrumental disco version/2007) [mp3]
4. nurse's song (slower instrumental/2007) [mp3]
5. pony (2007) [mp3]
6. signal (2004) [mp3]

Noise

Much to the chagrin of my partner, neighbors, former roommates and ear specialists, I like to listen to music very loudly. One of my favorite music experiences was seeing My Bloody Valentine in 1992 play a D-chord at ear-splitting volume for 20 minutes after having taken a few too many of my allergy pills. When I'm alone at home or on the subway with my iPod, I still like to inflict some damage by cranking up some Wolf Eyes or Merzbow to 11. Here are some noisier offerings, some of which were made for productions of my work. Best heard when played LOUD.

1. empire (live take/2003) [mp3]
2. collapsed (2003) [mp3]
3. first class ticket (2003) [mp3]
4. hero (2001) [mp3]