Jason Noble

I’ve been listening to your excellent Per Mission release, “Skull Drones,” again. How has that project, which has been roiling and mutating out in the warehouse for more than 15 years, changed over time? Has it responded to your other endeavors?

Thank you very much for the kind word. Per Mission developed as an outlet for music that didn’t fit into current band projects, specifically Rachel’s and Shipping News. The irony being, in both those bands, everybody has a lot of freedom, even making whole songs by themselves or writing scores/arrangements. So it wasn’t frustration or anything – just a feeling of the Per Mission tracks being separate somehow. The biggest change over 15 years is in the work habits, like, I hope I work harder on the Per Mission songs nowadays.

Is there any unifying element or force that has carried the project through the years?

Slowly growing to understand the studio as an instrument. This really applies to the sampler – the primary tool for most of those songs. It’s not that everything goes into the sampler/loops/computer, but the philosophy of cutting apart and assembling songs without a plan is pretty central. Even with guitar pieces, it may start with just distorted fuzz tones and then maybe a chord will come in, but always unplanned and not always drum loops or machine beats. I also love using human voice and narration as musical information. It often requires a sense of just “go in and play” without censoring. I’ve been really lucky ‘cause my bandmates have always helped me with Per Mission when I begged for piano or drum tracks, or a viola line, etc. When someone hands you a piece of their art and says, “Have fun with it,” it’s really liberating. And I feel a weird responsibility not to be overly self-indulgent.

The biggest change in the last year? I’ve been making a new Per Mission album called “Central Elevators” with no sampler at all. It’s all programming inside the laptop, which is really just a test to see if I can teach myself certain programs and write something interesting without the usual bag of tricks – habits, EFX processors, wonky noises.

You’ve always been a big fan of hip-hop and there are some deep, badass grooves on “Skull Drones” which are alternately contorted into compliance by – and other times dictate the movement of – freaky space noises.

Yes, totally. Although you said it better than I can! I think hip-hop is the most significant musical form to happen in the last 30 years – big words, but I feel it! In the early ‘80s, a small group of hyper-creative people started making music out of literally everything they could get their hands on – be it the original AKAI & E-MU samplers or Roland 808s or turntables. While this follows in the footsteps of those awesome tape experiments by William S. Burroughs or Steve Reich or Pink Floyd and the whole dub movement, it was a totally defiant and original act. They said, “I trust my ears; I trust my instincts,” and didn’t require the approval of the music industry or even traditional musical education, not to knock music school at all.

The fact that this underground, low-budget art form took hold of the world’s imagination, forever altering music production, is a good thing in my opinion. I was in high school when Run-DMC, Public Enemy, and De La Soul released their first records. It was a huge revelation for me, but I actually didn’t full “get it” for a few years. My very first recordings were with my pal Greg King, who worked on keyboard and drum machine stuff with me and Jeff [Mueller]. We were lucky to be able to borrow a Fostex 4-track. It was mind blowing. Four tracks! It seemed endless! I do hope that some of my Per Mission material pays homage to the great DJs, but I have no illusions that I’m in their league. Dr. Dre or Terminator X or the RZA have profound compositional instincts and the talent to create timeless beats, like seemingly every day.

Is there a block of offices in your mind-brain where strategy meetings are held between the deep-groove element of your musical creativity, the subtle melodic overlords, and the experimental space exploration department? Or do these organizations/forces share the same operating budget?

I like the phrase “mind-brain.” As I get older, I think less about the divisions in musical style and try to be open to anything. That said, I give more room to Per Mission in 2012 than maybe ever before. Some of that is being physically ill (long story) so often. It’s basically a way to keep working when I can’t handle full band rehearsal and normal touring/traveling for projects. Like, I’ve only played three out of town shows in the last year, but I can make beats every day when I wake up, or have insomnia. Beats are a good midnight companion. The “strategy” meeting is almost always simple: “Do I have anything to say? Any new ideas? Am I being honest? Is this just a repeat of something I’ve made before?” So it’s very similar to our other band dynamics. I will say that doing anything on your own can be lonesome and I crave time in the room with other musicians if I get too lost in “headphoneland” – my catch-all phrase for working on loops, when you look up and three hours have passed without you noticing.

I think the most recent Shipping News release, “One Less Heartless to Fear,” is one of the greatest records that’s ever come out of Louisville. As I’ve told you before, that record not only sounds like a perfect and natural extension of Louisville punk/hardcore from the ‘80s and ‘90s into the 21st century, but also seems to integrate an almost echoed report of Louisville’s influence on indie and post-punk worldwide back into the local fold. First: Does that make sense? Second, and this may be a little rarified: The music that you grew up with in Louisville, and the music that you’ve been a part of creating, has definitely made an impact on the musical conversation outside of Louisville. Do you sense a long arc of a call and response from Louisville? What do you think about it?

Thank you, again. Louisville has such a profound effect on our music that I can’t really imagine it without this town and this community. There’s so much to say, but I hope people who live here now get a chance to really dive into the vast and amazing history of bands here over the last three decades. We’d be lucky if we had just one band as badass as Freakwater or My Morning Jacket or Will Oldham, but we have Slint, Antietam, Liberation Prophecy, Nappy Roots, Metroschifter, Wax Fang, King’s Daughters and Sons, Bastro, Crain, Sandpaper Dolls, Seluah, Kinghorse, and Young Widows, just to name a few. What the hell? That’s madness. If we are allowed to be part of this tradition, then I’m just grateful as all get out. If we do have any reach or influence, it’s because we were taught to be our own band, to believe in our own creativity, not cater to anyone’s tastes but our own. Not in a selfish way, just a dedicated way.

“One Less Heartless to Fear” also contains some of my favorite lyrical moments in recent history. I’m speaking specifically about “Antebellum,” “This Is Not An Exit,” and “The Delicate.” As a lyricist, I’m interested to know how you, the writer, determine what type of prose material is appropriate for a song. Some of the lyrical moments in the songs I just mentioned are so perfectly integrated and balanced into the emotional tones of the songs. How’d you do that?

Shipping News is a very supportive band to be part of. We all encourage whatever music or lyrics that people bring in. We also make every decision as a true four-way democracy, so I actually will totally ask my bandmates about guitar parts and specific text. Both Jeff [Mueller] and Kyle [Crabtree] write lyrics that I really respond to in their material. So, in the songs you mentioned above, like “The Delicate,” I think I wrote narratives that are close to all of our interests. There are many moments where I bring in words and I say, “What do you all think?” and they give honest feedback. I don’t think I’d feel as free to express certain odd thoughts or poetic rambling if they didn’t help me have faith in those choices. I have changed words when they didn’t all work. Like in “Antebellum” I went a little too horror-show and luckily had someone tell me that it was taking some of the strength away, being too fake or “clever.”

The main reason that the words are closely aligned to the song is probably because we all feel OK with instrumental music. If the words are bogus, they get the axe and the public never has to endure them! Sort of joking, but only sort of. Like every other moment of making something, it’s usually just a gut thing, looking at a journal entry or random scrap in a sketchbook. Something will guide you if you’re willing to relax and trust yourself.

Why is Nick Cave so damn good? Do you think Nick Cave and I could be friends?

Oh man. It’s impossible to say. He’s just one of those rare and terrifying humans. I mean, “Tender Prey,” “Kicking Against the Pricks,” and “The Good Son” – few people have one album as good as those, much less a whole catalog. The Birthday Party as well. When Cave was asked if he had any recording gear in his rehearsal studio, where he works with piano and notebook, he replied, “If it’s not worth remembering, it’s not worth recording,” or something like that. Plus, he wrote an amazing novel like “And the Ass Saw the Angel.” Crazy.

Please write a haiku about Alan Moore’s landmark reinterpretation of DC Comics’ “Swamp Thing” series (issues 21-64).

As you know, that one run of issues was truly a life changer for me, so I’m very glad to oblige. I just reread several of the later stories. So, OK, not a true haiku, but fun to give it a shot.

Champion of green

Sent from her side by cruel men

Drawn home by her heart

Or:

Living soul of green,

Friend to demon, tree and flesh.

Traveled stars and earth.

-Joe Manning