Sonic Boom/Spectrum, Stockholm 2010. © Carl A
Pete Kember, a.k.a. Sonic Boom, was once a member of seminal and highly influential dronerockers Spacemen 3. Since 1990, he has focussed his musical output mainly through the project Spectrum and sidetripping collaborations like "Experimental Audio Reasearch" (EAR). No matter what, Kember is always a thorough sonic explorer, looking for the perfect miminalistic groove that sets the mind at ease – or on edge. Before a concert in Stockholm in October 2010, I had the pleasant experience of sitting down and talking to him.
The way that you work, and I’m thinking mostly of the recording, do you have very set ideas or concepts, or do you allow it to flow when it’s time to record?
I don’t improvise in a live way when I’m recording. I usually have a fixed sort of skeleton, and elements I want to put down, like keyboard parts, guitar and things. I’ll try anything that comes to mind. Usually I record a lot of stuff and then work out which things are the most important elements and then lose the rest. If I record 20 parts but think I can get the mood over most succinctly with just four or five of them, then I’ll do that. I don’t pretend to be as succinct as Kraftwerk. When you listen to their records you really hear the work of four people. You just need four people to do it and no more. They all very much know their sound range. I always find with the Kraftwerk-records that there are four-five elements and they fill the sound range in a very clever, succinct way. I try to have a similar set of discipline but I like to record a lot of stuff first and then see. Sometimes things which you try as well, they don’t work out the way you want, but sometimes it’s better. I like the surprises as well.
Has it happened that you’ve become disappointed half-way through a project?
No, never. It can happen with a particular song. If I record and get to a point and think it doesn’t work, or if I don’t like the way it turns out… Some of the songs I have very specific ideas for. I go to record it and have an idea that it’ll work out if I record it this way. For example, I have a song called ”The end”. It’s a six note arpeggio. I thought that if I had six layers of the same notes going back and forth, but each time it starts one note later, then it should just be a six note chord, constantly. Because all the bits are there all the time, but it shifts. But actually your ear is the most impossible thing to deceive. What I tried to do with that song didn’t work out. What came out of it, I really liked. I like the aural illusion it created.
In terms of inspiration, the step before something formulates… Where do you think that comes from? Both in terms of music and lyrics?
Moods and feelings is the only way I can put it really. Certain songs are written in a certain mood. I find something I find satisfying or that works for me, and then it grows out of that… What was the question again?
The essence of inspiration.
Oh yeah. It’s often things like drugs or love or loss. Strong emotions make it easier to write strong songs, usually.
”Taking drugs to make music to take drugs to”… A circular movement?
Yeah, it is, and intentionally so, because we were very much using music in that way ourselves, as an adjunct to different experiments. We wanted to try and tailor what we were doing to work well in that way.
That’s almost a scientific manner.
We used to write stuff and rehearse and often be happy with it. But we were never totally happy until we had put it through the psychedelic test. To know that it actually worked. We were very happy to find that it did work like we hoped it would.
I know quite well your musical influences and background. But if we go further back, can you remember some musical imprint that affected you?
Oh yeah. Washing machines, refridgerators, air planes. You don’t hear it so much now, but the reason I picked the name ”Sonic Boom” was that I loved that sound. Of course, now it’s illegal to make this sound. Maybe the military can do it. It used to be quite a common aural phenomenon. Lawnmowers as well. In England, where everyone has their lawns. If the sun comes out for a day, you can just hear all those mowers.
That sounds like an imprint for the EAR project specifically. It stuck with you.
It did. The other thing was that I liked very simple minimal one-two chord things. I worked out that nearly all the songs I liked most by other people very cleverly used very simple chords, just two sometimes, to the point where you didn’t actually realise it. The music worked so well. When I worked all that out, it was a Eureka moment. I thought it all added up and that it could flow.
Are you hearing any music today that affects you in the same way?
One of the most recent things I’ve liked is Panda Bear, the guy from Animal Collective. It’s very hypnotic music. He uses different kinds of rhythms and more exotic sounds. It achieves a very similar aim. There’s a guy from New York called Cheval Sombre. He’s really, really good. I’ve worked with him on some stuff as well. He works in a very minimal way but it has a bit more roots to it, more blues. It’s got a closer relationship to the blues. Those are two of the most recent people I can think of.
Do you have in mind to convey a specific feeling to the audience? Something you want them to experience and that you work hard to achieve?
I suppose so, but it’s so different, the atmosphere in every room and from every audience. Often, the audience brings more to it than we do. Or maybe the audience can have more influence on us than we can on them. At least as much. The right set of audience can really change a gig. It shouldn’t have to work like that but for some reason it does.
Is there one concert or experience that’s been more special and memorable than others for you?
It’s hard for me to think of it like that, because the discipline and energy it takes to get that music working on stage means that we can’t experience it in the same way as the audience. When you’re playing something you can’t just go with it. You can’t be taken on the same journey because you’re having to direct and drive the train. I don’t really get that same experience. We have a lot of shows that are really fun but it’s really hard to work out something that guarantees it. It’s hard to have restrictions to make sure that it’s always like that.
What do you prefer? Recording or playing live?
Recording is a little bit easier because you don’t have to be traveling, and all the complications that are involved with that. They’re both different disciplines and I’m really glad to stop doing one and start doing the other and keep things changing and fresh and interesting. I like them both a lot, for different reasons.
Are you more of a control freak than a random-chance-man?
A mixture of both. I’m a total control freak. But when things are going well, we have spaces to let it go. I can let certain songs run longer according to the sound. If everything’s sounding really good, then I’ll do longer versions of the song. There’s room for them to be stretched out, quite a lot of them, if we want to.
In terms of collaborations, with Spectrum or EAR, do you always have to like the band or person or can you simply see it as a challenge to be able to create something completely and really new?
I have always liked the people and the music I’ve collaborated with. I can’t imagine it in any other way, really. Especially if you’re working in the flesh together. Maybe if its something through the mail it wouldn’t really matter. I think it’s important that both have an equal understanding of each other’s aims.
You’ve been doing Spectrum for 20 years now. Can you see yourself doing this in another 20 years?
Just a little slower, I guess. Less often.
All you have to do is crank up the volume even more.
(Laughs) Everyone will have hearing aids. I think I’m beyond retraining for other work.
Have you ever felt tempted to do something completely different?
Sometimes I get really sick of what I do, like everyone does with their job. That’s why I like that then I can go and work with someone else on their record and help them do what they want to do rather than what I want to do. That difference makes it bearable. Doing all these different projects. The difference between live and studio work, even though it’s a fairly repetitive cycle, just trying to keep it as interesting as possible. All jobs have their downside. But I do have a good job.
Did you ever get any feedback from Charlie Manson regarding your cover of ”Mechanical Man”?
(Laughs) No, I don’t think so. I don’t think they’ll ever let him out. It would be funny though and probably a little scary. I hope he likes it! I didn’t change the lyrics!
Is the psychedelic experience still important for you in terms of finding new inspiration and new ways of working?
Yes, it is. Psychedelics isn’t something you can do every day. Also, there’s a difference between, for instance, DMT and mushrooms, and the inspiration from them is very different. Most of the drugs I do recreationally are less extreme. I smoke pretty strong weed most of the time. Some people find it quite psychedelic. I guess it is psychedelic in a way.
Are you also interested in the politics of psychedelics? Like the upcoming vote in California about possibly legalising marijuana.
Yeah, I am interested. If it happens in California, it can spread in America. If it happens in America, it can happen in the rest of the world. America has been the policeman for everyone else, telling everyone else that they shouldn’t do it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
I think I read in an old interview with you that ”it’s all about the money anyway”…
I think it’s been the largest cash crop in America for a long time. It seems crazy that alcohol should be available but weed isn’t. Especially with the tax revenue they could make from it. The illegal money goes into financing all sorts of strange crime. If you can take drugs out of the hands of criminals to start with, I think that’s a good move. They’ll ID you to see if you can have a drink in a bar in the States. But I’ve never come across a heroin or crack dealer who asked for an ID.
I think there’s a dark element in basically all of your music, in all of the constellations. You said before that the music stems from your emotions. And then you make music that in turn affects you emotionally. Does it become like a perpeteuum mobile, an ”eternal machine”?
I guess that’s how it works. I mean, I don’t get up every day and feel like part of a machine that’s doing that, but that is basically what’s happening. I’m permanently refining a perspective and also checking what I’m able to do. Other people that you work with can bring in stuff too… Whenever you’re working with someone, they’ll always bring stuff in that you would never have thought of. It’s often better than things that you might have thought of. It’s also very easy to sack them and fire them. (laughs)
What about Swedish music? Is there something from Sweden that you’ve heard and enjoyed?
I guess the only Swedish artist I’ve come across is through Lee Hazlewood, and that’s Ann Margret. That’s about the best I can tell you. By the way, do Psilocybin mushrooms grow in Sweden?
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