Some time in the near distant recent faraway past we were able to catch up to Aaron Funk of Venetian Snares for a little interview. If you don’t know who he is, you should discover who he is and listen to some of his music. Funk, who is from Canada, has a passion, or maybe an addiction, for creating a prolific amount of mind-blowing electronic music and is a brilliant composer.
We were able to drag him away from making music long enough to answer some of our questions, some serious, and some seriously stupid. But he played along and gave us a little glimpse into his world.
Interview by Dave Senecal and Peggy Mintun
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How has your time in Budapest been? How has it influenced your music?
I left Budapest. my time there was good, I enjoyed fucking my girlfriend everyday and seeing her beautiful smile shining at me.
I had some very nice times there, also some very dark days. I miss it, perhaps I will go back. I wrote alot of really hyperactive rave tunes
there when I was happy. I wrote a tune about my favorite Don Pepe pizza and my favorite piece of sushi. I wrote some string quartets in darker times.
got to see alot of good music performed there, alot of Bartok, they are very proud of Bartok Bela there so there is no shortage of his work performed.
saw a great performance of Stravinky’s Petrushka, puppets and all on my birthday. Budapest is a pretty inspiring place.
You’ve been called one of the most prolific artists around. Is this by design or more just a natural result of something that happens naturally?
I think I’m so prolific because left to my own devices, all I will do is write music, from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep. if I am not doing music I am seriously fucked up,
like right now, I am answering this instead of doing music.
Would you say that originating in Canada has provided any advantage or disadvantage to your work?
Coming from Canada, specifically Winnipeg has been a real advantage because whatever you do, nobody is gonna like it. so you can either try and pander
to those people and imitate something that comes from outside of here that the people enjoy, or take my route and fuck them all off, doing something they can’t
stomach. I think there are people here now that like what I do, but that’s probably a result of people elsewhere liking it, giving them the OK that they can like it.
coming from Winnipeg has been really alienating, for one nobody wants to hear my shit and two there is nothing to do here, so it gave me a real freedom to create my own
world and explore that. I grew up here a pretty lonely kid, didn’t have any siblings in my house so I really got in touch with my imagination, learned to make my own fun.
I still don’t ever get bored, no matter where I am.
What styles of visual art do you like?
I like stickers, stickers are neato. I especially like scratch and sniff stickers, I have a really good root beer one, if you scratch it and close your eyes you
would swear there is a tall glass of cold bubbling root beer just waiting for you to drink it!
How have you been using the internet as creative medium? Have you collaborated with anyone online yet?
One of my first records was a collaboration over the internet with Speedranch ‘Making Orange Things’. He would scream into his
computer then send the recordings to me and I would make tunes out of it. was wicked fun! I remember thinking this guy is like
some demented analog synth, like a human modular. have done some music in the past with Otto Von Schirach over the internet,
those were really destructive, completely obliterating what each other did each time haha! I do Renoise tunes lately with my friend. I’m not gonna say who that is cuz IDM kids will pee in their pants. We do a bit on it then upload it and send it back, keep going like that. have done some really crazy shit so far, sounds like shit from 2073.
6.
I read you are a big David Lynch fan. Which of his movies do you like the best?
I am a big David Cronenberg fan too! my favorite Cronenberg film is Dead Ringers, the one where Jeremy Irons plays twin
brother gynaecologists, incredible! I always wonder why some Davids shorten it to Dave. what are the implications of this?
some other Davids and Daves I enjoy are Dave Smith, David Wright, Super Dave Osbourne and Larry David. I’m not sure Larry David counts cuz
it’s his surname but he is friends with Super Dave on TV so I think it’s ok.
How many cats do you have? Do you own them, or do they own you?
I have 4 cats right now, Bobo, Fluff Master, Kakarookee and Beverly. we don’t think of things in terms of
ownership, we are beyond that. Bobo is on a diet right now, he is really obese.
Okay, we have to ask the name question…is it true…your name really is….Aaron?
My name is actually Oswald, I am ghost writing this for Aaron who is in fact dead.
As you know, Ology means, the study of… what is your OLOGY?
Well I am not a musicologist, I hate those dicks. I’m gonna go with Gestalt psychologist.
View Video - “Szamár Madár”
Photographs courtesy of Venetian Snares. Visit his site here
