 San Francisco's Jewelled Antler Collective (www.jewelledantler.com) is principally centered around Thuja, whose strange musical voice burrows deep into the Earth. Two of the band's members (Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson) also run the collective's CDR label, which has released a few handfuls of carefully constructed and beautifully executed records that epitomize the great potential in handmade albums. I recently contacted them for an interview, and while Loren sadly couldn't participate, Glenn answered a few questions:
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fakejazz: What prompted you to start Jewelled Antler?
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Glenn Donaldson: Jewelled Antler is a collaboration between myself & Loren Chasse. We play together in Thuja (which predates the label), & when he bought a cd-burner in ‘99, he proposed a cd-r label, a new-fangled concept at that time. Now we have 3 cd-burners between the two of us. The idea was to make albums at our own pace without having to deal with real labels. We realized that with the help of a few great catalogs like Aquarius & Eclipse, we can actually have a nice outlet for our projects.
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How has the label been doing?
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The label is more than we can handle. It’s hard to balance out making the music & making the cd-r’s. Time is an issue.
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Do you foresee making the shift from CDRs to officially manufactured CDs to save time? Or is the volume not quite *that* high?
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We get enough orders for some titles to justify 'real' cd's. But with CD-R's we can release as many albums as we want, without worrying about marketing or making back an investment. We can release a CD-R album simply for the joy of it, without dealing with all the headaches. I also think it's positive to be that close to the object you're selling. I've even hand-delivered a few orders around town! I mean, I made the music & art, burned a CD-R & delivered it by hand to some folks in SF who mail ordered it. One guy was totally shocked when I showed up at his door. Man, that's pre-industrial age type commerce! We're working on weaving some baskets next.
Some wonderful labels have been helping us out by mass producing CD's for us, Emperor Jones, Family Vineyard, Soft Abuse & Last Visible Dog. I think if we do make some CD's on the Jewelled Antler or Pink Skulls labels, they will be by other artists who haven't had much exposure on the CD format.
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Who does the design for the releases?
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Loren & I split that duty. We’re both pretty obsessed with album cover concepts. The art is generally made up of found art, friend art, my collages, & Loren’s amazing nature photos. The design, the music, the band names, the titles, all are equally important. We love the mythology of bands & albums. Each can be it’s own tiny universe in our imaginations. Other artists on the label, like Uton, Dead Raven Choir & Steve Smith, do their own design.
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How do you have time for all of this (the labels, bands, design, etc)? Do you and Loren have day jobs?
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Ha, I've been harassed about this before. Yes, I do actually work part-time for a non-profit that raises money for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, basically all the National Parks in the Bay Area. I used to freelance quite a bit for the weekly paper & magazines, but now I put all my spare time into making music & helping to run the label. Loren works as a permanent substitute teacher/assistant at an elementary school, so he's off work at 3:00. He also sometimes does after school programs taking kids on "sound-hikes" & letting them make field recordings & such.
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Several early releases have gone out of print (Skygreen Leopards, the first Blithe Sons, Glassine, Thuja's "Museum" series, etc). Will these be reissued?
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The first two Skygreen Leopards CD-R’s are getting re-issued on CD by the wonderful Soft Abuse label. He’s also putting out a new Skygreen Leopards CD called One Thousand Bird Ceremony. We’ve had a few people ask about the others, but nothing solid at this point. If any labels are interested, please get in touch. It’s difficult to maintain such a big catalog of handmade things, so we have to stop making certain older titles to make room for new ones.
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Why do the Jewelled Antler catalog #s jump around?
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We started numbering things #1, #2 etc, but then we lost track, started giving two releases the same number on accident & then started giving them random release numbers. It just adds to the confusion.
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What made you decide to start the Library?
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Sheer excess. If anything, we’re prolific. I’d probably put out an album a week, if I didn’t have to work. The creative process gets the dopamine response. We really enjoy what we do. At any given time we have 5 or 6 unreleased albums or partially fulfilled concepts lying around.
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How did Pink Skulls come about?
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I love loud music, punk, psych, noise; I grew up on punk in Southern California. When I moved to Northen California, I played really loud psychedelic rock music in a band called Mirza, really as loud & as energetic as we could manage. Our ears were getting blown-out, the band split up & we abandoned our practice space. Then we formed Thuja & got really quiet playing in Rob’s house on acoustic instruments. We eventually got so quiet that a crackling candle was louder than the whole band at one of our shows. We realized that there wasn’t much difference; we were still having this out-of-body experience. It’s cyclical. I wanted to do some louder stuff again & release music that didn’t quite fit in with what has become the Jewelled Antler-sound, which is generally low volume. Also I wanted to release something by Leaf Yard, a “lost” band I knew in Santa Cruz, early ‘90s. They were truly brilliant, & never released anything.
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You've definitely branched out a lot by releasing bands who are not immediately related to Thuja & co, do you hope to extend even further? If so, what bands would you like to involve?
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Above all else, I’m a huge music fan. The Pink Skulls label is releasing a ton of stuff by artists I dig, Armpit, Prick Decay, CJA, Ashtray Navigations, Anla Courtis of Reynols, Campbell Kneale’s band Sunship, Naturaliste, MCMS & more. Upcoming in the Jewelled Antler Library series are three of my favorite contemporary artists, Kemialliset Ysatvat, Fursaxa & the Muons. I am a huge fan of all of these artists. Of course there’s more Dead Raven Choir on the way, a true maverick. The people that don’t get DRC now will be flipping out over his stuff in 10 years. We’d love to do a Cole Palme CD… I don’t know what else? How about a Blithe Sons/Bjork collaboration? Just thought I’d toss that out there. To Mr. Robert Wyatt: please send us a 3” for our little label.
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What is it that draws you to the Earth for your aesthetic? Why the recurrence of trees?
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This answer could take awhile! I don’t know how far you want me to get into this; I might start getting all esoteric & preach-y. What’s not to love about trees? But we mention “birds” almost as much as trees. Don’t forget about the birds. Pandit Pran Nath said, “walls are stuck; outside, ideas fly in all directions.” It’s not hard to find inspiration when you get outdoors & observe plants, animals & stones & walk on the soil.
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So do you feel your music ends up sounding better when you've created it while surrounded by wilderness and nature, or does it simply make it easier to create while in that setting?
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I like recording outdoors & indoors, both have their merits; we try to incoporate a range of different locations (indoor/outdoor) & different formats, mini-disc/4-track/8-track/computer/hand-held cassette/boombox etc, it all adds texture, space & variety. At the moment, I'd say it's easier to create outdoors! Much easier. Everyone should try it; take your guitars & bells out to the creekside, & sing along with the rushing water. This is not an original idea by any means; this is how all music used to be made (& still is in much of the world). But we also make full use of technology to sculpt the sounds into "albums".
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I heard about a show you played (as Thuja) where you had the stage filled with plants. Is this common for your shows? Do you do it to emulate the "proper" setting, or is it just a nice aesthetic?
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We like to create a little eco-system around us when we do a show. Our last show took place in this backyard filled with loquat trees; squirrels were scurrying around in the canopy stealing loquats. We turned some logs & fallen branches into "harps" & "cellos" using guitar strings, eyehooks & contact mics. They sounded like dying cats & bagpipe drones. We did a performance once called "Pine Cone Temples" where we were surrounded by pine cones which Loren plucked like thumb pianos, & we projected a film of flaming pine cones. Basically it's fun & brings in a theatrical element for the audience. It helps us get in the mood as well. It's nice to make the extra effort with the stage set-up, because we don't jump around very much while we play.
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There are so many different groups in the collective, which share similar members. How do you decide what music will go to which group? Or does the setting dictate the band?
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This part is kind of a mystery. Usually it has to do with who shows up to record that day! All our friends have unique voices & bring different vibes. Maybe Loren will say, “we should do an album like…” or maybe we’ll see a beautiful painting at the flea market & decide that a band/album must be created to suit this painting. Or maybe 3 people go on a camping trip & play music in a cave on the beach & it has a certain feel to it. We follow our whims.
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How much planning (versus improvisation) goes into your average recording session? (I assume it varies from project to project--if that's the case, what projects use which method(s)?)
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Well Thuja & The Franciscan Hobbies are totally improvised, no planning, nothing, just playing music & introducing new instruments & homemade apparatus. We set up a mini-disc, boombox, 4-track or handheld cassette recorder, invite people over to the warehouse or the park & hit “record”. Loren & I then edit the best bits on our computers.
The Blithe Sons (duo of Loren & I) is improvised too, except I might bring a few lyric fragments or a melody I’ve been carrying around in my head. My solo stuff, The Birdtree & the Ivytree, is half songs/half made-up on the spot. Often I turn on the tape & just try to imagine a song happening. & if i'm lucky it might sound decent.
With The Skygreen Leopards, Donovan Quinn & I sit around & drink coffee & talk about Kenneth Patchen or debate the merits of Bob Dylan’s various phases, then we “write” songs, but it’s pretty spontaneous. We leave no time to think about it. We start strumming, maybe jot down a few lyrics, then record it & overdub a few things. We never quite know where it all goes.
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Are you more interested in sounds than songs?
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I love both equally. I think our sounds are songs. Maybe I’m delusional.
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Do any of the Jewelled Antler bands play shows regularly? Any chance of some touring?
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Thuja plays for an audience about every five months, mainly in our warehouse, but we’ve played at clubs & art galleries. The Blithe Sons have played two unofficial shows. There’s always talk of taking this shit on the road, but it’s probably not going to happen. We’re happy playing in the forest or recording & making up new “bands”. Loren does a number of solo gigs of his sound art stuff.
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I get the overall sense that you do all of this purely for the fun and enjoyment of creating and carrying out your ideas. Is this true, or do you have an academic goal you're chasing?
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My dream for doing music comes from when I was in elementary school, discovering all this fucked up music, staring for hours at flyer art, album covers & reading the inserts in albums by bands like The Buzzcocks, The Monkees, Velvet Underground, The Jam, The Fall etc. getting swept up in the sounds & the images & drawing pictures of my own made-up bands & albums, recording weird sounds on tape recorders with friends. Not much has changed for me actually. Discovering punk made me feel ok about doing my own music whether it sounds like 'folk' or 'noise' [or] whatever. The idea of having "talent" is rubbish, I believe that anyone can make beautiful music/art if you have the desire.
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So, what's on the horizon?
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Fading shorelines, dreams, birds, suns…a ton of cd-r's, cd's, 12"'s for different labels & day trips to the park.
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