Gruntsplatter is the work of one creative force, Scott Candey. His second full-length, "Chronicling The Famine", has recently been released on Relapse imprint Desolation House. Scott's music has a unique way of blending noisy elements into non-abrasive, soothing ambience. No matter what name you put on this style/genre, he is clearly an impressive artist at the forefront of the experimental community.

You seem to be involved in a variety of creative musical outlets ranging from composer to writer to label owner. Can you give a brief overview of all the things you have going on?

Aside from Gruntsplatter, my two primary projects are Crionic Mind Records, and Worm Gear Zine. Both of these started in 1995, and have been going pretty solid since then. Crionic Mind is solely my endeavor, it's an experimental label focusing in introspective dark noise, I'm currently preparing my 12th release, a double CD compilation, that should be out in a month or two. Worm Gear I do with my long time friend Marty Rytkonen. For those that haven't seen it Worm Gear is a full size zine focusing on underground metal, experimental and some of the offshoots of that kind of thing. I oversee the experimental and some of the noise rock/crusty sort of coverage, and Marty oversees the metal side and production. We press 10,000 issues on newsprint, and the zine is free from many places or available from us for postage. In addition Marty and I just started a side label together called Bindrune Recordings that focuses on Black/Dark Metal we are currently preparing our second release due out in the next few weeks. Aside from that stuff I do a fair amount of graphic design for various projects and labels, and have done numerous musical collaborations beyond Gruntsplatter over the years including Blunt Force Trauma, Triage, Umbra, and Circadian and The Black Hands Project are two collaborations that are currently in the works.

A number of these have been years in the making. What aspects of these activities are most rewarding? What keeps you motivated to continue with so many different pursuits?

I actually ask myself those questions on a semi regular basis and am rarely convinced I have the answer. I guess the bottom line is I'm the type of person that goes nuts if I don't have something to do. I feel like I need to always be working on something, and so I have found things that I enjoy and am passionate about to help me do that. I think the most rewarding thing related to the label is the fact that I generally work with relatively unknown or under appreciated projects, and I like that a lot. I like bringing something I feel strongly about forward and watching people get something out of it. There are a lot of projects most people haven't found yet that are doing some of the best work out there, and those are the type of folks I like to support. As far as the magazine goes my motivation is more cyclic, it's a lot of work, and because I have sort of chosen to stay in the background publicly as it relates to the zine I frequently don't hear anything regarding my contributions. So I can have some motivation issues with that, but again, getting in the occasional demo or self release that blows me away is great... getting back an interview with someone that has run with the more personal type of questions we focus on and really done a great, informative interview is also pretty satisfying.

What is it that Gruntsplatter offers you personally and what are you trying to accomplish with it?

It's a release, that's probably the obvious answer, but that's the foundation of it. It's a way of purging myself that is effective, but publicly non specific. I do music that I want to hear and that need is based on emotions and impressions I have of the world. As far as what I want to accomplish, from a "commercial" standpoint I have far surpassed that, my initial goal was just getting something released on CD by someone who didn't know me before hand, and that happened sometime ago. Now I just want to continue producing music that feel is evocative and reflects my own feelings as accurately as I can. Hopefully as I continue more people will come to find my releases, but I don't have any real popularity goals or anything like that. The elements that have always been important to me are sonic depth and emotion. That emotion is open to interpretation depending on who is listening to it, but if the tracks are well crafted I think that some kind of emotion will come through. If there is anything to add to that I'd say it would be to do some kind of soundtrack or score work, I would love to do something for film, even if it ends up being something I shoot myself.

What type of mood/feeling are you trying to convey both sonically and visually with Gruntsplatter?

It depends on what I am focusing on, they are generally the darker side of the emotional spectrum because those are the things that are often least expressed in the real world. It can be as personal as the loss of a loved one, or purity of hate for something to something less internal and more reflective like a interpretation of moment in history, or a passage from a book that struck me in a certain way. Visually I think I try to reflect the music... I see them as being very connected. I generally won't play my music even for acquaintances until the complete release is done with art and everything because it's all the same thing to me. So visually it needs to match the feel of the music, and frequently that means layered, obscure, grimy sorts of visuals because that's where the music is coming from. Architecture and nature in various stages of life are two things that probably strike me the strongest personally.

"Chronicling the Famine" is your 2nd Gruntsplatter album. How do you feel about the evolution up to this point?

Well, I have done a couple of split CD's, and a 7" + cassette as well as a couple other things and numerous compilations, so the evolution has been spread over much more than two releases... I see it more in terms of how I have approached different themes. There is an evolution there, due to more experience, and additional gear that has come and gone, but the way that I work and approach things hasn't really changed... I like the way the sound has developed and playing live helped that a lot as well. I've found a wider variety of sounds which allows more and different types of details to be woven into the tracks. I think all of the releases have their own personality and sound yet still sound like Gruntsplatter... there are differences between them but not dramatic changes.

Gruntsplatter has appeared on a number of compilations that collectively showcase a wide variety of artists/styles. I've felt that your tracks consistently tend to not only fit in, but outshine most of the other music on the releases. Is there something about what you do that defies or transcends borders and genres?

I don't know if that's even for me to say... I never set out to make a certain type of song. I've never really applied any of the terminology to Gruntsplatter, I just call it noise ambient if I have to call it something. I think it incorporates elements of a lot of the different sub-categories with out really sound too much like any one of them. It's not really by design, that's just how I do things. When I do a compilation I look at a couple things before agreeing to it. The first being is there some sort of idea that I can get behind and do something worth doing, and the other is the line up. I look at it the projects involved and think about whether these are the type of projects that attract the same people that might listen to my stuff, or will my being there be exposing people to Gruntsplatter who might not have otherwise bothered. Not that I wouldn't do it in either instance, but if I think it's going to give my stuff a more diverse exposure than that definitely helps convince me. Doing comps has definitely been a good thing for me, and some of the ones that I wondered the most about how my track would be received, given the line up, have turned out to be the most beneficial.

So beyond the composing, writing, and record releasing, what sorts of things are you interested in? What do you like to spend your time (if there's any time leftover!) doing?

I spend most of my time on all of this stuff, but I like to read, watch movies, and hockey... I like to take pictures, and am hoping to start shooting some video soon and that kind of thing. But I don't really go out much, and haven't made much in the way of connections locally... everyone I deal with lives someplace else, so most of my down time is spent at home. And most of my time at home is spent working some project or another.

Do you try to incorporate any of that back in to your art?

I think a lot of the same ideas I put into Gruntsplatter are reflected in the design work I do. I like layers and obscurity and subtlety. Murky textures that reveal their components slowly, and I've come to realize that that same kind of thinking comes through in the design work as well. It's more emotional it's open to greater interpretation etc. There is more space for people to draw their own conclusions. I'd rather let people find their own value in something than tell them this is what they are going to take away from it. Photography is working it's way into my design stuff now, I'm starting to use some of my own photos as elements and hope to continue to do that. If I can get set up with to better handle video these same directions are something I hope to explore in video footage, ultimately I want to start using my own stuff for backgrounds for performance and that kind of thing, financially it's still a ways off yet though.

What does the year 2003 hold for Scott Candey?

At this point, the only sure things are the next wave of releases for Crionic Mind, the first being "Those of The Long Shadows" double CD compilation. The premise is for the artists to do a track based on something that has been influential or inspirational to their own work, basically a tribute to whatever it may be that lead them to do what they do. The line up is quite diverse, with some big names and some smaller names, and I'm really happy with how it's all coming together. After that I'll be doing new records for En Nihil, and Lefthandeddecision, and there are a couple of others I am in the negotiating process with right now. Bindrune Recordings is growing, our second release from Australia's Misery's Omen is due for release before the end of the year, and we think we have our next one settled to, but it's too early to mention. Worm Gear will continue on... Musically I plan to get the Circadian collaboration with Nothing complete, as well as The Black Hands Project, which is a collaboration between myself Chaos As Shelter and Stephen O'Malley of Khanate. There are a couple of Gruntsplatter things in the talks that are smaller releases, and I hope to have a new record finished by the end of 2003, it was two and a half years between "The Death Fires" and "Chronicling The Famine" and that's too long, I want to have the next one ready much sooner than that. Thanks much for the interview, it's appreciated.