Hello Scott,i suppose we should start with the new album,i was quite pleasently surprised to hear,while being on a whole more minimal, how much thicker in sound it turned out to be. Was this a natural progression that you happened upon this direction or a concious move to include a denser sound and slower more suspenseful builds?

What I was trying to do with the material on the split with Slowvent was basically force myself to stay more minimal. Everytime I try and do something in a more minimalistic or in a Dark Ambient vein I listen back to it and think about all these things I could add, and it ends up not being very minimal. I think that I achieved that in a fairly small way with the stuff on that split, but in trying to focus on those elements and keep it more stripped down it kept a lot of the foundation stuff that was always there from getting obscured. I did bring the in some subtle keyboard sounds more with this one, and I like the way it augments the atmosphere so I plan to continue doing some of that. I was nervous about the reactions the more straight forward approach would get because the previous release, had gotten some real encouraging feedback, but it had alot more going on, but with very few exceptions the reaction to this material has been even better. I really wasn't expecting that. I've always tried to make density a focal point with Gruntsplatter, I really like projects that use lots of different sounds, so a track will sound different depending on your mood, or what you choose to focus on in a particular listen. That element will always be there I think, or I will at least have it in mind when recording.

I've noticed that you have some very interesting titles for your compositions,do you come up with these in advance,then build the piece around that train ov thought, or are they titled upon completion, after the feel ov the track has been completely established?

Some of both actually, a few of them are from things I've read, phrases that stand out as being really evocative. Others I come up with after listening to the track a few times. Generally in these instances I just put on the headphones and repeat the track until something strikes me, a scene, an image, whatever and then try and consolidate that into something concise enough to be a song title. With experimental music the titles are so arbitrary, because of the lack of lyrics and so on that people are going to take away from it what ever is in their realm of experience regardless of what I call it. That said I still put a lot of importance on it. More often than not I do the music first, but I have on a couple of occasions started with a title that I wanted to try and "realize" with sound.

Along with Gruntsplatter you also spearhead Crionic Mind, an expanding umbrella that houses a mail-order distribution,label (who's first CD was the Gruntsplatter/Slowvent Split) and a newly launched Graphics and Web design division.What is the focal point behind each division and where do you see them heading?

When I started Crionic Mind back in early 1995 the intent was, and remains today, that it would become a fairly consistent record label. The distribution was started as a way to help generate revenue for the label. It has been a long slow road with one set back after another financially, but after all this time it is finally beginning to validate it's existence. The distro is picking up, and this should help me to start releasing things somewhat regularly. The split CD has been a great first step, though I did do a couple of cassettes a few years ago, this has really been the first time I felt like I was doing what I'd been trying to get done. Currently I'm upgrading my recording equipment, but once my finances get caught up from that I can start focusing more resources on the label. The design stuff is an extension of what I do in the real world to pay my rent. I decided to offer my services to friends and contacts, because I enjoy it and it could potentially be a good way to generate more money to put into the label. I haven't been publicizing it for very long, but a few thing have come in, so hopefully on the strength of those I'll be able to get some more work. Basically all of my non-musical efforts are geared towards getting Crionic Mind to the point where I'm releasing CD's on a fairly consistent basis.

It appears that people are starting to take notice ov your work, with Crowd Control Activities signing Gruntsplatter for a two album deal,and your other project Cinder Skin likewise signed to CCA. Triage i believe will be doing something for Glass Throat,not to mention your name has been showing up more frequently as a designer. How did all these endevours come about and how long until we should start seeing these products surface?

James Grell from Crowd Control contacted me after I sent him a copy of the Ruhr Hunter/Gruntsplatter Split CD that Glass Throat Recordings put out and asked if I would be interested in working with him. He wanted to start building relationships with the bands he signed rather than doing a bunch of one off discs and asked that I agree to work with him for multiple releases, how many that means has not been discussed. I really like Crowd Control as a label and as a fan of the music he releases, James is a great guy, and the label roster is first rate. I'm the project on the label that no one has heard of, but that's fine with me. Our agreement is that he will do any Gruntsplatter CD releases, but I am free to do whatever else I want. I'm very pleased to be involved with Crowd Control, the first Gruntsplatter disc for them, "The Death Fires" should be out around late Summer/Early Autumn. As Far as Cinder Skin, I sent him the "Sunken" cassette and he thought it would be cool to do something with that project as well. That project is a bit more traditional in that it has bass, drums and vocals, but he's looking to do an occasional hardcore release and so on, Cinder Skin falls somewhere in between the experimental and Noise Rock scenes. That one is still a ways off because the material takes me a while to write, and I've been pretty busy with everything else lately, but hopefully by the first of the year or so I'll have something ready to go. Triage is a collaborative project between myself and Chet from Ruhr Hunter, currently we are finishing up a full length album that should be out by late Summer I would think.

In regards to CinderSkin,it has been quite a while since the last release, will things continue along the same direction shown on the Sunken cassette, or do you have something completely different in mind?

Well, this project is the main reason I'm upgrading my recording tools. I had almost no equipment when I did the "Sunken" cassette, and now I'm a little better off. The intent is the same, but because of the equipment upgrades the music will show a lot of new ideas that I couldn't explore previously. The discord of the guitars will be the same, the vocals will be the same, but I'll be bringing in some analog synth stuff, probably some distorted beats and so on. I'm looking forward to doing that album, it's been awhile since I've worked liked that and I have a lot of ideas I want to try out.

What are your plans in the way ov releases for Snaig Tharta and Triage,also for those not yet familiar with these projects,please give a brief discription.

Snaig Tharta is the red headed step child of all my undertakings. It started a couple of years ago as a way for me to do something with my historical and ancestral interests. The idea is to combine my experimental work with some more traditional and more musical arrangements, a sort of Northern European, Neo-Classical, folky feel with a noisy underbelly. I have a few tracks done, but none are quite to my satisfaction. I'd love to get an albums worth completed, but I just haven't been able to work it in yet. Triage has been congealing for a couple of years now, but we are so both busy with our other projects and everything that it is just now finally to the point where we can get something out there. I think we have come up with something that has it's own sound rather than a mish mash of what we each do on our own. It falls in to the Noise Ambient category, but there is a greater focus on more analog sources than either of our individual projects. I think it will be some of the darkest stuff that you've heard from either of us.

Well, i guess we should close by giving you an opportunity to cover anything else we missed or that you feel should be discussed. Thanks for your time and good luck with what seems to be a very bright future!!!

There are a couple of things I'd like to add, the other major thing I have going is Worm Gear magazine. I'm the Experimental music editor, and my partner Marty Rytkonen handles the Metal side of things. We started back in 1995, and have gotten to the point where we are providing it for free and have a press run of 10,000 issues. There are generally 4 interviews on the Experimental side of things and a bunch of reviews. Beyond that there are a couple of other collaborations on the horizon, One will be with Jason Walton who does the projects Nothing & Susurrus Inanis, one with Derek Rush of Dream Into Dust & Of Unknown Origin, both of these will probably get under way sometime this Summer after the Gruntsplatter CD is finished. And the last one operates under the name Husk, and should have an album out in the coming months as well, it has already been completed. Other than that there is a Gruntsplatter cassette upcoming on Gernmany's Verbrannte Erde Prod. called "The Counsel Of The Ungodly", it is a collection of tracks that were recorded for various releases that fell through or just didn't fit well into other releases, and there is a 7" slated for Troniks Records that I'm hoping will come out as a follow up to the Crowd Control CD in the fall. Beyond that I hope to get some Gruntsplatter shows around the Bay Area in the coming weeks and month's. Thanks very much for the coverage Stephen, it is really appreciated. Please feel free to get in touch with questions or comments.