#because like yeah Waterman has written like

[cheeseknives]

I wish I could explain how surreal this crossover feels to me but in hindsight makes total sense

[yoonseoksoftie]

between law and love (there are cuddles).

› pairing: namjoon x reader › word count: 1.3k › tags: husband!namjoon | detective!namjoon | fluff | slice of life › summary: ❝ namjoon is having a hard time solving a case with zero leads. when he feels that he might need to give up all his work, you show up with words of wisdom and cuddles, lots of cuddles. ❞ › a/n: hope you guys enjoy this, let me know what you think. i’m a little off my fluff game so all feedback is welcomed! 

Namjoon taps his Waterman pen against the thick material of the autopsy report of his most recent case. He has been going over every detail regarding the case; lists of suspects, alibi timings, convicts who might be willing to talk and he has yet to find anything of substance. Taking another gulp of the dark and now cold liquid flowing around his “Best Husband” mug, he feels his heart clench in guilt.

Three hours have passed by since he last told you he would join you in bed soon. Eyeing the longcase clock perched to his right he realizes it is almost two in the morning. He drags a hand over his face and cracks his neck, releasing a determined sigh he looks at the picture frame holding a photograph of you and him smiling happily at each other on your wedding day. A familiar tenderness tugs at his heart, ten more minutes, he lies to himself before returning his focus to the papers spread all over the deep brown wooden desk.

Solving cases came easy to him, it was a matter of finding the missing data and setting it in place, like a puzzle. The man in the photographs was a street thug that had been moving unauthorized product in some low-income neighborhoods. Namjoon’s deduction? The boss didn’t like the idea of one of his grunts stealing from him and decided to send a message to kill any revolutionaries from rising up.

“Progress,” Seokjin’s authoritative voice resonated through every corner of his head. “That’s all I want on my desk tomorrow morning, kid.”

So now Namjoon is sitting in his desk chair way past his bedtime, ignoring the stinging pain in his lower back, analyzing every inch of the detailed photographs of the dead man. His search to find a connection between him and the crime boss Namjoon has been investigating for months looking less fruitful with each passing second.

He isn’t a fool, but it’s better to pretend. If he chose to, he could recite each report back to back without a problem and he knew every corner of the photographs like the back of his hand but he pushed on regardless, determined to find something. Just a tiny thread that could give Seokjin the impression that he was capable of building a case. He knew Seokjin was simply applying pressure because the higher-ups wanted to soothe the public. Namjoon had the highest closing rate in the entire precinct but still, it was killing him. There was no pattern, no clues, no leads with the witnesses, nothing. 

The sound of his office door unlatching makes him detach his eyes from the cold case on his desk. You stand a few feet in front of him wearing one of his old t-shirts with slumber written all over your delicate features. The sight of your drowsy figure walking around his desk until you are standing in between his parted legs makes his heart beat a little faster. You look incredibly lovely with your rosy cheeks and mused hair. He can’t help the way his lips curl into a smile.

“Hey love,” he murmurs softly, pulling you into his lap.

You instantly hook your arms around his waist and snuggle him, resting your cheek on his pec. The small action steals his breath and he’s afraid you might hear the intense pounding of his heart inside his chest.

“Hey yourself,” you say lowly, the words breathing against the cool material of his white t-shirt. “It’s two in the morning.”

“Great observation,” he jokes and you bite his shoulder. “I’m sorry but, this is really important.”

You turn in his lap and inspect the papers in his desk. The pictures don’t phase you one bit, as a news reporter, you are accustomed to seeing graphic photographs of dead people in tragic accidents. That was actually how he met you. You were reporting a case he was working on, he had just made detective and his case was your first solo project. Both of you frequently met for coffee to go over any updates under the pretense that it was better the people know straight from the source than from fake news. Over time, the coffee dates ended up with the both of you conversing about your favorite movies and books until he built up the courage to ask you out on a real date.

“Anything I can help with?”

He releases a deep breath, “There’s not much to go on really, they're all dead ends.”

Soft hands run through his soft locks, massaging his scalp with the round end of your fingernails. Taking him by surprise, you inch forward and pepper kisses all over his face, starting with his forehead then moving down to his cheeks until you place one final kiss on the tip of his nose. His eyes flutter shut, happily enjoying the attention of your soft lips on his skin.

“Then why are you so invested in them, huh?”

He wants to be mad at how logical your words are but he can’t because you’re right. Dead ends never lead anywhere, he’s going to start searching elsewhere. Sometimes he wonders what he’d do without you, he loves how you make everything sound so annoyingly easy. Instead of letting out the snarky comment forming in the back of his throat, he holds his tongue and opts for the truth, not wanting to say anything that will stop your hands from caressing him.

“Seokjin wants this on his desk first thing tomorrow and all I have is a dead body and nothing to show for it.”

You pull back and he whines at the loss of contact, “I see, so Seokjin is the reason you’ve been so sleep deprived lately. Want me to go down to the precinct and kick his ass?”

“Poor Seokjin, all alone and defenseless against my guardian angel and her Jet Li moves,” he chuckles, taking your hand and placing it on his head. “I appreciate the help but I am afraid this is something I have to do on my own.”

Understanding the message you continue to massage his scalp, laying your cheek over the top of his head as he lays his head on your chest. Your sweet caresses are more than enough to chase the tension in his shoulders away. He wants nothing more than to go to bed with you. Have you wrap your arms around him and whisper sweet nothings in his ear like you always do when he’s having a particularly hard day. You always know what to say to get him to relax, like your very own superpower. A content hum bubbles in his throat and he leans into the touch of your palm, too fond of the way your nails feel against his scalp. 

He can feel himself losing against you, your loving ministrations making him forget the papers on his desk. 

He places soft kisses on the expanse of your shoulder. 

“Thank you,” he mumbles sluggishly against your skin. “I love you.”

“Yeah?” He can hear the smile behind the single word.

He nods, looking up from your shoulder and giving you a tired smile.

“Enough to go to bed with me?” you perk up, cocking your head before leaning in and whispering, “You can be the little spoon.”

His deep laugh rumbles from his stomach to his throat, filling up the silent room. He shakes his head at your attempts to get him to bed and feels heat splattering over his cheeks because they actually worked.

“Well, in that case,” he says, nibbling playfully at the skin of your neck as he rises from his desk chair with you in his arms. “How can I possibly resist?”

The sound of your bubbly laughter resonates through the hallway walls as he makes his way to your shared bedroom, ready to fall asleep in your arms.

[gublernews]

Fantasia 2017 Interview: Trent Haaga and Matthew Gray Gubler on 68 KILL, Death, Love, Sex and Biting

Trent Haaga has a new film out produced by Snowfort Pictures -- 68 Kill -- but he’s been in the gore and exploitation biz for a while now, with his earliest professional beginnings at Troma. Creative people often have a myriad of interests, and Haaga is no exception.

He’s written several screenplays, most notably for Cheap Thrills (directed by Evan Katz, and also produced by Snowfort) and Deadgirl, but moonlights as an actor, too. Similarly, the cheerful Matthew Gubler is a popular actor, most known for his role on Criminal Minds, and he’s directed some episodes and a few shorts, as well.

So, what happens when you mix the talents of Haaga, Gubler, Snowfort, AnnaLynne McCord, Alicia Boe, Shelia Vand, AND an adaptation (screenplay by Haaga) of a crazy novel by Bryan Smith? 68 Kill -- a kickass, nonstop explosion of Southern Gothic gone awry. I was able to chat with Haaga and Gubler at Fantasia 2017, who were at the festival for their Canadian premiere. Check out a bit of the madness they’ve created in the trailer for the film -- now out on VOD --below.

Tell us how 68 KILL came to be adapted from the book.

Trent Haaga: I was a big fan of Bryan Smith; he’d published four novels under the Leisure imprint. I’m a voracious reader. When Leisure shut down, their authors got the rights back to their work. They started self-publishing on Kindle and dusting stuff off. Smith was hyper-prolific, and I liked his horror stuff a lot, but he also published three novellas that were pulp, which was really my bag. I came up in the horror world, but I really like pulp thrillers. I read  68 Kill, and I thought Smith was really great, but no one knew about him, so I thought about getting the word out and how the book would be an amazing movie.  

When you pick an author like that, it’s real easy to find and reach out to them. He doesn’t have a manager or agent, and neither do I. We were able to just exchange emails and do a handshake kind of deal. Being an independent artist, I scraped up some good faith money and we created a simple option deal.

Then when Snowfort got involved, I’m sure they had some paperwork, but I had nothing to do with that. Bryan was happy, he had some money to pay some bills. A lot of these authors don’t believe that a GOOD film adaptation is ever going to happen. A lot of indie filmmakers want options for free for backyard productions, so that’s what the authors expect. (Gubler laughs in the background.)

When I approached Bryan, I told him I’d done some stuff and sent that over, but when I say I’m going to do something, I’m really going to get it done — we’re going to get this thing made. I might end up filming it in Indiana for $20,000, but I’m going to get this thing made.

Is that where you filmed it?

TH: No, Indiana was where my parents are, where I grew up. But I did some location scouting in Ohio, because we had a producer there. Eventually, because of the tax incentives, a deeper cast pool, and more able crew, we ended up going to Louisiana and shooting there.

But every step of the way, I’d write to Bryan, like “you know what, man? We’ve got a great producer on board, and we’re gonna try to get slightly bigger names — rather than just people that I know. (Gubler laughs again.) And it kept happening in steps; we got a little bit more money than the $20,000 that I raised.

Everything exceeded my expectations — the idea is to push it as far as you can. Here’s the budget; okay, but I’m still going to these locations and do the car chases, even though a lot of people with my experience wouldn’t try those things. The entire thing was, “oh, you’re gonna give me an inch? Let me see if I can take a mile!” And that was for every step of the project.

What special flavor did Snowfort bring to the film?

TH: I’ve known Travis for years; I wrote Cheap Thrills, which is a Snowfort movie. I acted in American Muscle and Starry Eyes, and I got cut out of that. But I’ve known and worked with Travis for awhile and knew he was the right guy for this material. If I made something that was worthy, I knew Travis could get on the phone and get people to watch it. He was on set the entire time, too. We have a friendship where we can yell at each other if we need to (Gubler laughs), or hug each other if we need to — it’s not like he was a guy in a suit standing over there with a calculator, you know?

Let’s talk about your awesome cast. Did you have to do a lot of screen tests or audition rounds?

Matthew Gray Gubler: This was after Trash Fire (Ricky Bates, Jr.’s film, another Snowfort production, also starring Gubler), but I’d never met Travis until this.

TH: It’s like anything; you announce you’re gonna make a movie and they ask you how much money you have. And you go: “I don’t know yet; what kind of names do you think we could get?” People start punching numbers into a column and figure it out , and the money guys have their own ideas. Meanwhile, I’m making my own list with Matthew Gray Gubler at the top. (Gubler: “Awww.”)

You know I would have chosen Gubler immediately, but we had to go through this list with their guys. We do that, and we exhaust all those. Then I get to say, “Let’s try Gubler, we have a Snowfort connection to him, and I really want him — at least get me a meeting with this guy.” After that meeting, it had to be him.

I don’t want to say it was the power of “The Secret,” but it was about mentally projecting me making the movie with Gubler in the role. Then Ricky helped us out with AnnaLynne, and I think Shelia Vand came to us through a casting director, yeah Samy Burch. Sam Eidson (who plays Dwayne), I’d seen in a movie and wanted to cast him in this role. They asked who he was, and I said, “don’t worry, he has Zero Charisma" — that’s Zero Charisma, the movie, guys! We reached out to him directly and he didn’t have an agent, so we were able to reach out to him directly.

Obviously, there’s a lot of violence in the film. Can you tell me about your stunts?

TH: You get some stunt guys and coordinators. It’s interesting — I’ve made way more violent movies! (Gubler laughs again.) If you choose the right moments and create the right impact, people think it’s so gory and violent. In reality, I’ve done way more violent movies that had less impact.

We had a stunt coordinator from Louisiana named Kevin Waterman that was great, and a deep pool of people there that’ve been working for awhile, but Kevin helped us out with a lot of fisticuffs, gunplay, car chases, and things like that.

It’s very tricky; shooting these things take up a lot of time for what ends up being a small portion of the running time of the film. It’s a balance; I can’t take five hours to shoot what will make up two seconds of a 90-minute film.    

MGG: That car chase was two days, right?

TH: One night. It’s always a constant balance between making it look good and the amount of time it takes to shoot.

Now, I had a lot of fun watching the crazy, kickass women in the film, but I wanted to give you the chance to answer back to those who might say the film is misogynist. I don’t get that feeling personally, but I wanted to see how you felt about that, and give you a forum to do so.

TH: It’s one of those things where I feel that it’s a statement more about those people and their beliefs, more than about me or what I’m trying to do, ultimately. I’m juggling a 150,000 things, from costume decisions to performance choices to whatever. As the artist, it’s not my to job to go, “here was what I was trying to say.” Subconsciously, things come out, but I’ve been married to a very strong woman for over twenty years.

MGG: Raised by a strong woman.

TH: I love, respect, and admire strong women.

MGG: It’s a movie ABOUT strong women!

TH: I think so, too!

MGG: I never got the misogynistic thing, because to me, I read it and thought, “oh, this is going to be a movie that’s going to be awesome for the females!”

TH: Right. I also did a movie called Deadgirl, which dealt with toxic maleness; part of that movie’s theme is a male character who sees a woman chained up and dehumanizes her and puts another female character on a pedestal. But what if you have a character who’s beautiful, sexy, and owns her sexuality, but what if she’s a bad guy? She can be that!

MGG: I love that! Yeah, why not?

TH: Exactly! To say that she’s super tough AND virtuous… All I’m doing is not making you a character, but making you representative of all women. That’s not my job. (Pointing at Gubler:) He’s not representative of all men. He’s Chip, the character.  Each of these people are their own character, I’m not looking at it in broad stokes, or looking at it like, these women are representative of all women. They’re not. Liza is Liza.

MGG: Violet is lovely! I’m lost. I can’t believe that anyone would think that! What movie are they talking about? 68 Kill?

TH: (laughs) I can understand it; you do have to be prepared for this. The more people you show the film to, the more opinions you’re going to get.

MGG: It’s a Rorschach test!

TH: But I thought the message of Deadgirl was completely clear and concise — these boys were toxic, and clearly not good — but people told me I was a monster and I endorsed raping of women. If that’s what you want to think, cool, but that’s you. How you feel about it is how you feel about it. No matter how much talking I do, I probably won’t change your mind.

(To Gubler) Well, I imagine you must have had fun being tossed around by beautiful ladies?

MGG: I’m used to it in real life! I legitimately mean that.

What’s the difference between the film and the book?

TH: I’m glad that you asked that.

MGG: It’s massively different, but the book is great!

TH: The author is super happy about it. It was important to me to who loved the book, then watched the movie NOT know what exactly was going to happen. I’d like the fans of the movie to also be surprised by the book and get a whole new experience.

There are certain things in the book that are great, but a movie has different beats. For example, in the book, Liza and Dwayne disappear after Chip runs away. It was an interesting choice. But for a movie, I felt they were part of the main story, so I brought them back. Violet in the book is more of a maneater, she doesn’t represent the possibility of love. The oral pleasure requests at the convenience store were also made by a man, not a woman. But when Matthew has to do it (at the request of a woman in the film), it turns into comedy.

(To Gubler) Last time you were here at Fantasia, I heard someone trying to get close to you got angry she couldn’t, and bit someone.

(Haaga and Gubler explode into laughter.)

MGG: Where’d you hear that??

Publicist Kaila Hier (in the background): It was legendary.

Did you know about that?

MGG: I don’t know about that!

Kalia, do you want to tell them?

Hier: I wasn’t on the ground for that. It was one of our Fantasia volunteers who got bit trying to keep the women away from him.

TH: What the fuck!

MGG: They were probably relatives!

TH: Is this what we’re looking forward to, man?

MGG: No, no, no! I doubt it!

TH: Oh… this is my favorite!

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Acid Angels in Arizona: An Interview with Body of Light

Body of Light. Photo: Kaleb Marshall

  In recent years, when Arizona’s experimental music realm rears it’s head, you are met with an entirely new world of talented individuals creating something enviable that artists are tracing their lines around. In steps Body of Light, a synth duo comprised of Alex and Andrew Jarson, two brothers that helped solidify the emerging Arizona music scene. Body of Light exhibits style and power, with swelling synths, the throb and peal of electronic drums surrounding hungry, searching vocals, further showcasing tracks that could surely be a staple of dancehall nights for years to come. Free Press Houston exchanged words with the Jarson brothers prior to their performance at The Secret Group on Friday.

  FPH: Last time you were in town was a bit over a year ago with High Functioning Flesh. That was a fun show, and seemed like a promising tour with label-mates. This time around, you are visiting with Black Marble and DRAA, two bands I personally have been enjoying very much recently. Incredibly solid tours back to back. How has the tour been so far?

Andrew: It’s been a blast. Every show has had great crowds. They always seem to be very energetic, and we’re a pretty energetic band so that helps the shows in the long run. Black Marble had already been on tour for I think 20 something days before we met up with them in NYC, and it can be awkward starting a tour like that, but we had an amazing sold out show in NYC and that really set off the whole tour. Chris and Oliver from Black Marble are truly great guys and we’re blessed to tour with people we get along so well with.

Alex: We’ve been having the best time in the world. Nearly every show has been packed with people and the crowds have been very responsive to both bands. That’s all you can really ask for. We love touring with Black Marble. They’re amazing people and I’m kind of bummed we only have like 9 days left.

  FPH: Alex, we met in 2013 and you gave me a few Body of Light (or Bodi of Light) cassettes, as well of other written works of yours. Older tracks like “Wayside City,” which were catchy dirge-pop hits, could have remained a lifelong direction, but then the LP Let Me Go comes around and seems to have realized a clear path for the band. Was this a natural evolution, or is this something you eventually wanted to work towards?

Andrew: I’d say it was certainly a natural evolution, we actually wrote Let Me Go not too long after we put out the Limits of Reason tape in 2014. I’d say the biggest difference between the two is that we had the intention of having the LMG tracks mixed professionally, and the songs did go through some gradual changes during the time between it’s released. Once we got Ben Greenberg on board to mix the record, the songs really took shape into something we had wanted them to be from the start. We had already envisioned Let Me Go as our first real LP, so he brought it to a level, to a platform that we felt we could build on as a band from here on out.

Alex: I’m very conscious of when I’m writing the same thing over and over again. We’ve never been that kind of a band. So when we went into writing this album, I wanted it to be different. We wanted high energy tracks that came off in a powerful way, especially live. But I also wanted it to feel hollow, yet emotional to the listener. Ben really helped push us to mold these tracks and I’m really grateful for his input.

  FPH: Mentioning earlier your written works, you are both heavily involved and helped create Ascetic House, an incredibly influential creative collective that has produced some of the most noteworthy music of the past few years. How did it all begin, and do you still have the same creative input as you did before?

Alex: It starts much earlier than the name, you know? We were all going to shows, like anyone else involved in underground music. Eventually, people moved and things felt like it needed a bit of a push. We all got a bit older and wanted to have some influence with our output. We came up with the name, I think, in 2011. We released music we enjoyed and really pushed ourselves to grow and learn. The creative input is still the same. If anything, we have more control now as it expands.

Andrew: I moved to Tempe in 2009 and lived on Alex’s couch. I was making music constantly at the time on my Akai 16 track recorder, usually in the corner of the room that I had made into my little makeshift room, if you could really even call it that. I was pretty socially awkward at the time — I was 18 and I had gone to punk and hardcore shows with my brother for a while before then, but hardcore was never my thing at all, and I never really met anyone or anything like that. So I felt maybe like a bit an outsider. But moving to Tempe, I got the chance to see these amazing punk and indie shows at these great DIY spots like The Manor, Yobs, Eastside Records, etc. and I met all these great people like Danny Pupillo, Nick and Steve Nappa, JS Aurelius, JR Nelson, and way too many others to reference. We all realized we lived within blocks from each other, and as we started forming all of these bands with each other, and seeing so many amazing acts, that was really how Ascetic House naturally began.

  FPH: Translating from being a part of the punk community, Body of Light puts on a very entertaining live performance, and utilizes an intriguing aesthetic. I know Alex used to carry a leg bone with him on stage while performing, which is great in my book. Tell me a bit about that.

Andrew: The bone era was about right when I joined the band. So I had seen him perform as Body of Light and understood what the performance was supposed to be. I never wanted to distract from that, I found my way to provide support and let him do his thing. His performance evolved from there on out, and at the same time so did my stage setup and the structure of the set.

Alex: I found this bone in a field and for some reason, I thought it would be fun to perform with. I would hold it in the air as if it was an instrument of its own, or a wand. I was experimenting a lot with my surroundings then. The idea of mortality was becoming ingrained in my mind. I think that idea terrified me and having that with me gave me a sense of peace. It didn’t matter. On stage, we were the ones who had control. When I felt like it was the right time, I threw it off the stage at a show in New York. It shattered into a million pieces. I still have a small fragment in a box somewhere.

  FPH: Both of you are involved in solo experimental electronic projects (Memorymann, Blue Krishna, etc) and seem equally capable behind the gear. Has there ever been a shimmer of an idea to try performing a track with your positions swapped?

Andrew: Body of Light is a collaborative project, It’s not like I’m the songwriter and he’s the singer/lyricist. Sometimes he will write the basis of a song and I will give musical input, and sometimes I’ll help out with lyrics or vocal melodies. Just because we have roles on stage doesn’t mean we need to follow them in the long run. Not sure if I would ever do lead vocals at this point, but I wouldn’t rule anything out. I’d love to do some backing vocals sometime, which we’re working on in practice. It’s that natural blood harmony, you know?

Alex: Yeah, roles are always changing. We have plans for him to get on vocals, perhaps on the next record. I’d like to play more live, if I ever stop running around on stage.

  FPH: Besides the musical influences that stick out almost immediately from listening to your tracks new and old, what else in the creative world influences you for songwriting, performance, recording, etc. 

Alex: There’s just too many bands and artists to name. I’m mainly influenced by the people that are close to me. Sometimes it has nothing to do with sound at all. Someone could do something and it produces a thought. The sound just comes from the emotion behind it. I’ve found that touring and traveling in general influences my music the most.

Andrew: Some of my biggest influences in terms of production from the past come from the Modern Soul and Funk world, like Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam, Prince, etc., but I also love the pop productions of Scott, Aitken, & Waterman, Bobby Orlando, and Freestyle bands of the past. Stuff I love to listen to on the radio. As far as modern influence I really like the recent releases from Danny Wolfers/Legowelt, especially the Smackos stuff. I’m also a huge fan of some of our friends work, such as Glochids, High Functioning Flesh, and SURVIVE.

  FPH: The LP from Dais made it’s way across quite a few 2016 Best Of The Year lists. I’ve seen great tours and shows showcasing you as well. What is next for the band?

Alex: I love our last record a lot and it’s really exciting to see how much it’s been listened to. We got to go play in Japan, tour the US twice, and meet so many amazing people. I never expected anyone to care, so it’s a huge blessing to be able to do this with my life. We’re going to finish this tour and jump into writing a new record. I think it’s time.

Andrew: I’m really excited to write when we get home from this tour. We have both got a lot more gear and production equipment since the last record, and I spent a lot of time building up my studio to work in a very hybrid ITB/OTB way. We’re also planning on some tours and have even bounced around the idea of adding another live member to the band. So there’s a lot on the table and we’ll see where it takes us.

  Catch Body of Light at The Secret Group on Friday, June 23. The night will include Brooklyn’s Black Marble headlining, with DRAA from Tempe supporting. Pick up a copy of Body Of Light’s LP “Let Me Go” on Dais Records from the band, label, or local vendors Deep End, Wired Up, or Vinal Edge.

Also, catch up with the sonic innovations of Ascetic House at www.ascetic.house

Acid Angels in Arizona: An Interview with Body of Light this is a repost

[houstonlocalus-blog]

Acid Angels in Arizona: An Interview with Body of Light

Body of Light. Photo: Kaleb Marshall

  In recent years, when Arizona’s experimental music realm rears it’s head, you are met with an entirely new world of talented individuals creating something enviable that artists are tracing their lines around. In steps Body of Light, a synth duo comprised of Alex and Andrew Jarson, two brothers that helped solidify the emerging Arizona music scene. Body of Light exhibits style and power, with swelling synths, the throb and peal of electronic drums surrounding hungry, searching vocals, further showcasing tracks that could surely be a staple of dancehall nights for years to come. Free Press Houston exchanged words with the Jarson brothers prior to their performance at The Secret Group on Friday.

  FPH: Last time you were in town was a bit over a year ago with High Functioning Flesh. That was a fun show, and seemed like a promising tour with label-mates. This time around, you are visiting with Black Marble and DRAA, two bands I personally have been enjoying very much recently. Incredibly solid tours back to back. How has the tour been so far?

Andrew: It’s been a blast. Every show has had great crowds. They always seem to be very energetic, and we’re a pretty energetic band so that helps the shows in the long run. Black Marble had already been on tour for I think 20 something days before we met up with them in NYC, and it can be awkward starting a tour like that, but we had an amazing sold out show in NYC and that really set off the whole tour. Chris and Oliver from Black Marble are truly great guys and we’re blessed to tour with people we get along so well with.

Alex: We’ve been having the best time in the world. Nearly every show has been packed with people and the crowds have been very responsive to both bands. That’s all you can really ask for. We love touring with Black Marble. They’re amazing people and I’m kind of bummed we only have like 9 days left.

  FPH: Alex, we met in 2013 and you gave me a few Body of Light (or Bodi of Light) cassettes, as well of other written works of yours. Older tracks like “Wayside City,” which were catchy dirge-pop hits, could have remained a lifelong direction, but then the LP Let Me Go comes around and seems to have realized a clear path for the band. Was this a natural evolution, or is this something you eventually wanted to work towards?

Andrew: I’d say it was certainly a natural evolution, we actually wrote Let Me Go not too long after we put out the Limits of Reason tape in 2014. I’d say the biggest difference between the two is that we had the intention of having the LMG tracks mixed professionally, and the songs did go through some gradual changes during the time between it’s released. Once we got Ben Greenberg on board to mix the record, the songs really took shape into something we had wanted them to be from the start. We had already envisioned Let Me Go as our first real LP, so he brought it to a level, to a platform that we felt we could build on as a band from here on out.

Alex: I’m very conscious of when I’m writing the same thing over and over again. We’ve never been that kind of a band. So when we went into writing this album, I wanted it to be different. We wanted high energy tracks that came off in a powerful way, especially live. But I also wanted it to feel hollow, yet emotional to the listener. Ben really helped push us to mold these tracks and I’m really grateful for his input.

  FPH: Mentioning earlier your written works, you are both heavily involved and helped create Ascetic House, an incredibly influential creative collective that has produced some of the most noteworthy music of the past few years. How did it all begin, and do you still have the same creative input as you did before?

Alex: It starts much earlier than the name, you know? We were all going to shows, like anyone else involved in underground music. Eventually, people moved and things felt like it needed a bit of a push. We all got a bit older and wanted to have some influence with our output. We came up with the name, I think, in 2011. We released music we enjoyed and really pushed ourselves to grow and learn. The creative input is still the same. If anything, we have more control now as it expands.

Andrew: I moved to Tempe in 2009 and lived on Alex’s couch. I was making music constantly at the time on my Akai 16 track recorder, usually in the corner of the room that I had made into my little makeshift room, if you could really even call it that. I was pretty socially awkward at the time — I was 18 and I had gone to punk and hardcore shows with my brother for a while before then, but hardcore was never my thing at all, and I never really met anyone or anything like that. So I felt maybe like a bit an outsider. But moving to Tempe, I got the chance to see these amazing punk and indie shows at these great DIY spots like The Manor, Yobs, Eastside Records, etc. and I met all these great people like Danny Pupillo, Nick and Steve Nappa, JS Aurelius, JR Nelson, and way too many others to reference. We all realized we lived within blocks from each other, and as we started forming all of these bands with each other, and seeing so many amazing acts, that was really how Ascetic House naturally began.

  FPH: Translating from being a part of the punk community, Body of Light puts on a very entertaining live performance, and utilizes an intriguing aesthetic. I know Alex used to carry a leg bone with him on stage while performing, which is great in my book. Tell me a bit about that.

Andrew: The bone era was about right when I joined the band. So I had seen him perform as Body of Light and understood what the performance was supposed to be. I never wanted to distract from that, I found my way to provide support and let him do his thing. His performance evolved from there on out, and at the same time so did my stage setup and the structure of the set.

Alex: I found this bone in a field and for some reason, I thought it would be fun to perform with. I would hold it in the air as if it was an instrument of its own, or a wand. I was experimenting a lot with my surroundings then. The idea of mortality was becoming ingrained in my mind. I think that idea terrified me and having that with me gave me a sense of peace. It didn’t matter. On stage, we were the ones who had control. When I felt like it was the right time, I threw it off the stage at a show in New York. It shattered into a million pieces. I still have a small fragment in a box somewhere.

  FPH: Both of you are involved in solo experimental electronic projects (Memorymann, Blue Krishna, etc) and seem equally capable behind the gear. Has there ever been a shimmer of an idea to try performing a track with your positions swapped?

Andrew: Body of Light is a collaborative project, It’s not like I’m the songwriter and he’s the singer/lyricist. Sometimes he will write the basis of a song and I will give musical input, and sometimes I’ll help out with lyrics or vocal melodies. Just because we have roles on stage doesn’t mean we need to follow them in the long run. Not sure if I would ever do lead vocals at this point, but I wouldn’t rule anything out. I’d love to do some backing vocals sometime, which we’re working on in practice. It’s that natural blood harmony, you know?

Alex: Yeah, roles are always changing. We have plans for him to get on vocals, perhaps on the next record. I’d like to play more live, if I ever stop running around on stage.

  FPH: Besides the musical influences that stick out almost immediately from listening to your tracks new and old, what else in the creative world influences you for songwriting, performance, recording, etc. 

Alex: There’s just too many bands and artists to name. I’m mainly influenced by the people that are close to me. Sometimes it has nothing to do with sound at all. Someone could do something and it produces a thought. The sound just comes from the emotion behind it. I’ve found that touring and traveling in general influences my music the most.

Andrew: Some of my biggest influences in terms of production from the past come from the Modern Soul and Funk world, like Terry Lewis & Jimmy Jam, Prince, etc., but I also love the pop productions of Scott, Aitken, & Waterman, Bobby Orlando, and Freestyle bands of the past. Stuff I love to listen to on the radio. As far as modern influence I really like the recent releases from Danny Wolfers/Legowelt, especially the Smackos stuff. I’m also a huge fan of some of our friends work, such as Glochids, High Functioning Flesh, and SURVIVE.

  FPH: The LP from Dais made it’s way across quite a few 2016 Best Of The Year lists. I’ve seen great tours and shows showcasing you as well. What is next for the band?

Alex: I love our last record a lot and it’s really exciting to see how much it’s been listened to. We got to go play in Japan, tour the US twice, and meet so many amazing people. I never expected anyone to care, so it’s a huge blessing to be able to do this with my life. We’re going to finish this tour and jump into writing a new record. I think it’s time.

Andrew: I’m really excited to write when we get home from this tour. We have both got a lot more gear and production equipment since the last record, and I spent a lot of time building up my studio to work in a very hybrid ITB/OTB way. We’re also planning on some tours and have even bounced around the idea of adding another live member to the band. So there’s a lot on the table and we’ll see where it takes us.

  Catch Body of Light at The Secret Group on Friday, June 23. The night will include Brooklyn’s Black Marble headlining, with DRAA from Tempe supporting. Pick up a copy of Body Of Light’s LP “Let Me Go” on Dais Records from the band, label, or local vendors Deep End, Wired Up, or Vinal Edge.

Also, catch up with the sonic innovations of Ascetic House at www.ascetic.house

Acid Angels in Arizona: An Interview with Body of Light this is a repost