Three Stars: Pilesar

Where have you been recording those self-released albums and tracks beforehand?

I usually do most of my recording at home. I have a few CDs that I did parts of them in a studio but that’s really just another guy’s house that I went to that has a studio in the basement. So, most of my stuff is pretty lo-fi.

When did you start releasing those albums off of your own imprint?

It’s something I’ve been playing with for years. I probably came up with the idea ten years ago and it wasn’t until late last year or early this year that I started really pushing the website. I put the website up so that I could have a centralized location for everything. Because before I’d been putting mp3s online on all these different sites, so this was a good opportunity for me to consolidate everything in one space. And most of the stuff I release is mp3, for free, and people can come to the site and download it but every once in awhile I’ll make a physical copy of a CD; make artwork for it, print it up, sell it at shows, give it to friends or whatever.

Have you ever released any of your friends’ work or has it all been yours?

On my website, I have CDs for other people, like six or seven of them up there right now. Some of them are from all over the world, some are from right here in D.C. and I’m going to be releasing a whole lot more soon, hopefully. I just have to buy more space. Right now I’m running a little low. I’m up to 80% capacity for the website so I have to buy more space so I can put more stuff up. But there’s a lot more in the tubes.

How long have you been playing the drums?

I started when I was nine. I’m about to turn thirty-two, so I guess you can do the math.

How many different genres did you go through before you found experimental music?

Well, I started off when I was ten wanting to be the world’s best drummer, so I just mostly practiced drums all the time and I would listen to a lot of classic rock because that’s what my mom listened to. I was really exposed to that growing up so I picked up a lot of stuff from those guys, like John Bonham and Neil Peart from Rush and Stewart Copeland from the Police. All those people.

Then maybe in about 7th grade, I got introduced to classical music. Or band music I guess you could say. I joined the middle school band and I was really into that and I joined marching band. And by college I started discovering jazz and I was kind of at a point where I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do as a drummer because I felt like I wasn’t quite good enough to play jazz but I was kind of bored of the rock and roll I was hearing so I was trying to figure out what I could do.

So I started listening to other things to figure out what I could do and a friend of mine in college started introducing me to experimental music. And he was listening to a lot of John Zorn and The Boredoms and a lot of just real obscure underground stuff. It was around that time that I really started branching out and experimenting more with electronics and home recording. Home recording and the four-track really lends itself well to experimental music because that’s basically what you’re doing. You’re just sitting there with all this equipment and you don’t necessarily know how any of it works but you push buttons and plug things in just to see what happens. So that’s where I think I got a lot of the experience for that.

Are there any new sounds that you’ve added to recent recordings that you particularly like?

I have a lot of instruments that I’ve collected over the years and that my wife has brought me from her world travels. She travels around a lot. It’s funny because I’ll have something that I’ve had for a really long time and I’ll try to rediscover it. I’ll put it in a closet somewhere and not realize it’s there until I pull some other stuff out looking for another piece of equipment. So, I’ve had a lot of people let me borrow things: just pieces of metal and toys that they have and guitars. So anytime I have a new instrument I try to bring it into the sound. And then when I feel like I’ve tapped that instrument, I put it aside and try to find a new instrument.

You do some shows solo and some where you’re performing with other people, do you approach those differently?

A lot of it is just concept. Like, I’ll have an idea for something that I want to do, so I’ll plot it for awhile and then I’ll try to find those people that I think might fit that idea. I used to really be into the idea of a band that played a certain amount of material and songs but I started realizing that it was hard to keep those people on board and to keep them interested. And my ideas started outsourcing a little bit. Like, I know this guy that can really play the cello well and I have this idea so I’ll approach him and say hey do you mind doing this for me. So he’ll sit in with me on the project and I’ve got a rotating cast of people that I’ll bring on board for certain ideas.

Will there be anyone joining you at your show at Galaxy Hut?

I’ll be doing that completely solo. I’m going to do some things that I’ve played before and I try to have a few new things. I try to do something different for each show but sometimes life gets in the way and I might not have the opportunity to come up with any new ideas. I try to keep things fresh by rotating things in constantly but sometimes I just can’t do that.

Do you know of any fantastic spaces in the area where you’ve really enjoyed performing?

I think Pyramid Atlantic is really fun, I don’t think a lot of people realize that there are shows there. I went to Bossa for the first time the other night and I thought it had a nice vibe. Galaxy Hut in Virginia is a nice venue and I think it gets overlooked a lot because they only have shows on Sundays and Mondays but a lot of times they have some great acts that come through there.

Do you have any new material coming out in the near future?

I have an old CD called Absorption that I did back in 2001 and I’ve been sitting on that since then. I kind of rediscovered it the other day and I’m currently dusting it off and getting it cleaned up and ready for release.

Is that a CD that’s heavy or light on vocals? I notice you switch that up.

There’s a lot of instrumental stuff and there are some songs that have vocals. It can be kind of dark and dissonant but there are some moments where we relax it a little bit and it’s a little more melodic. It’s really intense.