Blue Sausage Infant in performance last February at the Blue Nile in Harrisonburg, VA, courtesy IntangibleArts on Flickr

The Velvet Lounge was, at best, half full, but the man onstage doesn’t seem to care. Armed with only a computer, a mixer and a few free floating toys, he bobs and jams the way that few people armed with such tools do, while pumping out a rhythmic pulsating tune that floats into moments of ambiance. Meanwhile, there’s this distorted vocal sample saying “All you need is Comtrex. That’s all.” In a week full of envelope pushing performances, this one stood out. This man, Chester Hawkins, or Blue Sausage Infant was another of DCist’s great discoveries at this year’s Sonic Circuits Festival. Although discovery hardly seems an appropriate term for somebody who has been performing for over 20 years.

Various biographies on Blue Sausage Infant say that Hawkins’ motivation is to “create a trance-like state by whatever means possible,” and although his Velvet Lounge show only included a computer and a few other toys, when we sat down with Hawkins he had a lot to say about the visual aspect to his live show, being asked to score a film and why he feels living in Washington, D.C. is conducive to producing his blend of experimental noise.

See him next: At the Velvet Lounge this Saturday with Outpost, The Plums and Screen Vinyl Image.

Find him online: http://www.myspace.com/iabluesausageinfant

Talk to me about your releases! I know some of the stuff on MySpace is live.

Yeah, yeah. And in fact, that stuff is three supremely long tracks. Two are live from performances and one of them is live at home. But they’re all recorded straight from the mixer so they’re all as clean as a studio quality. And for the first time I actually had them mastered professionally.