Layne Garrett has made his reputation for constructing sounds out of everyday objects and coaxing noise from unlikely sources. However, more recently, he’s also organized a couple of sound events in which others can gather and add to his creations. He’s doing the same thing today as one of the final events for the Sonic Circuits Festival. People are encouraged to come to Veteran’s Plaza at 3:00 p.m. with whatever junk they can find and together, everyone will build a music making machine. It’s taking the trash to treasure logic to a more level. DCist talked to Garrett briefly about his public sound projects and the philosophy behind his artistic endeavors.

Was the public collective instrument-building project your idea?

Yes. Jeff asked me to do something public for Sonic Circuits. He did not have anything specific that he wanted me to do. I’ve organized a couple of public sound happenings in the past.

Wasn’t one of those at Rock Creek Park?

I did a project involving cassette tape loops. I gave out tape loops to a lot of people and asked them to make recordings. So, it was like a thirty second continuously looping tape. Then, people gathered at this spot in Rock Creek Park where the remains of part of the Capitol building are and people put their tape players around — it’s sort of a maze of granite, like, stacked granite columns all over the place. People just put their tape players down in different spots. So, it sort of just created this audio environment that everyone sort of hung out in and moved through.

You also recorded a public sound happening in a tunnel last year for the Lock Grooves release, right?

Yes. I just got a bunch of people together. I guess the impetus for that was that I wanted to do something for the Lock Grooves thing and it was kind of expensive to participate, so, as a way of distributing cost — the goal was for 180 people to show up with a dollar, each. It wasn’t quite that many people. So, it became a big collaborative recording project, just as a way of getting people together to do something fun and to distribute the cost amongst a lot of people. So, we set up in a tunnel under the Capital Crescent Trail, or, under the Canal in Georgetown.

Where did the idea of Silver Spring Sound Machine come from?

So, I build instruments built from a lot of found objects. Car metal and a wide array of found objects. So, this thing that people are going to build will involve lots of scavenged, found and salvaged materials. I guess I like projects that are accessible. Sometimes, I try to build instruments that don’t require any skill to play them and I’m hoping that some kids will come out and people can participate regardless of any musical background or whatever. I like the idea of strange and mysterious things happening in public places and I hope this will qualify as that.

You’re planning on rolling this around the neighborhood, too, right?

That’s part of the plan. We’ll see. Weather permitting and depending on whether we get run out of the streets by the cops. That’s the plan, though.

Can you tell me a little bit more about the philosophy behind your website, questionthetruth.com?

Oh, goodness. What have you looked at on the website? It’s sort of a sprawling mess.

I clicked through a couple of the visuals and saw a lot of messages about questioning authority.

Well, my computer died a year ago and I have not updated it since then, but, if you click through enough times, there is information about my music and pictures of instruments I’ve built and lots of recordings and video are on there. I guess that with all of the weird images and animated gifs and stuff — it’s a promotional website for my music, but it’s totally dysfunctional and inefficient. I guess I sort of like the idea of a website that doesn’t do what most websites are supposed to do, which is to clearly convey information. If you’re willing to interact with it, maybe you’ll find eventually what you’re looking for, but it’s more of a maze.

How long have you been making instruments and making experimental music?

I have been experimenting with sound for as long as I can remember, I guess. I’ve been making instruments probably for six or seven years and I play around town a bunch. I’ve been playing on my own since I was a kid, but I’ve been doing experimental music shows for six or seven years.