Active since 2021- Yotzeret Sheydim stands as one of the more creative & inventive projects within the wider noise genre. It started off as a straighter wall noise project, but with each new release, it’s pushing its sonic boundaries more & more- mixing general noise genre-blending, with elements such as traditional Jewish chants, synth ‘n’ subtle beat craft, and guttural-to-wailing vocal elements. The project has around ten releases to its name thus far. Behind Yotzeret Sheydim is Pittsburgh-based Alyx ILL- a trans-gender noise creator and jewellery maker. Alyx ILL kindly agreed to give me an email interview- where we discuss her influences, Yotzeret Sheydim, her jewellery work, and other projects.

M[m]: What was your first introduction to walled noise, and noise in general? And was there any one track or release that made you want to create your own work?

Alyx: My first introduction to noise was at a house show in 2010 where someone had a rusty shopping cart covered in springs they were hitting with a hammer and microphone through a bunch of pedals. But my first real exposure to the noise scene in large was meeting my friend Claire at a New year’s party just before the pandemic- she invited me to her noise show the following month. That show was Vomir, JSH, Black Leather Jesus, The Rita, Ragk, and my friend Claire and her wife's project: Niku Daruma. That show definitely made me want to get involved in noise in a big way. Incredible performances from all, and Vomir was still handing out black plastic bags at that point, lots of fun. 

I've always been into experimental music since a young age, and The Locust and Xiu Xiu and Liars were some of my first CDs as a teen. I'd always wanted to create my own music and had been playing the piano since I was 10 and bass since I was 16 but didn't venture into the noise scene until 2020.

M[m]: Tell us a little bit about how & when Yotzeret Sheydim came about? And is it your first sonic venture, noise or otherwise?

Alyx: Yotzeret Sheydim came about in 2021 when I decided to stop just listening to noise tapes and start making my own. I was getting involved in the noise scene, and I was beginning to reconnect with Judaism at the time, especially through the creation of art as a way to connect with God and my ancestors. So, I kind of combined a lot of what I was getting back into with my noise and art aesthetic because it felt natural to extend my metalworking art into the sonic realm. 

And no, not my first sonic venture at all. I played piano starting at age 10. At 16 I bought an electric bass and a Roland Juno60 synthesizer. I played weird sounds on the synth, and jazz on the bass, eventually playing more doom metal in college on the bass. Then I kind of took a break from music making as I was homeless for 5 years, except for a few embarrassing drunkenly written guitar songs. Got off the road, got into metalworking, sold the bass to buy another synth and some pedals, and got into noise in 2021. 

M[m]: You mention playing Doom metal- was this on your own or in a group?...and are there any recordings on the project online?

Alyx: This was with college friends and roommates; no recordings survive from that time as far as I know.

M[m]: Please talk a little bit about how and why you selected the Yotzeret Sheydim name for the project?

Alyx: Yotzeret Sheydim means "she makes demons." Really it means "making demons" but the word "making" is conjugated in the feminine, as I, the maker of the demons, am I woman. Sheydim are small mischievous demons from Jewish folklore that cause all sorts of trouble. My friend Olivia helped me pick out the name, as they are better versed in Hebrew than I, and they are a Talmud scholar, so I often go to them with my Jewish questions. I believe that each time a small demon is made, each time I make a physical object or record some audio, or even better: when I make an audio object. This demon I create I can also name and bind to metal and recording media.

M[m]: A lot of your work is themed around the occult side of Judaism. What attracted you to this subject?

Alyx: Simply put, I'm Jewish and I've always been interested in the occult, especially Jewish mysticism. The Jews have ancient and secret powers. Don't fuck with us or we will unleash The Golem again. Or maybe we will curse you with bad tax returns and fibromyalgia, it's all pretty mysterious how it works isn't it? Good. Okay but for real, magic and mystery are just cool and being raised Jewish and having been exposed to Jewish folklore gave me access to a lot of fun stories to pull from (as well as just being a voracious reader when I was young). It just felt like a natural thing to make art about for me.

M[m]: Quite a lot of your releases have quite a varied sound palette- dipping into genres other than noise. What attracts you to genre blending?

Alyx: I love different varieties of experimental music and have always been a fan of electronic music. And really, I just like exploring the boundaries of all the instruments at my disposal, so making various kinds of synthesizer music appealed to me. From techno to synthwave to noise to experimental to metal. It's all within the palettes of the instruments. There's too much music I like to just make one kind. And a lot of my releases blend because that's what the release calls for sometimes, depending on the theme and structure etc.

M[m]: How do you feel Yotzeret Sheydim has changed/ developed since you started?

Alyx: Yotzeret Sheydim has definitely maintained course as intended, summoning and binding demons to audio objects. But of course, my skills have improved over the course of time, as well as my gear and set up and knowledge. The project started as a way to make noise tangible and real into the world. And I think it's still doing what I want it to do, but even better as I improve myself.

M[m]: Please talk about your present set-up?. Has this changed/ altered since you started? And do you still have pieces of kit you still use from when you started?

Alyx: There are a few pieces of gear that I've had for longer, but I've added a lot over the years. I've owned my Roland Juno 60 since 2005. But I didn't buy my first distortion pedal (a ProCo RAT) until 2021. I use that RAT pedal in almost every track I make, and the Juno has become an iconic part of my sound. Since then, I've added several distortion pedals, contact mics, vocal mics, effects pedals, noise synths, circuitbent synths, an Arturia DrumBrute, an Arturia MiniBrute2, and an Arturia MatrixBrute. And recently I just built two small modular euroracks, The Prayer Box and the Juno Helper. The Prayer Box is a 44hp wooden case with a contact mic on the inside back panel, designed for live vocal/noise/feedback processing. The Juno Helper is a 34hp case designed to send complex clocks and rhythmic LFOs to the Juno 60's arpeggiator and filter.

M[m]: Aside from sonic creation you also made jewellery, and with some of your releases you even brought this element into their physical presentation. Please talk about when you first got into creating your own jewellery? And what made you want to connect this element with your sound creation?

Alyx: Well, I first got into making jewellery because I hated employers and wanted to break away from the trap of working for someone else's money. And I liked jewellery and wanted more in the styles I liked, and it was a craft that I figured I could do a lot of in my apartment bedroom, so I worked at a shitty beer store and spent my money buying jeweler's tools, until I quit the beer store and did crafts for a year before the pandemic etc. Anywho, I was making jewellery and other crafts for a living mostly, and I was getting into noise, and noticing all the horrible sounds I would make at the workbench. So eventually I got a contact mic and stuck it to a piece of metal and ran it through a RAT pedal and scraped and banged and drilled and hammered it and summoned and named and bound a demon to the metal and to a tape at the same time, thus creating Lesser Demon Bound In Copper 001.

M[m]: Please pick five Yotzeret Sheydim releases you are most proud of & explain why?

Alyx: Lesser Demon Bound In Copper 001-005, because it actualized my concept of summoning naming and binding sheydim to metal and tape simultaneously, thus birthing the project. Transmutation Experiments: Aleph - Yod, because it was my first real sculpture piece, and my concept of "transmutated boxset" was gorgeous once finalized. We Love To Dance, We Love To Die, because it's my longest album at 12 hours, and I love the recycled audiobook boxset aesthetic so much. Avraham, because it was a necessary part of my transition as a trans woman and as a Jew. And finally, Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation), because it is kind of a "thesis" album for the project and explains a lot of the theory behind the creation of demons and my art.

M[m]: I first became aware of Yotzeret Sheydim due to the 2021 split Scaffolding of Truth you did with Submachine Gun- which of course was one of the projects of the sadly departed trans gender wall maker Emily/Cory Adieen. How did you first become aware of her work?

Alyx: I saw Emily's work early on in joining the online noise community. She would post in the HNW Harsh Noise Wall facebook group, and I was quickly interested in her and her work. Her art and noise walls were some of the best and hardest-hitting out there as far as I could tell. We talked often about life and about creating noise, and she shared a lot of techniques with me. She was a great inspiration, and she was the first person I wanted to do a split tape with

M[m]: Following on from my last question- you went on to release a wonderful double cassette tribute to Emily’s work. Please talk about how this came about.

Alyx: Well, when Emily committed suicide, I felt that I needed to do something to help the family and to honor her memory. She was a good friend and also, to be honest, I saw a lot of myself in her. We were both transgender women, who had experienced years of homelessness, traveled around the States, and sought refuge in art and noise and weirdo communities. I felt that I needed to show the world how beautiful and loved Emily was, and in that way maybe I could inspire people to care about the other downtrodden people that need help in their lives. And to love them now before it becomes too late and all we can do is make silly little tape boxsets. Sorry, crying a bit while writing this. Hard to sum up my feelings, just go to monolithictormentforever.bandcamp.com and read and listen there. But yeah, I wanted to honour her memory and so I called out to the noise community for tribute/memorial songs, and got 108 songs in return, over 30 hours of noise for her. So, I published the submissions online, then took 55-second slices from the beginning of each track and put them all on a 96-minute tape. Then paired that with two of Emily's walls on another 96-minute tape for the boxset. I hope it was a suitable memorial for her. We also raised $400 for the family and $250 for the suicide hotline, and received enough orders to make 75 boxets, 7 of which went to the family. It was a very long and tedious way for me to grieve but it helped a lot. I still have about a dozen of her bandcamp tabs still open in a window on my computer. Grieving never really ends.

M[m]: You’ve now played live a few times with Yotzeret Sheydim- please talk about what your live set-up is? And what has been one of your favourite shows you’ve played thus far?

Alyx: My main live set-up these days is usually just The Prayer Box (my 44hp modular wooden microphone box) plus a mixer, and then usually I bring one other synth: either a drum machine, a keyboard monosynth, or a small noise synth (Mahalat or Ash'modai usually). My favourite Yotzeret Sheydim setup though was for my gallery in July 2022 where I performed using the Juno60 as well as The Divination Experiment (a giant theremin-controlled synthesizer copper sculpture). I like switching up my setup each time, but the Yotzeret Sheydim sound heavily features a combo of: Juno60 with filter feedback, noise synths Mahalat and Ash'modai, noise-modulation of the MiniBrute2, or The Prayer Box. 

M[m]: Your other solo venture is the walled/ textured noise project Wretched Crawler. Which is themed around role-playing. Talk about how you approach this project differently from Yotzeret Sheydim? Be it kit-wise or sonically?

Alyx: So WRETCHED CRAWLER isn't strictly a wall noise project, in fact only about half of that project's releases thus far are wall noise. The Thief In The Tower is wall, and the second half of Spellcrawler is wall, but the rest is dungeon synth, including the recent Suffering of The Sepulchre Slasher album. The main theme is definitely old-school roleplaying tabletop games and dark fantasy fiction. This project kind of takes all the noise and synth music I have in me about the subject/theme (which is apparently a lot) and puts it together really. Sonically, you'll see a lot more synthwave and dungeon synth and lyrics and vocals and clean synths moving forward, but there will still be some noise and wall noise along the way. But I'm really trying to move the project in an overall more dungeon synth direction. Gothic synthwave about fighting monsters in the dark with torch and dagger. 

M[m]: Your first release with V.I.L.E. which is a collab between you and US legends Richard Ramirez and Sean E. Ramirez-Matzus was recently released. Please talk a little bit about how this project came about? And any more releases in the pipeline?

Alyx: Yeah! That was a great release and really fun to record. Richard and Sean live about an hour away from me and we had met several times in the past, and my label put out a Black Leather Jesus tape for them, as well as being on the bill for a few shows together. They're incredibly nice and genuine people. And talking with Richard is great, as he is not only a queer elder but a noise elder as well! He is doing what I hope to be doing for as long as he has! Making gay experimental art for a living! So yeah, it was a total thrill to go over to their house and record with them. For that recording, the three of us each had a contact mic, Sean had some rocks, Richard had just one pedal and an amp, and I was using an early draft of The Prayer Box. They let me take the art lead on that tape and they were totally down when I suggested a queer terror project. No new recordings of us three yet, but I'm sure we will again sometime soon, I see them often.

M[m]: You’ve recently set up a label Cleaner Tapes. Please talk about why you decided to do this, and is there going to be any focus/ theme running through what you’ll release?

Alyx: Oh yeah there's definitely a focus and a theme. Cleaner Tapes is specifically a label for gay, queer, and trans artists. We are limiting submissions to LGBTQ+ artists only. We are doing this because there needs to be more gay art, always. More book burnings and more fascism means more gay art to replace what has been lost or destroyed. Cleaner Tapes aims to give back to LGBTQ+ artists and the community, in any way we can. We specialize in cassette tapes, VHS tapes, tape cleaners, and live events. We have been doing this for a year and are already on our 16th tape, which will be Farrah Faucet - Pain Body, coming out July 7th!

M[m]: From time to time, you do noise kit reviews on YouTube…please talk about how this came about?

Alyx: When I started getting into noise, I loved diving into gear reviews on YouTube, but I found them very frustrating because all the cool guitar pedals I wanted to try making noise with... they were only ever demonstrated by someone playing blues riffs on a guitar through them... boring as fuck and not what I needed. So, as I bought new pieces of gear, I started making videos for each one, showing how to use them with synths and microphones to make noise, or how I make noise using the pedal/instrument/tool. It became really fun and addictive, and I was getting a lot of positive response from the viewers, so I kept at it until I ran out of gear to review! You can find my gear reviews on the Yotzeret Sheydim YouTube channel. But now I'm a little backed up, honestly. I have a bunch of new gear that I haven't reviewed yet! So uhhh coming soon, reviews of: Electrolobotomy passive cut-up mixer, the Arturia MatrixBrute, and then I dive into modular gear reviews (I have maybe 10 modules to review lmao I'll get to this all soon enough I swear lol).

M[m]: What’s presently in the pipeline release-wise from your own projects?

Alyx: A lot! Coming soon from Yotzeret Sheydim: The Return (HaShiyvah) is a tape of grand piano and modular, self-published with book page packaging. The Book of Illumination (Sefer HaBahir) is coming out on Orb Tapes and will be experimental, noise, and drone with Kabbalah reading ASMR. Evocation Experiments 3 4 and 5 from Doughgirl Industries, varied noise on varied formats (minidisc is next). Plus, many small demons in the works always. And coming soon from WRETCHED CRAWLER: The City of Curses is a triple tape or triple CD boxset that comes with a map and dice! Also, a WRETCHED CRAWLER / Jenn Taiga split. I think that's it for now, but I'm always coming up with more ideas. 

Thanks to Alyx ILL for her time & effort with the interview. Head  here for Yotzeret Sheydim, and all of Alyx ILL related projects/ jewellery. Photo credits- front page pic Bat St Chip, first main interview pic Derek Rush, James Dattolo, Interzone Agent