Humanity Hating Walled Noise
Bleak Existence
m[m]:What was your first introduction to noise, and is there any one track or release that made you want to start creating your own noise?
BE Merzbow’s Pulse Demon and Whitehouse’s Quality Time, and I started doing HNW because of Vomir first,
then The Rita as I really liked both projects sound.
m[m]: The project you had before Bleak Existence was called World Downfall- was this your first project?
How did it come about? And what was the projects sound like?
BE Yes it was my first project I started it around 98 two years after I discovered Hash Noise and Power Electronics.
World Downfalls early tapes were very rough, as you can hear on the two release Freak Animal put out back then, the project slowly transformed into more euro PE sound- I stopped it after ‘when the world ends’ CD
m[m]:Have you ever thought of going back to doing Power Electronics again? And do you still listen to PE today & if so who?
BE Sometime I think about bringing World Downfall back from the ashes, but it's never happened yet, and I do not see it happening soon but who know. Yeah sometime I still listen to power electronics, and when I do its classic euro and American unit stuff.
m[m]: How, why and when did Bleak Existence come about?
BE Because I wanted to do a more direct and less complex work than with world downfall. I was sick of doing vocal and electronics composition so that the reason why Bleak Existence started early 2007.
m[m]:According to discogs Bleak Existence first release was 2008’s ‘Life's A Bitch and Then You Die’- is this correct? What did this release sound like compared with you more recent work? BE no the first release was ‘Fraught With Anguish’ on Vomir’s Maison Bruit label it was recorded in 2007- compared to now it was more simple and direct kind of HNW
m[m]:You mentioned that your first release came out of Vomir label maison bruit- when did you first come in contact with Vomir?
BE I found his old Maison Bruit website on the net so a couple of months before my release. I contacted Romain( Vomir) via email and asked him if he wanted to release my work on his label, I sent him the master tape and he liked the material and accepted to release it on CDR
m[m]:You released a few releases in 2008- 2009, then went quite until 2011- were you working on other projects during this time, or had you just lost the need to make HNW?
BE No because my gf was pregnant with my son at that time, and because I was living in a place without any gear
m[m]:Tell us a little bit about your present set-up?. And has it changed over the years?
BE The set up has always changed over the years- I’ve brought so much different pedal and generator-
sell buy sell buy vicious circle. Right now I use a zoom ultra fuzz and a zoom power drive with a contact mic to my turntable or white pink brown noise from my laptop… but for how long?
m[m]:Have you played live with either of your projects? And if so how was it like?
No I never played live with Bleak Existence maybe in the future it will happen we’ll see, but I was supposed
to do a show with Slogun and Skm Etr when I was doing World Downfall, but the guy who was in charge to finding
a venue for us in Montreal changed is mind so it never happened
m[m]:How do you think the HNW scene has changed over the years? and what do you think has been positive & negative?
BE More people more projects new idea some good some bad
m[m]:All of your work has a very nihilistic / humanity hating theme to it- what are you thoughts on walled artists
who use more light/ pop culture related themes?
BE I do not care about that, what they are thinking and how their life is- it’s not mine! Bleak Existence is my sound, and that’s all that matters
m[m]:Tell us a little bit about your working process? How long does it take you to create a wall? Ect?
BE Rehearsal, test repeat until I find a good sound- I work slowly no need to hurry.
m[m]:So you don’t release everything you record? BE Oh no not at all I release only what I consider worthwhile- better to put out a few good recordings than many bad one
m[m]::Have you got anything new in the works at present? BE Split with vomir on narcolepsia and couple of other releases
m[m]:What are the new releases going to sound like?
BE No fixed idea for the moment, but the source will be a raw metallic one I think…
m[m]: What has been your favourite release from Bleak Existence thus far, and explain why? BE Uncertainty & Insecurity because it was hand made- I like the texture used on it very much. I prefer my
releases made with a raw source, than the one made with white noise, but I still like both
m[m]:You talk about liking the raw sound source on Uncertainty & Insecurity- what was the source on this release? And what sources would you like to use in the future? BE It was a realistic walkman from the 80's set to Am- I manipulating the headphone jack to an amp to create the textural static. In the future anything will be used from wood to metal to noise generator, cause like I said I love both raw and electronics source
m[m]:What kind of stuff do you listen to day in day out? And is it all noise, or do you listen to other genres? BE Sober I listen to nothing except noise and silence, drunk I listen to anything that is good from any style that I like
m[m]:What’s your local noise scene like? And are they any projects you like?
BE There is no local scene in my region except me and my friend project { }
Thanks to Bleak Existance for agreeing to do the interview. The project doesn’t have its own web presence at the moment- but if you head over to here you can see (most!) of what the project has put out thus far.