The Thousands

Claire Pannell, founder of sound-bending noise night Analogue To Digital, has had her finger in just about every pie you would think to mention. You can ask her pretty much anything – from facts about soil nutrition to what was happening in the New York underground punk scene in 1985 – and she will be able to give an answer.

Although, when I went to interview her about Edition #7 of the infamous noise nights at Scitech, she warned me she might not be in top form, thanks to a particularly nasty concussion she had received a few nights earlier. But we did get to cover the important topics, like how to make your pubic hair stand up, Beauty And The Geek…

Aurora Peralta: So Claire, who’s actually playing at the show this time?
Claire Pannell: (considers for a long moment) Ah… It’s the concussion! Normally I can reel it off, but I don’t want to challenge my brain! I’ve been told by the doctors not to think too hard.

AP: It’s OK, we can come back to that. So was it you who started the whole Analogue To Digital event series?
CP: Yep. Basically I was missing working in the arts. Some friends were bringing Lawrence English over to play, but didn’t have a venue. I went and asked my boss if it would be possible to run it at Scitech. He said yes, as long as there was some kind of science or technology aspect to it. So we got Lawrence to talk about his trip to the Antarctic and doing recordings there. About 80 people came and Scitech was really happy about it. A few years before that, before I started working at Scitech, evidently there was a big rave there and the place got wrecked so they had been quite reluctant to go down what they saw as the same path… But we’re different, we’re much better behaved!

AP: Do you think people that are into experimental music are better behaved in general?
CP: I’m probably one of the worst behaved! (laughs)
AP: Or… Have some kind of respect for science?
CP: Yes. I think they’re curious types. They tend to be not so much there for the social scene as for the actual music.

AP: What’s going to be different about this edition of the event?
CP: Well, we’re teaming up with New Weird Australia and we’re going to have a special science show. Adam Burgess from Brown is going to give a talk and a demonstration of making an instrument. He’s actually going to make an instrument on the spot and then demonstrate it.  I expect it’s going to be a stringed or spring instrument, but I’m not 100% sure. We’re also having the high voltage show, the one with the lightning – you know the big thing behind the stage, in the wire cage with a Teslacoil that makes lightning and stuff.

AP: Is that the one that makes your hair stand up?
CP: Yeah, so probably someone will get to go in the cage at some point.
AP: Does it make all the hair on your body stand up?
CP: Yeah. You could probably feel it
AP: Like, can you feel your pubic hair standing up?
CP: What!? On your pubes? Maybe… But they’re probably a little bit heavy for it to have the same effect.
AP: So no-one with an afro will get picked?
CP: They’re more likely to look for someone who has fine, straight hair… Not really fair, is it!

AP: Do you remember now who’s playing?
CP: (laughs) Yes! There’s a big range. From the WAAPA world of experimental improvised noise, guys like Sam Gillies, to a young guy called Kyle Wilson, who emailed me out of the blue. Some extreme noise, some very eerie sweet stuff. I did have another woman lined up for this show but that fell through… I realise it’s a bit of a sausage fest.

AP: The Scitech staff work during the nights, right? Have you talked to them about what they think of the shows?
CP: Yeah some of them seem to enjoy it, some of them don’t get it at all. But they all enjoy working at it, because compared to some of the other functions they do, they actually like the people who come to these shows.

AP: Do you have a sense of what kind of people are coming to the shows?
CP: Some people come out of curiosity, occasionally there’s been people that say “Wow, I’ve never ever heard music like that” from the geeky nerd scene to indie-kids, and everything in between. There’s a big diversity.

AP: Do you think Analogue To Digital is doing something that’s not happening in Perth at the moment?
CP: Not necessarily, no.
AP: What are its cousins?
CP: Things like the Noizemaschin shows at the Artifactory. But those shows were kind of borne out of Analogue To Digital. I’d asked Skot [from the Artifactory] to come and do a show and tell with his machines -
AP: Is that Skot the guy with the- ?
CP: Arcophone? Yeah he’s a steam punk.
AP: What’s a steam punk!?
CP: They’re people who are into hacking, they build things, but they’re also into wearing Victorian kind of clothes. (both giggle)
AP: When I see him I always think he should be in that show Beauty And The Geek.
CP: Oh my goodness! Well, one of the guys on that show worked at Scitech, from the first series… Yeah, Skot should go on that show, but he’s happily married.

AP: Ok, second last question. Claire, do you understand all the music you hear at the Scitech shows?
CP: Yeah, I think so!
AP: Really?
CP: Yeah I do. Because I’ve heard so much different music I’m very au fait with the really experimental sound stuff, right through to improvised and indie music.

AP: Alright, last question. You know how when there’s a room full of jazz musicians, someone can play something and all the other guys will laugh, like, make musical jokes? Is that the same for noise musicians? Could Craig McElhinney make the guy from Ourobonic Plague laugh just from something he played?
CP: Well… I guess you’ll have to find out at the show!