Getting downloaded with and by Safetynet

 

The artist at home

On December 25, 2023, Safetynet abruptly dropped her debut album, you will be downloaded into heavens web. I’ve known her for a while, and I resolved to ask her questions about her process. And now, almost exactly two months afterwards, the interview is finally available for public consumption.

Introduce yourself

Luxia: Hi, I’m Luxia Lain. I’m 21 years old, I live in Philly. (She/her)

How long have you been making music?

Luxia: I’ve had a musical background since childhood, but I really started messing with music technology through high school. I got really interested in producing my own electronic music when I was around that age, like 16 or 17. When I had a DAW to mess around with, for funsies.

WC: What are we listening to?

Luxia: This is Coil, Red Skeletons. This whole album is really good. It’s all, like, droning industrial sounds*.

Why do you keep changing the name of the project?

Luxia: I guess FAERIEFOUNTAIN was an exploration of the concepts I wanted to put out in music. And it felt like the phrases that encompass what my music is about. I always want my music to be very atmospheric, and there’s a focus on mood and energy at the forefront. So I guess when something feels like it doesn’t click with the mood of what I’m creating, then I would rather use a different name. Safetynet feels like an all encompassing term for the universe of music and art that I create. I still resonate with past pseudonyms that I’ve used, but I don’t feel like they’re representative of the things I create right now.

When did you start working on You Will Be Downloaded Into Heaven’s Web?

Luxia: I guess the first real creation I had from it was the last few songs on the album. Like Misted Soil and Warped Girl I had worked on throughout my first year of college. Before then I had been exploring making house beats and ambient projects. But my first committed project was as FAERIEFOUNTAIN when I released those two songs. And I just gradually followed that with, I guess a response to the sounds I created before as a profile of music.

WC: When did you decide to make it a full album rather than just being tracks?

Luxia: They kind of just accumulated, to be honest. Like, I… (coughs really violently) I feel like I have a tendency to revisit projects a lot, and set them down when I feel overwhelmed. Because making music is about being in a neutral state where I can focus creatively. So I kind of realized that I’ve been accumulating a lot of material that I didn’t show to anyone. I have been very secretive about the things that I create, because I didn’t feel like I was ready to show people what I was working on. At least until it reached, like, my vision of art. I think when I had accumulated 5 or 6 songs that felt like they encompassed the same general vibe, I was like “I could make a thing out of this”.

What did you produce it on?

Luxia: Logic. My computer isn’t charging right now, so I’m a little worried about that. And I just downloaded Ableton on my pc, so maybe I’ll switch it up. I’ve been meaning to learn, but the interface feels inaccessible, almost. There’s a little bit of a learning curve to understanding where everything is.

WC: What about hardware?

Luxia: A lot of my music is a similar repertoire of instrumentation as live performance. So I use my synth as a melodic instrument. It’s also really good for creating textural beats. But otherwise I just run random shit through an interface and chop up samples when I’m releasing my own music. A lot of it is just sampling and software, like modular synths. I’m attached to my hardware synth and pedal setup, so I like to incorporate that a lot too. I always try to see where I can fit it into something. 

Is the album about anything?

Luxia: Not particularly, I always think of music as a way to leverage my art into sound. There are moments on the album that have attached meaning to them. HRT Ballad is about dysphoria, if you listen to the lyrics. A lot of them have suggested meaning, but I don’t think I really attach myself too much to conceptual work.

What was the last part of the album finished?

Luxia: I think it was probably the third track, Cattail, was one of the first songs I started working on. But I just couldn’t get it mixed the way I wanted to, and I found myself getting really frustrated. So that was towards the end of the process when I was mixing everything together, and I wanted to fit this last song into the profile of the album. That definitely caused me the most trouble.

Where was the cover photo taken?

Luxia: I was in my car, I think my ex-boyfriend was driving me around, and the sky was really clear. I didn’t think too hard about the album cover, I might reupload a different album cover if something strikes my mind. I don’t know, I think I just like it as an ambient representation of what I’m trying to put forward. I wanted it to be low effort.

WC: I did consider trying to zoom in on the cover and see if I could find it based on the highway marker.

Luxia: It was on 295 I think. Let me take a look, ‘cause I don’t want to spew misinformation.

(Luxia spends nearly 20 seconds investigating the cover art on her phone in silence. Commerce Server by Oval is playing.)

Luxia: Oh yeah, this is definitely 295. This is near Marlton, probably, the sky’s pretty clear, ‘cause it’s really open space.

Live at Haus 1/26/24

Where’s the sample on Before We Go 2 Sleep from?

Luxia: Gabbie Hanna. It’s this video where, I’m pretty sure she’s in psychosis, God bless her, she’s, like, talking about homeless babies on the street. Just, like, meaningless rambling, like it’s so fucked up, the babies are on the street, and they’re praying for each other. I was like “good intro for shitty techno house” (laughing).

WC: Yeah, I guess.

What do you think are the best ten seconds of the album?

Luxia: I think my favorite part to look back on is always the endings of Stratosphere Staircase, Glass Butterfly Breaks, and Before We Go 2 Sleep all separately I think are fun little ten second things. The portion in Before We Go 2 Sleep where I use a repeater and chopped up breaks was fun for me to listen back to. I think there are some points in the first two songs that are mixed particularly well towards the end. Like when the overdriven kick in Glass Butterfly Breaks starts coming in. I remember playing that for people in the hospital, and them dancing to it, and it was very silly.

What are some of your favorite music artists?

Luxia: Currently I’ve been listening to a lot of witch house and sleaze. I’ve been listening to Snow Strippers and damon r. And Extra Small. But I think some of my all time favorite artists are Rezzett, Tim Hecker. A lot of notable electronic musicians are really important to me. Like, SOPHIE will always hold a place in my heart.

WC: A while ago Sam (friend of the blog, ETOX) said something about you and Raina (friend of the blog, Stranglet) to the effect of “I’m they hadn’t met before, given they’re both jewish trans girls who nearly named themselves Lain and love Bogdan Raczynski”.

Luxia: Yeah, Bogdan Raczynski is crucial to my music making process, I think about him constantly. I feel like for the first year of DJing, he made it into all of my mixes at least once or twice, just because it was such a good repertoire of breaks.

WC: Now I’m picturing taking that one album cover of his and taping it to your bedroom wall so you can wake up making eye contact with him.

Luxia: “Hello Bogdan, how are you? I’m soo good, I was just thinking about you, just wanted to let you know I care”

WC: just roll over and make eye contact with him.

Luxia: Ohmygod, heyyyy! I kind of would like that, I would ask a lot of questions.

What are some of your favorite non-musical artists?

Luxia: I’ve always been a fan of Yoshitomo Nara’s work. I really like soft sculpture particularly, and I remember looking at his gallery work and seeing the soft sculpture of teacups. I also really admire a lot of artists in my personal circle, different fiber, sculpture, printmaking artists. I always have admired my old professor Lauren Packer Dooney. She makes really crazy silkscreen and litho and all kinds of printing on fabric. Like crazy monotypes, really cool sculptural woodcuts. I really like mixed media, I think it's all very interesting.

WC: Are you at all a video game person?

Luxia: Yeah, for sure. I go in between phases of playing things, for a while it was, like, playing Bayonetta for hours a day. We love Katamari, and Katamari Damacy are some of my favorites. Big fan of any weird RPGs, like Hylics and Hylics 2.

WC: I kind of figured, I love Hylics.

Luxia: It’s by far one of my favorite pieces of art, I just really admire it. I made Hylics fanart in high school, and Mason Lindroth liked it, and responded to my dm. And it made me so happy, ‘cause he was behind the scoring for Hylics, and I really love a lot of the weird, droning, guitar shit.

WC: Oh, yeah. The Hylics soundtrack is one of my favorite game OSTs.

Luxia: For sure, for sure.

WC: It’s all such a mess, and it works so well.

Luxia: I also like the incorporation of more structured music in different parts of the game. There’s moments where I’m really locked in, and moments where I feel like I’m supposed to be smoking and lackadaisically wandering about

What’s the best show you’ve ever played?

Luxia: That's a good question. I think in terms of the most fun for me, I played hardcore night at Xenon, and that was very chill. But I also love performing any noise act, any time I get to perform with my hardware. I had a great time at Yarga this past week, actually, I think that was one of my favorite sets to do*. I was most satisfied with the end result, and I was glad to have a repertoire of music to showcase.

What’s your go to pre show meal?

Luxia: Water, and, like… I forget to eat a lot before performances, I usually try to fuel up on snacks.

WC: I ask most people I interview that, and they almost always say they’re too anxious to eat anything substantial.

Luxia: Yeah, I don’t eat anything real before a set, it's not on my mind. I think I get very one track minded when I’m trying to set everything up. It's always I have to get my actual live shit together, and then I immediately focus on sound testing. I tend to get ready pretty last minute for sets, unless it's a rave, ‘cause building up a playlist is a long endeavor.

Do you want to plug anything before we wrap up?

Luxia: Um, no, I have nothing. Check out my soundcloud, I post noise tapes and unreleased mixes there.

You can find you will be downloaded into heaven’s web here, on the aforementioned Soundcloud page

At Legoland 2/3/24

 Footnotes

“droning industrial sounds*.” She was playing music off of her phone throughout the entire interview, I only recognized one track she played, but if you want to recreate the experience, throw on whatever glitchy ambientish computer music you feel. I recommend Sora - re.sort.

“I think that was one of my favorite sets to do*.” This show was Safetynet, Grey0, St. Sol, and Custom Drum Destroyer (project of me and friend of the blog Sam) at Haus (of Yarga) on January 26, 2024. Shows how long I took to edit this.

Riffing with Guitar about Casting Spells On Turtlehead

 

The artist at home

A couple weeks ago, I sat down with Portland’s Guitar to talk about his new EP, Casting Spells on Turtlehead. I was introduced to his music last summer, and I was immediately hooked by his incredible guitar (noun) sound and songwriting. Now, through the magic of RSS feeds, you can witness our conversation.

Introduce yourself

Saia: My name is Saia, my pronouns are he/him. I make music under the project Guitar, I also play guitar for my friend's band Nick Normal.

How did the Guitar project come to be?

Saia: During lockdown. I had always done rock stuff, I had a band previously called Gary Supply. It was more of a DEVO-inspired egg punk sort of thing. And then I did hip-hop during the covid lockdown, I sold beats and stuff, and got really into using Ableton. And then when shows started happening again, I was inspired to get back into doing rock stuff again. So I took my skills from Ableton, and I started doing some early Guitar demos. And it was from those demos that it started to come together. It’s sort of a solo project, for the most part, but we have a live band. 

Why did you choose the name Guitar?

Saia: I had a whole bunch of ideas, and I brought them to my brother and my other friend, who was in Gary Supply. And I pitched them to them, and when I said Guitar they started dying laughing, And I was like, “alright that’s the one”. Like, it's funny, but it’s also like, I think it's cool, you know?

What were you going for with Casting Spells on Turtlehead, and how does that differ from previous releases?

Saia: I think the first Guitar EP, it was just self titled, was just a collection of ideas. I came up with the name right before I made that project, but I had the demos floating around. So that was a little all over the place, I think there was a weird, Quasimodo-influenced hip hop song as an interlude. And some of the stuff was still influenced by my older influences, like CCTV and Toneheads and stuff. But I feel like this one has a bit more of an identity to it. It’s a bit more cohesive I feel like, ‘cause I have been planning it out, and picking songs more carefully.

WC: It’s funny you mention Quasimodo influence on the self titled EP. I was listening to it while walking home from work earlier today. And when I got to that track, I thought to myself “I should ask him if this was influenced by Quasimodo”.

Saia: Honestly, Quasimodo, and Madlib in general, is like, my favorite artist. I think there’s some influence on the way I do things, even when I’m doing indie rock, from MF DOOM and Quasimodo. Just kind of the weirdo element, that’s what I really love.

The guitar tones on Spells are a lot more processed than on your previous releases, was that a conscious choice?

Saia: Really, I think I got even more comfortable in Ableton. There’s a couple songs where I mic an amp, but a lot of the songs on the new project are just direct in, and I have some cheesy free amp plugins I use to get distortion sounds. So some of it was I found some sick free plugins. When I write stuff, I usually just work on a demo, and polish it until it becomes the finished track. A lot of that stuff I just found a preset and was like “oh, this is sick! I’m gonna use this”. So the song is kind of formed around how the demo sounds initially, and the things I try right at the beginning. It’s not like I write the song on acoustic guitar and sort of plot it out, it all happens while I’m demoing. And, I really love demoing, that helps me. ‘Cause I’ve worked on projects before where I recorded into a 4-track, like all of my old band’s stuff. And I feel like by the time we were done making a song, we all kind of hate them, we go through rounds and rounds of re-recording and editing. But when I do it in Ableton it’s so fast, and I can flesh out ideas really quickly. And by the time it’s done I still really enjoy it. And I’m hoping that you can hear when you listen to the recordings. I think on this EP also, with this heavier guitar sound, I was listening to tons of Weezer’s Blue Album, and I was like “I want to do that”.

What’s the record about, if it’s about anything?

Saia: It’s very stream of consciousness. Probably my favorite rock artist is Guided By Voices, and the way that Robert Pollard writes lyrics is how I like to think about writing lyrics. I come up with a melody, and from there on it’s random stuff that fits it. There are some themes to this record, I feel like. There are certain songs where I was definitely thinking about something. Like the opening track, My City My Rules. I grew up in Portland, but even though I grew up here and played all my early shows here, I still felt like a bit of an outsider in the music scene. It was hard to book shows and get into it for a long time. So it was kind of a joke, ‘cause even though I’m from here, it's not like I run this city or anything. But also, it was kind of like, I should have a place in this scene, ‘cause most of the people in Portland are transplants from somewhere else. But luckily with the people I run with in the Portland scene, I really wouldn’t be able to keep on doing music if it wasn’t for them helping me out, and putting me on, and getting me on shows, So I’m really thankful for that. That was just kind of one thing. I’m also really big into Dungeons & Dragons, and that’s sort of the name, it has sort of a mystical, outsider art kind of sound to it. And I think that my approach to a lot of lyrics is sort of influenced by an outsider art perspective.

 

Spells is being jointly released by Spared Flesh and Julia’s War Records, how did that arrangement come about?

Saia: It just kind of happened. I liked Julia’s War for a while, my buddies in Fib, they’re on Julia’s War, they used to live in Portland. I actually had a hardcore band that they both played in called Kuli. But they put me onto them, and I’d been listening to their roster. And Doug from Julia’s War came into town with TAGABOW, I saw them, and my buddy Nikhil introduced me to him. And Doug was a really nice guy, he was stoked on one of the songs off the old EP. And so I reached out to him later on, and he was down to co-release it. To backtrack, I had already done the last EP on Spared Flesh. Sebastian is a buddy of mine, and does a really great job with his label. I already knew I wanted to release it on Spared Flesh, and then when the opportunity came about with Julia’s War, I was like “let’s do a co-release”. I saw that they had done a couple of those, and there’s some heads out in Philly that want to hear guitar music. Are you out in Philly?

WC: Yeah

Saia: Oh, hell yeah!

WC: Incidentally, I got introduced to your music because I was talking to Charlie of Fib at one of their shows. And he mentioned a proposed Guitar East Coast tour that got canceled. He was like “yeah, you should check this out, it’s really good” so I downloaded Element of Surprise and it knocked my socks off.

Saia: Yeah, Charlie’s the man, man. He’s like, the best drummer.

WC: Yeah, it feels like the entire ethos of Fib is writing music that’s at the very edge of their own technical ability.

Saia: I love Fib, they write really heady tracks, but it’s super catchy and also, like, wild time signatures and they lock in so hard. Me and my partner have talked about moving out to Philly, ‘cause there’s so much good music going on, and it is more affordable than Portland.

WC: It does feel like Philadelphia is the place to be for underground guitar bands currently, though I’m kind of biased. It would be pretty funny if there ends up being a trend of Portlanders releasing stuff on Julia’s War and then moving across the country to Philly.

Saia: I could see it happening. Actually, my buddies from a different band, Parlor Hour, are moving to the East Coast, to New York. They’re really sick too, you should check them out if you get the chance.

What’s your favorite 10 second stretch of Spells?

Saia: Probably the intro to One Unit Of Chaos. It’s a sample of some weird Youtube show. It’s not even a show that I watch, I was just listening to Soundcloud beats, and it was some random crappy beat I heard where they sampled part of that show. And I was like “yo, I wanna do that too”. That’s probably my favorite ten seconds, it just randomly worked out.

WC: I always like opening a song with a non-sequitur sample.

Saia: It’s also something I liked to do when I was producing beats ‘cause I was such a big Quasimodo fan. I’d love to do more of that, but it’s kind of hard to find the right sample.

What tunings do you use?

Saia: Everything’s in D Standard. On the first EP everything was pitch shifted. I think I wasn’t used to hearing my voice singing, ‘cause I would yell in everything else, the hip hop and the hardcore stuff. So I was really uneasy hearing myself sing a tune, but when I pitched it up or down I was like, alright, “that sounds cool”. But I think this EP I got way more comfortable, and knowing that I have a live band, I figured I’d do it all without pitch shifting.

WC: I was going to ask what your recording setup is, but by the sound of things it's all direct-in to Ableton.

Saia: Basically, yeah, I’m in my garage right now, this is where the magic happens. I have a little Orange amp, like one of those solid state tiny ones. Just a tiny one that I set on my desk, and then I have one mic, and Ableton. The drums were recorded at my buddy Nikhil’s studio, and he has a sweet setup. I don’t know what he’s got going there, but it’s nice.

Who are some of your favorite music artists?

Saia: Guided By Voices, and all of the associated bands. Robert Pollard also has this group called Teenage Guitar, which I thought was funny. I found that out after I had the name Guitar, and there’s some really cool tracks on there. Yeah, Guided By Voices, The Sundays, love The Sundays. I think everyone loves The Sundays.

WC: I’ve never heard of them.

Saia: Oh, you should check them out! Charlie put me onto that too, funnily enough. Quasimodo, MF DOOM, and YMO. I love Yellow Magic Orchestra, for a long time that was my favorite band. And yeah, Weezer, love early Weezer. And then, for modern bands, TAGABOW, Fib, a lot of the bands off the Julia’s War roster, Worlds Worst, really fuckin good.

Who are some of your favorite non-music artists?

Saia: I do like James Joyce a lot, at least I really like Finnegan’s Wake. I sometimes read it for lyrical inspiration, it’s just so out there and strange. A lot of the visual art that I, I guess look at, it’s music artists who do art. Like Captain Beefheart’s paintings, I really like the artwork he does. Same with Robert Pollard, I really like a lot of his visual art. But I can’t say that I’m an art head, or aficionado, or anything. I just see stuff and fuck with it, and that’s about it (laughs).

What’s the scene like in Portland?

Saia: The scene feels smaller than what I perceive the East Coast scene to be. But it’s cool, people come out to shows and have a good time. Sometimes it can get a little cliquey, it kind of depends on the scene. Like hardcore, and screamo, and Portlands had a long running emo scene that's kind of cool. There’s little pockets of it, I think that’s to be expected from a city that’s not as big as Los Angeles, or Philly, or New York. But it’s cool, I do miss some of the DIY venues that were around before COVID. I remember going to a lot of really cool house shows, but a lot of those venues died off during lockdown. It’s mostly bar shows, although now there’s starting to be some house shows popping up. Yeah, I think DIY is doing good over here, I can’t really knock it.

WC: My own personal experience is with the Philly scene, which is very rooted in the various colleges in the city. Does Portland have a college scene?

Saia: It doesn’t really. It has, like, PSU, but the other schools that are more known are University of Oregon, in Eugene, and OSU in Corvallis. I think those towns have good shows, I just don’t play there that often. But yeah, I can imagine that being a big driver for the scene out there.

WC: Yeah.

Saia: But I think Portland’s interesting. There’s all kinds of different acts and genres that end up commingling. You get weird lineups with hip hop, and hardcore, and indie, a good mix of stuff. I think of the shows I go to out here, my favorite’s are the hardcore stuff. I think one thing that’s really popping out here. Like Olympia, and Portland, and the Bay Area, and Los Angeles. Hardcore is just so fun, so many good bands, good venues, such a cool energy.

What’s your go to pre show meal?

Saia: Like two Guinnesses, probably (laughs). I think there’s probably enough calories there to be considered a meal. I don’t know, I don’t like to perform on a super full stomach. Even though I’ve been doing shows for so long, I still get kind of anxious about it, so I usually don’t eat until afterwards.

Do you have anything you want to plug/shout out other than your own music?\

Saia: I’ll shout out the band I play guitar in, Nick Normal. Nick is the Portland head, he’s been doing it for a long time, and doing it right. I think that without his encouragement, I don’t know if I would still be messing around with rock stuff to the extent that I do. Gotta shout him out, his music’s really cool, he has an album in the works. My friends, including Nick, they have another metal band called 22RE, they’re sick, you should check out their tape. It’s like, crossover thrash metal. And they don’t talk about it very much, but they formed in McMurdo Station, Antarctica. They all did a demolition job for a couple months in McMurdo, and they had a jam room there, and that’s where they wrote all the songs for the EP. And my friend's band, Kill Michael, they’re really sick, I don’t know how to describe it, there’s a little nu metal influence. And they’re really good people, my friend Zoe from that band, who did the screamo vocals at the end of Unleashed, he’s a really cool guy, does all kinds of cool art. I shouted out Parlor Hour, they’re really sick, good songwriters. Yeah, that’s all I can think of now. And yeah, for the most part I’m just doing Guitar-oriented music now, I would like to get back into beats eventually, but I’ve just been really inspired by guitar stuff now.

You can buy Casting Spells On Turtlehead here (digital only at the moment).