DRONE NOT DRONES (one week late)
There was no post last week. This is, as they say, a bummer. Let’s just say that both life events and events in the larger world put me back on my heels, a bit.
My intent was to write a post ahead of the Drone Not Drones event, here in Minneapolis. While that might seem tone-deaf and hiding-head-in-the-sand, given the current daily unfolding chaos we’re in, I‘m going to try to explain why I don’t think that is the case. At all.
This is going to take a minute.
The tenth Drone Not Drones happened this past weekend, starting Jan 24 at 7 and running continuously for 28 hours, ending Saturday the 25th at 11PM. It happens every year at the Cedar Cultural Center, here in Minneapolis. All proceeds from the event (as always) go to Doctors Without Borders.
What happens is this (every year): it fires up at 7PM. The first act/ group/ whatever starts playing (usually for a 1/2 hour or so), and as they are wrapping up, the next performer is setting up on the other side of the stage; there is a period where both acts are playing together as one ends (and quietly packs up) and the other begins “their” set. This process continues continually, through the evening, through the night, and the next day. About 80 different bands/ performers cycle through, playing every instrument you can think of (and many you can’t). Everything happens on the fly, without a ton of direction (but Luke and Alex make sure it all works). People attending bring sleeping bags and lie on the floor for the whole thing. Or (like me) they dip in and out, catching what they can for as long as they can manage.
But, the sound never stops. For 28 hours.
Thats all you are doing. That’s what you're there for.
If you think I am writing here about an interesting, abstract, fancy rarified artist niche type deal, I understand that. Culturally, that’s how we view these sorts of things (bring up the term “drone music” and watch the face of the person you said it to). And to be honest, how I have viewed them, in the past: I’m a weirdo who likes weird shit. Slowly, over the 10 or so years I’ve been attending this event, that viewpoint has eroded. Not because anyone told me so or explained it to me, but because I now believe it’s a natural (and maybe inevitable) byproduct of the event itself and what happens at it, whether you like it or not. Which is, in a nutshell, sitting in a room with a bunch of strangers, not talking and listening to people make sound. Not songs, sound. All kinds of sound.
Slowly, over the years, just doing this thing— both performing* at it (and even more so) sitting for extended hours taking it in— it changed my relationship to sound, and art, and probably everything else. Take that as you will.
This year was a bit different. For obvious reasons. Maybe the difference between “hey, I love this community art situation” and “I NEED THIS REAL BAD (for reasons I can’t completely explain)”. Even though I didn’t get to be there as much as I would’ve liked (but my 7 hour stretch Saturday did the job), I left with a pretty deep conviction— not that I “blocked out” or “avoided” the both literal and metaphorical fires burning everywhere, but that I got myself in a better state to deal with them. And I left with the certainty that if everyone engaged in this (or some version of this), just as a ”normal” practice, we would not be living in our current dystopian shitshow.
And that the very idea that this is “weird art shit, by and for weirdos”, is actually the problem.
Here’s the thing: when I started going to this, I had some knowledge (and affinity) for the (so-called) Noise/ Drone “genre”, so I was interested and I went. It wasn’t entirely what I expected. Firstly, that “drone” music is actually a definable “thing”, any more than you could define “pop music” in broad strokes. In fact, I think it bangs up pretty hard against people’s perception of “music”. There’s rarely structure, and “playing notes” is optional at best. This can be a very intimidating and difficult thing for people who are used to those elements defining “music” to swallow. It probably sounds like a bunch of god damned noise to some. Or snooty. Which, sometimes, it is. But sometimes it‘s a women’s choir, or a guy playing (really long) notes on a tuba (with a ton of delay), or a harpist or (this year) some of the most astounding, beautiful classical guitar playing I’ve ever witnessed in my life.
The scope and range of it would surprise you; some of it pastoral and peaceful, some aggressive, or pure noise (which, believe it or not, can also be peaceful), and all points in between. I don’t want to claim that I love everything, every act, every year. Some of it just doesn’t connect with me, for whatever reason. And that’s fine, because a 1/2 hour from now it’ll change. But, every year I get multiple 4-5 hour stretches where it‘s totally immersive, and you find yourself just gone. Your (another loaded word—language really is a pain in the ass) consciousness changes, period. Time gets real weird, then disappears.
But the more I went to it, the more I became convinced that if you can get past that initial shock of what you’re used to and what you’re expecting— if you just shut up and listen, you’ll get it. No matter who you are.
Shut up. Calm down. Just listen and pay attention to what’s happening; not on your phone, or across the country, or rattling around in your messy skull. What’s occurring right in front of you, right now. Can you do that? It’s not easy (at first anyway). But then, can you Do it for 3 hours? 7?
If you can, things change. That‘s not art speak, or even my opinion; I’m saying to you, it does. That is what happens.
I honestly think that it taps into something (if you let it) that humans have been doing since…there’s been humans, predating notes and scales and recorded structured sound by thousands— probably hundreds of thousands of years. That‘s not woo-woo hippie shit, either— that’s actual context. To my knowledge, just about every culture since homo sapiens showed up has used/ made sound to gather together (for varied purposes). Pretty hard to find something that everyone has in common, these days, across all spectrums. It wasn’t “entertainment”, it was something different than that. It had a different purpose. The chances that your ancestors, somewhere down the line— whatever race, belief system, geographic place on the map they hailed from— didn’t engage in this is zero. And they did it for a LONG TIME before a piano and the musical staff (or Led Zeppelin IV) showed up. I think it’s still in there, and it still counts.
And that, I think, is the larger point, and what changed me in some way. Because that experience is something I think we’re all missing and needing in the world, right now. Probably more than ever. At Drone Not Drones, you just sink in. You’re not consuming and it’s not entertainment. Time becomes irrelevant, and you’re not even really “listening” anymore; it’s just happening, and you are doing nothing. And in this case doing nothing is not only OK, it’s good, and exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.
And you are doing it in a room full of people who are doing the exact same thing.
Not for 5 or 10 minutes, or an hour. On your phone. Talking to people, or running through your mind that this is bullshit freaky noise and there’s no melody or lyrics and you hate it (and maybe everyone around you). Don’t do anything else, just this. Do it for a couple hours**.
I’ve seen drone shows that made me cry (Basinski. Go listen to the Disintegration Loops, if you haven’t already), and drone shows that stunk (no comment). Why did they stink? Because someone played a wrong note? Performed badly? None of those things really pertain, so it must be something else. Why was it really good, and deeply affecting, when it’s just someone with a tape loop and some bells? Heck if I know. It’s fucking magic.
Again, all this is explaining something that probably can’t and shouldn’t be explained: if you go, and you do the thing, this is what happens. If you go to the gym and work out, you get tired. If you sit on your phone and doom scroll, you lose your fucking mind, if you punch someone they very well could punch you back.
Go sit in a room full of quiet people intent on listening to shifting beds of sound, you get this. I’m not trying to convince you (or anyone) that this is the case, or define it for anyone and I don’t care if you don’t believe me. In fact, that’s great. Prove me wrong. Go DO IT.
And when you’re done, the panic and awfulness didn’t go anywhere. Or the anger. It’s all still there. But maybe you're on top of IT, instead of the other way around.
“Meditative”, yes. But like all these explanations of “art stuff” I'm engaging in, here, meditation still for many (including me, for a long time, until I learned better) had a connotation as well; a non-mainstream practice (at least in the western world) for people who engage in an esoteric, sub-spiritual or religious practice, to be viewed with… I don’t know; suspicion? Learning to reckon and deal with your own brain as opposed to spewing your undealt-with thoughts and emotions all over everyone else should be job #1 for an adult human. And practicing that skill should NOT be esoteric mumbo jumbo. Science is getting pretty on board with this, which is nice, but just practically, I’m not sure I can think of anything more effective right now, in making a less awful world to try to live in. Do whatever you need to, but Drone Not Drone gets me there (And it seems to do that to some extent for everyone that shows up. Have I mentioned there’s no signs or directions anywhere that says “hey try not to talk or disturb anyone?” that everyone just kind of gets it on their own? Feels normal there, but write and send me a list of other places that spontaneously occurs, these days).
For 6 or 7 years now, I’ve had the thought: “this should not be happening JUST in Minneapolis, once a year. This should happen every month. Or every week. And it should happen any and every damn where.”
A place where you can go, and sit quietly, with other people, and maybe find some solace. Some community. Some peace. Just for a while. Maybe think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Then go back out into the messy world, but maybe adding less mess to it.
I’ve been a real chickenshit about firing it up, but pretty soon I’ll be starting something along those lines. I need it more than once a year, and maybe you do too. It’s called <MASS>. It’ll be small, and just here in Minneapolis, to start. If it works I’ll let you all know and maybe you can do it where you are. Or I’ll come there. Or something.
A few years back, I lost my shit. I’ll spare you the details (for now). The TWO things I found, totally by accident, that reeled me back in (temporarily) were digging in the dirt in my back yard and watching lava floes (the Werner Herzog doc got me going on this, btw. Highly recommended). Neither one was “I’m connecting to nature” or purposeful in any way shape or form. I started pulling up weeds and 2 hours later I just realized “that’s the only 2 hours you haven’t been losing your mind in months”. Same with lava; just watching film of that…I didn’t feel “happy” or “better”. Just calm. I’m not going to even try to explain it. But I think there’s something there. In fact, I KNOW there is. It’s the throb that’s always been there, and always will be. It’s true whether you like it or not, call it whatever you want.
Sound Baths, EDM, Drone, Electronic, Trance…it‘s all window dressing and splitting hairs that I don’t care about or have time for. The fact that we ignore it and discount it and choose to not pay attention to it or give it it’s due, or put it in a box separate from “normal life”…for me, that’s the bigger picture. That’s why we’re all out of our minds.
It’s not weird that I'm writing about it in these terms. It’s weird that we made it weird. Got this postcard from my friend Dan today (he said it was ok to put up). Maybe this says it all.
Ok that’s all. I’m sorry I didn’t get this done before it actually happened. But here it is, now.
Hang in there, everyone.
Zak
*this year with SWAM; my pals Tim Rutili of Califone/ Red Red Meat, Joe Plummer of Black Heart Procession/ Modest Mouse/ Shins, etc etc etc, and me. I’ll write more about that at some point, too. We’ve been cooking up something, which will or won‘t become…a record. Maybe 3 records. Hard to tell.
**How, you say? Well. Drone Not Drones releases the entire thing on Bandcamp each year, so go here and give it a shot (and again, if you want to purchase it, proceeds to Doctors Without Borders). But I will add the caveat (and this is another long piece of writing I will get to, but it’d muddy the waters right now) that this year it was abundantly clear to me that live and in person is…a different animal entirely. You’re listening to something that happened a long time ago, instead of RIGHT NOW. In a way I can’t articulate, listening to it while it’s not actually happening is apples and oranges. Still great, but not the same. Probably back to that DNA thing, I don’t know.
tkntz
you can listen to all the years here, if you want.