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A behind the scenes look at the making of the ultimate horror-film foley device: The Nightmare Machine.

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I would describe my Uncle Ambo (not his real name, “uncle” is an honorific title) as simultaneously the most intimidating and most loving person I've ever met in my life.

Ambo strikes a figure. He has a long Gandolf-style beard that reaches clear down past his chest. His yard is full of garden beds and BBQ equipment. I've never met anyone with so many tools. Routers, drills, presses, planers, joiners, you name it, he's got it. And he’s prepared for the end of the world. If there’s a zombie apocalypse, I’m going to Ambo’s house, first thing.

I've known Ambo for many years. We met because we ran in the same circle of people. At first, I thought he was the biggest dick. He was incredibly rude and brash to me the first time we met. I kept my distance for a good three years. Of course, I was friendly, but still, I gave him a wide berth.

As it turns out, Ambo only respects people who challenge him. It wasn't until I seriously dug into him, made fun of, and got really in his face in an incredibly aggressive way that he opened up. Not too much longer after that would I come to discover how deeply he cared about everyone and their well-being. If he saw someone about to get hurt, I have little doubt that he would step in and do the right thing, even if it messed him up. There’s stories there, but you’ll have to ask him about it.

Nonetheless, I mean it when I say it: Uncle Ambo is simultaneously the most intimidating and most loving person I've ever met.

I was blessed to live close to Uncle Ambo during the pandemic. Although the pandemic made things incredibly tough in so many ways, I was able to convince Ambo to hang out. He smoked a pipe. I smoked a cigar. We didn’t cough in each other’s faces. It worked.

The conversations always flowed. Ambo is probably the smartest man I've ever met. The amount of knowledge he has about building, construction, carpentry, woodworking, cooking, and lyrics to random b-sides from the 1940-1990 absolutely infuriates me. It’s annoying as shit!

But I do know about guitars. Naturally, Ambo and I bonded over them. We would share interesting videos of weird guitars we’d find. He recently sent me a guitar of Pat Methany's that made my back hurt just looking at it. It had about 50 strings, and looked about as many pounds of weight. Sometimes I’d find weird instruments and send them to him. We’d talk about pickups, the style of guitar body and the sound. We’d send interesting amplifier ideas back and forth. At one point, I believe that Ambo was the one who found the Apprehension Engine.

I can't imagine anything more frightening in a film than for there to be silence, and all of a sudden a single sound from the Apprehension Engine, at just the right moment. That video impressed both of us. After weeks of conversations, I think I finally got the courage to ask him if he might be interested in creating one for me. I told him he could have creative autonomy if he wanted it. I told him it just had to be scary as fuck. He agreed. We ended up calling it The Nightmare Machine.

Neither of us had no idea what we was getting into.

Protoyping the Nightmare Machine

Ambo loves to build prototypes of everything he wants to create more of. He calls them “jigs.” He did this with his cigar box guitars, of which he's created damned near three dozen of by this point. It wasn’t a stretch to make a prototype Nightmare Machine out of a cigar box. This is what he created.

I used this prototype Nightmare Machine on the soundtrack for Fetch, an indie short horror film directed by Heather Halstead. I dare say it sounded vicious and intense:

The Nightmare Machine Build, In Photos

As time marched on and the pandemic ended, we could all resume our lives without anymore interruptions. It took another couple of years before Ambo decided to try to build the actual Nightmare Machine. We were smoking on his back porch with his two rottweilers barking away, and he said, "It's time for me to built it."

Now we’re talking!

Ambo agreed to send me as many photos as he could remember to send. I received this one from him, showing the skeleton of the machine:

He added some more parts to the machine, including some grill metal he found for super cheap:

He began spraypainting the Nightmare Machine a dark, blood red, for obvious reasons:

Because Ambo has more than a decade of experience working with cigar box guitars, he began to create the circuitry and wiring for the machine in the metal grills. The switches look great with the red circles:

Here he is adding the guitar neck (further away) and the hurdy gurdy neck (closer). Notice how beefy the hurdy gurdy neck is:

I have no idea why Ambo signed up for this. I mean, looking at the wiring in the back of the engine gave me an headache. How the hell does he keep this shit in his head? As time marched on, more and more switches, plates, and finishing details went on the machine:

He even found three tiny music boxes and installed them on the top of the machine. I gotta say, that sounds as creepy as all get-out:

The spring reverb is powered by an analog spring driver by Bulinski Effect Pedals. I have to say that after trying out dozens and dozen of spring reverbs on well-known amplifier brands, none of them could come even close to the beautiful sound of the spring reverb Jim installed and this Bulinski spring driver:

Ambo added rulers to the front of the Nightmare Machine. Pressing them down creates an intensely creepy sound:

More wiring. More mind-blowing:

As time marched on, Ambo began to work on the most intense part of the machine, the Hurdy Gurdy wheel. We learned that we needed to adequately coat the hurdy gurdy wheel with rosin, cover the string in cotton, and only use cello strings to make the hurdy gurgy come alive. This was our first test:

Finished Build: The Bumper Warranty

Eventually, with the finishing touches done, Ambo said, "Take this fucking thing home. I'm tired of working on it. BTW, you have a bumper warranty."

"What's that?"

"Once I no longer see your bumper, your warranty is up."

I gingerly put the Nightmare Machine in my car, closed the trunk, and waved goodbye.

Right before leaving he said, "Be careful, there's people out there."

"There's always people out there."

Set up in my living room, this thing looked like a honking piece of gnarly intensity:

When I finally plugged it in, I couldn’t believe it. It sounded exactly as I imagined it would:

Conclusion

It thrills me that I had the balls, years ago, to aggressively make fun of Ambo to his face. Had I not given him that push, I don’t think we would have ever become close enough to collaborate on this machine.

It surprises me to this day exactly how full the world is of creative characters like him. I barely scratched the surface of his immense creativity in so many areas of life. His willingness to help build this Nightmare Machine, and allow me to tag along to document it, has boggled me. I obviously owe him a lot of coin for doing this. And hilariously enough, he doesn't mind that I owe him (for now). After all, he said, "I'd rather have you owe me than for you to cheat me out of it later."

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Part of the joy of Eurorack synthesizers comes from their melodic generative algorithms. AfterLater Pachinko, a clone of the epic Mutable Marbles module, serves as a random chance machine, allowing musicians to set the guidelines for melodic construction. In other words, I specify the notes I want, the range I desire, and the rhythm I envision.

From there, Pachinko goes to work and creates music.

The resulting music often has a scientific feel to it. Music created as a byproduct of exploration can sometimes come off as clinical and unemotional. It wasn't until I began mastering this work that I realized one of the reasons I love exploring Eurorack so much is that much of my musical life outside this medium focuses on evoking the emotional heartstrings of listeners. This is a common aim for film composers, and for some, it can feel like emotional blackmail.

Nonetheless, this quick little album offers surprisingly fun moments. I found that the music works best when you're looking for something detached, unemotional, and not vying for your attention.

When director Maurice Moore and I started to talk about the music for Finding Solace, Maurice posed a significant challenge that I totally accepted: Craft music that could exist independently of the film itself. In essence, I accepted the task to compose a score that would resonate on its own, without the help of the visual and narrative context provided by the film. It was a mighty challenge, and I hope I rose to it.

To achieve the goal, I felt strongly that I needed to delve into the archives of America’s rich cinematic legacy. Throughout the history of film as an artistic medium, the orchestra has served as the primary instrument for creating iconic and memorable film scores. The emotional breadth and range offered by the orchestra surpasses that of any other musical tool available to film composers, and it was clear to me that Finding Solace required that sound.

Finding Solace skirts a line in contemporary independent filmmaking that’s rarely dared: It’s an ingenious mashup of Crash and Seven. There’s outright moments of intense syncronicity that follow with deeply intense horror. It was clear that I had to do music that at least attempted to bridge the two distinctive narrative genres while ensuring a cohesive melodic through-line in the film. If I succeeded or not, that’s certainly a good question! In the end, the score employs orchestra, piano, and an immensely reverberated guitar to express a profoundly tragic family drama, while chilling orchestral effects coalesce to establish an atmosphere filled with tension, darkness, and an overwhelming sense of harrowing intensity.

I had to go for broke with this movie. It needed music that matched the audacity of the story. If I wanted to rise to the challenge Maurice Moore threw at me, I had to go big or go home. The outcome is approximately 65 minutes of richly layered orchestral music. I hope you enjoy.

So pleased with The Place She Dwells and the response from the audience last night. 125 seat theater was packed. Lucky that I was able to be a part of the team for that film. Hanging with Maurice Moore is always a party.

Now? Celebrations!

Btw: Luna is always curious how unlit cigars smell. She’s not a smoker… :)

The Place She Dwells is a full-length feature film from Motivate Pictures, starring Sarah Niarkos and directed by Maurice Moore.

In the film, Rachel (Sarah Niarkos) suffers deep trauma after a horrific event tears her life apart. Refusing to go outside, she depends upon the efforts of Detective Pierce (Maurice Moore) to solve the crime that served as the catalyst of her distress and assure her future well-being. The lines between illusion and reality begin to blur as Rachael battles with her demons, home alone, while all those who occasionally visit don't have a clue how to help.

The Place She Dwells is a cunningly well-executed indie-thriller that demonstrates the dark depths we sometimes go to, even if we don't have a clue as to how to climb out of it. While this film looks squarely and soberly at the personal effects of trauma, it ultimately showcases the resiliance of the human spirit in times of immense duress and adversity.

Maurice Moore and Dave Wirth worked closely together on the music for The Place She Dwells. Equal parts layered Eurorack synthsizer sound design and felt piano with strings, the soundtrack plays to Sarah Niarkos' gutsy, deep performance as a woman who routinely tries to escape the immense grief and terror that threatens to swallow her.

In 2021, I purchased my first Eurorack synthesizer. The obsession with the quality of analog sound took hold very quickly. This album of sketches and tests came directly from experimenting with the synthesizers on the Eurorack. I doubt I'll ever buy another digital synth plugin again...

Become a subscriber to my Bandcamp and get this album along with more than 30 others

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Album cover is a public domain photograph of the flutist John Finn, ca 1923. The original is located here: www.loc.gov/resource/musdcmphot.a0169.0

Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | iTunes | Amazon

Deja Vu, a film shot during the first lockdown of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, will be screened on August 12th at 6:30pm at AFS Cinema, 6406 N I-35, Suite 3100, Austin, TX.

Motivate Pictures CEO/Producer Maurice Moore (Austin, TX) and Writer/Director Alex Rios (Barcelona, Spain) risked the unknown to shoot Deja Vu.

Maurice Moore: “Alex showed up in Austin the day that the world’s borders closed. Literally, that day. He was stuck here until we didn't know when. He came over to DP a feature film that I was set to direct that was canceled literally the day he arrived in the states. Because we were in lockdown, we needed a creative outlet. I challenged Alex and myself to come up with an idea that would work in this lockdown world and Deja Vu was the brainchild of Alex.”

After Deja Vu wrapped production, the next challenge was getting Alex Rios back home. Mau- rice Moore: “Because travel was suspended, it was impossible to know when Alex could fly back to Barcelona. After several attempts to book flights over the course of six weeks, ultimately Alex was able to secure a flight back to Barcelona with an exciting and eerie film in the can.”

In the film Deja Vu, it’s not safe to go outside because an anomaly is making people disappear once they leave their homes. Erik (Maurice Moore) and Grey (Olivia Whitney) are plunged head- first into an intense series of events trying to untangle the mystery. Ultimately, Deja Vu is a touching and emotional story of familial love and devotion in the height of a scary situation.

Maurice Moore is excited to showcase Deja Vu and other works: “I’m a stronger more focused artist because COVID19 challenged me emotionally and creatively. Now I’m excited to show that creativity to the world.”

Deja Vu will be screened along with with several other exciting Motivate Pictures projects on August 12th at AFS Cinema.

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• AFS Cinema is located at 6406 N I-35, Suite 3100, Austin, TX

• The screening starts at 6:30pm.

• Seating for the screening is extremely limited due to COVID19 safety concerns but is free to attend

• Motivate Pictures is an African-American owned film and multi-media company that prides itself on its diversity and creating engaging and dynamic stories

• For more information on Deja Vu go to HTTP://MOTIVATE.PICTURES/

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Listen to the Soundtrack Here:

Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | iTunes | Amazon

Fetch is the story of a woman who walks into the woods to find her disappeared friend only to meet the Fae, the creatures who guard the wilderness. Fetch was written and directed by Heather Halstead in cooperation with Motivate Pictures., and stars Dana Wing Lau.

The original score for Fetch takes the perspective of a mythical adversary: The fae. It features live-recorded piano, voice, kalimba, big drums, and most notable, a cigar box guitar. Heather Halstead, the director of this film, also came into the studio to record the final melody.

Fetch is a chilling story of mythological creatures taking their anger out on a unsuspecting young woman. The result? Absolute fright and mayhem.

Gestures, the song in this music video, is part of Archive Volume One by Grande Valley Auction Incident. This album is available for preorder today and will have it’s full release on May 31st, 2021. Oh, and two other GVAI albums are coming on… on the same day. It’s a release bonanza!

I was searching through my old papers this morning when I found something I did nearly ten years ago: I fully transcribed the lyrics, the melodies, and the syllabic stress of Bon Iver’s masterpiece For Emma, Forever Ago.

If you want all of these transcriptions, follow me on Bandcamp. Here are the first three:

The Shikes is an American band and a brainchild of Austin, Texas based musician Dave Wirth. Wirth is known for his work as a film composer, producer and writer, in addition to his work across many different spectrums of music. Today we take a listen to The Shikes’ recently released mini-album, Aggression, as well as share our interview with the exceptional Dave Wirth!

Aggression features songs that contain tasteful use of synthesizer and plenty of pop sensibility. The album kicks off with “It’s Gone A Spring Song”, which displays some very strong noise pop in both its intro and outro; this reminds me of the kind of stuff No Age is known for. When it comes to the track’s vocal mixing, expert use of delay and perhaps a bit of distortion makes the vocals feel somewhat otherworldly, though the lyrics are certainly of this Earth, making for an interesting combination that enhances the melody and kept this song kicking around my head for a few days after initially listening.

Next up is “Sit, Think, Make, Say, Do”. This track has an exceptionally bright and airy sound quality to it, really displaying an incredible and entertaining mixture of synth and pop work that is easily enjoyable. That said, the lyrics hold darker overtones involving fear and exploitation, giving this song unique contrasting elements that, while making the song darker in nature than at first glance, give it all the more appeal once you read in between the lines.

“Trouble In The Height Of Spring” is up third, closing out Aggression. In terms of pop masterpieces, this track feels as though it was written to be one, truly capturing a dreamy use of synthesizer while also coming through like a masterclass in melody. As the track progresses, more noise pop elements come through, distorting its initially airy nature, begging the question: is this more a dream or nightmare? The lyrics manage to match the mysterious dark nature that begins to seep through as well. This dark/noise pop approach is delightful and easily found throughout Aggression in a few different forms, really encouraging you to listen close to the lyrics being sang while enjoying the synth-y ride.

Now let’s jump into the interview with Dave Wirth!

Dave Wirth, mastermind behind The Shikes and Aggression

Thank you for being with us today!

"Very happy to be here! Thank you."

I am completely unfamiliar with the word "Shike" is. Can you tell us how you got your name and what it means?

"Heh, that's funny. I haven't thought of that in years. Originally, I just liked how explosive the sound was. I thought it was super intense and it fit the music really well. After doing a bit of research, the word 'Shike' could also be short for 'Shikker,' which is a slang word used in in Australia at around 1910 or so that means drunkard. It's really anybody's guess."

Can you share some of your influences and how their sounds find their way into your music?

"I guess Belle and Sebastian was a big one for this record. I was definitely fascinated with how poppy their music can sound and how dark the lyrics were. I wondered if I could do that, so I really dug into that idea. The music ended up turning out quite a bit different of course, and that's okay."

Your music seems to have a lot of moving parts in terms of its instrumentation, weaving some complex textures. Would you mind walking us through your writing process?

"A friend of mine had this amazing Gibson hollow body guitar from the 1940's, and he graciously allowed me to take it home and write with it. Songs kinda came out of the guitar without me intending to. I often like to record something really simple and then mess it up later by replacing the simple part with something more intense. All of the songs started with the one Gibson hollow body, and from there it came together. Then it was years of me tinkering, putting the right sounds here and there, remixing it and making it sound interesting to my ears."

How has the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on your band? Do you have any upcoming plans to stream live performances or anything in the works for after the pandemic subsides?

"COVID19 hasn't been too big a deal for me. Since I don't really perform (I love being in the studio far more), it didn't cramp on my style. If anything, COVID19 gave me a chance to release this record, which btw, these songs were written in 2004, recorded in 2004 or so, mixed in 2013, and then I did the remastering of it in 2020. And, no plans for live streaming! Maybe if people really wanted to see me perform, but I'm very happy just releasing records and calling it a day."

Your new mini-album "Aggression" mixes noise pop elements with some really synthesizer, which combined reminds me of some of my favorite bands like The Postal Service, No Age and Say Hi. What were your goals when writing and recording this album? How do you feel you achieved them?

"Oh wow, I haven't checked out those bands! Now I have to! My only goal when writing, recording, anything, is to use the tools to create a song that lives on it's own. All I want to feel when it's done is that it feels mysterious, out there, and it's a bit like a beast looking back at me. I think Paul Klee once said that he knew when a painting was done by whether or not it looked back at him. If a song lives and breathes on it's own, I'm happy."

Is there anything else you'd like our readers to know?

"One thing: Support the blog owner. Donate to him. Advertise on his site. He's a good guy."

Thank you so much for your time!

After our interview with Dave Wirth, many elements of this mini-album become a bit more clear. For me, at its core, Aggression is a display of duality; its sounds are mostly innocent, bright, airy and simply an absolute delight to listen to while the lyrics come from a somewhat darker place that make you think and those moments when the music shifts are absolutely incredible. It is through this duality that we find true art in this album from a dedicated and skilled artist. Check out Aggression on Bandcamp (also embedded below), The Shikes’ website and Distrokid. You can also learn more about Dave Wirth and his many projects through his website. Thank you for reading!

I Won't Untie The Knots was influenced highly by Arcade Fire's second record Funeral and the strange but accessible melodies heard in Band Of Horses in their first two records. Lyrically, it's an expressionistic and blurry impression of modern life filled with the intimate dread of personal responsibility.

This song was originally created in a fit of passion in a random building in South Austin. Interestingly, the drums were not played to a click track. There are around 20 guitars overlaid throughout this recording. Some electric, some acoustic. Piano, and even mountain dulcimer.

Cinematic Piano Improvsations comprises 24 minutes of solo, improvised piano with a cinematic flair. The songs themselves lay themselves bare before you. Incredible microphones picked up every single noise of the piano, including pedal squeaks as well as mistakes. The album feels incredibly intimate and forthcoming without being TMI.

All songs on Cinematic Piano Improvisations were improvised. Improvising is all about using mistakes to your advantage. A wrong note played once is a mistake; A wrong note repeated is an idea. For this record, I accepted the mistakes, turned them into ideas, and called it a day.

From Cinematic Piano Improvisations

Cinematic Piano Improvsations is available exclusively on www.firefireredstardown.com.

PS: You can become a member of the Fire Fire Red Star Down music community for $14/year. Give it a great go!

Photo: White House (gold piano) by Harris & Ewing. Public Domain. www.loc.gov/item/2016855753/

No matter how much of a dork you think you were in high school, I bet you can't easily beat this photo of yours truly right after voting in the 1996 presidential election:

Library Of Congress. Photoduplication Service, photographer. Chamber Music Festival. Washington D.C, 1970. Photograph. www.loc.gov/item/2017646184/

Now Available for Fire Fire Red Star Down! Subscribers Only: Synthesizer Sketches 2020-2017

I love experimenting with sound, and around 2017 I got super interested in understanding synths. The best way to get my brain wrapped around them? Tests!

All tests were presented by date, in reverse chronological order (aka from the most interesting to shittiest). No guarantees for quality! Some of these tests are embarassing, especially if I had the heart to listen closely.

Plese enjoy these songs as well as my embarassment of them!

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Photo credits:

Library Of Congress. Photoduplication Service, photographer. Chamber Music Festival. Washington D.C, 1970. Photograph. www.loc.gov/item/2017646184/

Flutters Re-Released on Bandcamp! Yes! Best of all it includes tons of bonus tracks not available anywhere else. Get to hear the originals! Plus, I’ve included a ton of pictures from the recording session. Interested in seeing which mics went where, what guitars I used? This re-release is for you.