I know White Zombie recorded Make Them Die Slowly with you and Bill Laswell. But there is also some stuff I did that you might say was very positive… the early hip-hop stuff was like, let’s party. So in some ways part of what worked for me was channeling some of that stuff. I didn’t run into any dead people but people did run into dead people, or someone who had been assaulted severely. There would be a lot of violence, visible violence. And the art imitates the life that you see around you. Like Swans ended up being, where you’re chasing out the demons from inside. ![]() So it’s funny, that’s where I sort of discovered during this era – and I guess it’s the stuff that for me, personally, resonates a bit more – was the cathartic stuff. And I also did dance music and the hip-hop was kind of upbeat. There’d be weird dance music with a weird guitar solo. What seems to resonate with people when they think of what I’ve done, is the gnarly aspect of no wave. What do you think made people want to record with you at BC? Like, what did you offer in particular that eccentric artists found appealing? There was freedom, in a way.Ībove: Swans' 1992 album Love Of Life, recorded at BC Studio. I actually thought that this sort of world was a better place. I loved abandoned buildings and I loved decrepit industrial spaces, so I wanted to do all these things in the music. In some cases, I maybe imitated some of what I saw visually in the music. So it not just inspired, but it sort of motivated. So I embraced the sort of chaotic, noisy, messy, rude. I was trying to be sort of an art criminal, in a way. I wanted them to look out on the trains when they were on the Upper East Side, which is where I came from, with their comfortable bourgeois lives and be scared because there was this whole anarchy that was exploding and happening around them. So for me it was kind of art mixed in with what I call art terror. I deliberately embraced it as property destruction. I relished deeply what I felt was sort of the slow slide into the shitter of New York City. Wild dogs not featured.ĭo you think the chaos of the surrounding area (the filthy Gowanus canal, roaming packs of wild dogs, gang activity) contributed to the sounds and styles you were recording at BC studio? And 200 people coming in and out and working.Ībove: Martin Bisi in BC Studio. ![]() There were maybe three official tenants, compared to now where I think the same building complex has 80 official tenants. But there was no electrical bill, we just had electricity – which I never really knew where it came from. And there was a lot of stealing electricity. Like sculpture and paintings and stuff like that. ![]() Basically someone would take an unused room, really, and then someone would have art in there. In the building, interestingly enough, there were maybe two or three what I called art studio squats. Sometimes I’d see them with chains, visible chains holding in their hands – especially at night. ![]() They would wear motorcycle jackets and they all had these cavalry caps, like the Union army. There was this gang called The Crazy Homicides that are sort of well-known. Which is really terrifying, I was scared they’d rip my leg off. And one time they were, like, biting onto my pants, trying to pull me down and hold me down. They’d be right behind me barking and yelping. It was funny ’cause I would get scared, I would have to re-route around them sometimes, for a while. They wouldn’t just be sitting… they’d always have a destination, it seemed. It was interesting because they would always be very purposeful. What was the area like in the ’80s and ’90s? Set the scene for me. I read one quote from a few years ago where you said that packs of wild dogs and gangs used to roam around the Gowanus neighborhood.
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