Where Tapes Come From
On the Occasion of His Novel's Tape Release, Patrick Wensink Speaks With Brian Miller
A Special Guest Feature by Patrick Wensink, for Small Doggies Magazine. April 2012.
I have very articulate friends.
“A tape?” some said.
“Like, a cassette tape-tape?” others said.
“Like Wham! and shit?” One said.
This confusion came from pretty much everyone when I told them the exciting news: my new novel, Broken Piano for President (Lazy Fascist Press), would also be coming out on old-fashioned tape.
Paperback books and cassette tapes, aside from decade-old FUBU gear, dominate thrift store landscapes from Portland, ME to Portland, OR. So combining the two in our hoverboard-filled digital age seemed like some sort of joke.
The book is a dark comedy, but this was no joke. It was, actually, a perfect meeting of the minds.
Broken Piano for President is about a guy more productive when he’s drunk than when he’s sober. It is also about a band called Lothario Speedwagon… a group many consider to be the worst on the planet. They have released a cassette, called Broken Piano for President, that has unexpectedly made them famous in Japan.
Before the novel’s release, I dreamed about how incredible it’d be if an actual Broken Piano for President tape existed. Shockingly, I found a dance partner for this dream.
I teamed up with adventurous Los Angeles record label, Deathbomb Arc, to create a book on tape to compliment the novel. I lucked out in many, many ways. Not only was label president Brian Miller a huge fan of the book and willing to put out the tape, but he is also a crazily talented musician (Check out his bands Foot Village, Gang Wizard, Rose for Bohdan). He is also, apparently, very persuasive — convincing a who’s-who of underground music to participate, including drumming legend Brian Chippendale (Lightning Bolt, Bjork’s Volta) and violist Ezra Buchla (Gowns).
The entire experience, from conceiving of the idea, to recording my readings, to the complexities of recording tapes, was an eye-opener. Miller helped us get a better look at the state of tapes today.
PATRICK WENSINK: Run us through the process. So a band (or, hypothetically, a book author with a novel about a cassette tape), sends you the tracks. How are these babies made? Do you send them off to some pressing plant? Do you borrow your sister’s boombox and dub them?
BRIAN MILLER: There are professional places to get them made. I've found the quality of them is a consistent 8/10 through these pro shops. Folks that really know their home dubbing craft can def get a 10/10. Professional places can make the shells look HOT, though. Problem is, it's a 3-month turn around to use a pro place. So, usually I’m using just home dubbers. The type from old stereo systems. I find them in thrift stores, clean them up, do some quality tests, and hope I didn't waste $5 on them. At the height of my tape releasing, I'd have 6 of them going at once. I killed most of them and now am at 2.
[Interesting note: Miller told me the excessive three-month wait period is due to the fact that so many drone and noise bands are making tapes. Make of that what you will.]
PW How much of a concern is recording fidelity with tapes? For example, after a first round of recording you asked me to re-do my vocals because they sounded like shit. Clearly, there must be some standard.
BM The quality of a tape is as good as the care put into dubbing it. For the formats possible to make at home, this is how cassettes are unique. Craftsmanship is the difference between a poor sounding tape and an amazing sounding one.
PW Highly respected places like Pitchfork and Allmusic Guide have reported on the resurgence of cassette culture.
My guess is that some Teamster in New Jersey has a warehouse full of Walkmans and is somehow pulling the strings. I know I’m probably right, but how do you attribute this resurgence of tape chic?
BM Once a lot of people start doing anything outside the press's eye, it will become hip because the press always needs something new to latch onto.
PW When did Deathbomb put out its first tape? What prompted this move?
BM I was interested in working with a medium that was new to me. I decided to go all in and started the Deathbomb Arc Tape Club. A subscription service where people get a new tape every month for a year. This was in about 2006 and it lasted 4 years.
PW What demographic would you say is the biggest purchaser of tapes? Flea market vendors, right? It’s gotta be flea market dudes.
BM Flea market vendors.
PW Say I have a Celtic dance/shoegaze band and get signed to Deathbomb. How do you decide if a project is right for a tape and not a more traditional format?
BM Well, CD is dead, so you're really just talking about vinyl then. Vinyl costs thousands of dollars to put out. Most projects just don't have the following to make that financially sound.
PW Aside from giving pencils a reason to live, what is something that cassettes give us that other formats just can’t?
BM It is the format that lets artists present work with an intermission, the convenience of being handheld, playable on portable systems, and coats the sound in a warm, soft texture. Like all forms of art, medium is to be considered. Watercolor vs oil. Marble vs wood. Cassette is a medium and it has its characteristics. They are not by definition better or worse than any other medium. The real artists choose the medium that fits the project best. All things considered.
Learn more about Broken Piano for President
Learn more about Deathbomb Arc