pangs like fangs, and my voyage into music and noise (pt.1)

I started playing music as soon as I could pick up a squeaky toy. My mom started me young playing The Beatles on piano, while on my own time I would experiment with my dad’s mini Casio keyboard, with a 3 second voice recording function, 8 basic rhythm genres, and 2 drum kit options.

The electric church organ at my grandparents’ house, with rows of esoteric switches and powerful reverb and sustain pedals, entranced me for unknown hours, lost in sublime experiments. I didn’t know much theory, but I was learning how to find sounds that interested and moved me.

I was the kid in the mall that had to try and set off every talking toy, in cacophonous chorus. The singing Teddy Ruxpin doll had his factory cassette tape recorded over repeatedly, and eventually replaced with Ozzy Ozbourne. We burned through several ‘Yak Bak’s around Christmas. But my favorite instrument was a black rectangular box with 8 buttons, each triggering one of the classic 4-bit sound effects. My parents are saints for tolerating my compulsive freeform compositions of laser blasts, grenade drops, death rays, and machine gun fire.

In retrospect, electronic noise was an intrinsic and ever-present source of inspiration. I was lucky to have been encouraged and enabled to experiment, and seek out novel forms of expression.

Pangs Like Fangs just released 2 new tracks that loosely represent a duality. ‘Dreams Apleanty’ is my most emotionally complex work yet, with themes of hope, struggle and overcoming; ‘Conquering Worm’ is my heaviest, most ruthless and punishing composition to date. It’s the sound of dread and ruin, inspired by greats like Godflesh, Swans, Wolf Eyes, The Body, and Pharmakon. Not for the feint, but something truly inspired, and that I’m particularly proud of. Hope you enjoy; stay tuned for part 2 of my musical story.