Wow & Flutter 006 | You Are Not Safe Here
Johnny Lancia aka Huron tells us why Italians Do It Better and explains sidechain compression, some of these are jokes.
W&F: Hi John— do you prefer Johnny? Whenever you talk to me from your studio there's an "Italians Do It Better" poster— what does this mean? Sidechain compression? Tomato sauce?
Johnny: Hi Carolyn! [Laughter] “Italians Do It Better” is the record label for the now defunct Chromatics who are one of my favorite bands ever. I used to order a ton of records from them back in the day and they always sent bonus goodies with my orders such as posters, records, and CDs. The name is a reference to the shirt Madonna is wearing in the “Papa Don’t Preach” video. Oh, and Johnny is fine.
W&F: I am just sending this one into the weeds— what is sidechain compression and why do men huddle at parties and whisper about it?
J: I have no idea why men do these things. My guess is these dudes secretly want to make French house music a la Daft Punk but they’re too scared their peers will make fun of them. To be honest with you I don’t know how to properly use a compressor, and if a professional audio person saw my “mastering chain” they would probably huddle at a party and whisper about it.
W&F: Currently you’re sending tape loops into your Eurorack setup. What’s on your loops? What tape machines do you have?
J: I use a Marantz PMD-221 and a couple other machines that aren’t as cool. I like the Marantz best because it has a pitch mod where you can slow the tape down to a crawl and I can use it as a tape echo since it has 3 heads. I made a bunch of tape loops of little melodic synth pieces and drones of the Prophet REV2, Yamaha SY-22, and sometimes the Casio SK-1. I also have cassettes with some kalimba and ukulele loops as well.
W&F: You work under the name “Huron”— why did you pick this name? What other projects have you been part of?
J: I used to vacation on the Great Lakes when I was a kid and a lot of my song titles are geographic references to places I’ve been as a child. I’ll be honest though, I chose Huron because I liked the way it looked typed out in Helvetica. I’ve been involved in a lot of projects and bands. Too many. I was the drummer in the very loud shoegaze band Stargazer Lilies, and I’ve played bass, guitar, synths in various post rock and dream pop bands in the past as well. Currently I’m drumming for an indie pop band called The Ekphrastics and I’m working on some tracks with avant-garde pop artist Cate Merkin for her upcoming album.
W&F: What's your favorite homemade cassette you've sent into the world?
I think my favorite one was You Are Not Safe Here. I worked with my tattoo artist pal Dave Reale who did 25 hand drawn o-cards. I printed out little green obi-strips and used my kids glue stick to assemble them. I love the way the art turned out and how each one of the covers is unique.
W&F: So— what are we not safe from?
J: This tape was conceived in the summer of 2020 when we were smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. Like a lot of people, I was afraid to leave the house. I was an essential worker— so I had to work in a kitchen within close proximity of other humans who may or may not be carrying a virus that could potentially kill me. I certainly did not feel safe doing this— but I had no choice.
W&F: What are you using to duplicate and make art and packaging?
J: I have a couple prosumer cassette decks that I use to make copies. For my latest release I used a 4x6 photographic print as the cover because it folded and fit perfectly into a plastic cassette case. I usually keep the home duplication projects as limited edition releases around 25 copies because of the work involved. I’ve exclusively used Cryptic Carousel for bigger runs though. Corey is the best! He also made my lathe cut 7” records.
W&F: I think you have a knack for maximizing minimal ambient— I've seen you carry hour long sets with beautiful and expert variation. What's in your case these days?
J: Thank you! Right now in my skiff I have 2 voices set up. One is the classic Rings into Clouds, but Clouds is being used as a super long lo-fi tape loop/delay. It’s in mono/8-bit mode for extra crunch. The other voice is Tides v2 in harmonic oscillator mode with each of the four notes going into a TipTop Buchla Model 292t quad lopass Gate, being triggered by Pams NEW Workout. I’m using the Skip function in Pams to get some random sounding rhythmic stuff happening. I also have a Strymon Magneto digital tape looper that I use on my mixers effects send/return to process external synths and tape loops. There’s a DivKid ochd in there as well because it’s my favorite source of modulation for small cases, I even have it mounted sideways to use in 1U format.
W&F: You're a regular at Star’s End and The Gatherings— for the uninitiated, tell us about this beautiful ambient pocket of the world.
J: Star’s End Radio on WPXN is Philly’s long running ambient radio show (since 1976). It’s hosted by local space music wizard Chuck van Zyl, who with a dedicated crew also organizes The Gatherings concert series at St Mary’s Church on the UPenn campus. The folks who come out to these shows are there for one thing— to vibe out to some otherworldly sounds and visuals. It’s the complete opposite of a traditional music venue where most attendees are there for drinking, flirting, and everything but the music. There’s truly something special about that church and each time I’ve played there something magical happens with my set.
W&F: As a proud dance dad with a healthy love of pop music— tell me what you and the kiddo are bopping out to this summer.
J: We’re usually rolling up to the dance studio and recitals bumpin’ tracks from Charli XCX, New Jeans, Pink Pantheress, Caroline Polachek and I’m always trying to sneak in some old school Madonna in there because as you know— Italians Do It Better!
W&F: You're a chef, what are you making us?
J: I’m picking some nice ripe heirloom tomatoes from the garden, slicing them thick on grilled sourdough bread with some mayo because summer!
W&F: What's coming up for you in the next months?
J: I’m about to have an insane amount of tomatoes from the garden, so I’m gonna slick back my hair, put on my white tank top and make enough marinara to get my family through the winter. Then I’ll be finishing up this epic album of experimental pre-apocalyptic pop songs that I started last year. I’ll be rolling out a single every month until the end of the year. I plan on releasing the whole thing in early 2025, if we’re still here as a functioning society that is. ➿
Go get a tape:
Self released, 2020
Sold Out, but still streaming — other tapes available: Live at The Gatherings
Visit Johnny on IG: Huron Archives