Wow & Flutter 010 | Miniatures

David Rothbaum on nerd metal, California conservation, and contra-alto clarinets.

W&F: Hi David— how is mountain living this summer? I know you recently relocated to a rural location. Do you have enough groceries and are the bears staying clear?

[Image- David’s A-frame in heavy snow]

David: I do frequent Costco far more often than I would like but the nearest grocery store is an hour away so one does have to stock up. The bears are lovely, there is zero traffic, no cops or streetlights and it is quiet save for one neighbor who REALLY likes Perfect Circle but only for half a song every few weeks. And he wants everyone around here to enjoy them as well.

W&F: Around the ambient community you're known for your sophisticated compositions and the tight tech that pushes your distinct sound design— but I can tell you were in a hair band. Am I right about this?

David: Like Winger? No. I was/am more of a Nerd Metal person. I was and still am a huge Racer X fan though that came a bit later. I started with classic metal stuff like Iron Maiden, Dio, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. All of which I still love and listen to. My daughter knew all the words to “War Pigs” by the time she was three.

The first song I learned was “TNT” by AC/DC which a friend taught me on guitar when I was 14 at a sleepover. I stayed up all night practicing it, driving my friend crazy, so much that he asked me to go into his walk in closet where I spent the remainder of the evening. After that I wanted to play guitar but this same friend wanted to start a band too and convinced me to learn bass, so that’s how it started. 

W&F: How did you find your way to modular synths?

[Image- David in 2004]

David: Around 2004 I was doing a lot of improvised music primarily with contra-alto clarinet and electronics. (Some weird circuits, old test equipment and pedals.) A friend of mine, Chris Heenan, an amazing improviser was leaving to go to Germany and having a going away party. I got there really early, and as it happened he had just received his first Doepfer order. At the time the only way to get Doepfer stuff was through someone in Virginia I think? Anyway, he had bought a 6U 84hp case full of Doepfer modules. At the time I think there was only Doepfer, Analog Solutions and Analog Systems making modules.

I had never used a modular synth before but he said I could mess around with it while he finished prep for the party. I had no idea how any of it worked and the discovery was really fun and addictive. Needless to say I spent the entire party upstairs playing with this synth.  Not long after that I sold all the gear I could and bought as much modular as possible. Analog Haven had just opened their shop in Pomona and I happened to be ready to buy my first synth on the day they opened. So yeah, that was 20 years ago. I have gotten out of it a few times and switched formats many times but that was the beginning.

W&F: You seem to draw inspiration from nature and often work outside— how does that composition process go? Do you collect field recordings, or rather feel invigorated by your surroundings?

David: I started with the outside thing when I was playing clarinets. I lived in downtown Los Angeles in the arts district, I lived in The American Hotel, and at the time there were quite a few empty buildings. The main one I used to go to was the Santa Fe Freight Depot building. It was abandoned at the time, it is now part of the SCIARC campus, and was also a common filming location. Some of Wild at Heart was filmed outside of it, and if I recall there was a Bon Jovi video shot there too. Anyway, I used to take my clarinet and play in these spaces. Not recording but just to practice and improvise with the sounds of those environments. Trying to blend in with the environment and make the instrument sound native to that particular space. I have a DV tape somewhere of my clarinet playing in Griffith Park. At the time I was doing mostly extended technique stuff, inspired a lot by Eric Dolphy, Xavier Charles, and John Butcher.

This practice continued when I moved into modular synths and also corresponded with my becoming more and more enamored with the mountains surrounding Los Angeles. It all just kind of coalesced.

As far as the process goes with the modular, the idea was always to start something from scratch in the location. That is a huge part of the challenge of it. Maybe it is silly but the idea of pre-patching and bringing your gear somewhere feels like cheating. I usually load up the car and just head in a direction until I find a spot, lug everything out, setup and compose something. I have occasionally done field recordings at the same time but not very often. The whole process in making these pieces is rather arduous— find the location, set up the synth, compose a piece, set up the camera then get a performance I like. So I rarely felt the need to complicate it further by adding even more gear. There have been many times where I have forgotten some essential piece of equipment— batteries not charged, cables forgotten, no SD card for the camera. I have posted some of these failures and they are some of my most popular videos…

There have also been many times where even after all of this effort I did not end up liking the piece. The interesting thing about that is that it really helps to reenforce the idea that your art practice is that— a practice and it is about the work not the result. So the experience is always worth while. Maybe even better that way?

Very often you run into difficulties outside of just the artistic ones: I have run into more than a few rattlesnakes, rain, cold, heat, very steep slopes and the occasional curious human. Part of this is also just the doing of a thing. I very much appreciate the effort other artists make too, Héléne Vogelsinger comes to mind. So much work goes into her videos, so much gear and lamps too! The music is fantastic of course but the effort is meaningful to me as well.

W&F: Conservation particularly in the area you live in is important, even vital— what do you see as your role in protecting those surroundings?

David: My love of the mountains and the natural spaces of California started with driving— I really like to drive at random [and stumble on] new places. I have done this since I was a teenager and there is so much to discover in Southern California this way. I started hiking in earnest in 2019. Being a new dad and dealing with my father’s decline in health around the same time inspired me to make some new, healthier habits. This combined with an obsession with PCT YouTube vloggers led me to try hiking. The PCT being unrealistic given my new dadness I started with a thing called The 6 Pack of Peaks. The challenge was to summit the six tallest peaks in Southern California. It was a crash course and I loved it. It was so out of my element. Previously my nickname was “Indoor Only” [since I was] spending most of my time in a studio of some sort. It was challenging physically and maybe even more so mentally. I became obsessed and very quickly just fell in love with everything about it.

Naturally I wondered about the origin of the trails, the plants, what the indigenous names for the mountains were and started a deep dive into all of that. A huge part of what I discovered is deeply upsetting. I knew some things of course, but going down that road as far as I have is super intense and disturbing and very hard to reconcile. At the very least I could learn these things and try to use some of that knowledge in whatever little ways I could. Starting a native plant garden, sharing my love and respect of this with my kid, following and supporting indigenous activists and artists, donating time and money when I can, doing clean-ups. Really just doing my best to not be part of the problem.

It is really devastating, watching what is happening. Housing developments, fires that are destroying irreplaceable habitats and so on. As I type this Mount Baldy (Yoåt) and the surrounding areas are burning with no end in sight. In 2020 there was the Bobcat fire that devastated another huge area in the same range, it gets worse and worse. And I feel that these two things are deeply connected, the history and what is happening now. It’s heartbreaking, all of it. I think the stewardship of this land should be returned to the people who cared for it successfully for thousands of years. I mean like, fucking tomorrow.

W&F: We talked about the cassette Cult of the Colonist by Pax Titania having meaning for you— did you order by mail? How does someone in California end up with a Midwest tape in the early 2000s?

David: Around that time I had a project called Monsturo, which I described as field recordings of imaginary spacecraft. Basically long drone pieces. My friend Bryan Eubanks, who ran Rasbliutto Recordings, released a one sided 12" called F-22 that made its way to Hanson Records and they liked it and asked me to do a tape there, which was super cool.

And he either sent me stuff or I bought a bunch of Hanson stuff around that time and the Pax Titania tape was one of them. This proved to be a significant thing for me as it was more melodic than what I was making or listening to at the time. I really connected with it and also arrived at a very interesting time in my personal life. I remember very clearly listening to it in my car with a particular person and having this very clear desire to change what I was doing that would reflect what I was feeling in that exact moment. Still kinda chasing that really.

My work was pretty cerebral at that time and I was wanting to make things that were more personal. It took a long time to get there, but that tape was clearly the beginning of that pursuit. And funny thing is, I have no idea who is behind that project nor do I have the tape any longer. So it is more of an impression or a feeling I have about that music now, and what it meant to me rather than a clear recollection of what it sounded like. I feel it would be good if more things were like this.

W&F: In 2021 and 2023, Mystery Circles released two cassette runs of your project Miniatures. Want to tell us about this project spanning four years of your creative life? 

David: This was born out of my posting short pieces to social media, Instagram in particular. I have always liked short pieces, being inspired by Webern and Zorn etc. But doing this practice regularly I ended up with a large collection of work. Inspired by my friend Lightbath who had recently released a set of tapes called Public Works I thought I would do my variation of that. I also like the idea of taking these posts seriously, putting a full effort into the composition, performance and visuals. I think it is easy to let yourself off the hook and think if it as a disposable medium but I don’t like the idea of wasting anyone’s time, and I respect anyone taking the time to listen. After a few years, I ended up with a large collection of work and David at Mystery Circles was kind enough to release it and put up with my perfectionism. The art came out great, my friend Ben did an amazing job on the die cut [j-card]. I am very proud of that release.

I am in the process of doing a second volume 2020 - 2024 after which I think I will be bringing this project to a close and switching directions. May even go back to using a project name and writing “songs”. Who knows.

W&F: Each year I have known you, your preferred compositional tool belt changes. What has been the find of 2024?

David: Well this has been an interesting year. I have removed a lot of things and acquired very little. Madrona Labs Sumu is really the only new thing of note. I am usually not a software synth person but this one is pretty spectacular.

W&F: You're a full-time working creative often composing for television and film— what are some projects that have felt comfortable for you in the scope of project values aligning with your compositional style? 

David: While I feel there is really nothing much sillier than taking the film industry seriously, I cannot think of a project I am working on at the moment that I am allowed to talk about. So silly but true. 

As far as things aligning I would say that happens rarely. There are things I get asked to do that I love doing and have an interest in. But would I do them were it not for work? No. Some of my personal work gets licensed which is super cool but I have yet to be asked to write music for a film project that is exactly like what I do for my releases. Close-ish sometimes but not quite exact and honestly I am not sure if those are not better off separate — they might be two different jobs.

W&F: Tell us about being a creative parent. What do you hope to impart to your daughter? 

David: That it is about the work not the result. I have to remind myself that constantly as well. Also that she should go into any creative endeavor with confidence. I was crippled with self doubt early on (it’s not something I think most of us ever fully conquer) and I do not wish for her to let that get in her way. It can be pretty shitty. She is also pretty great, so I tell her that a lot too. ➿

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Go get a tape:

Miniatures (2016-2020), second edition cassette available here.

First edition released April 9, 2021

All tracks composed and recorded live to 2-track between 2016-2020
Instruments: Modular Synthesizer, Fender Rhodes
Mastered by Nathan Moody at Obsidian Sound
obsidiansound.net

MC035
mysterycircles.com

Connect with David:

Instagram, website, bandcamp