In
Conversation with
June
2007
A little background:
M.Griffin in his own words is ‘M. Griffin is the founder of Hypnos Recordings,
a important outlet for ambient music for almost a decade.’ In addition to that
Griffin is also a recording artist in a minimal ambient style, and according to
His own page on myspace.com as of 2006 having created 4 solo albums
And another 5 albums besides that in collaboration with acts such as
Dave Fulton, David Tollefson (as Viridian Sun), and A Produce.
I first stumbled onto M’s page by chance by one of my frequent trips across
Myspace.com and was really impressed by the dark ambience that was awash
In this music which besides the obvious references to Eno, Budd etc seemed
To have a slightness that was both instantly relaxing and also sent a chill down
My back.
M.Griffin’s music can be listened to: http://www.myspace.com/mgriffinhypnos
Hypnos Recordings themselves can contacted through
myspace.com at: http://www.myspace.com/hypnosrecordings
Or also through their website which be found
Thanks to Mike for his interview here.
Regards
Andy N
Setting Sun:
How are things and what’s happening at the moment?
M.Griffin:
Things are going really great. My label, Hypnos Recordings,
is going through a bit of a "comeback" I guess,
after a couple
of years of less activity. I finally have help running
the
business now, and it really needed it. So now we're
getting a lot of music done, releasing some great new
CDs, and things are looking up. It's less stressful and
exhausting now, and more fun.
Setting Sun:
Next can you tell us a little bit about the history
of your music etc – i.e. – who fired the starting
pistol etc?
M.Griffin:
I didn't really have much of a background in music
prior to the mid nineties, when I started to make
ambient music and experimenting with minimalism and
drones.
The inspirations behind my getting involved in electronic
music were mostly in different areas, like Kraftwerk
and Devo and Gary Numan, that sort of thing. And then
my own music, once I started making it, was less inspired
by the music I was listening to, and more inspired by
abstract painting, actually. So you could say that
and Gerhard Richter, were bigger influences on my music
than any music actually was. But I was listening to
Brian Eno and Lustmord and Jeff Greinke and
Kit Watkins here and there, so those could be considered
influences, or triggers.
Setting Sun:
Musicwise, what are your influences and what are
you listening to at the moment?
M.Griffin:
My early influences in the world of atmospheric and
ambient music would be the guys I mentioned above,
and more recently I've been listening to a lot more
electronica along the lines of Monolake, Komet,
stuff on the 12k label, and a variety of unknown artists
whose work I've discovered here and there online.
Setting Sun:
I have being really enjoying your tracks on myspace.com
recently. I think my favourite song is ‘ I breathe as….’
–
Can you tell us a little bit more about this song etc?
M.Griffin:
The real title of that song is "I breathe as the water flows over
me,"
and like the rest of the material on that album ("I
am breathing
dreams out of the air"), it's an exercise in
minimalism,
really an effort to sustain a meditative and dreamlike
state while awake.
Sometimes when I'm listening to the best ambient minimalism,
I have a sensation of floating or suspension, as if I'm
in a cocoon
and impervious to everything around me. I suppose that's
not
only the feel of the track, but also a bit of explanation
of where the
title comes from.
Setting Sun:
Also notice you record collaboratively with other
acts? How does your approach vary when in
collaboratively mode?
M.Griffin:
My approach varies completely every time,
and that's my whole reason for undertaking these
collaborations. The best thing about working
with someone new is that it can be a trigger to get
me to break my own habits and preconceptions.
I try to use new tools, and to create in new ways,
so that I'm not just mixing in my own, old,
tried-and-true sounds into a 50-50 split with
the other artist's sounds. Ideally, their usual
way of doing things and my usual way of doing
things would both be left behind, and we'd both
become new artists, in a sense, by the mixture.
Setting Sun:
Am also interested to see you are running ‘Hypnos’
Recordings. Can you tell us a little bit more about
your label etc?
M.Griffin:
Hypnos started out in 1996 as something I wanted to use as an
outlet to release my own music. Then, before I finished
and
released my first CD "Sudden Dark," I was
side-tracked by a
new recording by a guy named Saul Stokes, whose album
"Washed in Mercury" actually ended up being the
first
thing Hypnos released.
I don't remember exactly when, or how, the change
occurred from Hypnos being dedicated to my own music
only,
to releasing the music of many other artists, but I'm
very
glad it happened. It has allowed me to work with some of
the best ambient and experimental music artists, and it
has
also helped Hypnos to reach a music wider audience than
it
would have if it had been just me. Ironically, by
focusing on
music other than just my own, it has helped my own music to
reach a wider audience, by being on a better-known and
more
established label.
Setting Sun:
What is the inspiration behind calling yourself
‘M.Griffin’?
M.Griffin:
It's no real mystery. My real name is Mike Griffin. In
college, when I was very involved in painting and
photography, I always signed my work "M.
Griffin." It
just seemed natural to "sign" my music the same
way,
especially since my music always seemed to me to be
derived from the same place, the same impulses, as my
visual art.
The downside of using just my first initial on my CDs,
I guess, is that people often call me "Mark"
for some reason.
Setting Sun:
A few more light hearted questions to finish off
with, first of all what would your ideal job if you
were not a rock and roll star?
M.Griffin:
That's a good one. I imagine most of the people you ask
this question to actually DO have an actual job, in
addition to their music activities, and I'm no exception.
While Hypnos has evolved to have a full-time
employee (my fiancee, who handles all the mail order
operations, record-keeping, and promotions), I
still keep plugging away at my "day gig." I'm
the
IT Manager at a steel processing company, and
I've been doing that for about 14 years. Actually, for
the first 10 or so I was doing variations on accounting
and that sort of thing, for the same company, in addition
to all the technology work, and now I'm doing just
network
administration, web site maintenance, and so on.
Of course, you asked about my IDEAL job, didn't you?
Wink Actually, if I had anything I'd rather do, that
was a better balance between a decent workday and a
decent paycheck, I'd be off doing it.
Setting Sun:
Seem to recall you are from Portland, Oregon -
What’s the music scene like over there? Have you being
to any good gigs recently?
M.Griffin:
I rarely go to see live music any more, for several reasons.
First, I really can't stand smoke. Second, someone seems
to
have decided that live music performances should be
scheduled to start at 9 PM (which is late enough) but
that the bands should actually not start playing until
much
later. So, going out to a local bar or small venue to see
a
couple of bands, means staying out until 1 or 2 in the
morning. These days, it has to be something really
special to
make me want to deal with that whole "scene."
I'm more
geared toward listening to recordings, and always have
been really.
Portland has a pretty solid music scene, but like many local music
scenes, people here are much more impressed with music
that
originates from elsewhere.
When a band like Everclear or Dandy Warhols rises up,
people
here are sort of blah about them, until you start seeing
them on
the cover of major magazines, and then people here start
saying "Of course, I've been a huge fan since I saw
them at the Satyricon in 93, before they sold out"
or whatever.
The people I know who are making music here in Portland,
without exception are much more respected and recognized
outside of Portland, than they are here at home.
Setting Sun:
What would you like to be doing when you are 60?
M.Grifin:
I have a really great life, overall, so I'd hope to be doing more
of the same thing I'm doing now, in some form or another.
In the years between now and then, I'm sure I'll
accomplish
some of my artistic goals and move on to some new areas.
Maybe
I'll have explored the world of abstract ambient music to
such a
degree that I'll move on to other forms or styles. Even
before then,
I'd like to do some work in a more rhythmic,
"electronica" sort of
style, so we'll see how that goes.
And it will be interesting to see what happens to the whole idea
of the "record label" in 20 years or so. It
might be an entirely different
thing. Most likely, CDs will be a less-common way of
distributing
music, much like vinyl is now, and it will be fun to
watch that evolve.
Maybe the biggest thing is that I'd like to stay physically
healthy and active, because 60 is no longer really
"old age"
if one continues to exercise and stay strong. It's
entirely possible
for me to have lots of fun, and travel and create art and
enjoy life,
if I don't let myself get lazy and fat and frail.
Setting Sun:
Lastly, what will you be doing when you are 60?
M.Griffin:
This question is so close to the last one, that I guess I'd say it's
entirely up to me whether I meet the goals I set for
myself.
At the same time, life always changes and we always find
ourselves taking paths we never could have guessed 10 or
20 years ago. I'm sure that 20 years ago I never could
have
imagined I'd start a record label, and release a bunch of
CDs
and get so involved with making and releasing ambient
music.
So, maybe similar surprises are waiting for me, a couple
decades from now