What is the biggest difference between how you approach your solo records and how you approach doing soundtrack or installation work?

Solo records have been less connected to place in particular, but this is changing for me as well. There was a period where I was creating entirely new performances for each venue, studying and preparing very closely ahead of time what the exact space would be, examining how sound would move across the room, considering how I could utilize each situation musically. A nuanced approach to considering performance possibility is involved, so it has been useful for me to separate those more “art” oriented works from “musical" ones, so I can re-orient myself towards the music itself, where there is less tuning to context.

With a lot of the work on From Where You Came, there is a tuning into the nature of energy itself. I was performing in a lot of power plants for a while, and I really tapped into the idea of a pure circuit of energy, aligning source with output as closely as possible, trying to find transparency. I really loved how this idea was beyond identity, nether, ubiquitous but unseen. At the same time, how do we bring the logic of the Earth’s life into abstracted, built spaces? The problem becomes geologic. The artist must animate. But in these contexts where the work was heard was beyond just an LP or recording for playback release; it was meant for places or situations that were technically and contextually nuanced, where the complex nature of system ontology versus acoustic in space was part of the transmission, made obvious for consideration.

It still feels relatively absurd to have these tracks considered alongside the pop industrial complex. But anyway, an extreme distinction of these outlets was necessary for a time because I was experimenting with what is possible and trying to define what the work is and where it is meant to live, but living outside industrial reproduction also resulted in what I could call an extreme ephemerality in the work, as they became moments in time, beyond industrial, ultimately precarious.

You’ve opened shows for some pretty big, more mainstream-leaning acts. What have those experiences been like?

My energy is already tuned to crowds and large systems, it comes naturally to me to be on big stages because of my spatial sense. The experiences on tour with different acts varies culturally speaking of course; the Death Grips audience is passionate and involved, feeling everything, no need to contain what resonance they experience. They were right there with me at every turn of the dial. I found that so beautiful and invigorating. Caribou is a groove audience, and Big Thief audiences feel wildly impossible to pin down as a whole. This variation may all be confusing for readers who have never experienced a live show of mine, but I see physicality as the thread here.

Kara Lis-Coverdale - From Where You Came

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