We are kept in a state of fear... |
A bizarre, destructive melange of noise, drone, metal and an unrelenting atmosphere of doom is what Uncertainty Principle is about. Not only does this poject fuse the core elements of several extreme music genres - it does so with great care, sublime style and a highly intriguing result. The intense, sometimes soundscape-like tracks Uncertainty Principle spews forth possess great evocative power, be it the early fields of noisy distortion worship or the latest distinguished, amazingly tightly woven compositions. The music is a gate leading to the realms of ruin and madness, a dimension where time is bent and folded - Doom-metal.com talked to the keeper of this gate, an entity going by the name of S.P. White.
- Let's start with the very beginning: when and why did you form UP? Uncertainty Principle started sometime around 1995/96 though I didn't get my act together until about 1998 which was when the first 'proper' recordings were made. As to why, well I guess I was well and truly fed up with what I was doing musically at the time. It was my way of escaping or unlearning what I'd originally been doing, heh the untimely death of anything resembling verse/chorus structure. - Is there a central idea behind UP? I noticed quite a few records have a science-fiction theme... Well on a few there is a science fiction theme. To be honest there is no one central theme as there are a lot of different things in there. To begin with I guess it was all just negative emotion or rather ridding myself of it. Stuff from "Sonic Terror" there is certainly nothing deeper to it than that. On later stuff I guess it did get a little deeper than just making noise because I was annoyed about something. - I read on the UP website that there were two demos recorded before the first "official" disc "Imitator of Miracles" - did all the songs from those demos manage to get on later releases? There were two demos before "Imitators of Miracles" and pretty much most of both of them ended up on later stuff though in a completely different form. They were fairly directionless so no 2 songs bore any resemblance to one-another as I had no real idea of exactly what it was I wanted to do. - Where do you draw inspiration from? My inspiration for Uncertainty Principle comes from all over the place. Musically the whole thing came out of ambient music, the stuff I had been doing with DynamicalSystemCollective wasn't chaotic enough, wasn't destructive enough, wasn't loud enough. U.P was me rectifying that situation. Something that directly reflected my state of mind at the time or at least reflected something that I was feeling. - Only recently all UP albums have become available through a licensing deal with Belgish underground label NULLL Records. I wonder, has UP been signed to a label before? And if not, why not? Yes having UP available through NULLL was a good decision. Affiliation with NULLL started with the Torture Wheel split which as NULLL had expressed interest in both parties it seemed like the natural place for it to go. Plus I felt that I liked Stijn (even though I've never met him) and I've always had the utmost respect for his music (even if some of it requires aspirin afterwards hehe) and he had been into my music since pretty much the beginning so what better place to be? - Almost every instrument UP uses seems to be drenched in distortion (with the exception of a few pure ambient tracks like for example "Toward Oblivion We Walk" of course). I wonder, will UP one-day turn into a pure noise project? Or, in other words, do you let UP evolve within certain, determined boundaries of sound, or is everything possible? I guess a question about noise was bound to turn up sooner or later. Much of the noise was just experimentation in brainwave activity, the right blend of alpha and theta waves to induce a certain atmosphere about things. - Your music conveys such a bleak, desolate atmosphere, I cannot cease to wonder what your outlook on life is? Haha a dangerous question to ask me. I guess I do have a somewhat jaded and cynical outlook on life. The system we have made, our society we live in is a bold plan drawn up by assholes to screw morons in which we are the morons being screwed on an hourly basis. The system is not there to help you, never make the mistake of thinking that. It is there to tell you to "SHUT UP AND TOW THE LINE", do not get ideas above your station or we will squash you. The system is watching and is out to get you if you dare to think for yourself or actually have an opinion of your own. - What is your own musical history? Did you get any formal training on an instrument? Well I've been playing guitar since I was about 15, most people in my family play instruments at varying degrees of skill so I was kind of encouraged to learn to play something. Haha the first thing I learnt to play was the tuba when I was at primary school, big mistake, I had to carry the bloody thing to school and back everyday (learn to play instruments that don't weigh much kids). - What about your musical interests? Is there any genre you are particularly interested in? I really don't think about genres at all, there is good music and bad, that's the bottom line. Music doesn't have to be a certain genre for me to like it. Atmosphere is what interests me, no atmosphere then that music is shit. - What does the future hold for UP? I listened to "Distant", and I think this is one of the strongest UP albums until now. When and where will "Distant" be available? Well I'm glad you think that about "Distant". I was a little paranoid about that one, not because I thought others wouldn't like it but more that I was just uncertain if I liked it. Anyone who liked the noise stuff or considers U.P to be a 'noise' project will more than likely hate Distant. But apart from the lack of much that you could call noise, I don't think I've changed things that much apart from maybe a slightly fuller drum sound. - Did you already start to work on the follow up to "Distant"? This would be the 8th UP release... The follow up to "Distant" which will be called "The Abyss" was finished several months ago (heh shortly before the release of "Distant" which incidentally was actually written and recorded in the winter of 2003). I try to keep a step ahead of whatever people think I am actually doing. It represents another change in my music, a transition period if you will. - What are your other projects besides UP and how important are they to you compared to UP? Well I have a few other projects that I'm involved in. First of my 'lesser' projects is Thoraxembalmer which is a lo-fi mix of Death and Black Metal. The lo-fi part wasn't actually intentional, I wasn't trying to be 'necro' (whatever that means) or anything I just had crappy equipment at the time. Mozart's music. - Well, it seems you are a busy man! So I don't want to further keep you from your instruments - thanks a lot for the interview! Is there anything else you want to say, or perhaps give our readers some urls where they can find out more about your activities? Well thanks for wanting to interview me. At the moment there is no web site for all my projects/bands but there will be soon, probably as part of the existing UP site (http://uk.geocities.com/uncertaintyprinciple2003) which actually works properly now (heh at least it did last time I looked) though whether any proper information ends up on there remains to be seen.
Visit the Uncertainty Principle bandpage. |