All photos by Airi Katsuta courtesy of Phoenix Art Museum
GLOB is pretty darn neat.
A three-piece, A/V band that dabbles in experimentalambientelectronicdrone is right up our alley so we couldn’t be more excited about premiering their new live album FORM, we were all about it.
FORM was recorded during FORM 2018, the music festival held in the desert eco-city of Arcosanti, AZ. FORM is lush and meditative much like where it was recorded: not in green-overabundance but more in life itself. For anyone that knows the experimental eco-village and all it’s structures, while listening to FORM you can instantly picture yourself below, sitting next to the mediation pond staring out at that grand chasm.
We had some questions about the band, FORM 2018, the new album, and more so check out their interview underneath the premiere of FORM below.
YabYum: First of all, is GLOB a band, a solo effort, a collective? I guess what I’m asking is: what is GLOB and how did it come into being?
Benjamin: GLOB is an Audio Visual band comprised of M. Dean Bridges, Benjamin Braman, and Kenaim Alshatti. M. Dean and I had met in the mid 2000’s working for Apple, we became fast friends. M. Dean graduated from CRAS (Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences) and pursued a life in Los Angeles to record other bands. We would send each other music we were making via email. In March 2012 we decided that we should do something with all the music we had both been independently recording, and it made sense for us to just put our work out ourselves! So we started GLOB Records – a tape label we wanted to do to showcase our own solo work and the work of our friends.
We put together a tape with one side being M. Dean’s and the other side being mine. M. Dean is an incredible audio engineer, and when I had sent him my demos, he polished them to this new level that completely blew me away, and we knew if we lived in the same city we would do a project together as co-producing songs over the internet isn’t quite the same as working in the same room. We put out our first collaborative tape in 2013.
While that was going on I met Kenaim through twitter, and it just turns out we were both doing visuals for people around town and we naturally just started working together. The two of us had done a small tour, and played a bunch in Phoenix, ended up performing in LA with M. Dean for the release of the cassette. The three of us working together just made sense. M. Dean moved back to Phoenix in 2014 and the three of us just started working immediately after. We couldn’t decide on a name for the project and GLOB fit the sound pretty well so we just left it at that.
GLOB is an Audio Visual band. It’s a hard thing to explain because we didn’t base this concept on anything other than what was logical for us. We’ve unlocked the ability to play music and visuals together as equal instruments, everything being informed by — and being created in — the moment. You really kind of have to experience it. Our live a/v shows are journeys to another world. Our produced output combines all disciplines ranging from music to film to physical art.
https://vimeo.com/185538438
So this new recording emerged from your performance at FORM Arcosanti… first FORM question, how did you get involved in that festival?
Benjamin: In January 2018 we got invited to perform at Phoenix Amplified at the Phoenix Art Musuem, and given the nature of the types of sounds we create, we decided to do a very ambitious 6 hour A/V set in a room they have in the museum that is wrapped in projection. The reception for this endurance performance was well received, and so they asked us to do our thing at FORM as part of FORM’s cultural art program. We wanted to do something similar to what we did for Amplified, but spread it out over the 3 days at the festival. This recording was from our Friday night performance at the festival.
Kenaim: The Phoenix Art Museum! In January we created a 12 part, 6 hour audio visual piece for PAM. The piece took place inside a room with a 60’ wall that surrounded you. The massive wall was alive with moving, visual art. Audio filled the space and everything worked together to create a journey of self contained beauty. You were inside it. We called it The Protected World.
That project worked out well so we were invited to FORM to help the museum represent the insane diversity of Phoenix’s art scene at FORM. All thanks to the team at PAM for presenting us with a really cool opportunity.
I’d love to know more about your personal experience at FORM. Was this your first time there? Can you tell me about what it was like to perform at Arcosanti?
Benjamin: I was lucky to attend the first FORM and was floored by how amazing the event was, and it’s crazy to see how much it’s changed! GLOB attended the second year and joked about how “We should play this thing” and it is still pretty insane that we got to do what we got to do. Huge thanks to Lani, Christian, Airi from Phoenix Art Museum for believing in what we do. Airi Katsuta from Phoenix Art put together a really cool video showcasing our music and visuals as well as the other incredible people we got to work with. Performing at a FORM was awesome, and an incredible amount of work, especially performing every single night. We learned a lot and it really pushed us into new creative territory, we are all really excited about where our sound and visuals are headed.
Kenaim: Like Ben said, we were there as a group year two and it was surreal playing FORM only a few years later. The whole experience was beautiful and a lot of work. We started planning in February for FORM, so about 3 months of working things out. The Phoenix Art Museum was gracious enough to let us go full bore and plan a huge 3 day, 3 performance arc. We really get off on pushing ourselves!
We spent a bunch of time scouting Arcosanti for locations that would work for what we wanted to do and were able to secure a wonderful area that was basically a mix between a cave, an underpass, and a cliffside. It was perfect. We spent the entire week leading up to FORM at Arcosanti, working on last minute details with the Arco crew. Performing in the same space for 3 nights is a really cool challenge because from day to day there are things you learn about the space that help you tweak your performance each night. It was healing to to exorcise yourself at night and be around so many positive people during the day.
What’s up next for GLOB now that this album is entering the ether? More shows? Plans to record? Take a short break after the album release?
Benjamin: Right now we are focusing on making materials for the record, we have prints already complete and will be doing a few music videos. We were all creatively charged after our experience at FORM and are going to be working on a film for our next project. We are taking a little break from playing shows right now, but will be ready to start playing again later in the summer with our new setup.
Kenaim: After a little break from live shows, we’ll be out playing again. Right now we’re all creating material for a GLOB film, drawing up plans for our next huge art experience, watching bad movies, and just constantly creating art. There’s no time for time off, only time to switch mediums!
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For more GLOB, visit their website and Bandcamp.
