Interview by Dan Goldsmith
(10 questions asked by Dan Goldsmith)
1) Where did the name The Unquiet Void come from?
So much time has passed since I came up with the name that I honestly don't remember what prompted me to coin the name. What TUQV means to me changes a over time and it can mean anything to anyone. I think one of the things that contributed to my coming up with the name is the idea I have that silence is really a very loud and disturbing noise that can really get into and drive you crazy. I really had this idea, first, in 1996 when I was going through some really rough times. It's almost like a wave that crashes over you and makes you feel many uncomfortable things and back then I thought I was going to lose it.
Despite that negative influence that spawned the name, TUQV is really a celebration of life. It is the story of my life and it really documents all of the experiences I have in this life and everything that makes me human. Sometimes it is dark and then sometimes life is dark and light cannot exist without darkness. So darkness is portrayed as more of a necessary element that a focus. It is always there and its temptations can be strong but that is so not where I want to be. I'm not afraid to say that I want some happiness in my life and my wife and daughter do help me achieve that. TUQV is the use of my life experience and my imagination / creativity pouring out all at once. It is a very therapeutic and positive thing and I don't use darkness to gain cult status, I express it because it's always there and then again so is the lightness of things, just two sides of a coin is all.
     
2) When and how did the project start up?
TUQV began when I was 15 back in 1989. I'd like to say that it began in 1986 when I visited the Galapagos Islands. You have to travel the islands by boat and I have a tendency to get seasick. One morning, very early in the AM, I woke up nauseous and I ascended to the uppermost deck of the boat I was on and sat there by myself to get some fresh air. I watched the sunrise, that first ray of light bursting over the horizon. I looked around and there wasn't any land in sight, just the sea and the sky. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced let alone witnessed and at that moment I felt like a part of something. I had no seasickness after that. However, TUQV literally began when I began writing the music in 1989 but it had been there a while waiting to come out. My earlier recordings are very much inspired by the sea and the sky bearing very watery and aerial qualities.
That is how and when it came about.
     
3) Who would you say are your influences?
As far as writing and recording goes I must honestly say that my life and life in general are my only influences. I do not have other musical influences when I write and record, in fact, I stop listening to music altogether when I'm in a creative way. The only music I listen to is my own at that time and even then not that often.
I'd say that Gary Numan & David Bowie were my influences to actually become an electronic musician. When I was six I watched HBO Video Jukebox religiously and the first videos I remember seeing were "Cars" and "Ashes to Ashes." Those two songs haunted me and still do, I have since covered them both but the funny thing is that when I covered those songs I hadn't heard either in quite some time and I'm not, by any means, a trained musician. Not like that has anything to do with the question but I thought I would add it.
Now as for some bands that I like to listen to: And Also The Trees, Trance to the Sun, Cindytalk, Stay Frightened, Lycia, Bleak, Tricky, Massive Attack, The Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Birthday Party, Clan of Xymox, Wolfgang Press, This Mortal Coil, Jeff Buckley, Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac, Kalken Balz, Mr. Bungle, Skinny Puppy, The Legendary Pink Dots, Elliot Goldenthal, Jerry Goldsmith, Mark Snow, Mark Isham, Michael Jarre, Mozart, Goblin, Caterwaul, Mission, Sisters of Mercy, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Peter Nooten, Michael Brook, Patrick O'Hearn, Harold Budd and many others...
     
4) Your first appearance was on Excelsis with Lycia, how did that come about?
My first appearance was on Of These Reminders in 1994 and that came about by sending demos to Projekt in 1991 and 1993. Excelsis was my second appearance and that came about in 1995 when Lycia was on their amazing Burning Circle tour. I had invited Lycia to stay at my place when they came around to take a load off and hang out and possibly save some of their hard earned dollars being that Mike and I have been friends since '91 after Ionia came out. One evening they called me up asking if the offer still stood (of course it did) and that they wanted me to collaborate with them. They came down and we did and the rest is on the CD.
     
5) Are you going to work with Lycia more?
Well, we have certainly talked about the possibility of collaborating again but our schedules are so busy that we cannot seem to find time. Plans for a collaboration are pretty much on hold indefinitely.
     
6) How did you get involved with the film Scorpio?
I had been in touch with writer/producer/lead actor of the film as I had bought a few rare imported horror film laserdiscs from him. We kept in touch and when I played him some of my music he really liked it a lot hence his hiring me to provide music to accompany his film alongside some tracks that I had recorded years before. That's how it happened.
     
7) What is Scorpio about?
It's about four college students who leave campus in order to party at an ancient monastery's 'unknown cemetery.' There they are abducted and forced to smoke black opium (aka. the opium of our darkness) to see with their minds eye on the mental plane. Shawn, a freak skeletal philosopher, yearns to exist with his vampish mental plane lover Evelyn and to do this he must initiate one of the four students into his esoteric and philosophical ways and then he can pass beyond the physical. The other students will learn the errors of their materialistic and unnatural ways. That sums it up in a nutshell.
     
8) When is Scorpio coming out?
The soundtrack is being released by Alterculture Records in February or March (the latest I am told) of 1999. I have no idea when the film will be released but if anyone wants to get a hold of it should contact Phantom Productions as there are screeners available.
     
9) Are you planning on doing more film soundtracks?
If the opportunity arises, sure! I think this time I'd be a little more selective of the film or films that I'd do them for being that the music was all completed before this "Scorpio" even began shooting. However, I have to be realistic about things despite what criticisms I may hear from having been involved with this film or a film. What I mean is that people can be quick to rag on about the fact that someone did a score for a really low budget wacky film. That's silly because you have to start somewhere and that somewhere is not at the top of the hill or even at the middle... you start at the very bottom and that's just the way it works. If you're Jerry Goldsmith you can pick whatever film you want to score but otherwise you'll have to take what you can get.
     
10) When can we expect another album from you?
It will be a little while but not too long. I'm actually moving to New Jersey really soon and I'll need some time to get adjusted and settled and after that I'll begin working on what will actually be the next 3 releases. I have some older recordings that I want to give a proper mixing to and put them on 2 separate CD's which will lead up to the fourth release which will be called Meridian that I've been working on since 1994. The other two discs will be called FROM THE FADING YEARS : 1993 - 1994 and FROM THE FADING YEARS : 1994 - 1996. I'll begin working on these releases after I get adjusted to my new home and after the first two are mixed and ready to go I'll begin recording Meridian.
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