Ivens is an eccentric, left of center character who has been plying his craft in Melbourne as part of Awakenings Crew for many years now. His debut LP, Sounds To Expire To is a shadowy, cryptic 13-track testament to the esoteric. Plutonic Lab provides a collection of industrial, digital soundscapes which perfectly complimenting Ivens’ themes. Prepare your ears for the heavily perceptive, sonic masterpiece that is Sounds To Expire To.
Sounds To Expire To has an immensely distinct style which eludes comparison with any other local release. What has the reception for it been like?
It has been pretty good. I think some people that normally wouldn’t dig my stuff at all have honestly liked it. I guess first of all, it was just about making a good record, something that I was proud of. I wasn’t really thinking about how it would go. But that’s a bonus that people like it. Of course, it’s cool people dig it. This being the first full-length album that I’ve done and the fact that it’s got a lot of really good attention-that’s a good feeling.
The title, Sounds To Expire To is rather striking and morbid. How did it come to be?
I guess I needed a title that would stand out but it also had be relevant to the record. Something that would grab people. I’m a big fan of coming up with song titles so coming up with an album title is one big song. It’s the first thing people are going to see. It came about, I’d say, half way into making the record. I thought: ‘I need to come up with a title’ and it just sorta came out, I thought of it, Sounds To Expire To, ran it by Plutonic Lab and he liked it so we stuck with it.
How did you come to be mates with Muph and Plutonic?
Well I met Muphin through Nick Sweepah and Hykoo. Muph lived in the same area as me so we hung out a bit. Muphin and I became good friends and talked about doing songs together. So when we finally got some stuff done, I think this was before or during the early stages of Hunger Pains so he was working pretty closely with Plutonic Lab. Muph hooked all that up. We went over to Plutonic’s and he liked my stuff and played me some old beats that he thought I might like which I really did. One of them is on the album, Gulls. It was the first beat that he played me which I really liked but it has since been revamped or modernised, if you will. It was made on an ASR-10 in the late 90’s. It was just sitting there and I really dug it. We were also into the same movies and shit like that and just became friends.
Was there any particular quality you were looking for in a producer or was Plutonic always going to handle production on Sounds To Expire To?
Umm, he wasn’t always going to handle production. First it was meant to be an EP with myself and Nick Sweepah under the name Living Dead Dudes and then we had some other producers who we were gonna go to but that never happened. I asked Plutonic Lab if he was up for making beats and he was down for it. We got started on it but due to other commitments it never got finished. so we just salvaged what we could and I then I wrote a whole bunch of new stuff and turned it into my solo record.
You’re influenced by hardcore music. Can you describe your introduction to hip hop and hardcore respectively?
My introduction to hip hop would probably have been in primary school through my older sister. I guess the first hip hop song I heard would have been Stetsasonic-Talkin’ All That Jazz and I just loved that song heaps and borrowed more stuff off my sister. I got into it and then discovered the Beastie Boys as everyone does and really got into them. From there, I guess it was stuff like Wu-Tang, Notorious BIG and all that early 90’s stuff. It escalated as I found out more about it and got into it more. Before rap music I listened to punk, stuff like Misfits, Descendents and Dead Kennedys. The classic stuff. As far as hardcore, that came later on, I guess the last 4-5 years I’ve been listening to a lot of that stuff.
“…I’m a fan of old poetry like Edgar Allan Poe, writers like H.P. Lovecraft, just how they write, they create this atmosphere and tension. I guess, in ways I get a lot of inspiration from people like that…”
How do these genres influence your music?
Well I’ve always had issues with authority. Since school days, with teachers, with parents, with police. I’ve always had trouble with them. I don’t look for trouble, I think some people are just born to get into trouble, trouble finds them. So I guess music like that, I can relate to that music. That whole anti-establishment thing.
You also have a penchant for horror movies…
Horror movies are something that I’ve liked for a long time. Since my sister and my cousin locked my in a room and made me watch The Gate. The Gate is an 80’s horror movie which is tame today but I’ve got it on DVD and it’s still one of my favourite movies. I guess you could say that was an introduction to horror movies, just being scared shitless. After that, I think it would have been Night Of The Living Dead, that scared the hell outta me as a kid. Evil Dead, I saw that movie way too young, that movie gave me nightmares for two weeks straight, every night. But yeah, I’ve always liked horror movies. I’ve got quite a collection of horror movies, a lot of tapes but my VCR is fucked right now. I watch more VHS’ than DVD’s . I’ve started revisiting a lot of old movies like The Haunting, Black Sunday, White Zombie – that’s not really scary but it’s a good atmosphere. A lot of old, black and white films I really dig.
In what ways does this passion for horror movies manifest in your lyrics?
I guess imagery really. Horror movies are just more of a thing I really like but there are references to certain films and imagery in my songs.
How do you go about writing lyrics? I notice from your blog that ghost drops are deeply influential in the process...
Ah yeah, that was just a picture that I took of my little stereo at the time that I put on my blog to be funny. How I write a song, usually a concept has to be strong enough for me to want to write a whole song about it. Coming up with the first few lines is usually the hardest part. I guess I plan it out first, how long the first verse is going to go for and if I’m gonna do a chorus and when the chorus will come in or if I’m gonna do a chant then I’ll just write it. I’ll write my verse for however long it is. It’s difficult to explain but generally, I’ll just work from top to bottom, I don’t really like to work on two things at once. If I’m writing a song then I’ll start that song until it’s done then I’ll start another song. I take a while to write songs, I don’t like to rush things, I don’t like to rush writing. I guess in ways, sometimes the song is writing me if that makes any sense. It’s hard to explain though. There’s no real method to how I write songs. I’ll come up with a basic structure and just let it happen.
The cryptology of your lyrics is really apparent on the LP. Is this theme a permanent aspect of your music or is it exclusive to Sounds To Expire To?
Nah, that’s how I write, it’s how my brain works. I’ve always been into metaphors and stuff like that and I’m a fan of old poetry like Edgar Allan Poe, writers like H.P. Lovecraft, just how they write, they create this atmosphere and tension. I guess, in ways I get a lot of inspiration from people like that. In terms of trying to make something timeless. Because they’re stuff is still good today, it still works. But that’s what I’ve always done, I’ve always been into that sorta stuff. I guess I just like to cram a lotta shit into songs. It’s all about style really, I just like to take things from everywhere and just apply it to my way of thinking and then write it down. Some things I write are straight to the point, some things are just blatantly obvious. Like I think a lot of the concepts on this record aren’t that difficult to grasp. But it depends who you’re talking to really. If I feel something needs to be straight to the point than it probably will be. Basically, I just try and be creative as humanly possible when I do any art, whether it’s drawing, writing songs or making music.
From songs such as: The Grudge, Well Oiled Machine and The Pulse, I detect a certain distrust of society at large. Are you disenchanted with modern societies?
Yeah that’s me. I certainly don’t fit into “normal” society. I never have. I went to a lot of schools and there were a lot of jocks and redneck types at those schools. Being that kid who liked hip hop music in that sort of environment didn’t go down well. I got picked on a lot because of that and just getting picked on for the sake of getting picked on. But that happens to anybody. I guess as you get older, you take that with you and it shapes you as a person. that and a whole gang of other shit that has happened in my life. I am jaded beyond my years.
Was there anything specific about growing up in Melbourne which triggered this perception or was it high school in general?
It was really just in school. Outside of school was cool. I used to skate a lot and hang out in the city. We had a little crew and we would skate all day, smoke cigarettes, listen to Wu-Tang and cause trouble. That would have been from Year 6 to Year 8 or 9. I’m bad with time lines. Year 11 and 12 were cool because you’re a bit older then and in the school I went to, there were a lot of punk dudes, metal heads, acid heads, stoners, hip hop people and writers I was sorta friends with them all. I think it was only from Year 5 to Year 8 where I copped that kinda shit and I didn’t finish Year 9 because I was expelled then I tried to enrol at another school in Year 1o but I got kicked out for something that I didn’t do which sucked and I went straight to Year 11 and 12.
Can you describe the sentiment behind the track Well Oiled Machine?
Basically, that song is about giving in. That song is more or less just about propaganda and the amount of advertising and shit that’s around it’s beyond a fuckin’ joke and just the fact that people buy into it. That scares the living shit out of me. It’s ridiculous, surely people can’t be that fuckin’ stupid but I guess they are. So more or less, that song is just about giving in to it. Also I guess with that song, not really that song but talking about the whole thing, I’ve noticed that the trend these days with hip hop in this country and the states is to over-do everything. Saturation, overload with advertising, the little annoying things like spamming your myspace, spamming emails and getting text messages from people you don’t even know about albums. Yeah, just constantly in your face and when you hear it, it’s not even that great. It’s just intense. Where does it stop?
