S​till: Beautiful noise

by Ben Rheault

Fargo has a bit of a reputation for noise. Whether it’s the bands of yesteryear like GodheadSilo and Hammerhead or more recent projects such as Manchester Buldge and Monowolf. Still falls in between both extremes. On one end of the spectrum, there is this distorted albeit beautiful music, and on the other a cacophony of noise that threatens to obscure it, but winds up highlighting it. There has never been anything like it here before.

I sat down with Chris Marteny (Bass, Guitar, Vocals), Andrew Johnson (Electronics), and Will Burns (Drums) recently to chat about the Still project, how it evolved, what influences it, and where it’s heading.

The project had been on the periphery of the minds of Marteny and Johnson as far back as 2010. Marteny would sit in occasionally with Johnson’s noise band, Manchester Buldge, and they talked about starting a “noise-prog band,” but nothing came of it. Life moved along with other projects. Burns plays with Marteny in his other band, SOTOS, and was asked to join them.

Still blends noise, rhythm, doomy melody, and repetitive riffs to create a feeling of deterioration of the mind, technology, society, or all three.

“The best way to approach how you perceive reality is mental illness,” says Johnson. He and Marteny were deeply affected by the documentary “Children of Darkness,” which peers into a mental hospital for children. One case in particular, Billy Calhoun, was about a severely autistic boy who had to be continuously restrained on a bed because he would ferociously attack himself for unknown reasons. He was in a state of constant panic and screaming, without any awareness of what was going on around him. Billy Calhoun was the catalyst that got them going, and also the title of their first opus.

“I didn’t really know what a noise band would entail,” says drummer Will Burns, who is currently studying music composition. “It’s really about contrast,” he continues, “there’s monotonous or simple, minimalistic stuff we have, but then it eventually will build into something much bigger. More rhythmic and more melodic.”

“I wanted to mix the noise quality of Manchester Buldge or other noise bands but make it interesting to pretty much everybody,” Marteny says of the bands writing process.

They take a rather classical approach to arranging their music, in that there are movements within each song. Everything is orchestrated and timed to fit perfectly. The only real improvisation is when they are working out ideas in practice. The songs are all epic in scale, the shortest one clocking in at just under ten minutes. “What we usually write has a concept too, that’s why all of our pieces or songs are so lengthy,” Burns says.

In keeping with the mysterious aesthetic the band has fashioned around their music, the short films they have created were shot with broken digital cameras, giving glitchy, polarizing effects that disintegrate the subject of the film. Often backed with eardrum-shattering noise, they depict random bits of garbage, upward floating snowflakes, members of the band, children’s books, and other paraphenalia. I see the influence of David Lynch taken to the extreme in the use of sound, weirdness, and in some instances, humor.

According to Johnson, the films are kind of an interactive puzzle, “Like if you took all the videos, rearranged them, and played them at the right speed or whatever, then you’d have like a third of a practice or something.”

“They’re like videos for the Adderall culture, you know what I mean?” Continues Marteny.

“Andrew, you typically record, without us knowing, and then make a video…so it’s kinda cool because we’re not really knowing we’re being recorded, so we play more fluently, and at the same time…that’s just like scrap parts, and we don’t end up having anything live with that material…it’ll be like it’s own piece with visuals,” Burns adds.

These short films have been compiled on various VHS tapes and DVDs to be sold at their shows, but they have also been posted on the band’s Facebook page, which is another bewildering aspect of the collective’s milieu.

The posts are written in what, at first glance, appears to be pure gibberish. But looking closer, patterns emerge. Words are repeated. They have used a form of Caesar Cipher to encrypt their posts.

“I think…you shouldn’t just hand things to people, that people should have to work to appreciate your art.” says Johnson, in response to my asking the purpose of writing in code. “It’s just flavor, you know? It’s not essential to the thing.”

Marteny adds that “they’re Easter eggs, they’re stimuli, they’re nothing…they’re everything (chuckles), if that makes sense.”

This past summer, Still booked a small tour. By small, I mean house shows where, according to Marteny, “We blew tens of minds. If they were there they really liked it.”

There are plans to tour again, utilizing the new contacts and experience they have gained the first time around, hopefully expanding their audience. A full-length album is in the works for this summer.

This Friday at The Aquarium they will be premiering a new piece that is sure to stimulate your senses with minimalist, overlapping patterns of sound, noise, and atmosphere. Also on the bill are fellow locals Bergeron, plus Wrekmeister Harmonies from Chicago, and headliners Bell Witch out of Seattle. It shall be epic…

YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Still with Bell Witch, Wrekmeister Harmonies & Bergeron

Friday, February 19th

The Aquarium, 226 Broadway upstairs, 701-235-5913

Show starts at 10 p.m.

Smoking breaks: the group out in front on Broadway will have a different atmosphere than in back on Roberts Alley. If you don’t like one, walk through the bar to the other.